thinking out loud

The arrival!

goraina@yahoo.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:27:03 GMT

My advance copies of SMILE have arrived, as a sort of early Christmas present! I couldn't be more delighted with the way they turned out. Check out that shiny foil on the braces!

You can order it now through your local comic shop, using Diamond Preview Order Code DEC09 0873. Or, buy it at your favorite book store! It'll be out on February 2, 2010.

You can see a few more photos here, including shots of the softcover, the colorful interiors, and the amazing quote on the back cover!

A few reviews have started rolling in, as well. Here's one from Publishers Weekly (scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page) that has some nice things to say! I also got one from Booklist, which isn't linkable, but the most quotable line is, "Telgemeier’s storytelling and full-color cartoony images form a story that will
cheer and inspire any middle-schooler dealing with orthodontia." Hooray!

Life Meter Kids!

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:55:01 GMT

Hey guys,

My afterschool workshop ends tomorrow, after 10 long weeks! One of the assignments I gave the kids was to draw a submission for Life Meter, and you can see their results in this entry! Won't you please check them out, and maybe leave some feedback? The kids would really like to hear some outside opinions. They're all 11 years old. :)

goraina@yahoo.com — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:40:06 GMT

Just a little reminder that the BSC Art Auction ends tomorrow! :)

Two things!

goraina@yahoo.com — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:55:50 GMT

SMILE is in the current issue of Diamond's Previews Catalogue, which means you can now reserve a copy of the book through your local comic shop! It will ship on February 3, 2010.

SMILE’s Diamond Preview Order Code:
DEC09 0873

Softcover: $10.99
Hardcover: $21.99

It's also a Diamond STAFF PICK, and you can read the wonderful review here.

---

And, because I can't seem to do just one thing at a time: I'm holding a giant ART AUCTION on a bunch of BSC Original Art! Stuff like book covers, unpublished pieces, personal drawings of the characters, and pages I've never made available till now. Prices start at $30! The auction goes until Saturday evening, and I can ship everything in time for the holidays.

(I'm still selling $30 MYSTERY PAGES too--see my website for details!)

King Con!

goraina@yahoo.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:11:28 GMT

This Sunday, November 8, I'll be appearing on a panel at King Con, at the Lyceum in Brooklyn! Here is the info:

KIDS' COMICS: SUNDAY 11AM-11:50AM

Remember that old cliche, "comics aren’t just for kids anymore?" In the era of grownup graphic novels and gritty anti-heroes, are comics for kids at all anymore? Join a new generation of cartoonists creating work with a youth-centric focus as they discuss the past, present, and future of comics for kids. Moderated by Brian Heater, the panel will feature Matt Loux, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Sara Varon, and more!

I'm not sure exactly where in the building the panel will be located, but it should be clear when you arrive. I won't have a table, but I might have a few galleys of SMILE in my backpack. If you're a librarian, educator, or journalist, come see me after the panel and I'll hook you up!

Ponyo and Sosuke

goraina@yahoo.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:59:13 GMT

Ponyo and Sosuke
Originally uploaded by daveandraina

Happy Halloween!

goraina@yahoo.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:02:51 GMT

Want to bid on my final X-Men drawing, after I sold the others at SPX? Well, at least go to eBay and look! It's Gambit! You know you love Gambit.

This is my first foray into selling on eBay. I've been planning to auction off some of the more recognizable BSC art (covers, etc) there, but I figured I'd try things out with this first.

Whew!

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:47:46 GMT

Hey, SPX was a great success!

Here are some photos from my SMILE giveaway, on Sunday afternoon: I gave away two copies of the galley, and a couple of runner-up prizes! Gina Badano won the raffle, and Kathryn Villeux won the Best Dental Horror Story contest! Rob Clough and Yuko Ota got the runner-up mini-comic prizes, as their own horror stories were too good to go unrecognized. As well, I feel the need to mention Dustin Harbin, who didn't want to officially enter the contest, but told me in detail his own dental story, which more closely resembles my own than any other I have heard.

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who entered, and everyone who came and talked to us over the weekend. You are all too kind! I wish I had time to do a full re-cap of the weekend, but time is short and I gotta go do a bunch of stuff!

With SPX behind us, our con season is officially over. I'll be working hard behind the scenes for the rest of the year, and hope to see a bunch of you in 2010!

Thiiiiis weekend!

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:16:59 GMT

It's almost time for my other favorite small press comics show (I have a lot of them): SPX!

Yup, the Small Press Expo is September 26 and 27 in scenic Bethesda, MD! The Comics Bakery will be stationed at tables H7-H8. marionv made us a handy info-graphic, to show our table placement:

I'll have a new issue of Outreach available, and Dave and I will have plenty of copies of X-Men on hand. I'll also have an assortment of BSC graphic novels, original art, SMILE postcards, keychains, mini-comics, and other goodies as you have come to expect. Dave is debuting a new (full color!) volume of Life Meter, and Marion will have a zombie mini!

I'm also selling the 7 original X-Men drawings I did (which you can see here) a couple weeks ago. Anything I don't sell at the show, I'll auction off next week. The drawings are all 5" x 7", black and white, ink on Bristol board.

I'm also holding a raffle and a contest! I have a few advance-reader galleys of SMILE available, and I'd like to give them away. There are two ways to win:

--Raffle! Come fill out a raffle ticket at our table, any time before 4:30 PM on Sunday. I will draw a winner at 5 PM.

--Contest! Tell me a horror story about your teeth! You have to come and tell me your story in person, also any time before 4:30 PM on Sunday. I will choose a winner at 5 PM. Most horrific dental story wins.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

BangPop! is almost here!

goraina@yahoo.com — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:59:56 GMT

This weekend, Dave and I will be at the BangPop! Comic Book & Pop Culture Convention, in Bangor, Maine!

September 19 & 20, 2009
Bangor Civic Center
Bangor, Maine

Admission:
Weekend Pass $15
Day Pass $10
Full-time teachers & librarians are free with current work ID!
Kids 12 & under are free with paying adult!

We will have copies of X-Men: Misfits, and I'll have BSC graphic novels, mini comics, artwork, t-shirts, and SMILE postcards. We'll be on a few panels throughout the weekend:

Saturday, September 19

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Dave and I will be presenting a panel and slideshow for librarians and educators, as part of the show's educators track.

3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Dave will be speaking on a webcomics panel!

Sunday, September 20

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Dave and I will be presenting a panel for kids! We'll talk about different drawing styles, show some slides, and do some drawing. All ages welcome.

I've never been to Maine before, so I'm really looking forward to this (especially the Iron Giant geek in me). I hope you'll stop by, if you're in the area!

BBF tomorrow!

goraina@yahoo.com — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:17:46 GMT

Just a quick reminder: the Brooklyn Book Festival is tomorrow, September 13!

Come see my panel at 3 PM, Love, War and Adventures in Babysitting…Transforming Stories into Comics, (at the Youth Stoop, Borough Hall Plaza), with George O'Connor and Danica Novgorodoff.

Dave is also on a panel at 12 PM: Sci Fi and Fantasy in NYC. He'll be in the NYCC programming area!

The weather's supposed to be nice again tomorrow, so why not come hang out in downtown Brooklyn with me and a few thousand book-minded friends? It's free!

SMILE page 5

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:10:08 GMT

SMILE page 5
Originally uploaded by daveandraina

Color page preview from SMILE? Don't mind if I do!

Click to view larger.

Oh, September. You are one busy month.

goraina@yahoo.com — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:42:02 GMT

Upcoming events!

Sunday, September 13, I will be at the The Brooklyn Book Festival! This will be my first time attending the BBF, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. It's a huge, free event taking over much of downtown Brooklyn. You can find me at the Youth Stoop in Borough Hall Plaza--the Youth Stoop provides day-long literary activities for youth ages 10-18. This is the panel I'm speaking on:

3:00 p.m. Love, War and Adventures in Babysitting…Transforming Stories into Comics. How does a comic artist take a favorite story and make it new? Three new stars in the literary comics cosmos shine the light on their process, adapting award-winning fiction, found historical materials and one of the most popular teen series of all time into graphic novels. Raina Telgemeier (The Baby-sitters Club graphic novel series), Danica Novgorodoff (Refresh, Refresh) and George O’Connor (Journey into Mohawk Country).

Immediately after, I'll be signing copies of BSC and X-Men: Misfits!

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The following weekend, September 19 and 20, Dave and I will be heading up to Bangor, Maine as special guests of the BangPop! Comic Book & Pop Culture Convention, at the Bangor Civic Center. The programming isn't completely current on the site yet, but we'll be giving one panel for educators and librarians, and another for kids! I'll post an update with specific information when I have it. Note that current full-time educators and librarians will receive free admission to BangPop! with current school ID. I've never been to Maine before, so I'm pretty excited about this trip.

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And then the last weekend in September, look for the entire Comics Bakery at one of our favorite conventions: the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD! I'll have a new issue of Outreach available, and Dave and I will have plenty of copies of X-Men on hand. I'll also have an assortment of original art, SMILE postcards, keychains, mini-comics, and other goodies as you have come to expect. If anyone wants to request that I bring a specific BSC original page, or something else, you can leave a comment here or email me.

New Fans!

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:43:30 GMT

New Fans!
Originally uploaded by daveandraina

These were my favorite fans from the NYC Japan Street Fair last weekend. We had a blast at the fair, sold all of our books, saw some friends, and I ate an anpan. Mmmmm!

This weekend, we also found out something that blew us away entirely: X-Men: Misfits landed at #6 on the New York Times Graphic Books Bestsellers list! It's listed there as a paperback, as opposed to a manga...and nobody is really sure why. Still, everyone around here is pretty stoked about it.

As for our live chat yesterday, it went well. I'm new to live chatting, and answering questions in the order they come in is no easy task! So many good questions kept popping up! Deb Aoki organized most of the chat into a more readable fashion, if you'd like to see what we talked about. Thanks, Deb! And thanks to everyone who stopped by and asked us questions.

That's it, I think, until our book party on Friday!

Forthcoming

goraina@yahoo.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:46:20 GMT

Just in case I don't have a chance to mention any of this, this weekend:

Dave and I will be at the NYC Japan Fair on Sunday, August 23. We'll be signing copies of X-Men: Misfits at the New York Anime Festival booth from 1-3. I'm excited about it! I want to eat some mochi!

Then the next day, Monday the 24th, we're doing a Live Author Chat at 2 PM. (The link erroneously credits me as the book's artist; pay it no mind.) Hope you'll log on and say hi! I have never done one of these before! If you won't be around Monday, you can send us questions in advance at the link.

Also, I've been working on some X-Men character drawings, in the spirit of self-promotion. I have more in the works, and will be adding to the gallery in the next few days.

Finally, don't forget, we have a book release party comin' up a week from tomorrow at Rocketship. There will be cupcaaaaakes...

It has been QUITE a week.

goraina@yahoo.com — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:57:20 GMT

This week was pretty crazy and wonderful.

**Dave and I taught a workshop at Symphony Space, where I was surprised to find that all 20 kids in the program had received a galley of SMILE to read! This is the first group of kids (that I know of) that has read the book in its entirety, so I was stoked to talk to them. Some of them had read it twice. One girl had memorized multiple scenes. Another girl was fascinated that some of my drawings were still in pencil (almost all of the spot illos in the galley are unfinished). Several kids wanted to show me their orthodontic appliances. All of them wanted me to sign their copies. I was elated. They were a fantastic group.

**In keeping with the SMILE theme, I went down to Scholastic one afternoon to look at the color proofs! This was the first time I had seen the entire book laid out and in color, aside from on my monitor. It looks amazing. The very patient design and production people stood with me in a lightroom for over two hours, while I inspected each and every page. I found a handful of changes I wanted to make, but nothing major. The few corrections I made have been sent in, and the book should be off to the printer overseas in a few days!

**X-Men: Misfits came out! But I already mentioned that, so moving right along.

**I had a lovely dinner with my agent, and we talked about next year's plan of action. I am going to be one busy girl. It's going to be so much fun traveling around and talking about comics.

**This was also a serendipitous week of high school friends, many of whom happened to be visiting NYC! I saw my friends Jake and Kristy on Thursday, Pira and Venus on Friday, and talked with Theresa on Wednesday. I love that so many of my oldest, dearest friends are thriving, creative, amazing people.

**We saw PONYO!! I really, really loved it. I'm a weather buff, and that storm scene was one of the most beautifully animated sequences I've ever seen.

**Possibly the most exciting thing that happened this week? We BOUGHT A CAR. We have been talking about getting one for a couple of years, and we finally found a good one and took the plunge! This will help immensely, as I tend to do at least a couple of library and school workshops every month--and I've been paying too much money for cab rides all over New York City. Just to get to and from some of the further libraries in Queens, the borough I live in, costs about $80 in cab fare. I turn down a lot of events that are just across the river in New Jersey, or just a little too far into Long Island for a short day trip. Now I won't have to! And now, if I need to get out of the city just to veg for a little while, it'll be easy! So, so, so excited. It's been exactly 10 years since the last time I had a car...because it was exactly 10 years ago (to the week) that I moved to New York from San Francisco! It's been a great 10 years, and I'm looking forward to taking everything to the next level.

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:56:37 GMT

As yaytime mentioned over on his journal this morning, our new book, X-Men: Misfits is out today!!

You should be able to find it at any large book store, as well as online:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders

Or, buy it from your local comic shop--comics retailers should have it tomorrow.

As I mentioned previously, we're throwing a book release party on Friday, August 28, at our favorite Brooklyn comic shop: Rocketship!

Hope to see some of you there. There will be free drinks and cupcakes!

Dave and I are also doing a signing at the NYC Japan Street Fair, Sunday, August 23. We'll be at the New York Anime Festival booth from 1-3 PM with books for sale, and X-Manga swag! Always with the swag. It sounds like it's going to be really fun.

Let us know if you spot the book in a store, or if you enjoyed reading it...we certainly had a blast working on it!

X-Men Misfits at SDCC!

goraina@yahoo.com — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:06:52 GMT

X-Men Misfits at SDCC!
Originally uploaded by daveandraina

Even though Dave and I were absent from SDCC this year, our new book made an appearance! That's our editor Tricia showing it off. Photo courtesy of Jon Rosenberg!

The book will be in stores on August 11. We just got this lovely review from Booklist, which was a great thing to wake up to:

X-Men 1: Misfits
Raina Telgemeier Dave Roman and Anzu.

X-Men is renowned for being one of the most girl-friendly super hero comics franchises, so a shojo (girl's) manga “re-boot” of the series is not that far-fetched. The conceit of seeing the X-Men redrawn as supercute boys, or in the case of Beast, redrawn as an adorable human-size badgerlike thing, works without a hitch. 15-year-old Kitty Pryde, who has the mutant ability to slip through walls, enrolls in Xaviar Academy, where she meets classic X-men characters, most still in their teen years. By some unexplained twist of fate that could only happen in shojo, Pryde is the only female student (Storm is a teacher). This makes the formerly insecure girl very popular with her peers, so much so that she is asked to join the Hellfire Club, which is hilariously reimagined as a parody of Ouran High School Host Club rather than a sinister organization of wealthy elites. Telgemeier and Roman deliver a delightful script that will appeal to old fans while being friendly toward new readers or fans of the X-Men films. The art by Anzu (The Reformed) is over-the-top shojo parody, with lots of screentone and flowers. (Aug.)

Yay!!

We're throwing a book release party at the end of August, at Rocketship, which I'll write more about in a separate entry. Everyone is invited!

Oh man.

goraina@yahoo.com — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:02:26 GMT

My very favorite working comic strip artist, Richard Thompson, creator of the absolutely wonderful Cul De Sac, revealed today that he has Parkinson's disease.

I've met Richard, and he is a sweet guy. He's also going to be a special guest this year at Comic Con, which I won't be attending. I'm currently kicking myself because I'm missing so many, many people I want to see, but I would have especially loved to attend Richard's spotlight panel (Thursday at 4 PM). You should go, if you're around. I'm sure his sly wit and daft sense of humor will make for a great time.

Cape May County Library Workshop: SUCCESS!

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:54:26 GMT

Last week's 2-day Teen Workshop at the Cape May County Library went off without a hitch.

I can't tell you how proud I am of those kids (I think we had 17 or 18 in total!)--they worked so hard, did such great work, and had a great time talking comics with Dave and I!

Our Flickr set from the workshop...

...and the Library's Flickr set.

And if you still don't believe girls read (and really, really want to make) comics, look no further than these photos.

Neat: here's a short YouTube video of me, helping one of our students come up with story ideas! I die of embarrassment when I hear the sound of my own voice, but this is a good snapshot of how the whole thing went.

Related: Another of our students talks about the mini-comic she wrote and drew. Like everyone else, she did an AMAZING job.

My utmost thanks to Librarian Justin Hoenke, who spearheaded this event and worked with us to make sure we'd be well-taken care of while we were in town. He and his wife Haley were fantastic hosts (and they let me play with their fantastic baby, Finn), who made sure we had lots of suggestions for fun things to do with our evenings!

Some of the fun we got up to can be evidenced in this Flickr set: cute shops, boardwalk, a visit to a small waterpark, and looooads of ice cream!

I came home about as optimistic as one could be about the future of this medium I love so much. I won't be at Comic-Con in San Diego next week, but I'll be working on comics the whole time! Hooray!

SMILE: done!

goraina@yahoo.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:08:42 GMT

It's been an important couple of days around here. First of all, I turned in SMILE this morning! The whole thing is colored and ready to print, and I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out.

I also discovered yesterday that you can pre-order a copy on Amazon! (Book's not out till February, but if you order now it'll ship when it's in stock.)

Paperback
Hardcover

And now that I'm done, I can focus on a couple of other things at hand: I'm speaking at an SVA class tomorrow night, and then next week Dave and I are teaching a 2-day teen comic workshop in Cape May, NJ! I don't know if anyone lives in that area and wants to come, but you need to sign up in advance if you do. The number to call is in the link! I'm looking forward to a few days of being on the shore, too...it'll almost be like a little vacation.

And of course, this weekend is the fourth, which means swimming and barbecue and raspberries off the bush and hanging out with friends, in the backyard which was the model for Stacey's family's yard in BSC#4--if you remember the scene with the kids chasing Louie the collie around and giving him a bath, you've got an idea of where I'll be!

After all of that, it's time to shift gears and work on my next couple of projects. I've got two things I'm excited to work on, although I won't really be able to talk about them for a little while. To tide you over, though, our X-Men manga comes out on August 11. We're hoping to throw a book release party the following week; stay tuned for details!

Hope everyone's having a great summer so far. It finally warmed up around here, and me and my tomato plant are both pretty happy about it.

goraina@yahoo.com — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:43:41 GMT

One of my Take-Out stories that has never been on the web is featured in a brand-new series on The Daily Crosshatch, about Subway Stories. Those of you who have TO#4 will remember this one; for the rest of you, go read a comic I drew in 2002!

The Freelancers' Guide to the Galaxy

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:12:58 GMT

While I've got a bunch of book files uploading, I finally have a free moment to post!

Earlier today I read an article by Valerie D'Orazio, about how freelancers NEED to get paid. Valerie basically runs through the ten commandments of working in comics freelance, including such nuggets of wisdom as: Sign A Contract; Keep A Paper Trail, and A Conversation Between Friends Is Not The Same As A Contract.

Anyway, after some linkage on Twitter and Facebook, I realized that many, many people still don't heed this advice! Not everything is so cut-and-dry. What do you do if you're dealing with a tiny, independent publisher who can't possibly offer any overhead? What if you just want to get published, period, and "don't care" if you ever get paid or not? (Hint: nobody doesn't care about not getting paid, if they were expecting to.) What if you feel like a jerk asking for a contract?

As for the latter question, my advice is, if you ask for a contract, and the other party acts like you're a jerk? The job's not worth doing in the first place. Walk away now.

The interest and discussion led me to want to link to Dave's pivotal Guide To Freelance, which made the rounds a couple of years ago, but still holds true today. I've been meeting and getting to know a new generation of young cartoonists in the past couple of years, and I don't want to see them get screwed over. I want them to learn from the mistakes of those who came before them, and I appreciate when people write up these kinds of articles and anecdotes.

I've been lucky to've not been screwed over too badly myself, when it comes to doing spec work and work for hire. I negotiated my own career up until about a year ago, when I finally hired my wonderful agent, but prior to that I benefited from the advice of trusted friends, mentors, and colleagues. Working in book publishing for four years did not hurt. Sure, it's almost as much effort to manage the business end of things (invoicing, follow up, negotiation, standing up for yourself, compromise, etc.) as it is to do the creative work. But it's worth it to make sure you're looking out for yourself, because if you don't, who will?

Internet Unveiling!

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:48:00 GMT

Here it is: the book cover for SMILE!

Current street date is the beginning of February, 2010. It'll clock in at 224 full-color pages. My production schedule takes me through the end of this month, so I'll have my nose to the grindstone for the next 3 weeks--see you in July! ;)

goraina@yahoo.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:19:43 GMT

Well, let's see. What can be said about this year's MoCCA Art Fest that hasn't already been said? Dave has a report from our shared vantage point; Heidi has a good general summary up at The Beat, and Even Dorkin lays it all out on the table with little apology. As for me, I was hot and miserable and tired all weekend. I usually do my best to put a positive spin on things, and since MoCCA is pretty much my favorite convention, I am even more willing to overlook the kinks in favor of celebrating what I love most about the comics scene...but this year, all I remember is being too hot.

I'm sorry if that sounds glum. But it was too hot.

Without getting too much into it, my thoughts for future MoCCAs are that I would be happy and willing to shell out extra for my table (oh, wait, they raised the prices, so I don't have a choice!) if the con is willing to spring for air conditioning at the new venue. If they're not, I hope they find another place to have it. The Armory had its own unique charm, and I love the neighborhood it's in and its proximity to the Shake Shack for long summer evenings of eating junk food with lots of my friends. But when my positive memories of the weekend have nothing to do with the con, and EVERYTHING to do with what took place before and after the convention, something is awry. Sad face!

I realize I'm glossing over some pretty amazing little moments of awesome. That's really not fair. Here are some of the highlights from the weekend:

--Dave unveiled my belated birthday present at our Comics Bakery Roundtable panel, in front of a bunch of people. That deserves its own post, which I'll make shortly.

--We didn't have anything new to sell, but I had fun things to give away! Like my SMILE postcards! The cover for the book ALSO deserves its own post, I believe, so that will also come atcha in a bit. [EDIT: Here it is!!]

--The crazy overlap between my old life in the publishing world and my current life in the comics world. I used to work at Abrams' sister company, STC, and having some of my old co-workers exhibiting with Abrams is always a trip! They like to talk about how I was making little comics when I was an editorial assistant then...and how those became SMILE. And, yeah. Forward-march.

--We put Dave's Cybert doll on our table, and it was a fun conversation piece and even MORE fun to be able to say that the person who made the doll (Hi Megan!) was exhibiting just a few tables away! Here, Cybert meets Scott C.'s amazing Mummy puppet.

--My houseguests were lovely and it was wonderful to spend some time with them. In fact, all of my out-of-town friends are fantastic people who I see far too rarely. I know there were friends who I managed to wave drowsily at on my way to the bathroom and that was the extent of our interaction, but I blame the heat. Talking was hard, and standing was even harder.

And, of course, the hands-down highlight of the weekend was Drink and Draw Like a Lady!! Holy cow!! It was raining and windy and stupid out on Friday night, and the bar overbooked so we didn't have as much space as we needed, but my guesstimate is that we had somewhere between 70-80 awesome ladies show up for a killer night of fun! There were incredibly delicious cupcakes, there were drawing jams, there were introductions and interactions I was happy to see, there were drinks galore, and everyone I talked to had a good time.

Megan, Patricia, Hope, and Lucy!

My extra-special thanks to Hope, who brainstormed the whole thing, and the rest of the women in comics who are so amazingly rad. There is so much we can all learn from one another, and it's great to have an opportunity to bond now and then. From the sound of it, this will happen again. And you can bet I'll be there!

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...That did come out pretty positive in the end, didn't it! Happy face!