Fan Con!

So the bad news is that after attending San Diego Comic Con for 15 years in a row, I won't be this year. The good news is that it means I'll be at the Arlington Heights Library Fan Con this Saturday, July 14! I'll be doing a drawing Q & A session, workshop, and signing books. I also got to design their attendee badge, for which I did a bunch of sketches. Which one did they choose to have me finish for the badge? You'll have to come to Fan Con to find out! Or if you can't come to Fan Con and still want to know I guess you can pester me next week until I post a picture of how the badge turned out...

Darth Vader and Friends!

Darth Vader and Friends will be out later this month, and if you pre-order now from Chronicle Books, you can get this free tote bag. I'll also be making some appearances starting this month. First up, I'll be at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, with a panel on the University stage at 12:30pm on Friday (4/17) followed by a signing at Mysterious Galaxy (Booth #960) from 2-2:45pm. Then back in Chicago the following Friday (4/24), I'll be at C2E2, signing at Autographing Table #17 from 12-1pm. I'll also have a few of my Process Packs available for sale at C2E2, at the Scott Eder Gallery (booth 1760), which will also have other art of mine available for sale. The following night you can head to the CAKE BAKE fundraiser and bid on some of my hand-drawn trading cards. Finally, today is CCS shout out day - so go learn more about The Center For Cartoon Studies, where I'll be giving the commencement address in May.

UPDATE! Now with corrected times!

Saturday (4/18) at Celebration at 11am(PST), I'll be doing a short drawing demo at the starwars.com Cantina booth, which will also stream live on their site. And from 2-2:45pm, I'll be signing again at the Mysterious Galaxy booth.

San Diego Comic-Con!

Here's my annual San Diego Comic-Con schedule! Goodnight Darth Vader will be making its debut, as well as the first copies of Jedi Academy 2. Goodnight Darth Vader comes out next Tuesday, but I'll be signing copies at the Old Orchard Barnes & Noble on Saturday at 2pm. On Tuesday, I'll be doing a Goodreads author Q&A from 10am to 3pm CT.

UK tour begins this weekend

I'm really excited to head to England later this week for the Thought Bubble Comics Festival in Leeds, as well as signings in Manchester and York, plus a slew of London events. The Orbital Comics event on November 30 will be followed by a signing and times may change on that, so stay tuned with Orbital for details.

San Diego Comic-Con!

Next week is San Diego Comic-Con, and as usual you'll find me at the Top Shelf booth (#1721) most of the time. Below is my schedule of where you'll find me when, except for one late addition - Sunday morning from 10am to 11am, I'll be at the Kids: Comics In Action panel in Room 7AB.

Vader's little princess

Just a few weeks now before Vader's little princess is out, just in time for C2E2, where I'll be taking time out from my busy schedule to sign copies. Look for me at the Top Shelf booth from 12 to 4 on Friday, 2 to 6 on Saturday, and Sunday 12 to 3. I'll be participating on two panels Saturday - at 12:45PM and at 7PM. If you can make it to either of those, you'll have a chance to snag a special advance reader's copy of another Star Wars book I have coming out later this year...

San Diego Comic-Con

San Diego Comic-Con is this week and as usual I'll be spending most of my time signing at the Top Shelf booth (#1721). I'll have a small amount of artwork and hand-drawn trading cards for sale, and you'll be able to find more original art at the Scott Eder Gallery (booth #4515). On Friday I'll be doing a Star Wars panel along with pop-up book author Matthew Reinhart, and Saturday morning I'll be doing a panel for Save The Date. Alison Brie, Lizzy Caplan and Martin Starr will be at the panel, and you'll be able to pick up a copy of my "Save The Movie" minicomic as well (you can also check the Top Shelf booth for the mini while supplies last).

Heroescon

This weekend I'll be back at the always fun Heroescon in Charlotte. Here's a drawing I did a few years back for Heroescon's Indie Island.

Chicago Comic Con

Tomorrow morning I'll be taking the train out to Chicago Comic Con (formerly WizardWorld). Top Shelf won't be exhibiting this year, so I'll be at table #3006 with Change-Bots 1 and 2, Clumsy, Process and Oscar mini-comics, hand drawn trading cards and a few other odds and ends.

San Diego Comic-Con

Once again I'll be at San Diego Comic-con this year. Most of the time you'll find me at the Top Shelf booth #1721, where I'll also post my schedule of where I'll be when. I might forget unless you ask, but I'll have these free sketch cards courtesy of Things From Another World to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I'll complete the sketch card with the head of your least favorite Change-Bot, or you can head to the Threadless/CBLDF party on Thursday night and bid on the completed original art I made for the card, featuring the beheaded Balls.

One Hour Minicomic Challenge

At the Chicago Zinefest this past Saturday, I held a one hour minicomic challenge. The idea was that in the hour I had, I would come up with the idea for the comic, write it, draw it, and make copies that I would fold and staple and give to everyone there. I called it a challenge because I wasn't sure I could do it, especially since I was also going to be talking to the audience about my process as I worked and answer questions. I had already quartered and numbered the pages in non-photo blue pencil to save a little bit of time. First thing was to have them throw out suggestions of what the comic should be about. The first idea thrown out was sloth, and after a few more ideas were suggested I decided I'd go with sloth, making the snap decision to not waste time. My first thought was about the giant sloth skeleton at the field museum, and then I remembered in sixth grade when I got to be a junior zookeeper for a week, and one day got to go into the sloth exhibit. So I brainstormed another handful of stories from that week as a junior zookeeper to fill up the minicomic, since all that happened with the sloth was that he hooked his claw onto the zookeeper's shirt. I guess I could've just made that one story 8 pages and just have the sloth move really slow, but that would be kind of boring and felt like a cheap trick. Anyway, I managed to draw the comic in the hour, just finishing the last page as time ran out. The Zinefest took the pages and ran off to make copies, while everyone who had attended wrote their names down so they could pick a copy up from me later, after I'd folded and stapled them at my table. There were over fifty people there, and I feel like it was pretty successful. I don't know if it'd have been harder or easier to just make up a fictional/fantasy sloth comic, but it worked out well to make this one autobiographical. Incidentally, there were three people who didn't pick up their copies, so they can email me to see about getting their copy.

Zinefest!

It's a busy couple days starting tomorrow. Close on the heels of my interview at Gaper's Block, I'll be on air for Tony Breed's morning radio show on CHIRP between 8 and 9 am central. This is all in advance of this weekend's Chicago Zinefest. Tomorrow night I'll be reading at 826CHI as part of the exhibitor readings sometime between 630 and 830. And then in addition to having copies of Process and Oscarfor sale at my table on Saturday, I'll be doing a special workshop: The One Hour Minicomic Challenge, where I'll attempt to complete an 8 page mini from idea to printed/folded/stapled in one hour, while I answer questions and talk to the attendees.

Change-Bots 2 at C2E2

This weekend I'll be at McCormick Place for C2E2, where Top Shelf (booth #810) will debut Incredible Change-Bots Two. I recently finished "Bew! Bew! Bew!", the 15"x21"(apx.) Change-Bots battle drawing I've been working on for the Change-Bots Two art show at Scott Eder Gallery in May, so stop by Scott's booth (#728) to check it out (as well as a spectacular collection of other artists' work). I'll also have a few copies of the letterpress Oscar minicomic, some of which was on display at the MCA Chicago's "New Chicago Comics" exhibition earlier this year, as well as Change-Bots Fan Club Memberships, the Process minicomic, and hand-drawn trading cards.
If you're in San Francisco instead of Chicago, head over to Giant Robot for their Game Over 4 art show to see my Balls Patrol.

Process

This weekend I'll be at Indy Euphoria in Sacramento. I'll have my first new minicomic in four or five years, called Process, basically about my working methods, and each copy will come packaged with a selection of notes, sketches, scripts and other evidence of process, so unfortunately quantities will be pretty limited, but hopefully worthwhile...

Bighead Vs

Next week is San Diego Comicon, and one of the things you'll be able to find (while supplies last, anyway) is a free giveaway sketch card where I'll finish the drawing, sponsored by the online store Things From Another World. My card features Bighead with space left to draw a villain. With the original art, I went ahead and drew a villain and colored the piece, which will be auctioned off for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Gracias, España

Although I took seven years of Spanish back in high school, I didn't take any more classes in Spanish after my freshman year of college, so naturally it was all very little help at the Barcelona International Comicon. Fortunately, most of the people at the festival spoke some English. In fact, a lot of Europeans seem to speak several languages, whatever that may say about myself, the American education system, or the geographic proximity of a wide variety of languages there. In any case, the Festival also had translators on hand to help out with some of the interviews and panels. It's kind of fascinating to watch - they would repeat the question to me in English, then as I answered they would write out notes and symbols before repeating my answer back in Spanish to the questioner. I felt by the last interview some of my Spanish was coming back to me, but not nearly enough that I didn't need the help. This is a page one of my translators made for my answer to the question, 'What are you working on next?'

Thanks to David Macho and everyone else who worked so hard for the festival, to Montserrat and José at La Cupula, and to all the other guests and artists I had a chance to meet and talk with, for making it a great experience.

Tack till Stockholm

A huge thank you to everyone that helped me out while I was in Sweden, especially Johannes Klenell, Mats Jonsson, and Fredrik Stromberg... there's a lot more to add to that list, but despite feeling much less jetlagged back home today than when I arrived over there, my brain is still a little mushy. If you'd like to see what my mushy brain looked like in Sweden, you can watch this interview I did the day I arrived.
I came home with a ton of great books, most of which I can't read. Fortunately Top Shelf will be putting out translations of several of these books next year, including Mats Jonsson's "Hey Princess" and Kolbeinn Karlsson's "Trollkungen". In the meantime, you'll already be able to read Niklas Asker's Second Thoughts in English.

STAPLE!

Later today I'll be flying to Austin for Staple!, the independent media expo. Up until a couple years ago, I would try to have a new minicomic to bring to conventions, but it's been a while since I've made one. I keep making plans to make one, but that's as close as I've gotten.