Jake Parker has done a study of the internal structures of Lightning McQueen from the Pixar movie Cars. It’s pretty awesome.

Here’s a preview of what you’ll find in Flight 5. The book comes out this week, and we’ll have 600 copies on hand at the Comic-Con. You can also pre-order the book on Amazon if you’re too far from a comic book retailer. Be sure to drop by the booth (#1228) and say hello to the Flight artists, most of whom will be signing all week. We’ll again be joined by Gallery Nucleus and Out of Picture, so you’ll be sure to find plenty of cool new stuff to pick up, like the beautiful Out of Picture 2!

San Diego Comic-Con is almost here! July 23-27! For the first time since Volume 1 (all the way back in 2004), Flight 5 will be making its debut at the convention, so make sure you swing by the Flight booth and check it out.

Some of the artists that will be appearing at the show, and where they can be found are:

Flight Comics (booth #1228)
- JP Ahonen
- Bannister
- Scott C
- Tony Cliff
- Phil Craven
- Michel Gagné (signing on Saturday at 1-3 PM)
- Amy Kim Ganter
- Rodolphe Guenoden
- Steve Hamaker
- Kazu Kibuishi
- Reagan Lodge
- Johane Matte
- Kean Soo

The Those Guys (booth #1033)
- Dik Pose
- Justin Ridge
- Israel Sanchez

Douglas R. TenNapel, Inc. (booth #1031)
- Doug TenNapel

Dumbrella (booth #1335)
- Scott McCloud (signing on Friday at 3 PM)

Oni Press (booth #1834)
- Chuck BB

Image Comics (booth #2729)
- Becky Cloonan
- Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá
- Hope Larson (signing on Friday at 12-1 PM and on Saturday at 1-2 PM; see link for full signing schedule)

Biocreep (small press table #G2)
- Pascal Campion

Little Bird Books (small press table #P1)
- Lark Pien

Comics Bakery (small press table #P2)
- Dave Roman
- Raina Telgemeier

…and I’m certain I’ve left out some people! Updates to come as more information becomes available.

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.