Raina Telgemeier's Blog, page 17

Drama Galleys have arrived!!

The galleys, or Advance Reader Copies, of DRAMA have arrived!! This means that reviewers, booksellers, and some librarians will soon get to read my new book. Well, this version anyway–the first 16 pages are in color, but the rest of the galley is in black and white. The final, print version will be in full color, of course!

It’s not for sale until September, but I made a little video showing it off. I’m so excited, it looks GREAT. Enjoy!

TCAF in Toronto, May 5-6!

This coming weekend I’m heading up to Toronto for one of my very favorite comic events, the Toronto Comics Art Festival! (Or TCAF, for short.) TCAF is FREE to attend, and draws one of the best crowds (of both cartoonists and attendees) in all of North America.

Where to find me! Click the image to see it LARGE.

I’ll be at TABLE 265 with Dave Roman and John Green, who are debuting their graphic novel TEEN BOAT! at TCAF! Table 265 is on the second floor of the library, in the OwlKids Exhibitor Area–we’ll be near Jenni and Matt Holm (Babymouse), Andy Runton (Owly), Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), and Kean Soo (Jellaby), which is awesome. We’re right by the upstairs bathroom, and on the way into the OwlKids panel space. We’re at the end of the row, but you should be able to find us! Look for the TEEN BOAT! banner! I’ll have some copies of Smile, as well as Smile T-shirts and some art for sale! And, I’ll have Drama bookmarks!!

If you’re looking for me, I will be at the table signing and sketching for most of the show, with the exception of the following fine programs!

Saturday, May 5

1:00pm-1:45pm: Kids Comics Quickfire!

Location: Toronto Reference Library, 2nd Floor:

Appel Salon, Novella Room

Part drawing jam, part fast-paced game show! Volunteers from the audience are paired off with (or against) professional cartoonists in a series of fun-filled drawing challenges! Featuring Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy),Raina Telgemeier (SMILE), John Green (Teen Boat) and Bob Flynn (Heeby Jeeby Comix).

1:45 – 3:00 – Comics Childhoods

Location: The Pilot Tavern, 22 Cumberland Street

What was your childhood like? Four cartoonists discuss their depictions of their own childhoods in comics. Why does childhood have strong pull on cartoonists’ stories? And what’s involved with visually recreating youth? With Alison Bechdel, Jenni Holm, Michel Rabagliati, and Raina Telgemeier. Moderator: Robin Brenner

Sunday, May 6

12:45 – 1:30 – Turn Your Life Into A Comic!

Location: Toronto Reference Library, 2nd Floor:

Appel Salon, Novella Room

The inspiration for Raina Telgemeier’s book, Smile, comes from her own life as an eleven-year old girl who injures her two front teeth. Are you ready to tell your life story in comics? Get tips on how to pick ideas from your own life to create your own autobiographical comics.

2:45pm-3:30pm: Spotlight: Explorer The Mystery Boxes

Location: Toronto Reference Library, 2nd Floor:

Appel Salon, Novella Room

Join the creators of Explorer: The Mystery Boxes: Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), Jason Caffoe (Flight), Stuart Livingston, Raina Telgemeier (Smile), and Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), as they read their stories live on stage, with a little help from the audience!

Here’s a map of all the event locations, and there should be one in your printed program, as well. Some of the programs will be very popular, so try and get there a few minutes early!

There are also tons of panels I’m not on, but that are still connected to what I do! Please check out the programming guide for panels and workshops given by my Scholastic editors David and Cassandra, and featuring lots of other great kids’ cartoonists. I can hardly believe it’s all being squeezed into two days. See you in the great white north!

New Art: Kids Read Comics

Here’s a new piece of art I created, to promote the Kids Read Comics celebration in Ann Arbor, MI, this July! It’s a free event, so I hope you’ll consider joining me there this summer! It was a lot of fun drawing downtown Ann Arbor for this piece–I’ve only been there once, but it is a terrific town.

If you’d like to download a print-ready version of the poster, click here!

Special thanks to Gale Williams for helping me flat the colors! (She’ll be a guest at the festival, too!)

MoCCA, NYC, April 28-29!

Once again, it’s time for the MoCCA Art Festival!

April 28-29

Lexington Ave Armory

68 Lexington Avenue (between 25th & 26th Streets)

NYC

MoCCA holds a very special place in my heart. It was the first comic convention I ever exhibited at, 10 years ago, where I fell in love with minicomics and the small press comics scene as a whole. The show has long been a favorite of mine, and although I won’t have a table there this year, you can find me in a few places:

Saturday, April 28:

I’ll be sketching at the MoCCA Fest Sketch Table (near the front of the exhibition hall) from 1 – 2 PM!

Sunday, April 29:

PANEL, Graphic Novels for Young Adults

11:15am

Panel room A

The New York Public Library’s Betsy Bird talks to some of the brightest talents–Raina Telgemeier, Kevin Pyle, MK Reed, Derek Kirk Kim–in one of comics’ fastest growing demographics. ***I MIGHT have a super-special, advance copy of DRAMA to give away at this event…!



SIGNING, Abrams Comic Arts table

12:15pm-1:15pm

I’ll be signing EXPLORER: THE MYSTERY BOXES at the Abrams booth! Check the program for table number!

And of course, the weekend kicks off on Friday evening with the annual
DRINK AND DRAW LIKE A LADY, which I did the poster for this year:



(Colored by Lucy Knisley!)

DDLL is a chance for all women who are enthusiastic about comics to get together, have a drink, draw some doodles, and have a good time. The event is FREE, and open to all comics artists, writers, editors, librarians, educators, students, designers, letterers, booksellers, and reviewers, but it’s ladies only! Here are the details:

Drink and Draw Like A Lady

Friday, April 27

7 PM

192 Books

192 Tenth Avenue (at 21st Street)

NYC

We have a Facebook invite page, if you’d like to RSVP! Or, just show up, bring minicomics and business cards to trade, and of course, bring your ladyfriends!

Just a few days following MoCCA, I’ll be exhibiting at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, so look for information about that, soon!

Thanks, Shaker Heights, OH!

I spent Wednesday talking with middle school girls (and workshopping with the fifth graders) at a school near Cleveland. It was great! The kids were talented and very inspiring. Everyone was wearing purple to celebrate a school administrator who’d had a housefire recently (this lady loves purple, you should see her office!)–so the pictures turned out especially fun! Here are some of the students with their freshly-signed copies of Smile.

Thanks to everyone who took part; I had a great time!

Maine Student Book Award! MeCAF!!

Over the weekend, I learned that Smile had won the 2011-2012 Maine Student Book Award! I don't even think I was aware it was nominated–sometimes I find out about these things from my publisher, and sometimes I don't. However, about a week ago, I received a bunch of letters from students in Maine, telling me they had all voted for me and were hoping I would win. Cut to a few days later, and I found out that I did!

From the MSBA website:

"The Maine Student Book Award is designed to expand literary horizons of students in grades 4-8 by encouraging them to read, evaluate, and enjoy a selection of new books and to choose a statewide favorite by written ballot each spring."

4,077 kids voted, and Smile took it home with 746 votes. Thanks so much to everyone who voted, as well as the Maine Library Association, Maine Association of School Libraries, and Maine Reading Association.

***

To celebrate, I've added a new event to my calendar: the Maine Comics Arts Festival, happening on Sunday, May 20 in Portland, ME! I was there 2 years ago and it is a lovely, relaxed, family-friendly event. 12-and-under attendees are FREE, so I'm hoping I'll get to meet some of the students who voted for me, and the librarians and teachers who encouraged them to read and nominate in the first place. Dave Roman and John Green will be tabling with me, in support of their brand-new Teen Boat! graphic novel–perfect for an event that takes place right on the water, in one of the U.S.'s cutest port towns.

Event Alert: Brooklyn, NY, April 1!

Nope, it's not an April Fool's joke. I'm doing a reading and signing this Sunday, April 1, at The Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn starting at 11 AM. Myself and several other artists from the NURSERY RHYME COMICS anthology will be there for storytime shenanigans! Join us!

Thank you, Chicago suburbs!!

Last week I spent three days in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. Everything I did was within a 20-minute radius of the airport, and I never got into the city, but…I still had a blast.

My first stop was Des Plaines, where I gave a workshop for 50 talented students! This included my friend Kaprice, whom I met last time I was in Chicago two years ago…she was one of my very first fans, and it was great to see her again! Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of us.

I spent the next day giving a talk and workshops at a middle school in Bloomingdale. Here they are filing in for the morning presentation…425 students in all!

The students had made dolls (out of Pringles cans) based on historical figures for a project, and one girl decided to do ME! So here's Raina from Smile, complete with glittering braces, a Girl Scout sash covered in badges, and the curly hair I suddenly developed in 8th grade.

On my final day, I was a guest author at LitWorks, a Teen Read Workshop! I gave two talks and one workshop–my workshop was so popular I had students sitting on the floor and on top of tables! The workshop got cut a little bit short, but the attendees produced some really terrific comics. I didn't manage to get a picture of myself with the other authors (Carl Deuker, Ron Koetrge, Julie Halpern, and Ellen Hopkins) but they were all wonderful and a joy to spend time with.

From there it was straight to the airport…but look what I found in the YA section of a bookstore at O'Hare:



First airport sighting of Smile (or any of my books), ever!! That was a really proud moment for me, and a nice way to cap off a great trip. Thank you, Chicago! I hope to be back soon!

Thanks, Cherry Hill!

I had a great couple of days in Cherry Hill, NJ, earlier this week! I got to speak with 800 middle school students, and workshop with nearly 300 of them, over the course of two full days.

The school held a special lunch on day 2, for kids who wrote an essay saying why they wanted to meet me. What a great group! Everyone had terrific questions, and I had a lot of fun talking with them. It was the middle of Spirit Week, so this was taken on 'Flashback Day'–hence all the tie-dye! I promised them I'd post this photo on my site–so here it is! Can you spot me among the students?! People are often surprised by how short I am. I think I've been the same height (5′2″) since I was 14!

My next stop is the suburbs of Chicago next week, where I'm visiting two middle schools and a high school Lit Fest. I won't have time for any extra events while I'm there, I'm afraid–I fly in, and work till the moment I fly out. The life of a traveling author!

My next public event is in Brooklyn: Sunday, April 1, I will be joining some of the other authors from NURSERY RHYME COMICS for a reading and signing at The Community Bookstore! That's at 143 Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. Event starts at 11 AM, hope you can make it!

That's all for now. Don't forget, you can add DRAMA to your Goodreads shelf, and you can pre-order it, too!

Graphix Webcast. Watch it now!

The Scholastic Graphix webcast earlier this week, WORDS ARE ONLY HALF THE STORY, went off without a hitch! It was terrific to spend time with the amazing Jeff Smith (BONE) and Kazu Kibuishi (AMULET), as always, and Scholastic had a really nice broadcast studio setup in their offices.

The webcast was streamed live to classrooms across the country, and is now available to view online! I can't embed the video, but you can watch it here:

http://www.scholastic.com/graphix_teacher/video/playercode.html

It's 30 minutes long, and you get to see us draw some stuff! The kids in the audience were so sweet. And they fangirl'd me in the bathroom before I went onstage. ^__^