The Rainbow Door (2003)

The third book exhibition of my blog!

The Rainbow Door (2003 Version)

(Click on the link above to open the book in your browser. You will need Adobe Reader installed to view the book. If you don’t have it, you can download it for free athttps://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/)

You may remember that last week, I was exhibiting The Rainbow Door, a book from 2002 I drew inspired by the door factories in the Disney/Pixar film Monsters Inc. You may also remember that I drew two versions of the book.

This week, I’m exhibiting the 2003 version of the book. While the basic storyline remains virtually unchanged, a lot of the characters have. The Powerpuff Girls, Tweenies and Jellikins from the 2002 version have been replaced in this version with Pokemon, flags… and flying crayons. Mike from Monsters Inc. (which this story was inspired by in the first place) even makes an appearance! Maybe this could be an early Monsters Inc. fanfiction?

Since I’ve gone over the details of the book’s basic story in the exhibition of the 2002 version, there’s no point going it over again here. However, you can download both the 2002 and 2003 versions of the book and find out the differences for yourself.

The Rainbow Door (2002)

The second book exhibition of my blog!

The Rainbow Door (2002 Version)

(Click on the link above to open the book in your browser. You will need Adobe Reader installed to view the book. If you don’t have it, you can download it for free at https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/)

Back in 2002, Monsters Inc. was the newest Disney/Pixar movie at the flicks (see my Inside Out movie review to find out why I’m such a big fan of them). Usually, whenever I see a film by them, ideas from those movies will inevitably inspire me to write my own stories based on those elements (although obviously not entirely, as that would be plagiarism). The idea of a door factory in Monsters Inc. attracted the most attention from 7-year-old me, as did the idea of doors which could transport you anywhere in the world. (I wish there was a door which would magically transport me to Canada.)

This inspiration resulted in The Rainbow Door – the tale of a mysterious door which one day appears at the local door factory of an unspecified city (I couldn’t come up with a name for the city back then). The door’s apparently unexpected appearance causes the locals confusion and curiosity as to where this new door will take them to, and sets them up for an adventure through the veins of the door factory in search of its destination.

I actually drew two versions of this book, one in 2002 and another in 2003. The basic storyline remains more or less the same, but the characters are different for each version. This is the 2002 version of the book, featuring such classic childhood characters as the Powerpuff Girls and the Tweenies. The 2003 version will be exhibited next week.

Flags At The Park (2002)

Today’s exhibition is slightly different as it’s not a picture I’m going to be exhibiting, but a book – the first of its kind on this blog!

Flags at the Park

(Click on the link above to open the book in your browser. You will need Adobe Reader installed to view the book. If you don’t have it, you can download it for free at https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/)

As you may know from reading my life story so far, I love geography and personifying places to give them more human-like qualities and personalities. Although it is my prime interest now, back in 2002 it was just an area that I experimented with to see if it caught my attention enough. This is where the Flags series of books came in, aiming to personify every country in the world… by drawing them as flags.

Back then, my stories would often be self-titled, explaining where the characters would be going or what they would be doing. So this one is called Flags At The Park, where… the Flags go to the park. Nowadays, my stories have names that are a little more cryptic as to the storyline, but for now you can enjoy reading (well, I say reading, but it’s more of a picture book than a storybook, so you’ll just follow the story with the pictures) the first entry of the Flags series!