Yuletide Vignette

Sweet Circus Dreams

A little corner of my mind lives forever in this particular dreamspace. 

All that and a bucket of inspiration. 

More Praise for Used Books

Tony has been reading a lot of Terry Pratchett, and so when he suggested that I would particularly enjoy Small Gods of course I picked up a copy. Because Tony knows. 

I looked at Blue Plate Books first, but their Pratchett selection was startlingly lean. So I moved on to Thriftbooks.com and only a few days later a little green package showed up in my PO box. It gave me that special PO Box thrill. I'm always thrilled when things show up in my PO box, even if they are things that I specifically ordered in a state of absolute sobriety.  

See, the thing I love about buying used books is that sometimes you get *extra stories*. Not always, but sometimes. Every so often a pre-owned book offers you such a tantalizing snippet from another person's life that you're taken off guard. It’s the wonder of a sudden intimate look into lives that will never, ever intersect with yours. The world gets a little bigger and a little smaller at the same time.

Here’s the inscription I found on the title page of my copy of Small Gods:

I will always wonder about Jason. And about Jason. And about sweet Tasha (that intelligent, zany nut). Did Jason-2 and Tasha stay together? Was Jason-Prime a previous boyfriend? Is that what it means to be elite? To have dated Tasha? Where are they now?

I'll almost certainly never know. But I like to imagine that all four of us (Jason, Jason, Tasha, and me) all share a love for Terry Pratchett. Just like Tony. 

<slaps knee repetitively>

Best of luck and lots of love,

--Ben

A Video that Helped

 The months immediately following Ida’s death are a bit of a blur. It’s hard for me to remember what happened when. But there were two very important things that happened with work. First, my publisher seemed to sort of fast-track an agreement for a third Julia’s House story (the one that would become Julia’s House Goes Home). Second, my friends Zack and Jerzy swooped in and, with some help from Colin and Rose and a few other friends, wrapped me up in the project of making a short music video, with puppets, to the tune of a nearly forgotten Halloween song called “The Mummy’s Ball.”

There came a moment when I needed to work, and I needed to just lose myself in creating something, to keep from falling beneath the waves. And my friends seemed to know that. They seemed to know it was time to just make a little magic with cardboard and markers and cheap craft supplies. 

The Mummy’s Ball was made so quickly, and with the help of such dear friends, that I didn’t even have time to feel guilty and horrible for doing something resembling fun. 

That’s why this video will always and forever be tremendously special to me: 

The Mummy's Ball - Spooky Halloween Music Video (with puppets!) from Mirandum Pictures on Vimeo.

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:

Swords and Arrows and Fire

Spring is drifting toward Summer here in Hatkeland, and I've been having some fun adventures.

A couple weeks ago I helped my friends at Mirandum Pictures with a shoot that involved a sword fight. I'm honestly not much of a swordsman, but it was pretty simple stuff. And what's more fun than dressing up an clashing blades in a fancy garden? As a bonus I think we're going to use the picture below as the author photo for Nobody Likes a Goblin.

Another thing that comes with spring is arrows. Back in my SCA days my dad would take my sisters and me out to my grandpa's farm where we'd practice archery using some stacked straw bales as a target. Now I have some straw bales of my own and I'm teaching my girls how to handle a bow. Here's Zita and Angelica:

And here's Julia:

I've also been doing some of my own Arrow-speriments. Including:

Punching Ball Arrow:

and Exploding Arrow:

And finally, this past weekend I was able to fulfill a long-time dream of mine: fire breathing at the top of Buzzard Rock. The Rock is a mountain ridge in the George Washington National Forest that comes to a rocky, blade-like point. I've climbed up there many times, searching for wisdom or just a nice view, but I've always wanted to be up there after the sun set, spitting fire into the twilight. Now, thanks to some very patient friends, I can cross that off my list (photo by Colin Mason):

That said, the hike was rough. Three grown men and not a one of us remembered to bring water. We started late and so had to book through the whole hike to catch the very last gasps of daylight. We hiked down with a single flashlight to save us from being utterly lost in the pitch black woods. At least we didn't run across any bears.

Welcome back Summer. I missed you.

Little Robot and Children's Book Week

It's Children's Book Week, and I am all over the internet!

First off, it's always an exciting day when I receive my first real, physical copy of one of my books and that happened last week when Little Robot arrived in the mail! I was so excited opening the envelope that my hands were shaking. This is the first book I've had produced at this trim size and I've very happy with it. Here are some pictures:

There are more pictures of the book over on the First Second website RIGHT HERE.

And speaking of Little Robot, I made a new Little Robot strip for the Washington Post to celebrate Free Comic Book Day (which was on Saturday). Here's the comic:

(click to embiggerize).

It ran in the Post with a nice little interview in which I talked about the art and influences for the book. You can read all that over by CLICKING HERE.

On Sunday Boing Boing ran a short article I wrote about kids comics. I don't know if I said anything groundbreaking about comics for kids, but I did post a list of comics that I think are great for summer reading. Check out the Boing Boing piece by CLICKING IT UP HERE.

And finally (for now), there is a short piece over at Sharp Read about my next picture book. This book is about a Goblin. You can see some concept art read a little bit about where that book came from HERE. I'm sure I'll be posting more about this one in the coming months.

And there's more to come. I have a couple more book announcements coming up this week as well as a look into my Little Robot sketchbooks. So much is happening! Stay tuned.

And as always, to everyone reading, thanks for following my work.

Missed Events and Whispers of a Short Film

I apologize to anyone who missed seeing me this last weekend at either the Princeton Book Festival or the Baltimore Book Festival. I seem to have run myself into the ground a bit.

The past few weeks have been crowded. A road trip to Indiana to visit my family was followed by the Baltimore Comic Con, which was followed by a whirlwind 3 days of shooting a short film (more on that in a bit), which was followed by SPX. I missed the first day of SPX to something like food poisoning, but I pulled myself together for the second day (and what a second day it was. It reminded me just how nice a show is SPX). After SPX we had some awesome guests for a few days and then I had a day of school visits and car trouble.

Then I just couldn't get out of bed.

The little cough I'd been trying to ignore finally blossomed into Something Terrible and I have nothing but gratitude for the dead car battery that kept me from going to New York this weekend. And now, thanks to a nice doctor and a round of antibiotics, I am just starting to feel like me again. I've made promises to rest a lot this week. Because this weekend is the beautiful Baltimore Book Festival. I'll be speaking there at 2pm (info here) and probably doing a reading of Julia's House for Lost Creatures.

But what's this about a short film? I hear you asking. Well...

My friends over at Mirandum Pictures have been putting together a series of scary shorts for Halloween. I helped them with a couple of the shorts and then, somehow ...I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I found myself writing my own short. And then I found myself directing the short.

It's a small thing, only a touch over 3 minutes long, but it was an absolute blast to make. As you'd expect it leans heavily toward fantasy, and I hope it catches the flavor of Halloween. I ought to be able to share it here in early November so stay tuned for that. But for now here's the title treatment and a production still:

Snowy Travels, New York and Angoulême

Time to answer a reader question:

–––
Blogger Clare says...
What happened to Mr. Hatke?
–––

Well, Clare, it's been a busy couple of weeks since my last blog entry. I've finished a set of illustrations for an edition of G.K. Chesterton's The Ball and the Cross (still, I think, my favorite of his crazy novels), and I've been hard at work on my next, Not-Yet-Announced graphic novel (it's very exciting and I'll be able to talk about it soon, I promise!). I've also spent a lot of time working with my friends at Mirandum Pictures on the book trailer for Zita 3. Book trailers are a funny phenomenon... But this one came out wonderfully,thanks some very talented people, and it will be online very soon.

Last week I made a trip up to New York for an actual in-person meeting with my publishers, the good people at Macmillan. The snow storm turned a one-day trip into a magical two-day adventure. There was a moment after sundown when I was walking down the snowy, take-your-breath-away cold streets of Brooklyn toward a friends apartment when I stopped to push a car out of a snowbank. And as the car crawled away on the unplowed street, I walked on, thinking about how how weather brings people together.

Oh, and this arrived yesterday! It's a really real thing now:

And finally here I sit, surrounded by half-packed bags as I get ready to go to Angoulême. I've been studying French furiously and, I'm afraid, to very little effect. Quelle tristesse!

So if France and beautiful comics are your thing, stay tuned for my Angoulême report! There will be pictures. Oh, there will be pictures...

2014!

Shrinky Dink Comics

One of the most popular gifts in the Little Hatke House this year was a couple of packages of blank shrinky dink paper.

Shrinky Dinks, as it ways on the wikipedia page, "are a children's toy and activity kit consisting of large flexible sheets which, when heated in an oven, shrink to small hard plates without altering their color or shape. They reached the height of their popularity in the 1980s. Most sets are pre-printed with outline images of popular children's characters or other subjects, which are then colored in before baking."

I remember coloring in and baking Smurf-themed Shrinky Dinks, but to sell the blank sheets for drawing and crafting is pretty genius. The girls were kind enough to spare a sheet for me and so I filled it with boxes of unrelated drawings that you can rearrange into various tiny comics. So here are a few of my Shrinky Dink Comics. (I can't promise that any of these make a lot of sense):

Spacegirl Breakfast

"Zappadooya!" This video was made by the talented Ella Jenkins for a school book project. I couldn't not share it.

I have Robot Comic number 30 coming up, as well as a new addition to my re-imagined Justice League Universe but those things have ended up not being quite ready for posting this week.

Whatever Happened to Ben Hatke?

I’m still here! I just got buried under a pile of freelance work, last minute book edits, and and life happenings.

I love this blog. This is where I put all my experiments -my journal comics, the flash commissions sales, stories like the Bread Wife, peeks into my studio and other random ephemera. I like sharing more immediate comics/stories/art and hearing back from readers and friends without the 1-year-plus wait that comes with book publishing. So I always get a little antsy when I fall behind in posting the bits and pieces that go here.

Unfortunately for the past few weeks I've been in a sort of perfect storm of Non-Blogging, due to some freelance projects, last minute book edits, computer equipment failures, and a lot of LIFE. October has been a crazy month.

All I have to share with you today are these pictures of a Spider that the girls found. But look! She’s all ready for Halloween! How adorable.

Oh, and I guess I also have these pictures that I sent to my publisher as jacket photos for my picture book that will be coming out next fall. (Next fall! How can I wait so long to share this book with you guys?). Credit for these pictures goes to my pal Colin Mason. Guy knows what's what with a camera:

Sadly these pictures do not paint a fair representation of what my life has been like this month...

HOWEVER! we should have the first look at the cover of ZITA 3 on the 29th, and shortly after that I will be doing a BIG POST HALLOWEEN POST FULL OF ZITA COSTUMES! Remember, if you (or someone you know) dress up as Zita for Halloween send me a picture and I'll include it in the online Spacegirl Parade...

Burning Ring of Fire

Today, because I'm a little behind on art and comics, I thought I'd post a collection of highlights from my little Independence Day fire show. If you've ever heard me mention my hobby of breathing fire and spinning poi and wondered what that was all about, this video will give you a pretty good idea.

This was filmed edited by Jacob Schmiedicke. Thanks Jake! I wouldn't have anything to post today without you.

Of course this was only the prelude to an excellent and enormous fireworks display by Michael Schmiedicke of the Strong Oaks Woodshop.

Kids Read Comics

This past weekend I participated in Dave Roman’s Comics Quickfire Challenge at the Kids Read Comics celebration in Ann Arbor.

In this event there are two teams of cartoonists. Each team is lead by a kid chosen from the audience and the teams compete to draw the ultimate four panel comic. Each panel must be drawn in under 60 second and the topics are determined by the audience. My teams comic was “The Bunny Apocalypse” and I was chosen to draw the third panel, “the twist.”

Now, by panel two there had already been a massive explosion in bunny world and the “twist” that an audience member suggested was the arrival of a “hare dresser” to save the blown-up bunnies.

And so, in the space of an instant, Max Hold (Hare Dresser, though he prefers the term “stylist”), was born. Wielding his magic, oversized comb, and wearing his rabbit ears that warn him of danger, he runs to save all rabbits from their impending doom. Or something like that. For this picture I gave him a sidekick named “Cool Hare” and I experimented with zipatone patterns in Photoshop.

Also at KRC, i was given THIS FANTASTIC ZITA FAN ART from artist Joshua Buchanan!

Huzzah! More to come.

The Bread Wife, Part 2

For those who missed part one of this short tale, click here. And now let’s pick up where we left off. At only 3 pages, this will be the shortest of our four parts:

There are several sources of inspiration for this little mini-story. A couple people have already mentioned the legendary movie, Kiki’s Delivery Service, but that’s a topic for another post. Today I want to mention how much I love old mills.

The millers mill, as seen in the first illustration (in part 1), is based off the Burwell-Morgan Mill in the little town of Millwood, Virginia. It’s a beautiful stone mill building that was restored through the help of a twice-yearly art show. (I participated one year, though I failed to sell even one painting). It’s a magical place, and wonderful for sketching. The most amazing thing of all is to go into the mill and look at the enormous wheel and complicated, interconnecting gears. All the parts are made of wood and leather. A machine like that, run by water, is incredibly powerful and unsettlingly quiet. It demands respect.

The Burwell-Morgan Mill still grinds grain on weekends. My wife, Anna, has taken wheat there for grinding. It's not just a great homeschool adventure, but a good way to get stone ground flour.

If you look closely at the illustration of the miller mixing the dough, you’ll see I went ahead and gave him the family name of Clarke. Because the Burwell-Morgan mill is in Clarke county and because just recently I found this:

Which sure seems to fit our story.

The Bread Wife, Part 1

This is an experiment.

I’ve been scribbling and doodling a short story in my notebook lately, based on an idea that’s been kicking around upstairs for over a year now. It’s called “The Bread Wife” and I’m going to post it here on the blog in four parts.

I’m not sure if this is the best way to present a story like this. It might be obnoxious to read a story this length broken into little four or five page snippets. Or maybe it’ll work great. I guess we’re going to find out. Feel free to post feedback in the comments.

Now I could ramble on about how this story probably needs more editing that I had time to give it, or about how I’m not sure if I should be drawing the characters or leaving them up to your imaginations (I finally chose to draw them), but instead let’s just jump right in.

Here’s part 1 of The Bread Wife: