The Shifties came about in late 2009, when a boring day at the office left Mark staring tiredly down at the keyboard of his computer. What captured his attention most of all was the top row of numbers and symbols: 1!, 2@, 3#, and so on... Almost magically, Mark began to envision a different cartoon character surrounding each key, with the number as the character's nose and the symbol above it as the character's eye. Mark grabbed a pencil and started drawing... Within an hour, he'd brought ten characters to life. But what to call them? It seemed like every original name had already been taken! Mark then thought that even if it wasn't the most original, the name for his little characters should be both memorable and suitable. His eyes moved to the SHIFT key, which would have to be pressed to type the symbols that were now the eyes of his creations. Shift... Eyes... Shifties! That's it!!! With that out of the way, Mark wrote nearly three month's worth of a daily comic strip featuring The Shifties, but drew only a month's worth of strips. Other priorities forced him to set the project aside for the time being. When he returned to it, he chose a different direction - a series of children's books.
RELEASE DATE - 9/14/10! A Day In The Life Of The Shifties, Vol. 1:
"Deezer's First Day Of Pre-School"
(34 pgs., 5.5" x 8.5", ISBN 1-45381-678-3)
(click for full view of front/back cover)
Press Release (click for PDF)
A Day In The Life Of The Shifties begins with "Deezer's First Day of Pre-School", the first volume in the planned series. Like in every book to follow, the title character is faced with a day to remember, a problem to overcome, and a lesson to be learned. Each volume of the series will feature a different Shifties character... And what then??? Shifties toys? A Shifties cartoon? Sounds great, but only time will tell!
A sneak peek inside "Deezer's First Day of Pre-School"...
(click for a full view of each)
page 1 pages 2-3
