Newcastle News readers see local author/illustrator Dana Sullivan’s work featured monthly in a cartoon accompanying Pat Detmer’s column.

Now, you can learn from the man himself in two upcoming classes.

The first is a picture book illustration class offered June 23-July 28 at the Kirkland Arts Center. The six-week intensive boot camp that will leave you with a finished book dummy suitable for submission. Need not be an artist, just a willingness to work and stretch your imagination. Learn more here.

The second class is geared toward teens. Sullivan will take students step-by-step through the process of turning your original idea into a graphic novel. Drawing skills are not necessary, but imagination is a must, Sullivan said. 

The graphic novel class is offered July 13-17 at Bellevue College. Learn more here.

Sullivan is the author and illustrator of “Kay Kay’s Alphabet Safari” and “Ozzie and the Art Contest.” Learn more about his work here.

By Christina Corrales-Toy
Author Dana Sullivan reads his book, ‘Kay Kay’s Alphabet Safari’ to a group of children at Bellevue’s University Bookstore Jan. 22.

Newcastle resident Dana Sullivan doesn’t always wear bunny rabbit slippers in public, but when he does, it’s for a gaggle of adorable children.

Sullivan and his floppy-eared footwear made an appearance at Bellevue’s University Bookstore Jan. 22, where the author and illustrator read his newest book, “Kay Kay’s Alphabet Safari,” to a cute, albeit somewhat restless, audience of toddlers.

The congregation of youngsters paid its guest speaker in juice and crackers, while the former Costco creative director responsible for the company’s iconic logo sent each attendee home with his or her own personalized safari-themed drawing.

“I found the main reason to do children’s books is so you can do school visits and things like these,” Sullivan said after the story time. “And I love kindergarteners. They’re just so goofy. They’ll say anything.”

Sullivan’s latest book takes its readers on a scenic journey through the village of Bungoma in Kenya, a real place that has a special part in the author’s heart.

Part alphabet book, part philanthropic endeavor, the story follows Kay Kay as he seeks artistic inspiration for the blank canvas that is a white-washed wall in a Star of Hope classroom.

Kay Kay decides he’ll paint pictures of animals on the walls, from ants to zebras, as an alphabet teaching tool for the classroom’s students. He first needs to decide which animals he’ll depict, though, so he walks through the Kenyan countryside looking for ideas.

He meets a bevy of critters including a crocodile, a snake and a meerkat, but initially dismisses them, preferring to stay focused on his task to find inspiration. It isn’t until the end, with the help of the Star of Hope students, that he realizes the inspiration is right in front of him.

Both Kay Kay and the Star of Hope Centre for Children are very real. Kay Kay, whose real name is Amos Muthama, is a taxi driver in Bungoma. He’s also a barber and artist, Sullivan explained.

The Star of Hope Centre for Children is an orphanage and school in Kenya that Sullivan’s family has essentially adopted.

“When we got there, it was just this magical place,” Sullivan said of his 2011 visit. “It’s filled with these beautiful children and staff who gave them loving homes. A lot of these kids are orphaned by AIDS or election violence.”

After visiting, Sullivan, who on that same visit received word that Sleeping Bear Press would publish his very first book, “Ozzie and the Art Contest,” knew that if he was going to help the children, it would likely be through a book.

But it took him a bit of time to decide how he would feature Star of Hope in his writings.

“I was actually terrified,” Sullivan said. “I thought, how do I write a picture book for children based on a place of hardship in a country of such poverty?”

Kay Kay really did paint murals on the school’s walls, and that became the inspiration for Sullivan’s book, released at the end of 2014.

“I just was so touched, I knew that was the heart of my story,” Sullivan said of Kay Kay’s works.

Sullivan actually started a nonprofit to raise funds to support the orphanage. In November, one of the organization’s board members visited the school and read “Kay Kay’s Alphabet Safari,” aloud with the real Kay Kay sitting just beside her, Sullivan said.

During the visit, a child Sullivan met in 2011 relayed a message back to him in the states — “You tell Uncle Dana he needs to write a book about us.”

“So I have my orders,” Sullivan joked. “Now I’m thinking about a book about the children.”

Sullivan will donate 10 percent of “Kay Kay’s Alphabet Safari” sales to the orphanage.

By Christina Corrales-Toy
Surrounded by walls of his work in his Newcastle home, local illustrator Dana Sullivan poses with a puppet-version of Ozzie, the star of his first children’s book, ‘Ozzie and the Art Contest.’

NEW — 12:50 p.m. July 2, 2013

Everyone experiences rejection at some point in his or her lifetime. It’s what you do with it that counts. In Newcastle illustrator Dana Sullivan’s case, he wrote a children’s book.

After unsuccessfully submitting a bid to create a children’s disaster preparedness coloring book for King County, Sullivan was dejected.

“I thought, ‘Man, I was born to do this project. I’m going to get it for sure,’ and I didn’t,” he said. “I was really disappointed, and I was kind of surprised how disappointed I was, so I wrote a story about it.”

Thus, “Ozzie and the Art Contest” was born. The story follows Ozzie, a lovable blue dog, who enthusiastically enters an art contest, only to fall short of the top prize. With the help of his teacher, though, he comes to find that his passion for art is more important than any award or recognition.

“What Ozzie learned is that the stuff that he likes to do, they’re great. That he doesn’t get rewarded for them isn’t necessarily a big deal,” Sullivan said.

Originally titled “Max and the Art Contest,” Ozzie’s character was inspired by Sullivan’s now deceased Australian cattle dog, Max.

“Max was a blue heeler, so naturally Ozzie is blue, even though Max wasn’t actually the color blue,” Sullivan said. “Ozzie is actually more outgoing, more affectionate than my Max was.”

Sullivan wrote the story in September 2010, and nearly three years later, in July 2013, the book will finally come to print. It was a long, arduous process, filled with revisions and rejections, he said.

“I received 26 rejections from publishers,” he said. “It can be depressing. Sometimes I’d get five in a day.”

All it took was one publisher to see potential in the story, and Sleeping Bear Press, based out of Ann Arbor, Mich., saw it in Ozzie and Sullivan.

“One thing I have learned in this business is everything is subjective,” Sullivan said. “One person can love something and the other person can hate it. It’s pretty amazing knowing that your book is going to publish, but after that initial approval, there’s a lot more work to do.”

So began the process of completing and refining the 32 pages of art and 700 words of copy that are customary in a children’s book.

At the end of May, Sullivan and Sleeping Bear Press took the finished product to BookExpo America, the largest annual book trade fair in the United States.

Sullivan signed copies of his book at the event in New York City, but the real draw, he said, was the blue Ozzie puppet that was a hit with kids.

When writing the book, Sullivan said he did not specifically write for a children’s audience.

“It’s almost impossible to write for someone,” he said. “In fact, I just read that Maurice Sendak never said he wrote for children, he just wrote for himself. I think if you do that, you are probably going to strike a nerve with more people than if you actually try to write to a specific audience.”

The longtime Newcastle resident spent most of his career working at Costco, where he was the creative director, designing the company’s infamous logo.

“I really wasn’t being as creative as I wanted to be,” he said. “It’s a great company and I still love it.”

Sullivan will host an official book launch party at Secret Garden Books in Ballard July 5.

“The illustrating is my first love,” he said, “but there’s nothing like your own book.”