Comics and picture books starring River

Not everything I make for River is a game. Some of it is paper.

Two picture books

River's Big Day is about one big morning at our house. Rachelle wakes everyone up. The dog does zoomies. There are peanut butter waffles and an episode of Bluey. Then the whole family does the Thriller dance, because that's what we do.

River Goes to NASA follows the family on a trip to Space Center Houston. We see Mission Control, the Saturn V at Rocket Park, a moon rock and a model of Starship. River falls asleep in the car on the way home, then tells the dog all about it.

Both are written to be read out loud, with big type, short pages and a note on each page describing the picture that goes with it. The details are what make them work. A book about a kid is fine. A book about your kid, your dog and your waffles is a different thing entirely.

The comic

The bigger project is a space adventure comic in three parts, about forty pages in all. River is the hero, with two companions named Zib and Luma.

It's a physics comic in disguise. The story runs on real ideas from relativity and quantum mechanics, pitched so a kid can follow the adventure and a grown-up can notice what's being taught. Part three is called The Race and the Twins.

The art is being redone now. When it's finished I'm having it printed locally, so it's a real book on a real shelf.

How AI fits in

I'm not an illustrator. A few years ago that would have been the end of it. Now I can write the story, describe every panel and work through the art until the pages match what was in my head. The ideas and the family jokes are ours. The typing and the drawing got a lot of help.