I got the opportunity to work recently with the magazine that without question had the largest influence on my desire to become an illustrator. Grade school memories would be incomplete if I were not able to recall the days coming home from school, checking the mail and the surge of joy that followed when receiving the latest copy of "Cricket Magazine". This magazine was a tiny folded and stapled trove of illustrations. I would devour it within a few hours, examining every page. Even into 7th grade, I would sneak my favorite copies into art class with me, completely ignoring the required assignment and copy the illustrations from "Cricket". These illustrations would of course later become illuminated manuscripts recounting the events of the day with witty 13 year old aphorisms such as "SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LAME!" and "BBB!!!!!!" (bored beyond belief) and then thus folded in the intricate 7th-grade-girl-origami-note style. I could never master the "heart" fold.
This illustration will unfortunately not accompany me to pass off to my friend Lashawn while she waits outside the band room but thanks to the amazing AD Suzanne Beck will be featured in Cricket's other imprint magazine, "Spider" in January.