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! 

The Wondercon Wrap-up

Not a comic book, but I love it.

Wondercon is finished! Gabriel Hardman and I spent the last two days in Anaheim, signing and selling stuff, but for once I took the time to walk around a bit and explore. There were cool things to see despite the fact that the weather the first day had little kids whimpering and crying about "hurricanes" and "the wrath of the gods". Personally, I was ready to sacrifice to the traffic gods by the time we finally found parking.

Once we got inside it was great to see so many familiar faces and to finally put faces to some twitter handles. The con was BIG, but not big enough to fill the entire convention center. We soon learned that two other conventions were also underway, one about volleyball and one filled with cheerleaders. This made for some very odd cultural mash-ups in the common areas, as you might imagine. 

Hey, extinct tapir! 

I was lucky enough to nab one of Sawdust Bear's last little squid-slug guy figurines on Sunday, after multiple people told me I should find her booth. I also picked up William Stout's new dinosaur book. And look, he drew me an extinct SoCal tapir! 

At long last I picked up a physical copy of the special edition of ELDRITCH!, the (otherwise) digital comic by Drew Rausch and Aaron Alexovitch. I wish I could get a good photo of the cover Drew created for it, but it seems to deny my camera. Check out the link instead to see what all the fuss is about!

Special thanks to Matt Maxwell of Highway 62 Press for sharing a table with us all weekend. If you haven't read his books STRANGEWAYS and THE THIRSTY, you're missing out. Weird westerns both,   and full of smart writing.

Now, back to work for a few days. Then we're off to the Emerald City Comicon, where we'll be at Artist Alley table F-22, where Gabriel will be doing sketches and we will be selling and signing stuff. More details about that next time!

Where We'll be at Wondercon

Wondercon is here! This year it's in Anaheim instead of San Francisco so Gabriel Hardman and I will be driving down for the weekend. We'll be sharing space in Artist Alley with Matt Maxwell, the amazing creator of STRANGEWAYS. Ready for that booth number? Here it is:

AA-240

Still not sure? It's listed as "Highway 62 Press". You can see a map of the show floor here. That booth number again? 

AA-240

Gabriel will be doing sketches (click here to see his prices or get on his list) and selling original pages, and we will be signing, well, whatever you bring us to sign. We'll also be selling copies of our books. 

We'll also be doing a signing at the BOOM! Comics Booth #311 on Saturday from 2pm to 3pm. Please stop by and say hi! 

Stuff is Happening in March!

Fun fact: Bechko rhymes with "echo", really!

Leap Day is over, so it must be March already. Wasn't it just New Year's?

Anyway, March is a month of much Apes madness. There's hardly a week when Gabriel and I won't be somewhere talking or signing something related to EXILE ON THE PLANET OF THE APES.

Where, when, why? Read on, and all shall be reveled.

First up, we'll be at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 4th for a mini comic book convention. We'll have copies of HEATHENTOWN and BETRAYAL OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, and Gabriel will be doing sketches ($125 for one character fully inked, $250 for two characters, or $60 for a head sketch) Click here for more details about the show.

Marc Laming sure draws a nice ape!

On March 14th we'll be at Collector's Paradise in Pasadena for a release signing. That's the day EXILE ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #1 will hit stores, of course! We'll be signing copies of EXILE and of whatever else anyone wants our signature on, and Gabriel will be doing free quick sketches. You can read more about it here.

Next up is Wondercon in Anaheim the weekend of March 16th. We'll be sharing a table there with the incomparable Matt Maxwell, proprietor of Highway 62 Press. Gabriel will be selling sketches here as well.

And then it's back to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Con the weekend of March 29th. We'll be at table F-22 in Artist Alley. More about this show as it gets closer...

So that's our March. Four different cons/signings, a new miniseries, and fitting in work on our not-yet-announced sci-fi creator-owned project. The only thing I forgot to schedule is time to sleep!