blog: appearances

Eisner nomination! Twitter contest! Podcast! NEW YORK CITY

REALLY

Hey so my book Beards of our Forefathers has been nominated for an Eisner Award this year! The book is up for Best Humor Publication, which is a tremendous honor. If you’re associated with the comics industry at all, you know how big of a deal the Eisners are — and you may even be eligible to vote!

If you’re a comics professional (artist, writer, inker, colorist, letterer); a webcomic creator; a publisher or editor; or you own or manage a comic shop, you ARE eligible.

So if you’ve read Beards of our Forefathers and enjoyed it, please consider casting a vote at eisnervote.com! (Voting closes on June 15.)

tweet me right

Speaking of voting! I’ve participated in a contest called “Tweet Me A Story,” where participants are challenged to write 140-character-or-less stories based on a provided term. The first round of the judging is over, and two of my stories have made it to the finals in my category!

Starting June 2nd at 9am Eastern, the finalists are put up for an audience vote, and the top vote-getters advance to a grand-championship round. Here’s where you can read the top 15 stories in my category and vote for your favorite!

We've got pep!

While we’re talking about Twitter, I want to tell you about a cool new project I’m involved with! My good friend Kris Straub and I are starting a podcast called “Tweet Me Harder.” We’ll stream it live as we record it, so listeners can respond to us in real-time using Twitter — then Kris and I will use the listener comments as springboards for further conversation and raucous comedy hilarity. It’s clearly the future of podcast talkback interpersonal activity audioblasting!

Our first show will be this Wednesday, June 3rd, at 7pm Pacific / 10pm Eastern. The details are here — and even if you can’t tune in live, we’ll post a recording after the show. (It is a podcast, after all.) You can also follow the show on Twitter to stay on top of everything.

LOOK OUT

Lastly — I’ll be in New York this coming weekend for the MoCCA Art Festival! This is one of my favorite shows of the year. It’s in a new location at the 69th Regiment Armory this year, so don’t go to the Puck Building and wonder where everyone’s hiding. Come out and say hello! I’ll be doing mediocre sketches galore. I am talking GALORE.

What a weird word. GALORE.

See you in New York!

Just added: June 17 book signing in Beverly Hills!

faaancy

Mark your calendar! I’ll be bringing books, sketch paper and high-fives to the official Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death release party at the awesome Crescent Hotel in Beverly Hills. What better way to launch a book that no less an authority than Publishers Weekly called “mordant but must-have“?

The Crescent has an amazing indoor/outdoor lounge bar with double-sided fireplaces, massive leather couches, and a full-service bar and restaurant. We’ll be there from 7-10 PM, and I’ll be doing free sketches in all my books! It’ll be my only Los Angeles appearance this summer, and perhaps all year.

This is the first time I’ve held an event like this and I can’t wait to meet everybody who lives in my very own li’l town. Finally, an event in Los Angeles for the locals! Come out, introduce yourself, and represent.

I’ll post another reminder closer to the date, but mark your calendar now for Wednesday, June 17!

This weekend: TCAF! in Toronto!

tea calf

In just a few short hours I will be boarding an aeroplane for CANADA. This is a country many of you have probably heard of, and in fact some of you probably even live there! If you happen to be in Toronto, the City of Charity, I hope you will come to the biennial Toronto Comic Arts Festival, featuring many fine artists and raconteurs from nations both near and far. It will be my first time in Toronto and, depending on how lenient the local law-enforcement proves to be, perhaps my last! DO NOT MISS IT.

Should you be prohibitively far from Toronto, or restricted from entering Canada due to outstanding warrants, never fear! You can still get the “personal experience” by ordering an Artist Edition book during these LAST SEVEN DAYS that they are available.

Stumptown Comics Fest & BEARD LINK ROUNDUP

This weekend I’ll be in Portland, Oregon for the Stumptown Comics Fest! Portland is the Beard Capital of the USA, so it’s only fair that I use this post for a BEARD LINK ROUNDUP:

BEARD HEAD. So many people have sent me this link! It is a very windy day in Los Angeles today so I could certainly use one of my own. Beardhead.com

Amazing video from the World Beard & Moustache Championships (2003)! My favorite quote: “Well, I don’t normally wear it like this, it’s a bit impractical actually.” This year’s championships are coming up next month in Anchorage, Alaska.

Beard Song. Quite a lovely song really.

The astonishing charity fundraiser, Things My Beard Can Lift.

The Australian band “The Beards“. They proclaim themselves to be “a bearded band”, which is great — but wait! “We only play songs about beards and having beards.” Phenomenal.

This lovely poster is by Michael Buchino of beardrevue.com, which should have a home in the “Beards” tab of your bookmarks folder or RSS list.

Finally, here is a drawing that I made in 2006, the very first year that I went to the Stumptown show:

See you in Portland!

Emerald City ComiCon: April 4-5

whoooosh

This coming weekend I’ll be in Seattle for the Emerald City ComiCon! I’ll have books, posters, a few T-shirts and a pad of paper for sketches. This is one of my favorite shows of the year, so I really hope you’ll come out to say hello.

Later this week or early next week: I’ll be launching a pre-order for my new hardcover strip collection, Clever Tricks to Stave off Death, as well as Return to Wondermark Manor: Dispatches from Wondermark Manor Volume III.
Both books will begin shipping in about a month, but you can secure your copies ahead of time with the pre-order — that’ll ensure you get the very first copies that I receive!

This week I will also be closing the window for Unique Sketch Cards and ludicrous phone calls — if you’d like to take advantage of those offers, you have through Friday! There will probably be a slim Venn-diagram of time when both the new books and the Sketch Cards will be available simultaneously, but don’t make it hard on yourself. Just order them separately. I really don’t mind.

See you in Seattle!