Website Updated!

So, a year went by (over a year, honestly) without me paying one bit of attention to my poor old website. It was high time I applied a new coat of paint and got back to semi-regular posts. So here I am, finally joining this decade's web aesthetic and generally cleaning things up. 2018 sees many fun bits of news for me, including a book deal for my next graphic novel, Little Monarchs. It now has a home at Margaret Ferguson Books, an imprint of children's publisher Holiday House. I couldn't be happier, or better supported!

Dear Creature recently saw a French edition release, while The New Deal garnered a nomination for the Oregon Book Award (soon to be determined). Go old books!

Alongside my work on Little Monarchs, this year I'm writing BOOM's Over the Garden Wall graphic novels, with series' storyboard artist Jim Campbell doing a stellar job on art duties. Alongside THAT, I keep extra busy with watercolor covers for The Thrilling Adventure Hour, the odd McMenamins painting, illustrations for TEDx, murals, and a bunch of storyboard/illustration work. I'm sure I'm forgetting something... Oh, yes: Two incredible little girls, ages 6 and not-quite-9-months.

It's a beautiful handful, and somehow the work's all moving forward under deadline (editors, that's for you).

I'll go into more detail on all these projects soon, but for now it just feels good to dust off the site's cobwebs. I almost said website cobwebs, but that's too many webs.

Later!

Before Tomorrowland Out... Tomorrow!

Save me from a bad joke, but yes, tomorrow, April 7th, my latest work, Before Tomorrowland, hits bookstores, Amazon... even Walmart, apparently. Sharing credits with Jeff Jensen, Brad Bird, and Damon Lindelof gets you into the 'mart, you see. Here's copy from the back, to tell you what it's all about:

Based on the spellbinding world of the Walt Disney Studios film, Tomorrowland, this original prequel novel features a 20-page comic book and unlocks a place of unfathomable science and technology and the famous people behind it.

The year is 1939.

A secret society of extraordinary geniuses is about to share an incredible discovery with the world.

A misguided enemy--half man, half machine--will stop at nothing to prevent the group from giving this forbidden knowledge to humanity.

And a mother and son on vacation in New York City are handed a comic book infused with a secret code that will lead them straight into the crossfires of the conspiracy.

Jeff Jensen, whom you may remember from our collaboration on Green River Killer, co-wrote the screenplay for Disney's Tomorrowland with Brad and Damon, and brought me aboard to create the illustrations, the comic book segment, the cover (so wild about that retro gold leaf), and in a wild turn of events, to share authorship on this, our book. We produced it during a very hard season, at a pace and intensity that, to paraphrase Jeff, "kicked our butts". I think (hope) the result is something special. It's a wild hybrid of so much: Retro sci-fi, intense family drama, prose, and comics. I'll clam up and let you be the judge of it, but I hope that you (and/or your kids) give it a whirl.

The book's out tomorrow, but signings are coming up next month. Jeff and I will be at Powell's Books in Portland on May 2nd (Free Comic Book Day!) and the University Bookstore in Seattle the following day. I've also heard rumblings of other events, online and offline, but I imagine more will be revealed post-release.

In a bit of serendipity, I'm also working this month with local TED Talk, TEDx Portland, to supply illustrations for their Tomorrows-themed event coming up in May. I get to draw various futuristic visions of the Rose City, both fun and scary. It's really a hoot. They're talking about a gallery show and some other things, but again, no exact details yet. If I can, I'll find a way to bring Before Tomorrowland into that mix somehow. It just seems like a natural match. In the meantime, keep a watch for more signings on my appearances column, and on my store for autographed editions of Before Tomorrowland.

Now, back to the madness. The New Deal, my next authored/drawn graphic novel with Dark Horse, is ridiculously close to deadline, so you go, read other book, let me know what you think (except for first-edition typos, don't tell me any of those or I'll never sleep) and I'll keep making the other new book.

Books!

Portland Monthly — Best of the City

Here are two more pieces from this spring's 'Best of the City' article in Portland Monthly. Every few years, Pomo runs one of these showcases on Portland's food, shopping, family activities, etc., so it was a definite treat to collaborate with them and show off the city I love.

I did six illustrations for them in that issue, and these (Food and Shopping) were two of my favorites. The pieces all started from a notion of transforming everyday Portland moments into fantastical dreamscapes, ala Little Nemo in Slumberland. It was a lot of silly fun, and I enjoyed the chance to help formulate the overall concept.

This Shopping piece was particularly fun, because I got to pick all these bits and bobs that say 'Portland' to me. If anyone disagrees, well, nyeh. It's all about the squids and sock monkeys. One of my also-ran layouts for this piece had the woman dressed as a pirate lady (as people do here in our fair city, year-round, for their own reasons) but wearing regular sneakers— when LO, behind a shoe-store window, she sees the perfect pair of pirate wench boots. Yeah. Too far out... Perhaps TOO Portland for its own good. It was a fun doodle though. I'll have to see if it's still around somewhere.

Portland Monthly — Ink City Illustration

Just added this Portland Monthly piece to my illustrations and paintings. This was an illustration for their Ink City article, talking about Portland's thriving comics creators scene. Their article already had a superhero bent to it, but they liked my pitch for a Little Nemo in Slumberland riff well enough to roll that idea into their Best of the City article the next month. I'll post some of those pieces soon.

Monster Picnic Lives

I love comics fans.

A few years back, I wrote a sonnet for a Monsters and Dames piece (the art was in the Emerald City book, the sonnet accompanied my art print). Since printing up a bunch and selling them all away, I lost the digital file, and the sonnet.

Then this year at Stumptown, a woman named Heather told me she'd purchased that print and had it up on her wall. I told her about my misplacing the file, and a few days later, she emailed me a photo of the piece and a transcript of the sonnet. Thus, it lives, available for purchase once again.

Thanks, Heather!