Phase 7 #015!!!
Sat 3/13/2010
BLAM!!! The next issue of Phase 7 is now available! Don't get TOO excited, it's not the next chapter of Basewood (I'm still working on that, which should be out this fall). No, this issue is made up of Sketchbook material from 1995-2004, which provides glimpses of my life in high school, college, Seattle, Los Angeles, Sydney and Portland.
If you want a sneak peak, you can read my two page introduction to the issue, plus the first two sketchbooks worth of material over in the comics section. A lot of the drawings are pretty rough, but I still think people will be able to enjoy these stories and drawings. I'm excited to get it all into print. There's at least a few good laughs in there...
ANYWAY, Subscriber issues will be mailed out this weekend, and then after that I'll be filling any other orders that come in. So keep an eye on those mailboxes!
Also in April, I'm going to be at the MoCCA Arts Festival in New York City on the 10th and 11th (which is only a MONTH away!) and on the 24th and 25th I'll be in Portland, Oregon at the Stumptown Comics Fest. So if you live in either of those towns, please swing by and say hi! I'll (obviously) have the comic available at those shows too.
So there you go. A new issue of Phase 7! HUZZAH!
The Unsinkable Walker Bean!!!
Sun 3/7/2010
BY FAR, the most exciting thing that happened during my month-long blogging hiatus, was the arrival of an advanced copy of Aaron's next book, The Unsinkable Walker Bean!
I guess FirstSecond got a stack of advanced copies back from the printer, so they overnighted copies to Aaron and myself. I'm pretty sure the book won't be out until October, but the amazon page says August 31st? Well, anyway, some time this FALL, this book will hit the streets and let me tell you, it's WELL worth the wait!
Aaron has really outdone himself this time. The story is one of the most exciting adventure comics I've ever read and the drawings are just breathtaking. People are going to be reading Walker Bean on the edge of their chairs! I put over 700 hours of work into this book, coloring each of the 191 pages in Photoshop, which easily makes it the largest (finished) project I have ever worked on. I am extremely happy about how it all turned out - the book looks GREAT! FirstSecond even sprang for a GOLD printing on the title. It's pretty deluxe!
Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that the book exists, and it flipping RULLLLLES, so keep an eye out for it in the months to come. I will definitely post more about it, once it's out in the world for real.
www.isleofelsi.com
Sat 3/6/2010
One of the links that I'm really excited about on the new miscellaneous page, is for a site that I built a few months ago: www.isleofelsi.com
"The Isle of Elsi" will be my next big comics project after Basewood. Remember that 8-page story I did for Dark Horse Presents last May? Well, those are the main characters from this world. I'm scripting out a much longer story with them, but I will also be using them for other short anthology pieces and illustration work. So for now, www.isleofelsi.com will mostly be a list of all the places these characters will be turning up.
I'm trying to figure out if I want to try and pitch The Isle of Elsi to book publishers, or if I want to just publish it myself as a webcomic using that site, and hope that someone will want to publish it when it's all done. It's quite a conundrum, but luckily I've still got a lot of time to think about it, while I am finishing up Basewood!
Anyway, the site is up and running if you want to check it out!
-- Bear