New Books, Studio Visits, and the Eisners

What a busy year it is! As I write this I am closing in on the last 30 Pages of Mighty Jack Book 2 (that's the best title I've got so far). I spent last week in Sicily visiting a school on the Sigonella Navy Base and when I returned the very first physical copies of Mighty Jack (book 1) were waiting on my desk. They look great! The paperback edition has spot gloss and fancy flaps! Here are a few pictures:

And here it is with Nobody Likes a Goblin:

Both books are available for preorder. Goblin releases on June 7th and Jack releases on September 6th. (I'll throw some permanent links up on the sidebar soon).

And so...

Last year my friends at Mirandum Pictures helped put together a little studio visit video for me. They were so patient with how much I wanted to cram into this video and even went so far as to climb up to a mountaintop for firebreathing. We totally got lost in the woods after dark on the way down. The video finally debuted over at Paste. You can follow that link or watch it here:

Finally on my list of things to mention today: Little Robot has been nominated for an Eisner Award! (Best publication for early readers). Remember, all industry professionals can vote here:

EISNER VOTING

Maybe you will vote for Little Robot? But I will be just as happy if you vote for my friend Liniers' lovely book Written and Drawn by Henrietta.

Swording Again

Yikes. I seem to have let this poor blog languish a bit. Kind of a lot has been happening...

I've been juggling several projects, finishing one book (Mighty Jack) and plowing into the next (Mighty Jack 2). I'm home from my West Coast tour and Little Robot is out in the world being read by kids and their adults too. At home we're stacking firewood and doing other chores to get this old farmhouse ready for winter. I'm finishing off a new studio space, which I'm hoping to move into next month. I'm living on dreams and schemes.

And I have another new project coming up that's unlike anything I've done before. I'll be posting something about that right before Halloween. Stay tuned.

I do have one thing I can share here and now, though. Back in May I mentioned that I had helped out in the filming of a sword fight for a book trailer. The trailer is part of a new company called Serial Box that serializes fiction for readers. It's cool. It's how Charles Dickens would have released his stories if he had the internet.

The trailer I was a part of was for a series called Tremontaine. Here it is:

Little Robot Contest Winners!

First and foremost I have to thank everyone who left such uplifting comments about my work. This was our biggest Jolly Giveaway yet! Thank you all, too, for spreading the word about Little Robot. It's a little book in a big world and every little signal boost makes a difference. Thank you all VERY MUCH.

Now on to the winners (drawn randomly thanks to the magic of random.org):

Our 3rd place winner, receiving a copy of Little Robot is:

AUTUMN ROOK!

Our 2nd place winner, receiving a copy of Little Robot AND a page of original concept art is:

ROWENA PARKS!

Our Awesome 1st place winner, receiving a copy of Little Robot AND an original page from the book is...

BREE A. MANAHAN!

Congratulations to the winners! Please send me an email (there's an email button on the sidebar) with an address for shipping.

Thanks again everyone!

Contest Update, Goodreads, and Zita

1. Contest Update: I failed to mention in the last post the length of the raffle! I will close down the comments on Tuesday, August 4th and post the winners names on Wednesday, August 5th. Keep an eye on the blog!

2. Goodreads: More chances to get a free copy of Little Robot! Goodreads is giving away 5 copies over on their website. Click here find out more.

3. Zita!: Oh, Zita the Spacegirl... I hadn't drawn her in awhile so I recently drew up this little model sheet. Gesture is one of the most important tools in visual storytelling, and little character sheets like this are great for nailing down just how a character moves and emotes (and how they crash into things):

That's all for now!

Jolly Raffle Giveaway Contest: Little Robot!

It's contest time again, my friends!

We are roughly a months away from the release of my graphic novel Little Robot, my little love letter to summer and friendship and robots and makers. And, while I have exactly zero copies of Little Robot here on my desk, I can assure you that there are big piles of the book littering the offices of First Second. Have a look:

And so, in celebration, I am hosting a drawing to give away THREE COPIES of Little Robot along with some ORIGINAL ART from the book. To enter the drawing all you need to do is leave a comment in the comments section of this post. So simple! (do remember to leave your name, or some internet handle that I can announce. Anonymous can't win).

As with my previous giveaways, you can increase your chance of winning by spreading the word about Little Robot. Mentioning the book on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Tumblr, your own blog or other social media gains you TWO EXTRA ENTRIES. Let me know in your comment if and how you've spread the word!

AAAANNNND... that's all there is to it.

The FIRST jolly person whose name I draw will receive an advance copy of Little Robot, straight from the publisher, and an ORIGINAL PAGE from the book.

The SECOND person whose name I draw will receive an advance copy of Little Robot and a piece of concept art from my Little Robot sketchbook.

The THIRD person will receive an advance copy of the book.

One last thing: Due to the fact that I am away from my regular studio this summer, the books and the art will arrive separately, with the art arriving a little later. I will not be able to send out the original art until the week of September 14th.

Ready?

GO!

Ida Penthea

Something kind of big has happened since I last blogged. The Hatkes have welcomed a new member into their ranks. My girls have a new sister to fawn over, and to draw into their adventures. She is Ida Penthea, fifthborn of the Hatke Clan.

Here are a few sketches:

(for baby photos try Anna's Instagram)

And here are some other recent odds and ends which have mostly been posted already on Tumblr and Twitter:

Still here? Good. I've been thinking about this year, and about last year. 2014 was a very exciting and very public year for me. I had two books released (Legends of Zita and Julia's House). I went to a lot of festivals and conventions. I got to meet hundreds of people. My French publisher invited me to Angouleme. I managed to turn in a graphic novel (Little Robot). We became the owners of the old farmhouse we'd been renting for 4 years, and we found out that we were expecting a baby...

I knew this year was going to be different. Last year was a year of adventure; this is a year of work. Little Ida was born and I'll be traveling a lot less. Little Robot comes out on September first and until then I plan to have my head down here at home, working on the next graphic novel.

But I'm going to try to post more often around here. There's a whole spate of new projects that are going to be announced during Children's Book Week in May, which is exciting. And I'll post other stuff here in the meantime.

For now, here's Wonder Woman:

Sent from my iPad

New Year, New Studio

New Year, New Studio.

It's 2015. And as the world clamors to weigh in on the year's first tragedy, one that hits a particular place with me, I find myself wanting to be quiet about it. I have nothing to add but tears. Instead I will be talking here about more mundane things. If that's a balm or an interest for you then read on:

. . .

I had hoped to do a year-end wrap-up post, with a comic (I wanted to draw my 2014 Valkyrie one last time), but this old farmhouse got the better of me. I ended up spending my holidays renovating one of our upstairs rooms and turning it into a new studio. Until this last week I’ve been working out of the corner of the bedroom, but I’d outgrown that space and my work items had been bleeding out into places they didn't belong.

There are still a few finishing touches to be done, and I'm still waiting on my new chalkboard to arrive, but the space is mostly finished and my big wall calendar is up so that I can get a nice visualization of how the year is already slipping from my grasp.

Here are some before-during-and-after pictures:

The room started out with dark paneling, that was warped and generally yucky. It also sucked up light:

Underneath the paneling was old peeling wallpaper:

Here's me scraping away. I am crying on the inside:

Wallpaper is a mess:

Once the paper came off things started looking better and it was time to patch the old plaster walls. The paneling, it seems, was put up to avoid this job. Why fix something when you can just cover it up? Here I am patching plaster and answering little questions at the same time:

While the wall patches were drying I went out to flea markets looking for an old adjustable arm desk lamp. I didn't find one, but I did come back with a cool mirror:

Sanding the walls was a dusty business. At one point I was convinced that I had spread a dust cloud to every other room in the house until Anna explained that it was just a film of dust on my glasses:

Finally it was mopping and cleaning and laying down drop clothes and painting walls and trim. toward the end I used my 2014 calendar for a drop cloth:

Then I moved in!

And now I'm knee-deep in watercolor illustrations for my next book -the book that will come out after Little Robot. It has goblins. I am very excited.

There's so much to do.

--Ben

P.S. OH! I almost for got to add: I've posted this all over FB and Twitter, but if you want a look at the cover of Little Robot or if you are interested in reading my answers to some questions about the book, then head over to the LA TImes Hero Complex RIGHT HERE.