'Buffalo Fluffalo' has had enuffalo in this kids' bookalo
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Illustrations © 2024 by Erin Kraan -
Buffalo FluffaloIllustrations © 2024 by Erin Kraan -
Illustrations © 2024 by Erin Kraan -
Illustrations © 2024 by Erin Kraan
One day comedy writer Bess Kalb was reading a book to her son about national parks that her husband had brought home.
"To indoctrinate him into becoming a camping person," Kalb explains. "So far it hasn't worked, which is great."
But there was a buffalo on one page. And she read the word "buffalo." She remembers her son looked at her with a little twinkle in his eye because "buffalo" — of course — is an extremely silly-sounding word. So, she pushed it.
"I said 'Yeah it's a "buffalo fluffalo,' and he cracked up."
Like any comedy writer worth her salt, Bess Kalb — who was a writer for Jimmy Kimmel's late night show, and has since gone on to write and produce her own comedy special — knows how to read a room. She wrote Buffalo Fluffalo, her first children's book, that very night.
It's about a buffalo who believes he has to bluffalo and puffalo himself into appearing big and tough to his neighbors. He rebuffalos every neighbor who tries to offer him friendship. Until a huge rain cloud comes and dumps a ton of water over Mr. Buffalo and all his fluffalo goes puffalo.
"When it's revealed that he's just a little pipsqueak — a word that makes my oldest child laugh a lot — his friends and community tell him he doesn't have to act tough," says Kalb. "And they love him anyway."
For this book, Bess Kalb knew she needed an illustrator who got that yes, here was a story about toxic masculinity, but that it was also a funny book about toxic masculinity.
"I wanted to give my child a book that helped him understand kindness and empathy," says Kalb, "with a laugh."
And the joke hinges on the reveal page — when the reader and all the other characters see just how wee Buffalo really is.
"That joke needs to land and it can only land with a picture," says Kalb. Erin Kraan understood the assignment.
She made all of the characters in Buffalo Fluffalo out of woodcut prints. The process starts with a well-sanded flat piece of wood. "I take my sketch and I'll take... a solvent and I'll transfer the sketch onto the wood," Kraan explains. "From there I take all of these different kinds of chisels and carve the lines of the character in the wood." Buffalo's fur, for example, is made of lots of little swirls and whorls that Kraan carved by hand.
Once she's done, think of the woodcut like a big stamp. Kraan takes a roller of ink and rolls black ink onto the wood, and then onto thick paper. She colors everything in digitally. Buffalo Fluffalo was also Kraan's first time mixing woodcut and paint in her art.
"I really wanted the clouds, the environment in this book to have a character of their own," Kraan explains, "because nature is what humbles Buffalo in this book." So she used an acrylic wash and hand-painted every cloud to give each page a unique look — soft and fluffy before storm, dark and bold as the sky is opening up over Buffalo's head.
"Then, with one final thundery, blundery blupp, the humpiest, heaviest cloud opened up, And down came the rain with a splash and a spluffalo, right on the head of old Buffalo Fluffalo," Kalb writes. You can just just barely make out Buffalo's eyes on the page — the rest of his body has disappeared in the downpour — but he looks mad, indignant.
Then, on the reveal page, the skies have cleared and there Buffalo is in all his scrawny glory — wet and scraggly, looking more shell-shocked than huffy, as if he forgot to wear clothes to school.
"It's so beautiful and dramatic," Kalb adds. "But there's also comedy and silliness without it being gross-out or over the top."
Kraan says coming up with the final look was a team effort. How to make Buffalo small and pathetic but also cute and funny?
"I think I did, like, 30-plus character designs of Buffalo," says Kraan. Kalb would send notes in the vein of "Smaller! More puff! Push the comedy!" which she acknowledges were probably hard for Kraan to follow. Early in the process, Buffalo was a bit older, to really lean into the toxic masculinity theme. But eventually Kraan drew a younger, sweeter Buffalo, to better match the story. "Because the text was so sweet and charming," she explains.
"Like any insane mother, we worked and worked until he looks exactly like my son," laughs Kalb. "I'm just a dance mom."
Including that face Buffalo makes when he's trying to be tough which, actually, all kids make that face.
"I was just at a reading," Bess Kalb says, "one of the kids was like, 'I act like this all the time... and this is the face I make.' And then it started this chain reaction of kids showing me their meanest face."
It's almost like that mean face is a mask, Erin Kraan observes. "You know when you see a kid dress up for Halloween? They have this new confidence about themselves," she explains, "and then you take that off... you feel more vulnerable."
Kalb hopes that Buffalo Fluffalo can be a mirror for kids, and a character that they can relate to. "I wanted to give my kids a book that showed them that they can take that mask off," she says. Because only when you take the mask off can you be a happy little buffalo snuggling with your friends. "And now I'm just thinking about them parading around in a shark and lobster costume at Halloween."
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Transcript
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
(Reading) There once was a buffalo fluffalo (ph)...
BESS KALB: (Reading) ...A snuffalo, scruffalo, surly old buffalo who was ever so snarly and gnarly and tuffalo. I'm the buffalo fluffalo - I heave and I huff alone. Leave me alone because I've had enuffalo.
RASCOE: That's author and comedy writer Bess Kalb, reading from her new kid's book, "Buffalo Fluffalo," about a buffalo who believes he has to bluffalo and puffalo himself into appearing big and scary to his neighbors.
KALB: (Reading) One day, when old Fluff was especially miffed, a hammy old ram clomped up with a gift. I noticed you like to nap in the shade, so here's a big floppy wool hat that I made. Ram, he mooed in a manner so tuffalo, you must go away. I must rebuffalo. I don't need your hammy old rammy old help. It makes me want to stammer and yammer and yelp.
Do you want me to stop?
ERIN KRAAN: Keep going!
RASCOE: And that delighted voice belongs to Erin Kraan, who illustrated "Buffalo Fluffalo." She and Bess Kalb stopped by for our series "Picture This" and for storytime.
KALB: Keep going? The prairie dog voice is good.
KRAAN: I would love to hear Prairie Dog's voice, please.
KALB: This is my son's favorite voice. OK.
(Reading) A prairie dog passed by mean Mr. Poofily. Excuse me, sir, I don't mean to sound goofily, but would you like to join me for flippies and funnels and romp and race in my tubular tunnels? Silly old weasel, cried Buffalo Fluffalo. I can't play in your tunnels on account of my puffalo.
There.
KRAAN: (Laughter) Yay. That was amazing.
KALB: I exhausted all the words that actually rhyme with buffalo. I don't think there are. And I just started - there's a new language.
KRAAN: When I did a little, like, book reading, I had a few messages from parents saying like, oh, all of my kids are trying to add -alo on the end of every word.
KALB: My son said no-alo...
KRAAN: No-alo?
KALB: ...As if, like, I wouldn't understand what he was saying unless he...
KRAAN: I love that. That's so cute. That's cute-alo.
KALB: Yeah, but I was like, no, that's not the cadence - sat him down...
RASCOE: Even though he hasn't totally nailed the cadence yet, Bess Kalb's son did help inspire "Buffalo Fluffalo."
KALB: When I found out that I was pregnant, I started receiving a lot of children's books with the explicit intention of making the child a good person, of teaching a lesson. And I do appreciate these books, but I am a comedy writer by trade. I wanted to give my child a book that helped him understand kindness and empathy with a laugh. And so "Buffalo Fluffalo" - after an act of God, a rain cloud opens up on his head, and it's revealed that this big, fluffy buffalo is actually tiny, and it's all puffery. When it's revealed that that he's just a little pipsqueak, a word that makes my oldest child laugh a lot, his friends and community tell him he doesn't have to act tough, and he's OK just how he is. And they love him anyway.
KRAAN: Well, I remember early on when we first, like, met to discuss the character design, you had mentioned, like, I accidentally wrote a book about toxic masculinity, you know, for my two boys.
KALB: I always have an agenda with my kids, whether it's, like, convincing them to eat food or be good people, and this is so far an effective way to dismantle toxic masculinity and topple the patriarchy through Erin's hilarious, beautiful illustrations and some silly rhymes.
KRAAN: Well, the illustrations are mostly - all the characters are made out of woodcut prints. What I do is I have, like, a flat piece of wood, and the wood I use is basswood, and it's all very nicely sanded. I take my sketch, and I'll take just, like, a solvent, and I'll transfer the sketch onto the wood. And then from there, I take all these different kinds of chisels and carve the lines of the character in the wood. And then I take it a roller of ink and roll black ink onto the wood and print it onto, uh, thick paper. And it gets that nice, like, unique line quality and texture.
KALB: Oh, God, I would love one of those for my kids' room.
KRAAN: Oh, you got it. I should definitely send you one, for sure.
KALB: To be very clear, he doesn't want it. He has heard enough-alo.
KRAAN: I'm sure he's quite done with "Buffalo Fluffalo" by now. Yeah. So everything mostly is all hand-done, but collaged digitally. I really wanted, like, the clouds, the environment in this book, to have a character of their own, just because nature is what humbles Buffalo in this book. So I decided to try using like an acrylic gouache, and I just hand-painted every cloud very uniquely and - yeah. And I think it worked out pretty well.
KALB: It's so beautiful and dramatic. Every time I read it and get to that page, before I say a word, kids are like (gasping).
KRAAN: Yeah. And I think, like, I wanted to enhance that drama that you wrote in the book with that page turn, when that big cloud dumps rain on Fluffalo. And then I wanted that page turn to show him, like, being literally spotlit like he's on a stage, like, fully isolated and being like, ah, this is my true self. And everyone's looking at me. Like, you know, that's my worst fear (laughter). So yeah, I thought that was a fun touch.
KALB: To what Erin said about that reveal page, it's so funny. And that joke needs to land, and it can only land with a picture. I remember in part of the, like, getting set up with an illustrator, I was like, it needs to be someone who can land the comedy of this book. And I saw Erin's work and immediately was like, yes, there is obviously this lush beauty. There's this, like, artistic element. But there's comedy and silliness without it being gross out or over the top or digital and emotionless. There's real comedy.
KRAAN: And it definitely was a team effort, because I remember when we were, like, going through sketches, you were like, OK, you need to make him even more skinny. Like make his pose even more, like, dainty and missable - like, push it. Push the comedy.
KALB: There's nothing more awful than working with someone who's been, like, a TV editing - because I feel like I was, like, smaller.
(LAUGHTER)
KALB: Smaller (laughter). And even like, as somebody with absolutely no artistic talent or ability to take those notes that are so hard to translate and make him like pathetic but sad, but smaller, anatomically incorrect.
KRAAN: But cute at the same time. Yeah.
I think I did, like, 30-plus character designs of Buffalo. Early on, we had the character - like, he was a little bit older because we really went for the toxic masculinity edge, and then we decided to make him look more younger and, like, sweet and endearing because the text was so sweet and charming.
KALB: Like any insane mother, we worked and worked until he looks exactly like my son. I was like, now he's perfect.
KRAAN: (Laughter).
KALB: I'm just a dance mom.
KRAAN: Bess, don't both of your kids have just big curly hair as well? I think you mentioned they have fluffy, curly blonde hair.
KALB: Yes. I was very thrilled that - Erin, I think I sent you a picture of this because it's uncanny. I - the Buffalo Fluffalo is the face that my oldest kid makes whenever he's indignant and upset and acting tough. And it's really - I see it in all kids. I was just at a reading. One of the kids was like, I act like this all the time. And he was like, and this is the face I make. And then it started this chain reaction of kids showing me their meanest faces. And I think that's what the intention of this book is, is to be a mirror. And to show kids that we all have Mr. Fluff in us. We all have this grumbly and tuffalo guy. And I always start the readings by being like, who's been in a bad mood today? And every single kid raises their hands and then they see this picture and they're like, yep. So it helps that they can recognize themselves in him.
RASCOE: That was author Bess Kalb and illustrator Erin Kraan talking about their new children's book-alo, "Buffalo Fluffalo." Our series Picture This is produced by Samantha Balaban. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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