Rainforest of the Americas

"Oo, new digs"

Hooray! The last piece to Phase I of the LA Zoo's Master Plan is finally complete. The new (and lovely) Rainforest of the Americas is now open to the public. I still remember the first part of the puzzle, the Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains, opening in 1998. I was employed by the zoo at the time, working in the Behavioral Research Division, studying how the chimps could best make use of their new space. That was the zoo's first step into a new century of exhibit technology. I sincerely hope this new space won't be the last, despite the City of LA's steadily declining support. But for now, let's celebrate the new space, and what it can mean for the conservation of its rare denizens in the wild!

Baird's Tapir!

 

Tapir Feet! 

Cotton-top Tamarin

Giant River Otter - and hapless fish

Apparently fish are tasty

Emerald Tree Boa - added to his new home while we watched

Emerald Tree Boa

Stuff - New and Upcoming!

It's almost the end of April which means Con Season is in full swing. Gabriel and I just attended Wondercon this weekend and are preparing for several more over the summer. Of course we'll have books and art, but Gabriel's doing something new this year: The Convention Portrait Project. Here's the deal, as stated on his blog:

"If you're willing to sit for 20-30 minutes, I'll draw a naturalistic portrait of you in my convention sketchbook. I won't be selling these sketches (or giving them away for that matter), they're staying in my sketchbook. I'll happily send you a scan if you give me your contact information. 

These are naturalistic drawings, not charactertures. Cosplayers are welcome but be aware, these drawing will not be idealized superhero style sketches. 

If I end up with enough interesting convention portraits, I may collect them in a book at some future date. 
So please, If you'd like to take a break from the con and can sit still for 30 minutes, come by our table and ask about the CONVENTION PORTRAIT PROJECT. "

If you'd like to participate, stay tuned! We have at least three more cons coming up, so lots more portraits will be drawn. 

In other news, how about some new trades? First up is the final volume of our Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm run. I'm really proud of how this third book turned out, and I'm thrilled that it can now sit on the shelf with the other two volumes as well as the two miniseries which came before it. If you'd like to check it  out, here's the Goodreads listing. And if you'd like to order it, here's a link to Amazon. 

Meanwhile, in a completely different fictional universe, our run on Star Wars: Legacy continues with issue #14 appearing this week. But if trades appeal to you more than floppies, you're in luck here too. Volume two, Outcasts of the Broken Ring, is set to appear in a little over a month. You can preorder it already on Amazon, and it's even on sale right now. 

And if that's not enough sci-fi for you, then we also have a new miniseries appearing July 30 from Dark Horse. Scripted by Gabriel and me from a story by Mike Richardson, Deep Gravity will run for four issues and includes plenty of exo-biology and deep-space-faring vessel action. Not to mention several characters that I'm quite fond of. 

So that's the update. Hope to see you at a con this summer! 

Kitten of the Week - Magritte

Margritte is the funniest kid I've seen in a long time, and I see a lot of feline kids.

He'd like a home of his own though, so if you want an entertaining friend contact Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats.

Emerald City Wrap-Up

We're back from Emerald City Comicon and you won't be surprised to hear that it was a terrific show. I love having the chance to spend some time in Seattle. And the show itself is so smoothly run that it's an absolute joy to start off "con season" there. As is always the case, the weekend went by in a blur, but fortunately I took a few photos of the highlights. 

Hire This Woman panel in action

Yes, I'm the shortest one of the group. Again. Even in heels.

On Saturday I sat on a panel hosted by Janelle Asselin that captured her column "Hire This Woman" live. It was the first time I'd met Amy Chu, Heather Nuhfer, or Robin Robinson. Mairghread Scott is a SoCal writer like me, so it was nice that we were seated next to each other, representing the fact that all comics don't happen in Portland or the east coast. It was a real honor to share the stage with such talented women, so a big thank you is in order to Janelle for inviting me. If you'd like to see my print interview, you can find that here. 

Gabriel draws Rachel

"Rachel R"

Throughout the weekend Gabriel continued his Convention Portrait Project, drawing con-goers, pros, friends, and fans. You can see all of them here, and read a bit about it here. We're currently planning other cons, so if you want to be the subject for one of his drawings, stay tuned and get in touch. 

I'm kind of proud of how I managed to capture a fictional photobomber here.

I didn't get as much time as I would have liked to walk around and see the rest of the con, but happily Drew Rausch, Jocelyn Gageway, and Aaron Alexovich had a table right around the corner from ours. If you don't already know about it, you should check out Drew and Jocelyn's terrific webcomic My Blacks Don't Match. It's even free! I also got a peek at Aaron's Serenity Rose: 10 Awkward Years, and man does it look gorgeous! I can't wait to get my copy. It's one of the nicest things I've ever seen emerge from a Kickstarter.

Mike Norton photographing Gabriel in the hat

Now that's a hat! 

Apparently the Pacific northwest is good for more than comics... Great hats can be found there too. Mike Norton had a table down the row from us and at some point during the weekend he bought a hat. A terrific hat, a hat that looks good on everyone. To test out the terrificness of the hat he took many pictures of many people in the hat. Sure enough, everyone looked great. You can see more of those here.

Aww, Star Wars, I'm gonna miss you!

As Sunday wound down Gabriel and I were gifted with this swell poster as a thank you for creating a little chunk of the Star Wars universe. I was so touched! Sometimes when you work at home you forget that anyone will ever read what you've written. Getting this delivered to our table just about made my day.

Deep Gravity #1 

So after that whirlwind we are back home and back to work, because one more thing happened at ECCC. Our latest work-for-hire project with Dark Horse was announced: Deep Gravity! It's being scripted by Gabriel and me from a story by Mike Richardson, with art by Fernando Baldo. Look for it later this summer.