Toot toot!
Indulge me while I wallow in a bit of self-promotion. The Book Tour has been nominated for Book of The Year by the Harvey awards. The Harveys are named after Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993) an American cartoonist and editor famous for creating MAD magazine. One of the best to ever do it.
As a frame of reference for non-comics people, the Harveys are closer to the Sundance Awards while the Eisners are more like the Oscars. Am I getting that right? Maybe they are the Palme D’or or the BAFTAs or the Golden Boot. I dunno. It’s rarely flattering to compare movies to comics. Comics are the intern that movies has work for free over the summer.
Anyway, I really only wanted to use this opportunity to toot my own horn. Toot toot. That’s it.
Okay. I guess I’ll finish the newsletter.
Speaking of awards, did you know that San Diego Comic Con is this week? It won’t be in an aircraft hanger packed full of attendees but a virtual event this year. And do you know what else? The Book Tour is nominated for Best Graphic Album at the Eisner awards that are announced at the convention. Toot tooot!
Forgive me if all this tooting is giving you a headache but I am proud that The Book Tour has been nominated. Only a couple of years ago it looked like it might be my last book.
After several years making comics solely for kids, my book for grown ups, Living Arrangements was published in French but not in English and another completed book never found a publisher. Towards the end of 2016 things were looking grim. I wondered if my comic-making days were coming to an end. I’d had a good run in a precarious business but now I was running out of options. As many on Twitter will rush to inform you, no one is owed a career in publishing.
I dug out an idea I’d worked on and then put aside in 2015. If this was going to be my last hurrah, I would go out on a high. I would make the book I really wanted to make. Even if no one ever saw it.
It was The Book Tour and there was a real danger it might not have seen the light of day as I couldn’t find an English language publisher. Fortunately for me, my publisher in France picked it up and it was part of the official selection at Angoulême in 2020. Toot toot (in a sophisticated French accent). Eventually The Book Tour was published by Top Shelf, earning my fourth Eisner and second Harvey nomination.
So here we are in 2021. The Book Tour is going to a third printing. With the help of my agent I have signed a contract for two new books with a publisher.
It would be tempting to fashion some sort of narrative about never giving up or coming back from adversity, but it would be a load of baloney. All I can do is try and make the best work I can. The Book Tour is the best thing I have done.
I have no idea what will happen next.
I have books out in the world, Kerry and the Knight of the Forest & The Book Tour. Support my award nominated efforts through my store/digital comics/patreon or by leaving a positive review online.
Take care,
andi