A local graphic artist has released his first children’s book, The Lonely Little Vampire, just in time for Halloween.
Not only will this book be spooky fun for the little ones, but all of the proceeds will be going towards the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Author and artist Devin Artym said he came up with the idea during his first year attending SAIT in the graphic communications and print technology diploma program. He is now in his second year of the program.
“When I started my SAIT program, they told us that we had access to unlimited printing. I figured why not write my book and why not benefit a cause,” said 19-year-old Artym. “I not only wanted a good story, I wanted it to benefit children.”
He said that the book is about a little vampire who lives all alone in a cemetery and who experiences his first Halloween with human children. He learns the spirit of trick-or-treating and helps his new friends escape from the Boogyman’s house.
Artym said he sent a PDF version of the book to the Children’s Hospital and explained that he could print the book for free and wanted 100 per cent of the proceeds to go to their foundation. He said they were on board right away.
And that wasn’t the only support Artym and The Lonely Little Vampire would get.
While he was working at Wal-Mart over the summer, he found out that the big-box store sometimes offers matching grants to charities. Artym said that Wal-Mart has agreed to match whatever he could raise for the charity by the end of October.
He held a book-signing event at the Cochrane Wal-Mart location on the weekend of Oct. 18 and at Safeway Oct. 25.
At the Eagle’s press time, Artym said he had reached $1,850 (which will be matched by Wal-Mart). He said he hoped to raise between $3,000 to $5,000 with the book.
Although this is Artym’s first book, he is already set to release his second, which he added would also be in support of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. He said the next one is going to be called Cutie the Polar Bear, an idea he got from watching a documentary about global warming. Once he gets approval from the foundation in the next few weeks, he said he would print copies of the book at SAIT once again.
Although Artym is starting with these smaller children’s books, he said his ultimate dream is to one day have his own graphic novel series.
The Lonely Little Vampire cost $5 and is available at Slipper Moon in Cochrane and the eBook is $3.99 on iBooks. All sales online and print are donated to the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. For more information on Atrym visit ArtymArts.com.
