Merry Christmas!

Julia and I have had a wonderful Christmas. We spent time with family, and did our annual ornament exchange with one another. We both hope that readers of the blog had a great holiday and will continue to over the course of the week leading up to 2008.

For Julia, I continued my tradition of making something as her gift. We needed a hall bench that had to fit some odd requirements (it had to have a narrow projection so that both the front and closet doors could open, it needed storage for gloves and scarves etc, and it needed to be up off the floor enough to not block the heat vent along that wall. Using my Dad's woodshop, I did the construction and assembly, but after a bad polyurithane&stain combo-mix in the 11th hour, my Dad came to the rescue and put in some extra hours after I left to make sure I was giving Julia a gift and not a mess. Thanks for the help Dad!!

Christmas Eve I got a call from Mike Glover at our local ABC affiliate station WXYZ. They had done an interview with me about Mouse Guard a few months ago, and was letting me know that the piece was going to run on the 5pm news (it also was re-run on the 11pm) Today they posted the video on their site, take a look. Thanks to Mike and WXYZ!!

I'm thinking about a new 'feature' for the blog: Mouse Guard fan art. I have recieved a few pieces over this last year, and I think I'll try and make it a point to share one or two per post for a while. To get it started, here is a piece e-mailed to me by Darren C. Ball http://www.cowtato.com/

Thaks Darren!!

*also note, Ramayan 3392 Reloaded #3 (with my backup story) will be out in stores Jan 2nd...or 3rd depending on how the holiday effects the shipping schedule)

Hanuman Backup Story for Ramayan 3392:
I was asked by Ron Marz a while back if I would be interested in joining Brandon Peterson, Mike Oeming, Jim Sarlin, and Bart Sears in doing a 3 page backup story to appear in Virgin Comics' Ramyann 3392. Each story is designed to tell a bit of background info on one of the main characters and Ron thought I'd be a good match for the monkey-god Hanuman. It was an interesting project because the 3rd page also acts as a variant cover, so the 3rd page had to be drawn first to make it in for previews. Ron said he would draft a script for pages 1 & 2 to lead up to whatever I drew as the splashpage/cover for page 3. I had a fun time working on it and Ron was good to work with. It seems like there is a delay with this issue coming out, but when I get some on-shelf-date info, I'll let you know. Until then, here are my 3 pages sans-text:

  

2008 Appearances:

The year is winding down, which means it's time to nail down where I'm going next year. So far, this is a tentative list, but here is what I have planned:

Flint Public Library Reading Jan 5th
Mott Community College signing March 4
Flint Institute of the Arts signing/gallery opening March 29
New York Comic con April 18-20
Calgary Comics Expo April 26-27
Motor City Comic Con May
Wizard World Philly May 30-June 1
Wizard World Chicago June 26-29
San Diego Comic Con July 24-27
Gen Con Aug 14-17
Comic Geek Speak Sept 6-7
Baltimore Comic Con: Sept 27-28

Speaking of Cons, Here is a colored con-sketch I never got around to posting with the earlier batch. It's always fun when I get to draw something non-mousey (not that I don't love drawing them)

I think this was done at the Baltimore show (?)

for a fan on the hellboy.com message board.

And Lastly Issue 3 of Mouse Guard is taking longer than I expected, so it will be late (looking at Jan '08). I am very sorry about that, trust me. Here is a preview of what's to come for Celanawe & Lieam in color

-The Mouse Guard PVC figures have arrived!!!

I ran out to my local comic shop (Detroit Comics in Ferndale, MI) and snapped a photo of the trio all boxed up and sitting on the display table. Yay!!! It's very cool to have these guys out in time for Christmas. Word from Diamond is that the Lieam plush will follow 'in a few weeks'. I hope that can be out for Christmas as well. I can't explain how cool/surreal it is to walk into a shop and see figures of your creation...

-2008 Appearances:

I have not posted my full 2008 convention schedule yet, but I plan on nailing it down before the new year arrives. For now thought I wanted to highlight two that are coming up sooner than later and I wanted to get the info out.

-Mouse Guard Reading at the Flint Public Library.

The reading date has been moved again. I'm sorry

about any confusion this may cause, but the reading

is now set to take place Saturday January 5th at 2pm

Two of my close friends (of whom Lieam and Kenzie

are based) will be helping me read a selection of Fall

1152 aloud while the images of the book are projected.

directions to the Flint Public Library

-Mouse Guard Gallery Show

The Flint Institue of the Arts (FIA) has offered to display

original Mouse Guard artwork and asked me to do a slide-

show presentation/Q&A and signing. The gallery opening

and presentation will be Saturday March 29th.

FIA website

-Death Ray Magazine

A UK Sci-Fi magazine called Death Ray did an interview with me and is now out on newsstands (Issue #8). Big thanks to Clair who did the interview and to Death Ray for the oppertunity to reach a UK audience!!

Death Ray website

-Robotika Pin-up

It's time to share some artwork...

I am a fan of Alex Sheikman's Robotika book and was very pleased that he and ASP decided to do a 2nd series of the title. Alex's work on the first book was really cool and well designed, but it has been outdone by the artwok for series 2 (He has sent me page scans and given me an inside view of what's to come). We agreed to do a pin-up exchange. So to help promote that issue 1 of Robotika: For a few Rubles More will be in stores later this month, here is the pin-up I did for Alex. Check out the book and Alex's site and blog!!