The Big Thing at SDCC: Complete Paradise TOO!

Prologue: Echo #23 is at the printer. I’ll post a preview tomorrow.

Okay…  unless you’ve been following me for a long time, or you’ve read The Strangers in Paradise Treasury, you may NOT realize that I was drawing Francine and Katchoo before the Strangers In Paradise comic. The girls were actually developed in comic strips. In fact, everything I did before SiP was in comic strip format. So, during the years I was making SiP, I decided to publish all those strips in their own series of comics titled Paradise TOO. P.TOO, as I nicknamed it, ran for 14 issues that were collected into 2 TPBs. The series ended many years ago and that was that.

Okay, I told you that so I could tell you this.

I was recently reading through the Paradise TOO trades and discovered, much to my horror, that 3 issues were not in the TPBs! That got me to thinking about how few people had ever even seen the series, and next thing you know, I’d talked myself into collecting everything into one comprehensive book titled The Complete Paradise TOO —a 360 page softcover book filled with hundreds and hundreds of my comic strips and cartoons, from high school to SIP to all the Kixie strips and Plato and Lizzie the axe-murderer…  all for just $30. Just look for this cover…

This marvelous collection of insanity will make its debut in a few weeks at the San Diego Comic Con. After the show, the book will go up for sale on our website, and be listed with Diamond ASAP for fall release through the stores. The book is at the printer now, and I have to tell you, I cannot wait to get my hands on one and see everything in one definitive book, like the SiP Omnibus. I love it!

Speaking of San Diego, my convention schedule for the rest of 2010:

July 21-25:  San Diego Comic Con

Aug 28-29:  Baltimore Comic Con

Oct 8-10:  New York City Comic Con

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I was happy to learn Fantasy Book Review has discovered my work. They’ve posted a very nice review of Echo and Strangers In Paradise: Pocket Edition One.

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Completed a X-Men Rogue cover for Marvel. I can’t show it before Marvel does, but when it comes out, I’ll post the original line art for you to see. I originally drew Rogue exhibiting a power she doesn’t possess, and turned it in. Naturally the editor responded a bit confused, wondering what brilliant angle I had in mind that wasn’t obvious in the art. Ahem. And the thing is, I know better. I know Rogue. We go way back. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it. Anyway, there were a couple of ways to justify the scene, but it’s not the point of the cover, so I fixed it. I’ll show you both version when the book hits the stands. When that is, I have no idea. It’s one of those guest covers, with a vertical row of Marvel faces down the left and right sides. The company did a run of them last year, to much success, so a new batch is coming your way in 2010.