Congratulations It's a Book

Huzzah! According to Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter website, which keeps much tighter tabs on these things than I do, the first Muppet Show Comic Book collection, Meet the Muppets, is out this week. (Amazon link here.) And good news for readers in the UK: it appears that Amazon UK are going to have it because I found a link for it there. So now British readers can stop wondering what I've been up to for the last year or so. Added incentive: the ten-page story I did for Disney Adventures a couple of years ago, which has never before been published in its entirety, will finally see the light of day in the collection. (And there's a hardback edition for those of you with deep pockets!) This is technically my first original graphic novel since Fred the Clown, so I hope you'll forgive my excitement.

Also out this week is the second issue of The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson.


While I'm plugging books, I encourage you to check out the ACT-I-VATE PRIMER preview over at the AIV site, where I believe you can also pre-order the book directly (click on the sexy banner ad at the top of the preview page).

Mugwhump fans take note, I'm vigorously moving stuff around in my schedule so I can recommence the strip at the earliest opportunity. I'm discussing with Boom! how best to lessen my Muppet workload without interrupting the monthly schedule, and once all those ducks are in a row I'll have a bit more wiggle room. (Not to mention more sleep.) Watch this space!

Sequential Archaeology

I can't recall mentioning this before, so here it is: The Muppet Show comic book will be a proper ongoing series as of the November issue, the Pigs in Space one-shot, which will start the numbering at Issue #0 for some weird reason I'm unable to fathom*. After that, it's #1 for the first issue of the next story arc, On the Road, and we get to do all the numbers in sequence from then on until none of us are able to stand it any longer. No more of this re-starting every four issues with a new #1, no sir! It's a proper comic at last!

Mugwhump watchers may be interested to read a piece about the ACT-I-VATE Primer over at Comic Book Resources.

And finally, here are some old sketches I found in a folder with some really unhelpful file names, so I had no idea what they were until I opened them. They must predate Fred the Clown #1, because one of them is a cover idea for that comic, so I'm guessing they're from around the year 2000. Time I put some artwork up here that wasn't a plug for something.




(*I mean, I can understand Robert Crumb putting out Zap Comix #0, because he thought the artwork was gone forever when he put out #1 and inserted it in sequence after the fact when photocopies eventually showed up, but I don't understand modern #0 issues at all. It's not like the comic is non-existent. A zero-numbered issue would make sense if it was only released on the internet or something, because then a physical comic wouldn't actually exist. Am I thinking about this stuff too hard?)

Random chicken scratchings

This week I finished writing a pitch for a Marvel Adventures series (or rather, I tightened up a pitch I'd already written which was far too long) which I have a very good feeling about. Not that I'm confident it's going to be approved or anything, I'm just very pleased with it. Especially so since it would be quite a long piece of work if it goes ahead and I'm rarely happy with my attempts to write anything long-form. More news on that front if and when I have anything, always allowing for the possibility that it may sink without a trace... I'm finding increasing amounts of enjoyment from writing for other artists. It's a place I never expected to end up, but I'm kind of glad I have.

Which is just as well, because I'm on the home stretch of the script for the upcoming Pigs in Space one-shot. I'm still not 100% sure if the artist has been decided, although I met someone at San Diego who was at the top of the list who'd be a really good choice. Sorry to be so oblique, but I really don't know if that decision has been made yet or not.
But I'm writing with that artist in mind.

Finished inking the third issue of The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson last night. One more issue to go before I get to sleep in for a day or two, for the first time in eight months. Ooohhh, I'm looking forward to that. I'm hoping to be able to pick up where I left off with Mugwhump the Great at that point, ACT-I-VATE followers... and, speaking of which:

All are welcome to join the ACT-I-Vate Primer group on Facebook. Come join us, won't you?

You may be wondering why you sent for me

Okay - got a couple of announcements here. The first involves the Act-I-Vate Primer - a fine and fabulous book published by IDW, featuring brand-new print stories featuring characters from the Act-I-Vate website. My own contribution is a Mugwhump the Great story, a prequel to the web strip (which I will be picking up again as soon as I get a minute!). Now available for pre-order from Diamond Previews or through Amazon.

Next thing I want to draw your attention to is a short interview with me on the MuppetCast podcast - partly about my experiences at the San Diego Comic Con, and partly about more general Muppet comic matters. An excellent show for your inner Muppet!

Another interview I forgot to link to earlier is one I did with the Secret Identity Podcast boys - find that here.

And I need to mention the rather fabulous Awesome 2: Awesomer anthology published by Top Shelf, for which I contributed the back cover. Edited by Indie Spinner Rack's Charlito and Mr Phil, it's a veritable who's that of indie comics, and a percentage of profits will go towards a scholarship for a lucky student at the Centre for Cartoon Studies - so well worth your support.

End of Plugorama!

The Act-I-Vate Primer

ACT-I-VATE is proud to announce THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER.

16 original stories by the premier webcomix collective, ACT-I-VATE, with a foreword by Warren Ellis, coming this October from IDW Publishing.

With its roster of renowned creators serializing webcomix for free since 2006, ACT-I-VATE, has reached a comicbook critical mass. Now this funnybook big bang has birthed The Act-i-vate Primer, the very first collection of stand alone, never-before-seen stories. This tome is a lot bigger than it seems. Each of these stories extend way beyond the boundaries of mere paper and cardboard out into ACT-I-VATE.com where you’ll already be initiated to the worlds greatest webcomix collective.

The Act-i-vate Primer boasts original art and stories by Joe Infurnari, Roger Langridge, Mike Dawson, Nick Bertozzi, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Simon Fraser, Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt, Mike Cavallaro, Pedro Camargo, Jim Dougan & Hyeondo Park, Ulises Farinas, Michel Fiffe, Maurice Fontenot, Jennifer Hayden, and Leland Purvis.

“ACT-I-VATE makes comics better.”
–Warren Ellis [from the ACT-I-VATE PRIMER foreword].

Diamond Item Code: AUG090968
ISBN: 978-1-60010-528-9

Amazon US link
Amazon UK link

Last Bear from Krypton

I'm back from the San Diego Comic Convention - still decompressing from that, and I haven't had a chance to sort my photos, but here's a little something: a sketch I did, the first of the show, which the owner kindly sent me a scan of. There'll be something a little more substantial in the way of a report to come shortly. Until then, a big thank you to everybody who made me feel so welcome - not least the staff at Boom! Studios, meeting of whom was one of the highlights of the whole experience.

Sandy What?

This time last week, I was expecting to be spending the rest of July drawing the next issue of the Muppet Show comic, writing the upcoming Pigs In Space one-shot, and generally having a quiet time of it. Since then, things have been moving at whiplash speed behind the scenes and it turns out that, despite my best efforts to stay away from it this year, I will be attending the 2009 San Diego Comic Convention. If you're going to be there and you want to track me down, I'll be spending 90% of my time at the Boom! Studios booth, sketching, signing and making an appalling nuisance of myself. (I'll also be doing the occasional panel - full schedule below if you're interested, to be updated as I find out where I'll be and when).

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SDCC 2009 - Where to find Roger Langridge

Wednesday, July 22 - PREVIEW NIGHT

6:00 - 9:00 PM - At the Boom! booth during these hours except when the following commitments drag me elsewhere:   

6:00 - 7:00 - Exclusive Disney Hardcover signing at Boom! booth

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Thursday, July 23

9:30 AM - 7:00 PM - At the Boom! booth during these hours except when the following commitments drag me elsewhere:   

11:00 - 12:00 - Exclusive Disney Hardcover signing at Boom! booth

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Friday, July 24

9:30 AM - 7:00 PM - At the Boom! booth during these hours except when the following commitments drag me elsewhere:   

11:00 - 12:00 - Exclusive Disney Hardcover signing at Boom! booth

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Saturday, July 25

9:30 AM - 7:00 PM - At the Boom! booth during these hours except when the following commitments drag me elsewhere:   

10:00 - 11:00 - Exclusive Disney Hardcover signing at Boom! booth

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Sunday, July 26

9:30 AM- 5:00 PM - At the Boom! booth during these hours except when the following commitments drag me elsewhere:   

10:00 - 11:00 - BOOM! Muppets  Panel - ROOM 32AB

11:30 - 12:30 - Exclusive Disney Hardcover signing at Boom! booth

And still they come!

On a similar note to last week's post, I thought I'd run these this week - this is a selection of sketches I did a while back when I attended the APE convention in San Francisco. My daughter was 2 at the time, so it must have been four years ago. I think these were scanned by the gentleman who took them away with him, and the scans sent to me after the show. That's what my foggy memory is telling me, anyway. I think most of these are fairly self-explanatory.

What can I tell you, it's been a dull week.

Return of the Sketch

Since last week's post-Heroes Con report, several people have sent me photos or scans of the sketches I did for them, which was really nice. I'm going to run those this week. Nice easy post!


This one was hand-coloured at the show by Laura Martin. Lovely idea.


The Escapist, er, escaping.


The Good Doctor...


My favorite super-hero...


The Batusi as performed by Alfred.


Cheesy hero/villain trying to carry off the "gay porn star" look, Vartox, from 1970s Superman comics.


Tom Waits. It's bloody Tom Waits, all right?


Darn those Yancy Streeters!


And Sandman as a Muppet.

Will Sketch for Chips

Phew! What a weekend. Heroes Con has now come and gone, and I had a fantastic time. A quick thank-you to everybody who stopped by my table, to all the people I met who made it so much fun, and most of all to the organisers, those splendid chaps at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, who made the show go smoothly. It's like watching a swan sail across the surface of a pond - it looks so easy and moves so gracefully, but you know it must be paddling like hell under the surface to do it.


Did lots of sketches! Oh yes! And by the end the requests for Doctor Who/Muppet mash-ups were coming thick and fast. Unlike many previous conventions, I didn't get to bring a slush-pile of unwanted sketches back with me, but I reconstructed this one from memory on the plane home.

A few highlights worth mentioning:

* Alec Longstreth insisting I experience a Dairy Queen to get "a taste of the real America". (Clockwise from top left: Me, Greg Means, Alec, and Mr Phil of Indie Spinner Rack)



* Spending time with super-nice, super-good cartoonist Chris Schweizer (left to right: Gentleman whose name escapes me, Chris, Kevin Burkhalter, Drew Weing, Joey Weiser, another gentleman whose name fell out of my brain sometime between hearing it and now - my apologies!)



* Getting to experience Muppet Madness close-up! Over in the land of not-allowed-to-import-it, I've been a bit sheltered from all of that up until now.



* The effervescent Dustin Harbin - the only photo I got of him this year was a piss-poor blurry shot from Saturday night's auction (red t-shirt). He's not usually that blurry.



* Talking with Ben Towle, Jim Ottaviani, Craig Fischer and friends after the auction and totally forgetting to take any pictures

* The after-show party at the Heroes store. A very civilised way to end the show. Here are some of the people I got to hang out with:

Ed Brubaker and Jason Lutes...



... Joey Weiser and Mike Maihack (that's me on the end looking vaguely camp)...



... Jason Horn, Rosemary Van Deuren, Guy Davis and Paul Maybury



I had a long flight home on Monday with a stewardess who talked to us all like schoolchildren and inserted announcements about "remembering our boys in the troops", which could have been funny if it wasn't so annoying. Then home to family, kids, cuddles and sleep. Lots and lots of sleep.

HEROES!!

Only a couple of days now until I get on the plane to go to Heroes Con, and very much looking forward to it. For those of you attending the show who might want to track me down, I'll have a table at the Indy Island section, and will also be doing a panel on Saturday at 12:30pm, Making Comics for All Ages, with Jeff Smith, David Petersen and Chris Schweizer ("and more", it says on the schedule - possibly Don Rosa, who will be attending the show? Fingers crossed!).


Now, who can spot the difference between the cover above and the published version? Any ideas? Check out the audience members four rows back, between Gonzo's arm and his head. Yup - Bert and Ernie. I'm not allowed to use Sesame Street characters on the Muppet Show comics, but at the time I drew this cover I wasn't aware of that, so I tried to sneak 'em in. But I got busted! Still, makes a nice little curiosity for the old blog.

On the subject of Muppets, there's a chat online with me at ToughPigs.com about the third issue you may like to check out. And I spoke to Comic Geek Speak on Sunday for their pre Heroes Con show, so I imagine that will be up before the weekend. Their focus was mostly on the Muppets, although they very sweetly took the trouble to mention Fred the Clown a few times and ignored my Marvel work entirely. Did I mention I'll have Fred the Clown for sale at Heroes Con? I'll have Fred the Clown for sale at Heroes Con.

One more thing about Heroes Con - I will be sketching! Yes, I will! I'm going to try an experiment this year and have a Tip Jar, the idea being that you pay me whatever you think your sketch is worth. So everybody can afford one - no excuses!

Middle-Class Twit

Thanks to the handful of people who've sent me a note saying they'd like to follow me on Twitter. I'm afraid I don't do Twitter. I can't see the point of getting up and running over to the computer every half-hour to tell the world I've scratched my arse. Because, frankly, that's what you'd get -- my life ain't that scintillating. And I can't see that I'd get anything out of it on my end except a colossal drain on my time. If anybody's got a persuasive argument in favour of the blasted thing I'll give it a hearing, but I've yet to hear one that doesn't sound like a justification for faffing about instead of working. And I'm perfectly capable of faffing about on my own. Sorry, folks, but there it is.


Here's my back cover to the new Indie Spinner Rack anthology, Awesome 2: Awesomer, which is out around now. It concludes a narrative begun on the front cover by Jeff Smith which continues throughout the issue. The line-up in this one looks absolutely stellar, and it's my first time being published by Top Shelf after dancing around one another for over a decade. Highly recommended.

Heroes Con is just ten days away. Cushlamochree! Last year I had a blast and I'm thrilled that I've been asked back. (Guess I can't have been as drunk as I thought I was.) I normally like to have something new to sell at a convention, but I've been so busy with Muppet stuff that I haven't had time to do any new mini-comics apart from those. What I will try to have that I didn't have last year, though, is a convention-only special sketchbook mini. I'm looking at a stack of sketches about a foot high and I'm sure I can cobble something together out of that before the show. So, yes, I will have something new. I'll also have copies of the Mugwhump the Great mini-comic which debuted earlier this year at the UK Web and Mini-Comix Thing, collecting Chapter 1 of the online strip. So you've no excuse for not spending money.