Ça y est. Out On the Wire is in the can.

This is what it looks like.

You won’t believe this, but it took exactly 39 work weeks to begin and complete the 176 pages of new artwork (and 24 revised pages) for Out on the Wire. It’s practically a baby, you guys. I took photos of my piles every few days while I was in the studio (i.e. not in August, when we were in the USA, for example), and made this animation of a big fat comic book being drawn.

I’m still doing some cleanups, and the book is not wrapped yet, but it will be on time, in your hands this August 25. (Preorder now! Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio) More to come in the next weeks and months about this big fat baby, now that I can think straight. (In this way, a newborn book is utterly unlike a newborn human.)

Thanks especially to my production team, particularly interns Ryan Brewer, Bastien Nerre, Dido Drachman, Justine Sarlat, and especially my background-drawer and (not very) secret weapon Matt Madden.

** ça y est: pron. “sa ee ey”, means “it’s all wrapped up.”