About Chris

Hi! Welcome to my little web page. I’m Chris. I’m a cartoonist. You may know me from The Ordinary People Change the World books or Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum on PBSKids.

I also have a few of my own books out. Two graphic Novels; Cosmic Commandos and Monster Mayhem.

I’ve also authored a few picture books: The Yawns Are Coming! The Giggles Are Coming! and out in May 2023, A Little Emotional!

72 thoughts on “About Chris”

  1. Hi Chris,
    I’m working my way through Brad’s cowriters. I’m talking to Josh Mensch on Friday. I talked to Tod Goldberg in January of 2021. Any chance you want to give me the Hat Trick and join me on my podcast to talk about Music, your I Am books and your other wonderful books?

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  2. Hi Chris!

    My 7 year old twins love Xavier Riddle and we just started reading the Ordinary People Change the World books. We noticed while reading one of the books that your character style reminds us a bit of another one pf our favorite comics, Calvin and Hobbes (the kids even pointed out the child Martin Luther King Jr is best friends with looks very much like Calvin). Any chance Bill Watterson was an inspiration for you as an artist?

    Please keep up the awesome art/stories for kids!!! Thanks!

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    • I do school visits. Not very often because of my schedule, but you can reach out to penguinauthorvisits at gmail dot com.

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  9. Hi! My girls and I love Xavier Riddle. We just watched the Fred Rogers episode and it was too precious. Do you sell your art on any platforms? Thank you!

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      • Can you draw your version of me as part of my fan-made adventures you know, a darkish, blonde hair, a black long-sleeve shirt, and pants, one black glove, a pretended mechanical arm, and draw me in a white sweater with a celtic cross on it with Veritas Aequitas are Latin words meaning “truth” and “justice”.

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    • For my books, I’m working on a Cintiq. I use Clip Studio Paint.

      For my analog work, I use a Kuretake HIKKEI! SIGN PEN EXTRA FINE Brush Pen. The Paper: Strathmore Bristol 500 series vellum surface. And Blue pencil: Ticonderoga Erasable Checking

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  12. Hey, will there be a sequel to Monster Mayhem? I love the kind of anthology that you started with the magical ring! I also wonder how that magical ring got into that cereal box.

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    • I am also hoping that a sequel will be written. My grandson does not like reading. But I bought him Cosmic Commandos and Monster Mayhem, and he is fascinated with them. He keeps asking me who has the ring next. I tell him I don’t know. We really would love the next book to be written. You are changing lives for the better with this series.

      Thank you for writing these books and helping my reluctant reader love books.

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      • I’m hoping for a sequel as well. Between the Ordinary People books, my budding picture book career and Xavier Riddle, it’s gotten hard. I also have to convince my publisher to do another one. 🙂

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  13. Hi Chris!
    I’m a library media specialist in South Jersey, and my students love your books! Would love to get some information on a visit from you!

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  14. Have you ever thought about making pictures of Kobe Bryant, Betty White, Annie Oakley, Maria Tallchief, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Thomas Jefferson, Ferdinand Magellan, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Louis Armstrong, Charles Darwin, Johnny Appleseed, Thomas Alva Edison, The Beatles, King Tut, Daniel Boone, William Shakespeare, Marco Polo, Elvis Presley, Queen Elizabeth I, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Franklin Roosevelt, Dr. Seuss, Paul Revere, Babe Ruth, Steve Jobs, J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl, Bill Gates, Maurice Sendak, Christopher Columbus, Bob Dylan, Davy Crockett, Nelson Mandela, Ernest Shackleton, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Steven Spielberg, Milton Hershey, George Lucas, Bruce Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Queen Victoria, Clara Barton, Henry Ford, Roberto Clemente, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Alfred Hitchcock, Sitting Bull, Andy Warhol, Gloria Steinem, Stan Lee, Betsy Ross, Galileo Galilei, Robert Ripley, Jesus Christ, Wayne Gretzky, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jacques Cousteau, Mother Teresa, Steve Irwin, Woodrow Wilson, Beatrix Potter, J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Branson, The Brothers Grimm, Derek Jeter, Jeff Kinney, Marie Antoinette, Blackbeard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Sojourner Truth, Michael Jackson, Joan of Arc, Elton John, Alexander the Great, Milton Bradley, Hilary Clinton, Bruce Springsteen, The Three Stooges, Stevie Wonder, Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Diana, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Pete Seeger, Venus and Serena Williams, Pope Francis, Fidel Castro, Lewis Carroll, Ralph Lauren, Chuck Jones, Jane Austen, Coretta Scott King, Booker T. Washington, Henry VIII, The 14th Dalai Lama, Aretha Franklin, Leif Erikson, The Tuskegee Airmen, Selena, Bono, Judy Blume, Napoleon, Michael Jordan, H.J. Heinz, Norman Rockwell, Che Guevara, P.T. Barnum, R.L. Stine, Sam Walton, Jackie Chan, Richard Nixon, Harvey Milk, Ida B. Wells, David Beckham, Benedict Arnold, Duke Ellington, Walt Whitman, Levi Strauss, RuPaul, A.A. Milne, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Juliette Gordon Low, David Bowie, Queen Elizabeth II, Stanley and Livingstone, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Charles Schulz, Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Carter, Ponce de Leon, Johnny Cash, E.B. White, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alex Trebek, John McCain, Jim Thorpe, Frank Sinatra, Salvador Dali, and Langston Hughes?

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  15. Hi Chris, I see that you’re from Astoria. I’m wondering if you are related to the Eliopoulos family that lived on 29th Street? If so, my family also lived in that building, so it would be great to connect.
    Thanks,
    Michael

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  16. Hi Chris, I am a K-5 school librarian in a Monmouth County public school and I saw you were also from NJ. (We just finished reading I am Jackie Robinson for Black History Month.) I was wondering if you happen to ever visit schools? We would be interested. My school email address is attached to this post. Thanks!

    PS: And we can’t wait to see more bios in the “I am…” series, hope they are coming.

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  17. can you please please please promise me that you guys will use these episodes in xavier riddle season 2: I am Dolly Parton I am Muhammad Ali I am Malala Yousafzai I am I M Pei I am Oprah Winfrey I am Frida Kahlo I am Anne Frank I am Benjamin Franklin I am Walt Disney I am Sonia Sotomayor I am Mahatma Gandhi I am Jim Henson I am Jane Goodall I am Martin Luther King Jr. I am Lucille Ball I am John Lewis.

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    • Please. I know you’re passionate, but don’t spam my site. I totally get that you’re excited by the show and I love that. But it doesn’t help when you do this.

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    • We are constantly making changes to the layout, the figures, etc. It’s easier to make changes working digitally.

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  36. Dear Mr. Eliopoulos,

    Hello. We are a 2nd grade class at Gwynedd-Mercy Academy in Pennsylvania.
    Our teacher read eleven of the I am books by Brad Meltzer and you. We emailed him and told him how much we loved his books.
    And we would like to write to you and talk about your amazing illustrations. We loved your beautiful and funny pictures!! They made the books come to life! The pictures popped out at us and got our attention. Your illustrations also go very well with the written text.
    We also liked how you drew Brad Meltzer, his family, and other I am characters in most of the books.

    We would like to ask you some questions:
    1. Does Brad Meltzer send you the story and then you illustrate it or do you sit side by side writing and illustrating together?
    2. Do you sketch your pictures first or do you simply draw them?
    3. What medium do you use for your pictures, paint, crayons, colored pencils, etc?
    4. Do you illustrate other books besides the I am series?
    5. How long have you been illustrating books?
    6. What inspired you to become an illustrator?
    7. Are you an author as well as an illustrator?
    8. Finally, how do you pronounce your last name?

    Thank you for keeping us entertained with your illustrations with the I am series. We appreciate them and you.

    I hope you have a good life illustrating books.
    Best wishes,
    Your favorite fans,
    2G and their teacher, Miss Roy

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    • Hi there! Thanks for the great questions! I’ll answer the best I can!

      1. Does Brad Meltzer send you the story and then you illustrate it or do you sit side by side writing and illustrating together?

      Brad writes the script with what he thinks the images should look like. Then I go in and try to do better than what he asks for. Brad lives in Florida and I live in New Jersey, so we don’t sit together, but we talk almost every day on the phone or in text message!

      2. Do you sketch your pictures first or do you simply draw them?

      I always sketch them out then Brad and our publisher go through them to see if I need to make any changes. Nothing is ever just drawn. I’m not perfect, so I expect there to be mistakes.

      3. What medium do you use for your pictures, paint, crayons, colored pencils, etc?

      I do everything on my computer. It saves time and helps when I need to redraw things. But, I do still draw with ink and brushes and watercolors.

      4. Do you illustrate other books besides the I am series?

      I do. I have a few books that I wrote as well as drew. The newest one about to come out is called The Imaginoodles!

      5. How long have you been illustrating books?

      When I graduated college, I went straight to work at Marvel comics and would draw things once in a while. I wrote and drew a few books at Marvel, but my first picture book was started 12 years ago.

      6. What inspired you to become an illustrator?

      I was shy and would sit in my room drawing all the time. I loved it! I would carry a sketchbook wherever I went and would doodle all the time. I was originally inspired by the Peanuts comic strip.

      7. Are you an author as well as an illustrator?

      I am.

      8. Finally, how do you pronounce your last name?

      Start by saying the letter “L” then “E” then “op” then “uh” then “lus.” L-E-OP-UH-LUS Easy. 🙂

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  37. Chris,

    In “I am Albert Einstein,” in the drawing where Einstein is receiving his Nobel Prize, there is a woman in a kitchen apron amongst the dignitaries in the audience. Can you explain who she is and/or why she is there? An internet search didn’t find any answers and my son and I would like to know. Thanks – we love the art in the series!

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  38. My 7yo just donated a copy of The Imaginoodles, his favorite book, to his classroom. His teacher read it to the class and they absolutely loved it! My son is dyslexic but he loves this book so much, he wanted to read it to me! It took him 2 nights, and a bit of help, but he did it. Any chance for an Imaginoodles series? We bought several of your other books but he wants more Imaginoodles adventures.

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    • I love hearing this! So proud of your son! If I come up with another story for our crew, there will be more of the Imaginoodles! But, there definitely be more books by me in the future! Thanks for the kind note!

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  39. Hi Chris,
    I am the library aide at our elementary school. The students love the way the Ordinary People Change the World books are illustrated. Our librarian reads different books to the different grade levels and the books always spark great conversations and questions.
    We have a question about the I Am Muhammad Ali book. Towards the end of the book there is a page with lots of different sports figures. We were able to guess who the majority of them probably are, but a few we could not. Do you have a list of who they are? Our biggest question being the football player in the white jersey with the #35. You could put an end to a hot debate with the answer to whose likeness that is.

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    • It’s been a while, so I tend to forget, but #35 is Eric Reid who famously knelt beside Colin Kaepernick. But that’s me on the right holding Ali up along with Brad. 🙂

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  40. Hey Chris!

    Last night, my daughter Alice (4) read The Yawns Are Coming! We loved the book, but she had a question that we hoped you could help us answer. When the Yawns catch the two friends, one of each of their eyes are colored red. Alice wanted to know why they were red! Thank you!

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    • Well, call it artistic license, I guess. It’s my cartoonist way of showing how freaked they are. My publisher hates when I add color, but I think back to the old Warner Brothers cartoons which did similar things. 🙂

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  41. We’re a classical music training camp going to Italy this summer from Philadelphia and want to take your Ben Franklin for pictures like Flat Stanley, since he’s a Philly icon and you’ve made him adorable! Can we post the pictures on our social media and how to credit you and promote your work in the posts?

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