recent news from Ethan Long Studios

Recent News:

July 16th, 2008, Back from Los Angeles!

Darnit! We should have timed our vacation/pitch tour to coincide with the NATPE conference and the SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles the week of August 1st! That's what I get for being thick-headed! Anyway, thanks to everyone for opening your doors to me in Los Angeles and not PEE-YOU-ing my projects. I saw your noses wrinkle a little bit on a few of them, but overall they got a good reception and we are back to developing some of them further. That show idea I had about trash collecting robots? Not good timing. BLAST YOU, WALL-EEEEEE!

May 13th, 2008, Little Green Footprints launches website
and mission!

Wow! What a great thing to be part of Jay and Danielle Foster's vision.
Their new company, Little Green Footprints, came to me in search of visuals
to help enhance their already grand vision of eco-friendly products and
attitudes. We took their concept, sat down, developed it's essence, drew and
drew and talked and talked and finally, in the end, it all came together in
one giant cohesive mission, which included logos, characters, and an
encompassing story. Now Jay and Danielle have now taken it to the next level
by launching their website! Click around the site and see what they’re
doing! It's pretty impressive! http://www.littlegreenfootprints.org

The Ethan Long Studio, Inc. heads to Los Angeles!
July 1 - July 15, 2008

Due to the excitement surrounding my little series on Playhouse Disney, I decided to hit the ground running and take a bunch of new show ideas out to sell in Los Angeles. We've got lots of shows - tween stuff and preschool - and hopefully we'll get lots of great feedback (and more hopefully a sale)! Praffy that I break my leg! . . . Scratch that. Wish me luck!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ scheduled for summer 2008 release on Playhouse Disney!

Darn it! I am bound to secrecy, but I soooooooo want to tell you about my short series on Playhouse Disney! They’ve hired the animation studio, the voice talent, and ordered ten episodes and we’re STILL not allowed to talk about it! Thanks for everyone at Playhouse Disney for making this idea and dream a reality and my wish is, one day, I’ll be able to mention the show by name! Come on! You’re killing me over here! Maybe they’ll mention something on here soon: http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/index.html .

“Stop Kissing Me!” wins third prize at 2008 New York Book Show!

This was quite an honor! Of course, we would love to have won First Prize, but then there would have been too much kissing for even THIS book to handle! YUCK! Thanks to Jennifer Hunt, Patti Ann Harris and everyone at Little Brown/Hachette who helped guide this book to its publication and beyond! MMMMM-WAH! (that was a big kiss).

Ethan Long visits Princeton Elementary, Orlando, Florida, April 9, 2008

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again, Principal Shayne Grove, for suggesting that I be part of Princeton Elementary’s Writer’s Celebration on April 9th! It was a day filled of talking to all the students, with lots of drawing and explaining a bit about the ins and outs of the book business. I also drew some funny dragons that all the kids loved! Thanks also goes out to all of the teachers and staff that made the visit not only fun, but efficient as well. Who cares if the air conditioning went out in the Media Center! Everyone was so cool, I didn’t even notice!
For more about Princeton School, go to http://www.princeton.ocps.net.

Ethan Long Launches Comic Strip

Rick and Rack, Ethan Long’s latest creation, is a weekly comic strip that debuted January 14, 2008 on UClick’s GoComics.com.

Ethan continues to explore the various avenues of illustration. As you know, he’s made a living illustrating children’s books, animation projects and commercial artwork. Now, he’s onto conquering comic strips and evolving creatively.

When Ethan’s father passed away in 2000, he was inspired to create a comic strip in his father’s memory. During Ethan’s childhood in rural Pennsylvania, his father gave him a stuffed raccoon, which quickly became his favorite toy and eventually became the inspiration of Rick. Rack, the deer, is also inspired by a childhood memory of his father while growing up in Central Pennsylvania, where there was no school on the first day of hunting season. Long’s father told him the story of how he shot a deer and it bothered him so much, that he never went hunting again.

“I created Rick and Rack as a love letter to my father, with hopes of making people laugh along the way,” explains Ethan.

Rick and Rack stayed dormant for several years while Ethan researched writing comic strips. In the time between Rick and Rack’s first sketches in 2000 and their 2008 debut online, Ethan illustrated several children’s books, animated a short television series, and developed different comic strips. In late 2007, he decided to give Rick and Rack another try. After creating 36 strips, he sent them out to the syndicates. You can find Rick and Rack online weekly at www.gocomics.com/rickandrack.