Boing Boing, Bolling

Ruben Bolling (creator of the great Tom the Dancing Bug, a lifesaver for me while working a day job back in Columbus, Ohio) gave a nice shout out to Life with Mr. Dangerous on Boing Boing's Gweek podcast! Listen in as two men I respect immensely stuggle with my cumbersome last name.

AV Club's Best of 2011

It was an honor to see that Life with Mr. Dangerous was included among the The AV Club's Best of 2011. I was also very happy to see the (more than deserved) inclusion of Anders Nilsen's masterful Big Questions. (If you don't have that book, right that wrong: pick up several copies today.)

Dylan Williams Benefit

There are still several hours left to bid on this page from Life with Mr. Dangerous, so please bid. This is to benefit Dylan Williams' (the founder of Sparkplug Books who tragically passed away on September 10th) family, to help with the medical and other expenses brought about by Dylan's illness.

SPX Time and The Goodies

This Saturday and Sunday I'll be at SPX in Bethesda, Maryland at table H11 beside my pal (and amazing cartoonist/illustrator/designer) Mark Burrier.

I'll have with the just-released postcard collection So-So Heroes as well as the Limited Edition of Life with Mr. Dangerous (a slightly less involved version of which I just put up on The Forlorn Funnies Store).

When I'm not at that table remembering that I forgot to eat lunch, I'll be signing over at Fantagraphics (5:30 to 7 on Saturday, 4:30 to 6 on Sunday). If you're in the vicinity of either of those tables, stop by, say hello, and tell me about that wonderful sandwich you just had.

Classy Questions

I meant to post this a while ago, but in the wake of book tour chaos it slipped through the cracks: Lee Keeler of Classy Hands sat me down for an interview while I was in Los Angeles, and now you can view it with your face. My face is partially in shadow. There is no artistic significance to this, that's just where the sun decided to be.

Part Two of the interview is here.

In addition to singing Life with Mr. Dangerous (and whatever else comes across the table), Comic-Con also marks the debut of the So-So Heroes Postcards from Chronicle. I've had a copy of the collection since... April?... so it'll be nice to see it released into the wild. Stop by Chronicle on Friday from 1 to 2 pm and I'll scrawl things all over a copy, just for you.

AV and Book Club

Next week, on Thursday, June 30th, I'll be at The Book Cellar in Chicago for a discussion of "Life with Mr. Dangerous," the summer selection of The Gapers Block Book Club. Stop by, say hello, and ask me what's going on with all the ice cream and beards in the story.

And speaking of clubs: thanks to The Onion's AV Club for their review of the book. A tip of my hat to one of the world's finest sources of real and fake news.

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.)

The Book Is Real

I have confirmed that Life with Mr. Dangerous exists in the physical world and will be making it to your eyballs and paws in the near future. Here it is. (Thanks to Patton Oswalt for his generous (and, as always, hilarious) blurb.)

The sale in the store continues! Just remember to enter code TOUR15 to get your 15% off.

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!)

Life with Mr. Dangerous, Interpreted

The World of Life with Mr. Dangerous from Paul Hornschemeier on Vimeo.

In a polar opposite approach to the aforeposted trailer that I directed and storyboarded, I contacted director Bruce Parsons about working on a video for the upcoming Life with Mr. Dangerous, but only sent the book, a song, and the instruction to shoot whatever those two brought to mind. The gorgeously shot piece above is the result. A million thanks to Bruce and, as always, to Houses.

Life with Mr. Dangerous Trailer

Life with Mr. Dangerous from Paul Hornschemeier on Vimeo.

Above is the animated trailer for the upcoming Life with Mr. Dangerous. A massive thanks to the guys at Bindle Dog who put a ton of work into this and suffered all my notes and edits. And thanks to Houses for the music. If you haven't heard their album, go give it a listen, you won't be dissapointed.

Life with Mr. Dangerous, On The Press

Above is a picture taken at the press printing Life with Mr. Dangerous, showing every bit of my exhaustion from waking at four a.m. the morning after flying back from New York and driving the three and a half hours to Crawfordsville, Indiana.

But the trip was well worth it and I can personally vouch for the printing being very true to my intentions. The amount that colors can shift on press is staggering... Even in this grainy phone picture I took afterward (below), you can see the shift, printed from the same file, between a page as it printed in Mome (the page lower in the picture) and as printed for the book (the page higher in the picture).

I'll be posting more about book tour dates and other exciting bits here very soon, as well as more information on the Life with Mr. Dangerous limited edition copies. Thanks again to those that pre-ordered and a reminder to those still interested to get your pre-orders in now.

MoCCA 2011

In a last minute addition to increasingly nutty travel plans, I'll be attending this year's MoCCA Festival in New York, April 9th and 10th. I'll be signing at Fantagraphics table and will occasionally be at Random House's, where rumor has it some conglomeration of pages/print-outs resembling my new book will be found. More exact signing times, etc. will be posted when I have them.

Through Thursday: Sale on the Store

I've been feeling bad about the lack of updates here on the old blog, so to once again extend a sort of olive branch, I'm running a sale through the end of Thursday on everything on the Forlorn Funnies Store. Same as last time, it's 20% off everything. That includes original art... And that includes the cover art for my next book, Life with Mr. Dangerous. That art will be taken down after Thursday, sale or no sale. So if you're interested in getting it and getting 20% off, have at it. After that it, it will be sent to a gallery, and the price will inevitably be higher.

To get 20% off of your entire order, just enter discount code FFMAR24.

And as for updates... well... someday soon I'll be talking about all these things in the works. Someday.

Color Proofs Galore

A heap of color proofs are littered on my side table right now from the upcoming Life with Mr. Dangerous (from Random House/Villard) and So-So Heroes (from Chronicle). Have a gander. One of the proofs from Life with Mr. Dangerous in this shot is 1 of around 30 pages of comics that never appeared in Mome or anywhere else. Needless to say, those will get extra attention in the proofing stage.

And peeking around the corners are a few of the studio's scattered toys, one from Meltdown (though that one was purchased in Chicago at Quimby's), one from Friends with You, and a little Snoopy head that if you rotate its ear shows you different single panel Peanuts cartoons through a window in the back of his skull. Why that last one was ever produced, I don't know, but it's one of my favorites.