Tour Shout Outs

A million thanks to everyone who came out to the Life with Mr. Dangerous book tour events on the east and west coasts. And a particular thanks to those who hosted me along the way.

Each and every person I stayed with is embarrassingly talented in their respective field, so I'd be remiss if I didn't give them a nod here. Look for their mark on the world at large, watch for their names in the credits, or buy their products as appropriate... but however you do it, check them out. The people willingly suffering my company were:

CJ Toledano
PK Hooker
Jason Munn
Zack Soto
Jesse LeDoux

Tomorrow Night At The Strand

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 1st, I'll be reading and signing Life with Mr. Dangerous at The Strand. So if you're in New York or the immediate area, stop in and say hello. If you're lucky (or unfortunate, depending on your perspective), I may be pulling you out of the audience to read with me. Thrilling! Terrifying?

Here's the information for the event:

The Strand, June 1st, 7 to 8 pm
828 Broadway
New York, NY 10003-4805

(Thanks to Jason Polan for sending along the above picture.)

More Time Out, MCA Tonight

Tonight's the night: the book release of Life with Mr. Dangerous happens this evening at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Stop by, get a book, and... watch an all new comic on television screens? Yes, that's happening too.

To coincide with the book release, Time Out Chicago just put out a part two (of sorts) of their interview with me, with a few pages from the book as garnish. Do I mention Dilbert? Of course I mention Dilbert.

(And as a reminder for those wanting to get the limited edition of the book: the sale is still going on the store. Just enter code TOUR15 to get 15% off. The sale ends next week.)

Looking forward to seeing you tonight. Thanks in advance for all the doughnuts.*

*Please do not bring actual doughnuts into the museum. Maybe.

Life with Mr. Dangerous Book Tour

Here are the details for the Life with Mr. Dangerous Book Tour. If you'll be in any of these towns on these dates, I hope to see you, doodle something in your book, and pretend that neither of us notice that guy standing over there. Right, that one.

Wait, that's my dad.

Below is all the information in text format, for the anti-pictorial among you (in case you want to show up to protest comics as a medium):

May 24, 6-9pm:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

May 25, 1-4PM:
Comix Revolution, Evanston, IL

June 1, 7-8PM:
The Strand, New York, NY

June 3, 7pm:
w/ Emily Flake
Atomic Books, Baltimore, MD

June 6:
Big Planet Comics, Bethesda, MD

June 10:
Secret Headquarters, Los Angeles, CA

June 14, 7pm:
City Lights, San Francisco, CA

June 16, 6-8pm:
Floating World, Portland, OR

June 18:
Fantagraphics Book Store, Seattle, WA

June 30, 7:30:
Gapers Block Book Group
The Book Cellar, Chicago, IL

July 21-24:
Comic-Con, San Diego, CA

Life with Mr. Dangerous Limited Edition

Above is the jacket for the Limited Edition Life with Mr. Dangerous, which comes signed, numbered, and includes a piece (a tracing, doodle, etc.) from the production of the book (signed as well). The jacket is screen-printed with four colors.

The Ultra Limited Edition of the book comes with the book, a tracing from the production, and a page of original art from the book itself. AND it comes with a hand-crafted figurine from the book. Egad! Those numbers are very limited (as the name implies!) and running out.

You can pick up either of the editions now for 15% off by going to the Forlorn Funnies Store and entering code TOUR15.

Speaking of the tour: more information to come later today...

(And if you want to see the penciled artwork for the jacket, head over to The Daily Forlorn.)

Tour Fundraising, Sale on The Store

I'll be heading out on the road to support the release of Life with Mr. Dangerous soon. And just a few weeks before the book is coming out, my editor and main advocate left Random House. So things are now looking... well, not exactly up, traveling-wise. So I'm turning to you guys and gals to help out with a little tour fundraising.

For the next two weeks, everything on the store will be 15% off. That's everything including original art (and I'll be putting some more up soon) and limited and "ultra" limited editions of the book.

To get 15% off:
HEAD TO THE STORE AND ENTER CODE: TOUR15

And if you just want to donate to make sure I can putt or fly across the country to show up in your area, here's the link for that. (For any donations over $5, include your address and I'll send you a postcard with a little sketch thanking you for your help.):

Thanks, and I'll be posting more on the pending tour soon. (Just added: San Francisco!)

Home (Be)for(e) the Holidays

It's great to be back in Chicago, albeit briefly before flying back out for the holidays. A million thanks to everyone who came out for the east and west coast events.

The Seattle and Chicago events were a perfect one-two punch to end the whole tour. I've just received an e-mail that some video of the final Chicago event should be posted sometime in the near future, and I'll link to that whenever it's up... but for now, enjoy Jonas Seaman's photos from the Seattle event (the ridiculous one of yours truly is below, signing above). The colors are delicious.

One More Time, With Wind

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to the gala at the Fantagraphics Book Store. It was a great way to cap the west coast leg of our book tour, which has been phenomenal. It's been a pleasure talking with everyone and spending time with art geniuses like Jesse LeDoux and Jason Munn along the way.

We have one last event in our dual tour, which I've completely forgotten to post previously. We'll be heading directly from the airport to Home Room's 101 Lecture Show at the Hungry Brain in Chicago to give a final slide show presentation, answer people's questions, sign books, and try to get the feeling back in our toes after re-embracing Chicago's chill.

Here's the information about the event:

The 101 Lecture Show
The Hungry Brain, 9PM
2319 W Belmont
Chicago, IL

Thanks again to everyone. We'll hope to see some of you on Monday.

Post-Road, Pre-Turkey

Happy almost-Thanksgiving to everyone. And thanks to everyone who came out to our various readings/signings/slide shows on the east coast and in the Midwest.

This tour was filled with more people and events than I can possibly summarize in the little time I have before heading out on the road to ingest too much stuffing... so I'll give it a pass. But on the musical front: we saw The Jesus Lizard in Boston (as I previously posted), and wrapped up this leg of the tour by seeing Shellac in Louisville. Not a bad couple of acts to catch in a single tour.

While The Jesus Lizard has always been one of my favorites (their song "Thumbscrews" was the opening song to my briefly lived radio show in college), the Shellac show was far more poignant. Shellac, Shannon Wright, and The Web were all playing as a benefit for Jason Noble (of Rachel's, Rodan, and Shipping News fame) who was recently diagnosed with cancer. If you've ever enjoyed work from these bands, or just have a little extra in your wallet to help out an artist in need, please visit his Caring Bridge blog and donate.



Let it not be said that Jay Ryan closes a tour poorly: As pictured above, Jay took the stage with Shellac and whipped the crowd into a frenzy for half a song. I love Jay's band Dianogah, but the world is missing out on one formidable punk frontman in Mr. Ryan.

Thanks again to everyone who came out, and we'll be looking forward to seeing everybody else on our west coast tour starting in early December.

Lizards, Rocketships, and Robots

Thanks to everyone who has come out to see Jay and me thus far on the tour. We've had great events in Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston last night, and Brooklyn's Rocketship tonight, and hope to continue things with our event at Giant Robot NY happening Monday night.

The details for tonight:

Monday, Nov. 16, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
437 East 9th St.
New York, NY

Hopefully I'll get a chance to post a more detailed account of some of the tour's events in the near future, but in the meantime, you can read an interview conducted with Jay and listen to my reading of "The Spoils of The Fair" during our event at Wholly Craft in Columbus.

Also, I will report that our favorite overheard line from the Boston Jesus Lizard show we attended was a man insisting "I didn't hump anything! I'm not a humper!" (Though nobody – humpers and non-humpers alike – beats the ever-inimitable David Yow (of whom I grabbed the above shot, as he dominated yet another crowd).)

Animals and Sundry Tour: Tonight, Chicago

Tonight Jay Ryan and I start the Midwest/East Coast portion of our tour at our friendly neighborhood Quimby's here in Chicago. If you'll be anywhere in the area tonight, stop by. I think I'll be reading "Beginning Paragraphs to Stories I'm Not Going to Write" and "Voice Overs for Non-existent Movie Trailers." Jay will be tall and affable as always.

The details for tonight are:
Wednesday, November 11, 7pm
Quimby's Bookstore
1854 West North Ave
Chicago, IL

Tomorrow we'll be on the radio before our Milwaukee event at 4:30 on WMSE 91.7FM. You can listen to it live online, or it listen to it once it's archived here.

The details for the Milwaukee show are:
Thursday, Nov 12th, 7pm
The Sugar Maple
441 E. Lincoln Ave
Milwaukee, WI

From there, it's on to Columbus, then the coast. I'll do my best to make posts along the way, detailing the events, our on-the-road hysterics, and the disastrous amount of rest stop fare we're sure to consume.

Animals and Sundry Tour

Poster artist, fellow Chicagoan and all around nice guy Jay Ryan and I will be hitting the road in November and December promoting the releases of our respective collections, All and Sundry and Animals and Objects In and Out of Water. Jay printed (the above) posters featuring a collaborative drawing we did and we're getting materials and presentations ready for the tour, which will kick off in Chicago on November 11th.

If you're in or around one of the cities we'll be visiting, stop by and say hello. We'll draw something in a book for you and ask where the bathroom is.

Here are the dates, times, and locations:

Wed., November 11, 7pm
Quimby's Bookstore
1854 West North Ave
CHICAGO, IL

Thurs, Nov 12th, 7pm
The Sugar Maple
441 E. Lincoln Ave
MILWAUKEE, WI

Fri., Nov. 13, 7pm
Wholly Craft
3169 N. High St.
COLUMBUS, OH

Sat, Nov 14th, 4 to 6pm
Million Year Picnic
99 Mt. Auburn Street
CAMBRIDGE, MA

Sun., Nov. 15, 7pm
Rocketship
208 Smith St.
BROOKLYN, NY

Mon., Nov. 16, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
437 East 9th St.
NEW YORK, NY

Wed., Nov. 18, 7-9pm
Atomic Books
3620 Falls Rd.
BALTIMORE, MD

Fri., Nov. 20, 7pm
Carmichael's Bookstore
2720 Frankfort Ave.
LOUISVILLE, KY

Mon., Dec. 7, 6pm
Giant Robot
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA

Tues., Dec. 8, 7pm
Foundation Editions@NOMAD
1993 Blake Ave.
LOS ANGELES, CA

Wed., Dec. 9, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
618 Shrader St.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Thurs., Dec. 10, 7pm
D. King Gallery
2284 Fulton St.
BERKELEY, CA

Fri., Dec. 11, 6pm
Goodfoot Gallery
2845 SE Stark
PORTLAND, OR

Sat., Dec. 12, 6-9pm
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 South Vale St. @ Airport Way S.
SEATTLE, WA
*Fantagraphics Bookstore's 3rd Anniversary party*

SPX-less, More Tour Dates

Just a general announcement: while All and Sundry will be at SPX, I will not. In light of the upcoming tour schedule and the fact that I'll be appearing in the Baltimore area in November, I won't be making the trek down in September.

Count me jealous of all the incredible mini-comics and silk-screened wonders you'll be finding if you attend, and hopefully I'll see you at our Baltimore event at Atomic or one of the other tour dates (which I hope to be posting soon).

All and Sundry: In Stock, Autumn Tour

All and Sundry is now in stock at Fantagraphics. The wait for U.S. Grant appearing alongside cartoonish deities and Anderson Cooper is finally over.

To promote the release of the book I'll be heading out on the road in November and December with that Emperor of Rock Posters Jay Ryan (whose book Animals and Objects In and Out of Water will be appearing in stores around that time). I'll post more dates as they're confirmed, but for now, here are the stops we'll be making:

wed nov 11 - chicago - quimby's
fri nov 13 - columbus - wholly crafts
sun nov 15 - brooklyn - rocketship
mon nov 16 - new york - giant robot
wed nov 18 - baltimore - atomic
fri nov 20 - louisville - carmichaels books

If you're around when we're around, stop in and see us do whatever it is we're going to do. We promise to make the events more substantive than that preceding sentence.

Emerald City, Final Night

Today I'll spend the day with the various spandex and light saber adorned crowds of Emerald City Comicon, and will then retreat to the world of the Fantagraphics Bookstore, to sign books alongside the inimitable Stan Sakai and Jaime Hernandez. If you're in the Seattle area, I'll hope to see you at one event or another for the final night in this sprint of a northwest excursion.

The Miniature Northwest Tour

The good people of Fantagraphics put together this poster for the small Pacific Northwestern tour I'll be embarking on soon. Each event will be significantly different from the other: a gallery opening in Portland, a slideshow and reading in Vancouver, a convention during the day in Seattle, and an afterparty at the Fantagraphics bookstore that night. It should be quite the comics event sampler platter for my girlfriend who is, despite her better judgment, joining me on the tour.

If you're in Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, or some truck stop in between, stop by and say hello. I'll be looking forward to seeing you, making an awkward joke, and then realizing that one of your close relatives is affected by whatever I just made fun of.

The Three Paradoxes East Coast Tour

In that unending effort to sleep poorly in as many alien beds as possible, I will be scuttling up the east coast, chucking ink into whatever people see fit to have ink chucked. The east coast leg of this (a west coast leg will be solidified shortly, happening in late July/early August) starts in North Carolina and ends in New York. My father, one of the principal "characters" of the book, may even show up at one of these events. There may be puppets. There may be sleep deprivation. Scratch that: there will absolutely be sleep deprivation.

Links to the events/sites:

June 15-17: HeroesCon
June 19: Velocity Comics
June 21: Atomic Pop (Atomic Books) with novelist/poet Tao Lin
June 22: Rocketship
June 23-24: Mocca Festival

So if you're in the area of one of these, stop by. We can stare at each other and try not to talk about the weather.