When Michi was eight, floods claimed her older sister. Ten years later, she struggles to deal with the mix of feelings she has for the girl she blames for her sister’s death.

Coming soon for web, apps, eReaders & more.

Kait finds herself compelled to carve a map that covers the walls of her apartment. Then a stranger bursts into her home, claiming that only she can save his dying world.

Available now for web, apps, eReaders & more.

Issue #9 (of 9) of IN MAPS & LEGENDS is out now!

We’ve reached the end. Two years ago, writer Michael Jasper and I teamed up and won DC Comics’ Zuda competition. 6 months later, the imprint closed, only a dozen pages into our story– and we decided to go for it on our own. 9 issues and 190 pages later, IN MAPS & LEGENDS is complete! So grab the latest issue from your favorite digital comics distributor! Let us know what you think of the grand finale of Kait’s adventures. Each issue is 22 full color pages for only $.99.

In this issue, Kait faces down the trio of impossible creatures who have world domination on their agenda, taking her and her friends to the brink of death and back again, and the mystery of the maps are explained, in his own enigmatic way, by the haggard stranger known only as Bartamus.

We’re on both Kindle and Nook (in both English and German!), or you can read it on the web or download a PDF. And, of course, we’re still on Comixology and other iOS (or Android!) apps. Buy it once, read it anywhere.

And with the series wrapped up, we felt like the next obvious step was to make getting our complete comic easier for any new readers interested in checking out the world of IN MAPS & LEGENDS. So we’ve put together a digital Collected Edition, compiling all 9 issues (190 pages!) for only $5.99– much cheaper than buying them all individually!
You can get the Collected Edition on the web or download a PDF. Or grab it through Comixology and other iOS (or Android!) apps. Buy it once, read it anywhere.

In connection the collected edition release, earlier this year we released an ebook combo of issues 1-4, exclusive for Kindle and Nook. We’ve now followed that up with the new IN MAPS & LEGENDS 5-9 eBook Combo, so you can complete the story without hunting down those individual issues you’ve missed!

It’s been a long journey to get to this point, and I’ve learned more about the different digital comics formatting than I ever imagined. I hope you take a look, try it out, and get inspired to read more comics along the way. Thanks to everyone who voted in the original competition and has followed our issue releases. We wouldn’t have made it this far without your support and encouragement.

Issue #8 (of 9) of IN MAPS & LEGENDS is out now!

The penultimate issue! We’re reaching the climax of the series, and things are heating up. There may even be a few casualties… So grab the latest issue from your favorite digital comics distributor! Let us know what you think. Each issue is 22 full color pages for only $.99.

The past and present come crashing together in this issue, as mysteries from years ago get resolved, and the final days of Bartamus’ world unfold with a tragic turn of events for Kait and her companions.

We’re on both Kindle and Nook (in both English and German!), or you can read it on the web or download a PDF. And, of course, we’re still on Comixology and other iOS (or Android!) apps. Buy it once, read it anywhere.

We also discovered a few new tricks about ebooks, so if you’ve bought issues 1-7 through your Nook or Nook app, you can now delete and redownload an updated version! The new editions automatically resize to fit your device’s screen- no more cut off edges or squinting to read when reading your comic on the Nook tablet apps. And no need to pay again to get the updated version!

As a result, we’ve updated our how-to guide, Formatting Comics for Kindle and Nook, with new information for anyone looking to create ebook comics themselves. Again, on Nook, or if you’ve purchased the guide in PDF form through Illustrated Section or DriveThruComics, simply redownload your purchase to get the updated book. (If you bought it through the Kindle store, just drop me an email and I’ll send you the new edition!)

That’s all for this month! Let me know what you think of the latest issue…

Issue #6 (of 9) of IN MAPS & LEGENDS and Issue #7 (of 9) of IN MAPS & LEGENDS are out now!

The last few months have been a bit hectic, so apologies for missing an update! In May I shared a table at TCAF, and it was great to meet everyone. A few people who stopped by remembered IN MAPS & LEGENDS from our Zuda run, which was great! Thanks to all who stopped by.

For the rest of May, I spent almost three weeks traveling through China and doing research for a graphic novel I’m hoping to get published. It was a beautiful, but very sobering trip.

And while I was gone, issue 6 of IN MAPS & LEGENDS was released! I came back and immediately set to work on meeting our deadline for issue 7, which came out at the beginning of July. So now you can catch up and grab the two issues from your favorite digital comics distributor! Let us know what you think. Each issue is 22 full color pages for only $.99.

In issue 6, Kait gets lost on a world she can’t map — with a man she can’t comprehend and a boy she can’t protect — while her old friends and new allies scatter across the ravaged world of Stryla.

Issue 7: All maps lead to one place on the dying world of Stryla: Balasander’s Crest, an active volcano at the top of the world. And that’s where Kait and her friends, old and new, must travel, though the price they must pay at the Crest may be too high for any of them to bear.

We’re on both Kindle and Nook (in both English and German!), or you can read it on the web or download a PDF. And, of course, we’re still on Comixology and other iOS (or Android!) apps. Buy it once, read it anywhere.

One of our distributors, Graphicly, has a new site, and on it you can sign up to read IN MAPS & LEGENDS and other comics using only your Facebook account! One step easier. The site also comes with embedding capabilities, like you can see below:

Now you can share comics anywhere you can embed a youtube video!

I also started a new monthly spotlight on IM&L’s site blog. You can see this month’s entry here: Recommended Digital Comics – July 2011. Since the beginning, I’ve highlighted a few digital comics each month, but I decided to expand that into full blog posts to provide more info to visitors looking for information on what’s out there and what formats are available. Let me know if there are any digital comics you think deserve a spotlight!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been reworking the art for SOME DID REST, the graphic novel proposal that resulted in my being awarded a 2011 Creative Workforce Fellowship. In mid-May I’ll be heading to China to spend a few weeks visiting the site of the 2008 Sichuan earthquakes, which was the original inspiration for the story. Over the few years that I’ve been developing this book, my line work has tightened, and I realized that the proposal art I drew last year no longer reflects how the final book would be drawn. So I’ve been reinking and reworking the opening scenes pages, a sample of which you can see on the right.

In January, my hometown newspaper, the Lawrence Journal World, ran a story about SOME DID REST’s inspirations and the steps leading up to the fellowship from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture here in Cleveland.

Storm Stories: LHS Grad Making Name for Work in Graphic Novels
“There’s something about disasters,” she says, struggling to explain her interest in them. “Everyone loses control.
“Maybe you can blame it on the tornado that hit my house and neighborhood in Lawrence.”

Another paper, Cleveland’s weekly magazine, Scene, also recently ran an article focusing on those awarded fellowships from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture here in Cleveland, and I was one of the artists highlighted. The grants are funded with a tax on cigarettes in the county, hence the article’s title.

What Your Butts Buy: How we spend one of the nation’s biggest pots of public arts money
Fellowship judges were impressed by Smith’s initial drawings for Some Did Rest, her forthcoming graphic novel inspired by the 2008 earthquakes in Sichuan, China. While reading about the disaster, Smith was struck by reports of thousands of students dying in shoddily constructed school buildings.

Both articles talk about the origins of the story behind SOME DID REST, and why it is I’ll be making a trip next week to Sichuan, China.

In other small, flattering honors, a cover I designed last year for independent publisher Lethe Press was on Lambda Literary’s 2010 in Review: Best Book Covers in very good company. The book is DIANA COMET AND OTHER IMPROBABLE STORIES by Sandra McDonald, and it was a pleasure to work on.

I also was a part of FULL SERVICE, a show that ran last week at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Visual Arts + Technologies Coventry Center as part of the campus-wide spring show. Full Service included work by myself and some of my fellow technical assistants here at CIA, and my piece was a print of the original first chapter of SOME DID REST. I hope some of you stopped by to see it!

Always keeping busy.

Good news! I’ll be an exhibitor at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival on May 7 and 8, 2011. TCAF is an annual event focused on the incredible diversity in comics, and most importantly, admission is free! Come stop by if you’re in the area or are looking for an excuse to make a trip to Canada.

Our table is on the second floor, #209. The map will be printed in the festival guide in full color, but in case you want to figure out your plan of attack in advance, here’s where we’ll be!

The full floor maps are on the TCAF website, so you can check out the locations of all 300+ cartoonists in attendance.

Toronto’s National Post newspaper has been running a series of interviews with all the exhibitors new to TCAF. Click to read my answers to their questionnaire, and check out everyone else’s while you’re at it! It looks like a great group this year.

My tablemate at TCAF will be the one and only Kevin Czap, creator of the infinite scroll webcomic SPOILERS, and who blogs about all things comics as a part of Comix Cube. Be sure to read ‘em both.

Kevin is also the guy behind PUPPY TEETH, a minicomic anthology he started last year. Collection #1 came out last fall, but we’re back with a new volume just in time for TCAF– and this time, it’s full color!

PUPPY TEETH 2 is a mighty 52 pages, with comics from over a dozen artists. It’s debuting at TCAF, where you can get it for a nice $10. You can also order it from the site; all you need is a Paypal account.

My story is a three page little thing, simply titled In Which a Young Caribou Grows No Antlers, Is Exiled from Her Herd, and Journeys to Find Answers. It’s my excuse to play with a fable-esque comic I’ve been thinking of writing, but haven’t had the time to really focus on.

Along with the PUPPY TEETH anthology, I’ll have a few additional minicomics to sell!

I’ve put together a minicomic issue of issue 1 of IN MAPS & LEGENDS. It’s 22 pages, and in black and white– but with every purchase of the minicomic, I’ll also provide a high quality, full-color PDF! The minicomic will be available for $2.50. TCAF visitors can buy digital versions of issues 2-6 while they’re at it for just $1 per issue.

Also available will be a zine version of Mike’s and my recent how-to ebook, FORMATTING COMICS FOR KINDLE & NOOK. This is a 30 page guide, and it’ll cost $4 at TCAF (though you can always grab a PDF if you can’t make it to the con!).

Writer Michael Jasper and I have been releasing the digital comic version of IN MAPS & LEGENDS for a little more than half a year now. We’ve learned a lot, and are constantly getting questions from other creators wanting to make ebook version of their own comics. So we made a guide! Formatting Comics for the Kindle and Nook.

This how-to guide covers assembling image-based ebooks for the two biggest e-readers on the market: Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. This ebook covers how to convert the images for your comic into the Kindle and Nook formats, and how to package those images in the most effective manner. We also share what we have learned about digital comic distribution for sites other than Amazon.com and BN.com. The ebook is $2.99, and has step-by-step tutorials with plenty of screenshots to make sure you don’t run into any problems formatting your own comics. It’s available for Kindle and Nook, and as a PDF and ePub.

I hope to see you there!

Issue #5 (of 9) of IN MAPS & LEGENDS is out now!

Issue 5 of IN MAPS & LEGENDS is out and available!

With this issue, we’ve crossed the halfway point. Only four more issues to go! I hope you guys are enjoying the comic and all its twists and turns. We’re hoping to have the final issue, #9, out by October.

If you haven’t yet, go ahead and grab IN MAPS & LEGENDS issue 5 from your favorite digital comics distributor! Let us know what you think. You get 22 full color pages for only $.99.

Stranded on her strange new world, Kait questions a man who seems to hold all the answers. Meanwhile, her friends face inhuman assassins, violent hurricanes, and sudden tidal waves. And a frail old man makes one last, desperate stand against his enemies.

We’re on both Kindle and Nook (in both English and German!), or you can read it on the web or download a PDF. And, of course, we’re still on Comixology and other iOS (or Android! or Windows phone!) apps. Buy it once, read it anywhere.

We’ve been keeping busy in between issues, too.

We wanted to offer new readers a chance to get caught up with our special “combo pack” — a digital bundle of issues 1 through 4 of IN MAPS & LEGENDS.

So instead of downloading issues 1-4 individually and paying $.99 for each, you can buy the collected edition– and save some money!

Right now the special is for just the Kindle (click to buy) and the Nook (click to buy). So if you’re interested in giving comics a try on your ereader, this bundle is a great way to get caught up and save at the same time. And remember, if you’ve got the Kindle or Nook apps on your phone or tablet, you can take advantage of this offer too!