Hey, look. IT IS A WOLF

Page 191 is now online!

Well, it only took mumble-mumble pages, but here, ladies and gents, is a DANG WOLF.

I swear, there will be more of them. In fewer pages, this time. Considerably fewer!

Upcoming antics: September 11-12, I’ll be at the Small Press Expo in scenic Bethesda, MD! Come find me at Table 2F, right next to the excellent Carla Speed McNeil, who will probably be hosting the fire sale of the century as she prepares for Dark Horse to take over publishing her wonderful body of work.

Pre-orders are still going out – I’m down to book-only orders and anything involving an original painting, so keep your eyes on your mailboxes!

Have a lovely Labor Day weekend, my fellow Americans – I’ll see you next week.

Departures.

Page 190 now online!

This week will be Lucien’s last appearance for a long while. Alas! And just when we all thought we’d get to see him with his shirt off. I’ll miss drawing him and his calm, well-meaning face. Good travels, sir. You’ve been a fine Virgil.

In real life departures: as we knew to expect, my grandfather died early this week. It was peaceful and merciful. Most of our last conversations together were about the comics business – he was an amateur cartoonist during his PR-man years. He said he wanted to pitch me for a “double-decker strip” for the Chicago Tribune. I told him I didn’t work on spec. He got a kick out of that.

Goodbye, old bomber pilot.

Family Man update!

Page 189 now online!

This week’s page is moderately Not Safe For Work; there are no Frontal Personal Bits but there is a fair amount of everything else.  HaHA, thought you could make it through a comic set in an all-male 18th century institution without a little homoeroticism?  YOU THOUGHT WRONG, READERS.

Moving on!

Not much news this week beyond the ongoing march of pre-orders. The $40 packages are within sight of being finished; watercolor packages are going at about three a week; and book-only packages are going just as fast as I can draw inside the covers. You guys! You ordered a lot of books! It’s fantastic. I wish I had five of me so I could send them to you INSTANTLY.

Meanwhile, I’m mulling over notions of fun exclusives to bring to SPX, this September 11th and 12th in Bethesda; if you have any requests or neat ideas for things you might like to purchase from me, chime in and I’ll add it to the basket of possibilities!

Family Man update!

Page 188 now online!

It dawned on me as I pencilled this week’s page that it is essentially one of those Calvin & Hobbes strips where they go down the hill in the Radio Flyer.  I’d like to think that, at the end of this book, it is revealed that Lucien has been a stuffed tiger the whole time.

Anyway!  Onwards.  A couple more pages to this scene and then we’re through. Meanwhile I have still been sending out pre-orders (we’re down to under 200 left! ahahahahhhhh).  I’m beginning to develop hope that I’ll actually have them all out this month.  It’s fun to hear from people when their package arrives.

Usual disclaimers about having one extremely ill grandparent apply for next week’s update, but I remain ever optimistic.  See you then!

Family Man update!

Page 187 now online!

It’s been a lot of work catching up from Comic-Con (I missed at least one entire news cycle; only now do jokes on the Daily Show seem coherent to me).   But behold, here at long last is a new page.  Thank heavens for the occasional interlude taking place in a darkened wood; if it were architecture or bookspines I’d be in trouble.  Instead it’s owls and silhouetted pine boughs.  Huzzah!

I’m traveling once again this week to help out family, and my computer is exhibiting worrisome death throes.  Hopefully the both together won’t totally nix me for new comics productivity, but either way I’ll keep you posted.  At the least I’ll try to put up a new round of notes.

I’m working to send out a big pile of pre-orders every day as well!  A bunch of people have written in to change their mailing address at the last minute – if you’ve moved since you ordered, please send me a line and I’ll make sure your book doesn’t get bounced around before finding you.

I’m enjoying taking my time on the watercolor orders, making sure each of them looks pretty and has enough of my time invested to justify the generous donation.  I’ll post the two that I’ve finished so far as soon as they’ve been safely received by their new owners. (If you’re a watercolor-order person and you just CANNOT WAIT to get your book, please send me a poke and I’ll put together the whole rest of your order, ship it to you now, and send the painting when it’s ready.)

Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma’am

Page 168 now online!

Oh hey here is a page!  Whew.

It was done on the heels of a genuinely wonderful book launch party! Thank you to everybody who came by Floating World Comics – the place was packed from start to finish. I am aglow that this mad, unpitchable tale and its frazzled maker have such good friends and supporters out there. So many tiny, suspiciously enthusiastic Luthers were drawn in book covers!  It’s odd to see that character look so chipper, but I couldn’t help it – we both had a good night.

Here is a photo of me being super classy during a whole fifteen second lull, taken by national treasure Mike Russell:

Next up: for most of next week I’ll be at the San Diego Comic-Con, at Small Press table #M-09! I’ll be accompanied by my usual partner-in-crime Erika Moen.  I’ll also be on the Comics After Paper panel on Saturday from 4-5 in Room 3, hosted by my friend Douglas Wolk.  Yes, that is right; somebody who just turned a webcomic into a print comic is talking about comics not for print.  Holla!

I am also slowly but steadily sending out those pre-orders – after Comic-Con the factory goes into full swing as I get several uninterrupted weeks of sketching, packing, watercoloring, and mailing time.  Man, it already sounds good.

Family Man update!

Page 185 now online!

And we are back! With a page full of Dudes. I don’t know how likely an update is again for the next couple of weeks as Iprepare for and attend the soul-consuming San Diego Comic-Con (Table M-9 in the Small Press Section!) and start pushing out book orders, but I’ll do my best.

In the most immediate news, folks in the Portland area, please come out to the Book Launch party next Thursday, July 15, at Floating World Comics from 5-8pm! If you pre-ordered a book, you can come pick it up from me in person, and you will get extra prizes to make up for the shipping you paid.

Here is the Facebook event – it’s open to the public, so pass it on, and I’ll see you there! I am making cookies.  They will be delicious.

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Book release and signing, July 15!

Remember that hand wound?  It’s lots better, but now I have the flu.  But before the Nyquil drags me under, here is some very exciting news! Mark your calendars now:

Courtesy of  Jason Leivian, proprietor of the lovely Portland establishment Floating World Comics, Family Man will have a release and signing party on-site!  It will be on July 15th from 5 to 8pm.  So you Portland-area folk don’t need to stalk me or buy scalped tickets to San Diego just to get my scrawl on the inside cover of your copy of Family Man.

I’ve never done a solo event before, but I figure this book deserves it – especially since you, my wonderful crazy readers, made it possible. Floating World is one of my favorite places in Portland, period, and its shelves are a testament to the very best that comics can offer.  I’m very honored to drag this book into the world through their doors!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled cold medicine.

Ow. Ew. Hey!

Hi all – just a quick update.

Through personal brilliance I managed to wear a nasty little wound into the palm of my drawing hand this weekend!  (Excellent timing, right?)

Typing is okay, but drawing is painful (and more than a little icky in the aftermath).  It should calm down in a day or two if I behave, and with luck the page will be up on Friday.  I’m disappointed to punt, but I figure acquiring stigmata is probably a sign from the universe.

But, on the upshot, it seems that the first load of books has arrived!  Just a few hundred, mostly reserved for mailing to the San Diego Comic-con, but enough that once my hand chills out I will be able to start sending out some of the earliest book-only pre-orders.  Woo!

Book book book!

So! I have my advance copy of the Family Man book!

(You can see this video at its home on Flickr here.)

Very exciting! It would be even more so, if I weren’t so tired that I can barely keep my head up. As I warned might happen, I have passed the “not healthy to try to post this week’s page on time” line. It’ll be up sometime this weekend, and look all the better for it.

Ugh, seriously, LJ readers:  I am completely on fumes, here.  I worried so hard about this book that I think I may have popped a kidney.  It looks great, and all the other cool stuff packaged along with the limited edition pre-orders is going to look great, too.  If keeping on top of all (and planning for the San Diego Comic-Con) that were all I were doing right now, I’d still be pooped – but the last two weekends on the road for family stuff, and the several freelance engagements I’m holding down on top of it all, have wiped me out.

So what I’m saying here is that cloning technology is starting to look pretty good.

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