Flashback Friday: Sorry, More Elves

Yes, more elves. I drew a lot of them. I cannot understate the influence ElfQuest had on me. This time, two of my characters have some... er... private time in the forest.

I don't know what possessed me to draw on lined paper. I was probably doodling in a school notebook and decided to make a finished drawing without transferring the sketch to better paper (I probably didn't really know how).

My backgrounds were always pretty sketchy, but it looks like I was attempting something like atmospheric perspective here, with the background fading out while the foreground is more detailed. Or maybe I was just lazy.

Suspending Stamp Saturday, Sort Of

I just found out that I got a table (actually, a half table) at the Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival in August. Yay! It's only a half day thing on a Sunday, but I have so very much to get done by then. Add to that the fact that I just started a part-time retail job, and retail is extra-exhausting for an introvert like me, and I just don't have time to do everything.

So, sadly, for now, I'm going to suspend my Stamp Saturday posts. Probably not entirely -- I am going to try to work on them a little at a time between other things, but those other things have to take priority for now. Rest assured, though, that I will get back to stamp stuff. I have all that wonderful material to play with, after all!

Just as a taste of the length of my to-do list, here are some of the main things on it:

• write 8+ reviews and articles each month for Young Adult Books site, plus site maintenance and other odds and ends, and reading the books I review
• work two or three shifts a week at video game store
• teach letter press one evening a week (until the end of June) -- this usually takes up most of the day as I also run errands and print some things of my own while I'm in the city
• make corrections to Fey chapter one digital files and re-print
• scan, touch up, and letter Fey chapter two pages for posting on the web
• lay out Fey chapter two in book form, order a proof, correct, and print
• finish as much of Fey chapter three as possible
• finish Art Nouveau satyr illustration and print as poster (and maybe other things)
• make prints of dragons (first test different sizes)
• text for Monsters mini-comic
• scan and touch up images for Monsters mini-comic
• make cover (possibly letterpress printed) for Monsters mini-comic
• make fairy stickers
• make Fey business cards and flyers
• wrangle Wordpress so Fey site looks better
• make myself a Fey t-shirt to wear at DCAF
• figure out table set up and buy/make necessary stands, etc

So yeah. Whole lot to do and no time to waste. Plus, in order to be able to do my video game store job well, I need to read video gaming news and reviews so I can better help customers. And I need to decide if I'll have my novels to sell at DCAF, too, and if so, I'll have to lay out several of them for print, get and check proofs, and order copies. Probably I'll just get a few more copies of the ones I already have available in print (though one needs a cover change to match the new e-book version cover).

I think the rest of today may very well be spent scanning. I may also drop dead before I even get to August. Heh.

Writing Wednesday: Nothing to See Here

How the heck is it Wednesday again already? Have I finally reached the age when time seems to kick into fast forward? Wait, slow down!

Er, anyway… I'm essentially still where I was last week. I've been trying to get myself back onto something resembling a schedule and am making slow progress. But those stories are building up in my head and if I don't get them written soon my brain will explode. Or at least that's what it feels like.

I did at least pull out all the pages of my comic Fey that I have done so I can assess where to go with that next. I'm going to have to start re-scanning and re-lettering the rest of the pages soon, as I've almost reached the end of chapter one. And, a handful more pages to draw and chapter three will be ready to scan and letter, too.

So yeah. Not much done, but I think I'm slowly crawling out of the hole of non-productivity. Or at least I hope so.

Things Accomplished This Week

I'm afraid this week's post isn't going to be very exciting. Just a list of stuff I wrote and published this week. I'll probably, eventually, do a separate weekly update post at the end of the week and put up something more interesting on Wednesdays. But I'm lacking in sleep this week, so this is all you get.

• Review of See Jane Run by Hannah Jayne
• Review of Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton
• New chapter of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective @JukePopSerials
• New page of Fey (actually an old page, but new in this current re-launch)

I've also thumbnailed and pencilled the next four pages of Fey, but haven't quite managed to get them inked yet.

I've also been reading a lot, and I'm thinking of keeping track of what I've read again in a new 50 Books challenge. Except since I know I'm going to read more than 50 YA books this year, on account of work, I'll aim for 50 YA books, 50 adult fiction, 50 non-fiction, and 50 graphic novels. That's only a little more than I've managed in previous years. Sure, maybe it will be too much, but I'm more curious about how many I'll get to than in actually hitting the goal.

So, here's what I've read so far:

YA Books

1. See Jane Run by Hannah Jayne
2. Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton

Non-Fiction

1. Artists on Comics Art edited by Mark Salisbury
2. Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe by John Bell

Graphic Novels

1. The Tomorrow Girl and Other Stories by Aaron Diaz (aka Dresden Codak)
2. The Replacement God by Zander Cannon

Hunh. Six books in one week. That's kind of a lot.

And that's it for now. I'll try for something more exciting next week.

Some Thoughts on Self-Publishing

I've been thinking about self-publishing a lot lately. I'm old enough to have a definite prejudice against it, at least for prose books--especially fiction. But I'm also old enough to have seen how self-publishing in comics produced some of my very favourite books. ElfQuest, for example, a series which won critical acclaim (and which had more influence than just about anything else on my drawing style--something I have been trying to overcome for ages (though not because of the quality of the original, simply because anyone who looks at my drawings can see the influence immediately) ), was self-published.

Back then, self-publishing was hard. Now, it's easy. For some people, it means that self-published books are even more a sea of crap than they ever were, which is perhaps a reasonable argument for sticking with traditional publishing. One the other hand, readers will read what they want to read and work of mouth is a powerful thing, so good books will eventually become known and bad ones avoided, however they were published.

So. Last month I released the first chapter of my still-unfinished comic series Fey on the print-on-demand indie comics site Indy Planet. I also made it available on the Comics Monkey site, which distributes to the wholesale market. Except for the copies I bought myself to have on hand, I haven't sold a single copy yet, but that's OK. I haven't promoted it either. I just wanted to get it done and out there. Indy publishing in comics has a longish and fairly well-thought-of history. At some point, I'll get organized and actually promote and see if I can sell some, but I want to get back into drawing it first, so I can be confident that it will, in fact, actually be finished some day. To that end, I'm almost decided on getting a table in artist's alley at this year's Hal-Con science fiction convention.

My aversion to self-publishing my fiction remains, but it's decreasing every day. There are a lot of downsides to it. For me the most significant is promotion. I can handle the writing, I can find people to read it and give feedback, I can make reasonable cover art, and thanks to this latest degree, I can even design a passable (though not brilliant) book cover. But promoting myself and all those other little tasks a traditional publisher is supposed to do. . . . Well, I guess I can learn. And I think I just might give it a try. The worst that can happen is my books rot in obscurity like thousands of others.

I started writing because I wanted to tell stories, and also because I wanted to make books. I learned hand-bookbinding, printmaking, letterpress printing, design and even photography for the same reason. And self-publishing will let me make my own books. If other people like them, that's cool. Heck, if I could make a living doing it, that would be great. But I won't count any chickens before I even have a basket to put the eggs in.

Things that got me thinking (more) about self-publishing:

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch's post on the changing business of publishing, especially the one on new writers
• Dean Wesley Smith's posts on the myths of publishing, especially the one on "Self Publishing is a Bad Idea"
• an email from friend and teacher Heinz Insu Fenkl in which he suggested self-publishing as an increasingly legitimate path for many writers

[BFG] Recent Reading: Lots of Comics, Some Novels, One Non-Fiction

Since I seem to be neglecting this blog, and the idea of keeping my geekiness separate from the rest of my life is less appealing these days, I'm thinking that I'll probably merge BFG back in with Anagram for Ink sooner or later. Especially since AforI has an awful lot of geek posts in its early years. But anyway . . . On to the books.

I've been working my way slowing through the Truro Public Library's collection of comics a few volumes every three weeks or so. A pile of them are in this update (though not every GN in this list is a library book; a few I paid money for). I've also begun reading Japanese novels in translation quite voraciously. I wrote about Vampire Hunter D and its awfulness previously--I'm happy to say the "light novels" in this post are far better.

35. The Nature of Coyotes: Voice of the Wilderness by Wayne Grady (non-fiction)
    
    We have coyotes in this area, so I thought I'd find out more about them than their osteology. I don't know what the current consensus is, but according to this book coyotes are more ancient than wolves, and wolves evolved from coyotes. Also the two sometimes hybridize. The other thing I learned is that coyote populations tend to increase when they are aggressively hunted because under normal circumstances only alpha pairs reproduce, but when they are under pressure, lower-ranked females will also have litters.
    
    
36. The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    Three lovely short stories from this duo who also makes comics solo. The title story had a somewhat unexpected, but satisfying ending.
    
    
37. Foiled by Jane Yolen, art by Mike Cavallaro (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    Not the most original idea for a story, but Jane Yolen can take the most overdone story and make it shine, as she does here. This would make a good pick for "middle grade" readers. (Is it me, or did middle grade used to be included in the assumed audience for "young adult" fiction? Is it really helpful to divide up audiences in to smaller and smaller marketing categories?)
    
    
38. Shutterbug Follies by Jason Little (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    There really wasn't anything new or startling here, story-wise, but Little's art is so nice to look at--deceptively simple-looking--that it works anyway. Not that it's a bad story, it's perfectly serviceable, but it's the drawing that's the reason to pick this one up.
    
    
39. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    I've had this book on my shelf for ages, and only just got around to reading it, and when I did, I devoured it. Sometimes it's like that with books, You just have to wait for the right moment.
    
    
40. The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    This is one from my pile of things started and not finished, and now finished. I read almost half of it before getting distracted by other books, and read the rest a few chapters here and a few there. It's good, and well worth reading, it just didn't grab me by the throat. Sometimes it's like that with books. (It took me *years* to get through Foucault's Pendulum and I was so glad I finished it.)
    
    
41. Hellboy Animated: The Menagerie by various folks, based on Mike Mignola's character (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I adore Hellboy. Love the original comics (though I must admit, I haven't read very many of them yet), and love the movies. Hellboy Animated is a lighter series, with a stylish animated look. There were two animated movies (straight to DVD, but I think still worth watching), and three comics (as far as I know). This one is the third. It's not nearly as dark or as serious as the main comics, and it's pretty darn short, but it's still a fun read. The main story features an odd mix of Asian and European folklore, and the backup story is all about Abe (I heart Abe Sapien).
    
    
42. Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    This book is kind of hard to describe. It's about a woman firefighter in rural Kentucky and an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and it's about the great things and the awful things that people do. The loose ink and watercolour drawings are especially effective at depicting the looming feeling of the world just before a storm.
    
    
43. Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    It's been years since I read Persepolis the first, but it felt like just the other day as I picked this one up and got right back into the story. It's simple bio comic about a woman growing up in Iran told with simple black and white pictures, but it adds up to some incredible richness. This is the kind of book you give people who don't read comics to show them that comics *are* worth reading.
    
    
44. Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century by Rick Geary (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I got this one from the library just because it was there, not because I thought it would be good. I expected either some dry educational book, or an overwrought dramatization. I especially had low expectations because the book has a whole list of other books in the series, all retelling crimes and murders. But this book is neither dry nor overwrought. It's a simple telling of the known facts with clean drawings and diagrams, and it somehow ends up being a thoroughly gripping tale. I don't know how Geary pulled it off, but I will definitely be looking for more of those books listed in the front.
    
    
45. Spice and Wolf Volume 2 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I got all the way through this book and still didn't know why it had a warning for explicit content on it. There's some very tame partial nudity and one small, blurry aftermath of a rape image, but nothing really graphic. At one point the two main characters are in a suggestive position in bed together, but they're fully clothed. So I don't know. It continues to be a fun read, and somehow the bits of economic theory even work and never feel boring. But I have to admit, I read it mostly for the pretty wolf goddess.
    
    
46. The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    This is the first of seven in a series of light novels. (I've been trying to think of the Western equivalent for the Japanese light novel and I haven't quite managed it. In many ways, it fits the same niche as young adult fiction in the West, though that's not an exact fit.) So far, Tokyopop has brought out four of them in English, and I hope they bring out the other three. I had to go through considerable effort to get this one, as it's out of print and apparently collectible and so selling for outrageous prices. I finally found a reasonably priced copy at a bookseller in the UK, purchased via the bibliophile's fried, ABE. I bought it because I like the anime based on it, but I didn't know if it was any good. Turns out it's very good indeed.
    
    
47. The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    This one is book two in the series, though it takes place before the events in book one. (If you read them, do try to read book one first, though--I think the series works better narratively that way.) When I saw the stupid prices book one was going for, I jumped on Amazon.ca and grabbed two, three and four while I had the chance to get them for retail price. And happily, one that was listed as a paperback turned out the be a hardcover when it got here. Alas, Amazon's crappy packaging came unstuck and it was only luck and a flimsy rubber band that kept all three books in there. Oh, and this volume I sat down to read one evening and ended up reading straight through in one sitting.
    
    
48. Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon
    
    I picked this up on a whim because I thought the art looked nice and it had a blurb from Jeff Smith on the back, guaranteeing I'd be hooked in three pages. Mr Smith was right, though it may have been less than three pages. At first I thought the characters looked too cartoony next to the lush backgrounds, but I very quickly changed my mind. The art just works, and the story is delightful. If you've read Spiderwick, the beginning (after the prologue) may feel awfully familiar, and the story is really good, like Spiderwick. But it's nothing like the same story once the kids make their discovery in the old family home they've just moved into. I'm going to get Book Two at the earliest opportunity.
    

And look at that, I'm almost to 50 books. When I hit 50, I guess I'll see if I can do 50 this year, not counting graphic novels.

[BFG] Recent Reading: Mostly Manga

You know, for some reason I thought I had a lot more books I started ages ago and finally finished to put on the list this time, but actually there are none. Well, one novel that took me a while to get through, I guess. But I see I've mostly bee reading comics lately, and most of those comics are manga. There is a reason for that, and for some of my other reading, that I'm not quite ready to reveal, but more on that later, maybe.

22. Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    I like anime, as you may have figured out, and sometimes I like to find the original sources of favourite films and series. Often it's manga, but almost as often, it's a novel. Vampire Hunter D was one of the first anime movies I saw (though not the first anime--that would be G-Force), and while it's actually not very good, it has those gorgeous designs by Yoshitaka Amano. Well, the novel isn't very good, either. In fact, it may be worse. Sure, it evokes some delicious weird futuristic horror, but that's in spite of the terrible prose. Which may be an indication that the original Japanese novel is quite good and it's the translation that's lacking. I don't know, but it's well enough liked that the novel got 20 sequel novels. I haven't decided if the weird atmosphere and Amano's drawings are enough to get me to pick up another one. 
    
    
23. Once by James Herbert (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    Once, I probably would have liked this novel, but now it just feels like something other writers have done before, and better. I think it's because it seems like Herbert thought fairies would be a cool thing to use in horror novel, but doesn't have much invested in it. What I mean is, fairies are cool, but they're a decoration. Er, not that's not quite right. And I may very well be totally wrong. Anyway, it was an OK book, but not one I'll ever read again.
    
24. White Cat by Holly Black (fiction) buy from amazon
    
    Now here's one I'll treasure and read over and over. I loved Black's faerie urban fantasies, but this time she goes for magic, curses and conmen. Very cool, and I'm so looking forward to the next book.
    
25. Spice and Wolf Volume 1 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume (comics) buy from amazon
    
    In this case, I haven't actually watched the anime yet (it's in the to-watch pile, though). I started with volume 1 of the manga, but I've also got the first two novels waiting on the shelf. The art is lovely, the story is engaging, and the worldbuilding is pretty well-done. This is a series I'll add to my regular books (or, at least, the ones I keep trying to catch up on, since "regular" is not a term applicable to my comic-shop trips seeing as I live in the sticks).
    
26. Shaman Warrior Volume 4 by Park Joong-ki (comics) buy from amazon
    
    And this is one of those "regular books" I keep trying to catch up on. I haven't found very many Korean comics I like, and I'm not sure why. Possibly because the ones that get published in English are usually the ones that most closely imitate Japanese comics instead of going their own way (I may be wrong about that, and it might just be the comics I happen to have looked at). But Dark Horse seems to be really good at choosing books to translate. Shaman Warrior has a similar combination of gorgeous art, intense action and gripping storytelling that made me love Blade of the Immortal (not Korean, but also published by Dark Horse). Plus the beautiful covers are irresistible.
    
27. Bone: The Great Cow Race by Jeff Smith (comics) buy from amazon
    
    I couldn't remember how far I'd got in this sweet, funny fantasy comic, so I started with volume 2 again. Plus, it was what I found at the library in Truro (checked out with my shiny new Colchester County library card). This is a great all-ages book with plenty to delight kids, and intelligent writing for grown-ups.
    
28. How to Spot a Fox by J. David Henry (non-fiction) buy on amazon
    I love foxes, and this slender book is full of very cool info (including advice for wannabe fox biologists) and fantastic photos. This was also a Truro library find.
29. American, Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (comics) buy from amazon
    
    Love this book. Simple, cartoony, but skillful drawings and quiet storytelling. I wish I didn't have to take it back to the library, because I will definitely want to read it again.
    
30. Anime Explosion by Patrick Drazen (non-fiction) buy from amazon
    
    Ignore the terrible cover and read this book if you're interested in anime. It's one of those rare scholarly-level books that are also completely accessible to the casual reader. It's got thematic chapters, like sex, religion, war, mothers, death and the like, and chapters on specific series and/or creators. This is the second time I've read it, and I only wish there was an updated version.
    
31. xxxHolic Volume 9 by CLAMP (comics) buy from amazon
    
    Here's another series I'm slowly trying to catch up on. Though I can't say I've loved everything CLAMP has ever done, they do tend to make interesting stories with super-stlyish character designs. Plus, this one crosses over occasionally with the next item on the list. Oh, and there are oden-selling foxes and a creature called a pipe fox that I really, really wish was real because I want one!
    
32. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 9 by CLAMP (comics) buy from amazon
    
    Another stylish book from CLAMP that I'm hopelessly behind on. This series is (sort of) connected to Cardcaptor Sakura. I've actually read this volume once before, but there's no "previously . . ." blurb, so I went back to refresh my memory a bit before continuing the series.
    
33. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 10 by CLAMP (comics) buy from amazon
    
    
    And after volume 9, I kept on reading . . .
    
34. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 11 by CLAMP (comics) buy from amazon
    
    . . . and reading
    

And about those "buy from amazon" links, it's the usual affiliate deal. Buy something via those links and I get a little bit of money from the sale. I solemnly swear that any money I get will go towards more books and geeky things to write about here. Total amount made from amazon so far = $0. Yay! Also, I use the image ones primarily to have pretty pictures on the blog.