Dramatic ankles! And so much wolf fur. Oh lord so much. Man, if you knew the anxiety and anticipation I had coming up to this page! But in the end it all comes down to poinking in individual strands of fur.
Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans (and the American-resident). I would hardly be patriotic if I did not provide an economic stimulus for the holiday season, so if you make your way to the Store and enter discount code “Spinoza” at checkout, you will get 20% off your entire order! (Note: Bite Me! is still between printings, but there is plenty of other fun to be had.)
Thank you for ordering – and happy incipient holidays, y’all.
Tra-la-la, I think we’ve officially gone from “foreshadowing” to just plain old “shadowing” at this point.
More good news for comic book fans: my studiomate Jonathan Case is taking the world by storm this month! His debut graphic novel Dear Creature hits the shelves on the 11th. You will like it, because it stars a B-movie sea monster who speaks in iambic pentameter and occasionally pauses in his wholesale devouring of careless 1960’s beach bunnies to express his longing for true love. Basically it is the best.
You can also catch Green River Killer, where Jonathan provides the suitably unsettling and gritty art to match Jeff Jensen’s real-world tale of his father’s pursuit of Gary Ridgway. It’s lovely and fascinating to see Jonathan operate in such different modes.
Hi all! This week I embark on something that scares the heck out of me. I’m taking a trial four weeks off of updating with new pages of art so that I can focus on writing (yes, writing Family Man).
This is not a hiatus; I’ll be working on the comic the entire time, and in the intervening weeks I’ll update the site with the notes for the last 30 pages, the long-awaited post about how I generate the art, and some other fun stuff, all guaranteed to go up on Friday.
I admit to being terrified that you’ll all wander away; I’m also scared that I’ll fail to accomplish what I set out to do. But I’m choosing to have faith in both of us, and in this weird little story. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LJ, or WordPress to be alerted when page updates return.
So, for this week: notes for pages 190-199.
Of interest in the meantime: writer Sara Ryan and artist me have a 16-page comics story in the otherwise all-text Welcome to Bordertown anthology. Over a dozen pages of me drawing crazy not-my-normal stuff like this:
It was a welcome challenge to try to channel the love child of Carla Speed McNeil and Jaime Hernandez; if I got 20% of the way there, I’m pretty happy. The entire anthology is worth checking out (and handing over to the nearest teen reader). The contributor list is a bioluminescent fruit basket of genre fiction stars. Release date is May 24 so go ahead and pre-order that sucker!
And, for those of you visiting the store of late: you might notice that Bite Me! is sold out. That’s because it is, in fact, sold out: I have a copy to sneeze at and that’s abotu it. This is a pretty delightful problem, and I look forward to solving it this spring, as I locate a new printer who can produce a higher-quality volume at an still-affordable price. Look for a shiny, 10th anniversary* edition this fall!
*Jesus Christ.
Hello, all! I’m back from a great time at TCAF – you can read about some of my experiences (and see my goony, jetlagged face) over on Erika’s blog.
Highlights included a fun and inspiring visit to fellow cartoonist Lucy Knisley‘s studio in Chicago, two really engaging panels, selling my last convention copies of Bite Me (gotta reprint!), and talking to lots and lots of lovely Canadians.
It was an inspiring and exhausting trip. I’m going to take a leap of faith or two in the coming weeks so that I can prioritize this story and bring it to you as quickly and as vividly as I can. More on that as I hammer it out!
I figured that if you weren’t getting naked people in this week’s page, you at least deserved many tiny houses. Next best thing, am I right?
Thank you to everybody who attended the Stumptown Comics Fest this past weekend in Portland! I had a lovely time at my table and on two panels.
Classy cartoonist and comic book librarian Jen Vaughn has a great write-up of the show over on the Beat (and yes, that is Tom Neely’s epic Moby Dick print in my living room).
I also got to hand out flyers for a new anthology that Sara Ryan and I have work in this spring. It’s called Welcome to Bordertown, and those of you who are fans of classic urban fantasy will already have your ears perked. There are some big names on the contributor list, and Sara and I collaborated on the only comics story in the collection. No pressure! More about that as we get closer to the May 24 release date…