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.
From the latest edition of Publisher’s Weekly / Children’s Bookshelf, an exciting announcement!
You’ll be hearing and seeing plenty more about this in the months to come, but for now it’s exciting just to say in public that it’s happened! I love this story and the artistic challenge it represents for me, and I really look forward to speaking with a young audience. Thank you to Barry and to Susan for taking me up on it!
I’m happy to announce that I’m now represented by Barry Goldblatt Literary! Barry has a fantastic reputation and represents some of my favorite creators in children’s, middle grade, YA, and genre literature, so I’m honored to become a part of the agency. Barry maintains a lively presence on Twitter, so if you’re interested in hearing more about his clients and working process, I highly recommend following him.
I’ll continue to manage my self-published and freelance projects, but if you have a publishing inquiry for a new project, please consider sending it through BGL first.
This past month I’ve had the pleasure of creating art with Scott Kurtz for a new tabletop card game by the world-famous game designer Jason Bulmahn! Pirate Loot is a quick-to-learn, devilish-to-play game of skull-duggery, high adventure, and competitive treasure-hoarding for up to 4 players.
The game is suit-based, which means that with each card you draw, you’ll be building a hand – er, crew – of pirates from different factions. Each faction has a different in-game behavior, enabling you to grab more treasure, steal crew from your opponents, backstab, or weasel your way out of discards!
We started out with just one pirate image per faction, but since the game has cruised past its initial $20k printing budget, these will only be the first of dozens of unique crewmembers!
Brutal faction pirate.
Greedy faction pirate.
Lazy faction pirate.
Clever faction pirate.
It’s always a blast to illustrate using Scott’s concepts and style, so I’ve been enjoying myself thoroughly. I can’t wait to illustrate the rest! You can see more at Pirate Loot’s Kickstarter page, or pledge to receive updates and get in on exclusive cards that won’t appear in the commercially sold version of the game.
A few news items from the spring!
It’s a great honor to announce that my online graphic novel Family Man has been nominated for a Reuben Award in the Online Comics – Long Form category. This is an especial pleasure since it was just this past winter that I was able to attend the extended NCS conference opening the new Billy Ireland library and museum at Ohio State University.
I met dozens of incredibly talented, deeply experienced, and extremely generous NCS members, many of them responsible for the comic strips that inspired me in the first place. This gives the nomination added impact, and I’m so touched. Family Man is a long, slow burn of a passion project, and this is a wonderful boost of validation. Thank you to the nominating committee for considering me; and, if you’re a voting member of NCS…give the comic a read! Winners will be announced in May. I’m in some great company!
My dear friends Dave Kellett and Fred Schroeder have labored for years to create this wonderful documentary. They interviewed dozens of cartoonists about their work and their perspective on an industry that’s in the midst of some radical change, and assembled images from more than a hundred years of North American comics history. They not only interviewed li’l guppies like myself – they also nabbed luminaries like Bill Watterson and Jim Davis. The movie is now available through iTunes, Google Play, VHX.tv, and for sale on DVD. You can also download individual full-length interviews from over 16 creators. I can’t recommend it enough.
I’ve been a fan of journalist Glenn Fleishman’s work at the Magazine (where I’ve provided illustrations) and his podcast The New Disruptors. TND focuses on in-depth interviews with people working independently in creative industries and new media.
The archives are a blessed hit-list of great folks answering smart questions (including Dave and Fred in the previous episode, talking about Stripped!), so it was a delight to be included on his guest list. Give us a listen!