convention

san diego again!

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San Diego is upon us! July 18-21st. This year I'll be there as a Special Guest, which means there are going to be a bunch of places to see me. Thursday July 18th

10:oo am - TR!CKST3R Symposia #1: Personal Experience: Putting YOU into your project

Stories come from somewhere. From our hearts; our minds; ourselves. We invest our experiences into our art  sometimes sharing deeply personal aspects of our lives with our audience. How can we, as artists -  as storytellers, remain true to ourselves AND tell compelling stories?

This 2-hour discussion is designed to showcase a diverse background of storytellers and encourage you to use your own experiences in your storytelling with confidence. Your audience can handle it.

Participating storytellers include VERA BROGSOL (Anya's Ghost), FAITH ERIN HICKS (Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong), CECIL CASTELLUCCI (Odd Duck), DAVE CROSLAND, and more to be announced shortly! Tickets here.

Friday July 19th

12:00pm - Drawing Stories: What’s New in YA Graphic Novels — Vera Brosgol (Anya’s Ghost), Gris Grimly (Frankenstein), Faith Erin Hicks (Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong), Hope Larson (Who is AC?), and Paul Pope (Battling Boy), five of the hottest teen graphic novel creators in the industry, discuss their current books, what’s involved in creating graphic novels for young adults, and why words and pictures go so well together in books for teens.  Room 25ABC

1:30pm - Vera Brosgol, Faith Erin Hicks, Hope Larson, Autographing Area signing (AA09)

Saturday July 20th

12:oopm - Signing at the First Second Booth #1323

4:oopm - Spotlight on Vera Brosgol

Eisner Award winner and Comic-Con special guest Vera Brosgol (Anya's Ghost) talks about her background and influences in writing, art, and animation with YA rock star Holly Black (The Coldest Girl in Cold Town). Room 4

5:30pm - Vera Brosgol and Holly Black Autographing Area signing (AA05)

Sunday July 21st

Sleep? Eat sandwich? Go home?

I am so excited and honored to be a special guest this year! Hope you see you there!

woohoo!

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Man, you can't beat that. This last weekend I had the amazing honor of winning the Will Eisner award for Best Publication for Young Adults (or possibly teens).  Fortunately they gave that one out pretty early so I got to stop being sweaty and miserable and enjoyed the ceremony quite a bit. Seeing so much love and appreciation for the medium (and George R. R. Martin breathing my AIR) was so invigorating, and made me want to run right home and work on my next book! But spending two more days seeing friends and looking at crazy stuff wasn't so bad either. There was a Paranorman panel that was a lot of fun to attend - the press junket for the movie is gearing up and there's all kinds of cool stuff. Mondo posters showing up in different cities, creepy boxes being sent out to bloggers, and maybe my favorite, a site with some behind-the-scenes featurettes focusing on the amazing, strange people who made the movie.  This studio's strength is in its craftsmanship and the amazing individuals making the movies, not a star-studded voice cast (not that that hurts) and it's so nice to see that get some of the spotlight.

Thanks so much for everyone who voted for Anya's Ghost in the Eisners, and the folks who came by the First Second booth to say hi, and everyone who told a friend about the book or asked their library to order it or ever supported it in any way! The comics community fills my heart with joy. Comics fill my heart with joy. YOU fill my heart with joy.

I will leave you with a picture of me and my comic-con boyfriend Robb Stark. Back to work!

comic-con times

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It is almost San Diego Comic-Con time! Holy moly. I'll be there Friday through Sunday with a coupla signings at First Second — Booth #1323. Friday at 2pm and Saturday at 10am! Other than that I will be wandering around glassy-eyed and underslept. It's gonna be the best. I'll have almonds in my purse if anyone gets hungry.

tcaaaaaf

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Guys it is almost TCAF time. I am beside myself. I am ALSO beside Jen Wang and Emily Carroll at our table this weekend! (See what I did there.) We're actually in the exact same spot as last year, making us pretty easy to find! Table 105, right next to the info desk. I'll hopefully have my giant Anya banner so you can just keep your eyeballs peeled for that. I can finally sell Anya books this year, so I'll have a bunch of those (hardcover and softcover). I'll also have a bunch of new drawthisdress prints as well as prints of this Anya & Emily painting I did recently. No new minis, sadly, since I am trying to start a new graphic novel and that is a bit distracting! Please come by, Emily and Jen will have some rad stuff and we'll all give you winning smiles and handshakes.

Oh, and on Sunday at 4:15 I am in a Food vs Animals draw-off? Your guess is as good as mine!

things this week

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I got some things goin' on this week! Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'll be doing a reading with T. Bak at the Central Branch of the Multnomah County Library at 6:30pm. If you are local stop on by! I'll be talking a bit about my process and will bring along some original comic pages if anybody's into lookin' at that kind of thing. And this weekend is the Stumptown Comics Fest! I'm not tabling, but on Sunday I am on a panel and will have some books for sale at the CLBDF table afterwards. Here is the bluuuurb: 2-2:45: Beyond the Cape: Genre Fiction in Comics

Join moderator Christian Lipski and creators Vera Brosgol, Brian Churilla, Brian Hurtt, Lukas Ketner, Batton Lash, Steve Lieber, Ron Randall, Dylan Meconis, and Brandon Seifert  in a conversation about the other kinds of comics.

Horror, sci-fi, western, romance -- creators talk about the world outside the super-human. Is the ‘mainstream’ expanding to include other genres, or are the smaller publishers growing their audience? What are the publishing options for non-super titles? Is it a worthwhile direction for authors and artists?

And the weekend after THAT (phew!) I'll be in Toronto for TCAF! Delight! More on that soon. Above is a progress picture of a new print I'll be debuting there.

dress-drawin' video

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I've done a couple of livestreams of drawthisdress drawings, and I recorded the last one! Here it is, sped up a bit. It's kinda low-res but you can pretty much see what's goin' on. I hope. Here's the finished drawing.

The Miami Book Fair was awesome! Thanks so much to those who came to see me speak and/or said hi afterwards. I am pretty sold on Florida, especially now that I'm back in soggy forty-degree Portland. I'd love to go back someday!

In other news, Anya's Ghost is getting on some year-end best-of lists which is awesome! I don't know which I'm allowed to mention but it's on the Kirkus Best Teen Books list. Delightful.

I will try to get my webstore back up soon, sorry it's taking so long! I hate unpacking more than I can say.

san diego!

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San Diego came and went! It was my first time since 2004 (when Flight 1 came out) and it was pretty nuts. I'm sure everyone knows how nuts it is so I'm not even gonna go into it here. I had a great time and got to see some of my favorite people.

I mostly hung out at the well-ventilated First Second booth (photo above shamelessly stolen from Mark Siegel). The lovely Dave Roman was often to be found there signing his excellent new book Astronaut Elementary (see it blinding you in the foreground?). I did a few Anya signings but we sold out of books on Friday. So mostly I just said hi to the nice folks that stopped by. In the commotion I almost completely forgot to take pictures but here are some of the things I saw and did:

I grabbed lunch with the ravishing Hope Larson!

And breakfast with the delightful Lori Matsumoto and Patrick Farley!

And some garbage with the charming Pat Race!

The swell fellas at Fleet Street Scandal pushing the new Yuki 7 book, in which I have a drawing.

New bro Thien Pham and good ol' Gene Yang, who were there promoting their new book Level Up. Thien, Dave, Gene and I did a Teen Comics Workshop together on Saturday and had a great time helping a bunch of kids draw the adventures of Sara the Fast Fat Girl and Franq the Delinquent Demon Meathead.

At the First Second dinner on Saturday Thien explained his work ethic to us all over magically refilling wine glasses. Paul was not convinced.

By the end of the show I felt kind of like this doggie. Tired, but happy! Actually I was probably happier than that dog was. It was great talking to people who had read and enjoyed Anya's Ghost. I'm pumped up for the next show I go to (which appears to be NYCC in October) and excited to make more comics!

Books and cons

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Anya's Ghost has sold through its first printing! Unfortunately that means it's been hard for people to find, for which I apologize. The good news is the second printing is due this month so Amazon should start sending out copies really soon. The hardcover is being reprinted too. In the meantime I've got 19 copies of the softcover that I'm selling signed, for people who can't make it to shows or need a book NOW NOW NOW. They're up now in my shop.

In other book news, Anya got its fifth starred review in the School Library Journal, which is awesome. The other four are in BCCB, Booklist, the Horn Book and Kirkus. The critical response has been incredibly positive and I am extremely grateful to everyone who's taken the time to post a review to their blog or recommended it on twitter. It makes my day every time I hear that somebody read it all in one sitting, or that someone's daughter stayed up all night reading it. The best, you guys. That is what you are.

San Diego Comic Con is coming up and I'm going to be braving the crowds Friday through Sunday! I've got a few signings and things so I thought I'd mention them here:

Friday July 22nd

  • 2:00pm signing at the First Second booth #1323

Saturday July 23rd

  • 12:30-1:30 Diversity in Young Adult Work Panel room TBA
  • 2:00 -3:00 signing in Autograph Area #AA2
  • 3:00pm signing at First Second booth #1323

Sunday July 24th

  • 10:00-11:00 Teen Comics Workshop with Dave Roman, Gene Yang and Thien Pham room TBA

Hope to see you there!

Stumptoooown!

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Hey! The Stumptown Comics Festival is next weekend and I will be THERE. Specifically at table D-12, with my good buddy Jen Wang. I am going to have my brand-new 34-page minicomic "What Were You Raised By Wolves", Draw This Dresspostcard sets, some tshirts, art prints, and some copies of Anya's Ghost to raffle off! Since I'm can't sell them yet I'm GIVIN' 'EM AWAY. How about that. I'm really stoked, this is my first convention in years and I'm really looking forward to meeting folks. So come say hi!