Pilgrimage

 

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Morning Lines

Sort of. But not exactly. 

The Promise is the Work II

 

Two years. 

Sometimes you carry on with the work, and it’s a struggle, and then sometimes you realize the work is carrying you. 

The image above is from one of the notebooks I started filling after Ida’s death. There’s a lot in those books. A lot of words and a lot of pictures and most of it is stuff no one will ever see (at least not while I’m still kicking around). 

Or is it?

It’s not lost on me that the book I’m currently working on is an underworld journey. It’s the story of boy with a candle going deeper and deeper into the into the dark, and of what he finds there. It’s a story of ghosts and shadows. It’s about lost things and moving on. 

It’s not the story from my grief journal, not even close, but there are certainly pieces of shared imagery.

Here’s the secret: my published work, my shared work—it’s really only the tip of the iceberg. Most of what I scribble down is just for me. Just because. Because it’s a habit. Because it’s my way of thinking. Because I have pens and pencils and blank pages to fill.

And it brings me peace. Not complete peace, never that. 

But maybe as much as anyone has any right to hope for. 

Cold Spring Days and Picture Book Ways

It is mid-May, and far more blustery and cold than is normal. But then, this year is far from the usual isn’t it?

I have a picture book on my desk right now. It’s the third (and I think final) Julia book. Who makes a trilogy of picture books? When I made the first Julia book I never would have thought I’d find myself writing a third. But I like Julia and and the very odd world she lives in. Here’s a picture of my desk:

Every project is different. I want to stress that. But, I have found that a good working method for picture books, because of their compressed and very confined parameters, is to print all the page spreads (nineteen spreads for two signatures with pasted-down ends) and lay them out on my desk in such a way that I can see the entire book at a glance. I can switch things out, move things around. I can, in the better moments, hold the whole book in my mind in the space of a moment.

Picture books are deceptive. Like a good magic trick you want your book to come off looking effortless and breezy and simple. But at the same time you want to pack as much story as you possibly can into a scant 36 pages. It’s infuriating. And wonderful.

In other news—here is one more illustration of the Fox and the Minstrel:

This one was a commission. I can’t seem to get enough of these two. I think about Renyard so much these days.

Finally, here’s a tiny comic about football. I got a lot of good out of sports (particularly wresting, gymnastics, and pole vaulting) but in those very early days of football I mostly remember not having much of an idea of what was going on.

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

I Should Apologize in Advance for This One

This Comic is Backwards, But I'm Posting it Anyway

Oh this poor comic! I got about halfway though it before I realized I had it all backwards. What seems to work better is that FIRST you bleed your heart out onto a page (or whatever medium you're working in) and THEN you use your brain to clean everything up and make it legible. 

Still I think the sentiment is right. It's not always like this. Sometimes making stuff is a joy from start to finish. But other times the worry creeps in. 

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:

A True Story, Mostly

Journal Comics have become a rare thing around these parts. Here's one:

A Little Creaky But Not Too Brittle

Home Again and the NYT List

So I'm home from my travels, and The Return of Zita the Spacegirl has, for this week at least, hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. (keep in mind, the list is broken down into sections so Zita is number 1 in "paperback graphic books" and is not competing against, say, 50 Divergent Shades of Game of Thrones. Still, it's not every day that an 11-year-old spacegirl bumps Batman out of her way).

Also, here's a link to a pretty lengthy interview I did in Toronto over a plate of poutine. It's funny to see a transcript of an interview that I did in person, and when I read this I thought "do i really pinball around from subject to subject like that?"

Still, we were eating french fries smothered in brown gravy and cheese curds, so you can't blame me for being a little excited...

Jolly Winners and Troublesome Robots

It's been busy around here. Super busy. The Hatke House has been caught up in all kinds of organizational, bureaucratic grown-uppy stuff that's left me with very little time for making all the fun extra stuff, the journal comics, the short stories, the paintings and sketches of the people I love. The other day I realized that it's been over a year since I picked up my oil painting brushes.

It's a small tragedy because all that extra stuff, the art that comes out when I just mess around, that's mostly where the best work originates. The book I'm working on now, Little Robot, began life as a series of comics that were nearly stream-of-consciousness. Just me fooling around with some ideas in the spare moments. Now it's one of my favorite projects I've ever worked on.

All of this is a long preamble to saying that when I sat down to work today I thought "maybe I should announce the raffle winners with a comic." Then I thought "no I can't take the time." Then I stopped thinking and just got out some paper and pens.

I'm glad I did...

Congratulations to our winners!

Just send an email my way (address is on the sidebar), send me a mailing address and sit back and watch your mailbox for books and art!

--Ben