A Walk in Eden

I'll post more about this when the book is released next Fall, but I spent the last several months working on a coloring book titled A Walk in Eden, finally turning in the final files last week. It was originally commissioned by Ginkgo Press in Beijing and will be released in North America by Drawn & Quarterly. It loosely follows some of the other Garden of Eden drawings I've done in the last few years and shares a (secret sub)title with that of another large drawing I did in 2012... so yes, there is a very loose narrative to it. Most of the actual drawings comprise ten-to-fifteen page continuous panoramas. A gatefold in the middle showcases a few of these, but the rest of the book is, of course, necessarily made up of two-page spreads. A few of the original landscape drawings, in all their white-ink/cut-and-paste-y glory, are on view now as part of a special two-person show called Side Projects at Lula in Chicago through late Summer. I may try and make an accordion-book version of the best of these in the Fall if I can manage it. But for now, here are some snippets I captured for instagram (mostly) while I was working:

On Drawing

linesandmarks.com just put up some images as a teaser for an interview we're doing later this Summer, including a few newish things of mine, and a little preview of Poetry is Useless. If you haven't been over there, it's a beautiful new site about drawing. Their opening salvo also includes Albrecht Dürer, Julie Mehretu, Charles Burns and Marcel Dzama. Pretty fine company, and a really nice expansive way of looking at this art form which is so close to my heart. Sometimes I make comics, sometimes I do illustration, sometimes I make diagrams and sometimes I make 'paintings'... but everything I do is drawing. Drawing is everything.

If you click through to the interview preview page you get to move a little magnifying glass around on Adam and Eve Sneaking Back into the Garden to Steal More Apples. Most of my work is probably ripping off Burns a little bit, but here's a painting I did several years back inspired directly by Dürer's various takes on St Jerome and the Lion (which also might be the first time I depicted Adam and Eve – that's them by the tree).

Dispatches from the road and air

I've been on the road on the second leg of the tour for a week and a half now, but have been too busy to post much. Here are some (pre)tour stories from my sketchbook:

So far I've been in Baltimore, Bethesda (at SPX), Pittsburgh, Philly, and, for the last four days, New York City. More about all the above to follow. Aside from a case of the famous Canadian cartoonist flu pandemic of 2011, it's been completely awesome. Being on the road with Marc Bell rules. That guy's awesome. Tonight I'll be in Providence at Ada Books. Below are a couple of photos from Pittsburgh. Bill at Copacetic put up a back issue wall for me to sign next to. It's all comics about birds. Awesome. Below that is a shot of people waiting for Marc and I to start.

Just to let people know...the Hardcover of the book has been a bit scarce and will be for another week or three. That said, both Copacetic and Brickbat managed to secure more than the usual allotment of copies (sworn to secrecy regarding their methods) so if you can't find one, you might contact them. Lastly, Gabriel at Desert Island in Brooklyn printed up this awesome little newsprint zine collecting a number of outtakes, thumbnails and other unpublished paraphernalia related to Big Questions. Along with the trading cards it's something of a tour exclusive for the moment. Below is the cover.

Five Days Left

Last week most of the images in the show at Littlebird, Landscapes and Smoke, were posted on the gallery site. Here is the one lone image that was not. It's called Adam and Eve and the Lion of St. Jerome, and is partly inspired by all the St. Jerome images of Albrecht Durer.

The show comes down next Thursday.