Herobear

Apart from the usual catalogue of horrors everyone has been talking about, I'll be remembering 2016 as "the year I did a bunch of covers and commissions," because comics is a fickle mistress. Here's one I did a few months back for Boom! Studios' Herobear and the Kid series by Mike Kunkel. (It's referencing a classic Superman cover, which you can see here.)

Abigail and the Snowman

So – the collected edition of Abigail and the Snowman is finally, officially coming out tomorrow! (Also available to order online from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, or directly from Boom! Studios.) I first started looking for a publisher for this project about five years ago but got nowhere with it at the time. Later, Boom! Studios asked me to pitch them a few ideas, so I included this one among them, not expecting them to go for it... but they did! So big thanks to them for enabling the book to finally happen.

I'd always seen it as a single, stand-alone story in one volume (its serialisation last year was a compromise, to fit in with Boom!'s standard publishing model), so it's a big deal for me to see it finally appear as I originally intended.

And, of course, I will have copies for sale this weekend at the Nottingham Comic Con.

Abigail and the Snowman

It looks like the collected edition of my 2015 series for Kaboom!, Abigail and the Snowman, is finally happening – I spotted advance ordering pages on both Amazon UK and Amazon US today. The good people at Boom! Studios inform me that it's out in October (I guess that means in comic shops), which – help me out here, kids – means you can order it from them this month? I think?

Anyway, here's the cover.

Over the Garden Wall

A variant cover for Boom Studios’ Over the Garden Wall title. It's a few months old now but I don’t think I posted it at the time.

The Baker Street Peculiars

 New today at your comic book store: The Baker Street Peculiars, a comic written by me and drawn by Andy Hirsch, with colours by Fred Stresing. I'm very happy with it – all of the all-ages hijinks, Sherlock Holmes references, supernatural shenanigans and frankly fabulous cartooning you could wish for. Pick one up if you're so inclined.

From our friends at Boom! Studios, as is so often the case.

Abigail and the Snowman

Announced a day or two ago: I'm currently working on a new four-issue series for Boom! Studios, Abigail and the Snowman, about a girl and her Yeti. There's some blather about it here.

And here's the cover to #1, coloured by Fred Stresing.

 There's also a variant cover by the fabulous Sonny Liew.

Brains

Pretty sure I haven't posted this before: this is a cover I did for Boom Studios' Fanboys vs Zombies by Sam Humphries and Jerry Gaylord, both splendid chaps. I think it was #5 or so.

Adventurous

Work in progress.

What's This? Free Comic Books?

This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. That's right - I said Free Comic Books! To celebrate this most worthy event, I will be appearing at Gosh! Comics (in London's glittering West End) doing drawings with the kids, possibly painting in their window and other shenanigans. I'm down for their 2pm-2:30pm slot, between Louis Roskosch and Karrie Fransman, but I expect I'll hang about a bit longer, as is the way of these things. Full details here!

  

In other news, the first Snarked! collection, Forks and Hope, hit stores yesterday. It collects issues #1-4 of the series, plus the preview issue - a great way to get up to speed. Those of you who have been waiting for the collection before checking it out now have no excuse. None at all! I have spies everywhere. Amazon US link here, Amazon UK link here, or direct from Boom! Studios here.

And last but not least, the Kickstarter for The Graphic Textbook is ongoing, and needs your support! Yes, YOU! Not you at the back - oh, what the heck, yours as well. And yours. You too, madam, if you can get your hand out of that jar of pickled eggs for a moment. Go here - or just click through the card floating in the sidebar to your right. Comics in schools - what could be better?

Snarked, Sealed and Delivered

 Now, I'm not especially clued-up on release dates, but I believe I'm right in saying that Snarked! #1 hits the comic book stores tomorrow - there are a few covers to choose from, as is so often the way of things these days, so look out for one of the following:

 

That one on the right is by my old mucker from Thor: The Mighty Avenger, the lovely and talented Mister Chris Samnee himself - many thanks to him for helping me kick off the new series in style (and, lest I forget, all three covers are coloured by Thor: TMA's colourist extraordinaire, Matt Wilson). The insides are all written and drawn by me, with glorious colours by Rachelle Rosenberg making my inky daubings look as good as they're ever likely to. Adventure, laughs and a whole lot of heart - monthly from me to you, starting tomorrow!

From Mars to Bethesda

First things first: the first issue of John Carter: A Princess of Mars comes out today. Thrills! Romance! Martians! I honestly don't know what else you could want in a comic book. Written by me, drawn by Filipe Andrade, published by Marvel - you know you want to. And unless I'm very much mistaken, my new 200-page book of older material from Boom Town, The Show Must Go On, will be out any day now as well. Two reasons to get down to your local comic shop that have nothing whatesoever to do with the number 52!

So. Just got back from SPX yesterday and have been pretty much catching up on sleep ever since. My thanks the SPX crew and to Boom! Studios for arranging for me to attend; my congratulations to the Ignatz winners and nominees; my condolences to friends of Dylan Williams, whom I knew a little but wish I'd known better. And thanks to everyone who stopped by the table and bought something, or even just said hello.

Some abiding memories:

• Being detained by US Customs on entering the country and spending an hour and a half in a little room full of crying Chinese people while somebody grilled me about why I was coming to the USA and how I earn my living (had to explain how royalties work, which involved explaining how publishing works all round, which I'm only barely able to understand myself). Off to the side, in another room, a customs official was yelling at some poor guy that in America, the government loves everybody. It was like being in a Kafka novel. I'm cutting them some slack here because it was the lead-up to the anniversary of 9-11, but even so. What a start!

• Seeing a bunch of people I know and like, and meeting some new ones. Big shout out to Adam Staffaroni, Chip Mosher, Lawrence Derks, Carol Thompson, Tom Neely, Jerzy & Ann Drozd, Nick Abadzis, Jim Dougan, Julia Wertz, Craig Thompson, Kasey Van Hise, Mike Dawson, Alex Robinson, Jim Rugg, Robyn Chapman, Alec Longstreth, Greg Means, Phil Jackson, Sara Turner, Rick Parker, Dustin Harbin, Craig Yoe, Gary Groth, Kim Thompson, plenty of others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

• A good conversation on Saturday night with Nick Abadzis and Tom Neely which I'm really glad we had.

• Being able to see my Harvey Awards at last when they were kindly handed over to me, as I was unable to attend the award ceremony last month. (They're now on the mantelpiece.)

• Having my new book, The Show Must Go On, in my hands at last!

• Meeting an art collector, Richard Greene, who was kind enough to show me and Rick Parker his dog-themed collection of original art. There were some fantastic pieces in there, including some original work by TAD Dorgan and Basil Wolverton. Quite amazing.

I brought my camera, and even remembered to take a photo or two, although ninety per cent of the time I forgot I had the darn thing. Here, though, are the pictures I remembered to take:

The Boom! Table - editor Adam Staffaroni and interns Carol Thompson and Lawrence Derks 

 

Dinner on Sunday night - always a pleasure to catch up with the Drozds.

A Basil Wolverton original (top) and a Pete the Tramp daily. 

All around, this was one of the most enjoyable SPXes I've attended, and I've been to a bunch of 'em. Time to start planning for 2012!

Shoes, Ships and Sealing-Wax

Snarked! #0 is out in stores tomorrow! Launching concurrently with the new series, may I direct your attention to SnarkIsland.com, which for the duration of the series will be dedicated to all things Snarked! - the site is up and running at the moment, but you can expect more content to be rolled out as the series progresses.

Anything big regarding the series will continue to be announced here at the Hotel Fred; SnarkIsland.com is more of a portal to Snarked-specific content, like character descriptions and themed desktops and so forth, as well as a way for people to send mail to the comic. It's sort of like a complement to the letters page which will appear in the print version.

Anyway - all very exciting. Lock up your oysters - The Walrus is IN!

Snarked!

There are just a couple more days now to get your pre-orders in for Snarked! #0, the preview issue that comes out in August with an eight-page, self-contained teaser strip and a bunch of special features. It's just one dollar, so I feel ridiculously confident in recommending it on its value-for-money basis alone. (Apart from that, I'm pretty proud of it!) I've been getting a gratifying amount of press about the series - a few of the choicer tidbits are linked below (sorry if I've missed anyone, they're proving hard to keep up with!). The series proper starts in October. Most exciting.

MTV Geek Advance Review

MTV Geek Interview

Comic Book Resources Advance Review

Comic Book Resources Interview

Comics Alliance Interview

Things From Another World Interview
Comics Bulletin Advance Review

Announcements!

Well, hello! First, I just wanted to say what an excellent time I had at Heroes Con and how much I enjoyed myself, as always. I will hopefully have more to say about it in a few days; right now, I only have time to say "thank you" to Shelton Drum and his team for having me. So thank you.

Coupla things! First, my next major project, Snarked!, has now been well and truly announced! There's four pages' worth of preview material here - please check it out and ask your local comic shop to save you a copy. The preview issue hits the shelves this August.

Next, just a couple of days ago Marvel announced that I'll be writing a new adaptation of the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter novels, A Princess of Mars, for Marvel, drawn by Filipe Andrade. More on that here - that one will be out in September.

Also in September, over two hundred pages of Langridge - enough to break the arm of a child. Yes, there's to be a collection of old and new material from across my career, up to and including the Mugwhump the Great serial that's just concluded on ACT-I-VATE. Called The Show Must Go On, that will be out for SPX, under the Boom! Town imprint.

Sleep is for losers. Losers, I say!

Snarked

Blog visitors may have noticed a reference to "Snarked" in the sidebar recently. There's a bit more about it here. (Though not much more.) My lips are sealed for the moment...

The Three-Headed Rat of Doom

First things first - I believe the new Fin Fang Four stories begin their online serialisation on Marvel Digital tomorrow (I'll update that link when I have an actual page to direct you towards). Last I heard, they were going to kick off with the Fin Fang Foom solo story, The Bald Truth, which is one of Scott Gray's finest and funniest.

Monday was a deadline cluster - a triple whammy of Nick Mag, Muppets and Inside Soap spot illustration. Like three rats with their tails tied together (I'm just tired enough for that metaphor to make perfect sense - it'll probably be a complete mystery to me tomorrow). Finished the second variant cover for Muppet Show #1, just squeaking in on the deadline - there may be tweaks before publication, but this is what'll go in the Previews catalogue for now.


And I should clear something up: there's an online press release which seems to suggest that I'm some sort of "supervisor" on the Muppets comics, which is not the case, I'm afraid. I'm just a schlepper with a pencil, and that's kind of the way I like it. Any and all supervision is coming from Boom Studios, Disney and the lovely Jim Lewis at the Henson company, while I sit in an attic all day, scratching away. (I blame this new laundry powder.) So if there are Muppet fans who are worried about what I might do to the characters we all know and love, please rest assured that I don't have anything like the kind of power that could do any serious damage. Frankly, I'm lucky to be allowed to cross the road by myself.

Hands Up

Disney's crack team of thumb-twiddlers have finally given my first Muppet script the go-ahead, so things are finally moving. Moving at a slightly faster speed than I was prepared for, in fact. Boom Studios have decided to go with variant covers on the first issue, they want them both drawn by me, and they want them yesterday. Eek! Here's the first one in pencil form...


Boom, like Disney Adventures before them, have asked me to do the characters in my own style, but even so, there are some that simply don't work unless you get them just so (Miss Piggy being the most glaring example). I've tried my best to do them justice. But my god, I hope it gets easier. The last thing I want is a crowd of glove puppets outside my window carrying burning torches, the smell of hot foam rubber and felt scorching the night air.

It's Time to Play the Music

I believe it's now been officially announced, so I daresay I can mention it here at last: I will be writing and drawing a Muppet Show comic for Boom Studios (after an initial mini-series written by Mark Waid). Big and scary! But good! Scary because it will be the first time I write material for other artists to draw (being monthly, I can't do the whole book on my lonesome, so there will be other hands involved - although I'll be drawing as much of it as I can). The details are still shaking down at the moment... but still, good stuff.



And while I've got your attention, I ought to mention that The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels, written by Danny Fingeroth, with a 30-page miniature graphic novel in the middle (what we used to call a "comic" in the olden days) drawn by Yours Truly, will be out on either the first of August (what the publisher told me) or 15th of September (what it says on Amazon) - I really have no idea which is correct, I'm afraid. Amazon pre-ordering info here if you're in America, or here if you're in the UK like me. Or else go to a shop like your grandfather used to do, you young whippersnappers.