Drawn

Children’s book illustrator extraordinaire Dan Santat was inspired by old 1960′s Japanese monster movie posters and vintage sci-fi magazine covers when he created the cover for his soon-to-be-released book OH NO! (Or, How My Science Project Ruined the World). Dan talks about the cover (which turns into an actual movie poster if you take the jacket off and turn it over!) in depth on his blog. A very fascinating read for a very fascinating cover. Here’s a spread from the book. Looks great. Dan says:

The intent was to make the artwork resemble an old Japanese 1960′s science fiction movie so I added dust, and film scratches with an aged feel around the edges. I had originally proposed to have Japanese subtitles underneath the text but that was shot down.

Click image above to view larger.

I love how he drew himself and the writer, Mac Barnett as people in the crowd, running away. Dan, with the evil professor eye patch, of course.