"Her" Video Profile

VIDEO PROFILE
The lovely and talented filmmaker Rebekah Frimpong recently filmed me as part of her upcoming film project "Her." The film is about determined women who chase their dreams and don't worry about failing...so I was pretty darn flattered when she asked me to take part! This is the link to her 4 minute VIDEO OF ME in my studio working and rambling about myself. I'm the 2nd video down!



Currently listening: The Mountain Goats...Sunset Tree

Some Penciled Pages

As you might already know, I'm working full time 7 days a week on my first graphic novel. It's called "Page by Paige" and it's for Abrams books. I'll finish it by July and it'll come out Spring 2011.

I've been drawing out all 190 pages in pencil first, and I'm almost done! Just one more chapter to go. Here's what the pile of completed drawings looks like so far, it's pretty massive...



I wanted to share samples of what I've drawn out so far, but the blue pencil lines are SO faint that they didn't even register on my scanner! So I apologize for...
* The poor quality of these photographs here.
* Most of the people don't have their clothes defined yet, since I'm tweaking the wardrobes last.
* None of these images show a whole page layout, for when I tried it was terribly out of focus!

Please click on each image to see the full size.

Here's Paige, my 16-year old main character shamelessly based on myself.



Here's Paige with her new NYC friends...


Paige and Longo, the cartoonist of the bunch...

Here's Jules, the spunky singer...

Here's Paige with Gabe, the writer and romantic interest (blush) of the story...


And here's Diana, Paige's friend from back home...

Here Paige is installing a message-in-a-bottle tree...

And here she is interacting with her Mom...


And where do I spend all my time working on this? I usually work at my desk at home in the mornings and at night...

...then in the afternoons I work at my desk in the studio I share with 5 other artists. We've just named our studio Outpost 51, and I'll share our new blog with you once I finish setting it up.

Once I start inking it I'll definitely post some samples up here for show and tell. Thanks everyone for your support as I've been acclimating to this new world of comics, I've been needing all the encouragement I can get!

Currently listening: Spoon....Transference

Character Sneak Peek

Here is a SNEAK PEEK at the characters from my graphic novel Page by Paige! Since I'll be drawing this out over the next year, it'll be interesting to see how the characters evolve. Each character was based on a couple different people, but some of their personalities have taken unexpected turns. This first panel shows my 16-year-old-alter-ego Paige with the Virginia-rooted characters: her parents and Diana. Diana is on the phone because in the book she is the friend left behind in Virginia when Paige and her family move to NYC. (Click on image to see full view)

This panel shows Paige with the friends she makes in NYC: Gabe (the writer), Longo (the cartoonist), and Jules (the songwriter). I'll be introducing you to these characters in more depth in the coming months, as I get to know them better myself!



Currently Reading: The Man in the Ceiling by Jules Feiffer

BOOK DEAL!

BIG. NEWS.

A lot of you folks probably already know this, but...I GOT A BOOK DEAL WITH ABRAMS! (I got the offer 2 months ago but I needed to wait until the contract was all done and signed before I could officially announce it.)

I'm writing and drawing a young adult graphic novel geared towards girls called PAGE BY PAIGE. It's about a redheaded 16-year old named Paige, who moves to NYC with her family from Virginia. (Sound familiar?) Feeling alone in this new city, she decides to cope by learning how to be an artist. But she finds that the lessons she learns on paper spill over into her real life. The more she becomes an artist, the more the line between her imaginary self and her real self begin to blur. The whole book is rooted in my own experiences, so it's quite a personal project for me. And I'm THRILLED to find a publisher brave enough to take on a new author like myself.

At a whopping 192 pages it'll take me the next year to draw, and it will be released in SPRING 2011 by Amulet Books. (The YA division of Abrams) This is why I recently joined a comic studio in Gowanus, so I won't have to spend the next year drawing this totally isolated in my apartment!

I must say THANK YOU to everyone who bought one of my little sketchbooks back in Virginia or picked up one of my zines here in NYC. And thanks to my editor Maggie Lehrman, my agent Maya Rock over at Writer's House, and my friend Chad Beckerman who passed along my name to Maggie in the first place. It's been 9 months since when I first started talking to Abrams, so I'm grateful for my friends and family who have put up with me rattling on about this project for so long. (And, um, sorry, but you'll have to keep hearing about it for a while! But I promise it will be amazing...)


Currently Listening: Camera Obscura...My Maudlin Career