Decatur Book Festival in One Week

One of the real treasures of Atlanta's cultural offerings is the annual Decatur Book Festival, held in downtown Decatur. It's the largest independent book festival in the country, with hundreds of authors, illustrators, publishers, and readers reveling in all things print. The folks in charge are also very comics-friendly, usually bringing in a number of cartoonists to do workshops, lectures, and panel discussions.

It's also completely free.

Below is a chronological schedule of the comic-related events going on at this year's DBF. I strongly recommend any SCAD comics students in the area to take advantage of these opportunities. Though any of you are (of course) welcome at my solo workshop, if you're only to able to come for one day, or otherwise need to prioritize your time, then please attend the workshops and talks given by someone who is NOT your regular professor; you've got me year-round, so be sure to take full advantage of the folks with whom you have less proximity.

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Writer’s Workshop: Creating the Graphic Novel
Chris Schweizer (Crogan’s Vengeance)
SCAD instructor and cartoonist Chris Schweizer discusses approaches to creating a graphic novel, from planning to execution, including character design, layout, and storytelling. Agnes Scott Campus, Buttrick Hall room 219
Friday, September 4 @ 4pm


Minicomics Masterpieces
Eleanor Davis (Stinky, Secret Science Alliance), Chris Schweizer (Crogan’s Vengeance) Drew Weing (Set to Sea, The Adventures of Wulf and Merl), Joey Weiser (The Ride Home, Tales of Unusual Circumstance), Kevin Burkhalter (Kevin Days a Week), Jarrett Williams (Lunar Boy, SuperPro K.O.!), and Allen Spetnagel (Dr. Eisenbart)
Think drawing and assembling your own comics to amuse your family and friends doesn't count as making "real" comics? Think again friends! Come hear these mini-comics masters discussing the highs and lows of the mini-comics world, and give you some tips on your own masterpieces!
Saturday, September 5 @ Noon


Art Comics
Brian Ralph (Cave-In, Daybreak), Eleanor Davis (Secret Science Alliance)
A conversation between two of art comics' most versatile cartoonists about creating graphic novels and art for kids and adults.
Saturday, September 5 @ 1:45


Davis, Krosoczka, Vernon
Eleanor Davis (Stinky, Secret Science Alliance), Jarrett Krosoczka (LunchLady), Ursula Vernon (Digger)
Three cartoonists discuss their current works.
Saturday, September 5 @ 4:00


All Hail the Lunch Lady
Jarrett Krosoczka
Award-winning published author/illustrator Krosoczka will read from and discuss his latest work
Saturday, September 5 @ 5:00


Fear of a Black Marker: Race, Humor, Politics, & Cartooning
Keith Knight (The K Chronicles, the Knight Life)
Join Harvey Award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight as he presents his world-famous slideshow tackling race, censorship, politics and the media. A frequent contributor to Salon.com, Funny Times, MAD magazine and daily newspapers nationwide, Knight's work is guaranteed to make you laugh, cringe, gasp, and most of all, THINK!!
Sunday, September 6 @ Noon


The location of the book festival is immediately outside the Decatur MARTA station, on the East train line. It takes anywhere from 20-40 minutes to get there from Art Center Station.

Couple of characters, those guys

A couple of cartoonist friends were visiting a couple of weeks ago, and I realized that I should snag their visages in order to design my comic-relief duo in the foreign legion book. Here are some sketches...

 ...and one actual drawing. Whether the design will tweak more before I actually hit pages, I can't say.

 The plot of the new book has been completely written out, and is fairly tight. I'll be revising it heavily over the next couple of weeks, in order to get it to where I can jump to pages as soon as the Winter Break begins. I still have to nail down a few character deigns, but I've got a good feeling overall. I also drew this fish-man. I read a few (my first) H.P. Lovecraft stories to get revved up for Thanksgiving, and I loved them, especially Call of Cthulhu and Shadow Over Insmouth, the latter of which prominently features some horrifying toadish fishmen. I've been sketching 'em like crazy ever since! 

Catching Up - The Book is Done!

Okay. I need to apologize for not updating more. My excuse is that... well... it had been a long time since I'd updated. It's like when I kept a journal. I kept it every day for a year or so, and then had a one-month stretch where I didn't write, and I never picked it up again. Too much time passed, too much to fill in!

So here's the short rundown version of the last month or so:

• The Book
Crogan's Vengeance is DONE. It clocked in at 177 pages, and I finished on the 10th. The book itself will be 189, and is coming out at SPX this year. It'll be hitting shelves nationwide on October 7th, I think.

• James comes to town
James Lucas Jones, my editor (Oni Press's editor-in-chief) came to Atlanta, and I passed off a finished draft to him. He's been pricing the books, and it sounds like they're going to be REALLY cool, in that classic kid's library edition aesthetic. Hardcover, with a gold leaf/foil title. Samples:


• The Barbecue
Shawn Crystal hosted a dinner for James and his minions - Atlanta folk who work for/with Oni (Hunter Clark, who's doing the art for the much-hyped Return of King Doug; Justin Wagner, who's doing the art for CBLDF director Greg Thompson's Lonesome Town; Me; Doug Dabbs, who's doing the art for some Resurrection specials coming up; and our spouses, Liz and Nicole), with SCAD honcho Pat Quinn and his wife Pilar there as well. We had chicken sausage (delicious) and strips of some sort of bourbon-marinated steak. I'm either not a steak man at all OR I'm the biggest steak snob in the world - I've had three steaks in the past ten years that I thought were good, and I LOVED those, but everything else was just hefty meat. The stuff at the barbecue was one of those three, and topped with a homemade guacamole. Mmmm!

• Free Comic Book Day
Shawn and I drove up to Charlotte, North Carolina where we were honored to be a part of the FCBD celebrations at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find. I did about thirty to forty sketches, for folks of all different age ranges.

I did a lot of Iron Man, quite a few Narutos, and more than one Batman... here's one of 'em!


• The Interview
Adam from The Dollar Bin interviewed me about Crogan's Vengeance and working with Oni as FCBD was wrapping up. Listen to it HERE.

• Editor's Day
We went down to Savannah for SCAD's annual Editor's Day. Me, Shawn, James, and Cara McGee made the trek, talking about Oni and Scad and the state of the industry and whatnot. And editor's day went really well - I always love seeing the Savannah folk, plus those editors with whom I'm already aquainted. And the whole thing really climaxed with...

• Karaoke!
I sang a duet of the Queen/David Bowie classic "Under Pressure" with Kevin Burkhalter, and it was, without question, the best Karaoke moment of my life. I did the Freddy Mercury part! Subsequently, I made into not one, but TWO Burkhalter Journal Comics this week! Liz reads Kevin's comics, so anytime I'm in them she treats me like a star.


• Ummmm...
That's it, for the most part. I think. I'm a week away from finishing the last class of my MFA program, and am starting to buckle down on my thesis...