Framed Art and Coffee

I guess this post is particularly for my more local friends:

Tomorrow (Saturday the 6th) a big batch of my original art, including a good number of the watercolors from Julia's House, will find a place on the walls of Happy Creek Coffee and Tea in Front Royal. Some of it will be for sale! I just brought some of the pieces home from the frame shop (Sun Studio Framing in Front Royal) and they look very fine. Here's a little peek:

The art will be on display for the rest of December, but if you come by Happy Creek tomorrow, from 3 to 5pm you can catch me giving a little presentation about the work and an showing a small sneak peek at some of my upcoming projects. Click this link here for more information.

The Goblin and the Queen

I've had my head down at my desk lately working on some of the final edits to Little Robot and trying to get a solid start on my next book (which I don't have much to say about yet). So I haven't had a lot of extra art to share, beyond the watercolor above, which I hope you like. Last month I thought a lot about wizards. This month I seem to be thinking a lot about goblins...

Later this week I will be traveling to Miami for the Miami Book Fair International. This will be my second time attending the Miami book fair, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's a very fun event, and this time I'll be catching up with Dave Roman and Kazu Kibuishi. Yay!

One other bit of news: I know I've been posting a lot about the Goodreads Choice Awards. Well, Julia's House has made the final rounds in the picture book category. If you want to take a look at this last round just click this link right here.

Okay! Next time: pictures from Miami (I hope).

A Halloween Post with a Trick and a Treat

Happy Halloween! (oh man, I love Halloween so much).

I'll start with some news about Julia's House for Lost Creatures. This is the "trick."

The first printing of Julia's House has SOLD OUT. This is, overall, really good news. But unfortunately the first print run of the book sold out much more quickly than anyone expected and as a result, here on All Hallow's Eve, finding a copy of the book is a bit of a trick (see? see what I did?).

If you are looking for a copy of Julia's House, perhaps to give to a special someone for "All Hallow's Read", I'd suggest looking at Barnes and Noble. I've heard they still had copies in stock.

...And now some Zita the Spacegirl costumes! (I'm counting this as the treat). I've received so many pictures of kids in Zita costumes this year. Here are a few of my favorites (all pictures posted with permission but, parents and guardians, if you find I've made a mistake or would like a picture taken down let me know):

(These are book blogger Julie Danielson's kids, Ava and Piper. That's right. Piper is dressed as Piper.)

More costumes after the jump...

Julia's House Bonus Art

Now that the Julia's House Blog tour has wound down, I thought I'd post the whole little creature collection online in one place, right here. I was thinking of making these into a little collection of prints.

Enjoy!

Julia's House is Here Today

Today is the official release day for Julia's House for Lost Creatures. If you've pre-ordered the book there is a good chance it will show up at you door today. If you were planning to pick it up from a local bookstore today is the day they will have it in stock. If you were going to pick it up from your local library then I commend you! ...and it should be on the shelves there as well. (If you weren't planning on reading this one and you just visit this blog for the art and comics, well we are definitely still friends. And I'm sorry I haven't been posting comics lately).

Here are some pictures of some copies of Julia's House that were on my desk recently (they are now signed, doodled in, and en route to Turnrow Books):

In other news, I am quite exhausted. I'm just back from a really nice weekend visit to Indiana where I joined my parents and my sisters and my nieces and nephews in breaking in the beautiful brick oven that my dad spent his summer designing and building. It looks like this:

And it makes the most wonderful pizzas.

I also played paintball for the first time this weekend and I discovered that I'm not terribly good at it. Or, rather, I'm particularly good at the part where you get ambushed and pelleted by 12 and 13 year olds.

And so I spent last night driving from Indiana back to Virginia with my two oldest girls, arriving back at House Hatke at about 9 am. Hence the exhaustion.

I plan to celebrate this book release day with a nap.

Julia's House Travel Schedule and Blog Tour

Friends! Julia's House for Lost Creatures will be released in less than one week! Somehow, even though I thought I was "Mr. Organized" this still managed to sneak up on me.

People have been saying some nice things about the book so far, and that's been encouraging (if you're into reading reviews you can find some here, here, here and here).

I was a little nervous about Julia's House at first. After all, picture books are a less forgiving format for storytelling than are graphic novels. A picture book is shorter, for one thing, and so every moment, every beat, has to count all the more. But I think the book will find its readers.

To help Julia's House on its way, I have put together a series of bonus illustrations for the book and the good people at Macmillan have helped to arrange a sort of online traveling bestiary. The idea is that between Sunday August 31st and Saturday September 6th you can visit the sites on the list, take a look at some of the bonus art, and read some of my thoughts about dragons and mermaids and goblins and the rest. Click on the banner below for links to the various sites:

I will also be attending several events in September, October and November. Here is a list, with links, of the places where you will be able to find me signing, drawing, speaking or high-fiving in the coming months:

* September 6th: Baltimore Comic-Con
* September 14th: Small Press Expo
* September 20th: Princeton Book Festival
* September 21st: Brooklyn Book Festival
* September 27th: Baltimore Book Festival. Speaking at 2:00 pm
* October 9th: Children's Book World
* October 11th: Odyssey Kids Books, 2:00pm event
* October 11th, McNally Jackson Books
* October 12th: New York Comic-Con!
* October 26th: Over the Moon, 3:00pm (I believe this one's a costume party).
* November 21st-23rd: Miami Book Fair

Julia's House Winners (and a very silly comic)

Okay! It's finally time to announce the winners of our Julia's House for Lost Creatures giveaway! I had hoped to post this earlier in the day but someone here at House Hatke forgot to pay the internet bill.

And, for this announcement, I present unto you a very silly comic:

And there you have it! Winners, contact me by email using the address on my side bar. Send me a mailing address and I will send you your book as promptly as I can.

And now... I am back to coloring Little Robot.

Jolly Raffle Giveaway Contest: Julia's House for Lost Creatures!

One of the coolest things about writing and drawing books is the part where a box of shiny new author copies shows up at your door. And yesterday was the day that copies of Julia's House for Lost Creatures arrived here at House Hatke.

I know I've said it before, but I'm really happy with how this book turned out.

The official release date (September 2nd) is still over a month off, but I'm going to give away two copies now, along with a bit of original art!

Regular readers of this blog, you know the drill. But for the sake of the newcomers, HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

To enter the drawing all you need to do is leave a comment in the comments section of this post. Remember to leave your name, or some internet handle that I can announce. You can increase your chance of winning by helping me spread the word about this new book (Julia's House is, after all, only one little book in a great sea of literature). Mentioning the book, linking to benhatke.com, or otherwise spreading the word via social media (twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Google+, blogs, tumblers or any of the other myriad of options) this is worth TWO EXTRA ENTRIES. Feel free to tag me on twitter where I am @BenHatke.

And that's it!

The FIRST person whose name I draw will receive a signed copy of Julia's House along with a little piece of concept art from the making of the book.

The SECOND person whose name I draw will also receive a signed copy of Julia's House, along with a little original sketch or bit of art.

The contest closes ONE WEEK FROM TODAY. And we're off to the races!

PS: Look at my desk. It's atrocious:

Tail End of Touring

A Tired Author checks in:

Yesterday I arrived in New York for the last few stops here at the tail end of my First-Ever-Book-Tour. And, as is my habit when I come to this crazy magical city, the first thing I did was wander up to the Flatiron building to see my friends at First Second. There was something waiting there for me...

It was my first it's-a-real-book copy of Julia's House! I was very happy with how it looked all printed n' bound (like jumping up and down happy). Here's a little peek:

Now I'm sitting in a friends house in Brooklyn, in one of those rare quiet moments, and I'm thinking about how I've never traveled to so many places in so short a time as I have in this passing month of May. 

I'm struggling to come up with something to say that can tie the whole experience together -the bookstores, the libraries, the meals and evening conversations with friends in different cities. The airports, the hotels, the taxis, the subways...  

Maybe it's the idea that the most interesting and romantic parts of our lives also tend to be the most exhausting. After all, "adventures aren't all pony rides in May sunshine."

But I'll be headed home shortly, and I have a shady little farmhouse porch waiting for me:

(image from Anna's Instagram).

My House and Julia's House

This weekend I slipped outside with my notebook and made a little drawing of my house. Here's a photo of the drawing, followed by a scan with a few small corrections made in photoshop (you can get larger versions of both by clicking):

Working on this little sketch reminded me how fun it can be to just go outside and draw the place where you live. It's easy to forget about outside drawing when you've been hibernating, and here on this suddenly snowy Saint Patrick's Day it's a little hard to believe that I was sitting in a sunny field with my sketchbook just the other day.

And to continue this house-themed post: I noticed recently that Julia's House for Lost Creatures is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Here's another look at the cover of the book (it showed up on Geek Dad back in January, but I don't think I've yet posted it here):

(You can compare it with my original cover sketch).

Finally, since winter seems particularly reluctant to leave us in peace this year, I have for you a little desktop wallpaper made by my friend Niall, combining my peacock-in-a-scarf with an appropriate Steinbeck quote (click for the large version):

Oh! and for those of you who like Goodreads, I've added links to my books on the sidebar. Goodreads is great for reviews and recommendations and has links to different online purchase options. Not just Amazon.

Julia's House

It is a very cold day and the year is young. 2014 is stretching out ahead of us all.

Summer is coming...

---

For me 2014 is shaping up to be a very busy and exciting year, and that's just considering the stuff I know about (every year is full of surprises, isn't it? Some wonderful and some terrible). I'm currently working on a brand new graphic novel, which is a lot of fun and which I will post more about later.

I also have two books being released this year. The first is The Return of Zita the Spacegirl, which is coming out in May, and the second is a picture book called Julia's House for Lost Creatures, which will be released in October.

I am Very Excited about Julia's House.

The website Geek Dad has posted the cover, book announcement and a bit about the story and what went into the writing of it. Here is the link for that:

http://geekdad.com/2014/01/julias-house-lost-creatures

In the meantime I thought I'd post a bit of concept art here. I did a lot of concept art and sketches while developing this book. Here is just a bit of it through which you can see the development of the main character:

Robot Comic #25

He’s back!

And a happy Easter to all.

Last week I finished and sent in all the art for Julia’s House, my picture book. This was the first time I’ve sent an entire book’s worth of original art through the mail, and I found myself unexpectedly anxious about leaving the package in the hands of the nice UPS lady.

The Zita books were sent in digitally, you see, so I always had backup files on my computer. The art for Julia’s House was a series of watercolor illustrations that were too big for my scanner to handle.

I was so anxious the pictures that when I got home from the UPS office I called and had them hold the package while I considered getting bus tickets and delivering the art myself. Fun as it could have been, I couldn’t make an out-of-town trip this week.

So off they go.

Now I’m cleaning up my little studio/office while I’m between big projects, and I’ve started putting a bunch of original art up for sale in my House Hatke Etsy Shop. There’s plenty to look at over there, including today’s Robot Comic, and a few other Robot Comics that had never made it over to the shop.

I also have a few signed-and-drawn-in copies of Zita the Spacegirl and Legends of Zita which you can find here, AND I’ve significantly lowered the price for character commissions -just for this week. Take a look.

And for those of you who love sketchbook pages, here’s how today’s comic looked in my moleskine:

As tradition dictates: GO GO ROBOT NEWSPAPER FORMAT!

Knee Deep in Picture Books

The picture book is a curious beast.

I’ve been working hard these past weeks on the illustrations for Julia’s House. They are big ink-and-watercolor pictures and making them gives me that “real artist” feeling that you only get from splashing around with pigments. (I can do some nice-looking work with my Cintiq, but that sense of danger is lost when you have an “undo” button).

Picture books are a unique and intimate blend of words and pictures. (So are graphic novels, but they are a different blend). I thought I had Julia’s House written. But as I translate my scribbly, sometimes unintelligible sketches into finished artwork I’m surprised by how much more of the story is being told.

Here, then, are links to two short videos featuring masters of the craft talking about what they do:

First, the most excellent Helen Oxenbury and what the illustrator lends to the text. Guys, she has a fireplace in her studio!

Second, this cool guy Oliver Jeffers, and a video that features his cool studio, his cool hair and cool motorcycle and cool way of hunting sandwiches. Sigh...

Finally here are some pictures and an odd mini robot comic. I’ve started the occasional creative warm up exercise of just starting tiny comics in my notebook without knowing what they are going to be. You draw a box and fill it with a picture. Then you draw another box...

desktop

A doodle of Julia from Julia’s House

inspiration outside my window.

Bright Ideas

Do you ever wonder where all your ideas wander off to? I do. I’m pretty sure most of my better ideas sneak off and have pizza parties and don’t invite me.

I’m working on a picture book these days. It’s called Julia’s House and it’s about a little girl who opens her house up to all the creatures that no one believes in. Dragons, fairies, mermaids, trolls ...and what happens when they all show up.

The story is written (kinda, sorta, mostly) and I’m now making the first tentative steps into the art. This one’s all ink and watercolor. Here’s a color test I did of Julia, the central character of this tale: