Ms. Larson had a fine strip in the New York Times today. There are four pages - you have to click through.

I think you must agree that she is brilliant, talented, etc.

I was just tweaking this image for the Awkward Songz remaster, and I thought I'd post it because it's so nice. By my lovely wife, hopelarson, circa 2003 (girlfriend-era). I think she said it was the most awkward thing she could think of.



I'll post some actual Scott Pilgrim junk on Monday, I think.

Wizard did a spread on Scott Pilgrim as their "Indie of the Year". Woooooo! I used to read Wizard when I was about 14. I had a year or two worth of them back in the mid-90s. In fact, I know Wizard was the first place I ever saw stuff like Chris Ware, and some of my earliest information about manga came from there too. So, that's nice. I mean, mainly it was Joe Madureira and hilarious captions and photos of action figures, etc. I'm curious to see what kind of sophomoric nonsense they spewed about Scott P., so does anyone have a copy of the issue (#183) that they could scan for me?

CONTENT! Here is a little Salamander Dream comic I did last year (in my sketchbook). Click to bigg up.


Scott 4 update: I feel okay about the drawings currently. Drawing these things is like a huge existential dilemma. I cannot explain the rollercoaster of emotions that one goes through while drawing an extremely long graphic novel. This book will be very long, at least a dozen pages longer than book 2, and possibly another dozen longer than that. I'm trying to trim it a bit as I draw, but the script was definitely quite long. I don't want to turn into Harry Potter over here; I'm going to try to keep each book around the 200-page mark. I'm making a conservative estimate that the book will come out next summer. (I wonder if the last Harry Potter will come out next summer?!?!?)

I have my computer back but i don't really have anything new to report. I'm just working on Scott P. 4 and playing some Final Fantasy on the side. My new computer is pretty nice. It can play Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and make it so it actually looks good.

One of the things i'm trying to do on the new computer is get used to using iTunes, with the help of Mr Kanye West.

This is a photo i took the other day when Hope and i were out playing in Annapolis Royal, NS.

I forgot to mention in the last post that on Saturday Hope won the Ignatz award for most promising talent!!! It's very deserved. A year ago, Salamander Dream was hot off the presses and she was just finishing up the art for Gray Horses. Now she's got both books out, a big contract with Simon & Schuster, and is publishing Rebecca Kraatz's wonderful House of Sugar, not to mention having several panels of her comics featured in Scott McCloud's Making Comics. All this and it's only been three years since she decided to try doing some comics in the summer of 2003. That's what I call promising! Please heap praise upon her.

1. Go arbitrarily rank Hope's shirt design on Threadless! It's easy!


2. My friend Jim Zubkavich is taking orders for his book, The Makeshift Miracle, for which I did a little full-colour pinup. It's a collection of his classic webcomic, which you can now read online for free! He is also looking to book 350 preorders in order to make back his costs, so if you have an interest in the book and have on your person $22 including shipping, you should click on the gigantic Paypal button over there.

3. Appearances are starting to pile up for next spring. Oh man, are we ever going to appear. In the nearer future, Hope and I have a signing at the Beguiling, Toronto, Saturday September 16th, 5 PM 'til whenever. Please come, please tell your friends. I'll bring artwork and give you deep discounts!

Hey guys, if you live in Toronto or will be there soon or are just really good at google/flickr/etc, here are some things I potentially will need general reference photos of for Scott Pilgrim 4 (it's still in rough draft, so some of these scenes may get deleted, possibly hinging on the kind of reference I find!).

* Dufferin Mall (exteriors, interiors, food court)
* Sneaky Dee's (exterior, interior, booths, etc)
* College & Bathurst area (restaurants, etc, on College)

I have visitors this week so I might be slow to respond, but I will greatly treasure any input you give me.

Reference Quest #1 is here (I have pretty much everything I need from it, but more can't hurt.)

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PART 2

Hope Larson has a comic strip in the New York Times tomorrow, Friday August 4th! It's almost a full page and should be in the Op/Ed section. I think you won't be able to miss it. Check it out! (I used to date Hope Larson, but now we just share a house with some cats. And we're married and stuff.)