Hope you’re going to be at a cookout this weekend! I will be.

I can’t believe it’s summer already. I think this must have been one of the busiest Springs I ever had. I drew more comics than I have in years, been involved in a lot of projects, and traveled all over the country. I gave a commencement address and read scripts for the Bone movie. I also read a ton of great comics. I’m going to start blogging about them in the coming weeks.

It’s old news, I know, but next week, I’ll start an On the Road 2009 blog to recap the places and awesome cartoonists that I’ve met and hung out with over the last few months. The photos I have of Craig Thompson flipping through portfolios full of original art for his next project Habibi are worth it alone!

One last thing, I received my copies of RASL no.5 from the printer, so that means they will be in stores on Wed. July 15.

Tom and I will put a preview of the issue on Monday.

Enjoy the long weekend!

The biggest convention of the year, San Diego Comic-Con is only three weeks away!  We will have 3 brand new BONE shirts, featuring all the BONE guys on sale at our booth!

You can choose from Fone on a navy blue colored shirt, Phoney on a eggplant colored shirt or Smiley and Bartleby on a cranberry colored shirt.

Each design is available in small, medium, large and extra large for $20, and XXL for $24.

These comfortable, 100% cotton, American Apparel shirts are made in the U.S. and were printed by our friends over at Graphitti Designs!  Thanks Bob!

If you can’t make it to San Diego, don’t worry because you can pick one up on our store page!
 

Hey everybody, Tom again. I just want to let you know about this upcoming screening of the documentary that tells the story behind Jeff’s efforts to self-publish Bone, the 1300 page graphic novel that he carried in his head since he was 9!

This is a big deal – - The Cartoonist will be shown Friday night at 7:30 at Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA on Friday, July 24th in Room 5AB

Ken Mills, who wrote and directed the film, and who is a co-founder of Mills/James Productions will be there to host the screening.

We will have copies of the dvd for sale at our booth in San Diego! I will post information about where you can order copies very soon.  Looking forward to hear all your comments once you’ve had a chance to see it.

BONE Volume 9: Crown of Horns was released by Scholastic back in early spring. The book market trade journal, Publishers Weekly, has listed volume nine of the BONE saga on its top 10 Bestsellers list for the last sixteen weeks!

And on the ICV2 website, BONE is listed as The Top Humor Property for the first quarter of 2009!

Jeff is a guest at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina being held on Friday, June 19 thru Sunday, June 21st. Here is his schedule so far:

Friday, June 19th: Panel at 3:00pm in Room 217A: Jeff Smith and Alec Longstreth in Conversation
Friday, June 19th: Signing from 4:30-5:30pm at the Cartoon Books Booth

Saturday, June 20th: Panel at 12:30pm in Room 217A: All ages panel with Jeff Smith, David Petersen, Roger Langridge & more
Saturday, June 20th: Signing from 1:30-3:00pm at the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) Booth
Saturday, June 20th: Signing from 5:00-6:00pm at the Cartoon Books Booth

NEW! Sunday, June 21st: Panel at 1:00pm in Room 217BCD:  Screening of the documentary The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone, and the Changing Face of Comics, co-hosted by Jeff Smith & Colleen Doran
Sunday, June 21st: Signing from 3:00-4:00pm at the Cartoon Books Booth

BE SURE TO COME BY THE CARTOON BOOKS BOOTH 
TO CHECK ON ANY UPDATES OR CHANGES THAT MAY OCCUR!
 

Jeff and I are packing up the booth and heading down to Charlotte, North Carolina for HeroesCon. Its being held on Friday, June 19 thru Sunday, June 21st. Stay tuned for more info on signing times etc.

RASL: The Drift, Collector’s Edition Hard Cover will be debuting in San Diego at Comicon and in comic book stores July 22, 2009. This hardcover version of the critically acclaimed series will only be available in comic book stores. 
 

This edition is 128 pages which includes 16 new pages of concept sketches, script pages and bonus art (seen here).

Each book will be signed and numbered by Jeff and is limited to just 2,000 books. Don’t forget that RASL is for mature audiences. Be sure to order with Diamond solicitation number May090756. Orders will need to be placed with your comic shop this Friday, June 5th

posted by Tom

Jeff, Vijaya, and the rest of us Cartoon Book staffers, are teaming up with Terry and Robyn Moore from Abstract Studios to make an appearance at the biggest comic book convention in the country, Comic-Con International in San Diego, California.  Terry and Jeff are old friends and have talked about doing this for awhile now. And since both their new projects are science fiction stories, this seemed like the year!

Steve H. and I have designed these mock-ups of what we thought the booths would look like.

(you can click on the last image for a bigger view) We will have a 10′ x 20′ booth space. As you can see, RASL and ECHO have never looked bigger or better! We will be located at booth 2109. Comic-Con is held at the San Diego Convention Center on July 23-26, 2009.

We’ll be posting more details about books and goodies that we’ll be bringing to the show in the weeks to come, so check back!

posted by Tom

Hey everyone, just got back from The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. I had a blast and I took a bunch of pictures, so I’ll put a blog up soon. Meanwhile, my friend Bryan Talbot asked me to post this trailer for his new comic Grandville . I know it’s been seen on a lot of sites by now, but if you haven’t watched this, you’re in for a treat.

Brian’s site is here and his mySpace site here.

Bagers? …we don’t need no steenking badgers!

There’s a trailer on YouTube for The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, BONE, and the Changing Face of Comics.

The Columbus premiere of this film is on Friday. For more information on getting tickets, visit the Wexner Center for the Arts site.

See you there!

Posted by Tom