Kendra Spanjer

Now that our books are in bookstores in Denver and Boulder that we don't get to routinely visit, we're sending a little Aldo army to keep them company, and to speak on our behalf.

This is artwork for a small (2-3') cardboard cut-out that I did for The Tattered Cover's three stores (Colfax, LoDo, the Ranch). Word on the street is that his t-shirt is adorable.

I'm looking forward to doing cutouts for other cool indie stores as the series grows, so those of you with regional-cool-bookstore knowledge, let me know who is worthy.

Artsy-Fartsy won the Colorado Book Award and the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association Regional Book Award!

We made the cover of the Coloradoan's "Good News" special section today, which is awesome. The cutline under the photos says, "Mothers get together, Local women create cartoon to help kids build vocabularies." We'll chalk that one up to creative license.

Say hello to the funny cartoon kid with the squiggly blond hair and a pint-sized paunch, because you’ll be seeing a lot of him in the years to come.

His name is Aldo Zelnick. The brainchild of author Karla Oceanak and illustrator Kendra Spanjer, both of Fort Collins, Aldo is the star of the forthcoming comic novel for kids 8-13 entitled Artsy-Fartsy.