Hazardous Tales #7 Work-in-progress Preview

Happy Thanksgiving!

Alamo proofs are in my house!

I finished the Alamo All-Stars artwork less than two weeks ago, and look, here it is in early printer's proof form!

I take these pages and comb through them looking for typos and color corrections, then fix them. In this particular proof, I've got the battle of Goliad switched with the preparations for the battle of Goliad. Whoops. Page numbers are wrong.

After this gets corrected and sent back to the printer, we'll do the whole thing again to catch errors. Then it will finally go to print and be in bookstores in March!

I didn't just get proofs for the Alamo in the mail today, I also received the final edition of this anthology, BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. This is a really cool book of short stories where each author tells a true story, then makes up a fictional story that was inspired by the true story. It's got a lot of great authors, Jane Yolen, Adam Rex, and Matthew J. Kirby to name a few.

My stories in the book are NOT Hazardous Tales stories. They are much, much weirder. They involve giant bunnyhead masks. Only read them if you are not scared of bunnyhead masks.

This book will be out in a few weeks! November 3rd!

A Sneak Peek at page 23 of Hazardous Tales #6!

I'm in a dead heat to finish Hazardous Tales #6, ALAMO ALL-STARS by mid September. Twenty-four days from now. So I'm in non-stop inking and coloring mode.

Download and print this page to try your own coloring! It's not often you get to color such a violent scene. Have fun!

Working in the Woods

Hazardous Tales #6 work never stops--even on camping trips.

The Underground Abductor is out today!

Introducing the Hazardous Tales Youtube Channel!

I'm very excited to announce the brand new Hazardous Tales Youtube channel! Watch, learn, subscribe!

I hope to have a video post up every week or so. History and drawing!

Here is the first video, and there are already a few more. I hope you like them!

Hazardous Tales #6 ...in the works...

This is what the big chalkboard at Hazardous Tales studio looks like right now:

The manuscript for book #6 has just arrived back from editorial. My editor said, "This could be the perfect Hazardous Tale!" The chalkboard is for final art. The little corner loop is for lettering. 128 pages, endpapers, cover, mini-medal, back cover arrow, and spine art due in June!

The color of this book will be YELLOW.

I can't tell you exactly what it's about. But it takes place in TEXAS. It's a historical event you may REMEMBER. I really hope readers will COME AND TAKE IT when it comes out.

School visit instructions!

Hazardous Tales #5 cover reveal!

Okay, gang. I've been teasing you about this for months. No more. Here it is, the cover of Hazardous Tales #5: The Underground Abductor.

The flag on the right is the state flag of Maryland, where a lot of the action takes place.

The Underground Abductor arrives in March! Five months to go!

Crunchy Carriage!

Here is page 91 of Hazardous Tales #5 in progress. I don't love drawing cars--and I have trouble with horses, but boy, do I love drawing carriages! Figure that one out.

The subject matter of book #5 is still somewhat under wraps. This book comes out next spring, so we'll have a subject and cover reveal later this fall. I don't think there are any giveaway clues in this image, other than the fact there will be a carriage in it.

I am deep, deep into this book right now. I have 37 pages to draw and color in the next sixteen days. This is the real grind. I've been working on the book all summer long, but here, in the final weeks, is when the crunch really hits. I'm now in full reverse sleep mode (work through the night, sleep from 8am to 3pm--while the kids are at school). It's a silly schedule. But it works for comics crunch time.

Crunch on!

New Hazardous Tale! Sooner than you think!

The next Hazardous Tales book will be out next Spring, but the next Hazardous Tales story will be out in two months! Where? In Jon Scieszka's GUYS READ: TRUE STORIES!

Check out this amazing cover by Caldecott winner Brian Floca!

This isn't a full, book-length Hazardous Tale, but it's not little--it's 30 pages long! And it features, easily, the goriest story in the series. Seriously, it's gruesome. There's more than one panel about maggots. That's right, maggots.

Excited? You should be, because my story is only one of a bunch of great nonfiction stories in this book. Steve Sheinkin is in here (and if you haven't read his BOMB book--go get it!) Sy Montgomery, Jim Murphy, Candace Fleming, and many more--it's packed!

Would you like a sample page? Have two!

 

GUYS READ: TRUE STORIES is out in September. The collection is a lot of fun. I'm extremely proud of this story. Pre-order it, put it on hold, check it out. It's great!

***

I'm currently in the deepest, darkest, deadliest deadline crunch I've ever been in. Hazardous Tales book five is on track for next March, which means I need to draw at least two pages per day for the rest of the summer. I haven't been as diligent at updating my blog as I once was. I'm still drawing plenty of comics--it's just that all of these comics are going into books.

Back to the drawing!

News Roundup! Chalkboards, Lists, Podcasts, and Gross Stuff!

Big news!

For the second time, a Hazardous Tales book has cracked the New York Times Best Seller list. TREATIES, TRENCHES, MUD, AND BLOOD debuted at #4 on the Hardcover Graphic Novel list! Thank you so much for pre-ordering and buying the book at launch. You readers are the ones who put it there. Hooray!

Now, on to more news. The studio chalkboard has been erased, and a new chart has been added. See below:

PREHISTORIC PREDATORS, a Scholastic book I did some illustrations for is finished, and drawings for Hazardous Tales book #5 start TODAY. The deadline: mid-August. We want book #5 to land on shelves in March 2015. It's going to be a drawing-drawing-drawing summer.

If you missed it, Comics Alternative did a great interview podcast with me about Hazardous Tales. We talked about some series secrets: the mysterious narrator idea before Hale, Provost, and Hangman came along, as well as the crazy original plan for book #4--it wasn't WWI! and many other unknown tidbits. Tune in here: Comics Alternative Podcast.

One last bit of news: The nominees for the Kids Comics Awards have been announced. DONNER DINNER PARTY has been nominated TWO times! For Favorite Non-Fiction Graphic Novel, and for Grossest Thing in Comics! All children can vote HERE. And please do! I'm up against Fregley's Gum-Chewing Belly-Button in the Grossest category. I'm going to need all the votes I can get!

LAUNCH DAY for Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood!

It's out, it's OUT! Hazardous Tales #4, Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood is out TODAY!

To celebrate, here are close-ups of the big LEGO display at my local library.

Book 4 is out today! Buy it, read it, review, and, if you have the bricks--build it!

In the Wild!

Hazardous Tales #4 is out in the wild!

These are at the King's English Bookstore in SLC. And they are all signed!

A Hazardous Week in Texas

This week I was in San Antonio, Texas. I was there for TLA, the Texas Librarian Association convention--the biggest library convention in the country aside from the national ALA convention. This year has been a great year for the Hazardous Tales books because One Dead Spy is on this year's Bluebonnet Master List--the state book award in Texas.

While I was there, this happened:

This is a copy of Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood. How rare is this? I don't even have one. I have no idea how this librarian was able to talk the people in the Amulet booth into selling it. It's a mystery. My guess, she's a professional hypnotist.

We're just a month away from launch. This book should start popping up everywhere soon.

Spoiler from the photo, this book is dedicated to Snoopy.

If you'd like more of a preview, take a look at the book on Amazon. It has a nearly 20 page preview.

While I was in San Antonio, I was able to slip away from TLA one morning and visit the Alamo.

Why was I visiting the Alamo? Looking in the basement for Pee Wee Herman's bike? Hiding from hypnotist librarians? Or maybe doing on-site research for a future Hazardous Tales book?

Possibly all three!

Meet the Hangman

And the last of our introduction pages. The Hangman:

By the way, we were off the NYT Bestseller list for one week--but we're back ON! At #8! That makes four weeks on the list! Hooray!

Three Weeks on the List!

Meet the Provost! And some news...

Here's the Provost!

Fun news this week. ONE DEAD SPY has climbed to #3 on the New York Times Hardcover Graphic Novel list! Number THREE! That's only two spots away from the top! If you have been waiting for a good week to pick up ONE DEAD SPY, this would be that week. Do it!

And along with that fantastic news, it's official: Hazardous Tales books #5 and #6 have been ordered by the publisher. The Research Babies are eyeball deep in research right right now.

It's a big week!

A Quiet Celebration

One Dead Spy is now on it's second week on the NYT bestseller list. We've moved up to #4! And Batman got his revenge (a Batman book has jumped to #3).

Along with our celebration, we'd like to send out a big THANK YOU to everyone who bought ONE DEAD SPY--you put us on this list!