Starting next week, on Chicago’s PBS WISE TV (WYCC) the Cartoonist will air. You will have three chances to catch it.

March 8 at 2:00 PM, March 9 at 4:00 AM and March 15 at 4:00AM

Set your dvr’s!

You can see the full lineup of the station here.

Hi everybody! Tom again. I wanted to let you all know that I’m taking the Cartoon Books booth full of goodies to the  Mid Ohio Con. The Greater Columbus Convention Center in downtown Columbus will host the event, and you can find me in our booth at space 207. (See map below)

We’re planning some sweet conventions deals so stop by! 

I will have some signed books, that will include the new cover of the BONE: One Volume Edition, as seen here as well as some other signed Bone & RASL stuff.  

Please come out and say hi if you can!

Happy Labor Day! Instead of working and writing a real entry for today’s blog, here are a few recent BONE related links from around the web…

BONE:

A reluctant comics fan gives in and reads the One Volume Edition at  Byzantium Shores.

CBC Radio picks their Top Ten Graphic Novels of All Time.

Creator’s Incubator checks out BONE.

RASL:

Try Harder, the Scary Threat Book Blog, says RASL is the antidote!

Major Spoilers reviews RASL #5 and pretty much sums up what’s good and what’s bad.

The Comic Addiction has a review of RASL #5 by a non-BONE reader.

Little Mouse Gets Ready:

ICv2’s Tom Flinn reviews Little Mouse.

Over at Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton digs Toon Books.

Johanna Draper Carlson at Comics Worth Reading looks at both Little Mouse and Rose.

Forbiden Planet International reviews the dressing habits of a mouse.

Kirkus wrote a review, but I can’t link to it. Here’s quote though: " The big friendly panels in autumn pastels and the silly twist ending will have emergent readers going straight back to the first page over and over." Nice!

Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil:

Grovel, the UK site that reviews graphic novels celebrates a superhero comic for kids.

Suite 101 wonders: is it just for kids?

By the way, I loved Mike Kunkle’s take on Captain Marvel, but the new team on Billy Batson and the Power of Shazam, led by Art Baltazar and Franco is three issues in, and issue #6 especially is pretty hot.

The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone, and the Changing Face of Comics:

Texas Indy cartoonist Nate Bramble, who does a webcomic called Hermit Hill, watches The Cartoonist.

Kevin’s Meandering Mind; an elementary school librarian watches The Cartoonist with his young son.

Out from the Comic Shop, a blog intended to "provide insight for teachers using or considering using comics and graphic novels in the classroom," takes a look at the documentary.

Around town:

In an interview with ICv2, DC Publisher Paul Levitz talks about the state of the industry and name-checks us!

I met Will Terrell in San Diego this year. He’s got some chops, check out his portfolio!  At his blog The Art of Will Terrell, Will talks about going to panels at Comic-Con International.

Next year’s big, new comics show, C2E2 (Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo) has the Guests of Honor listed here.

A couple of weeks ago I had a signing at an Indigo Book Store in Toronto. It was great, very well attended, and the icing on the cake was meeting Lynda Carter who was doing a signing right after mine to promote her new CD.

It was an afternoon signing out in the burbs. When I first arrived at the store, the whole downstairs was jammed with people queued up behind velvet ropes. See? Nice turn out!

Then they showed me the upstairs!. They took me past another giant queue, which I assumed was for Lynda, but her’s was elsewhere.  No, they said, upstairs and down, this is all for BONE, and there is a third line starting up in the back. Do you want to limit the number of books you’ll sign?

 I said I wouldn’t put a limit on the number of books I’d sign, because most of the kids had all nine books, plus Rose, but I did request that I only draw in the top copy for each customer.

I got started at 2pm, and went for three and half hours straight. That’s a lot of Fone Bones to draw!

 The kids made it worth it.

And most of them had read their copy of Rose while waiting in line; I was relieved to find out they all liked the ending, which is not a Disney happy ending by any stretch.

Then part way through my signing, the staff brought Lynda Carter over. I have to admit I was a little star struck. Can you tell?

She was great, and the crowd ate it up. She gave me a copy of her new CD and flashbulbs went off like we’re on the red carpet somewhere! While we were posing for the picture up at the top, one little girl said, "They should get married!"

I signed a copy of BONE for Lynda as she looked at some of the pictures the kids had drawn for me.

She probably gets tired of hearing about Wonder Woman, but man, it’s impossible to look at her and not think about the character. All right, no more Wonder Woman references, I promise. Her CD isn’t bad either.

 Anyway, back to the kids! We finished up around 5:30.

Later that night I met up with a bunch of comics pals at a great little joint in the Annex area called The Madison Pub. 

The survivors, L to R:  Ian Daffern, Ho Che Anderson (peeking out), Scott Robins (leaning in), Chris Butcher, me, and one of my very oldest chums in the biz, Mark Askwith.  Taking the photo is another long time crony Bruce Peck. Many, many martinis were consumed.

Scott Robins, who took all of the photos here, has a blog up at School Library Journal with more pictures.

Happy and exhausted, I stumbled up to my room overlooking downtown and the CN Tower.  Can’t wait to get back to Toronto!

Special thanks to Denise Anderson of Scholastic Canada, Scott Robins for taking all the photos, Bruce Peck for arranging the boys night out.

I can’t believe it’s August. Where did the year go? Seems like I just got back from Stumptown, but San Diego has come and gone, and this weekend I’m leaving for a signing in Toronto.  As I write this, I’m working on the new material I wrote for BONE: Tall Tales, and sometime in September, I’ll be getting back to RASL. In the meantime, I thought I’d catch up on some blogging.

 Back in May, I delivered the third ever commencement address at The Center for Cartoon Studies. The Center is in White River Junction, Vermont, and was founded by the brilliant cartoonist James Sturm and administrator Michelle Ollie (both can be seen in the picture above on the left). It was an honor, and I had a great time.

The graduation ceremony was filmed, so if you are interested in seeing the speech, it’s here.  Sam Carbough’s talk and Alec Longstreth’s introduction are really good.

CCS is, I believe, the only two year MFA program for cartoonists in North America. Along with Sturm, the faculty includes up-and-comers like Alec Longstreth, and veteran masters such as Steve Bissette and Jason Lutes.

And here they are! The class of 2009. Masters of Cartooning all! They have to grow mustaches before they are allowed to graduate, it’s part of the training.

Below: CCS Fellow Alec Longstreth and me on our way to the ceremony. Alec has the mustache thing down cold.

The students followed a bagpipe player onto the Northern Stage Theater in the beautiful old Briggs Opera House, right in the center of town.

Sam Carbaugh was the student speaker this year, and his talk was funny, smart and insightful. Just what I wanted to follow with my speech!

Then Alec gave me a rousing, full blooded, hilarious introduction that had the audience shouting "Amen, brother Alec!"

After my address, James and Michelle presented me with an honorary degree. It is the first one CCS has given out, and it is definitely the first one I’ve ever received; honorary or otherwise!

The Center for Cartoon Studies Class of 2009 (in alphabetical order): Dan Archer, A. Kubby Barry, Sam Carbaugh, Brandon Elston, Sango Imai-Hall, Lucy Knisley, Liza Petruzzo, Jeremiah Piersol, Steve Seck, Al Wesolowsky, Benjamin Williams. Also present were CCS Fellows: Chris Wright and Alec Longstreth. Congratulations, everyone!

Afterward we all headed back to the Center for a reception with friends and family.

Me & Sam Carbough at the reception. I’m holding my Honorary Degree diploma designed by Jim Rugg.

Behind us, on the walls of the gallery you can see examples of the students’ thesis exhibition.

Below is a close up of Brandon Elston’s thesis project called LUSTY TALES.

 Beneath each framed page of original art, hangs a fully printed version of the finished comic. Here’s a closer look at Lusty Tales:

Nice, huh? I was blown away by all the student work. I highly recomend you explore the CCS website!

That same weekend, Vijaya and I stopped in New York for some meetings with our color Bone publisher, Scholastic. 

They surprised me with a champagne reception to celebrate the release of the last color volume of BONE: Crown of Horns.  Quite a treat, and a lot of fun. (BTW, while looking for a link for the Crown of Horns book just now, I dicovered there are Wikipedia pages for all the Bone books. Who knew?)

Even more surprising was an appearance by my good friend and legendary cartoonist Jules Feiffer!

To top off a great weekend, Vijaya and I had dinner that night with Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell and his wife Karen O’Connell at a nice little Indian place in Mid-town.

Before we left New York City the next day, we went to Ray’s Pizza. And not just any Ray’s, either. We only go to the one on 11th and 6th in Greenwich Village.  Local legend says that this is the actual original famous Ray’s, but there are others who claim the same thing.  Even if it’s not the original one, it’s still the best slice of pie in the universe.

Hey, I had to get in at least one food shot, didn’t I?

Many thanks to everyone at Scholastic, and at The Center for Cartoon Studies. I had a wonderful time!