Hey all! A great review of MAGIC PICKLE has hit the web! The graphic novel has a street date of May 1st, but I bet you see 'em around before that. Here's what the SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL thought...enjoy! Oh, and the colors are of course by the amazing JOSE GARIBALDI, who is credited in the printed version, no worries. He's a genius!

MORE ART at GRAPHIC COLLECTIBLES!

Mitch at Graphic collectibles just posted more art for sale, including the cover illustration to SCRAP METTLE. Grab 'em while you can!

SIDEBAR interview!

The great guys at SIDEBAR have put together a new interview with me, and you can listen in HERE!

Harmonica on the brain...

MAGIC PICKLE!

They exist...and you can pre-order these Scholastic Books now on Amazon! MAGIC PICKLE AND THE PLANET OF THE GRAPES and MAGIC PICKLE VS. THE EGG POACHER are all-new adventure chapter books, heavily illustrated and written by me, of course. It's finally time for the further adventures of Jo Jo and Weapon Kosher as they work together to fit into their separate worlds. And for the first time, you can grab MAGIC PICKLE: THE ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL in full color, courtesy of the amazing Jose Garibaldi, too! These books hit in March and May, respectively. Go get 'em!

YOUR FRIEND THE RAT

So, you may or may not know that I was a part of the short film on the RATATOUILLE dvd, YOUR FRIEND THE RAT. It's Pixar's first real foray into 2-D animation on a short-film scale, with a couple of stop motion shots thrown in for good measure, and of course some good ol' 3-D, too. I did a lot of the backgrounds and color styling for the short, which was designed by Nate Wragg and Teddy Newton, and directed by Jim Capobianco. There's some behind the scenes photos here. There's a LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK you can purchase, as well, with actual art from the flick. It's cheap! Go grab a copy today and start the new year off right.

SCRAP METTLE LIMITED: ALL SOLD OUT

All 25 copies are gone...these went quick! Thanks to everyone for the support! I'll do a limited edition of the next book, as well, due out for SAN DIEGO. More info soon!

With Steinbeck and Ricketts

Good job, Petey

Tearin' up the East Bay

in the works...

Hey, lookit them bears

interlude!

So as a brief interlude from the art, let's have a look at another project i'm in the middle of with my Dad...a 1931 5-Window Ford Coupe! You can track the progress as we get 'er rolling over the next few months at the Number 63 Blog! Enjoy!

WHEN SYSADMINS RULED THE EARTH

It's available now at finer comics specialty shops everywhere! I did a cover for Cory Doctorow's new series FUTURISTIC TALES at IDW, based on his sci-fi writings. Cory is infamous for creating the notorious BOING BOING website. You can grab the original now, too, available at Graphic Collectibles.


More soon!

ORIGINALS

Hey everyone-

Sorry for the long gap between posts...I've been away in Italy doing research and trying to catch up. Still, there's some news: GRAPHIC COLLECTIBLES has some of my originals for sale. Now's your chance! Go to it!

pre-order THE MAGIC PICKLE!

They're on their way...two new MAGIC PICKLE books, ready for pre-order from Amazon. Scholastic Books' GRAPHIX imprint is offering new MAGIC PICKLE stories for the first time in six years, with the release of MAGIC PICKLE AND THE PLANET OF THE GRAPES and MAGIC PICKLE VS. THE EGG POACHER. These new books are chapter books, meaning very heavily illustrated prose books, written and illustrated by me. They were incredibly fun to produce, and they're a great expansion of the Magic Pickle mythos. They'll be available at shops in March of 2008, but you can pre-order now. Jully 2008 will also have the rerelease of the MAGIC PICKLE graphic novel, souped up with FULL COLOR by the amazing Jose Garibaldi. So that's 3 MAGIC PICKLE books for 2008. Now you know three more reasons I've been so darn busy!

More soon! I'll try to post the covers shortly.

SOUTHPAW for the Alzheimer's Association

Esther Pearl has been working with the fine folks at Maverix Studios to organize an art auction to benefit the Alzheimer's Association later this month. The Maverix auctions are first rate affairs and always have a wide variety of cool artwork available to bid on.

If you live in the Bay Area, come by to bid on some great artwork for a good cause. I'm contributing these two SOUTHPAW pieces.

Art Auction benefiting the Alzheimer's Association
Saturday, Sept 29, 6-9pm
Maverix Studios
1717 17th Street
San Francisco

ANCIENT BOOK LIMITED: They're off!

Finally, they're shipping today. Thanks to everyone who ordered for their patience. I'll be contacting a few of you directly to double check some shipping information, but the bulk of them went out a few minutes ago.

With that, THE ANCIENT BOOK OF MYTH AND WAR is completely sold out. We're not supplying any more copies to our distributor, because we're really and truly out of them. Thanks for grabbing one, if you did, and if you DIDN'T, grab the next one you see at a shop or online. It might be the last!

Work has begun on THE ANCIENT BOOK OF SEX AND SCIENCE, and we're planning a REALLY cool ancilliary product with a REALLY cool third party for this launch next April. Keep yer eyes peeled on the blogs for more info soon. Some preview images will be posted as we go. There will be four volumes of THE ANCIENT BOOK when we're all done...

Also just finished up some work for SCHOLASTIC, some new MAGIC PICKLE projects, which will also hit next year. With the 3 MAGIC PICKLE books, THE ANCIENT BOOK OF SEX AND SCIENCE, and a secret project or two, there are at least FIVE new books slated for 2008 from me, so lots to see coming up!

Thanks again to everyone for your patience. It means the world. It's been a tough, busy couple of months.

New York for Nick

For those of you that have ordered the limited ANCIENT BOOK, the wait is almost over. Books should officially ship in the next few days. Thanks SO much for everyone's patience...and sorry for all the delays...I'm shipping two new MAGIC PICKLE books to Scholastic this week as well, in addition to Pixar duties, family time, and some other projects, including THE ANCIENT BOOK OF SEX AND SCIENCE, which is now underway. Folks waiting on the last few SCRAP METTLE limiteds will have a week or two more to wait, I'm afraid. In the meantime, here's a painting for my pal Nick.

RIP Mike Wieringo

I'm absolutely shocked. Mike was one of the first pros that ever wrote me to let me know what he thought of my work, unsolicited and full of praise, ten years ago when I started SOULWIND. A truly kind man.

Matt Brady has more at NEWSARAMA.

I'll have some post-con wrap-up news and info on when ANCIENT BOOK and SCRAP METTLE limited editions are shipping soon (ANCIENT BOOKS will ship this week, if I've received your payment). I'm back to work from my break, so things are busy. Thanks for everyone's patience.