Maurice was an artistic MASTER, a mentor, a friend, and a beautiful person.

After my Barcelona & LA trips, I plan to get started drawing the “all-ages book”, but in the meantime I’m dabbling in a number of small projects – including a cover for Wisconsin buddy Tim Seeley’s farm noir series REVIVAL. A creepy sort of “X-Files meets Fargo” story set in our childhood stomping grounds of Wausau, Wisconsin. A) thumbnailed idea sketches, B) pencils, C) final inks & colors.

Also noteworthy is that HABIBI has been honored with two Eisner award nominations! The award’s namesake is the late, great Will Eisner. Check here for the full list of categories and nominees.

This week, I’ll be at Calvin College in my home-state of Michigan for the Festival of Faith & Writing. This includes an exhibition of original art open to the public on Friday, April 20th at 6:30pm.  The show runs for a week after; M-T 9am-5pm, W-F 9am-9pm, Sat 10am-4pm.

Concerning travel, I’m considering over a dozen invites from all over the world, but the only ones confirmed for now are A) Calvin’s Festival of Faith & Writing, B) the Saló Internacional del Còmic in Barcelona, Spain; May 3-6, and C) the Skirball Cultural Center in LA accompanying their Women Hold Up Half the Sky exhibition; 8pm on May 10th. And I hope to make it to this summer’s San Diego Comic-con!

Above left: a discarded page of HABIBI that was reworked into page 591 of the final book (right). Note that the sidewinding snake looks almost exactly the same, but is redrawn. And the narration becomes less clunky.
Below: an exercise in my sketchbooks is to copy a frame from a favorite film to get a sense of the composition and chiaroscuro balance of light and dark. This one is from Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Woman in the Dunes.

My next event is the Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan — April 19th thru 21st. More on that soon.

On a Valentine’s note, OPRAH named BLANKETS one of the greatest love stories of all time. (?!?) (Bless her soul!)
And Aussie buddie Pat Grant released a new book named BLUE that I’m quite fond of.

Also, overlooked in that last post was a recap of London and Angoulême tour. London, as you know, is a charming city full
of deliciously polite folks. As for Angoulême, Drawn & Quarterly and Sarah Glidden do a great job of summarizing the festival.
Here’s myself with two of my favorite French cartoonists – Dupuy & Berberian!

Next weekend is an easy jaunt to the Cannon Beach Book Company on the Oregon coast to give a talk and accept the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award. Saturday, February 11th, 2pm — actually held at the library across the street from the store. I chose the location, because CBBC is an impressive book shop that’s a comfort to peruse on a rainy day at the coast, but also because Cannon Beach is a spiritual sanctuary where I’ve been nourished by the ocean in the company of friends, sea lions, probably some sharks, and occasionally sun.  This painting by my dear buddy Dan Attoe perfectly captures the magic of our cozy surf cove.

Here’s another glimpse of that beach from the earliest days of this blog, five years ago. Still a good mantra: “Goonies never say die.”

Then it’s on to the Festival International de la Bande Dessinee in the cozy and chilly village of Angoulême, France.
(Art Spiegelman is the prez this year.) Casterman will host me for daily signings at their booth Thursday the 26th thru Sunday the 29th.
And I’ll be performing in the intimidating spectacle of the “concert de dessin” every evening along with Bastien Vives,
Alfred Circus, Marion Montagne, Merwan Chabane, Benoit Sokal, Jean-Louis Tripp, and Paco Cerrejón.

An explanation of these images : There’s many overt references to classic paintings planted in HABIBI – here’s one of my favorites,
echoing The Poor Fisherman (1881) by Puvis de Chavannes. The half-swaddled infant in the background reminds me of Viktor Pokov’s
1969 painting July, previously cataloged in my list of rip-offs and inspirations.

Pictured above are the stars of the upcoming “all-ages comic” – Elliot Chicken, Violet, and Zacchaeus.

This backdrop, however, has nothing to do with the narrative – merely a mix of nostalgia for those Wisconsin snowscapes
and a little nod to the holiday spirit. Stay warm and cozy and jolly!

a) AN ALL-AGES BOOK. After completing a serious/adult project, this one is a playground to give back to the child in me
that discovered the medium at an influential age. For the future of comics!

b) A NONFICTION/ESSAY-LIKE BOOK. Let’s say it’s roughly about global trade.

c) AN EROTIC BOOK (not for kids!) Blankets touches on the innocent awakenings of sexuality. Habibi explores sexual trauma.
This one’s to be a book with actual (drawn) sex.

I don’t want to talk ahead of myself or spoil the mystery, but as each book becomes more tangible,
Doot Doot Blog will share some of the process as it did with HABIBI. Thanks for sticking around!

Big thanks to all of you who attended the HABIBI events. And thank you to everyone who’s supporting the book.