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…

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!

A few weeks ago I was invited to be in an alumni/faculty show put together by the VAT Environment at the Cleveland Institute of Art. I’m a recent graduate and currently work as an assistant in the digital labs, and I’m really looking forward to seeing where everyone’s work has gone since we finished school.

The show, called “Building Peers”, opens today, with a reception this Friday, April 23 at 5:30pm. It’ll be running until May 15, so you’ll have plenty of time to stop by and check it out!

My own piece is the first chapter of my current work in progress, SOME DID REST, a teaser of which you can see here. If you want see it at a size where it’s legible, you’ll have to stop by the show or wait until the book finds a home. :) If you do get a chance to visit and read it, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think!

My WIP finally has a title! None of the many characters have names yet, but that’s another matter entirely, right? In any case, the project is now going by Some Did Rest. I’ve spent the last few months outlining and doing research, and I’m finally nearing the point where I can start writing the script. I’ve done enough background work now that I’m hoping this next phase will be a bit quicker.

Some Did Rest is a very different work than Highwater… there are still some teenage characters, but this is distinctly a much more adult story. The structure is also very different and less straight-forward, and the style looser and grittier. And on that note, I’ve updated the project page with some new concept art and character sketches. There are a lot of visuals I want to bring into the final pages, and I’ve yet to figure out just how I want the pages to be laid out… I have a few ideas, but you’ll have to wait to see those. :)

I’ve been working on a new short project to keep my hands busy while Some Did Rest is still in words-only phase. This one is a collaboration, with a fellow FinePrint client, Michael Jasper, doing the writing! It’s fully pencilled already, and I should hopefully have some teaser images to post once the pages are inked and colored! It should be good.

Also updated is the list of literary agents who represent graphic novels– there are now 50 different agencies on the list! Take a look, and feel free to drop me a line if you know of anyone I’ve missed, or if you have any questions I can help with.

I’m having a lot of fun with my WIP. I’ve got a growing pile of library books next to my feet, documentaries watched, and a long list of research books still waiting to be checked out and brought home. Quite a few of the documents I’m slogging through are heavy with numbers and graphs, while others offer interviews, giving a human side to the situations I’m exploring. But the books and articles that explore my WIP’s main premise are still a long ways off, a decade or two at least. Nothing to do but watch and see how things develop. It’s all heavy conjecture, right now… and I’ve been diving in head-first. There’s a definite line between intimidating and exhilarating, and I have to tread carefully if I want this to come together the way I think it has the potential to.

But as I’ve been doing research, the rough shape of the story has been coming together: it still could change, and nothing’s in stone, but I’m at least the point where characters are emerging. And I’m so happy to be able to say that! There’s nothing quite like figuring out the faces and postures of a cast. They may not have names yet, but they have birthmarks, histories and personalities. Check out some of the new faces here.

Also, the list of literary agents who represent graphic novels has been updated with Jon Sternfeld of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. Whether he takes graphic novel queries is unknown, but he represents at least one (signed in April 2009).

I’m deep in research-mode for my next project– still unnamed, but with a premise I can’t wait to explore. I’ve put up a WIP section on the site so I can share concept art as I flesh ideas and visuals out.

I’ve posted a number of character sketches I’ve been playing with, so take a look!