 Mo
Willems got off his duff and decided to build that tree house he
always wanted. Y'know, the kind with a disco ball, an espresso
machine, and Atari 2600. He even built a clunky robot servant out of
a trash can that tips its lobster-pot hat and says "Hello,
young sirs, welcome to Tree House de Mo." As if that weren't
enough, Mo is also a multi-time Emmy winner (like, six, I think),
has worked on Sesame Street, is the creator of the
cartoons The Offbeats and Sheep in the Big City, and
the cool Pigeon kids books, including Don't Let the Pigeon Drive
the Bus! Don't you wish you were Mo?
Q:
How hard was it to get The Off-Beats on TV? Did you literally have
to pull teeth?
There
is a mystical comet that passes over
New York
for one magical day once every 12
years. As it screams across the midtown skies, the Television
Executives who have not scurried rat-like to the
Hamptons
suddenly grow balls and experience
the sensation of taste. While these transformations make the
Executives look horribly mutated, this is the time that they can be
cornered and presented with original ideas.
Short story: I missed the comet and had to pull teeth.
Q:
Now that you do the excellent series of Pigeon kid’s books, will
Levar Burton, host of Reading
Rainbow,
finally return your calls?
He
won’t STOP calling me. “I’ve been on STAR TREK,” he taunts,
“have YOU been on STAR TREK?” Actually, I’ve only met him once
(when I worked for
Sesame Street
) and we dueled with our Emmys. I
have the scars to prove it.
Q:
Will you ever do comics? I can’t trust my memory, but I don’t
think you’ve popped up in Blab!, Drawn & Quarterly, or
Spiegelman’s Little Lit.
I
do do comics, I do! I’ve been putting short stories in the
MONKEYSUIT volumes for years, have a story in DC comic’s 911 Vol.
2, and the upcoming BIZARRO 2. Some of my best work is a comic I
created for DC called THE 7th HELPER.
(we did 9 issues, but it was never released. See above note
about passing comets). AND, the PIGEON books are really just graphic
novellas in the children’s book section.
Q:
John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, or Charlie Parker?
Duh.
Coltrane.
Q:
Greatest kid’s book: In the Night Kitchen;
Goodnight,
Moon; or, Jack Kerouac Delivers the Mail?
Greatest
kid’s book is the one a kid makes up and draws on his or her own.
Q:
Why shouldn’t we let the Pigeon drive the bus? He seems all right.
Insurance
premiums.
Q:
Is the Pigeon based on someone you know, or is it a thinly veiled
reference to former president Gerald Ford?
Every
great anthropomorphic character is a thinly veiled reverence to
former president Gerald Ford.
Q:
What’s next for the Pigeon? Rumor is he gets a little tipsy on
plum wine in the next book.
Best
sequel idea I’ve heard came from a 4th grader: “Don’t Let the
Pigeon Operate the Catapult!” Height of common sense, if you think
about it…
Q:
Will cartoonists soon have their own “Bachelor”-like reality
show?
No
way. All cartoonists already have really hot girlfriends, right?
Q:
Last but not least, if someone built a giant Jane Mansfield robot,
would that be a good thing or bad thing?
Depends
on how easy it would be to get replacement parts.
Art © 2004 Mo Willems. All rights reserved. Check out mowillems.com
for more.
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