LA Times Book Prize finalist, doggies!

hello! I'm fidgety and flattered to announce that Swallow Me Whole is a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize! (You can read the announcement here.) Even more preposterous, it's the only comic since Art Spiegelman's Maus to be nominated for the award, in any category! eek! I'll be appearing at the Hi De Ho Comics table during the LA Times Festival of Books on April 25-26, if you wanna say hello..!

Also, my publisher Top Shelf is having a special offer through April 26th-- If you order Swallow Me Whole from them, you get a copy of Please Release for a penny!

sounds of face-melting winter metal.

I've started playing in a new band called Still Hidden here in Bloomington, along with Mike Lierly (Soophie Nun Squad, Tem Eyos Ki, Divorce Chord), Hannah Jones (Ghost Mice, Beyond Things), Jarod Isenbarger (Morrow, Dead Letter Auction), and Mike Harpring (Good Luck). We only have some 4-track recordings right now, but will be playing shows starting in March, and should be recording a 12" in the springtime!

come see these shows if you can:
* March 19 @ Rachael's Cafe (300 E. 3rd St.), Bloomington IN w/ Sinaloa, Pink Houses. 8pm.
* March 20 @ Skull Alley, Louisville KY w/ Sinaloa, +TBA.
* March 21 @ Legion of Doom, Columbus OH w/ TBA.

The Silence Of Our Friends


Ah! I'm getting started this week on the drawing chores for a forthcoming graphic novel written by Mark Long and Jim Demonakos called The Silence Of Our Friends! Above is an illustration from the book thus far. Publisher and other stuff forthcoming-- this book should be out in late 2010 (along with my own new book, Any Empire.. I'm holding down the fort on both simultaneously.)

pocket change

hello there, and happy end of a heavy year!
The SHOP section is updated with all kinds of new stuff!

world without men, amen. amen.

somehow, for the first time in twenty years i'm getting in a genuine "holiday spirit"... so here's a long-forgotten MGM animation from 1938 or 1939 (important to note it was produced before the official onset of WWII, though i'd place the starting whistle at the 1936 war in Mongolia) called "peace on earth". i remember seeing it when i was 5 or 6 years old, and being hit with a barrage of emotions i couldn't place or define until much later. this cartoon always haunted me, and is probably one of the most influential pieces of art i was exposed to as a child.

more signings coming up!

Sat 11/22 at Vintage Phoenix Comics, Bloomington IN. 3-6pm.
Fri 11/28 at Collector's Edition Comics, North Little Rock AR. 12-3pm.
Sat 12/13 at TBA in Cleveland OH!

thanks for everyone who came by to say hello over the last month's travels! Thanks to SCAD students for putting up with my vague and fidgety ways!

SWALLOW ME WHOLE is out!! eek!

hello! well, i most excitedly declare that Swallow Me Whole debuted at SPX this past weekend, and it smells great. and feels really good too. I also should awkwardly declare that it won an Ignatz Award for "Outstanding Debut"! The precious brick sleeps beside me nightly, swaddled in blankets. Thank you everyone for the kindness!

thanks so much for everyone who came out to my gallery show tonight! i am flattered and honored. Bloomington is full of some wonderful people, and I'm so glad to live here. Bring on the season!

New signing updates are posted! A few more changes to come soon as well...

fall updates!

ah yes! finally, i've transitioned to some proper hippie-shit corduroys (and as i write this at work, a six-inch hole just ripped out of my pants-ass while i knelt to help someone get dressed! my only pants, too! at least that forsaken Nausea patch can finally be of some use..) good bye shorts, goodbye sunburned knees...it's only a matter of time before the hoodie gets its proper welcome to the autumn. pumpkin-flavored everything!

*finalized signing/tabling dates for the fall:

Fri 9/26: gallery opening at Sweet Hickory, Bloomington IN. 7pm.
Sat 10/4-5: Small Press Expo, North Bethesda MD (debut for Swallow Me Whole)
Mon 10/6: HBML Junk Shop (420 Pleasant St.), Worcester MA. 4-8pm.
Tue 10/7: Ada Books, Providence RI. 7pm.
Wed 10/8: Million Year Picnic, Cambridge MA. 5-7:30pm.
Thurs 10/9: Giant Robot, New York NY.
Fri 10/10: Rocketship Comics, Brooklyn NY.
Fri 10/17: Boxcar Books, Bloomington IN.
Sat 10/18: Quimby's, Chicago IL. 7pm.
Sat 10/25: Floating World, Portland OR.
Sun 10/26: Seattle Comicard convention (hangin with Yu-Gi-Oh! fans), Seattle WA. 10am-5pm. (more info soon!)
Wed 10/29: Comic Relief, Berkeley CA. 5-7pm.
Sat 11/1-2: Alternative Press Expo, San Francisco CA.
Sat 11/1: signing and unexplainable live drawing performance at Isotope, San Francisco CA. 8pm-12am! APE afterparty blowout! Brett Warnock mixin poisons!
Tue 11/11: Comics & More, Savannah GA.
Wed 11/12: Oxford Comics (2855 Piedmont Rd. NE), Atlanta GA.
Thurs 11/13: Bizarro Comics, Athens GA. 3-6pm.
Sat 11/22: Vintage Phoenix, Bloomington IN.
Fri 11/28: Collector's Edition, North Little Rock AR. 12-3pm.

see you thurr!

*Next week I'm screen-printing (with the technical and logistical aid of my feathered friends Crystal and Kieth) some posters for Swallow Me Whole. I'll get the design up soon, and there'll be some available to order as well, if you're interested!

*On my fall travels I'll have a small-print run of a few comics stories: the comic is called Cakewalk, and the title story is written by one Rachel Bormann (this story will be featured in our forthcoming comics collection..). There's another story in there that's an interpretive version of the Pretty Girls Make Graves song "The Get-Away." I'll also have a few copies of this available for mailorder to boot!

*I'm working on a bunch of illustrations for Michael Hoerger's forthcoming book Edible Secrets, due out next year from Microcosm Publishing! The book covers a hidden history of covert CIA and executive operations filtered through the context of food. Bizarre, shocking, hilarious, and terrifying.

*The forthcoming Top Shelf book formerly known as Voglio Capirlo is now Any Empire. It'll likely be finished at the end of 2009, and released in the latter half of 2010.