Jan 01 2009
Midnight Sun in PLAYBACK:stl’s Best of List
In a bit of a surprise, my historical fiction graphic novel, Midnight Sun, has turned up in PLAYBACK:stl’s best of 2008 graphic novels list. What makes this surprising is that the book was actually published in 2007–albeit in the last two or three days of 2007. The list’s writer, Steve Higgins, shoehorns me in, though, since he reviewed the book at the beginning of 2008.
Dec 27 2008
Cartoonists’ Christmas/Holiday Cards I’ve Received
Tom Spurgeon over at ComicsReporter.com has posted a selection of holiday cards he’s received from cartoonists and I thought maybe with my Christmas traveling wrapped up I’d do the same. He’s already got J. Chris Campbell’s card posted, but I’ll repost here just in case. Starting off, I’ll highlight the most impressive card I’ve received this year–from Oni’s Chris Schweizer:
First off, Chris gets serious points for sending an actual, physical card. Most folks these days do a bulk email, which certainly has its advantages, but there’s nothing like getting an actual card in the mail (especially for us cartoonists, who tend to be pitiful shut-ins for whom the daily mail delivery is often the highlight of our day). Upon inspection, the “card” appears to be a regular old piece of mail:
But, when you flip the thing over, you see that it’s actually a minicomic!
And, yeah, it’s a full-on six-page mini that’s all about what the Schweizers have been up to in the past year. Here’s a page that contains two things that made me laugh out loud: the drawing of “Sassy” and the name “Uncle Hamhock.”
And here’s another actual card that came in the mail (yay!). This one’s from SLG and features an illustration by the great Scott Saavedra:
Here’re a few that arrived via email. Starting from the top, the first is from the Center for Cartoon Studies, drawn by Chris Wright; then, the unmistakable babe-atude of Rob Ullman, and finally J. Chris Campbell’s card/ornament:
For what it’s worth, here’s our card for this year which I’d intended to silkscreen, but wound up just doing as a color laser print since apparently Osama Bin Laden is hording all the world’s remaining Gocco supplies in his underground sugar cave in Pakistan:
Dec 27 2008
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 introduction to my list :
I read a fair amount of material–both prose and graphic novels–each year, much of which I either give away, lend to people or sell to a used book store when I’m done with it, so the list here isn’t necessarily a “best of” list drawn from everything I read in 2008; it’s more a list of things that were still handy on my shelves when I undertook this list… These are certainly some–but not all–of the best books I read in the past year.
I believe, though, that all of the comics mentioned are 2008 releases.
Dec 18 2008
It’s On: Inking Amelia
I’ve heard back from the “powers that be” and although I’ve got a list of revisions a few pages long, it’s for the most part relatively minor stuff… so, I’ve received the AOK to begin inking. After months and months of penciling, it feels really good to break out the old brushes and nibs. This first page allowed me to get reacquainted with a whole bunch of tools: brushes, pens, nibs, litho crayon, even doing white rain on black with a razor blade. I probably won’t be posting pages of this until the book’s done–if even then–but here’s page one, unscanned (obviously) and without grays:
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