Here is another letter from a dad. This went to Kathleen first, who forwarded it to me with the subject headline: “Prepare for cuteness!” Even with that warning, I was not prepared…

Kathleen,

Enclosed you will find the pictures of the hat. Tressley worked really hard designing it, and helping to create the mice, clothes, lettering, and barn. She read Little Mouse Gets Ready to her first grade class while wearing it, and the whole class fell in love with Little Mouse, just like she did.

My daughter has been awe-struck by the proposition of Mr. Smith seeing her hat. When it came time to figure out what she wanted to say, she acted as if she was actually about to meet him, extremely shy. However, she did finally convey to me what she wanted to say, and I have typed her message exactly how she presented it.

Dear Mr. Smith:

My name is Tressely. I love to draw. I think you are a great artist. I love the ending of Little Mouse Gets Ready, because it was like, POOF! No clothes. I really like how you drew the book. The mice are cute. I think the BONE books are funny too, especially the snow that goes WHUMP! and just falls out of the sky. My daddy has a shirt like Phoney Bone. Me and my twin brother hit it and act like we are invincible like when the Mario Bros. get invincible because of stars.

Sincerely,

Tressley Chapman

Thanks again for the honor of letting Tressley convey her love of Mr. Smith’s books. She does love to draw, and his books really inspire her. Well, all of us.

Respectfully,

Richard Chapman.

The honor is mine. Tressley, you are a smart and talented kid. Nice job! Thank you for sharing.

A father sent this e-mail (through the company that made the documentary about me).

I answered it as honestly as I could.

Here is the letter:

Sent RASL #14 to the printer this morning! It’s the second to last issue, and even I’m getting excited! RASL #14 should hit stores on May 30. Aand now I have to start packing for this weekend’s trip to Toronto for the Toronto Comic Arts Fest. It’s a great literary/arts comics show and I am looking forward to returning there for the first time in years. Last time I was at TCAF, it was held in tents out in a parking lot. Lots of great guests and panels, so come if you can!

UP NEXT:

TCAF – Toronto Comics Art Festival May 4-6

2012 Toronto Comics Art Festival! Below is the schedule of where I will be this weekend…

Friday:

Panel – Smith, Ba, Moon On Stage –  Noir and the Fantastic.
A conversation  moderated by Mark Askwith 7:00pm-8:30pm
Signing – 8:30pm-10:00pm (please note only one item per person).
Held at the Toronto Reference Library in the Appel Salon.

Saturday:

Panel – Meet Jeff Smith!
Presentation on Bone 1:00pm-2:00pm
Signing – 2:00pm-3:30pm (please note this is on a first-come, first-served basis).
Held at Owlkids Day at St. Paul’s on Bloor Street.

Sunday:

Workshop – Inking with Jeff Smith Workshop
Special one-time-only interactive TCAF panel! 11:30am-12:30pm
Held at Ristorante Fortuna on Cumberland Street.
Signing – 1:00pm-3:00pm. Held at The Reference Library in Signing Area B1

It’s crunch time. I’m finishing up the inks on RASL #14 so we can send it out next week. That means I’m stocking up on Pellegrino, turkey slices, and jalapenos (my munchies of choice!), so I can power through the next couple of days. This is the second to last issue, so a lot story threads are starting to come together – - that’s why you see so many older issues of RASL strewn around my desk for reference.

The brilliant cartoonist who goes simply by Max, recently posted the above piece on his blog & tumbler. I first met Max in Barcelona at the big comics festival  back in the late nineties. Max is a badass cartoonist. He’s done covers for The New Yorker, and made  a number of award winning comics albums, mostly published in Europe, but some published here, like Bardin from Fantagraphics.

I love his style, and his stories are smart, fun, and pure comics. You can see some of his titles (like those below) at his blog.

Thanks, Max!

Here’s a link to a short YouTube video of Max conducting a comics workshop.

As I recall, this picture is from the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award dinner, and we were the comic book table. Around 2001 or so?  Left to right: Dan DeCarlo, me, someone I recognize, but can’t remember his name, Josie, Sergio Aragones, and Will Eisner. Dan and I were both up for best comic book that year- – Dan won and we all went wild!

Thanks to Blake!

Gail, who was writing Wonder Woman at the time, wrote the word ballons!

Next, Rachel Rising creator and great friend of ours, Terry Moore, gave me this kick@ss Thor sketch for helping design and layout his Hot Girls, Cold Feet sketchbook.

Hope you enjoyed this little peak behind the scenes of working with indie creators!

I love my job!

On Wednesday, Jeff was in New York City to take part in a global webcast for Scholastic. Joining him were Raina Telgemeier (SMILE) and Kazu Kibuishi (AMULET).

You can see the entire interview here, and see what was on thousands of classroom computer’s across the country.

Ultimate Comics is auctioning off several Muppet Show variant covers sketched by industry professionals.  Jeff’s cover is shown above with 100% of the money going to the CBLDF. The Auction of his piece will run until this Friday, 2/24/12, and the overall event will run until Friday March 9.

You can bid on Jeff’s cover by going here. You can see ALL of the auctions on eBay from the Ultimate Comics store by clicking here!