Happy New Year, Everyone! HABIBI progress updates coming soon(ish). In the meantime, heads-up that the Atlantic Center for the Arts
Residency program is focusing on GRAPHIC NOVELS in October 2010. Each year they provide interactive work spaces for writers, artists,
choreographers, composers, etc., hosting fancy folks from Robert Rauschenberg to Edward Albee to Saul Williams. This year - Paul Pope,
Svetlana Chmakova, and myself will be acting as “Master Artists” and hand-selecting eight “Associate Artists” (a piece) to work with.

HABIBI should be wrapped up, so I expect to indulge in new projects and have plenty of attention to devote to other artists.
I mention it now, because May 21, 2010 is the deadline for applications. And here’s what I’m asking of applicants:
“Applicants should submit a proposal for a graphic novel: an outline of the narrative, and samples of finished comics pages (from previous work or the current project). But artists will benefit most if they can bring a finished first draft in an edit-able form to the residency. This could be in typed screenplay format, though I favor a hand-drawn thumbnail which includes text AND image, and is drawn legibly so others can read and offer comments. In this form, we can discuss narrative individually or as a group, hone preliminary craft like reference poses, or dive into finished artwork.”
Pictured above:
a self portrait by Paul Pope (an obvious influence on my own work), the ACA studios nestled in a sea of pine, and a pile of BLANKETS thumbnails.

BRAZIL WAS AMAZING. The Portuguese word for comics - quadrinhos - apparently translates to “little frames”. Here’s cartoonist twins
Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá interviewing me on stage at the FNAC in São Paulo. And a tiny view from the hotel outide the FIQ comics festival.

The twins have one of the coolest studios in the world. Spent a rainy day there drinking lots of coffee
and nerding out over life and comics, along with Vasilis Lolos and Becky Cloonan and Dark Horse editor Sierra Hahn.

frame 1: photographer Parada towering over editor André and actress Carolina. frame 2: translator Érico and me. frame 3: publicist Renata
and marketing director Joana. frame 4: cartoonist Rafael Grampá and Carolina outside a gallery showing cartoonist Rafael Coutinho’s paintings.

OBRIGADO to fans, friends, and my publisher for being such generous hosts. I’ll miss you all!

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for BRAZIL to promote the Companhia das Letras edition of my book RETALHOS
at the Festival Internacional de Quadrinhos in Belo Horizonte, and a FNAC signing in São Paulo.

More importantly, I get to hang out with three of my favorite cartoonists: genius twins Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá, and wildman Rafael Grampá.
The twins have a new Vertigo series entitled DAYTRIPPER debuting at this exact moment.
And I recently did a pin-up for the upcoming Dark Horse edition of Grampá’s MESMO DELIVERY.

Fresh home from my midwest excursion. BIG THANKS to the librarians that made it to the panel and are fueling support for
graphic novels in the literary world, not to mention fighting on the frontlines of public confusion over the medium.

I’m restless to dig into work on the final chapters of HABIBI. In the meantime, here’s some treats I excavated from the ol’ cubby hole at my
parents’ house. Above: Congressman Dave Obey and Tom Cruise (yes) presenting an award to 16 year old me for a national high school art
competition. Below: decaying childhood art (approx. age 9) and a photo of my brother Phil and I with matching bowl haircuts.

Fresh home from Portugal. Big “obrigado” to Paulo Monteiro for organizing the festival in Beja and spoiling all us guests! On the left, a sketch
André Caetano made of me (looking intense & scruffy) during my talk with Pedro Moura. And on the right, a glimpse of Beja from the castle.

Beja’s a charming, laid-back city a couple hours outside of Lisbon and the festival is cozy and friendly and flowing with endless pitchers
of wine and sangria. Most of all, it was a great honor to spend time with the guest and local cartoonists. Below is Pedro Burgos and I
on the streets of Lisbon. Now I’m good and fueled to get back to work on HABIBI!

As Jordi noted, it’s been exactly a month since an update! Guess it takes some time to get back on track after any comics show.
And now I’m leaving in a week for another festival - this time in Beja, Portugal. I’ll be signing and/or presenting on the weekend
of May 30th & 31st and have 31 original pages in their exhibition. If you live near Lisbon, hope to see you!
LW asked if I’ll be at MoCCA … unfortunately no. After these couple of comics shows, I gotta get back to focusing exclusively on the book.
Though I will be at an American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago on July 13th.
Below is a simple panel in progress from today’s page. I’m still guarded about revealing Habibi spoilers, but I can say we’re in the 470s now!

Poppy asked that I respond to a few of the blog comments, so here goes. Kristi A., definitely feel free to weave some of my work
in your final project. (In general, I’m cool for people to appropriate my drawings in such ways, as long as it’s not for profit.)
Ahnmin, thanks for the poem! Avri, very cool Dandel sculpture (as seen below, along with an Oregon waterfall).

And some TOOL questions. Alex Holden, I don’t print my pencils as blue lines. Rather, I ink right on top of the pencils, so the pencils are
only preserved when I scan them for this blog. (Also thanks for sending your MAGIC HOUR minis.) Brandon, as far as I know you can’t find
Pentel pocketbrush pens or refills in Portland. Best to order online. Jess Smart Smiley, the floor scraps are definitely part of the process.

Hope some of this babble is useful… Thank you always for your comments and support!

Thanks as always for your outpouring of encouragement. Very motivating to return from vacation to so many comments!
As Kurt mentioned, there are still four more chapters to go, but the book is two/thirds finished, and now I’ve the energy to dive back into it.
In Oahu, I visited my French friends Laëtitia & Frédéric & their kids Samuel, Koupaïa & Alanis. You may remember them from CARNET DE VOYAGE.
Alanis is a new edition. And they’re currently living in the the non-continental United States.
Of all the activities I engaged in - surfing at Threes in Waikiki, bodyboarding at Makapu’u, snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, kayaking in Kaneohe Bay,
my favorite was a North Shore shark cage.
Fortunately, Frédéric had along an underwater camera to document these beautiful & haunting Galapagos Sharks.

Here’s three scribble doodles from my pocket-sized travel sketchbook. I’m partial to the sleeping nuns.

The shark plane idea worked its way into an homage I drew for LITTLE NEMO: Un Siécle de Rêves published by Les Impressions Nouvelles.

Safe travels, folks!

Portlanders, I’ll be missing the Stumptown Comics Fest event, because I’m joining my
Menomena buddies on tour in Europe. If you live in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan,
or Barcelona — there’s a chance we can meet.

29 September ~ Paris, Nouveau Casino
02 October ~ Brussels, Botanique
03 October ~ Amsterdam, Paradiso (also with Jeffrey Lewis!)
09 October ~ Milan, Casa 139
11 October ~ Barcelona, Apollo

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be scrawling huge drawings on stage while Menomena rocks.
This happened once before with Tracker and the Blankets soundtrack and it seemed to work,
but I’ve no photos to prove this event exists. (Andy Wong, do you?)
Here’s the promotional poster however.

We’re not promoting myself on the upcoming Menomena bills, because I’ve no clue of the layout
of these Euro clubs. If the space suits it, you’ll find me drawing on stage ~ otherwise I’ll be
dancing along in the audience and signing posters at the merch table.

Here’s world-renown illustrator Carson Ellis and Danny from Menomena backstage at
the recent Decemberists/Menomena show at the Portland Edgefield.

C U n the E U

Joba and Vanessa asked about what European cartoonists inspired me. When I was first went to Paris in 1995 for a community college art scholarship, I scoured the bande dessinée shops and was disappointed to find that France had a glut of science fiction and fantasy books like the US has superheroes. Then I stumbled upon a series of 24 page pamphlets published by Cornelius, including David B.’s Le Nain Jaune. I constantly poured over David’s work, and included it (along with Dylan Horrocks and Tom Hart) in Chunky’s sacred stash. His epic Epileptic is translated into English and may be my favorite graphic novels ever.
The first French cartoonist whose work I was able to appreciate in English was the inspired Lewis Trondheim. We met during his US tour in 2000 and he was generous enough to invite me to visit him in Montpellier in early 2001. Here’s a sketch of his studio then. Of course, you’ll see more of him in the pages of my Carnet.

Also seen in Carnet is Blutch. I am a slobbering fanboy for his virtuoso drawing. My work has been criticized for ripping off his style; and while the influence may be apparent, I am an amateur in the shadow of this master. Unfortunately, only short pieces of his have been translated to English in the Drawn & Quarterly anthology.

Another master is Baudoin. We met at the Haarlem comics festival outside of Amsterdam. He was vibrant and full of energy, dancing and sketching everywhere. Watching the lines flow from his brush is fairly heartbreaking. We had an enthusiastic and clumsy conversation in our foreign tongues, and Baudoin drew this doodle on the left side of my sketchbook to describe the experience of moving away from his hometown of Nice. On the right, I scribbled out my own story that brought me to France.

I’ve spent enough time in Paris now that I’ll randomly run into people I know in the streets. This happened once with Charles Berberian on his birthday along the canal. Charles always impresses me with his kindness and pure “well-adjustedness”, in contrast to us neurotic American cartoonists. Lucky for all us monolingual Americans, his and Philippe Dupuy’s work has been published in two pretty volumes from Drawn and Quarterly: Get a Life and Maybe Later. Here’s Charles (right) and my Dutch publisher “Uncle” Hansje (middle) in the Netherlands.

One French cartoonist I’ll never have the chance to meet is Aristophane who tragically died at age 37. His “heaven” book Les Soeurs Zabîme and “hell” book Conte Démoniaque give me the shivers.

Other Frenchy favorites: Sfar, Christophe Blain, Nicolas De Crécy, Nina (Une par une), Capucine, Guy Delisle, Frederik Peeters (Swiss)
In Italy: Igort, Mattotti, Gipi ~ In Spain: Munoz, Max ~ In Germany: Martin Tom Dieck, Anke Feuchetenberger… and definitely seek out this book: Cargo/comics journalism Israel-Germany