A couple of days ago I got an email from a librarian in New Jersey named Julie. Julie had some good news! The library’s Teen Gay Straight Book Club (Ocean County Library, Toms River Branch, by the way) had voted SKIM as “Most Awesome Book” in a recent awards ceremony and could she send me and Mariko certificates?

Um. YES!!

I received the lovely package yesterday. I don’t think anything else this week will top it. Thanks Ocean County library! Thank-you, book club teens! And thank-you Julie and all the librarians. Yours is important work and we authors love you.

I received a copy of the finished book! Here are some pictures for you. Amazon says the book is coming out Oct 4, but as you can see, I’ve already spotted it in the wild:

Thanks to Christopher Moisan, Jessica Abel, Matt Madden, and Alison Bechdel.

I’m reading a really great book now, called Galore, by Michael Crummey. It’s a folkloric story that takes place in Newfoundland. Listen, I don’t usually do extracurricular book illustrations, but I love mythological settings with rituals and witches and bad teeth…

OH! And speaking of Newfoundland, if you’re in Toronto you must see the David Blackwood exhibit at the AGO. Even ol’ Skeptical Sam was blown away.

(In case you’re interested: from Publisher’s Weekly: Starred Review. Crummey (River Thieves) returns readers to historic Newfoundland in his mythic and gorgeous latest, set over the course of a century in the life of a hardscrabble fishing community. After a lean early-19th-century winter, a whale beaches itself and everyone in town gathers to help with the slaughter. But when a woman known only as Devine’s Widow—when she’s not called an outright witch—cuts into the belly, the body of an albino man slides out. He eventually revives, turns out to be a mute, and is dubbed Judah by the locals. Judah’s mystery—is his appearance responsible for the great fishing season that follows?—is only one among many in this wild place, where the people are afflicted by ghosts and curses as much as cold and hunger. Crummey’s survey eventually telescopes to the early 20th century, when Judah’s pale great-grandson, Abel, sequesters himself amid medical debris in an old hospital where his opera singer cousin, Esther Newman, has returned and resolved to drink herself to death. But before she does so, she shares with him the family history he never knew. Crummey lovingly carves out the privation and inner intricacies that mark his characters’ lives with folkloric embellishments and the precision of the finest scrimshaw. (Apr.) )

Skim will soon be available in another language. So far we’re up to French, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch… Italian and Portuguese are to come! The publisher is of the Dutch editionSherpa and they’ll be be shuttling us around Holland and Belgium in a little under two weeks!

Here is a list of events:

Tues, Nov 2
5: Presentation and Press Release, Lambiek (Amsterdam, Holland)

Wed, Nov 3
Lecture/Workshop, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam. (closed to public.)
4-6: Signing, Stripwinkel SJORS bookshop (Dordrecht, Holland)

Thurs, Nov 4
3-5.30: Signing, De Stripkever (Mechelen, Belgium)

Fri, Nov 5
12-2: Signing, Het B-Gevaar (Brussels, Belgium)
4-6: Signing, Het Besloten Land (Leuven, Belgium)

Sat, Nov 6
11-4: Launch and Signings, Stripkunstbeurs/Comic Art Show (Utrecht, Brussels)

(If you’re an illustrator and have no interest in comics at all, please also come say hi! I will not pressure sell to you!)

For Oprah Magazine.
AD Jaspal Riyait.

A few programming notes:

♬ I was recently interviewed for Canadian Art magazine on the topic of comics. Nice little intro piece that presents the possibilities of the medium. Canadian Art is a great magazine, by the way. ‘Had a subscription for many years.

♪ Next weekend I will be at the Brooklyn Book Festival, signing Indoor Voice ( D&Q booth 1.30-3.30PM) and participating on a panel. So if you’re in NYC and not at SPX, come say hi.

Comics and Form: Is the Medium Still the Message? Do comics change when they are released from their traditional print medium? And how? Creators, publishers and developers will combine to discuss the expanding boundaries of the comics format. Robert Berry (Ulysses Seen), Ben Katchor (Julius Knipl: Real Estate Photographer), Jillian Tamaki (Skim). Moderated by Columbia University librarian Karen Green. 4:00, NORTH STAGE.

Festival Address:
BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL
209 JORALEMON STREET
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11201

♫ School is starting soon! I’m teaching Sophomore Drawing for Illustrators at SVA this year. Sharpen those pencils!

Just-released art for a YA book for Penguin/Viking: AKATA WITCH, by Nnedi Okorafor (April 2011). The story deals with an albino American-Nigerian girl who discovers a magical realm…

AD Jim Hoover.

INDOOR VOICE! It’s here! A box came today!

It never gets old opening a box of your own books.

So it should be trickling into stores soon (or order online here). Let me tell you about the book:

I consider Indoor Voice to be a companion piece to the book I did in 2006, Gilded Lilies. It is not a narrative story (like Skim), but rather a collection of short comics, sketchbook stuff, etc. It’s inspired, in fact, by the spirit of this very blog. (There are some “reprints” of blog material, but much of it is new.) It can be hard to sum up a book like this, but I had some practice talking about it at Comic-con: I think this book is a snapshot of a year or two in a creative life and is probably best enjoyed by others who live or aspire to a creative life as well.

Making “art” (in the loosest, purest sense of word) for a living is tough. I see students, often in the 2nd semester of 4th year, come to a sinking realization that Illustration is sometimes not fun at all. It’s work. Work that is sometimes boring, frustrating, by-committee, and maddeningly collaborative. Some people are great at viewing illustration as just a profession, a job, filling a need, rendering a service. No problem with that at all. Part of me views it that way too (it’s part of “being a professional”). But I do sincerely believe that without personal work and comics, I might go nuts. For the most part, there is little Sense of Play in commercial illustration (there are a few glorious exceptions to this rule). And the Sense of Play is really what nourishes creativity and, ultimately, good work (paid or otherwise). Sometimes, I think, it’s actually more important than rigorous practice.

So. Here you go. A little glimpse into Play.

Hello,

Here’s a picture of old-timey Catwoman I did at the request of the Doug Wright Awards.  When Brad MacKay, Chester Brown, and Seth ask you to do something, YOU DO IT. It will be auctioned off to benefit the Awards next month. I will mention it again closer to the date. The Doug Wright Awards have been so supportive of my career, so it’s the least I can do.

My D&Q Petit-Livre Indoor Voice, has NOT been released yet, as is proclaimed on Amazon. I will let you know when it is.

I had my final meeting with my SVA MFA Thesis Student, Anat Even Or, today. You can see her final project in the “Comics” section of her website. But really, someone should put it out as a book. Viewing it online doesn’t do it justice.

Such a melancholy and exciting time for students, this time of year. Especially seniors. Us teachers wish you only the best as we kick you out of the nest. If you’ve worked hard and made the most of yourself and your time, you’re ready. I saw two former students on the same day last week and I was unnaturally happy for the rest of the day. I really do grow attached to them!

Hopefully, wherever you are, there are cherry blossoms.

So my blog moved a few days ago and that was slightly traumatic.

But I think it’s gonna be okay.

As a THANK-YOU to those of you who changed your RSS feeds and such, I am doing a little giveaway contest.

Today, April 1, Hiromi Goto’s book Half World was released in the US by Viking/Penguin books. I did the illustrations (cover and interiors). I have to read a lot of stuff for my job, and I don’t enjoy a lot of it. I really enjoyed this.

SO! I have a TWO promo packages to give away: a copy of Half World, a softcover copy of Skim, plus a copy of the Newsprint Pencil Factory poster promo, plus some postcards.

What would one have to do to receive such a magical prize? Simple. Just “Like” this post in Google Reader. Here’s how:

I’ll randomly choose two winners and post the results here tomorrow.

Thanks again!

P.S. Make sure you’re not “Anonymous”… not that you need your real name obviously. Just something to identify yourself.

The softcover version of Skim is now available. I believe the cover price is $12.95 US.