The Drawing Board

Comic-Con 2007!

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:47:45 GMT

San Diego's Comic-Con International is nigh! I will have no booth this year, but will appear regularly at the Oni Press booth, plus that of Death Jr.'s publisher, Backbone Entertainment, and Scholastic, to promote my Goosebumps book. My signing schedule is as follows.

Thursday
Oni Press: 1:30 – 2:50

Friday
Oni Press1:30 – 2:50

Saturday
Oni Press: 12:00 – 1:20
Scholastic: 3:00 – 4:00

Sunday
Oni Press:10:30 – 11:50

Check back for more times and additional info. See you there.

APE Tomorrow

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:00:27 GMT

Don't forget, folks, APE is tomorrow. I will be there, with new info on the next Courtney Crumrin project. If you're going to be there, please come by and get your books signed, and don't be shy to ask for a sketch. And while you're there, you might stop in and see my friend Karl Christian's panel all about his web series, Byron! See you there.

Cons -n- Stuff

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:56:43 GMT

Last weekend was Wondercon. I want to thank everyone who came by the Oni Press booth to say hello. For you local Bay Area residents that missed it, or didn't get by the Oni booth because you didn't know I was there, don't be disappointed. You can come see me next month at APE on the 21st and 22nd, and I'll happily fill you in on the details on my upcoming projects. APE is my favorite convention in the Bay Area, and well worth seeing. Plus, by buddy Karl Christian will be there as a guest of the show with his new Slave Labor book, Byron. You should check it out.

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 18:17:12 GMT

I know, I know, It's been way too long since I posted. Things have been very busy, what with two tours in France to promote Courtney Crumrin and Polly and the Pirates, plus all kinds of other distractions. Also, my 2007 schedule has been up in the air till now. What with everything, I somehow managed to fall months behind on Death Junior series 2, and I'm totally panicked about it. It's completely my fault. Backbone is screaming for my blood, and rightly so. But I'm in the home stretch now, and it's about time to announce my next few projects.

First of all, I'm going to appear at the New York Comic-Con on the 24th and 25th of February. Sorry for the short notice. If any of you folks are going to be at the convention, please come by and say hello. I'll be making an official announcement there, but here's the unofficial pre-announcement. This year will bring (drumroll, please) a NEW COURTNEY CRUMRIN BOOK!

Yes, it's true, the next chapter in the grand Courtney saga will come out starting in August. This time, it's going to come out a little different. Instead of four individual chapters, the forthcoming installment will appear in two perfect-bound 48 page editions; before being bound together into a single digest at the end of the year. The final collection will be the same charming mini-format as the first three, while the two issues will look more like the Portrait of the Warlock one-shot.

The format change has not been decided for sure, but this is what we're leaning toward. Also, while the schedule hasn't been set in stone yet, you can rely on the first issue making it in time for Comic-con International in San Diego. More info on this will appear here as it develops.

That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

PS: Check out my new Wikipedia entry. The pic is from the end of my recent trip to France, in the beautiful city of Tours. Do I look as tired as I felt?

Website Update

Wed, 31 May 2006 00:21:12 GMT

Yes, folks, as you can probably see, my websight has been updated. Along with the look overhaul, thereare lots of organizational changes, which I think make the site much easier to navigate. It's also up to date technologically. My own HTML skills begin and end with Dreamweaver2. Thank god for my new web mistress, Kat!

My changes will come soon, including a new, updated bio, plus new artwork. Stay tuned. And now, I've got to get back to Polly #6. The new Death Jr. series will definitely debut at Comic-con, but unless I haul ass, the latest Polly will be too late to make it.

Wish me luck!

Free Comic Bood Day

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 06:31:39 GMT

First things first. I shall be appearing at Lee's Comics in Mountain View on Saturday, May 6th, to promote Polly and the Pirates and Courtney Crumrin. Get your Naifeh schwag signed and pick up some free comics while you're at it.

News on the Polly front. Thanks to my terrible schedule-keeping skills, Polly's final issue will be delayed till late June. For those of you on the edge of your seats to find out what becomes of Miss Pringle in her first pirate adventure, all I can say is sorry, and hang on. It's coming.

In other news, Death Jr. series 2 will debut its first issue at Comic-con International in San Diego. This one is, if possible, even funnier than the last.

Finally, the site revamp is imminent. tednaifeh.com will be easier to navigate than ever before.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news. Oh, and sorry I haven't been responding to all the recent posts. I'm desperately trying to get DJ issue one finished.

Lotta Good News, little bit o' Bad News

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:56:12 GMT

I know it’s been a while since I posted. (Hi, Juan. thanks for the nudge.) I’ve been neck deep in work, play, and the endless search for something that’ll help my slipped disk. But I digress.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Polly five is in the can, after ridiculous delays due to my trip to France, Wondercon, sickness, and a few other lame excuses. For what it’s worth, the book looks amazing, and reads even better. Finally, action on the high sees. Don’t miss it.

Also on the Polly front, Hollywood has come knocking, and it’s looking good for a possible Polly movie option. Of course, the phrase to remember when working in Holly wood is “don’t hold your breath”, but I have a good feeling. I spoke with a lovely man with a string of excellent, high profile movies under his belt, and he seemed very enthused about the concept. So keep your fingers crossed, folks.

Finally, possibly the best news of all for me, is that I’m in the process of having my website overhauled. It’s been stale for way too long, and I can’t wait to get the new one live. Again, stay tuned.

Alas, on to the bad news. My manga book, Unearthly, may never see a second volume. This is due to the abysmal sales of the first volume, which never seemed to find its audience, despite being beautifully illustrated, and (IMHO) rather well written. I suspect that the concept wasn’t quite snappy enough. I don’t know. In any event, though Seven Seas is taking steps to drum up interest in the series, they’ve called a halt to production for the foreseeable future. We’ll see what, if anything, happens. Needless to say, this was rather frustrating, though I’m not as devastated as I would have been had it been my only project.

On the bright side, I’ve got lots of new projects lined up. Watch this site for more info. Thanks for checking in.

Stranger in a Yummy Land

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:16:53 GMT

Well, I’m back. I’m exhausted even after 15 hours of sleep, and I weigh at least five pounds more than when I left, which is less than I deserve after all the things I’ve been putting in my body. In Lyon they have a saying, “Tout est bon dans le cochon,” All is good in the pig. I truly took this saying to heart. I’ll skip the gory details; suffice it to say that I consumed foods that would make a strong man tremble, and a sensitive vegetarian scream in horror. One particular delicacy was called “andouillette.” Don’t let the name fool you. This is no petite version of the spicy New Orleans sausage. No, this is what you get when you’ve taken everything away from a pig that Americans might possibly consider food, and stuff great hunks of what’s left into a sausage casing, which is then lovingly roasted and served with a fresh salad. Its odor is disturbingly reminiscent of a good healthy bowel movement, in the same way that strong goat cheese evokes the stinkier portions of a petting zoo. Not for the faint of heart, folks. I think that every culture in the world has one native food that half the population adores and the other half wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. Scotland has Haggis. England, black pudding. Japan, natto. In France, it’s definitely Andouillette. Frogs’ legs and snails don’t even come close.

Other adventurous meals included boudin noir (the French version of black pudding) over baked apples, grenouille, and escargot (frogs’ legs and snails; I couldn’t resist). Escargot is a lovely dish, but the grenouille, though deliciously bathed in garlic and butter, was a little too much work, like fifty or so tiny chicken wings.

Anyway…

It turns out that Angouleme Festival is the largest comics event in the world, double the size of Comic-Con in San Diego. And it’s ALL about comics. No movie previews, no toys, no videogames, just bandes dessinée, manga, and good old-fashioned American comic books. Why, do you ask, do all these tens of thousands of Europeans flock to a small town in the Bordeaux area in the middle of winter? Because in France, the comics creator is KING! KING I TELL YOU! People would wait in the freezing cold from morning till night to get the signature of a favored creator. Some publishers do a lottery, in which you are issued a ticket, and if that number comes up, you are brought before the great creator to bask in his or her presence for a few minutes while they do a little sketch in your book. This is an institution that I enjoy immensely. Maybe it’s only a quick headshot, but it’s an original drawing, and it makes the experience of meeting the creators much more personal. And you get to chat with them while they work.

I wore a badge that read 'Ted Naifeh: Auteur' which I rather liked. I drew about a thousand sketches. The early ones were rough, but as I continued, I refined my skills and my tools and by the end, I think I’d done many that were well worth waiting for. I also learned about a thousand French names, like Fabrice, Marie-Laure, Elodie, Bertrand, Cedric. It was tons of fun.

The final great experience of Angouleme, though highly embarrassing as well, was doing an American creators panel in front of a huge audience of several hundred, along with Eric Shanower, creator of Age of Bronze, and Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy As if you didn’t know). Eric and I, both being published by the French imprint Akileos, had gotten to know each other already, but I hadn’t really met Mike before. He was very nice, and we got to talking about film rights and all that crap just before the event. The panel itself was pretty stiff at first, mainly because we were given these earpieces at the last minute, which translated the questions for us. It was very disorienting to have the live chat cut out and replaced by translations. Eric was overwhelmed, and Mike rendered a bit surly by the whole thing. I found that my best bet was to shut my mind off and go on automatic, but this didn’t make for clever answers. Eventually, though, we all relaxed long enough to make the audience laugh and take some questions. Most of these were aimed at Mike, and, rather annoyingly, were about the Hellboy movie instead of his comic. But despite these few problems, we managed to be reasonably interesting, and it was an amazing experience overall. The thrill of panic while walking out before the huge crowd was worth the entire trip.

After Angouleme I met with Kelly in Paris, and we embarked on a week-long five-city tour. We would get on a train every morning, and arrive by noon in a fabulous new city; Aix En Provence, Montpelier, Lyon, Grenoble, and Annecy. Each city had its own unique flavor. Aix I remembered for its narrow, winding streets, not to mention the infamous andouillette (which Kelly declined to sample, though she re-named it the pig-wad). Montpelier was particularly gorgeous and lush, with palm trees and these gigantic, strange fountains that were simply immense piles of moss. It has a very romantic flavor. Several local artists had done drawings of Courtney, and we all hung out and drank wine after the store closed. I bought something by each of them, along with a few things they recommended. Several gave me their drawings. It was there that I got lots of practice with the whole French cheek kissing thing. In the south, it’s three kisses, not two.

Lyon was bitterly cold, and the rich lunch almost killed me. Between Kelly and I and the two shop owners, we polished off three and a half bottles of wine and a shot each of something called marc, which could have probably caught the restaurant on fire if someone took a flame to it. That was an utterly amazing meal, but the signing itself was pretty tough. Eventually, Kelly dug out our supply of pepto-bismol, which helped. Lyon also has the coolest fountain in the world, a warrior woman driving a chariot with gigantic claw-footed horses. Amazing.

Grenoble was home to Albertine Ralenti, colorist of the French color edition of Polly and the Pirates. She hung out all afternoon at the signing talking with fans, and then agreed to join us for dinner. An utterly lovely person. The shop there was really cool, and they did special limited edition posters.

In Annecy, the small comics shop had gone all out. They made Courtney t-shirts, special limited edition silkscreen prints, and even a wine label. I stayed till nine signing and sketching, and met France’s most devoted Courtney fan, Claudine, who, I’m told, has purchased at least ten copies of the book to give to friends. That you so much, Claudine.

We spent that night in French Alps, where one of the shop’s owners runs a hostel. We awoke to a scene of perfect beauty, and spent the day frolicking in the snow.

There’s just no way to properly thank all the fantastic folks I met for their hospitality and kind attention. But suffice it to say, I feel very, very grateful for all the wonderful experiences, and I hope we will all meet again soon.

Quick Report From the Road

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:50:37 GMT

Made my first French appearance today at BNAC or something like that, a sort of Virgin Megastore equivelant. I'm not sure what I expected (crickets, maybe) but I didn't expect a solid two hour line. Wow. The French loves them some comic books. No foolin'. Apparently, it was recently voted into the top twenty best publications of 2005. That's pretty sweet, especially coming from a thriving market like this one. The French produce 3000 graphic albums a year. The best sellers top 3 million copies domestically. Thats more than ten times the top selling American comics. Courtney is the publisher's second biggest title, selling almost as well here as it does in the states. Woo-hoo!

Anyway, I have one more appearance in Paris, and then it's off to Angouleme to rub elboes with the likes of Moebius and Druillet (major early influences, both of them). I'm very excited.

On a personal note, I'm scraping my on my horribly small French vocabulary. Spent my first morning at the Louvre, soaking up classical western art. That Mona Lisa panting is much smaller than I thought it'd be. But they have lots of Delacroix, and some pretty sculptures. Also, the Napoleonic apartment displays were groovy.

One more thing. if you live here in France, and you want to come to one of my appearences, check on the akileos website, at http://www.akileos.com/. I think they might have changed the times and locations recently. Hope to see you soon.

Angoul?me

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:57:17 GMT

For you fans of the French edition of Courtney Crumrin, I shall be traveling across the Atlantic to attend Angoul?me, the mighty French graphic album festival, at the end of this month. And if you live in France but can't make it to the festival, fear not. I shall also be making appearences all across France over the next three weeks. I'll post my appearence schedule soon. Unfortunately, I have no french beyond "Bonjour" and that sort of thing, but I'll try to learn a few key phrases such as "It is an evil children's book," and "Pass the beaujolais, silvouplait."

And if you're english isn't that great, here's all that again in babelfish-style French.

Pour vous ?vente de l'?dition en fran?ais de Courtney Crumrin, je voyagera ? travers l'Oc?an atlantique pour s'occuper d'Angoul?me, le festival graphique fran?ais puissant d'album, apr?s ce mois. Et si vous ne pouvez pas le faire au festival, crainte pas. Je ferai ?galement des appearences tous ? travers la France au cours des trois semaines suivantes. Je signalerai mon programme d'appearence bient?t. Malheureusement, je n'ai aucun fran?ais au del? d'"Bonjour" et de cette sorte de chose, mais j'essayerai d'apprendre que quelques expressions principales telles que "elle est un livre d'enfants mauvais," et "passez le Beaujolais, silvouplait."

For those of you who, like me, don't speak french, that was most likely hilariously bad.

Yet More Love for Unearthly

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 23:59:14 GMT

Aintitcoolnews.com has another extremely positive review of volume 1 of my amerimanga series, Unearthly. This one is even more flattering than the last, and I really appreciate supehero's kind words. Read the review here.

Contrasting this, I recently found my first highly negative review ever, and for the same book. Read it here, and see how fair you think it is. Frankly, it seems to my that my worst crime, in the reviewer's opinion, was not being Japanese.

I know that none of this amounts to real news, since it's just a result of my vanity-googling. Rest assured that more relevant stuff is coming soon, such as 2006 appearances.

Ain't it Cool?

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 04:02:50 GMT

Ain't It Cool News gave Unearthly the best review yet. Somehow I missed it when it came out a week ago. Check it out here.

Polly and DJ, sittin' in a tree...

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 22:37:13 GMT

Polly and the Pirates issue 2 is officially out, as is the Death Junior trade collection. Look for them both in all quality comics shops. DJ is also available in the graphic novel sections of Many fine bookstores. I'm told that Image has already burned through the first print run of the DJ trade, and is going back to press. This is a first for me, that a book I worked on has gone back to press the day it came out. I'm pretty stoked. I imagine the awesome Mike Mignola cover didn't hurt.

In other news, it looks like I'll be flying to France to appear at the Angouleme Festival at the end of January, to promote the French edition of Courtney Crumrin. More news on that as it comes.

By the way, Polly and the Pirates is getting universally good reviews so far. Thanks especially to TheFourthRail.com, Millarworld Magazine and AICN.

Unearthly Nominated!

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:05:52 GMT

The American Library Association has released a list of graphic novels for young adults that they feel are worthy of attention, and Unearthly was on the list. Here's the link. I don't know exactly what this means, other than that the book will undoubtedly be available in libraries throughout the country soon.

Watch this space for more details as they come. And don't be shy to chime in to tell me what you thought of Unearthly.

Back in Action

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:58:28 GMT

It looks like my website and email are back up. the site still has a few problems, but I'm thinking of handing it over to a pro web mistress to smooth it out and keep it running. Thanks for your patience and understanding. And if you want to email me, you can now use ted@tednaifeh.com.

When Will Polly's Ship Come In?

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 17:38:58 GMT

It's a bit of a long story, and it started with me having to be on a plane to Hawai'i the day Polly #2 was due. In any event, it wasn't quite on time, and so there's a delay in shpping. So, Polly #2 will be out November 9th. Hope you pirate fanciers can wait that long.

Internet Nightmare

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:31:25 GMT

My website and email are currently down, and will be down for an indefinite period. Unfortunately, my former service provider, webcountry.net, is a screwfactory, and has cancelled my service without passing the domain along to my new registrar. Anyone who can offer legal advice leading to the resolution of this problem will recieve free original art.

My backup email is rottensquid@gmail.com

More on Unearthly

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:07:50 GMT

I've just recieved my copies of Unearthly, and it looks and reads amazingly. It's so neat to write something at the beginning of the year, and find it finished nine months later. Rather like being a father, I suppose.

At any rate, Unearthly seems to be encountering snags getting to comics stores. Some folks claim that the volume didn't ship. At any rate, it will appear in bookstores very soon, possibly as early as the Wednesday after next. And if you don't see it, I encourage you to ask your local retailer about it. This is normal procedure at any bookstore, and nothing to be shy about. Plus, it helps me to let retailers know that folks are interested in the books.

Unearthly volume 1 is back from the printer

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 02:09:33 GMT

I was just informed by Seven Seas publisher Jason De Angelis that the first volume of Unearthly, my manga-style sci-fi romance story, is printed. It should hit bookstores in two weeks.

For those of you who don't remember, Unearthly is the story of three teenagers, Ann, Rae, and Jem, who find themselves in a tangled love triangle, until a troublesome alien causes all hell to break loose. There's a preview for it at the Seven Seas website, gomanga.com.

Be sure to ask your local comics shop to save a copy for you, as they will probably move quickly. The first print-run is only 6600 copies. Lets hope a second printing will come soon.

More Love for Polly

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 02:40:39 GMT

More reviews of Polly. One is on AICN, which is a big thrill, since it gets tons and tons of readers, and they never reviewed Courtney. The Polly review is awesome, very favorable. The other review is on Precocious Cumudgeon, which seems like a perfect match. They loved the book as well. When I was writing it, I was a little worried about whether folks would like it, but it seems to be pretty appealing. Thanks for the reviews, guys.

Back from Hawai'i, back to work

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 02:18:01 GMT

Polly and the Pirates issue #1 comes out Wednesday. Polly will be a six-issue series, and then be collected in a "digest-sized" paperback book, similar to the Courtney Crumrin books. The issues will be available in your better quality comics shops all over the country. For those of you interested in collecting the individual issues, be warned that supplies will be limited. Most shops order conservatively when it comes to small, independent titles such as this, so don't be surprised if they run out quickly. Just demand that they re-order the book so you can get your copy.

Polly is already getting a great response from the comics community. Here are a couple of reviews from Don and Randy at The Fourth Rail.

I did a two-part interview on the comic fan site Broken Frontier. You know a lot of this stuff, but hey, it's something to read instead of working, right?

Speaking of working, I have to get on the second volume of Unearthly right away. I just got back from Kawa'i, and it's hard to get back into the rhythmn of work, but I'm doing my best. Who'd have thought that someday my dream job would become my pain in the ass day job? Kawa'i was hell, by the way. All that sunlight and warm water messed up my brain pretty bad. And I don't even want to get started on the fresh fruit. Murder. I must have force-fed myself twenty papayas and three whole pineapples in blended rum drinks. And Kelly was forced to snorkel and poke at brightly colored fish. Frankly, we're both lucky to be alive.

Dragon-Con Pics - beware of the o-face

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:24:17 GMT

Here's the bulk of the photos from Dragon-Con. Before you look at them, be aware that none of us are photographers, and we're using baby's first digital camera. The dark photos are when the flash is too far from the subject. The swirly ones are when the night-exposure setting was used.

This collection isn't so much an attempt at documenting the event, but more of a tourist album. The players are myself, my girlfriend Kelly, and our friend Adrianne, who volunteered to come and help us man the table. She was a total trooper (evern without the white plastic armor), and I want to take a moment aside to thank her for all her help.

On Saturday afternoon, Pat Henry arrived at our table with a fabulous raspberry cake with strawberries and M&Ms on top. That's the half-finished one. It looked even better before we started in on it, but we forgot to get a shot of it. Did I mention that Pat Henry is simply a lovely man? We shared it with Gwen and Brian, two fabulous people who run a t-shirt line called Sigh-Co. They showed us around New Orleans last year, but this year are refugees from Katrina. They managed to save their computers, a fair amount of stock, and (most importantly) their cats, and report that their neighborhood, the French Quarter, wasn't hit all that hard. I spend a good deal of that night chasing people in amazing costumes to get their picture. The Tracy Turnblad (of Hairspray) was Kelly's favorite, and, of course, the Batman was mine.

The iron artist competition was difficult to document, but bear in mind that the convention staff were also taking pictures. I'll see about getting a link to them. Yes, that's the painting. I can't explain it either. We had forty-five minutes to think it up and pull it off based on the theme and secret ingredient, so please don't judge too harshly. The girl who bought it was just lovely, and I ended up giving her a peice of Gloomcookie art as well.

The weird purple thing is, apparently, a nargle. It was created by the girl in pic #74 just for me, and I love the thing to death! So did Adrianne. She asked several times to make sure it was packed before we left.

Kelly's birthday took place on Sunday. I'd ordered a red velvet cake for her birthday party (the one lined with cherries she's posing with). I made Kelly an invitation, which she handed out to a select group of folks we met there. It was a great party, and afterwards we went to see the Rocky Horror performance by Lips Down on Dixie, which featured the best Frankenfurter I've ever seen.

Please forgive the length of the album. We got a bit snapshot happy on Sunday night, and ended up taking pictures of everyone around us while dancing. I was running on fumes by that point, and kept making my own personal o-face for the camera. How embarrassing. The guy in the beard and sunglasses is Jean-Paul, better known as cinzazul. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but that's him sexy-dancing like a bad mo-fo.

The last photo is Andy Lee, who's just amazing. That's how we all felt by Monday.

Now I just want to go back.

this just in: Dragon-Con Still Awesome!

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 23:03:38 GMT

I just got in from Dragon-Con last night, and you know what? Even better the second year. I heard some folks complain about the lower level of energy than last year, but last year people were throwing furniture out the windows of the hotels into the street, so I don't count this a bad thing.

For me the most exciting thing was the fifth annual Iron Artist competition. I went up against Bill Stout who has been the reigning champion for the last four years. For those of you who've never heard of Bill Stout, he's what we call in the comics world a "real artist", which is to say that though he's good at what he does, which is dragons and dinosaurs, he's also good at just about everything else. Give him a brush and a subject and he'll paint the crap out of it. He's amazing. Now me, I'm still struggling to be good at what I'm good at.

Be that as it may, the main organizer of Dragon Con, Pat Henry, encouraged me to participate at the end of last year after my friend Dan Brereton had recommended me. He'd just lost to Bill, and I think he was eager that I enjoy a similar humiliation.

This is the way Iron Artist works. Inspired by the utterly brilliant cooking show Iron Chef, the ceremony pits a new contender against the defending Iron Artist. We're introduced, and then the theme of the painting is announced. This year the theme was WWII airplane nose art (which is to say, the art and slogans emblazoned on the sides of planes by their pilots). Then the secret ingredient is chosen by the audience. This year it was penguins. I'm not kidding. We then had 45 minutes to create a work of art.

Bill's painting was slick and brilliant from the moment he put brush to paper. He did a logo-like circle with a lightening bolt shooting through it, and a penguin popping out. The penguin had breasts. Big, silicon anti-gravity breasts. It was kinda freaky. But the sheer excellence of his execution from start to finish beat down my confidence from the getgo. Having not played with paint in more than seven or eight years, I was a little lost, especially since I my usual technique throwing a wash over a line drawing, letting it dry, and then picking out the highlights and shadows. For my subject, I went with the traditional bombshell babe in a Coop-like pose with a penguin at her feet.

But for the first forty minutes, no sane person could possibly have figured out what I was doing. There were some half-hearted encouraging words from the group, but for the most part, folks were just tilting their heads and wondering what the big fleshy smear was for. I started to panic, wondering if I was going to make a complete fool of myself. Kelly, who was acting as my assistant, tried to keep me calm, and helped by painting in the background with the woefully undersized brushes. Then suddenly, five minutes till time was up, a miracle happened. The paint on much of the picture dried, and I was able to tighten the silhouette of the girl's figure so that her shape became clear. A few strokes of a darker color to define her shape, and suddenly the flesh-colored smear became a rough but charming painting, highly reminiscent of those crude old paintings by fighter pilots in the 1940s. I gave her a winning Marilyn Monroe bombshell smile. The penguin got a little yellow dot for an eye, which made him rather endearing. Kelly added the coup de grace, a slogan in the side in white paint reading "We'll warm 'em up!" It added the appropriate retro touch that the piece needed.

There were a panel of judges, but ultimately it was decided that the title should go to the piece that auctioned for the most money. The proceeds all went to a leukemia foundation. My painting was won by a Gloomcookie fan for a total of $265 (I believe). Bill's only went for $260. Looking at the two, it's ridiculously clear who the better artist is. Bill's piece was clean, tight, beautifully rendered and clearly complete. Mine was poorly composed, crude, sloppy and unfinished. Though Pat Henry assured me that I won outright, I'm still not entirely convinced that if it were up to the judges, I wouldn't have lost. But I think that the retro bombshell babe simply has a stronger appeal than a penguin with breasts, no matter how well rendered it is. I even heard someone in the audience comment that at least my piece had nipples where nipples should go, rather than pointing disconcertingly skyward. I think Bill was undone by his own cleverness and skill.

In any event, I'm now the reigning Iron Artist. This means that instead of going to Burning Man in 2006, Kelly and I will be back next year at Dragon-Con to defend the title. Pat Henry came by to let me know that Bill (who, by the way, I made friends with last year and hung out with this year at Comic-Con) is feeling a little rankled about losing and wants a rematch. So I'm gonna spend the year brushing up on my painting skills as I suspect that this year, he'll pull no punches. But it doesn't matter if he takes the title away. I've never won an award for art before, and it feels pretty good.

So if you're going to be at Dragon-Con next year, come and support me in the Iron Artist competition. I'd really appreciate it.

More on DragonCon later. Right now I have to get back to Polly and the Pirates.

Let My Domain Go

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 06:23:05 GMT

My email is currently down. My apologies to any who've sent email to my current address. I've discovered that my web host and registrar is basically a ghost ship, and I'm embarking on the long, painful process of transferring my internet affairs to another host.

In happier news, DRAGONCON!!! The big Atlanta geek extravaganza is nigh, and I want to remind everyone in the area to come by my table and say hello! I'll have hot, fresh copies of Death Junior issue 3, Courtney Crumrin Tales, and sneak peaks of Unearthly and Polly and the Pirates. Those who can't make it must resign themselves to checking it all out on the web.

Polly goes very well, thanks for asking. After struggling unsuccessfuly with Glimmer for such a long time, it's nice when an idea comes out right straight out of the starting gate. I can't wait for you all to read issue 4. Issue 4 will be so totally groovy!

Thanks also to all of you who wrote in with praise for Courtney Tales. I really wasn't sure if the pulpy action/adventure flavor wasn't too much of a departure from the tone of the regular Courtney series, but everyone seemed to like it. I feel emboldened now to take a few risks and mix in a few other genres. Maybe a bit more romance?

Tones on Tale

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:02:59 GMT

Thought I should mention that my manga series Unearthly, now running as a sneak preview web comic on the Seven Seas website is now appearing with the full grayscale tone work, as it will appear in the final book, making in even cooler looking. Anyway, if you like it, drop by the gomanga forums and comment. It'll make the publishers very happy, and I frequently stop by there myself to comment.

Also, I've decided, as a Firefox user, that it's just not cool that my site's nav-bar doesn't work in Firefox. Actually, that's what it looks like in Dreamweaver as well, when I'm editing it. It's actually Internet Explorer that's got it wrong. But if anyone has a solution for making the site work in both Explorer and Firefox, I'd love to hear from you. Otherwise, I'm going to fix it in Firefox and let it look screwy in Explorer.