Author/Artist
My web store's Holiday Sale is now live through the end of the year, so now's the time to snag something for your special someone. Everything's 20-30% off. This candy-cane striped giant squid (Twelve Drummers Drumming) is, for example, just eight bucks.
And if you're looking to commission something completely original, drop me a line: I'll give you a holiday price-break on that too.
Have a fun holiday season!
Okay, maybe you're already done holiday shopping. If not, consider the deals:
20% off books (including this limited edition of Dear Creature) and art prints. 30% off original art, like this fabulous (if I do say so) Wunda Woman watercolor painting.
She was $400. Tomorrow, she's just $280. Yowza!
Looking for a few graphic novel ideas for the holidays? Head over to Northwest Book Lovers, where I list four dynamite picks (Crumb, Brosgol, Dewey, Cooke), plus a book on grant writing for artists by Gigi Rosenburg.
Something for everyone!
On Wednesday I had the pleasure of speaking to an ESL class at Portland State University. Being from Japan, Korea, Thailand, and the like, they were all into manga. The best question I received was, "American comics, superhero. Manga, friend help friend. Would you ever do this kind?" "Yes," I said. "I like friend help friend."
The students asked me why a broader demographic of Americans don't read comics... I tried to explain the differences in our markets, the origins of American comics, yadda yadda... but really, I don't have a better answer than the perceived lack of "friend help friend" material.
I had a great time with the students. It felt a little like that scene in Good Morning Vietnam where Robin Williams takes over an ESL class and befuddles everything.
Back to drawing now. Funny enough, my work today is stylistically closer to manga than anything I've done, and I'm really enjoying it. I needed a storytelling vocabulary for a certain piece that allowed me to get cartoony, and manga does that really well— when you're not beholden to drawing a character just one way, but can use ovals for yelling mouths, googley eyes for fear or surprise, then switch back to something naturalistic and subtle as needed, it's pretty invigorating.
I tried to come up with a descriptor for this Ain't It Cool News review of Dear Creature. Enthusiastic is close. Wild seems about right. At any rate, they love it!
A big thanks to Rob Patey.
Miami Book Fair was huge fun. Thanks so much to Mitch Kaplan and all the volunteers for a great event. Highlights:
That doesn't scratch the service, and it wasn't even a 48 hour stay.
Me in my silly hat:
Okay kids, the True Crime panel at the Miami Book Fair is Saturday morning at 10 AM, at the Prometeo Theatre. Here's the official page. Be there for some of the story behind our book, Green River Killer! Jeff and I will be sharing the panel with underground comics powerhouse Denis Kitchen, who's promoting his recent collection, Crime Does Not Pay: The True Story of Bob Wood, The Killer Cartoonist.
I'll do my best to look pretty, but I can't promise anything. It's going to be 7 AM my time.
Tomorrow I'm at the Miami Book Fair with Jeff Jensen to talk about our Green River Killer GN (and Dark Horse threw in a Power Point slide for Dear Creature too, so thats nice). There was a whole team of volunteers headed to Haiti on my last flight. Really surprising since Ive made that same trip several times through DFW, where I now sit with a belly full of BBQ.
They called my number! I'm off to board.
Just found out that Green River Killer is on the NY Times Holiday Gift Guide! Very nice.
Today I spent the better part of the morning finishing up colors on one of my Dark Horse projects, a 9 page back story for House of Night... That's one down, two to go! All the projects have me on full art duties, from thumbnails through colors (I'm learning new methods of efficiency for digital coloring as a result).
Hopefully I'll be able to post some samples soon. For now, go read Animals Talking in All Caps.
My Tor editor, Steven Padnick, and I did an interview for book review blog The King of Elfland's Second Cousin. This fella Chris wrote a fantastic review for Dear Creature, so he invited us to talk shop a bit. If you read it, you can learn Steven Padnick's fondest desire (other than wishing Batman: Arkham City had a good story):
STEVEN: I wish I had written Casablanca.
CHRIS: Ok…
STEVEN: Just flat out that is one of the best scripts. Ever. I wish that I’d written it.
CHRIS: Any others? Or Jonathan, any thoughts on your end?
JONATHAN: I like how Steven is editorially concise.
STEVEN: I have go-to answers.
JONATHAN: I love Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. I love the characters in that book.
STEVEN: That’s a good one too.
JONATHAN: Yeah, it’s one of those stories where its reach almost exceeds its grasp. But you love it anyway. That’s definitely one of my favorites. Moby Dick, because that’s another weird book that works. I like weird things that work.
Chris really likes Dear Creature. Like, maybe more than I do:
"I commend Jonathan Case for this excellent graphic novel. It is very rare to find a storyteller who is able to write something that is at once literary and meta-textual, while remaining touching and hilarious. To then combine that ear for dialog and prose with artistic talent is even rarer. If you enjoy sequential art, then hands down, you should pick up Dear Creature
.
And I think that it should be on everybody’s short-list for the Eisner award."
On Twitter, Steven claims he rambles in this interview. Oh, Steven. What you must think of me.
I've plugged it on Twitter, but I'ma plug it again: Ben Dewey's Tragedy Series is one of my favorite things on the internet. He's sharp as a tack and he draws so well! Especially animals and drapery. I like good drapery. And he's PROLIFIC. He does one of these practically every day. Go see them, and look for one of my personal favorites, 'Triceratops Never Got to See the Ocean'.
I'm just recovering from the cold that's ravaging Portland right now, and playing catch up with all the hubbub of the last few days. And there's some very fun hubbub!
For one, Green River Killer was named one of Amazon's top books of 2011! Very exciting.
Dear Creature also received a couple great reviews by way of the blogosphere:
"Dear Creature is an enchanting visual story that said many profound things in so few pages ... a true sense of humanity in every character ..."
"... Wonderfully imagined. The writing is crisp and quirky, complimenting the story, and its art, perfectly."
Gavin Lees of Graphic Eye just put up an interview where we talk about a great many things. Books, growing up on a sailboat, the Portland comics community, etc. There's a lot there on pursuing the arts, breaking into comics, and being generally fortunate. And it's HUGE! Read on for unfiltered me:
Dark Horse put up a look at my art process from Green River Killer. Would you like to see how I draw two men in car? Perhaps a puffy '80s jacket or a coffee mug?
Just posted... For Dear Creature:
"... With Dear Creature, Jonathan Case announces himself as a bold new talent in independent comics. The stylish manner in which he brings together all these questions of morality, love, romance, murder, humor, literature and justice is wonderfully compelling and evocative. Storywise, there is very little conventional about it (thankfully), but in terms of form, this is simply how great comics are made."
For Green River Killer:
"... The story is fascinating, and it's easy to root for Tom Jensen. You'll read this illustrated history in a single sitting."
Updated the Reviews section with a nice review for Green River Killer from S. Krishna's Books.
“… Wonderfully adapted … visually stunning artwork.”
I went by Powell's today and got a chance to see the window display that Dark Horse put up for Green River Killer. It looks pretty fantastic. Seeing those panels blown up 3 or 4 sizes in a downtown Portland window was pretty surreal.
I also signed a bunch of copies of GRK and Dear Creature, so if you're in Portland and are looking to pick up an autographed copy, there you go!
Today, The Book Smugglers kindly posted a monstery guest article written by me, just in time for Halloween. It's an essay titled The Unbearable Lightness of Monster. Read it, or risk seeing your world through a lens of inferior monster knowledge.
What a month. Between promoting my books, taking baby birthing classes with Sarah, and starting up three simultaneous comics projects with Dark Horse (while trying to maintain forward momentum on my next book), I'm pretty well ready to narrow my focus. This week's trip up to Seattle was great. The train is the only way to fly, and the University Bookstore signing was a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone that came out for the Monster Lecture! Sarah and I got a few hours the next day to meander through Seattle, so we went to Pike's Place and put together a picnic (that was a lot of P's!) for the train ride home.
We also got to stop in at Golden Age Collectibles (America's Oldest Comics Shop!), meet the staff, and sign a copy of Green River Killer. I remember frequenting that shop when I was just getting into comics and living up in the Seattle area, post-college. I didn't completely realize it while we were there, but that return visit as a comics professional sort of represents the end of a chapter in my career. Like in Lonesome Dove, where Captain Call comes back to the little village after his far-ranging adventure. Only, I made a bunch of friends along the way, rather than losing them to snakebites, hangin', and gangrenous legs.
That's a win for me, Captain Call.
Just about the hop on the train to Seattle! Before I do, a shout out to all the Seattleites: I will have some copies of Green River Killer with me, in addition to what the University Bookstore supplies, so if you want to pick one up, or otherwise get a copy signed, come on out to the U district store tonight! Details on the post below.
Now I'm off!
