Chad Sell's Blog

I’ve added two new galleries on this site featuring my Dungeons & Dragons art as well as my Month of Monsters, where I posted illustrations of my favorite monsters for each day of October!

I’ve self-published a brand-new comic for adults that’s called The Secrets of Skull Castle! It’s the secret gay love story of…two toys? It’s very fun and very weird. You can read it here or buy a print copy!

Today our third STUPENDOUS SWITCHEROO book comes out, Can't Go Home Again! Switch really GOES THROUGH it this time, as he finds himself enrolled in the Valor Innovations Academy and has to compete with super-genius rivals! Also: lots and lots of robots! Mary Winn Heider and I had such a blast putting this together, and all three books are now available in beautiful paperbacks, so it's the perfect time to check out the series!!

THE STUPENDOUS SWITCHEROO: Born to be Bad is out TODAY! The second book in our series completely twists things around as Switcheroo teams up with a villainous new crew for an epic jailbreak!!

It's a hilarious and heartfelt new adventure that forces Switcheroo to question his own character and what it means to fight for what’s right. Mary Winn Heider and I had such an absolute blast bringing this silly (and sincere) story to life, and we hope it will be just as much fun for our readers, too!

Get the book here!

I will be at the Hudson Children’s Book Festival on Saturday, May 4th in Hudson, NY! I will be there alongside 75 other children’s book authors and illustrators from 10am to 3pm!

The Cardboard Kingdom: Snow & Sorcery is out TODAY!!! It is the final volume in the CK trilogy, and I am so thrilled and thankful for the work of the entire writing team: Vid Alliger, Manuel Betancourt, David DeMeo, Jay Fuller-Ng, Barbara Perez Marquez, Katie Schenkel, and Jasmine Walls! (And countless thanks to our editor Marisa DiNovis!!)

Set during winter break, Snow & Sorcery has tons of fun snowball fights, ice palaces, and exciting new characters! There are also incredibly emotional chapters with so many of the kids you already know and love! I’ll be sharing more about each one later this week, as well as some sneak peeks at all the new kids joining the kingdom! Get CK: Snow & Sorcery here or wherever books are sold!

September 12th is the release date for THE STUPENDOUS SWITCHEROO, a new superhero series from Mary Winn Heider and me! I’ll be doing a whole lot of fun events to celebrate the launch in Chicago and the Northeast!

September 9, Glastonbury, CT: 11:00am panel discussion and reading with J. C. Phillipps and Brandon T. Snider on the Author Stage of the Glastonbury Arts & Crafts Festival, followed by a signing from 11:30am-1pm. This is a free community event!

September 15, Chicago, IL: 7pm launch party at The Book Cellar with Mary Winn Heider!

September 17, Downers Grove, IL: 2pm launch event with Mary Winn Heider at Anderson’s Bookshop, Downers Grove. Tickets required!

September 30, Chappaqua, NY: Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, 10am-4pm

October 7, Glen Rock, NJ: Glen Rock Children’s Book Festival

I’ve been wanting to share this news for a long time: We’re doing a THIRD Cardboard Kingdom book, called SNOW & SORCERY! It follows the CK kids over winter break as they make some new friends (and enemies??) from a nearby neighborhood. We’re excited to introduce a whole lot of fun new characters into the Cardboard Kingdom, as well as a fantastic new writer to the series: Jasmine Walls! SNOW & SORCERY will be out November 7th, and you can pre-order it now!

Mary Winn Heider and I have a new book series coming out September 12th, 2023. It’s called THE STUPENDOUS SWITCHEROO! It follows the outrageous story of a boy who wakes up every day with different superpowers, and you can pre-order it now!

Today, Doodleville: Art Attacks is out! It’s the culmination of everything I’ve tried to do with my world of Doodleville. Making this book was excruciatingly difficult, exhilarating, surprising, and sometimes scary. I was, perhaps, being a little ambitious when I decided to tell a story about kids in an art museum where all the paintings come to life, resulting in an epic, dizzying, mind-bending trip through all the deepest, darkest parts of my own imagination. But it’s finally available, and you can get your own copy here!

I’ve always thought that my Doodleville series is the younger, stranger stepsister of my Cardboard Kingdom books. A darker fairytale world where art can come to life, but sometimes in monstrous ways. Where creativity has both a light and a dark side, where the main character Drew struggles with all the same doubts and demons that I do. It’s been a heck of a journey, and I hope you’ll check out the climactic conclusion to my Doodleville Duology!