springtime jams


Hey there! It's been a while since I've given a general update-- here's what's in the works:

* After two years, Any Empire and The Silence Of Our Friends are both done! Any Empire will be out in July for Comic-Con International.

* I just got started with the drawing chores for Cecil Castellucci's Year Of The Beasts, due out in 2012 from Roaring Brook Press.

* Check out the February 2011 issue of Oxford American magazine for a weird illustration.

* I have a comics story called "Conjurers" in the forthcoming YA fiction anthology What You Wish For, which is a benefit for building an educational center in Darfur. Bookwish Foundation is releasing it with Putnam Books, and it will feature work by Nikki Giovanni, R.L. Stine, Joyce Carol Oates, Alexander McCall Smith, Francisco X. Stork, Naomi Shihab Nye, Sofia Quintero, Jeanne Duprau, Karen hesse, Cornelia Funke, Ann M. Martin, Marilyn Nelson, Meg Cabot, Jane Yolen, Gary Soto, Cynthia Voigt, and me. It'll be out in Fall 2011!

* I just finished a bunch of illustrations for the forthcoming Cometbus book Add Toner, collecting issues #46-53. (And if you haven't yet, check out #54, featuring a tour diary of traveling across Asia with Green Day-- it's a spectacular issue.)

* I'll be doing album artwork for Band Of Beards' new LP/CD, Fuerteventura. Should be out in the spring!

*If you're around the Bloomington area, come to Boxcar Books' Rock 'N Roll Prom at The Bluebird on April 9th. It's a benefit for the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project. I'll be in the Black Sabbath cover band Supernaut (as sweet sweet Ozzy) with Jarod from Universe/Morrow, Mike from Universe/Good Luck, and Benny from Gourmet Scum/Butt Piss! Bring it on!

Here are my upcoming comics-related events for the year:

* March 19-20 SPACE in Columbus, OH
* April 11-12 Presentations/workshops at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock, AR
* April 12 Arkansas Literary Festival presentation/Q&A at Pulaski Tech (more info soon!)
* April 13 presentation/Q&A at Fletcher Library (823 N. Buchanan St.), Little Rock AR. 6pm.
* May 7-8 TCAF in Toronto, Ontario
* June 4 mini-con at Kankakee, IL public library (201 E. Merchant St.). 10a-5p.
* July 20-24 Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA-- Any Empire debuts!!!
* August 11-14 Wizard World Chicago in Rosemont, IL.
* Sept 10-11 Small Press Expo in North Bethesda, MD.
* Dec 5-Feb 10 solo exhibition at Arkansas Historical Museum, Little Rock AR

see you there!

Michigan State Comics Forum ahoy!


Come up to Lansing, Michigan on January 21-22 for the MSU Comics Forum! I'll be the keynote speaker Friday night from 7-8:30 pm in the RCAH Theatre (in the basement of Snyder/Philips Hall). Saturday I'll be participating in a panel TBA, as well as selling and signing books and original artwork in the Artists' Alley from 11-5.

Also appearing will be teammate Erin Tobey (Here It Is zine/comic, the late HelloMermaid.com, and musician in Fat Shadow, Pink Razors, Mt. Gigantic, and Lansing punk legends Abe Froman!).

EDIBLE SECRETS out now!


Hot off the press-- EDIBLE SECRETS: A Food Tour of Classified US History, by Michael Hoerger & Mia Partlow, and illustrated by yours truly!

Dive into the US's shady, bizarre, and sometimes hilarious political ventures as revealed in declassified intelligence documents, all filtered through the context of food. Fred Hampton, Fidel Castro, the Rosenbergs, Ronald Reagan, and the MK-Ultra program are all hopelessly intertwined with top-secret snacking. FOR REAL.

This book just arrived from the printer and won't be available in stores for a couple of weeks, so you can order them for $8 ppd from me (should be up in the store in the next few days, or just paypal to harlanrecords@yahoo.com) or from Microcosm Publishing.

ISBN 978-1934620410

heads up Holland and Belgium!


In the first week of November I'll be touring the Netherlands and Belgium, promoting the brand-new Dutch edition of Swallow Me Whole, under the title Verzwelg Me!, published by Sherpa. I'll be touring together with storytellers extraordinaire Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, who will be promoting the highly acclaimed Skim.

Here's where we'll likely be found, if you happen to be around:

Nov 2 Amsterdam-- Presentation and press release at Lambiek (Kerkstraat 132) @5pm.
Nov 3 Zwolle-- Lecture at ArtEZ Academy @ 4-5:30pm.
Nov 4 Mechelen-- Signing at De Stripkever (Bruul 79) @ 3-5:30pm.
Nov 5 Brussels-- Signing at Het B-Gevaar (Greepstraat 15) @ 12-2pm.
Leuven-- Signing at Het Besloten Land (Parijsstraat 16) @ 4-6pm.
Nov 6 Utrecht-- Book launch, signings, and art show at Stripkunstbeurs @ 11am-4pm.

see you there!

hitched.


Yep, Rachel Bormann and I did indeed tie the knot.

Also, the Monroe County courts office has an EXCELLENT candy selection.

"Ink Plots" exhibition at Visual Arts Gallery!

If you're in the NYC area in October, come check out the Ink Plots exhibition at SVA's Visual Arts Gallery (601 W. 26th Street, 15th Floor). It'll be running from October 8 to November 6, with a multitude of work by yours truly alongside such wizards as Will Eisner, Edward Gorey, Burne Hogarth, Klaus Janson, Ben Katchor, Harvey Kurtzman, Keith Mayerson, David Mazzucchelli, Jerry Moriarty, Gary Panter, Walter Simonson, Art Spiegelman, Sungyoon Choi, Nathan Fox, Bill Plympton, Dash Shaw, Koren Shadmi, Raina Telgemeier, Michael Townsend, Steve Uy and Sara Varon, among many others! Go if you can!

Matrimony, SPX, and Super Commission Deal!


Hey y'all! The last few months have been buck wild, with goodness on the horizon. Cranky do-gooder and writer Rachel Bormann and I are getting married next month!

I'll be attending the Small Press Expo in North Bethesda, MD on September 11-12, and will have tons of new goodies, including a super-limited minicomic with chapters from Any Empire and The Silence Of Our Friends. These will ONLY be available over SPX weekend. I'll post cover art in the next few days!

Okay, so lean times are officially here while I'm finishing up these books and preparing to get hitched, so I present a special rate on commissioned art pieces at SPX and for the rest of September:

$100 for an 11"x14" inked piece of whatever/whomever the hell you want! Portraits, animals, characters from my books or somebody else's. Superheroes! Superheroes! Just food! Superheroes! Bring it on!

Please email me at seemybrotherdance@yahoo.com if you're interested. Thanks so much!