OF MIGHTY CABBAGES AND GOBLIN KINGS

Hello friends!

As you may know, my most recent book, Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, was released earlier this month. Once again I'm going on a short journey, crisscrossing North America to meet readers and sign books. This time, at most of the events, I will be "in conversation" with another author/artist. This will almost without a doubt make these evening bookstore events much, much more lively and interesting.

I've made a graphical poster image for the tour (posted below) with most of the pertinent information. Underneath that I will post links to the various venues.

I really would love to meet as many of you as possible. Tossing stories out into the wide world is great, but meeting readers in person is a particular and powerful magic.

And so, without further preamble, I give you:

Green Bean Books

University Bookstore

Once Upon a Time

The King's English

Red Balloon

The Eric Carle Museum

Toronto Public Library

McNally Robinson

CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Hi everybody. Today, as promised, I have the MIGHTY JACK AND THE GOBLIN KING Jolly Raffle Giveaway Contest winners to announce. As always, thanks to random.org for offering “true randomness” in choosing the winners.

And as always, we’ll announce the winners with a weird, hastily-thrown-together comic:

And there we go! Winners! Get in touch with me via my email address on the sidebar and I’ll send those books on their merry way.

And feel free to keep checking back here! I’m planning to give this blog some long overdue attention in the coming weeks.

Jolly Raffle Giveaway Contest: MIGHTY JACK AND THE GOBLIN KING!

Hello friends! You know what we haven’t done in awhile? A Jolly Raffle Giveaway Contest. Remember those? We used to do them all the time!

That was back when I still updated this blog. Those were good times.

Sigh…

Well... okay, look, I may be an inconstant blogger, but I can still bark like a circus ringmaster. And I can sure as hell run a Jolly Raffle Giveaway Contest. Yeah, I can still do that. Ready? LET’S GO!

That’s right! Step on up! I have two, count ‘em, TWO big copies of MIGHTY JACK AND THE GOBLIN KING sitting right here on my desk. This book releases to the public on SEPTEMBER 5th, but one of you (yes you!) lucky readers could bring the tome home early. Don’t be shy! Just take a look-see at these gorgeous books:

That’s right readers! One of these books is a sturdy hardcover and the other is a shiny French-flapped paperback. Both are up for grabs. But that’s not all!

If you (yes you!) are the lucky winner of the hardcover, you will also bring home an original page from the book! Just take a look:

And if you find yourself the winner of the shiny French-flapped paperback you will also find yourself the proud owner of a brand new copy of the Memory Dragon Matching game!

And, as always, entering to win is RIDICULOUSLY EASY! All you need to do is leave a comment in the comments section of this post. It’s so simple! (do remember to leave your name, or some internet handle that I can announce. “Anonymous” entries are ineligible).

As with my previous giveaways, you can increase your chance of winning by spreading the word about this new book. Mentioning MIGHTY JACK AND THE GOBLIN KING on Twitter, Instagram, 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! (Tagging helps too. I am @BenHatke on twitter and @heybenhatke on Instagram.)

THIS CONTEST ENDS ON FRIDAY, JULY 14th. (one week from today).

GOOD LUCK!

Spirit of Spring

Hello friends! Just a quick note to tell you all that, despite five months without posting, this blog has not ended. It's been hard to keep up with though, for sure, and it definitely needs an update. Most of my creative side projects and daily updates are ending up on other social media these days (Instagram mer-folk anyone?), but this is still the best place for book announcements, tour announcements and roundups of my work.

And speaking of book announcements I should remind everyone that my next book, Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, will be out on September 5th! There is a very exciting tour shaping up around this book, which looks to have me traveling far and wide in late September, so stay tuned for more on that.

In the meantime, I'll try to stop neglecting this poor little blog.

-Ben

TOURING COMICS AND ETSY

Okay, business first: I have REOPENED MY ETSY SHOP. I have a limited supply of PRINTS and ORIGINAL ART. If you're interested in such things then please, by all means, follow this link and poke around.

And now on to the fun stuff: 

So I spent the golden closing week of September, and the first couple days of October traveling through the South and the Midwest, visiting schools and bookstores and libraries. It was a little book tour for _Mighty Jack_.  Touring is intense. Sometimes you feel like a traveling salesman, peddling tired stories to people who could care less, other times you feel like you really are sharing something of yourself with real people who are thrilled to see you.

As with all tours, there were highs and lows. There were moments of magic and real kindness, and times of exhaustion. Old friends (and one old high school teacher!) showed up to my events. I even got to travel with my dad for a leg of the journey and stop in, all-too-briefly at my parent's house.

I've done book tours before, but this time I tried to squeeze in some tiny comics to chronicle the journey. These were drawn in spare moments, on airport floors, hotel desks, in planes and coffee shops. 

Here are my On the Road Comics: 

This next one is one of my examples of gesture drawing for students

This next one was drawn ialong with my friend Andy Runton:

Mighty Jack Tour

Hey friends! Here is a list of some of the places I can be found in the coming weeks. Will I see any of you? Let me know!

Double Day: Mighty Jack and Missy PW

Well today kind of snuck up on me. It's the official release day for my new book, MIGHTY JACK. Here's what you need to know about MIGHTY JACK:

1. It's a graphic novel! (Or whatever we call comic books these days). It's a modern kinda-sorta retelling of the Jack and the Beanstalk story featuring a boy named Jack, his little sister Maddy, and a wild homeschooled girl from down the road named Lilly. The three kids plant a whole gardens worth of strange seeds from a local flea market, and the plants that rise up from the seeds are clearly not from this world. Adventures ensue.

2. It's only the first part of a two-book story! I feel it's very important to warn you, my readers, that this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Or, at least, it ends on an unresolved dramatic moment. which is, okay, the same thing as a cliffhanger. The second book (which is almost finished!) will be out next year at this time.

3. I had colorist for this book! The beautiful colors in this book were accomplished by Alex Campbell and Hilary Sycamore. They did a beautiful job.

4. You can get this book in bookstores and all over the Internet! Here are a few links: Indigo, Barnes&Noble, Amazon.

5. I will be doing a 10-day tour for this book covering much of the South and the Midwest. I will post more about that soon.

6. Here's a short video of me flipping through the book (the song in the background is Little Boxes, performed by my sister Annie):

Untitled from Ben Hatke on Vimeo.

Is that all the news? NO THAT IS NOT ALL THE NEWS.

As it turns out there is a SECOND BOOK that I was involved in which is also releasing today. That book is Missy Piggle-Wiggle, by Ann M. Martin. It Continues the stories of the original Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series, but instead follows the exploits of Mrs. P-W's young niece, Missy. The book has illustrations by me. They were very fun to create. And Like Mighty Jack you can find it in stores and online.

Is that all the news? YES FOR TODAY THAT IS ALL THE NEWS, BUT THERE IS MORE COMING.

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.