Jeff Smith has just unveiled his next project: Rasl. He will have a six-page preview of the comic at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Exciting!
Some book and comic stores also have The Art of Bone already in stock, and it’s a marvelous looking book, with a ton of rare comics and art. Well worth checking out.
Go check out Hope Larson’s Kiss Book that was making the rounds at this year’s MoCCA art festival! With each page drawn by a different artist, it sort of meanders away from being a ‘true’ Kiss Book as it goes along, but it sure is fun nonetheless.
(also, go check out the sweet skate deck Hope painted to benefit the Halifax Skatepark Coalition.)
I’m not going to lie. I am SO looking forward to this book. From Becky Cloonan’s blog:
At San Diego Comic Con 2007 we will be unveiling our new masterpiece titled, simply, 5. This comic was forged by Brazilian giants Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba and Rafael “Sweet Jesus” Grampa, the Grecian ink acwarrior Vasilis Lolos, and me, comin’ straight outta Brooklyn (god it’s so good to be back)!
It’s a [modestly] sized book, each of us has seven pages of comics with Grampa on title pages, but it’s brimming with our love for comics.
If you need one excuse to go to the San Diego Comic Con this year, this could be it.
New York Magazine is hosting a week-long preview of Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm’s latest comic, Good as Lily. Published by DC’s Minx imprint, Good as Lily is set to be released on August 15th. Derek also has a sneak preview of his own on his website, featuring a look at the cover design (pictured above), and some background on the book itself:
What if your biggest competition was…yourself? Following a strange mishap on her 18th birthday, Grace Kwon is confronted with herself at three different periods in her life. The timing couldn’t be worse as Grace and her friends desperately try to save a crumbling school play. Will her other selves wreak havoc on her present life or illuminate her uncertain future?
It’s always exciting when Derek brings something new into the world!
For those of you in the Portland OR area, there will be a panel discussion on the Graphic Novel on June 27th. From Dylan Meconis’ Livejournal:
this Wednesday brings Scott McCloud (he of Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics) and his lovely family to town, and the Multnomah County Public Library, with the prodding of one Sara Ryan, is having a panel of some of us local geeks in to talk about, what else? comics.
I am among an otherwise formidable line-up which includes Scott, Jenn Manley Lee, fellow Periscope artist Colleen Coover, and (surprise guest!) Gail Simone, all of us being corralled by culture critic extraordinaire Douglas Wolk (whose book, incidentally, is coming out the same day as mine).
Admission is free for the public, and the panel is going to be held on Wednesday, June 27, 6–7:30 p.m at the Central Library, U.S. Bank Room (801 S.W. 10th Ave., Portland OR).
Scott McCloud will also be holding various lectures and workshops for the remainder of the week while he is in Portland, and you can get more information on registering or purchasing tickets from his tour page (see the left-hand column for the appropriate links).
Just a reminder that the MoCCA Art Festival in New York is being held this weekend, from the 23rd to the 24th. Guests include Matt Forsythe, Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, Hope Larson, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Andy Runton, the Dumbrella and Out of Picture gangs… and so many more! Many of them will be debuting new collections and minicomics at this show as well, so don’t miss it, it’s going to be a blast.
Finding Wonderland: The WritingYA Weblog has posted an interview with Kazu Kibuishi, covering everything from his webcomic work through to the forthcoming Flight Explorer and Amulet graphic novels.
(also: check out Finding Wonderland’s interview with Gene Yang, if you have a few extra minutes to spare.)
Back in December, McSweeney’s distributor filed for bankruptcy, and the result has left McSweeney’s in a bit of a financial crunch. So right now they’re holding an inventory sell-off and rare-item auction, which is excellent news for us!
Their inventory sale includes things like McSweeney’s Issue 13 (aka the Comics Issue guest-edited by Chris Ware), Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things… (“A collection of stories for wise young people and immature old people,” featuring stories by such authors as Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby and Lemony Snicket), and back issues of the Believer (mentioned previously on this blog) and Wholphin (a quarterly DVD magazine featuring short works by the likes of Spike Jonze, David O. Russell and Steven Soderbergh, just to name a few).
Their rare-item auction features original art by Chris Ware (including an original page from Jimmy Corrigan), Tony Millionaire, Jeffrey Brown, Marcel Dzama, and a ton of other unique and rare things up for sale.
For more information about what’s going on with McSweeney’s, go read their original post, visit their store, or check out their auction and lend them a helping hand.
Here’s another reason why you’ll want to go to the MoCCA art festival in New York on June 23rd and 24th: Life Meter Volume 2 is making its debut there!
The brainchild of Zack Giallongo, Stephanie Yue and Dave Roman, Life Meter Volume 2 is an anthology of video game- inspired comics, featuring stories and art by Bannister (who returns for yet another gorgeous cover), Joel Carroll, Raina Telgemeier, Steve Hamaker, Jake Parker, Jeffrey Rowland, Queenie Chan, and many, many more.
And if that’s not enough, all proceeds from the 100+ page anthology will be donated to Child’s Play, a charitable organization that holds an annual toy drive for children’s hospitals. The first Life Meter collection sold out at MoCCA last year, so you’ll definitely want to grab this if you can!
For more information about the book and for the full line-up of artists, visit the Life Meter community.
Hi. This coming Tuesday the 19th I’ll be showing some new paintings at the “Packed and Loaded” show opening at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles from 7 to 10pm. The show will include work by eight artists in total and will run through July 13th. Come check it out.
Amy Kim Ganter‘s Sorcerers & Secretaries 2 hits bookstores today! The story concludes with this volume — will Nicole finally get with Josh? What will become of Ellon? Is Riley really an irredeemable jerk? Personally, I can’t wait to find out.
Preview the first two chapters of Sorcerers & Secretaries 2 at Amy’s website, or order your copy from Amazon.com.
The Oni Press website has a huge preview of Black Metal, one of their forthcoming graphic novels. Written by Rick Spears (Pirates of Coney Island) and gorgeously illustrated in black and white by Chuck BB (Flight 3), this 160-page book is set to be released in August of this year. From the Oni website:
Black Metal is the story of Sam and Shawn, misunderstood twins with a mysterious lineage and a penchant for the darkest metal. Though daily plagued by the rituals of the normal; school, shopping trips to the mall, and little brothers, the boys endeavor to stay true to the blackness in their souls. When they acquire the new Frost Axe album, their true destiny is revealed: they are the Roth incarnate.
Empowered by the legendary sword of Atoll, these kids are determined to thrash and wail on however many demons they have to in order to fulfill the ancient prophecy and regain their rightful position as Hell Baron of the Pit. Loud, fast and heavy like the music it is inspired by, Black Metal ties into the youth culture that has grown up around this ferocious sound. Then infused with a shot of ancient myth and a healthy dose of high adventure, it rises to the level of a truly epic tale.
Awesome. Go check out the preview now.
A few more quick links:
Ever wonder what Art Spiegelman has been up to lately? Well, for the past couple of years over at the Virginia Quarterly Review, Spiegelman has been serializing his latest comix, Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@?*!, a memoir of his own artistic development, and it looks great. An excerpt:
The full comix are only available in the print editions of the Virginia Quarterly Review, but you can view some excerpts from Spiegelman’s work at the VQR website, here, here and here.
The ANGST of being a teen — the THRILL of being a boat!
All right!! Dave Roman and John Green‘s amazing (and award- winning) series, Teen Boat!, will be returning in an all-new 7th issue that will debut at the MoCCA art festival in New York on June 23rd. They are celebrating the impending release of this new issue by serializing the first three issues online over the next couple of weeks!
In case you need a primer on what this series is all about, it’s about a teen. Who can turn into a boat. Seriously, what more do you need to know? Go read it right now!