Well, it only took mumble-mumble pages, but here, ladies and gents, is a DANG WOLF.
I swear, there will be more of them. In fewer pages, this time. Considerably fewer!
Upcoming antics: September 11-12, I’ll be at the Small Press Expo in scenic Bethesda, MD! Come find me at Table 2F, right next to the excellent Carla Speed McNeil, who will probably be hosting the fire sale of the century as she prepares for Dark Horse to take over publishing her wonderful body of work.
Pre-orders are still going out – I’m down to book-only orders and anything involving an original painting, so keep your eyes on your mailboxes!
Have a lovely Labor Day weekend, my fellow Americans – I’ll see you next week.
This week will be Lucien’s last appearance for a long while. Alas! And just when we all thought we’d get to see him with his shirt off. I’ll miss drawing him and his calm, well-meaning face. Good travels, sir. You’ve been a fine Virgil.
In real life departures: as we knew to expect, my grandfather died early this week. It was peaceful and merciful. Most of our last conversations together were about the comics business – he was an amateur cartoonist during his PR-man years. He said he wanted to pitch me for a “double-decker strip” for the Chicago Tribune. I told him I didn’t work on spec. He got a kick out of that.
Goodbye, old bomber pilot.
This week’s page is moderately Not Safe For Work; there are no Frontal Personal Bits but there is a fair amount of everything else. HaHA, thought you could make it through a comic set in an all-male 18th century institution without a little homoeroticism? YOU THOUGHT WRONG, READERS.
Moving on!
Not much news this week beyond the ongoing march of pre-orders. The $40 packages are within sight of being finished; watercolor packages are going at about three a week; and book-only packages are going just as fast as I can draw inside the covers. You guys! You ordered a lot of books! It’s fantastic. I wish I had five of me so I could send them to you INSTANTLY.
Meanwhile, I’m mulling over notions of fun exclusives to bring to SPX, this September 11th and 12th in Bethesda; if you have any requests or neat ideas for things you might like to purchase from me, chime in and I’ll add it to the basket of possibilities!
It dawned on me as I pencilled this week’s page that it is essentially one of those Calvin & Hobbes strips where they go down the hill in the Radio Flyer. I’d like to think that, at the end of this book, it is revealed that Lucien has been a stuffed tiger the whole time.
Anyway! Onwards. A couple more pages to this scene and then we’re through. Meanwhile I have still been sending out pre-orders (we’re down to under 200 left! ahahahahhhhh). I’m beginning to develop hope that I’ll actually have them all out this month. It’s fun to hear from people when their package arrives.
Usual disclaimers about having one extremely ill grandparent apply for next week’s update, but I remain ever optimistic. See you then!
It’s been a lot of work catching up from Comic-Con (I missed at least one entire news cycle; only now do jokes on the Daily Show seem coherent to me). But behold, here at long last is a new page. Thank heavens for the occasional interlude taking place in a darkened wood; if it were architecture or bookspines I’d be in trouble. Instead it’s owls and silhouetted pine boughs. Huzzah!
I’m traveling once again this week to help out family, and my computer is exhibiting worrisome death throes. Hopefully the both together won’t totally nix me for new comics productivity, but either way I’ll keep you posted. At the least I’ll try to put up a new round of notes.
I’m working to send out a big pile of pre-orders every day as well! A bunch of people have written in to change their mailing address at the last minute – if you’ve moved since you ordered, please send me a line and I’ll make sure your book doesn’t get bounced around before finding you.
I’m enjoying taking my time on the watercolor orders, making sure each of them looks pretty and has enough of my time invested to justify the generous donation. I’ll post the two that I’ve finished so far as soon as they’ve been safely received by their new owners. (If you’re a watercolor-order person and you just CANNOT WAIT to get your book, please send me a poke and I’ll put together the whole rest of your order, ship it to you now, and send the painting when it’s ready.)