Here's a wonderful post on Ward-o-Matic (also carried on Boing Boing) about "The Day the Cow Sneezed," a hard-to-find children's book from 1957 written and illustrated by the late, great James Flora. Along with some scans from the book featuring the wild and wacky illustrations of Flora, Ward-o-Matic also features a rare treat -- scans of original mock-ups for the book, which have never been seen publicly until now. It's a fascinating account to see the creative process of putting together a children's book, especially when the artist is the brilliant James Flora.

From Ward-o-Matic:

"The Day the Cow Sneezed" was first published in 1957, and was Flora's second children's book (his first being "The Fabulous Firework Family" in 1955). Working in the children's book format was a change for him. Most of his career had been devoted to illustrating album covers for RCA Victor and Columbia, as well as a burgeoning freelance business providing spot illos for magazines. Flora had children at this point, and had hand-painted some rudimentary kiddie books, but he had not seriously pursued publication. Margaret McElderry, one of the top editors of children's books at the time, liked what she saw in Flora's portfolio, and asked him if he could write a book for her. This proved to be a challenge for the mostly visual guy. In the "Something About the Author Autobiography Series," published by the Gale Group (some of which is featured in "The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora"), Jim reminisces:

"I found it very difficult at first to write a book because I had been trained to see an idea, not write about it. Facing a blank sheet of paper and writing a story was something I found I could not do. So I devised a new way to write my story. During the day I would think about the book. I would see it in pictures in my head. At night, as I lay waiting for sleep, I would run the story through my head like an animated cartoon one sees in theaters and on television. When finally the complete story was arranged in my head I drew a seres of pictures of what I saw there. In films they call this 'making a storyboard.' With this storyboard at hand all I had to do was describe what was taking place in the drawings. That's how I wrote my first book and all of the sixteen others that followed." -- James Flora, 1988.

After "The Fabulous Firework Family" was published it received great reviews, prompting Flora to think about the next one. "In my new role as author I thought it best to write another book just to prove that the first one was not an accident."

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