ILLUSTORIA

🌊 CANNONBALL! Illustoria’s BLUE issue is out TODAY! In this issue, we’ve centered our features, interviews, and projects around this fascinating color. 🐬 🧿 🦋 Now through April 1, subscribe and receive this stunning issue in your mailbox, along with a year of creative ideas, for just $35! Start your journey with @isabelle_arsenault’s cyanotype cover, a sun-based printing process using special blue paper. Delve into the history of blues music with an essay about the legendary Robert Johnson by @aaronbagley Aaron Bagley, illustrated by @vanessabrantleynewton Vanessa Brantley-Newton. Join our cat friend Dora on her journey to become a marine biologist in the ongoing comic series by @yukfunwow YUK FUN. 🐳 Find all this plus ponder how blue feels with our guest poet; revel in all the shades of blue: azure, indigo, cobalt, and ultramarine; find blue-hued music, book, and art supply recs from Illustoria’s staff and contributing artists; and that’s just the tip of the (blue) iceberg! 🧊 Grab your copy and dive into an ocean of creative ideas. Link in bio.

Giveaway closed! Congrats to @prettyininkpress📢 GIVEAWAY ANNOUNCEMENT 📢⁠ ⁠ Are you a fan of art museum heists, page-turning graphic novels, and intelligent detectives who just so happen to be adorable, 🥞pancake-loving pups 🐶? Then we highly recommend "Detective Stanley and the Mystery at the Museum" by Hannah Tunnicliffe (@hannahtunnicliffe.author) and Erica Harrison (@supercrafti), published by our friends at @flyingeyebooks.⁠ ⁠ This lovingly illustrated book will keep you on the edge of your seat, grinning from beginning to end. Fellow art lovers will also adore the book's bonus section on (the literal GOAT 🐐) Bleat Mondrian, aka real-life artist PIET Mondrian. 🎨⁠ ⁠ Enter to win our GIVEAWAY, and you'll receive this splendid book in your mailbox 📬💕⁠ TO ENTER: ⁠ 1. LIKE this post⁠ 2. FOLLOW BOTH @flyingeyebooks and @illustoria_mag⁠ 3. COMMENT below with your favorite detective film or novel! 🕵️⁠ ⁠ One winner will win this giveaway on March 4, 2025, by 5 PM PST. This giveaway is limited to residents of the US. It is not affiliated with Instagram. Many thanks to our friends @flyingeyebooks for helping sponsor Issue 25: Comics! #giveaway.

Bay Area! We cordially 🎩 invite you to the LIVE, immersive, 360-degree theatrical performance of 🐈️ THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE 🚀 the bestselling series by our beloved friends and award-winning collaborators @macbarnett Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris @shawnharri5⚡️ ⁠ ⁠ This all-ages, FREE event is happening THIS Saturday, February 22, 11 am - 12 pm PST at our gorgeous, brand new International Library of Youth Writing located at 849 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110. 🕺🏾⁠ ⁠ Their one-of-a-kind performance is sure to SHOCK, AWE, and INSPIRE 🙀. We simply cannot tell you any further details to keep the much-needed suspense. But we assure you, this will be a Saturday morning for the books 📚️ (no pun intended). Not assured? Check out an SF Chronicle feature on the dynamic duo (hot off the digital press) via the link in the bio. ⁠ ⁠ And while you're at it, why not hit the RSVP button via the Eventbrite page, (also very conveniently linked in bio) or: ⁠ ⁠ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-first-cat-in-space-live-tickets-1234038194459?aff=oddtdtcreator! ⁠ ⁠ Finally, we ought to mention that we proudly featured an interview with these pals in Illustoria's most recent Issue 25: COMICS! Swipe to read their sage words of creative wisdom, such as taking advice from flies 🪰 and pulling up weeds in the garden 🌸 . This stunning issue can also be yours via... yup you guessed it! Link in bio. ⁠ ⁠ Hope to see you this Saturday folks! 💫

📢 CALL FOR KID SUBMISSIONS 📢⁠ Deadline: Tuesday, March 4, 2025. ⁠ ⁠ Prompt: Tell us about your favorite children's book that's about a BUG (or bugs!) 🐛This book can be any genre (picture book, graphic novel, nonfiction, fiction, zine, etc.) as long as it is appropriate for readers ages 6–12. ⁠ ⁠ -Tell us the name and author⁠⁠ -Write a 3–5 sentence review ⁠ -Include a drawing of the book’s cover⁠ ⁠ Submit work to⁠ [email protected] with the subject line “BUG BOOK” for a chance to have it featured. The chosen artwork will be published in Illustoria #27: Bugs, which will come out July 2025. Include the artist’s name, age, city, and state.⁠ ⁠ Deadline: Tuesday, March 4, 2025. ⁠ ⁠ ⚠️ IMPORTANT: Include the artist’s name, age, city, and state. If you can, please submit the image as an attached JPG. This call is open to artists up to 14 years old worldwide. ⁠⚠️⁠

Happy Valentine’s Day. Today only all three of our gift subscriptions are 20 percent off so you can share the gift of brilliant literary periodicals. Enjoy. Link in bio.

📢 CALL FOR KID ART 📢⁠ Deadline: Deadline: Monday, Feb 24, 2025. ⁠ This is an opportunity for a talented young artist you know to have their work published in the next print issue of the magazine.⁠ ⁠ 🐞Submit a drawing of a bug as a SUPERHERO 🐛⁠ ⁠ Questions to ponder as you draw: What is your superhero's name? 🦹🏽 Is it half human, half bug? Or full-on BUG? Does it wear a costume (like a cape) or embrace its insect form? What superhero qualities do they possess? Do they use their sticky goo to fight off wrong-doers? Use their wings to swoop down and save humans from harm? 🦋⁠ ⁠ 🐝 Chosen artwork will be published in Illustoria 27: BUGS, which will come out July 2025. Submit work to⁠ "[email protected]" with the subject line “BUG” for a chance to have it featured. Deadline: Monday, Feb 24, 2025. ⁠✏️⁠ ⁠ ⚠️ IMPORTANT: Include the artist’s name, age, city, and state. If you can, please submit the image as an attached JPG. ⚠️⁠ ⁠ This call is open to artists up to 14 years old anywhere in the world. ⁠⁠🌎️⁠ ⁠ P.S. If you submitted artwork for our previous call for submissions, THANK YOU! We are a tiny team, and we are doing our best to write back to all of you incredible artists as fast as we can. Thank you so much for your continued patience and for submitting! 🙏🏼

🌊 Cannonball into a blue lagoon of ideas with Illustoria’s BLUE issue, coming March 27. Join us on an exploration of the many hues and moods of this fascinating color, beginning with a gorgeous underwater cyanotype cover by Isabelle Arsenault @isabelle_arsenault. 🩵⁠ ⁠ Learn how to make blue ink from copper pennies 🧿 and a slurp-tastic blue Slime Drink with Dog Chef 🥤 (Illustoria’s in-house celebrity cook). Try a blue-themed fill-in-the-blank writing game 💭, and capture wild ideas in your own story-planning diagram. Learn about dangerous blue creatures like the popevine swallowtail butterfly 🦋 and the blue dragon sea slug 🐌. Read myths about how the sky became blue, written by young authors around the globe. Check out interviews with our cover artist Isabelle and an ink-maker from Toronto.⁠ ⁠ Subscribe before February 17 and receive this stunning issue in your mailbox, along with a year of creative ideas, with a special $5 discount! 💙

💧🪼🐳🌀📘💎Announcing our next issue theme.... BLUE! 🩵🧿🫐🐬🦋🌊⁠ ⁠ Explore the many hues and moods of this fascinating color, with cover art by @isabelle_arsenault—made with a cyanotype print process using sunlight to create turquoise tints. ⁠ ⁠ 💌 Sign up for our newsletter (via link in bio) and be the FIRST to see Isabelle's gorgeous cover art and learn about our special sale on Monday...👀❕️

Giveaway closed! Congrats @jilanne2694 for winning 😇♥️ 📢 GIVEAWAY ANNOUNCEMENT 📢⁠ Lovers of *impeccably* designed children’s books, we have a SPECIAL TREAT for you. When we received this generous selection of titles from our friends at @tundrabooks, our jaws collectively dropped. While unique in their stories, these books are unified by their jaw-droppingly beautiful storytelling, illustrations, and book design 📚❣️ One (EXTREMELY) lucky winner of this Tundra giveaway will receive: ⭐️Barnaby Unboxed! by Terry Fan, Eric Fan, and Devin Fan @terryfanillustration @ericfanillustration @devin.fan.art ⭐️Paint with Ploof by @andymusserart Andy Chou Musser (Illustoria contributor 💖) and Ben Clanton ⭐️A Face Is a Poem by Julie Morstad @juliemorstad ⭐️We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang @xfang_studio ⭐️Frostfire by Elly MacKay @elly.mackay ⭐️Illustoria Issue 25: Comics, cover by @jilliantamaki TO ENTER: ⁠ 1. LIKE this post⁠ 2. FOLLOW BOTH @tundrabooks and @illustoria_mag⁠ 3. TAG someone who adores children’s book illustrations as much as you do!!! 💕 In this stack: 〰 #BarnabyUnboxed 🎁tells a stirring, epic journey of a stuffie finding “home” 🥹 〰 In #PaintwithPloof ☁️explore creativity with mindfulness and a spoonful 🥄of play 🌈 〰 #AFaceIsaPoem 👁️offers a poetic, mysterious exploration of human expression with breathtaking illustrations evocative of the 70’s 🦋 〰 #WeAreDefinitelyHuman brings readers a knee-slapping, heart-warming tale of extraterrestrial friendship 👽️ 〰 And #Frostfire offers a wintery fairytale ❄️that will make your heart aglow. 🐉 〰 To top this pile off, we are pleased to include our latest-and-greatest #IllustoriaIssue25, w/ 72 pages dedicated to COMICS! ⁠ One winner will win this giveaway on February 4, 2025, by 5 PM PST. This giveaway is limited to residents of the US and Canada. It is not affiliated with Instagram. Many thanks, as always, to our friends @tundrabooks for helping sponsor Issue 25: Comics! #giveaway

Happy New Year 💛 Here's to a new beginning! ⁠ ⁠ We love this beautiful winter haiku by eleven-year-old writer Georgia Jeffrey, a student at Little Green Pig @littlegreenpig_ in Brighton, UK. Groovy watercolor paintings by @rumi.hara Rumi Hara. Featured in our latest Issue 25: Comics, available via link in bio.

Happy new year from your friends at McSweeney’s. To celebrate (and as the final week of our annual advent sale) the ENTIRE McSweeney’s store is 25 percent off through Monday January 6. Thanks for spending 2024 with us. Without you none of this would possible or worth doing in the first place.

In Issue 25: Comics, check out an interview with our cover artist, the one and only... @jilliantamaki! Learn her favorite part about living in Toronto, the art supplies she can't live without, and much more. We are incredibly humbled to feature her in this issue, which is dedicated to panel-format storytelling. Grab your copy via link in bio!