Grateful to finally be home to Portland where a dear friend made this gift:

Big thanks to all of you who attended the HABIBI events. And thank you to everyone who’s supporting the book.

HABIBI book tour is a sandwich. One bread slice (or one month) is American (two days Canada) and the other slice is European. In between was a thin slab of Portland time, flavored with coffee and rainwater; the tastiest part being the HABIBI-inspired art show hosted by Floating World. Pictured here: Carson Ellis, whose new book WILDWOOD with hubby Colin Meloy is a MUST-HAVE — and Theo Ellsworth, who worked alongside me in the studio, drawing his book CAPACITY, occasionally indulging in afternoon cognacs while inking.

Below, from left to right: Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Brandon Graham.

Not pictured: Mike Allred, Farel Darlrymple, Lark Pien, Aaron Renier, Jen Wang. My cartoonist friends are the best in the world. These scans don’t do the pieces justice. If you live in Portland, check out the actual work at FLOATING WORLD. For everyone else, the show has motivated me to put together some sort of special book so that these beautiful tributes can be adequately shared. My continual thanks to you readers for making it to the events and being so kind. Euro tour begins TOMORROW.

Kudos to all of you who figured out the CHUNKY RICE thank you cards (circa 1999). Grant got Jeff Smith and Eddie Campbell.
Mack guessed correctly about Alan Moore’s FROM HELL. And finally Isaac nailed Dylan Horrocks (not in that way), referencing my
favorite scene from Horrock’s important work HICKSVILLE. All the other artists mentioned are definitely influences of mine.

In other news, the mural for my brother’s brand engagement agency BOLSTER is complete, thanks to the handiwork of Andrew Young.

And there’s some great documentation of HABIBI at the printers on my German publisher Reprodukt‘s blog.

And finally thanks to my brother for updating the look of THIS blog. HABIBI book tour begins in less than two weeks.
Check the site and facebook for schedule. And some advance reviews are already pouring in. Hope to see you!

Writer Elif Shafak: “In Istanbul, you understand, perhaps not intellectually but intuitively, that East and West are ultimately imaginary ideas,
ones that can be de-imagined and re-imagined.”

Meanwhile, my friend Kazim Ali is traveling through Jerusalem and Palestine and blogging at the Huffington Post. Please, check it out.
Below’s another peek at our collaboration for the CBLDF Liberty Annual (colors by Dave Stewart).

My little bro Jon (“Phil” in BLANKETS: see pee fight) runs a brand management design firm named BOLSTER with two biz partner buddies.
They’re moving into a swanky new studio space, so about a month ago, I flew to Minneapolis to help decorate one of the walls with a mural.
I caught a nasty flu, but managed to brainstorm ideas with my bro, and knock out a proportional paper version of the mural on his dining room table.

The REAL work — the tangible, sexy work of putting paint to wall – was handled by the talented Andrew Young.
Here’s Andrew solo, and then with my brother, in the earliest stages – projecting and tracing the drawing to prepare for painting.

As BOLSTER’s grand opening, Andrew’s birthday, and the mural’s completion approach, I’ll post more. (Next week, I’m in NYC for BEA.)

Quick heads-up to locals that I’m appearing at a Portland comics show this Saturday, May 14th. Wondernorthwest @ Crowne Plaza Hotel,
1441 NE 2nd Ave. At 3 o’clock, I’ll give a talk, signing at 4, and then a discussion panel titled CUTTING THE CHEESE with long-time Wisconsin
pals Kurt Halsey and Tim Seeley. Excited to discuss beer-cheese soup, protesting Imperial Walker, and the Packers!

Also, while I’m at it: here’s a glimpse at confirmed tour dates. More to follow, including the Eurotour!
May 24th • Book Expo America, NYC
July 21st – 23rd • San Diego Comic-Con
September 10th&11th • SPX, Bathesda, MD
September 15th • Center for Cartoon Studies, Vermont
September 27th • Powell’s Books, Portland
September 30th – October 3rd • APE, San Francisco
October 5th • Seattle Public Central Library, Fantagraphics
October 8th • Wordstock & Live Wire Show, Portland

Happy Friday, Gang. While HABIBI production is stuck in limbo, why not share some pre-release “fan art”? A manuscript of HABIBI accompanied
me to the Atlantic Center of the Arts, and many of the associate artists had a chance to peruse it. A few of them even created tribute pieces!

Seen here: Thi Bui, Jake Wyatt, and Harris Wolf. The fourth is a reposting of Jen Wang‘s beautiful tribute. She has an incredible new book
of her own debuting at First Second Books — KOKO BE GOOD. Such an honor to see other artists depict the HABIBI characters!

Fábio leaves today, so we committed to one last posting between last-minute visits to Powell’s Books and Voodoo Donuts.
Instead of more outdoor adventures, we spent most of our time nerding out with Portland comics folks, including a Dark Horse-centric BBQ
at Tim & Carli’s. (We also ate lots of good food during the visit.)

So there you go. A message of peace! Safe travel to Fábio. And to his twin brother Gabriel on his way to Bolivia today. Watch for the
collected trade of their DAYTRIPPER. Thanks to Tim & Carli for the BBQ. Hope to see more of my international friends soon!

Thanks for your patience! It’s almost impossible to experience things (jump over rocks) and post in the same day.
Yesterday, Fabio & I & editor Sierra Hahn & painter Dan Attoe hiked through the surreal terrain carved by Mt. St. Helens’ eruption.

Above, the interior view. Check Fabio’s blog for the grand landscape!
And wait… there’s more! A drawn tribute by Dan Attoe. Click back to Fabio’s for a CLOSE-UP VIEW.

“BLOG WAR” might not be the best title. More like a “blog crossover”. Brazilian cartoonist Fábio Moon is visiting Portland, and we’ll try to
document some of our activities in a back-and-forth dialog between the two blogs — blending our sketches, inking each others’ drawings, etc.
Yesterday, after consuming much coffee, we attended the in-store album debut for Menomena MINES. Our evening continues at Fábio’s blog… HERE.