Finally a publisher!

I am very pleased to announce after these many months of silence, that Drawn and Quarterly, the very excellent publisher of comics and graphic novels, will be publishing my graphic novel, Over Easy. It may take me the next four years to finish it- it could run up to 500 or 600 pages, people- I hope not- but I am thrilled to be in the hands of a publisher that makes such beautiful books and cares so passionately about comics and cartoonists!

I am just back from Comic-Con in San Diego. I feel as though I was pitched into a roiling sea of comics and have just been spit up upon the shore. But in a fun way. I got to hang with the cool kids at the Drawn and Quarterly booth, including the staggeringly talented Vanessa Davis, creator of the fabulous new collection of her work, "Make Me A Woman," cartoonist and illustrator Jillian Tamaki,  also there to promote her new book, "Indoor Voice"and cartoonist Gabrielle Bell, there to sign copies of all her great books. Peggy Burns, Rebecca Rosen, and Jessica Cambell, the D + Q crew, are all people I wish I could hang around all the time, likewise Peter Berkimoe, owner of Toronto comic book store, The Beguiling. They probably got sick of me since I wanted to hang around them more than anyone else, except for maybe Esther Pearl Watson  , creator of the genius comic book, "Unloveable," and her equally-talented cartoonist/illustrator husband, Mark Todd, both people I hope to get to know better at home here in L.A. I also got to visit all-too-briefly with old friend and fellow curmudgeon, Peter Bagge, who was signing over at the Fantagraphics booth. Maybe the reason I never strayed too far from the booth and the graphic novel publishing ghetto that is the 1500-1900 aisle of Comicon is due to my extreme antipathy towards superhero comics and action films...because after all, what's in it for me?  I can admire a well-drawn, anatomically accurate page of crime-busting superheros, but beyond that? No. The orgy and crush of fandom in their sweaty, overweight, costumed array is almost too much to take in, although I must say that I found them heartwarming against the backdrop of the slick corporate co-opting of the Con. Although, let's face it, that's who the corporations are making all their money off of, the arrested development mouth-breathing legions of fandom! Now you will excuse me as I am off to luxuriate in the mountain of books I got from Drawn and Quarterly! Oh Happy Day!