Impossible Possum for Mayor!
By Justin Colón
What’s badder than using a Possum Populator to create your very own evil penguin sidekick? Running for mayor. Then taking over the world. Lucky for us, Carl the possum isn’t quite sure what it takes to win a human election.
Carl the possum is bad. Bad to the bone. And he wants to take over the world.
So he decides to run for mayor. The only problem is he has to get people to vote for him first. Hijinx and laughs abound as Carl and his penguin sidekick Philbert try to entice potential voters with guppies, mice cream, and other completely misguided gestures. Will Carl be elected mayor? Or will chaos rule?
Justin Colón and James Rey Sanchez bring true hilarity and wit to the second book starring Carl and Philbert.
Book two let me do more of what I love. I put as much into design as into the characters and their world: comic-style panel layouts, a ton of typography, and the kind of design work I started in book one. I also gave myself close-up shots where I could slow down and paint every detail like a still life on canvas.
By then, I’d also started illustrating for Disney Lorcana, and working with its art directors sharpened my painting, lighting and perspective. I brought all of that into this book, and you can see it in the more refined, delicate way the paintings come to life. Kirkus noticed too: the illustrations “feel like screenshots for an animated film.”
Fun fact: Those gross-out close-ups? Pure Ren & Stimpy and SpongeBob. I grew up on those painfully detailed, way-too-close shots the shows would cut to for a laugh, and this book was my excuse to paint my own, with every wrinkle, drip and nose hair rendered like a still life.
Color does the feeling. In this book I leaned into color to carry Carl’s emotions, from one frustration after another to the moment he realizes people are disgusted just looking at his possum face. As his mood sinks, the palette shifts with him.
My favorite spread in the book. Just like the pasta avalanche in book one, it’s pure chaos, but this time Philbert’s the one causing it. I loved painting the mice cream flood, designing every bit of graffiti on the walls, and staging it all so the action feels like it’s unfolding in real time, panel by panel.
Under the jacket, part two. For Impossible Possum for Mayor!, I designed the case cover as the local paper covering Carl’s campaign: the masthead, every article, the fake ads for Powdered Ham and Sardines for Kids, the campaign buttons, and Carl and Philbert’s doodles all over it, plus the spine. Look closely and you’ll find a few names from the team behind the books hidden in the bylines.
Impossible Possum for Mayor! was published by Disney-Hyperion on November 18, 2025.
