Merlin & Friends
Jenny Dowd
Well, it happened. Merlin the Cat finally got his own book.
Earlier this year I was invited to participate in the 2020 Laramie County Library Book Arts Invitational, Imagination: Inspiration and the Artist Book. This year the theme called to imagine your story, inspired by fairy tales. (I have participated in past invitationals at the Laramie County Library, read about the process behind those projects here: 2018, 2017, 2016)
As usual, I was a bit stumped by the theme. It seemed a nice escape to imagine my way out of our current COVID-19 pandemic… but was still hard to latch onto an idea. Each year my dad asks me about the theme for the show and helps me brainstorm an idea, but we were both stumped.
The story behind this story is a winding one, but stick with me…
One gloomy, rainy day I took some funny photos of Merlin and his “friends.” I emailed them to my parents one photo/page at a time, like a slowly unfolding story. A warning - while true, this story is a little gory:
Once upon a time, Puppy, Moose, & Rat were relaxing in front of the fireplace. They thought nothing could destroy their peace and warmth.
Suddenly, next to that warm fire with his friends, Moose felt a chill. Could danger be lurking? Rat felt the hair on her back bristle and Puppy held his breath. Something was coming.
The attack was swift. Moose and Puppy carefully looked for their friend, Rat. She tried to hold her breath while trapped under the paw of the monster.
But it wasn't over. The monster suddenly grabbed Moose and tore into him. Puppy and Rat lay as still as possible.
When it was over, the fire went out, the 3 friends were strewn about. Meanwhile, Merlin the Monster turned his back and prepared for a nap.
The End.
So, about a week later my dad texted me suggesting that this story could be made into my project. But he warned that it needed to be sanitized, because it was just too mean and might scare little kids. We texted back and forth a bit, and it turned into a tale of friends working together to find a spot for a nap.
I wrote up a quick draft of the story and sent it to my parents who both had some suggestions. We even met up for a FaceTime chat to go over it. My parents chimed in as I worked on the story and illustrations. My mom had the idea to include a pillow on each page (like the hidden mouse in Goodnight Moon)
I suddenly felt like this was a huge project and decided to break it down into 2 or 3 cells per page. I took photos for reference. The part about Merlin liking to nap or at least pretend to while we cook in the kitchen is as true as it is annoying.
I love how Merlin can have this truly shocked expression, so I tried to capture that. I also borrowed his “friends” for reference. Merlin didn’t really like not having them around to chew on so I had to hide them in my drawing room.
And where was Merlin this whole time? Underfoot usually, or closely watching.
And here it is! I'm not super excited about using cardboard for the pages, but I needed the book to stand up for display and I’ve been trying to use materials I already have in my house. Plus, now that it’s finished I have a better idea of how to do this for real.
If you find yourself in Cheyenne, Wyoming this summer between June 11 - August 7th, stop by the library to see the show in person. (Check their website here first, to be sure of any limited hours or access due to the COVID-19 issue) A printed catalogue will be available from this show and I can’t wait to see how the other artists interpreted this theme!
And no, this was not an excuse to shamelessly share photos of my cat. But he does need a certain amount of attention for survival, so thank you for helping him out!