Toe to Toe with Matt Phelan

Thanks to reader Brenda Ferber our monthly interview feature is officially named! Yay Brenda! (Besides lots of cheering Brenda also gets a copy of Marie Rutkoski’s book THE CABINET OF WONDERS.)

Today we go Toe to Toe with the marvelous Matt Phelan, illustrator of a number of awesome books including WHERE I LIVE, Newbery winner THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY and most recently ALWAYS. He has a comic in the anthology OUR WHITEHOUSE: LOOKING IN, LOOKING OUT and a graphic novel, THE STORM IN THE BARN coming out in 2009. Matt is a Philly native and lives there now with his wife and cutie pie baby daughter ( I saw pictures and she is truly a darling!)

So without further ado, here’s Matt:

What’s the worst job you've ever had?

Selling dismemberment insurance over the phone. On my first day, a customer asked me if I would buy dismemberment insurance over the phone. I had to admit that I wouldn't. I hung up the phone and quit.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Mint Chocolate Chip. Green or white, I'm not particular.

What is the book that made you fall in love with reading or illustrating?
The first book that I bought with my own money (I was 5 or 6) was A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me by Wallace Tripp. I still love it.

What’s your most unusual fear?

Raccoons. Specifically, a gang of raccoons with firearms (they have itchy trigger fingers).

Tell us where you went for your first date ever.

To see Back to the Future. I can still remember the movie, but everything else is sort of hazy.

What is the first thing you would buy if your next advance was a million dollars?

An island off the coast of Maine. Wait, better make that two million.

Tell us about the very first story that you remember writing/illustrating when you were younger.

I drew an action comic strip called Bill Forrest, FBI. He was sort of a Sam Spade type private detective (I didn't really understand the difference between FBI and PI). I remember that he always seemed to enter a room by crashing through the window.

Matt, thanks for going Toe to Toe with us! Visit Matt here to see more of his gorgeous art and learn more about him.

#daphne