The first sketchbook was put together using gags I’dsubmitted to real publications, plus a few quickly drawnto fill the volume out. The process of putting the booklettogether was surprisingly exciting; it was so much coolerhaving these jokes stapled together than lying around inmy files. After we were done assembling the copies, I wouldspend time just flipping through the pages with a goofygrin on my face.Almost immediately, I found that I could mine thesketchbook for ideas. The cartoon of a guy walking by aposter of himself with the word UNWANTED above itbecame the starting point for Another Bad Day for PhilipJenkins, a short animated film I made a year or so later.The trickiest part of the book was coming up with (orrather padding) my biography. I was an auditioning writerat Sesame Street at the time, but had not yet been hired, soI decided to focus mostly on the benefit stage show entitledTooth Aid ’93 that financed the repair of a tooth I’d chippedthe previous New Year’s Eve. – Mo Willems
