Drew Daywalt

'"[4] The house had a storied reputation in the local area, having supposedly been a stagecoach stop, a brothel, and a respite on the Underground Railroad at various times.

He relates, "My older brothers would always let me stay up way too late on Friday nights, drink Mountain Dew, watch horror movies.

Also, at the time – this is going back to the mid 70s, almost into the early 80s – they were reading Tolkien and lot of that, so I had that as one side of my experiences.

"[6] Daywalt's family eventually moved to nearby Stow, Ohio, where he attended Highland Elementary School.

After graduating from Stow-Munroe Falls High School in 1988, Daywalt pursued creative writing at Emerson College in Boston.

"Because at the time, my big plan was: if I really know children's literature and the history of fairy tales, and storytelling for kids in a meaningful and deep way, and I also learn screenwriting, I can go and work with Disney.

That was my goal, was to get out [to Los Angeles] and work with Disney and Warner Brothers and write children's animation for TV and for film.

In a 2009 interview with Dread Central, Daywalt described the origins of Fewdio, saying, "We were all a little bit burned out on dealing with studio execs around the time the strike hit.

We had done the Axe Body campaign – 'How Dirty Boys Get Clean' – that pretty much set us up financially so we could get through the strike.

[8] Drew Grant of Salon described Daywalt's work with the group as "the first really great horror films for the Internet era.

[2][13][14][15][16] The idea for the book originated with a simple box of crayons on Daywalt's desk, and his affinity for writing dialogue.

For instance, the starred review in Publishers Weekly stated, "Making a noteworthy debut, Daywalt composes droll missives that express aggravation and aim to persuade", while referring to the crayon characters as "memorable personalities [that] will leave readers glancing apprehensively at their own crayon boxes.

"[19] In 2014, Danielle Herzog of The Washington Post joyfully related the experience of reading the book to her own children.