My new book for young readers, Queen of the Sea, hits bookshelves on the 25th of June! I’ll be all over my home town of Portland, Oregon, reading excerpts, explaining how I turned Queen Elizabeth I into a font, signing and doodling in copies, and answering reader questions.
I’ve got events at a comics shop, a children’s bookstore, and an all-purpose book palace subdivision, and each event is tailored to fit a different crowd – so if you miss me at one, you can catch me at another.
Wednesday, June 26th, 6-8pm
Books With Pictures
1401 SE Division St (note the new address – first event in their big new home!)
Big Ole Launch Party! Snacks, giveaways, a reading, cartoonists everywhere.
All ages welcome; there will be adult beverages.
Sunday, June 30th, 11am
Green Bean Books
1600 NE Alberta St
Kid-friendly reading and signing!
All ages welcome. Green Bean is a wonderful independent children’s bookstore!
Thursday, July 11th, 7:30pm
Powell’s Books on Hawthorne (note that this is the branch in the Southeast, not downtown or Beaverton!)
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Reading and signing in the Tabor Room!
All ages welcome. I’ll be doing some extended Q&A for folks interested in how the book was made!
Exciting news! My next publishing project, The Long Con, will be serialized starting this July from Oni Press! This is my first book to be published the old-fashioned comic book way – in individual issues with cool covers, available at your local comic book store, and then in trade collection (…if enough people like it!).
Comic Book Resources ran an excellent piece on it yesterday along with a four-page preview from Issue #1. Read it here!
The Long Con has a very simple premise: the Apocalypse hits during a Comic-Con. Most of society, and everything within a fifty mile radius of the convention center, is reduced to glowing rubble. Five years later, a desperate journalist braves the wasteland to revisit the site, and discovers that the con never ended…it only evolved.
Victor Lai, failed puff-piece journalist, and his erstwhile nerd-pal Dez Delaney, indie comics PR maven, must navigate LongCon’s many threats and obstacles in order to bring peace to warring fandoms, discourage cannibalism, and possibly uncover a sinister, decades-long conspiracy with implications for humankind’s very survival…
This is also an exciting first for me in some other ways. I’m co-writing the book with my friend and regular Twitter bantering mate, Ben Coleman. Ben is a deeply funny comedy writer who, thanks to his career as a film critic for the Portland Mercury, also has great discernment when it comes to smart storytelling.
We’re also working with an incredible artist, Emilee Denich, because we were lucky enough to catch her in the thirty seconds before she becomes insultingly famous. Finding an artist who can design dozens of character AND draw big ridiculous set-pieces AND crowded fight scenes AND physical humor AND character banter AND mimic different media styles AND do it in an overall style that would appeal to a broad audience AND make deadlines? That is the dream, my friends, and Em is so freakin’ dreamy.
Add in the color stylings of M. Victoria Robado, the type wizardry of letterer Aditya Bidikar and the laser-eyed editorial skills of Ari Yarwood and Robin Herrera and you have the recipe for an amazing comic shop debut. I hope you’ll all join us when issue #1 arrives at your local comic book store this summer!
My latest story, collected in Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #3, is now available at your local comic book store, or online through Image Comics!
Triple Feature is an ongoing anthology of original 8-page shorts, by creators hand-picked by Bitch Planet writer Kelly Sue De Connick and artist Valentine De Landro.
Bitch Planet is the sharpest satire currently publishing in the comics world – a mix of Brazil-style dystopian sci-fi, blaxploitation flicks, and Orange is the New Black. It was an honor (and a total blast) to be invited into the unexplored corners of that universe.
Naturally, when asked to do a riff on a multiracial/queer/feminist space prison epic, I chose to do a story about a couple of white guys going camping.
…you’ll see how it fits in, I swear.
I’ll be appearing in Juneau, AK this Saturday (May 22) at the Alaska Robotics Mini-Con! The show is free to the public, and you can find me from 10:00am to 5:00pm at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. I’ll also be appearing at the Kick-Off Event at the Valley Library on Friday evening.
Shortly after that, I’ll be heading into the forest for the Comics Camp, where I’ll be leading some workshops on the techniques I use in my work, and leading some discussions about how creators can help make the publishing industry more accessible to marginalized voices.
This little con has an all-star line-up of guests that would blow the socks off of any big city show, so if you’re in the area, come take advantage – and I’ll see you there!
Two new portraits in my portfolio for 2017! First up is a digital portrait of pioneering Stonewall gay and trans rights activist Marsha P. Johnson, in the colors of the Transgender Pride flag for Trans Day of Visibility. When questioned by a judge what the “P” stood for, her famous reply was “Pay It No Mind.” Apparently this was the response she also gave to anybody who inquired after her gender.
Next, in watercolor, is Jesuit priest Father Daniel Berrigan, the Catholic anti-war and nonviolence activist. The composition is inspired by traditional icons of the prophet Jeremiah (a subject of Fr. Berrigan’s writing); the prophetic scroll includes an excerpt from one of his best-known poems, “Tulips in the Prison Yard.”
Martha P. Johnson, digital, 2017
Father Daniel Berrigan, watercolor, 2017