In the movies, it would be called a breakout role: Stickler, an eight-eyed, bat-eared woodland creature, appears in just one spread of Lane Smith’s 2022 book A Gift for Nana. But Smith knew Stickler had star power, and in his latest book, Stickler Loves the World, this creature—extraordinary in both his appearance and in his appreciation for the world around him—is front and center. PW spoke with Smith about how the character took hold of his imagination, the story behind the book’s dedication and look, and other musings on three decades of picture book creation.

Stickler made its debut in A Gift for Nana. How did it germinate—and did you know it could carry a book on its own?

In A Gift for Nana, the rabbit goes on his quest, and I wanted to show that the rabbit’s journey was getting stranger. So I had the rabbit go into dark, weird woods, and it seemed appropriate to create a character that matched the environment, one that was as weird as the woods. I came up with the idea of a woodland creature made of sticks.

I couldn’t get that character out of my mind. I continued to doodle it even after the book was published, and I made a decision to try to develop it into a book dummy. I don’t think at first my editor [Maria Modugno] was convinced. But when she saw the final book dummy I turned in and saw it was a happy, joyous creature, it won her over.

I like that it’s a contrast: what might initially be a frightening character is just the happiest little guy ever who can’t wait to share its world. If I had told the same story with a cute little rabbit or unicorn or kitten, it would have been so saccharine it would have melted your eyeballs.

The book is dedicated to Bob Shea and his wife Colleen. What is the origin story of your friendship with Shea?

He was a comedy writer and I was signing books at a conference—ALA or BEA, I don’t remember—but somehow he got in and he stood in line, and he gave me a folder that said “How are you enjoying the conference?” and inside were all these short stories and funny bits he had written. I took it back to my hotel that night and it had me in stitches. I emailed him that I loved his stuff and we should get together, and from then on, we became fast friends. He’s an authentic, singular voice.

He’s been my sounding board for the last 15 years or so. Every time I do a new book dummy I send it to him. It just seemed like it was time to dedicate the book to him. We both live in Connecticut and we see each so often, and we look at each other’s books and I probably could have dedicated any of my previous books to him. He read several drafts, as did Laurie Keller, and of course my wife Molly [Leach, who is also Smith’s longtime book designer].

The illustrations are done in gesso, oil, and cold wax. Why did you choose that approach for this book?

For me it’s all about experimentation and playing with the paint. That’s why I’m more thrilled with each book after 35 years.

I went to a commercial art school and they taught us how to get your portfolio together and do tight little illustrations. We did not do painting-on-canvas there. During the pandemic, since nothing was happening, I finally got to do these large-scale paintings I’ve always wanted to do. So now I’ve got up to 20 of these paintings—they’re six feet tall. I mix oils with cold wax and it thickens up and you can add little rocks and pebbles, which you can see in the page where Stickler celebrates the rocks.

It was such a liberating experience to do these big paintings. It kind of rebooted my whole brain, so this book was a great opportunity, Once I had the character and the premise and beginning and end, I could ask myself, What are the natural world items that Stickler could get excited about? I can do rock-like textures, I can do bark-like textures.

Definitely these books [Nana and Stickler] are further out than the couple of books before them. I didn’t think I was getting into a rut, but maybe I was repeating myself a little bit. I’m really proud of A Gift for Nana and this one—they hearken back to A Perfect Day and my earlier books, The Big Pets and The Stinky Cheese Man.

The typography is so vivid in this book—as it is in all your books. Can you talk about how Molly works with you on that?

It’s kind of a lost art now: there used to be outside designers who would design books and put their imprint on them, but now it’s all in-house, and we’re [Molly and I] the rare exception. We work in tandem—I couldn’t do it another way. I’ll do an illustration, and she’ll say it would be best if the type got big here, so you need to make the illustration a little smaller. We go back and forth. And sometimes we’ll barter: I say, I think if you’re going to use italics, it should be this word.

We’ve been together 37 years, and I’ll look back on some of my past books, and I’ll think, well, my work is not as good as it could have been on that one, but Molly’s type is fantastic! I think all of our books look contemporary, not “classic 1980s” or whatever. She doesn’t do whatever the fad is at the moment. A lot of books out now have those handwritten, hand-scratched titles and text. I’ll say to her, “Maybe we should do this in hand-lettering?” And she says, “No.”

It’s been more than 30 years since The Stinky Cheese Man. What do you find heartening about the field and is there anything that gives you pause?

I think I’m a little bit of an outlier. I don’t go on social media, I kind of keep my head down and I rarely leave the house and go to the conventions. Mostly what I hear is from my agent and other authors. And the business is completely changed‑I know a lot of good things are happening, we have more diversity in books and that has been a long time coming. But I just try to do what I do. Every time I can sign a contract for a new book I’m tickled. I’ll be 64 and I want to be like William Steig or Florence Parry Heide. I want to be doing this in my 90s. I don’t have an agenda, I just want to be doing these until I die.

You’ve said that your inspiration comes from walks you take with your dog JoJo and your cat Lulu. How does that work?

I tell that to people, and they seem fascinated. First off, we’re completely isolated—we have our own 13 acres. Both of them are very poky, neither goes out on a mad tear. The dog is a Shih Tzu and I have her on a leash, and she zigs and zags and then Lulu just follows us—or sometimes she’ll go up ahead and lie down in the dirt and wait for us. They both stay on the trail. We walk every day, and it’s perfectly natural.

And that’s where I get my inspiration: I’m just amazed by the patterns on things, the veins on the leaf, and the textures on the rocks. And if they weren’t with me, I’d still talk out loud, but I do talk to them: “Oh my goodness. Lulu, look at that stick!”

Stickler Loves the World by Lane Smith. Random House Studio, $18.99 Aug. 22 ISBN 978-0-5936-4983-1