Just a few weeks old, the “Dik’s Drawing Challenge” blog features sketches of some of pop culture’s favorite icons including Super Mario, The Predator, and Helen Keller. All of the drawings that will appear on the blog in the coming months were executed by Flight contributor Richard Pose in less than two hours. The subject of each drawing was called out to him by a group of friends, he then had to complete the sketch without any photo reference before the next subject was given. Pictured here is the first drawing, can you guess who it is?

Just what has Rad Sechrist been up to lately? Well, he’s got a graphic novel that’s set to be released this March — an adaptation of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer! Written by Tim Mucci and illustrated in full colour by Rad, this is going to be one fantastic adaptation.

Preview pages of Tom Sawyer, or pre-order online.

Hickee #4 is available in comic book stores right now! It has new stories by Scott Campbell, Graham Annable, Joe White, Vamberto Maduro, and Nathan Stapley! Run and buy a copy right now with your hard-earned cash!

Newsarama chats with Kazu Kibuishi about the forthcoming Flight Explorer, and includes preview pages from the new anthology!

Kazu Kibuishi has linked to a couple of new previews of Amulet, his latest graphic novel:

- a 12-page preview at New York Magazine’s VULTURE blog
- an interview and preview pages over at Newsarama.

(also check out Kazu’s original post to get a glimpse of the new Flight Explorer!)

GhibliWorld.com sits down with Enrico Casarosa to talk with him about storyboarding for Pixar, his influence by — and meetings with — Miyazaki-san, as well as his own personal projects. It’s a great in-depth interview, definitely worth checking out.

Chris Butcher has the skinny on an upcoming speaking event in Toronto:

GRAPHICALLY SPEAKING 2008, with Kazu Kibuishi & Kean Soo
Tuesday February 5th @ 6:30pm
North York Central Library, Concourse Level
@ North York Subway Station
FREE

The two co-editors of the fantastic FLIGHT Anthologies, Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo will be in town to debut their brand new graphic novels AMULET and JELLABY. This event is part of the Toronto Public Library’s massive Keep Toronto Reading campaign, which is a big deal in the city of Toronto (February is usually declared “Keep Toronto Reading” Month by the mayor).

This will be a fun discussion, and it’ll definitely be geared towards an all-ages audience, so be sure to bring along the little ones. There will likely be a signing and possibly even refreshments after the talk. Chris will be moderating the discussion, and you can get the full details about the event over at his website.

And since it was mentioned in Chris’s post, it’s worth noting that the official release date of the Jellaby graphic novel will be on the same day as this event, February 5th! For the moment however, you can pre-order Jellaby through Amazon.com or through other fine online retailers.

Neil Babra has quietly completed illustrating his first graphic novel, and it’s a doozy: an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This 216 page graphic novel is set to hit bookstores on January 25 and, if you’re anything like me, this will be far too long of a wait.

You can pre-order a copy of the book online at Amazon.com.

Congratulations to Bannister and Nykko, whose first book, Les enfants d’ailleurs, has been nominated for this year’s « Essentiel Jeunesse » (“Essential Youth”) prize of the Angoulême International Comics Festival, a very high honour indeed! They are in some extremely good company, with some the best comics and cartoonists from around the world.

Find out more about the award and the nominees at the Angoulême Festival’s website. This year’s Festival is being held from the 24th to the 27th of January.

How to Survive Writing a Graphic Novel: some words of wisdom (and humour!) from Grady Klein.

These days, it seems like a large number of us have gone through the grueling process of finishing our own graphic novels, and I do have to say, Klein really has hit on some really important points. Definitely worth a read.

(via Drawn!)

Israel Sanchez here, the “Under The Influence: A Tribute To Stan Lee” show opens this Tuesday at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles. It will feature artist interpretations of many of the Marvel comic characters that Stan helped create over the years. Here’s my contribution to the show, “Meanwhile!”, check out a larger version and some preliminary sketches over at my blog. Hope to see you at the opening!