Wordless Wednesday featuring Camila and her Christmas Shark

Wordless Wednesday featuring a Kitten in a Monkey Head

Station to Station Premiers!

I'm always happy when a new issue of Dark Horse Presents hits the stands but this month I'm thrilled. If you guessed that's because issue #19 includes a story by Caitlin R. Kiernan and Steve Lieber, you'd be half right. As to the other half, well...

STATION TO STATION, written by Gabriel and me and drawn by Gabriel, debuts tomorrow. It's set in San Francisco, it's full of monsters and destruction, and I can't wait for you to see it. This month's issue will present the first 1/3 of the story which will continue through January and February. You can see a preview here. I hope you'll check it out!

Exile on the Planet of the Apes Trade - Less than a Month Away

We're well into November, not even two weeks away from Thanksgiving... And less than a month from the release of the trade of EXILE ON THE PLANET OF THE APES, due in stores the first week of December from BOOM!

Written by Gabriel Hardman and myself, with gorgeous art by Marc Laming, EXILE is a story that I'm really proud of. I'm also incredibly excited to see it in book form!

Want to check it out? You can pre-order it on Amazon right now for $9.97, which is more than $5 off the cover price.

Also, many thanks to everyone who picked it up in its previous incarnation. You all deserve a big chimpanzee style pant-hoot!

Is it Too Late to Say Happy Halloween?

Vera seemed to enjoy her first costume

Hard to believe that Halloween was almost a week ago and that we're well into November now. Especially since it's after dark and we still have the air on. Today was hot, no joke. Fall weather? Not in LA.

Anyway, happy late Halloween to everyone! Vera Kitten is more properly Vera Cat now since she turned one in September, but this was her first Halloween with us so of course she got her first costume. Much to our surprise she seemed to take it in stride.

Camila got to dress up too. She was a skunk this year, but wasn't quite as happy about it as Vera was about hers. She did enjoy the big pumpkin-shaped cookie we got her from Three Dog Bakery though.

Camila seemed less than pleased with her costume...

but no less than in years past.

After the annual shaming of the pets we took the night off from work and went to Border Grill where we were served by a guy dressed as a bear-Jedi. Or maybe a Jedi-bear. It was hard to tell which, and I was too shy to ask. After that it was off to the LA Phil where they were playing The Cat and the Canary with live organ accompaniment. I had never seen the picture (kind of a goofy horror/comedy silent from 1927) or been to the venue, so it was time well spent. When we told the Jedi-bear where we were going he was quite jealous.

Sadly, now it's time to take the skeletons down from our trees and turn our thoughts to other things. For instance, what to dress Vera as next year!

The Many Faces of Fizgig

Tyler Crook

Just realized that I forgot to include the sketches I got in that last post about NYCC. My sketchbook is all Fizgig (of The Dark Crystal fame) all the time.

Major thanks to everyone who's drawn the little fur ball for me. I couldn't be more thrilled with how these turned out!

If anyone needs a writer for a Fizgig comic, look no farther...

Declan Shalvey

Kevin Mellon

Kitten of the Week: Macaulley!

A lot of folks know by now that I volunteer at Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats. At the Bungalow we take scared, unsocialized kittens and teach them that humans are a-okay. In practice this means that feral kitties, taken off the mean streets, are introduced to the charms of being lap cats. And boy does that lesson take! It's nothing short of a miracle to see these kids transform from hissy balls of fluff into sleek purr monsters. But that's not the end of the story. Each kitten needs a loving home to graduate into so they can continue to practice what they've learned and make room for new underclassmen. With that in mind, I thought I might show off some of our students:

Macaulley here is a perfect example, and so he's my inaugural KITTEN OF THE WEEK.

Ready for action...

Too much playing makes for a tired kitten! 

Born into a feral colony, Macaulley somehow contracted a nasty stomach bug. Tiny kittens are fragile beasts, but the Bungalow was ready. After several tests the right antibiotic was found and Macaulley was soon on the mend. In the meantime he decided that he adores people, and now he's ready for a home of his own. As an added bonus, he promises to dispatch any flies or moths that are rude enough to invade your space. Already got a cat? Macaulley doesn't mind. As long as there are enough pats to go around, he's happy to share your lap. Know someone in Los Angeles who might like to meet Macaulley? Just tell them to shoot an email to kittybungalow@gmail.com to set up an appointment. Want to help him out with a scholarship? You can do that too. Just $10 makes a big difference to someone this small.

I now return this blog to its regularly scheduled routine of comic book news and weird factoids. Thanks for indulging my soon-to-be-weekly round of kitten news too!