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The arrival! [Dec. 9th, 2009|05:27 pm]
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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!
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Two things! [Nov. 30th, 2009|09:55 am]
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[mood | illin']



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 Stuff like book covers, unpublished pieces, personal drawings of the characters, and pages I've never made available till now.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!)
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King Con! [Nov. 5th, 2009|12:10 pm]
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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!
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Thiiiiis weekend! [Sep. 22nd, 2009|03:53 pm]
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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. [info]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!
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It has been QUITE a week. [Aug. 16th, 2009|06:28 pm]
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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.
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SMILE: done! [Jul. 1st, 2009|04:41 pm]
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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.

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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.
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Internet Unveiling! [Jun. 9th, 2009|01:43 pm]
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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! ;)
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(no subject) [Jun. 9th, 2009|12:54 pm]
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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!


---

...That did come out pretty positive in the end, didn't it! Happy face!
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Visual Overload Ahoy [Jun. 2nd, 2009|10:44 am]
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[music |Magnificent Seven theme]



This weekend! Are you ready? Saturday June 6 and Sunday June 7, it's the MoCCA Art Festival -- my VERY favorite comics show of the year!!

The convention moves to a new venue this year, the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street in New York City (about a block away from my old SVA dorm!). It's $10 a day or $15 for a weekend pass. The event runs from 11-6 on both Saturday and Sunday.

The Comics Bakery will be set up at table number 513. It's right in the middle of the action! EDIT: Marion posted a picture of the floor map!

Now, for what I'll have with me at the show:


OUTREACH minicomics! I made a fresh batch of these guys for MoCCA; having only sold these at SPX in 2008, this will be the New York debut for this little book. $2 each.


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Postcards with the cover for SMILE!! Here's a very pixelated sneak peak; you'll have to come find me to see the real thing. Free!


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X-Men Misfits...keychains! The book itself won't actually be released until July, but come get a keychain to whet your appetite. Free!


--BSC Graphic Novels! Volumes 1 - 4. $9 each, or $30 for the whole set.

--Take-Out Minis! Yeah, I still have them! $1 each, or $5 for all 6.

--SMILE Minis! Soon to be a collector's item. The first 8 pages of the story...which have been drastically re-written and re-drawn for the graphic novel version. $1 each.

--Original Art! If there's a BSC page from any of the volumes you're specifically interested in, please let me know here in the comments, or via email. Otherwise, I'll have an assortment of pages available, varied prices.

In addition to the insanity listed above, we also have a panel on Saturday from noon - 12:50 pm!
Comics Bakery Roundtable: A discussion on the “benefits” of collaboration with two sets of comic-making couples, who combine to form a giant robot.



And don't forget--all ladies in town for the show are invited to the (free!) pre-party, Drink and Draw Like A Lady, at Madame X on Friday night from 7 - 10:

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I set up a Facebook Page for the event, if you'd like to add your name to the guest list or invite more people. There will be professionally-baked cupcakes! Half of which will be vegan! Come share a free drink with your comics-making sisters and start the weekend off in fancy fashion.

Hope to see you at some, or all, of the festivities!
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SMILE: Work in Progress [Mar. 18th, 2009|03:56 pm]
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Here's an example of my working progress for SMILE! The final step of the production process, color, is missing from this lineup...you'll forgive me, right?

I do my thumbnails and writing at the same time, in a spiral-bound notebook. The pages are penciled and lettered on 9 x 12" Bristol, inked with India ink, and then cleaned up a bit in Photoshop. My lettering tends to be quick and sloppy, and most of my clean-up work is making sure all my letters are decent and readable.

If you'd like to see the pencils and inks a little larger, here you go:

Pencils

Inks

(P.S. If you've already seen this post, forgive me! I re-jiggered a couple of things to make it more concise!)
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SMILE: Another art preview [Mar. 12th, 2009|03:21 pm]
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There's not a whole lot of art I can post that doesn't give away major SMILE story points! But I shall continue to try.

I've got about 20 more pages left to ink! Then I'll be in high production mode until summer. April and May will also be chock-full of travel: I've been invited to two library conferences, and I'm taking two personal trips as well. The one thing I'm really sad to have to miss is TCAF, which is one of my favorite small press comic shows, and is shaping up to be another wonderful event. The timing was just not going to work for me this year, though. I hope to be back in 2011!

Hope everyone's doing great. Spring is in the air, and I could not be happier about it!
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Gym is hard [Mar. 4th, 2009|12:53 pm]
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How 'bout some non-spoilery art from SMILE? I should try and post this sort of thing more often!
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I'll sort of be at the New York Comic Con this weekend. [Feb. 2nd, 2009|11:04 am]
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Comics Bakery isn't exhibiting this year. For a variety of reasons, one of which is that I have too much work to do and can't spare 3 full days away from my desk. However, I'll be at the show for a few hours each on Saturday and Sunday!

Saturday, February 7

Del Rey Manga Panel
11:15 AM
Room 1A06
Come see the unveiling of some pages from my forthcoming X-Men: Misfits manga! Dave and I will be on hand to chat and answer questions.


Sunday, February 8

Coming of Age Comics Panel
11 AM
Room 1A18
The transition between childhood and adulthood is an endlessly fertile subject for stories. Jeff Parker (X-Men: First Class), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Jason Little (Bee Comix), and Mariko Tamaki with moderator Douglas Wolk (Reading Comics), will talk about the way coming of age has been addressed in comics, and how they've dealt with the theme in their own work.

Signing!
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Kids Love Comics booth
(Booth #1930)

My Baby-sitters Club graphic novels will be available at the Kids Love Comics booth throughout the con, if you’d like to pick one up! And come by and say hello, get a book signed, get a sketch, whatever you’d like, from 1:00 - 2:30 on Sunday!

I'll also hopefully be able to wander the floor a bit both days, so I hope to get a chance to see some of you guys, if only for a few minutes...
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SMILE Guest Theatre: Brian Fies! [Nov. 25th, 2008|01:25 pm]
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[music |Stephin Merritt: This Little Ukelele]

Bah, I've been so caught up in working on SMILE the book, that I forgot to mention I'm still putting up guest strips on the SMILE website!

Here's a great new guest strip from my friend Brian Fies, who always makes time for a friendly chat when we see each other at cons, and has been a good ally in discussing the twilight space between webcomics and their print cousins. Go read about his dental drama, why don't you?

I'm back to penciling and inking new pages of the comic, and it's tough not to share them with you guys week-to-week like I used to!

The guest-strip invitation still stands to anyone who's interested in drawing one. From now on all of the guest comics I receive will be run on the fan art section of the site (default name, courtesy of WCN), and I will be migrating the other guest strips over to that section when I have a free second.

So, what else is going on? Dave, John, Marion and I went to see Avenue Q last night--John and Marion's first time, and Dave's and my second (he got free tickets through work a handful of years back). It's such a fun show and I'm really glad I got to see it again! The rumor is that it's closing sometime in 2009, so if you like extremely well-done puppets, Sesame Street parody, and raunchy humor...you should go!

Dave and I are both dealing with some family stuff these days, but overall I've been in a great mood and am really looking forward to the holiday season. It's kind of my favorite, I admit. :)
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(no subject) [Oct. 16th, 2008|11:22 am]
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I put this promo image on SMILE's new 'final' page. I also tidied up my archives a bit, and removed some of the recent storyline--I'm allowed to keep pages up so readers can get into the story, but not too much. I think the online archives clock in at about 90 pages now.

This isn't a very interesting LJ post, but I wanted to show off the new picture. :)
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Announcement! [Oct. 6th, 2008|10:46 pm]
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I can finally, finally, FINALLY make it known to the world at large:


Scholastic/Graphix will be publishing the complete SMILE: A Dental Drama in 2010!

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I've been sitting on this news for months, and stalling updates on the webcomic for even longer. In truth, I've been working very hard behind the scenes this whole while, writing the conclusion to the story, thinking about the book's format, and doing color tests.

...Yeah, that's right: it's going to be in full color!

The other piece of news to go along with this, is that I pretty much have to give up posting weekly updates to the strip online. The story's conclusion will only appear in the print version, which means there will be about 90 more pages than what is currently on my site. I'll also be expanding and revising the current pages, and of course, coloring them all. I may run a few other things on the site now and then; I recently got another great guest strip, and it seems like a good place to put teaser art! The site needs an overhaul anyway. I'll give a shout when that happens.

Anyway, now you know! I'm really excited and happy. Time to get to WORK. :)
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SMILE: I am not being lazy [Apr. 3rd, 2008|12:56 pm]
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A few months ago, when I first announced my hiatus/call for guest strips on SMILE, I guessed I'd be back in business come April. Well, here we are, in the fourth month of the year already...

What's happening is, I decided to write the story through the end before starting to draw again. It is SO CLOSE to being finished right now, I can hardly believe it! Yet, there are other things taking me away from working on it--a little superhero script that's due next week; upcoming travel and conventions and library things and signings; life in general.

So, it's going to be a little while longer, but I promise to make it worth the wait!
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(no subject) [Feb. 27th, 2008|12:14 pm]
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Today's guest comic is by my very good friend, Tyler Page! He once had his orthodontic wires stab him in the cheeck on Christmas Day, which is not a nice thing. But the comic turned out great! Click the pic above to read the whole thing.

And since comics and dental drama are the name of the game, check out Rachel Nabors' situation: She's a fellow comicker who needs extensive, EXPENSIVE dental surgery, and doesn't have insurance! The banner below will take you to more information about Rachel.
Fix Rachel's Wonky Mouth

Finally, I am now out of comics to run as guest spots! I mention this mostly because a HUGE amount of people have asked about creating strips for me to run, and now I could really use them! I won't be able to pick up SMILE duties again for at least another month as I wrap up production on BSC and the X-men script, so if you're waiting for some sort of deadline for this project...it's now. :)

Thanks, everyone!
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(no subject) [Feb. 20th, 2008|11:38 am]
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In today's guest SMILE strip, Julia Wertz explains her own dental history in graphic format. It is good times. Thanks, Julia!
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(no subject) [Feb. 14th, 2008|11:20 am]
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I wish I'd timed my gut-wrenching 7th grade Valentine's Day story from SMILE to coincide with this part of the year, but you could always just read it again today. ;)


ETA: If you're not caught up on SMILE, read this chapter first; the gut-wrenching chapter follows it. Middle school drama, how I DO NOT miss thee!
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