San Diego Comic-Con 2014!



I'll be in San Diego at Comic-Con International this Thursday through Sunday, selling and signing books at the Top Shelf booth (#1721). 

 March: Book One is nominated for 3 Eisner Awards (Best Artist, Best Publication For Teens, Best Reality-Based Work)-- come out to the awards ceremony on Friday night, and wish us good luck!

I'll also be discussing the forthcoming March: Book Two and You Don't Say at the Top Shelf spotlight panel, Friday from 12:00-1:00 pm in Room 32AB. See you there!

MARCH artwork exhibit at Billy Ireland Museum! Creators' visit to Ohio State University!

Two exciting developments in Columbus, OH:

* I'll have a bunch of original artwork-- from March books One and Two as well as The Silence Of Our Friends-- as a part of The Long March: Civil Rights In Cartoons And Comics exhibit at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (the world's largest collection of original comic book art!). The exhibit opens on Saturday, August 16th, and runs until November 30th. I'll be at the opening, and will be doing a book signing during the day. This exhibit will be alongside a massive retrospective of comics legend Will Eisner's work-- not to be missed!

* Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and I will all be visiting the Ohio State University campus (including the Billy Ireland Museum) for a series of events on Monday, September 15th! A number of events, signings, and speaking engagements are planned-- details soon.

MARCH: BOOK TWO cover revealed!



I'm pleased to announce that we've unveiled the cover of March: Book Two! This continues the memoir trilogy of Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, moving from the stand-in protests of Nashville in 1961, through the Freedom Rides, imprisonment at Parchman Farm, the Children's Crusade in Birmingham, the evolution of SNCC, and the historic March On Washington in 1963.

Amazingly enough, the cover was revealed on CNN, previewing a segment set to air on July 20th. More info on that full program in the next few days.

 March: Book Two is co-written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, drawn and co-edited by me, and will be released in early 2015 from Top Shelf.

 March: Book One recently won a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, and is nominated for 3 Eisner Awards to be determined at next week's San Diego Comic-Con! It's on the school curriculum in over 30 states, and will be read by over 15,000 incoming freshmen at 3 major universities (so far) next month. Exciting to be a part of this journey!


CONDIZIONI released in Italy; LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM anthology Kickstarter!

Two pieces of news incoming:



I'm proud to see that Condizioni, the Italian edition of stories making up Sounds Of Your Name and Tiny Giants, is now available from Edizioni BD's PsychoPop imprint! My copies arrived yesterday and they look great.



In big news, I'm one of over 100 contributors to Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, a massive forthcoming anthology featuring many of today's best comics creators doing interpretations of the groundbreaking early comics strip by Winsor McKay. It'll be published as a ludicrous 16"x21", 144-page hardcover from Locust Moon Press in the fall-- and the ONLY way to ensure a copy is through their Kickstarter campaign that just went up yesterday.



Other creators include Michael & Laura Allred, Gabriel Bá, Peter Bagge, Stephen R. Bissette, Box Brown, Kevin Cannon, Zander Cannon, John Cassaday, Farel Dalrymple, Gerhard, Denis Kitchen, Brendan Leach, Benjamin Marra, Fábio Moon, Scott Morse, Ramón Pérez, Paul Pope, Jim Rugg, P. Craig Russell, Tom Scioli, Bill Sienkiewicz, Carla Speed McNeil, Craig Thompson, Charles Vess, José Villarrubia, and J.H. Williams III. See the full list at the Kickstarter link.

Support this once-in-a-lifetime project if you can! Thanks.

CONDIZIONI playlist up at Fumettologica!



This rules-- Condizioni, the new Italian edition of Sounds Of Your Name just released by Edizioni BD's Psychopop imprint, has an unofficial playlist available at its review on Fumettologica.

Included are songs and bands that were incorporated into the titles, tone, or content of many of those 1998-2003 stories: Samiam, His Hero Is Gone, Fleetwood Mac, Mohinder, Assfactor 4, Monsula, Moss Icon, Wonderful Broken Thing, Amon Amarth, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Bruce Springsteen, Soophie Nun Squad, and Destiny's Child!

MARCH in new Top Shelf e-book HUMBLE BUNDLE!



March: Book One is currently part of an exciting pay-what-you-want Humble Bundle package, alongside other Top Shelf books (Ed Piskor's Wizzywig, Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell's From Hell and From Hell Companion, and Alex Robinson's Too Cool To Be Forgotten) and work by George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Cory Doctorow, and Neil Gaiman.

The Humble Bundle is awesome, all around: pay as much (or as little) as you'd like for tons of digital book releases, with bonus books added if you pay more than the average price paid (which is still under $10 total!). A portion of the sales go to benefit two great organizations: the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Doctors Without Borders.

The Humble Bundle package will only be around until June 11th, so please scoop these books up while you can! Thanks.

cover reveal for Rick Riordan's THE LOST HERO!

Here's the unveiled cover image for our graphic novel adaptation of Rick Riordan's Heroes Of Olympus: The Lost Hero (written by Robert Venditti, drawn by me, and colored by Orpheus Collar). The full image is a wraparound gatefold, and the hardcover edition will feature the full artwork!



The Lost Hero will be released on October 7th by Hyperion Books, and will debut at New York Comic Con the following weekend. See you there!

MARCH: BOOK ONE receives a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award!



I'm deeply honored that tonight March: Book One will be receiving a Robert F. Kennedy Special Recognition Book Award-- a few days ago Ethel Kennedy herself cold-called me to deliver the good news, and then we discussed John Lewis' dancing skills for many minutes. A delightful woman, and an extreme honor!

Here's Top Shelf's official press release about the great news.

Here's today's Washington Post piece on our recognition.

My collaborators Congressman Lewis and Andrew Aydin will be at the ceremony to receive the award-- alas, the only reason I can't be there is because SOMEbody's gotta draw Book Two, out in January!

Back to the drawing table, TCB'in.

Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend!

I'll be in Toronto for TCAF this weekend (May 10-11), signing books at the Top Shelf booth (#228-230; on the 2nd floor, straight back as you enter the big exhibitors' room).

I'll also be a part of this panel on Sunday afternoon:

History/Nonfiction Comics
12:15-1:15pm, at Marriott 100
It could be argued that contemporary graphic novels broken into the mainstream literary world thanks to their unique ability to vividly recount the best and the worst of the human experience through autobiography, memoir, and history. Join moderator Brigid Alverson (Comic Book Resources) as she interviews some of the top contributors to the genre, including Nick Abadzis (The Cigar that Fell in Love with a Pipe), Meags Fitzgerald (Photobooth: A Biography), Nate Powell (March), Diana Tamblyn (Gerald Bull and the Supergun) and Nick Bertozzi (Lewis and Clark), and Tyrell Cannon (Victus). Discover how to consider, collect, and curate real-life tales of times past to make them new again!

See you there!

Team MARCH in Little Rock for Arkansas Literary Festival next weekend!



I'll be returning to my beloved hometown April 25th-27th for the Arkansas Literary Festival, along with collaborators John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, to discuss our graphic novel trilogy March. Here are two scheduled events:

* Saturday, April 26th: "Illustration" panel discussion with Kadir Nelson and Colleen Doran. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 4:00 pm.

* Sunday, April 27th: "March: Book One" presentation and panel discussion with John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 1:30 pm. (Space will fill quickly-- get there early!)

I'm pretty sure both events will have signings immediately afterward.

I'll also be in Fayetteville, AR the following weekend on May 3rd, doing a presentation, Q&A, and signing at the public library-- more on that in the coming days!

MARCH nominated for 3 Eisner Awards!



I'm honored to find that March: Book One, my collaboration with John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, has been nominated for three Eisner Awards: Best Reality-Based Work, Best Publication For Teens, and Best Penciller/Inker!

This year's list has a really solid line-up of nominees-- congratulations to all my other comics homies including Cecil Castellucci, Becky Cloonan, Jeff Lemire, Scott Snyder, Jeffrey Brown, Ed Piskor, Zander Cannon, Faith Erin Hicks, Luke Pearson, Gene Yang, Paul Pope, Sheila Keenan, Nathan Fox, Ben Katchor, Jeff Smith, Judith Vanistendael, and lots more! The winners will be announced at a ceremony this July at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

The complete list can be viewed here.
Judith Vanistendael

Presentation, MARCH exhibit, and signing at SPACE in Columbus OH!



If you're in the Midwest, come to SPACE in Columbus OH this weekend! It'll be happening April 12-13th at the Ramada Plaza Hotel (4900 Sinclair Rd.), 10am- 6pm. 

I'll be selling books and artwork at my own table all weekend, and will also have some other things going on:

* Original pages from the forthcoming March: Book Two will be unveiled for the first time ever, and will be on exhibit near my table all weekend.

* I'll be giving a presentation on Saturday from 3-4 pm about all the projects afoot since the release of March: Book One-- this'll include Book Two, Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero, my comics collection You Don't Say, a new printing of Swallow Me Whole, collaborations with acclaimed writers Scott Snyder and Van Jensen, pinups for Operation Margarine and Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever, and an early look at work on my next solo book, Cover.

Here's the FB page for SPACE, and the full programming list. See you there!

MARCH is a Glyph Award nominee!



I'm honored to hear that March: Book One has been nominated for the 2014 Glyph Comics Award, recognizing "the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year"!

The winner will be announced next month at the East Coast Black Age Of Comics convention in Philadelphia. 

March has also been recognized as a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book, YALSA's Top 10 Great Graphic Novels For Teens, YALSA's Outstanding Books For The College Bound, and has currently spent 29 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List.