Arizona Cartoonist Inks History: Who Knew Being Green could be so Hilarious?

July 9, 2012 - PRLog -- Scottsdale-based cartoonist Drew Aquilina has become the first cartoonist author in history to simultaneously win multiple literary competitions in a single season. Aquilina’s inaugural environmental cartoon strip compilation, Green Pieces: Green From the Pond Up (foreword by Brian Walker), has been honored by three of the industry’s most respected organizations. Green Pieces was awarded Humor Finalist distinction by the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, National Indie Excellence Awards and Next Generation Indie Book Awards, respectively.

Aquilina's work has been named USA "Best Books 2011" Awards, Environment/Green Book of the Year.  Green Pieces also has been named Comics/Graphic Novel of the Year at the 2011 London Book Festival and Wildcard Book of the Year at the 2011 Paris, France Book Festival (the annual competition honoring international publishing’s finest).

Green Pieces has been awarded Comics/Graphic Novel of the Year at the 2011 Green Book Festival, honoring books that contribute to greater understanding, respect for and positive action on the changing worldwide environment.  This clever cartoon strip also has been distinguished as the Comics Runner Up at the 2011 New York Book Festival and Wildcard Runner Up at the 2011 New England Book Festival.

As a result of taking the literary world by storm, the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review and Sacramento Book Review  emphatically state “[Green Pieces: Green From the Pond Up] should be in every home and every classroom across America."  Who knew being green could be so hilarious?

The goal of Green Pieces is to give Nature a voice along with a good laugh and 2011 was a pivotal year in advancing that goal.  Naturally, the world’s greenest, most environmentally friendly humor, Green Pieces: Green From the Pond Up humorously profiles nature and provides educators and parents with an effective, funny and positive environmental platform.  Debuting at the 38th Annual International Cartoon Festival in Angouleme, France in January 2011, Green Pieces follows the delightful antics of four main characters who introduce the reader to the life and times around a typical wetland, in this case a pond.  Led by the claustrophobic turtle protagonist named Iggman, the action picks up once humans leave the scene.  “Iggy’s” friends include an annoying antagonist dragonfly, Radic; an omnipotent techno-bullfrog, Cabby; and a rogue raccoon, Roc.  Green Pieces teaches children to protect and honor nature through humor, not fear or intimidation.  

Aquilina is the staff cartoonist at AZTV Channel 13 in Phoenix and he produces a daily Green Pieces strip at http://www.GreenPiecesCartoons.com and http://www.GoComics.com/green-pieces.  The Green Pieces Cartoon Studio celebrated the publication of Aquilina's second and third cartoon compilations, Green Pieces: Meet the Pond Friends and Green Pieces: One Piece At a Time, in June 2012.  A Registered Landscape Architect in Arizona, California and Nevada, Aquilina lives in Paradise Valley, AZ with his wife, Lisa, and their own version of Green Pieces.

CONTACT:  For more information on Drew Aquilina and Green Pieces cartoons and books, call or write Carolyn Jenks Agency, (617) 354-5099 (MA), http://www.CarolynJenksAgency.com, or Green Pieces Cartoon Studio, (602) 510-8076 (AZ), http://www.greenpiecesbooks.com.  Aquilina is available as a last minute guest for radio and live in-studio TV segments.