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John Picacio

@johnpicacio.bsky.social

4.1K followers 1K following 1.2K posts

Co-author & illustrator of THE INVISIBLE PARADE, with Leigh Bardugo (released August 26, 2025). 3x Hugo Award Winner. 5x Locus Award Winner. Inkpot Award Winner. Cover Artist. International Man of Lotería. He/him. #DayOfTheDead linktr.ee/johnpicacio

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · Feb 7

THREAD! MY FIRST BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! 👀🧵✊🏽➡️

There aren't many things better than reading a new Leigh Bardugo book -- but I've discovered something that is. Getting to CO-WRITE one with her. 1/

Cover of THE INVISIBLE PARADE by Leigh Bardugo and John Picacio, featuring art by John Picacio. Jacket design by Prashansa Thapa. Forthcoming from Little, Brown for Young Readers — September 2, 2025.

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Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 18h

Tonight, Friday October 10, with @chuckwendig.bsky.social !

Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 5d

Oct 10 Let's Play Books, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, 4/11

theendbooks.co/event/2025-1...

Martha Wells, in Conversation with Chuck Wendig

Welcome to our new website! We're excited to see you. *** RETURNING USERS WILL NEED TO RESET THEIR PASSWORD FOR THIS NEW SITE. CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD.***

theendbooks.co

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 1d

I’m all about #DíaDeMuertos right now because it’s Spooky Season, but @adamrex.bsky.social is already shopping for Christmas trees. He’s a fantastic picture book author, always evolving.

Adam Rex @adamrex.bsky.social · Sep 9

What if someone sent you three chickens? What if they actually sent you 30 chickens, because they did it ten days in a row?
Anyway, this is a book about the guy they wrote that song about.
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

HO HO HO! My new book publishes today! It's called The 13th Day of Christmas and on the cover a bewildered guy is holding a chicken and goose and colly bird and dove and a pear tree with a partridge in it and he's flanked by a drummer and dancer and swan.

John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 1d

You deserve a cut when your visuals are telling a visual story. ✊🏽

John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 1d

Might take me a day or two, but lemme see what’s possible. I’ll try to check back with you.

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 1d

BLACK PHONE 2 has more Lotería Karma than any film ever. Word on the streets is my Lotería Grande Card artworks are featured in the film, opening Oct. 17th. 😮

If you want any of my remaining card singles, get ‘em now. johnpicacio.com/product-cate...

Bonus Karma to @crobertcargill.bsky.social. ✊🏽

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🏳️‍⚧️ Josephine Riesman (Horrifying) @josie.zone · 5d

It is morally wrong to want a computer to be sentient. If you owned a sentient thing, you would be a slaver. If you want sentient computers to exist, you just want to create a new kind of slavery. The ethics are as simple as that. Sorry if this offends

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C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 2d

There’s an interview going around about AI, so before there are any questions, let me state unequivocally that BLACK PHONE 2 is 100% organic. AI was not used at any stage of the filmmaking from idea generation, research, look books, writing, onscreen images - anything. We’re old school and love it.

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 2d

Andy — The backs of my cards have the pencil drawings reproduced on the back. Want me to sign on that side in gold? Or on the color side? Or leave ‘em unsigned?

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 2d

Snatched up my seats this morning for BLACK PHONE 2 Opening Weekend. Love the buzz I’m hearing! 🔥 Cannot wait. 👀✊🏽

And yup, like the man said — here’s where to score my Lotería Grande Cards, while supplies last. johnpicacio.com/product-cate...

Loteria Grande Cards – John Picacio

johnpicacio.com

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 2d

Great talk. Great BBQ. This was fun. I had to restrain myself from asking Scott questions about his days in the Marvel bullpen. We covered a lot of ground from cover art to visual storytelling, and more. An honor to be part of your series, Scott! 🚀

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Scott Edelman @scottedelman.bsky.social · 2d

Episode 265 of Eating the Fantastic is live with guest @johnpicacio.bsky.social! Eavesdrop on our lunch and learn why he thinks of a book as a person he needs to introduce at a party, how as a creator he'd rather be a marathon runner than a sprinter — and more. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...

John across the table from me seen over his brisket, ribs, chili, and corn.

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Tilly🦋was successfully manipulated by a wizard @tillywizard.bsky.social · 12d

📚💙📚🪐

This book is beautiful

The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo, illustrated by John Picacio

Everyone in the neighborhood was getting ready for the party. Everyone knew somebody on the guest list. . . . This was the day the dead returned.
There’s a party tonight, but Cala doesn’t want to go. While her family prepares for the celebration, Cala grieves her grandfather and tries to pretend she’s not afraid.

But when she is separated from her family at the cemetery, Cala encounters four mysterious riders who will show her she is actually quite brave after all.

Brimming with magic and humor, The Invisible Parade is the first picture-book collaboration between award-winner John Picacio and New York Times bestselling Leigh Bardugo. Set on the night of Día de Muertos, Cala’s story is one of love, loss, and the courage that can be found in unexpected places.

Up, up onto the horse of pale moonlight went Cala, and though she was afraid, she held tight to the rider’s crow-feather cloak

“Come,” she said to her friend Death. “It’s time to join the party.”

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 4d

Congrats, all! @galendara.bsky.social @zaraalfonso.bsky.social

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Uncanny Magazine @uncannymagazine.bsky.social · 4d

Congratulations to Zara Alfonso, Galen Dara, and John Picacio! Their 2024 Uncanny Magazine covers are all finalists for 2025 Frank R. Paul Best Magazine Cover Art Awards! buff.ly/qvJxWdL

cover of issue 58, titled "Stasis" by Zara Alfonso depicts a brown gray background and a femme-presenting person with long dark hair staring up into space. Her eyes are glazed over white and her lips (and overall complexion) is a gray-blue-white. Moths of a pale-gray-blue-white rest on her face and shoulder

The cover for Uncanny Magazine Issue 56, “Resurrecting Venus" by Galen Dara: In the background, two planets overlap. A large red one is eclipsed by a blue one, the surface is decorated with waves. At the forefront, a woman's face is split in three pieces that are slowly coming together. Spread throughout the motif of sea waves are present in shades of light blue, dark blue, and purple. The outline of koi are spread throughout too, accompanying the woman.

cover for Issue 60, La Musica by John Picacio. A femme person with eyeliner and red lipstick smiles directly at the reader. On her head is a swirling headpiece made of brass instruments, the sides of her face framed by two halves of a cello, earrings of brass instrument parts. Her shoulder pads are made of the black, white, and shaded brown keys of a piano and the body of the dress the curling row of piano keys. Behind her are circular swirls of color

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Scott Edelman @scottedelman.bsky.social · 5d

For those who like knowing how Eating the Fantastic's podcast sausage is made: editing the raw audio for my chat with @johnpicacio.bsky.social to make it more pleasing for your ears took 735 snips, removing 9 minutes, 39 seconds of irrelevancies. Please eavesdrop later this week! pod.link/1083737796

A screen grab of the sound waves of our voices in GarageBand, reflecting all those snips and a time stamp of 01:18:10.033.

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 6d

Hey, Northern California — my debut storybook is back in stock right now at @wordhorde.bsky.social. Thank you, @lossrockhart.bsky.social! And for those who live in the #BayArea — lemme know if I should come do a book signing in your region. It’s being considered, so let’s hear from you. 👀 #goth

THE INVISIBLE PARADE on display at Word Horde in Petaluma, CA.

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 7d

Go get it. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 8d

For the PM Crowd: Because it’s an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” world, and we’re living in it.

John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 8d

🧵TODAY’S Jack Finney’s birthday. Who?

Never heard of him? You’ve heard of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, the legendary property brand built from his 1955 story, “The Body Snatchers”.

Major films, books, games, and a host of copycats about “pod people” have spawned from it. 1/

Film posters and a film still from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 8d

In all seriousness, publishers are going to have to figure out how to market books in the post-social-media landscape. That should be an implicit part of their job. What authors/artists can do on their own is increasingly limited and siloed.

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City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 8d

Today's the second day that NPR and PBS and the hundreds of local stations that comprise both networks are operating without any government support after they were defunded. Consider giving them a bit of support =>

NPR @npr.org · 9d

Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.

Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.

Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj

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Guillermo del Toro @realgdt.bsky.social · 8d

Physical miniature elements getting ready

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Guillermo del Toro @realgdt.bsky.social · 8d

Oscar on set (honoring Wrightson)

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 8d

Like I said to @ashleydoesartstuff.com yesterday, the key for me is drinking lots of water the day before and the morning of. Then Tylenol directly after. If so — Easy Street.

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 8d

Heeeeyyy — thank you, David. That first set of TOS covers (the Kirk, Spock, McCoy triptych) was a dream gig. :) Shatner and Nimoy sent personal responses to the AD. 🖖🏽 #StarTrek #Trekkie #MrSpock #artsky

Cover art by John Picacio for CRUCIBLE: SPOCK.

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 8d

You feel like that lately? Yeah, me too.

That’s why I created this cover art, which gained a new generation of readers for Jack’s story — also available as a beautiful 24” x 36” signed Deluxe Giant archival print. Still one of my favorite cover artworks. /4 #artsky

johnpicacio.com/store/invasi...

24”x36” Deluxe Giant archival prints of John Picacio’s art for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.