So, I was sitting in my living room last night, futzing about on my iPhone (playing Pirates vs. Ninjas vs Pandas vs. Zombies if you must know) and listening to our youngest reading Dick and Jane to my wife. I love the simplicity of the Dick and Jane books. They’re excellent tools for teaching reading. Then a thought occurred to me, wouldn’t it be cool to do a reader like that with a modern sensibility and my own particular bent world view?

I considered doing it in the style of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. A quick Google search indicated that someone had done something similar already. I was prepared to move forward anyway since I wasn’t all that impressed with that particular attempt. I needed an artist though if I was to pull this off. I reached out to Ed of Peculiar Comics. He did the Ginnie Dare cover and was a joy to work with.

His words? Essentially, I didn’t know I was interested in something like this until you mentioned it. So we kicked some ideas back and forth. I tweeted “Dick and Jane meets the Zombie Survival Guide…” He thought it might be good to avoid Dick and Jane entirely since they are a copyrighted product and this might or might not fall under the parody laws and that we might want to avoid putting those three words together. I saw the wisdom in that.

Ed mentioned alliteration and Hugh J. O’Donnell aka HatchingPhoenix on Twitter reminded me of Gallant and Goofus so I let that stew in my brain until work this morning. Here’s what I came up with:

Montana “Monte” Zealander – Blocky, perhaps almost as wide as he is tall. Dresses in the style of the 1930’s adventurer, usually has a wooden sword and perhaps a squirt gun on his person. He is 8-9 years old, fearless (except where thunder is involved), and fiercely devoted to his sister. He’s smart but impulsive.

Mollyanna “Molly” Zealander – Taller, but still athletic, a bit of a tomboy, but has long red hair with a little curl. She is 1 yr, 2 mos, and 5 days older than Monte. She’s got a keen scientific mind (from her mother) and is great at math. She’s a bit more reserved than Monte and is patient with his impulses. She carries a messenger bag that’s likely to have all kinds of gadgets in it (and a rag doll that’s her comfort in times of stress). She dresses practically for the given situation.

We’re refining the visuals and Ed will be working on sketches. This will be one of those books (we hope) that children 7-9 will enjoy and that their geeky parents will love. More details as they become available.