space pg.03

Space sketches

Here are some little comic pages I've been drawing in my sketchbook. I've been using them to play around with watercolors. The space theme was inspired by the posts of my blog buddies over at JOYTEETH.

6.17.09 sketches

Post MOCCA sketches

 
 
 
 

BEA 2009 report

I was invited to participate in this years Book Expo America along with James Sturm and Andrew Arnold. We were "Exhibiting Authors" with the Macmillan Children's Publishing Group promoting our new comic "Adventures in Cartooning". I had never been to BEA so I was quiet excited to see what it was all about.

My trip to NYC started with a bus trip from Portsmouth, NH to Boston South Station. There I usually hope onto a Mega Bus or some other equally cut rate mode of transportation to NYC, but this time I was riding the Acela.




Here is my set up - Coffee, sketchbook, ticket - nice!



The train was great, sooo much leg room, nice clean bathrooms, a cafe car, smooth ride and incredible scenery.


Coast of Rhode Island from train



A boat


The only issue was that the train was incredibly late. So, I got into NYC an hour late with only 20minutes till our signing. This meant that I had to show up to BEA caring all my luggage for the entire weekend.

BEA 2009 Report, part 2

I meet Andrew at Penn station and we hoofed it to the Javits Center. There we met James, Eva, and Gina who then whisked us downstairs to the children's book area. There we threaded our way through the crowds to the green room where we could collect ourselves before the signing. This was the first event we had all been at and I was a little nervous. We weren't sure how many people would show up to our signing, how complex our signing should be, in which order we should sign, and on which page.

When it was finally time to sign, we got up and walked to our spot in the middle of the long signing table. As made our way to our seats, I looked at the authors we were passing. I couldn't believe who was there - Emril, Mary Higgins Clark, Lee Childs, Melissa de la Cruz! I started geeking out and had to restrain by self from trying to trade books with them.


The signing was a little chaotic to begin with, all of us were signing at the same time and switching the books back and forth in a nonsensical way. The whole time the line kept getting longer and longer. After a few minutes we got in our groove, each drawing a head shot of a character. Eva even started drawing some pictures next to her signature. They extended our signing time and we eventually signed a total of 124 books in an hour or so. When it was all over there was only one book left.

We were exhausted but adrenillized at the same time. I noticed the author of "Hunger Games" (my current favorite book) was signing her new book couple spots down from us. I tried to get in line but it was a ticket only signing. I was so disappointed - I was tempted to run back behind the signing table and attempt to get a book from her. That would be in bad taste, so I restrained myself. Still, I was Jonesing badly for a copy of that new book.



James wanted to see an Alice Neal show in Chelsea so we walked down to it (I was carrying my luggage the whole time. The show was great and it was nice to decompress in a beautiful and quiet gallery space after the hectic environment of BEA.

Later, we returned to James sweet hotel and found a nice place to have dinner with our agent Judy. A couple of bottles of wine and some delicious food combined to make an enjoyable and entertaining evening.

It was late when Judy hailed a cab home, and we returned to the hotel and watched the basketball game. After tucking James in, Andrew and I headed back to his place.

BEA 2009 Report, part 3

The next day, we were participating in a "speed dating" event with book sellers and vendors. The whole concept of this thing was a little weird to me (having never speed dated, especially 3-7 people at a time) but Colleen (from First Second) assured us that we would do great. Again, we were taken to a green room to wait for the event to start.
Andrew's look speaks for all of us.

Finally, we were released from the green room and made our way to the event. There were 24 tables filled with booksellers, bookstore owners, etc.


We had three minutes at each table to convince them to buy or carry Adventures in Cartooning. James gave a pitch at each table while Andrew and I did a drawings for everyone.

It was fast and hectic, but James kicked butt with his pitch and we made art as fast as possible. At the end of the event, James was close to losing his voice and Andrew and my hands nearly dropped off - but I think we did well.

Later, we had some great Thia food with Bob Sikoryak.
We gave him a copy of our book and he showed us an advanced copy of his new book "Masterpiece Comics" which looked amazing. If you are a fan of literature or comics definetly grab a copy from Drawn and Quarterly. Bob took us to see a show of Picasso paintings and prints at the Gagosian Gallery. It was surreal to see this huge a bold paintings after looking at the small and hand sized comic art at BEA.




All in all it was a great weekend in NYC. Seeing good friends, art, and promoting Adventures in Cartooning.