Thaw Thoughts

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Smoke Signal #4 + Other Stuff

Hi All,

Dirty Mike has been published in Desert Island's Smoke Signal zine. Thanks, Gabe!

It's available in-store (540 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn) and online.

OTHER NEWS!

♪ I will be at San Diego Comic-con.

♪ I will be on a panel at MoCCA.

♪ Skim will appear in my foreign translations! Edicoes SM (Brazil) will publish the book in Portugese and Uitgeverij Sherpa (Holland) will translate to Dutch. NICE!

♪ I'm attending this year's ICON event in Los Angeles, where I will eat many, many burritos.

Dinner

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Skim in Softcover

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

THURSDAY! Brooklyn Public Library Event (1/28)

Slo-Mo Pathos

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It irritates me to no end that I can barely remember my PIN number sometimes and yet can pull up (multiple!) television advertising conventions from the mid-80s.

P.S. I am not insane.

It's 2010.

Hi! I hope you had a good holiday. I hope you HAD a holiday. Or at least a few days off from wherever you toil.

What will 2010 bring? 2009 was a little scary, to be honest. Worked dried up for most of the illustrators that I know. I especially noticed a lag in the summer. It seems to have bounced back, but who can tell? Illustration DID die over 60 years ago, so.

-I have a small book coming out this year. It's true! Indoor Voice will be published by Drawn and Quarterly (dates forthcoming). I consider it a bit of a blog extension or companion to Gilded Lilies (2006). A compilation of things. You will hear more about it later! And yes, I am working on getting a longer, narrative work going. Fingers crossed.

-Skim goes on. Foreign translations are forthcoming in Portuguese and Dutch. Nutso...

-Speaking of! Right-wingers officially hate Skim! Read about it here!

-I'm teaching the 2nd semester of the Drawing for Cartoonists class at SVA. I will be switching to the Illustration department in the Fall.

-I am speaking with Gabrielle Bell and Jessica Abel later this month at the Brooklyn Public Library. Just a tiny thing on Brooklyn comickers. Deets: Jan 28, 7pm, Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Dweck Centre (lower level).

-Half World, the totally awesome book by Hiromi Goto, will be released April 1 in the US (Viking/Penguin). I did the illustrations for it. The book is already available in Canada.

That's all I can think of now. Bye!

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival

Come visit me at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival in Williamsburg this SATURDAY! I actually think this may be a hopping show! I have had many people mention to me they're going to go check it out (often citing that-YAY-it's free).

Festival program .pdf here.

I DO NOT HAVE A TABLE. I will only be signing, 1pm-2pm. The location has been listed "on the stage", so I suppose that will be apparent upon inspection. (I'm happy to sign books you bring from home too.)

Our Lady of Consolation Church
184 Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Harrison

Bird Brains

Baby's First Blurb

I blurbed. For some reason this seems blog-worthy.

I'm really happy D&Q is publishing gekiga (dramatic, serious comics, for lack of a more informed term). I was surprised to hear Yoshihiro Tasumi say that gekiga is not popular in Japan. It's nice to know it's found a following here. Red Snow is the latest venture.



And this is what I think of it.



What I REALLY want to see is a book of Yoshiharu Tsuge's, but apparently he doesn't let the stuff be translated/republished. Read about his work here, read "Screw-Style" via scans here (scroll down a bit).

Best American Comics 2009 Launch

featuring series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden and contributors Gary Panter, Michael Kupperman, Gabrielle Bell, Jillian Tamaki, David Sandlin, Ben Katchor

Thursday, October 22, 7–9PM
powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street (corner of Water & Main St)
DUMBO, Brooklyn

Come celebrate the release of this essential volume of the year’s best American comics at The powerHouse Arena. Series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden will join the authors for a discussion, readings, slide shows, signings and more.

Come say hi!

Babysat: Rachel

Cool Babysitter.
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Babysat: Mike

Bad babysittee.
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Babysat: Jessica

Bad Babysitter.
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Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival

I'm a guest at this! It's a little event organized by Desert Island and Picturebox. Guests include: Gary Panter, Jillian Tamaki, Charles Burns, Ben Katchor, Kim Deitch, Mark Newgarden, Michael Kupperman, Frank Santoro, Lauren Weinstein, Dash Shaw, Matthew Thurber, Jon Vermilyea, and Dina Kelberman.

Guys. GARY. PANTER.

Saturday December 5th 2009
Our Lady of Consolation Church
184 Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
free admission

Car Alarm

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Best American Comics 2009

SKIM has been included in this year's Best American Comics anthology. Thanks Jessica Abel, Matt Madden and guest editor Charles Burns. Wow–a huge honor to be asked to contribute.

More info, including a list of other contributors, is here.

FLARE Magazine

Bigtime LOLs, guys. Mariko and I have been named by FLARE Magazine ("Canada's Fashion Authority") as one of 30 Noteworthy Women in their special 30th Anniversary issue. I think we *may* have been counted as one woman. Therefore we may technically be 1/2 a noteworthy woman each. Sounds about right.

The list includes Coco Rocha, Ellen Page, and Anna Paquin. Okay!




Artsy Duo: Chances are you have seen the work of Calgary-born Illustrator Jillian Tamaki gracing the pages of the New York Times, The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly or the National Post. Most recently, the 29-year-old talent teamed up with her 33-year-old cousin, Toronto writer Mariko Tamaki to create the teen-angst-filled graphic novel SKIM.

Good Genes: Keep an eye out for Mariko's next masterpiece, tentatively titled Freshman 15.

On Canadian beauty: "We are like a forest dew on a beech-bark canoe," says Jillian.

On Canadian etiquette: "At times, we're a rude bunch and many of us need to learn how to use a turn signal but, overall, we're pretty amazing people," says Mariko.

In Other News

Skim has been translated to JAPANESE. Whoo! As you can see, a lot has changed about the book, including the title. You can order it from amazon.co.jp.

This is really nuts. Two Japanese-Canadian ladies, whose family has been in Canada for over 100 years, release a book about a suburban Japanese-Canadian girl living what I consider a quintessential suburban Canadian life and is now speaking Japanese. The world is very big but also very small.



In other news, I've picked up a class at SVA this semester, pinch hitting for an instructor on mat leave (congrats, Lauren!). Sophomore Drawing for Cartoonists. There is still room in the class if you are interested. You will have to contact the dept directly.

(photos courtesy Mariko Tamaki)

Instuds Interview!

Had a really fun interview with Robin from Inkstuds yesterday. Topics covered: ethnics, raccoon-dog balls, computers, the aging process. Oh! And Comics!

Thanks Robin!

Listen Here.

Stuff

Unfortunately I will not be at Comic-con this weekend! Boooo. But have a great time if you are! And if you're a girl, I'll trust you'll be spending your time doing better things than merely drooling over Jake Gyllenhhaaaayyll. Wish us luck at the Eisners!

Skim has just been released in the UK. It was recently reviewed in the Irish Times.

Above, a panel from the Japanese ed of Skim. I looked at the proofs today!

Lastly, randomly, Lena Sjöberg's blog leads me to believe that things are better in Sweden.

Bad Mood

In the Closet

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The Good and the Bad

The Good: Skim has been nommed for a Harvey Award! "Best Original Graphic Album". Nice!

The Bad: after 4+ years, I will not be doing the weekly quiz at cbc.ca/arts anymore. Welcome to the new economy, kids. I would be remiss to not thank both Greig Dymond and Andre Mayer who gave me the extraordinary opportunity to be a part of the site. They were truly excellent to work with and let me experiment and try new things (to varying levels of success). Clients like that are rare.

Above, the last quiz. Test your Canadian Pop Culture 2009.

Away to Florida

A programming note:

I will be going away to Florida tomorrow and won't be back for a week and a bit. The reason? A self-imposed comics seclusion (with a little break to impart some "knowledge" at the Illustration Academy).

I might type stuff from down there. We'll see what the situation is. Hopefully I will have lots to share when I get back?

Skim Twitter Contest

A non-Skim picture to go with Skim news.

cbcradio: A @cbcbookclub contest for Twitterers only! Send yr high school memories to be entered to win a signed copy of Skim! Use #highskim hastag. Read others' stories. They're like teen-haikus.

Replay the Skim livechat, which was conducted last week.

Newsflashes

Three tiny bits of news:

1. Mariko and I are LIVECHATTING today, Thursday, June 11, for the CBC Canada Reads Book Club. The time is 2 pm ET. Here is where it'll be taking place; you can sign up for an email reminder too. I think the discussion will be Skim focussed, but if you would like to ask an illustration-y or other random question, give it a shot.

2. I won a Canadian National Magazine Award for my work in the Walrus! Specifically for this guy, "The Lynching of Louie Sam". Thank you again and again to Brian Morgan who sends these assignments my way. The Walrus is a rare, dream client that provides interesting material AND lets illustrators run a little wild.



3. I will not be teaching next semester at Parsons... need to take a little break and work on my own stuff for a while.

CBC Book Club

I briefly mentioned this before, but Skim is the CBC Canada Reads Book Club pick of the month for June. You can follow all the proceedings here. Thank you to Hannah Sung and Rosie Fernandez for the month-long shout out!

Cool things: a little audio archive of our CBC appearances (and, likely, more interesting conversations with other graphic novelists), and a Live Chat on this Thursday (2EST).

Back!

We are back from Skim Tour España 2009.

Thank-you to Ediciones La Cúpula, our Spanish publisher, for doing a great job on the production and promotion of the book. I assure you, Barcelona citizens will be quite sick of us in the next month or so when our newspaper interviews/tv/radio spots come out, such was the blitz. A super special thank-you to Montserrat Terrones, who very graciously toured us around the city. I shall miss the coffee but not the omnipresent cigarette smoke.



The Salón del Cómic de Barcelona was good but very different from North American comics festivals (at least the ones that I've been to). I was surprised to see alternative comics freely mixing with erotica, manga (LOTS of manga), cosplayers, and children's fare. And videogames and fantasy stuff and knick-knacks. And drinking.

I met lots of nice people, including some fellow illustrators! I will say, however, that I was not terribly happy about some of the signing culture over there. I got the feeling there was a bit of a sense of entitlement amongst some of the fair attendees... that simply because you are sitting there with a pen you can be asked to draw pictures in sketchbooks and loose paper. Many of the people who asked for drawings didn't even know who I was. I am more than happy to spend some time creating a nice picture in a book or for an illustration fan that comes and visits me, but a random person who wants a "free drawing"? Very irritating.

Anyhow, enough griping. Back to work!

Payback

... for all those "Women In Comics" panels. 'Should be fun. Hope is IMPORTING cupcakes from North Carolina and the booze is free, so basically you'd be insane not to attend.

Barcelona, May 25-June 1

Mariko and I are off to Barcelona to promote the Spanish edition of Skim. Spanish readers, come say hello at the following events and signings:

May 27th: Signing, Continuarà Còmics (Bookstore), 7PM

May 28th: Lecture & Signing in FNAC Diagonal Mar (Bookstore), 7.30PM

May 29th: Signing, La Cúpula Booth - Barcelona Comics Festival, 5PM
Signing in FNAC Diagonal Triangle (Bookstore), 6.45PM

May 30th: Signing, La Cúpula Booth - Barcelona Comics Festival, 12-2PM/6-8PM

Thank-you, again, to the Canada Council who made this trip possible.

D.O.A.I.B.S.

Here's a really dumb TMI comic that won't make any sense to anyone who hasn't played Dead Or Alive: Beach Volleyball or doesn't know my friend "Debra Shipley".

I started this comic in 2006 after I just moved to New York from Edmonton, Canada. I was really missing my friends. Drew it out yesterday.

"When I Forgot" Book Review Illustration

Here's background on the Book Review illustration from last weekend.

What was cool about this project was the Art Director, Nicholas Blechman, was the one to actually suggest a comic format. It fit the bill perfectly, as I felt that the story couldn't easily summed up in a singular image. Nicholas is one of those Art Directors that I feel I learn something from every time I do a job with them.



I actually can't stand this next one... I always tell students to not send sketches they loathe...

The colour strategy for the final was icy cool blues with hits of "heat" and intensity.