I was contacted recently by the Miami Wolfsonian Museum of Florida International University to design and teach a two-week workshop for Miami teens at the end of this month.
We’ve just launched a redesign of the website for our textbook, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures. We had added a blog and other new features to make the site an essential resource for comics learners and especially for teachers and librarians who use comics in any number of contexts.
The 2009 Panda Award, a new award given by the libraries of international schools in China, was awarded to Life Sucks for 2009 in the mature readers category.
You already knew that, but now it’s official. The YART (Young Adult Round Table) of the TLA (Texas Library Association) named Life Sucks to its 2009 Texas Maverick Graphic Novels list. Thanks, Texas!
I’ll be on a panel with Gabrielle Bell and Jillian Tamaki, moderated by Calvin Reid. Thursday Jan 28 at 7pm, in the Dweck Center in the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza.
Matt and I will next be in Huntington, West Virginia, February 25-28 as Walter Gropius Master Artists, giving a three-day workshop and gallery talk. I’ll also be giving a public lecture at Marshall University, all in conjunction with the traveling exhibit Litgraphic: the World of the Graphic Novel.
YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association of the American Library Association, has not only picked Life Sucks as one of its annual list of Great Graphic Novels for teens, but has also named it one of the “quick picks” top ten!
Matt and I will be guests of the bi-annual comics festival Strip Turnhout in Turnhout, Belgium, December 11-13.
Stunningly, on November 15th, GK decided to lead his daily Writer’s Almanac segment—a quick rundown of birthdays of various writers—with mine.
LitGraphic, the large group comics exhibition that began at the Norman rockwell Museum, has traveled to the Toledo Museum of Art, and will be there until January 3.
I was interviewed during my minicomics workshop at the KBAC a few weeks ago. It’s the first segment in this clip: WMUK
A lot of people ask what comics Matt and I have liked recently. We of course like everything in the book, but BAC can’t fit all the good comics from a given year. So please take a look at our list of Notable Comics for more of what was great last year.
If you can “tour” one town, that’s what I’m doing next week in Kalamazoo.
I’ll be leading a comics jam workshop at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday at 1 PM.
The Gapers Block Book Club meets this Monday night, August 10, to discuss La Peridida. If you’re in Chicago, don’t miss it!
New theme for your iGoogle homepage uses images from Drawing Words—stare at my illustrations all day!
get it here
Gapers Block posted an interesting intro to La Perdida in association with their monthly book club.
Telling Stories: Fiction in Comics
Saturday, July 11 @ 2pm at Union Pool, Brooklyn, with Jason Little and Matthew Thurber, moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos.
I’ll be appearing at the Comic Book Club, a live interview show, tonight, June 23, at 8 pm with Tom Hart.
Matt has posted complete reports from our comics intensive class at SVA, as well as links to the final work. Well worth taking a look!
Starting the day after Memorial Day, Matt and I are offering an intensive 2-week class at SVA, the goal of which is to learn how to make comics by writing, drawing, and printing a minicomic in time for the MoCCA Art Festival the weekend of June 6-7.
I’ve written a new comic, beautifully drawn by Ron Wimberly.
I’ll be a guest speaker on April 25 at 1 pm at the central library, and I’ll be on a panel about how to bring your comics ideas to the public on the 26th.
I’ve been invited to HVCC in Troy NY on April 1 to give a public lecture in conjunction with their all-campus reading event.
Friday March 6, I’ll be speaking with Dean Haspiel, Gabrielle Bell, and Peter Sanderson on “Graphic Novels and Non-Novels” (i.e. memoir and outobio) at KGB in New York. Sponsored by NYU.
Matt and I will be appearing at the New York Comic Con on Friday, February 6, presenting a panel on teaching comics from 2-3 pm. We’ll also be signing books at 3:15 pm.
I’ll be leading a workshop on teaching comics in the English or art classroom at Fordham University’s Graphica in Education Conference January 31.
I’ll be giving a free public lecture at SUNY New Paltz on October 16.
Matt and I will be guests of the Miami Book Fair on Saturday, November 15 (which, by the way, is also my birthday!)
Matt and I will be appearing at APE—the Alternative Press Expo, in San Francisco—on Saturday, November 1.
I’ll be joining Art Spiegelman, Chip Kidd, Charles Burns & David Heatley on an all-star panel at the Free Library of Philadelphia on Thursday, November 6, at 7:30 pm.
Matt and I will be appearing at a special event at the Housing Works Cafe on Wednesday October 1.
A short segment about the influence Love and Rockets had on my artistic development aired recently on the public radio program Studio 360. You can hear it here.
Lottery Comics at Rocketship
I’ll be at Brooklyn’s Rocketship tonight, July 11, doing a workshop on making comics, and signing books. Come on out!
A bit late, but here’s a very cool illustrated report by Austin Kleon our talk in Austin, back in late May.
Matt and I were recently on NPR’s All Things Considered. If you missed it, you can listen to it here.
(One of) my talented collaborator(s) on Life Sucks has shown up in a few interesting places lately, getting some much-deserved press.
Whether or not you have picked up Drawing Words & Writing Pictures yet, go take a look at our website.
We’ll be in Chicago June 25-27th.
We’ll be at Powell’s Books on June 20th.
We’ll be in LA the 18th and 19th of June—come out to see us!
Talk and signing at independent bookshop McNally-Robinson in Manhattan
Wednesday June 11 at 7 pm
June 7-8 at the Puck Building, 293 Lafayette St. at Houston, New York. I’ll be there with my new books.
New England Comics Allston
June 12, 7:00 PM
Matt and I are heading out on a book tour to support our three book releases this spring. First stop, Austin, Texas. We’ll be there May 29-31.
Coming very soon to a bookstore near you: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, a new textbook on making comics. Out June 10.
The long-awaited release of my new book, Life Sucks is this Thursday, May 1.
Matt Madden and I will be teaching in an intensive comics workshop at the Pacific Northwest College of Art June 21-23.
“Speaking Graphically”
Wednesday, April 16
20 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) , 6 to 8 p.m.
Large group exhibition of comics pages, including La Perdida. LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel, opens Nov. 10.
The Language of Comics opens at the Sordoni Gallery Oct. 22, reception Nov. 3.
I’ll be on a panel, and then signing books, at the
Sixth Annual West Hollywood Book Fair on Sunday, September 30.
Matt and I are the new series editors, starting with the 2008 volume.
This Thursday, April 19, is the opening of the annual SVA Cartooning and Illustration junior exhibition. In addition, the annual SVA minicomics fair, Freshmeat, will be held during the exhibition reception.
The Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University in Canton NY has put up an exhibit called The Language of Comics
La Perdida now available in Mexico City at Kong
No, I’m not posting them myself, not at this late date. But in case you’re curious, Matt has put together a very nice, and very thorough, account of our trip on his blog.
It comes up every so often…”So, Jessica, weren’t you writing a novel or something?”
Matt Madden and I will be at the Angoulême International Comics Festival from January 25-28.
Andrew Arnold, who writes Time.com’s comics review column, released his best of 2006 list this week, and he named La Perdida #1.
La Perdida is one of only 44 books nominated this year for the Prix d’Angoulême out of 4000 released in French in 2006.
A dinner party Matt and I hosted last Friday has been written up on Wired.com by one of our guests, Paul Adams.
I will be appearing with Alison Bechdel, Gabrielle Bell, and Lauren Weinstein at Bryn Mawr College November 30.
I don’t particularly think of La Perdida as a book for young readers, but I’m happy to have librarians disagree.
I found out, weirdly, that La Perdida is on the list of books to be carried by new clothing retailer (at least, I think that’s what they do) martin+osa. Click “who are martin+osa”, and then “worth a look” for their reading list.
Matt Madden and I gave a reading at
with Mark Siegel, Andy Helfer, and Joann Sfar, moderated by Leonard Lopate
Barely two weeks after returning from Spain, I was back in Europe, in France and Belgium, to promote the new French edition of La Perdida from Delcourt.
I recently returned from a trip to northern Spain to celebrate the release of the Spanish edition of La Perdida by Astiberri Ediciones.
Check it out here.
Listen to the story at NPR’s website.
Author2Author is on Beatrice.com.
Review of La Perdida in the June 4 issue of the NYT Book Review.
Two-week workshop on making comics, in the Michigan woods—June 18 – July 1
Report on my Toronto book tour stop
Photos from my appearance
When in Portland a few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of being a guest on the variety show/radio show
Check out this profile by Joy Press in the Village Voice.
I’ll be there both days, and have a talk scheduled at 5 pm on Sunday.
Might as well be called La Noche Perdida (the Lost Night).
The (first) book release party for la Perdida took place last week.
T-shirts I designed for a comics store in my hometown, Evanston, Illinois.
Time.comix has posted a very nice review of La Perdida .
La Perdida’s offical release date is today.
I don’t even own an ipod, but I still wrote a playlist of Mexican music for the great music blog Largehearted Boy.
Check out the great review of La Perdida on Bookslut.
I’ll be on a panel called The Future of the Graphic Novel at the NYCC at 1 pm Saturday, February 25, and then signing books at the Midtown Comics booth at about 2 pm.
Full listing of events on the La Perdida book tour
La Perdida preview copies have shown up. I guess that means it’ll ship on time.