Newsarama has a small preview and interview with the PIXU team: Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos. The first issue of PIXU will be debuting at the San Diego Comic-Con, with the second issue to be released in September. Self-published and limited to 1000 copies, it will be available only at conventions and online, via khepri.com (you can already place pre-orders for the first issue).

The Newsarama interview also mentions the post-SDCC signing at Meltdown in Los Angeles on July 30th — and Becky has more information about the signing on her blog.

For the past four years, I’ve been doing illustrations for the ecologically friendly trading card game called, Xeko.

Trying to capture the awesomeness of nature’s most exquisite creatures has been a tough challenge, to say the least. Xeko has forced me to come out of my comfort zone and stretch my illustration abilities.

I’m delighted to be able to present some of this work in a new art book called, Wildlife from the Hotspots.

Click here for more info.

The Totoro Forest Project website is now live. From their main page:

Totoro Forest Project is an international charity effort to save Sayama Forest, also known as Totoro Forest. This endangered sanctuary on the outskirts of Tokyo is where director Hayao Miyazaki got the inspiration for his much loved character “Totoro.”

Over 200 top international artists from animation, illustration, and comics are donating artwork especially created for this cause. Find out more about the auction event, preview the incredible art collection and please consider supporting the Totoro Forest Project with your generous contribution!

The online gallery already has art by the likes of Catia Chien, Chris Appelhans, Clio Chiang, Yoko Tanaka, Vera Brosgol and Scott Campbell — who will no doubt be joined by more Flight alumni (Kazu Kibuishi, Khang Le, Enrico Casarosa, to name just a few), alongside many other fantastic artists (James Jean, Tadahiro Uesugi, Ralph Eggleston)!

The benefit auction is going to be held at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, CA on September 6th 2008, with all proceeds going to the Totoro Forest National Fund. Visit the Totoro Forest Project to learn more about the project, and how you can help Sayama Forest.

Edit to add: Enrico talks a little bit more about the project over at his blog.

For those of you that might have missed some of the Newsarama Flight 5 previews, we’ll be collecting all the links to the previews here, so you can browse through them a little more easily. Expect more updates to this post as new previews appear.

• “100,000 Horsepower” by Sonny Liew
• “The Dragon” by Reagan Lodge
• “Voyage” by Kness & Made
• “On the Importance of Space Travel” by Svetlana Chmakova
• “Flowers for Mama” by Paul Rivoche
• “The Courier” by Kazu Kibuishi
• “The Broken Path” by Michel Gagné

I just received several copies of Flight 5 in the mail, and the book looks and reads great. Amy and I both think it’s the strongest volume of the series so far, with the artists really maturing as storytellers. If you liked Flight Volume 3, then you’ll probably really enjoy Flight Volume 5, as it is essentially a stronger version of that book.

I’m noticing a pattern, where the even numbered volumes have a softer, more introspective tone, while the odd volumes have more of a sense of adventure and discovery. Makes me wonder what Flight 6 will bring to the table.

Newsarama has posted an interview with me about the book, and they will be posting previews of the material over the course of a few days, so be sure to check in over there. Here are previews featuring the works of Michel Gagné and Paul Rivoche.

I finally wrapped up the ninth issue of my cute (and somewhat disturbing) sci-fi series, ZED. The books are back from our printer and available at our GAGNE International website. Check out an 8-page preview here.

On a sadder note, we’ve been informed by our distributor, Diamond Comics, that they will no longer carry ZED. This means that you won’t find ZED in comic stores anymore. If you’re a fan or a potential reader who wants your ZED fix, your options at this point are to order the book directly through our website; to catch me signing at a convention; or to encourage your local store to place an order with us.

Will this blow from our distributor discourage me from doing ZED? No way! I thrive on adversity. If there are only a few readers out there who enjoy ZED, that’s good enough for me.

Click here to find out more about ZED.

Flight 4 has been nominated for a 2008 Harvey Award. Last year, Flight 3 won in the Best Anthology category. The award is named after the great Harvey Kurtzman (pictured above), creator of MAD Magazine, and MAD was one of the biggest inspirations in creating Flight. Congrats also to our friends Vasilis Lolos, Gabriel Ba, Mike Krahulik, Jerry Holkins, and Bryan Lee O’Malley for their nominations!

This Saturday, Gallery Nucleus will be holding the opening reception for Into the Woods, a new gallery show featuring work by Chris Appelhans, Catia Chien, Yoko Tanaka, Robert Kondo, and me. The above image is of one of a handful of pieces I created for the show. I’ve seen most of the other pieces and they all make my stuff look like chicken scratch, so you won’t be disappointed! Be sure to drop by the new Gallery Nucleus at 210 East Main Street in Alhambra, CA. The event will go from 7pm to 11pm, and I’ll be hanging out over there for a little while, so be sure to drop by and say hello! Here are some photos of Chris’s work-in-progress pieces. For more info, click here.

This weekend, on June 7th and 8th, is the MoCCA Art Festival. There will be plenty of Flight alumni at this show, and many of them will be debuting new projects! From Hope Larson’s new graphic novel, Chiggers, to the just-released Out of Picture 2 (which includes a story by Jake Parker), this is a show worth going to. Flight alumni in attendance includes (links will direct you to their tables and appearances):

Becky Cloonan
Bill Plympton
Ryan Sias
Scott C
Hope Larson
Jen Wang
Lark Pien
Kean Soo
Joey Weiser
JP Ahonen (all the way from Finland!)
Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier
and Jake Parker & the Out of Picture crew

Here’s a little post to help spread the word about the Olympia Comics Festival which will take place in Olympia, Washington this coming Saturday, June 7th.

Jim Woodring, Jeffrey Brown, and myself (Michel Gagné) are the three Guests of Honor at this year’s event.

I don’t know the schedule yet but what I do know, is that I’ll be on a panel with Jim Woodring and Katy O’Brien, discussing the art of silent comics. I’ll also be available to chat, and sign books and comics. Go to the official website for more info.

I’m running a sketchcrawl this year in Annecy during the Animation festival (June 12th) along with Flight fellow artist Dik Pose who’ll be attending the festival as well.
Here’s the flyer for the event, be sure to spread it as much as you like and warn your friends who might be coming to the festival. And if you’re coming, be sure to take your thursday afternoon off !

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Opening this Tuesday, May 20th at Gallery 1988 is the “One To Grow On” show featuring artwork by 13 artists including Scott Campbell, Dan Santat, and Israel Sanchez. The theme of the show is artwork inspired by the artist’s childhoods. Check out a preview of some of Israel’s work at his blog. The show opens at 7PM, come check it out!

Now that the dust seems to have settled on the draw yourself as a teen meme, it might be worth pointing out some of the Flight kids who got in on the action, comparing their teen selves with their present-day appearance:

Clio Chiang
Vera Brosgol
Dik Pose
Raina Telgemeier
Joel Carroll
Dylan Meconis
Tony Cliff
Jake Parker
John Martz (who has a story in the forthcoming Flight 5, and is pictured above)

If you want to see more (over 350 more!), do check out the full list of participants here.

For all you Battlestar Galactica fans out there, Dylan Meconis is back at it again, drawing everyone’s favourite Cylons in the Simpsons style. Spoilers beware!

Hey folks, Michel Gagne here. I just wanted to let everyone know about my new book.

For years, I’ve been thinking of reprinting the long sold out, Frenzied Fauna: From A to Z. My vision for a new edition was always to package it with its companion, Freaky Flora: From A to Z, in one single volume.

The wait is finally over. Lo and behold: Frenzied Fauna and Freaky Flora!

Read my original post about the book on Gagne International’s official website!