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The History of the Binka Calendar

I have been making calendars since high school, when our environmental group, earth pals associated or epa (pronounced ep-pah, not ee-pee-eh) needed a fundraiser. We devised a marooned New Yorker cum globetrotting, postcard-writing friend-to-pirates named Rufus. We figured that bringing folks along on a voyage outside the borders of our own country by paying attention to celebrations around the world was a good way to get folks thinking globally.

The next year I missed the madness of searching for holidays and illustrating the twelve months of the year, and so Binka and her sidekick Stubbs were born. They visited the zoo. The whole thing was hand-drawn in my living room during winter break. My father photocopied the calendars at work (shh!), and I sold them to friends at school when I went back in January. When I went to Prague for the holidays the next year, Binka came with me. My friends came to expect another adventure every year, and a tradition was born.

It is no dumb coincidence that Binka shares five letters with my last name, Hlubinka. She goes on the kinds of adventures I wish I could, and she follows me on some adventures that I have gone on myself. Whether or not our passports bear the stamp of these farflung places, our imaginations have roamed through every corner of these destinations that our brains could visit. Next year, to celebrate the palindromic year 2002, Binka will go Through the Looking Glass, where she plans to meet Alice, the White Rabbit, and dozens of other favorite characters and authors of children's literature

The binka calendar enjoyed a moment of fame when it was mini-featured in the October 1996 issue of Glamour magazine. Click here to see that article (©1996 Conde Nast Publications)

For more information about me, the artist, in my own words, you can click here .

2002	Binka Goes through the Looking Glass	IN DEVELOPMENT
2001	Binka Goes to Extremes	NOW AVAILABLE! Picture forthcoming
2000	Binka Goes to the Circus
2000             1999	Binka Goes to the End of Time             Binka Goes to the End of Time
1998	Binka Goes to the Ocean
1997	Binka Goes to the Art Museum	(image to come)
1996	Binka Goes to Outerspace
1995	Binka Goes to Korea	(image to come)
1994	Binka Goes to Ancient Egypt
1993	Binka Goes to the Country	(image to come)
1992	Binka Goes to Prague	(image to come)
1991	Binka Goes to the Zoo	(image to come)
1990	Island Hopping (with Rufus)	(image to come)