I drew some fish

I am in Easthampton, MA at the moment, having just drawn sketches in about a hundred books! All of my books (and shirts, and prints, and pretty much everything) are shipped from the TopatoCo Command Bunker here, so once the Artist Edition orders that I’ve been crowing about were received and compiled, I swung on into The Office Of The CEO and drew strange little vignettes into everyone’s books while The Executive and I listened to folks recount their visits to Saturn on Coast to Coast AM. I shared a handful of the sketches on my Twitter as I went: the one above is among my favorites, and here are several more examples as well. We may be seeing more freakish dinosaur/tank/airplane/fish drawings in the future! These were pretty fun to do, and thanks very much to all the kind folks who ordered Artist Editions. The next opportunity to get sketched books will be in November.

If you would like to know the sorts of things that go on at TopatoHQ on a daily basis, I guest-star in a totally factual documentary account by John Allison, a well-respected subject of the Queen. In fact, I believe this tale bears the Royal Warrant. (Part 1 is at the bottom of the linked page.)

Now then! In just a few short hours I’ll be leaving the cozy confines of the Pioneer Valley for big ol’ Chicago! The Windy City! Chi-burg! Town of The Double Friendlies! The Urban Chicagopolis! Ol’ Jimmybean! I’ll be at the new C2E2 convention all weekend (with TopatoCo, booth 965), including a Friday-night panel discussion about webcomics that’s sure to be a thrill. I’ve never ever been to Chicago before, and I’m super-triple-excited to check it out and meet all the fun people who I’m sure populate its warrens! You guys have warrens, right? (I have been reading up.)

Finally — thanks to everyone who said hello at the MoCCA Festival last weekend in New York, and especial kind double-thanks to Chris and Carly, my gracious and collegial hosts. Chris if you find my jacket can you please bring it to Chicago.

This week! Bellflower & NYC!

I am back from San Francisco! A cheery hello to everyone I saw at WonderCon, I had a pleasant and friendly time. I think that’ll be a show I return to next year! But I will have no shortage of trips to the Bay Area this year yet. The Bay Area shall become my second home, or third office, or Ninth Gate, or Twenty-Third Skidoo. I will know this Bay Area.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’ll be doing a special in-store signing at Metropolis Comics in Bellflower, CA! Dave Kellett and I will be visiting from 5-8PM, signing books, shaking hands, drawing sketches, and probably solving problems. If you are in the Bellflower area, please stop by!

Then, this coming weekend, I’m in New York City for the MoCCA Art Festival! I will be exhibiting with the stellar Topato Corporation and many of my fine colleagues and friends in the comickal arts. I’m always thrilled to visit New York and this will be my only appearance in NYC this year, so please come out and say hello. Also if you’d like me to bring any prints of individual comics, it’s a new thing I’m trying out at cons! Drop me a line via email or Twitter if you have any particular requests, and I will see what I can do.

Finally, only ONE WEEK REMAINS to pre-order Artist Edition books! For this limited time, I will sketch in your books and it might look like this:

Or, it might not.

ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT

Artist Edition example sketches

Here are some more examples of the sketches I put in Artist Edition books! Each sketch is unique and totally unpredictable.

This is a reminder that these special edition books are currently available through October 11 only, and that the opportunity will not be offered again until next spring. UPDATE: They’re done! Thanks to all who ordered. Next chance will be in April or so.


Will yours look as dapper as these (or any of these older ones)? It is impossible to say yet exciting to imagine. The books — individually or in a discounted combination pack — are available here.

Artist Edition drawings!

A few more examples of Artist Edition drawings, which can be created on command for you, your loved ones, or any strangers you happen to feel like buying books for…

Finally, kind Marksman Doug M. sent this picture of himself and his (drawn in total ignorance) amazing-likeness sketch. If only I’d managed to peg that TERRIFYING MURDEROUS GLEAM I’d call it quite uncanny:

Get your own Artist Edition books today! (Doug-level likeness not guaranteed)

Watch me make comics LIVE: Thurs. 4PM PST

I’ve posted some how-I-make-Wondermark process videos in the past, and have more planned for the future, but I’ve recently discovered the fun of live streaming video! Tuesday’s comic was created with about twenty people watching over my proverbial Internet shoulder, chatting and giving feedback, and I had a great time talking with them, answering questions, and explaining the process as I went along.

Then, I turned on the streaming-cam again for some live sketching on Wednesday, and this time, decided to record the video as well. You can watch it below, after the jump — or here’s a link to the video for readers on feeds.

That video’s about 100 minutes of me drawing Artist Edition books and chatting with viewers — they’re typing in a chat box that I can read, and I’m responding verbally. Again, it was a lot of fun, and it kept me on-task too! (I do not really expect you to sit and watch all 100 recorded minutes, but hey, what you do on your own time is your business)

So I’ll be doing the live-stream thing, if not regularly, at least often for a while, and this time I’m giving advance notice so you can tune in if you like! (I make the show announcements on my Twitter as well.) I’ll be making the next comic this Thursday, starting at 4PM California time. To watch, just visit this handy link right here.

If you do watch, feel free to say hello in the chat to me and the other viewers! The site will give you a default chat nickname (something like “ustreamer-39878”) but you can choose your own name by typing “/nick mycoolname” (without quotes) into the chat window.

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