Okay, hands up if you’re a fan of “CTON’s Corner” in OWL. Everybody? Just like I thought! CTON (aka Clayton Hanmer) has been creating comics and puzzles for OWL for a few years, and we finally gave him his own section in April. He also just published his first kids’ book, CTON’s Super A-maze-ing Year of Crazy Comics. Just one note about that: it’s rad.

I sent Clayton five questions and he was kind enough to answer them all —
one of them he even answered in the form of a comic. Cool, huh? On with the questions!

Q: I have to know: when you write a maze comic like “Suzie’s Wacky Fall Freak-out Adventure” in October OWL, how do you do it?

Clayton: 

Q: When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

Clayton: I knew I wanted to be an artist of some kind around the age of one when I discovered how creative you could be with spaghetti. I had a habit of wearing the bowl on my head, and then painting my high-chair with sauce and noodles! My mom always thought I was so creative after that point, but my dad wasn’t convinced until I could pay rent with my doodles.

Q: If you weren’t an artist, you’d be…

Clayton: An industrial electrician, an auto mechanic, or a horse wrangler.

Q: Aside from art, what was your favourite subject when you were in school?

Clayton: It’s sort of a toss-up between physics, history, science, and math! I was a big geek. I did all my homework and got good grades. I really enjoyed school and that helped a lot when my teachers caught me drawing funny pictures of their hairdos. But I think my absolute favourite subject was this class called Lab 2000 that we had all the way through high school. It was basically a creative computer class where we could make anything we wanted on Macintosh computers. I ended up designing a monster truck boardgame, a toilet car, and a funny interactive game about how my teacher loved heavy metal.

Q: This is a hotly debated question on the OWL blog. Which do you prefer:
baby pandas or baby sea otters? And why?

Clayton: I think I’ll go with the baby panda because he is so chubby, fuzzy, and funny! Kinda reminds me of myself when I was a kid. Ha ha.

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And there you have it, guys! Thanks so much to Clayton for taking the time to answer my questions. Check out his website at www.cton.ca.

’Til next time!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

Hey guys. Just thought this one question deserved to be answered ASAP. So here it is, the smallest blog mailbag you’ll ever see!

Q: Craig, can I inspire you to update your movie list?
— Hailey

CB: Of course you can, Hailey! In fact, you can inspire me to update all of “Craig’s Picks” all at once — and you have! If you look to the right of this post, you’ll find I’ve updated the list with some new and old faves in all categories.

Some special notes:

- I added in some cool things we’ve featured in “What’s Hot” recently, including the movie Igor (highly recommended) and the book A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (ditto).

- I added in CTON’s Super A-maze-ing Year of Crazy Comics. I’m extremely biased — it’s an Owlkids book, after all — but I think it’s great. “CTON’s Corner” is one of my favourite OWL sections. Also, Clayton Hanmer is hilarious. And a genius.

- I added in Monster House, a movie I loved from the summer of 2006. It’s a great flick, especially for this time of year. I thought of it this morning when I read that the new movie City of Ember has the same director. Awesome, right? Ember comes out this Friday, so I’ll try to review it for you guys soon.

Oh yeah! Here’s the trailer:

And that’s that. Thanks to Hailey for the inspiration! Post a comment below and let me know what books, movies, and video games I’ve forgotten to include.

Talk to you soon.

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

Podcasts and email and blogs… oh my! The internet is a wild ride. Just this morning I discovered a cool internet radio show (AKA “podcast”) that recommends cool kids’ books. And guess what? They like Owlkids stuff!

The podcast is called Just One More Book. It’s got rave reviews for both
The Hilarious Adventures of Mish and Mash, a chickaDEE book, as well as CTON’s Super A-maze-ing Year of Crazy Comics, brought to you by the creator of “CTON’s Corner.”

Click here to go to the site and listen to the podcast.

Fun, huh?

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

The comments and questions keep pouring in here at the OWL blog and I’m only too happy to answer them all for you guys! Here we go:

Q: How did you get the name for OWL?
— Kennedy

CB: Awesome question, Kennedy! For our 30th birthday issue in September 2006 we printed this question in a hilariously goofy FAQ by “Alex and Charlie” writer Brian McLachlan. Brian answered, “We couldn’t fit BOWLING on the cover.” Ha!

However, the real answer to your question is found on the first page of the first-ever issue of the magazine in January, 1976: OWL stands for “Outdoor and Wild Life.” Neat, huh?

Q: Hi Craig! When you were a little kid, did you ever think about being the editor of such a great magazine like OWL? What did you think you would become?
— Lexi

CB: Hmm. I always liked writing and creating miniature books, but I never dreamed about being a magazine editor. I guess I just got lucky, huh? As for what I thought I would become, there was a time when I really wanted to be an astronaut. (I also distinctly remember my grandma trying to convince me to become an x-ray technician, though I don’t recall giving it serious thought.)

I asked a few weeks back where you guys see yourself in 10 years, but I didn’t ask specifically: what do you guys want to do when you grow up?

Q: Hey Craig, if you weren’t the editor of OWL, what would you be?
— Raychele

CB: Whoa! That’s like a follow-up question. Nice teamwork, Lexi and Raychele!

If I wasn’t editor of OWL, I would be… an astronaut. No! Just kidding. A race car driver? Wrong again. I think I would be a writer or editor for another magazine or newspaper. I like it. Why would I do anything else?

Q: Did you ever visit the United States? Where did you go? Did you like it?
— Calli (Lexi’s sister)

CB: Hi Calli! Yup, I’ve been to the United States. I grew up in British Columbia and took several road trips to Washington with my family. When I was eight, I even went to Disneyland. Since then I’ve visited often and seen a bunch of cool things: the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, and several statues of Andrew Jackson. I’ve had lots of fun in the U.S.!

Q: I live in the United States. How come it always seems as though I’m the last person to get the OWL Magazine?
— Lexi

CB: Great question, Lexi. I asked around for you. It turns out we don’t ship directly to U.S. readers. We ship all magazines for U.S. subscribers to Buffalo, NY, and then they’re redirected from there. That extra step can slow things down a little bit. Sorry for the wait. I hope it’s worth it when it finally arrives each month!

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That’s it for this week, guys! Keep the questions coming. Next week I’ll post some more cool stuff, including an interview with Clayton Hanmer, the genius behind the “CTON’s Corner” section in OWL. Talk to you then!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

Hey all. Just thought I should inform you that Aron, the editor of chickaDEE, is about to explode. Why? Because it’s almost hockey season! Regular season games begin this weekend as the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning face off in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic.

Me, I’m pretty excited too — about a preseason highlight I saw this morning. Check out this awesome play by Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (make sure you wait for the slow-motion replay):

What?! He smacked the puck out of the air with his stick!

Also, aren’t the commentators just incredible on that clip? They’re screaming like it’s the seventh game of the Stanley Cup playoffs!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com