Jane’s World Blog-o-rama

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did at the Jane’s World book release party this past weekend. Thanks to the Museum staff who generously donated their time on a Saturday night (especially Jackie who went as far as to go personally pick up sound equipment and unload it herself! Definitely above and beyond the call of duty for an accountant!) Thanks to Gina for taking good care of the band and to Karen Johnson (museum director) for picking up those festive flip flop napkins and all those GREAT cookies. Also, Becci Pell who kept track of the RSVP list for the party. A big thank you goes out to Lagunitas Brewing Company (in Petaluma) and Mesa Beverage Co (a local distributor) and to Thanksgiving Coffee Company for making the party a big beverage success. And the BIGGEST thank you to Jean Schulz for making it possible for Girlyman to play at this event.

Girlyman rocked Charlie Brown and Lucy’s little four-paneled world during the party at the Schulz Museum. They were very gracious to perform in what is sort of a non-conventional venue, but they sounded incredible. The crowd was having a good time… front and center here, my pals Jules (who flew in from Chicago for the party) and Danielle and at the far right, Holly from Thanksgiving Coffee Company. We hat a great group… close to 200 for attendance… the biggest group the museum has ever had at one time for an event.

Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine (aka: Shallow Breast Guy) introduced me before my talk, calling me “an underhanded, shameless little line-stealing profiteer squirrel.” His intro was great… I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes when I got up to deliver my slide show. Nothing like a friendly little “roast” to soothe the nerves before a presentation! We plan to auction this one-of-a-kind t-shirt to benefit one of the local charities. (details to follow in a day or two).

The highlight for me personally was the Girlyman concert. I’m in love with their music. My pal, Kate snapped this shot of my girlfriend Erica and me (the giddy one) not even able to hide how excited I was to have the band play at the party.

And then finally, the “after hours” rocker shot with the band. All in all it was the perfect night. Thanks to all my friends who showed up to share in the fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Nate, Ty and Doris… you’re the best!

I think if I had a first born, I would now owe that first born to Roberta Gregory for such a great review of Jane’s World Vol. 8 on the Prism Comics site. Roberta, you’re the best!

I have been living on Mars lately, as I finish up the first volume of The Martian Confederacy, but I couldn’t completely give up Jane and her pals. I’ve been sketching out the opening segment for the next book and thought I’d share a scene from one of the first few pages. Enjoy.

Howdy. I don’t know how many of you check on the Mars blog, but I just wanted to let you know that I uploaded a few new panels. cheers!

The Martian Confederacy: Red necks on the red planet 

I had a nice chat with Tim Young for his pod cast, Deconstructing Comics, before I left on my ill-fated vacation attempt. Tim is in Japan so it took some clever scheduling to get a time that would work for both of us, but in the end we managed to pull it off. Click here to listen to our conversation.

Tim also has some other great pod casts on his GlobalComics.net site. Conversations with Chris Staros of Top Shelf, Brian Miller who just published a book on how to professionally color comics, Alex Robinson talks about his book “Tricked” and my buddy Jason McNamara talks about all his various projects.

So I’m now thinking that by creating a storyline where Jane’s vacation gets totally derailed I jinxed myself. My girlfriend, Erica, and I were supposed to go to Maui for 9 days… it would have been my first trip there. But unfortunately we had our first set of tickets on Aloha Air (they declared bankruptcy and canceled all flights) then we had the next set of tickets on ATA (they declared bankruptcy and canceled all flights the morning we were to leave)… so we ended up in Palm Springs. We had no idea when we called my friends to see if we could stay at their amazing rental house that this was also Dinah Shore weekend!

The good news is that we didn’t get stranded somewhere, like so many poor folks trying to vacation in the last couple of weeks. The bad news is that I missed seeing the whales. Maybe next year.

Anyway… while lounging in Palm Springs I did some writing for Vol. 9 and as it turns out there are a couple of new characters. I thought I’d share some sketches.

This is Jill (obviously not a new character) contemplating all that went wrong on the Key West trip. Have you ever wondered what that necklace is that she wears? It’s St. Jude, the patron saint for lost causes.

This is one of the new characters, Sam. She has a bit of an attitude, as her t-shirt implies.

Jane’s World Volume 8 book release party

Drama, comedy, adventure and very little lost luggage!

Join us at the Schulz Museum to celebrate the release of Jane’s World volume 8.

This eighth installment joins the cast of Jane’s World on an ill-fated vacation to Key West. Jane knew this vacation was a disaster before it even started. Her first clue could have been the plane crash, but the spiral actually began hours before that, when it was decided they’d all travel together in a very small plane that Jill would pilot.

So here we find our small group marooned in a tropical paradise, set upon by orange soda deprivation, amorous native girls and scheming alligators. Can these four castaways survive all the lesbian drama and actually make it to gay Key West?

Come to the party and find out!

Hosted by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center
May 10th, 2008 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
(Alcohol will be served so this is a 21 and older event)

Special concert by: Girlyman
(If you haven’t heard them… they are AMAZING. You’re in for a treat.)
This comic shindig is a free event but requires a ticket reservation.
Tickets will not be available at the venue.

For tickets, please email the first and last name of each person attending (Maximum 4) with your request to JanePartyVol8@yahoo.com

Your reservation is not finalized until you receive an email back with your ticket reservation number. You must bring those ticket numbers with you to the event. Limited tickets and space available.

See ya there!

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