blog: appearances

Just added: PORTLAND & L.A. signings!

I was hoping this would all come together, and it has! Hooray! I’ll be coming to Portland, Oregon next week — Wednesday, June 23rd — for a combination book signing and comedy performance of Tweet Me Harder. I was bummed that I wasn’t able to make it to the Stumptown Comics Fest this year, but I’m pleased that I’ll be able to come to Portland after all. I’ll be bringing a small set of Wondermark books and the usual paraphernalia, as well as the new Tweet Me Harder book I’ve written with Kris Straub. And Kris and I will be taking the stage to spin wild, hilarious yarns as part of the festivities of the evening! PLUS there will be many other famous cartoonists there such as Octopus Meredith, Dresden A. Diaz and Erika Moen. YOU SHOULD COME.

Folks have been telling me recently, “David, I hear you keep talking about Tweet Me Harder, but I am not sure that I am interested. I don’t tweet, I can’t bother to tune in live when you do your show, I’m not even quite sure what it is, I don’t have the stomach for podcasts and I’m not fond of you personally.” I’m happy to clarify:

You don’t have to use Twitter to enjoy TMH. It’s just a way that people can interact with the show! Sort of like the callers on a talk radio show. But I’d say that 95% of the TMH listener base has never tweeted to us. That’s fine!

You don’t have to listen live. It’s a podcast! You can subscribe on iTunes and listen to the recorded shows. Again, I’d say the vast majority of people — certainly over 90% — listen to the recorded shows after the fact. DO EET

It is a comedy talk show. Kris and I solve all the world’s problems, every week, for an hour. It will improve your life immeasurably.

You don’t even have to listen to enjoy the show — that’s what the book is for! And you can ignore that this book is a Tweet Me Harder book. Just consider it a comedy book written by me! If you like the voice behind Wondermark, give TMH a try. IN FACT — here is a free chapter from the book so you can see if it’s something you might enjoy more of. KAPOW.

If you are not fond of me personally, I don’t know that we have a lot of common ground to stand on! Perhaps we should ask a mutual friend for advice on how to move forward with our relationship? I think it will just take time, and good intentions, and having some real quality experiences together. Hence the party on Wednesday.

“David, I like Wondermark, but I’ve tried TMH and I hate it.” Well, okay. I’d argue that you may have tripped over a bum episode in a bad mood, but fine. I beg your indulgence, now and in the future, because I will continue to prattle about it. I am very proud of what Kris and I are doing, and we keep getting better.

SO — book signing, Portland, June 23rd! The open house starts at 6PM and the TMH performance will be about 7:30. The address is 1515 SE 46th Ave, 97215, or here is a Facebook thing. Hope to see you there!

ALSO: BONUS LOS ANGELES SIGNINGS:

The Devastator, the humor anthology you kindly contributed to, is being released next week! I will be attending the release party at Meltdown Comics on Saturday, June 26th and signing copies of the book. I don’t know that I’ll have Wondermark stuff with me, but I will certainly have smiles! And what the heck, I will give away free sketches to anyone who attends.

I will have Wondermark stuff at a signing at Secret Headquarters on July 15! More info to come on this one, but both this and the Portland appearance will be in conjunction with Meredith Gran’s nationwide tour for the release of her new Octopus Pie collection, There Are No Stars in Brooklyn.

LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN

This weekend: Charlotte!

It’s here! The last stop on my comprehensive tour of the world! I’ll be in Charlotte, NC for Heroes Con this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and you should come out to the Charlotte Convention Center to say hello. I will look forward to seeing you! We will have a pleasant conversation! The last time I was in Charlotte I had quite the time. This time I imagine will be double that and more in every measurable way.

On Sunday, I’ll also have the pleasure of appearing on a panel with the estimable Kate Beaton, to be moderated by one of the finest minds in comics journalism, Tom Spurgeon. Tom gave me one of the best interviews I’ve ever had and I look forward to seeing and speaking with him this weekend. And Kate’s always a delight — her comics crack me up with every update and I’m pleased to call her a good friend. The panel will be at 4:30 PM and I’ll be sure to wear my brightest smile.

CHARLOTTE HERE I COME you better get READY

Maker Faire this weekend

The Utterly Comprehensive Book Tour soldiers on, with two stops remaining before this train is classified a Zone Seven Urban Contaminant and blocked from leaving the station ever again. Next up is Maker Faire in San Mateo, this very weekend! I’ll be in the ‘Bazaar Bizarre‘ section, off to one side and around a corner or something, but I’m sure I’ll be easy to find, because I like to generally keep a good outlook about this sort of thing. Maker Faire! Come for the homemade robots; stay for the acrobatic turn-of-the-century circus which I assume will probably be there; leave with some Wondermark stuff. It’s all part of how you nourish the soul.

I had such a good time in Austin last weekend! Just look at the charming and attractive people I got to spend time with:


(Rocking the fashionable My Parents Never Taught Me Arabic shirt)

Thankfully, only one person was devoured, which is actually a pretty good average for the weekend. Come say hello when next I darken the mud of your town! You will probably escape being eaten, but there are no promises in life. Besides, turnabout is fair play.

My thanks to Brennan, Joe, and Sarah for their kind assistance and Austin hospitality! I hope to return triumphantly in years to come. It was only the second time at any event that I have ever been welcomed by a marching band.

And not just any marching band!

Tomorrow: the thrilling tale of WIZARD CHESS

Austin & the world: Thoughts about cards

Thank you to everyone who came out to TCAF last week! Man alive, that was a fun show. I saw so many friends, picked up some really neat books to read, and enjoyed the city of Toronto in a pleasant and life-affirming way. I love that TCAF is in a library, and that it’s free to attend — it positions the show as a cultural event and something with a low barrier to entry, rather than a remote, cavernous media circus (or dingy swap meet aspiring to the level of media circus), and it attracts a literate, curious, and enthusiastic crowd. My kudos to Chris Butcher for his hard work putting the show together, and I already can’t wait till next year!

I hope this coming weekend goes just as well! The latest (and near-to-last) leg of my Absurdly Exhaustive Spring Book Tour finds me in Austin, Texas at the Renegade Craft Fair! It’s a FREE event held at Palmer Events Center this Saturday and Sunday, and I hope you’ll come check it out. This is an entirely new type of show for me, and I’m keen to watch it unfold, hopefully into a pleasing and elegant shape.

I’m hoping that you, the lovely and kind Wondermark reader with an easy smile yet distinct sense of boundaries, will come out to say hello, since I haven’t been in Austin for a while — but another big chunk of my time at shows is always spent meeting new folks, handing out flyers and sample comics, and doing my level best to spread the word about my little operation here. I’ve found that the success of the pitch is strongly related to the tenor of the show itself (insofar as certain events tend to attract certain types of people), and I’ve spent all week coming up with stuff for the table that’ll hopefully speak the language of this show in particular.

I’ve sold greeting cards for quite some time, of course — right now they’ve been shifted to a lower priority as far as online sales go, just because I haven’t had time to process orders between all the traveling of these last few months — but they’ve always been their own thing, a collection of gags that looked and sounded kind of like Wondermark but shared no overlap in content with the other stuff I create. It struck me yesterday that there’s no reason I can’t take some of my more interesting design work (for books or other projects) and adapt it all into art-print and note-card form in a way that might be arresting to someone wandering the halls of this craft fair, waiting for something to strike their eye — so that’s what I’ve spent a few days working on. I’ve now got a whole new complement of cards and prints I’m eager to share with you (and eager to test out in the world), and depending on how they do, we may see quite an expansion of my online card offerings. I’ve been very pleased with the reception my holiday and Valentine cards in particular have had, and I’m definitely keeping all the existing lines alive — but I’d like to do more, much more, as well.

So let me ask you: What do you look for in greeting cards, occasion cards, or note cards? What are the things to keep in mind, the occasions or themes you care about, or things that frustrate you about existing cards (mine or others out there in the world) that I could do better? I’m keen to hear your thoughts — please comment on this post, and I’ll take it all into consideration. Thanks very much for your feedback!

And Austin, you’ll get a sneak peek at the new cards! See you at the fair!

Sketches from the Road

Thank you for supporting the Kickstarter effort for The Devastator! Amanda, Geoffrey and I are very excited to see this book come together. I should make clear that you can still get in on the pre-order for the book for the next day or so, and I’ll also be sure to mention it once the physical book is available!

On my travels, I like to sketch — either on paper in my notebook, or on my laptop with a drawing tablet. This particular collection is the result of an animated evening in New York a few weeks back, and I thought I’d share!

This weekend I’m in Toronto for TCAF! What a fun show, what a great city, what a tremendous collection of artists under one roof. Plus, it’s free! Just walk in the ol’ door! What do you have to lose.

Another thing I love about TCAF is how varied the panels and programming always are. Just check out the schedule — if you have even a passing interest in comics I’m sure you’ll find something interesting going on. TCAF is one of the rare breed of comics shows put on by people who love comics and comics creators foremost (which cannot be said of all shows, sadly), and boy, it shows!

On Saturday I’ll be on a panel called “Tracers, Photoshoppers, Cut & Pasters: Cheaters or Revolutionaries?” with my good friends Ryan and Emily as well as two other folks I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet. We’ll be talking about making comics without actually, you know, drawing comics in the traditional fashion. I think it will be a gas! OR, it could be miserable, but I think that is fairly unlikely.

On the plane to Toronto I impressed myself mightily by saying to the person beside me (after a few minor conversations about the drink cart and so on proved to be perfectly pleasant), “Can we be friends? I am tired of sitting in these seats staring straight ahead not talking to people. I’m David.” I’m not usually comfortable initiating conversations like that, but I did this time, and it was nice! We talked for an hour or so, and then went back to our reading or whatever. It was perfectly fine.

I might even try it again on the next flight — but only if the preliminary drink-cart tester-conversations go smoothly first.