L'employé du Moi !
Tue 5/13/2008
Okay, I think I'm finally ready to reveal one of my "top secret projects." It's pretty exciting news....
There is a really cool comics publisher in Brussels (BELGIUM) called L'employé du Moi, and they are going to put out a 200-page collection of Phase 7... IN FRENCH. (!!!?!)
How did this happen???
Well, waaay back in October of last year, this cartoonist Max De Radiguès contacted me out of the blue, saying that he had read and enjoyed some of my comics (I guess a friend of his bought some in New York and brought them back to Brussels?) Max works at Tropismes Bd or "l'appartement" (which looks like just about the nicest comics shop in the world). So he ordered some Phase 7 comics for the shop, and I guess they sold really fast... So he ordered some MORE, and AGAIN they sold really fast...
Well, Max ALSO works at L'employé du Moi, which puts out all kinds of beautiful graphic novels and anthologies and various other comics. So he suggested to the rest of the company that they print a Phase 7 collection, and they said yes! (!!!!!?!)
It is, needless to say, extremely flattering to have some nice folks from another country wanting to print some of my comics. Also, I have great confidence in their work, after having seen two of Max's books, which he was kind enough to send me: Antti Brysselissä and his newest book, Jacques Delwitte: Little White Jack. The books are beautifully sized with printing values akin to the best smaller American comics publishers, like Top Shelf or D & Q.
We have begun working on the book, with Max putting together some grants (because in Europe the government will actually HELP you make comics) and he and Sacha Goerg are working on translating all of the comics. I am working on the cover and introduction and endpapers and layout (above is the rough cover design). This summer I will be relettering the comic by hand in FRENCH, which will be a lot of work, but we all agree it will look the best. And assuming all goes smoothly, it will be out by the end of the year!
(I'm going to pinch my pennies, and maybe learn a little French and perhaps I'll finally be able to go to Angoulême this year!)
Anyways, the best part of all this has been making some new friends in a different part of the world, and hopefully I will be able to make many MORE friends once the book is released! I'll keep you all posted on the progress...
Wizarding Weekend
Sun 5/11/2008
Well, I went to the Harry and the Potters show last night at the New York Public Library. It was pretty epic; they had a horn section and everything!
The image above is a postcard I recently finished for the band, as part of their "merch" for this summer's tour (it will be in a set with a few other postcards I guess? Keep an eye out!) It was REALLY fun to work on, and I also did some 1" pin designs for them too, which should be up on my illustration blog next week.
Speaking of which, I'm almost done drawing all the characters for Matthew Reidsma's Harry Potter Drawing challenge! I drew Dumbledore this week, which is maybe my favorite thing I have ever drawn (so far...) Only two more to go and I will move on to a new illustration challenge!
Oh, and just so everyone knows, Cameron alerted me to the fact that Season 3 of The Muppet Show will be out on DVD May 20th! I'm pretty excited (OBVIOUSLY) because it took TWO WHOLE YEARS for season two to come out. So the last nine months felt like they passed relatively quickly!
Anyways, I'll have some good stuff to watch on my breaks this summer while I am chipping away at all my projects!
KARL KOCH!
Wed 5/7/2008
Okay, holy crap, I am TOTALLY flipping out. I just got linked by none other than KARL KOCH, the official 5th member of Weezer!!!!
See a few months ago, when P7 #013 hit the streets, I thought, "Who do I want to send this to?" And for some reason, it had never occurred to me to send my comics to George Lucas. So I sent him some comics, because WHY NOT, right??? And as I was walking back from the mail box I thought, "Wait! I should send some to Rivers Cuomo too!"
I already sent Rivers a batch of Comics back in 2006, but I wasn't sure if he got them (I just sent them to him at the Harvard mailroom, figuring he must have a student mailbox, right?) So this time I looked up the official way to send mail to weezer, and that is (OF COURSE) by first sending it to Karl!
Karl Koch, for those of you that don't know, has been with Weezer since its very inception. He has worked as a guitar tech, roadie, historian and archivist, webmaster, etc. etc. ETC. He does so many different jobs for the band, that on pinkerton, in the liner notes, it lists his credits as "Karl Koch: Karl Koch"
So this is all to say, that when I decided to put some comics in the mail for Rivers, I put some extra comics in the mail for Karl too. Because, goddamnit, Karl is a stand up guy. PART of what makes it so much fun being a weezer fan, is having a direct link to the band, via Karl. He constantly updates the weezer blog, letting us all know what new projects are in the works and what's going on with the band.
A week after I sent out the comics, I got a very polite rejection letter from George Lucas's secretary, saying that it makes him uncomfortable accepting gifts from people he does not know. So she sent back the comics. Which is fine, whatever. But a few weeks after than that (I.E. TONIGHT) Karl wrote the following in the weezer blog:
Random plug dep't: "Phase 7" comics by Alec Longstreth. Alec is an OG weezer fan from the early days, an original '95 fanclubber and everything. He sent me some issued of Phase 7, and as a big indie comics fan I must say, his comics are excellent! Check them out!
To be called "an OG weezer fan" by KARL FREAKING KOCH is the ULTIMATE compliment for a weezer fan. My weezer street cred just went through the friggin ROOF! :D
-- jonathan sprenke