This is the first book for Bennett, who has created illustrations for magazines and advertising campaigns for 17 years. He currently is collaborating with comedian Carl Reiner on a children's book, Tell Me a Scary Story . . . But Not Too Scary.
"When he sent me the first bunch of drawings," Reiner said by telephone, "my first thought was this guy has a cinematographer's eye and a director's vision. I was amazed with the angles."
Bennett's illustrations, which the artist described as caricature meets realism, have appeared in Time, Sports Illustrated, Mad, and most recently the World Series program. He is a recipient of the Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators.
"The most fun thing about my job is my clients change all the time," said Bennett, a graduate of Bensalem High School and Bucks County Community College.
After seeing Bennett's work in a New York exhibit, publisher Byron Preiss recommended him for the Seinfeld book. The project started in July 2001 with pen sketches and an oil painting.
Bennett, who worked from photos and a DVD of Seinfeld's comedy act, first met the comedian in September 2001 in New York. After four or five meetings to modify the sketches, Bennett created the oil paintings for the 32-page book, which appeared on the New York Times best-seller list.
Watching Seinfeld promote the book on TV talk shows was like an "out of body" experience, said Bennett, who could have been talking about himself when he described Seinfeld as a affable, normal guy.
After graduating from Bensalem High in 1978, Bennett had factory jobs for three years. He made extra money by painting oils from wedding and birthday photographs. He said his only training up to that time had been painting sports photographs from a newspaper.
"The best advice I had was to go to art school," Bennett said.
