Along with Leonard Cohen, I share birthdays with Stephen King. His ON WRITING offered some fuel during these past months of revisions.

This sentiment matched my own for most of the summer. Then finally, on Thursday the 17th, a BREAKTHROUGH.
(it may or may not involve smithereens.) HABIBI’s undergone four drafts: 1) The spontaneous sketchbook-bound version from december 2004.
2) The first draft presented to my publisher in july 2005. 3) My overwrought second draft “completed” september 2006, AND 4) micro-scribbles
that unveiled the ending to me just a few days ago. In the same time of rewrites, my rib(s) healed. Today’s my birthday, and I’m going surfing.

Thank you, blog-reader-friends, for the constant support! And thank you to those who have sent snail mail. I apologize that I almost never
get around to replying. Each of these deserve a personal response, but I’m lousy enough corresponding with family & friends. Hopefully it’s
reassuring that I read each of them and cherish them. Michael asked about getting his GUARDIAN ANGEL poster signed, and I need to decline,
but I would love to personalize that for you at a future signing. And Neil informed me that he’d like to collaborate on another poster soon.

In other news, I spent the summer physically incapacitated. Fractured rib(s) after being struck with a surfboard, and three weeks of NASTY
sickness from inhaling mold (not recreationally). No lumberjack photos this year! And here’s a shot of my dear brother Phil enjoying our
childhood comics stash. Who remembers “CYBORG GERBILS”? Also a 3-D comic drawn by Phil as a wee lad. We made lots of these as tikes,
though most of mine were destroyed in that ol’ burn-barrel session.

The summer’s dwindling; and I’m still working on rewrites for those last three chapters…

This recent email from my friend Allison was too bizarre and well-worded not to share with the rest of you.
“Today I had a strange experience in a creepy used bookstore. I was walking past the sci-fi/fantasy section,
and from the piles of unsorted books on the floor, a familiar blue color caught my eye.

I left the book in the store, but not before I re-shelved it next to Nutritional Healing.
Just as I am doing with the universe, I will return in a week to see if it has righted itself.”

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.

On Monday, the sixth chapter of HABIBI saw completion. Each time I finish a chapter, I print and bind a set of photocopies for easy reference &
editing. And I tally the page count, which now reaches exactly 500! Already the stack of photocopies on flimsy paper is catching up with BLANKETS.

It’s an important mark in the book’s production. The end of the second act. On to the third and final act - the last three chapters -
and fortunately they’re all shorter than the bulky hundred page chapters that filled out the middle of the book.
I’ll be leaving on a trip on the fourth of July to visit family in Wisconsin and tinker with some rewrites on the book’s finale.
And as noted before, I’ll be in Chicago for the American Library Association’s annual conference giving a talk with Neil Gaiman and Terry Moore
about censorship in comics. “My These Novels Certainly Are … GRAPHIC!” Monday, July 13, 1:30 PM at McCormick Place.
Looking forward to your comments and updating you when I return!

It might be old news to those in the industry, but I wanted to acknowledge the great loss of NICKELODEON magazine, especially the
COMIC BOOK insert. It was one of this generation’s best forums for cartoonists - publishing everyone from Laura Park to Art Spiegelman!
- and providing them with a living wage (though Art was probably doing fine on his own).
I’m greatly indebted to editors Chris Duffy and Dave Roman for being great bosses and pals, for financially fueling the production of both
CHUNKY RICE and BLANKETS, and for indoctrinating the youth into the medium of comics.
Plus they let me get away with bizarre and tasteless strips like this CARTOONIGAMI strip above. (published eight years ago!)
CARTOONIGAMI is sort of like a MAD FOLD-IN, only I stole the idea from Lewis Trondheim and his OuBaPo experimentations
– a comic strip which, when folded, transforms into two entirely different gags.

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!

The Stumptown ComicsFest seemed a success. I was especially grateful to have laid-back time with cartoonist friends Jeff Smith and
Mike & Laura Allred. It was these very cartoonists that drew me back to the comics medium, with their books BONE and MADMAN.
Jeff visited my studio on Friday to peruse Habibi pages, and Mike & Laura stopped by on Saturday.
Plus we had time to enjoy the summery sun and eat good foods.

Big thanks to all of you that made it to my Sunday talk and/or signing. You were a pleasure to meet! Also thanks to Douglas Wolk for moderating.
I wish I could share some of the images from my “powerpoint” on the blog, but I think they’d be too much of a spoiler in this form.
Here’s a simple glimpse of pencils-to-inks that shouldn’t ruin any storytelling.