I was trying to get my bookshelves more organized a few days ago but was having a hard time staying focused because this kind of stuff drives me nuts! (OK, admittedly, I’m a little obsessive/compulsive for sure, but…) I’m as glad as the next guy that comics are no longer available exclusively as saddle-stitched periodicals… Continue reading »
Mar
20
Book Design and Illustration: My Bookhouse Series
My two year old daughter has always been really interested in books (as I’m sure most kids her age are) and so I’ve been thinking a lot about children’s books–specifically, I’ve been thinking a lot about how crappy looking and shoddily constructed most modern children’s books are. At some point, I’m going to maybe do… Continue reading »
Sep
12
Weekend o’ Book Festival Appearances
I’ll be appearing at two book festivals this weekend. The first is the Bookmarks Book Festival here in Winston-Salem on Saturday and the second will be at the North Carolina Literary Festival in Chapel Hill on Sunday. Here’re details: Bookmarks The New Frontier: Graphic Novels, Webcomics and Manga Saturday, 2:00 pm – at the DADA… Continue reading »
Dec
27
My Favorites from 2008 – Now Posted at ChasingRay
The literary/review blog ChasingRay.com has begun a series of author’s and cartoonist’s “favorites of 2008″ lists and my list is currently posted. This isn’t technically a “best of” list, partially because the idea was to include your things you read in 2008, not your favorite things published in 2008–but also, as I note in the… Continue reading »
Sep
11
Book Festival Appearance: Bookmarks 9/13
I’ll be making the second of my two book festival appearances this year at this weekend’s Bookmarks book festival here in Winston-Salem. The festival is on Saturday and I’ll be at the “All That & then Some” tent (V-2) at 2:30 PM where I’ll be discussing Midnight Sun, comics-making, and comics and graphic novels… Continue reading »
Aug
31
Book Festivals: Cartoonists’ New Turf? – The Decatur Book Festival (part 2)
In deference to the church-going crowd (or maybe the hung-over crowd… what do I know?), the Decatur Book Festival wasn’t set to get underway on Sunday until noon, so I took advantage of the only cool time of day here in Georgia–the early morning–for a quick jog around Decatur’s beautiful old cemetery. After that I… Continue reading »
Aug
30
Book Festivals: Cartoonists’ New Turf? – The Decatur Book Festival (part 1)
Now that “Crash, Boom, Pow–Comics Aren’t Just for Kids Anymore,” book festivals around the country seem to be slowly but surely dipping their toes into the murky pool of comics and graphic novels. As mentioned in a previous post, this summer I’ll be attending Winston-Salem’s Bookmarks Festival in a few weeks, as well as this… Continue reading »
Aug
12
Come See Me At The Decatur Book Festival 8/31
In discussions about how great it is that comics/graphic novels have “arrived” and are now respectable and respected, I’m often the wet blanket, but I guess I’ll have to admit that the fact that I’ve been invited to not one, but two, book festivals this year is a sign of something. In September, I’ll be… Continue reading »
Dec
10
Goodbye, Goodreads
Today I closed my Goodreads.com account. I know that many folks use and enjoy the site, bur for me it’s become more of a nuisance than a benefit of late, so I’m bidding Goodreads goodbye. Why? I just don’t have the time to write thoughtful, interesting reviews of books these days. I’ve barely got enough… Continue reading »
Aug
24
Successful Drawing by Andrew Loomis
I received a dogeared packet of photocopies from Andrew Loomis’s 1951 text, Successful Drawing, while taking a class in introductory linear perspective in art school years ago, but it wasn’t until I began drawing every day–either for freelance work, or my own comics work–that I began to truly realize the value of this material. While… Continue reading »