Happy Book Birthday to Box Tales: Grow, Strawberries, Grow! by @jamesburks.bsky.social. This graphic novel for young readers follows Beatrix and Box as they attempt to grow their own strawberry garden 🍓🪴 bit.ly/4fkJHsR

Science is happening every day and everywhere! We are excited about our Science Saturday celebrations with three authors visiting on September 12th. 11 am: @kirstenwlarson.bsky.social 1 pm: @jamesburks.bsky.social 4 pm: @phdcomics.com www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/scienc...

🎨 Spotlight on @mikeboldt.bsky.social Mike's Illustrator Page Mike is represented by @jenrofe.bsky.social and is interested in picture books and covers.

Some stop-motion to promote my new graphic novel series, Box Tales, that launches in September from First Second.

Dance like no one is watching! Some new stop-motion animation with a character I hope to use in a future picture book idea. #stopmotion #animation

Cover reveal for the second book in my new GN series Box Tales. It'll be out on March, 3, 2026. But book 1 will be out later this year on Sept. 16.

If you're interested in how I make my graphic novels, I share quite a bit of my behind-the-scenes process on my Substack. #graphicnovels

The first step when doing thumbnails for a graphic novel about camping is to paint a yellow tree on the front of a new sketchbook. This very important step is also called PROCRASTINATION.

I haven’t had much time to post lately, I’ve been in my writing cave working on the story for BoxTales book 3 and revising the outline for my new graphic novel idea, which is going out on sub. I had some free time, so I decided to rig this character in Toonboom and do some simple animation.

Another week, another author school visit adventure. This time I'm off to New Jersey to visit two school this coming week. Looking forward to seeing the students and inspiring them to be creative. Onward!

Every single school should have a school library & a school librarian, to help every single child find the books that will make them readers, and give them all the lifelong benefits of literacy. Libraries & librarians change children's lives FOREVER! #SchoolLibrarianDay #SchoolLibraryMonth

Some highlights from my two Indiana school visits. I was shown so much love and creativity by all the students, teachers, and librarians. Thank you! I'm always amazed that the books I've created have connected with so many people all around the US and the world. I don't take any of it for granted.

After a day of traveling and hanging out in airports, I made it safely to Indiana for my upcoming author visits. I also had an interesting interaction with the rental car person at the exit gate. I'm not sure what she was talking about because my hair is the same now as it was on my license pic.

Tomorrow, I'm flying to Carmel, IN, for two author visits next week. I had originally scheduled this school visit trip back in 2020, but that pesky pandemic got in the way. Well, 5 yrs later, it's been rescheduled, and I'm looking forward to entertaining the kids with my witty book-making banter.

If you live in or near New Haven, CT, come see me this Saturday at IC3.

A good way to get to know a character is to design their space.

As close as I’ll ever get to meeting one of my biggest influences. #charlesschulz #peanuts

Exploring some story beats for an idea I'm working on.

The wait is almost over!!! Can Do Book 2 is out next week!

Kaw!

This is the other main character from my dragon story. When I drew the original turn around, I wasn't sure how the hair would look from all the angles. The nice thing about modeling the characters in 3D is that I can see exactly how it looks now from every angle and adjust the drawings accordingly.

Finished the dragon. Now, I'd like to get my brain to cooperate so I can figure out the story they belong to and turn this into a book. How's everyone else doing with their creative projects?

The latest from my adventures with Blender.

Here’s the latest from teaching myself Blender. I’m not sure why I spent two days on this. To animate it, I’d need to rig it, which seems daunting. I guess I did it to gain experience with Blender. Who knows, maybe it'll lead to something one day. Exploring new skills is never a waste of time.

Taking the time to model characters in 3d makes the perfect reference, not only for perspective but also for lighting. Not to mention, it’s also a great way to procrastinate!

Box gets the full 3d turnaround in Blender. I can't wait for everyone to meet Bea and Box when their first book drops this Sept.

Fun with props. Yesterday, I had an inkling to model a milk carton in Blender, and as these things usually do, it took on a life of its own. Ending with a fake ad for a made-up milk company.

I decided to download Blender and follow a Domestika course to learn the ins and outs. Here's my first character sculpt. The program is very robust, and I can't believe it's free to download.

Here’s a Bird & Squirrel commission I did. Brown ink on mixed media paper.

Taking my anxiety on a little joyride.

The promise ai makes is that it could make products, write & illustrate books, create ad copy for junk, make you rich with zero effort. What it actually does is fill the world with more slop that the rest of us have to wade through to find something worthwhile and real.

Spent yesterday and today sprucing up the website. I feel like its needed once every couple years. It’s also an amazing form of procrastination when you aren't feeling creative. Stop by and check it out if you need to do some procrastinating of your own. Www.jamesburks.com

I just posted my latest newsletter on Substack. If you're interested, read all about how wanting to buy a hotdog cart led me to make stop-motion animation instead.

The stop-motion adventure continues. Gilmore heads for the local Grub N Go for a quick bite to eat. #animation

Cover reveal. Happy to share the cover for my new graphic novel series—Boxtales! The first volume hits bookstores on Sept. 16, 2025. Click the link to read a sample and see the cover.

I took a bit of a break from social media but this is just the reason to return - CONGRATULATIONS ANALÍA! I'm so so happy ABLA gets to be the place where you build your list. Authors - get your submission packages polished!

Gilmore emerges after a long winter’s slumber. #stopmotion #animation #kidlit #stopmotionanimation #characteranimation

Gilmore’s end-of-winter wake-up call arrived right on schedule. #stopmotion #animation #kidlit

New blog post: Calling fans of Dav Pilkey with recommendations including books by @jamesburks.bsky.social, @jorgeagu.bsky.social, @juddwinick.bsky.social, @drewbrockington.bsky.social, @ianboothby.bsky.social, @spacecoyote.com, and @breebird33.bsky.social. www.lisayelon.com/blog/if-you-...

Had fun engineering and animating the rapids on this one. Gilmore Bear has big plans for 2025.

Happy New Year! Here's some stop-motion animation to kick off the new year. More of this little bear to come.

A forest set for this little bear. This is my lighting test. Next up some test animation.

Hope everyone has a smashing good day.

A new friend has arrived at the Burks house. Meet Butternut.

Happy Holidays!

Remember, even if you can't financial support a creator, Sharing, commenting and reviewing are all incredible ways of helping out smaller creators which go so far.

A peek of what’s coming Tuesday!

Highlights from yesterday’s school visit in Northern California.

Meet the artist. I’m James Burks, creator of the graphic novels Bird&Squirrel, Agent9, and the upcoming Boxtales. I also work in animation on films like the Iron Giant, the Emperor’s New Groove, and animated TV shows like WowWowWubbzy, Bravest Warriors, and Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Bear cub.