The Docket
Here's a long post taking a look at some of the projects I'm working on these days:
Drawing Words, Writing PicturesThe biggest thing taking up my time is the comics textbook that Jessica and I are doing for :01 First Second. I'll talk more about this in the coming year or so and will post the occasional illustration from it. The book is due out in 2008.
99 Ways to Tell a Radio StoryOne of the more interesting and substantial projects to spin off of my book is the ShortDoc competition for this year's Third Coast International Audio Festival, which is taking place in Evanston IL at the end of October. One of the organizers, Julie Shapiro, came to a book signing I did at Quimby's in Chicago last spring and approached me with the idea of collaborating with her and her co-organizers on a call for entries for short radio pieces inspired by Raymond Queneau's book and mine. You can see--and hear--the results at the Festival's
website. (Eurocomics fans may be surprised to see a familiar name among the contributing producers: Christian Gasser, the Swiss comics critic).
I will be in Evanston for the Festival and on Thursday October 26th I will be helping to present the four winning producers of the 99 Ways ShortDoc contest. I will also be doing two public events while I'm in Chicagoland:
--Wednesday, October 25 at 6:30 I'll be doing my Exercises in Style slideshow talk in association with the Third Coast Audio Festival. The even will take place at the
Evanston Public Library .
--Thursday, Octover 26 at 7:00 Jessica and I will be reading at the
Powells North Reading Series.
99 Ways foreign editionsIf you've been following the news site on my
Exercises in Style website (and by the way I will now be posting all news at this site
only), you know that I have quite a few foreign editions in production. The British and Japanese editions are out and the French edition is scheduled to be published by L'Association in November. This is the edition I'm most excited about, both because it's in France and because L'Asso is one of my very favorite comics publishers. I also have Italian, Spanish, and Korean editions underway, and I may have some more news in the not too distant future.
I'll post covers and maybe some excerpts of the foreign editions as they come out.
Stripgids Feature Here's a cover drawing I just turned in to
Stripgids, a new free bi-monthly comics magazine published by the organizers of the bi-annual Turnhout Comics Festival in Belgium. They will also be running a selection from my book in Dutch--I'm also finishing up the lettering for that today.
A Fine Mess #3A few of you may remember that I've put out two issues of a comic book collecting various short stories of mine. The third issue will be a 32-page stand-alone story. I have it written and penciled but I've stopped predicting when I will have it inked because the textbook and other projects keep getting in the way. Here are a few sketches of the main charaters:
Translating Aristophane for RosettaAlthough I really don't have time for it, I am happily translating one of my favorite comics ever from the original French for Ng Suat Tong's anthology
Rosetta #3 (I translated an Edmond Baudoin story for the last issue). The comic is an 86-page work called
Les Sœurs Zabîme (The Zabîme Sisters) and it was written and drawn by the talented young artist Aristophane, who tragically passed away in 2004. Here is a sample image from the original edition (published by Ego Comme X and extremely hard to find):
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