• ComicCon is once again in the rear-view mirror, and here is a bitchin' video from (of all sources) Red Bull, featuring lots of the Top Shelf posse!!

(Side note: As always, THE best source for reading all about comics news, including ComicCon links galore, is Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter.)

• Here is James Kochalka's most recent American Elf cover for the digital editions. I'm so proud that he won an Eisner this year. James is a fucking nation treasure, people, so get with the program already!

• Miscellaneous note: Veeps writer Bill Kelter was interviewed on a CNN podcast!! How cool is that? The link to the podcast is on the left side of the page.

• Former Top Shelf intern Hazel Newlevant was awarded a Xeric grant for her comic, Ci Vediamo, in the very last round of grants from the esteemed organization. She's hoping to have it printed up by the end of Summer.

• Finally, i just dropped $25 on a Kickstarter campaign for one of my favorite local bands, The Blackberry Bushes String Band, from Olympia, WA. This is one infectiously fun and crazy talented ensemble, worthy of your support.

Hello, and Happy Summer, true believers! You trusty bartender writing in after a crazy long spell. I still haven't been entirely up-to-speed since the flood in my house back in the Spring. So yeah, here it is, ComicCon time and me not attending for the second year in a row. I certainly don't miss the heat & chaos, the sheer numbers, the Hollywood feeding frenzy, and that same dude dressed like Wolverine year in and year out, but at the same time, i sure wish i could spend some quality time with my friends who will be hanging at the Top Shelf booth, and the people close to me otherwise. The industry might be in a constant state of unease, but the community of comics is something that very few other entertainment industries can match. Meanwhile, i'll be spending this weekend with my kid Cfunk outside Eugene, Oregon, at the world's biggest hippy festival, The Oregon Country Fair.

Back to ComicCon, there is no dearth of Top Shelf related things-to-do this year. Our booth number is #1721. Here is a list of who will be in attendance, besides our own Top Shelf stalwarts Chris (@chrisstaros) Staros, Leigh (@leighwalton) Walton, Andy (@owly) Runton, and Chris (@chrisross) Ross. And if you're not already, follow Top Shelf on Twitter! @topshelfcomix

• Jeff (@JeffLemire) Lemire will be on hand primping his brand spanking new OGN Underwater Welder. Signing schedule follows below. We'll also have the newly designed and superbly remastered (by Chris Ross) edition of Jeff's raw, powerful debut, Lost Dogs for sale. The Beguiling will be selling original artwork, and Jeff will be selling this rad exclusive bookplate.

• Ed (@EdPiskor) Piskor will be signing copies of his hot new book Wizzywig. He too will have a sweet print available, what i believe to be an abandoned early concept for the Wizzywig cover.

• James Kochalka's long overdue 4th volume of American Elf is out. And we'll be releasing the entire backlist of American Elf as part of our digital program, one year at a time.

James writes, "I’ve been drawing my daily diary comic strip since October 1998. I just completed another sketchbook… so I stacked them all up rather dangerously to try and get a perspective on how much I’ve accomplished so far. That’s like 4500 pages of comics."

We'll have copies of SuperF*ckers, Johnny Boo, and Dragon Puncher on hand, and James will also have some of his incredibly neat Little Paintings for sale at the show.

• Joseph (@JosephRemnant) Remnant will be around, signing copies of his gorgeously drawn Pekar book, Cleveland.

• Eddie Campbell makes his return to ComicCon, and, frankly, he's the main reason i personally am bummed i can't attend this year. I love this man. And his latest, The Lovely Horrible Stuff, is just one more testament to his incredible comics storytelling. His magnum opus pseudo-biograohical Alec is also a real life "must read," if you fancy yourself a true comics fan.

• It's a little surreal — and entirely awesome — to consider that our very first hire at Top Shelf, Robert (@robertvenditti) Venditti, was brought on to work in our warehouse doing pack & ship. Now he's a bonafide rock start comics writer! With his bitchin' new run on Valiant's new X-O Manowar, i'd wager he'll be signing comics at a Valiant booth, but i also suspect he'll be slinging copies of Homeland Directive, and Surrogates, with the cats at the Top Shelf booth.

(And if you haven't read it already, go back and read this feature interview with Rob and Tom Spurgeon.)

• Nate Powell will of course be doing his thing, charming the socks off of any passerby who happens by. When he's not on a panel, grabbing a bite to eat, signing copies of Any Empire & Swallow Me Whole, or going to the bathroom, chances are you can find him at the Top Shelf booth most of the show. Full schedule follows.

Oh yeah, the news broke today that Nate will be drawing our forthcoming memoir of Congressman John Lewis! There are a handful of preview mini-comics at the show... grab one if you can!

• Jeffrey Brown — world-reknowned for his Girlfriend Trilogy and the spoof/homage Incredible Change-Bots — will have a new mini-comic which chronicles the making of his first foray into feature film writing, Save The Date, from when producer Jordan Horowitz first emailed him, up to the film getting into the Sundance Film Festival. He'll have a little bit of original art (as will the Scott Eder Gallery at Booth #4515) and hand drawn trading cards, but will mostly be signing Darth Vader and Son.

• Matt (@mattkindt) Kindt will be busy at the show… pretty sure he'll be signing Mind Mgmt with Dark Horse, but also chillin' at the Top Shelf booth, signing copies of this & that and the other thing… all brilliant, of course.

• A little birdie told me that Craig Thompson will be around on Friday only, starting at 10:30 am.… He'll have this wicked beautiful Habibi print on hand, screen printed by Pete McCracken.

Finally, we also just announced some incredible news on digital releases. Big ups to our "digital guy" Chris Ross for making our digital program nothing less that a resounding success!

• JEFF LEMIRE (partial) SCHEDULE
- Wednesday, July 11
6:00-9:00 pm

- Thursday, July 12
2:30-4:30 pm

- Friday, July 13
10:00 am-12:00 pm
6:30-7:30 pm Spotlight on Jeff Lemire with Scott Snyder. (Room 5AB)

- Saturday, July 14
10:00 am-12:00 pm
2:00-4:00 pm

- Sunday, July 15
1:30-2:00 pm Top Shelf/Underwater Welder panel (Room 4)

• NATE POWELL SCHEDULE
- Thursday, July 12
3:00-4:00 pm "Graphic Novels: The Bookstore Crowd" panel with Alison Bechdel, Kate Beaton, Brecht Evens, Jennifer and Matt Holm, Jason Shiga. Moderated by Tom Spurgeon. (Room 23ABC)

- Friday, July 13
11:00am-12:00pm Signing at First Second Booth (#1323)
2:00-3:00 pm Nate Powell artist spotlight panel (Room 9)

- Saturday, July 14
1:00-2:00 pm-- Top Shelf panel (Room 4)
2:30-3:00 pm Signing at First Second Booth (#1323)

- Sunday, July 15
10:00 am-12:00 pm Signing at MacKids booth (?!) for Year Of The Beasts. (#1220)
12:15-1:45 pm CBLDF Benefit Rock Art Jam w/ Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon. (Room 5AB)

• JEFFREY BROWN SCHEDULE

We started with about eight thumbnails from Ed. All of them have different variations of the main character, Kevin, in different situations. The one that we all liked the most was the one with the Macintosh on the cover.

I like going in different directions, trying to discover colors textures and other design elements. Here are some early variations cover that I came up with. Most were rejected, but it's when we got to the spine or we all agreed it was an neat idea. It's funny being a contrary designer, because you end up finding things that later work on later projects (the rough "used" idea I later used with Jeff Lemire's THE UNDERWATER WELDER, and some of the type treatments I'm using on a TOP SECRET PROJECT.

Matt Kindt did a variation using photographs, and we liked the composition when Ed integrated the drawn version. Here's Matt's version:

I also did a variation with photographs using the MacPaint window, as well as one that looked like old computer manuals from my childhood (see above). I usually like mocking out the book in 3-D program so I can get a sense of the whole book. Ed liked the rainbow spine, and also wanted to use a green/interlace motif. He later used this on the back cover.

Brett wanted the main character to be on the back cover holding the barcode like he's posing for a mug shot. So Ed came up with this:

While Brett, Ed, and I were thinking about the back cover, Ed brought up designing the end papers.

Brett thought about the endpapers as being inside of a computer, as though you were opening a computer when you opened the book. I thought it would be interesting to have schematics or a hand-drawn version of a motherboard that was extremely detailed—almost hyper real. One of the endpapers Ed provided was inverted. This gave me the idea that it would be interesting to print white ink on black paper, reminding me of blueprints. There was a concern that the white ink wouldn't look right on black paper, so we asked the printer to provide samples. The white ink actually made the paper look almost pearlescent.

Ed and I came up with a rough idea of the entire cover spread, with updates on the back that he was noodling on. I starting building variations with Kevin standing in front of the backcover "screen" were the blurbs would go.

Ed tightened the back cover. I refined the spine and his design of the back, including varying the placement of Kevin, sharpening the olive logo, and moving things around slightly.

This was the tight rough after the book came to me from Ed. A lot of what I do is take a design I worked on (usually with an author) and prepare it for print—sort of like taking a wrench and tightening the design.

I then worked with Ed to nudge the backcover, tighten up the spine (again!), and to note gloss and deboss. Ed and I were simpatico with what we both felt were important areas to gloss and deboss, and I added a slight screen glare and interlacing to the back cover. Then off to press!

You'll notice on the version below that it seems empty around the outsides—this is because we have to design books that wrap around the boards of the book and tuck under the endpapers. You'll see a mirror image on the keyboards that will fool your eye—it's something you'll never see, but like Steve Jobs' father said, we know it's there.

And now it's off to comic book shops, bookstores, ebooks, etc.

Cheers!

—Chris Ross

This is great stuff, from a review of Eddie Campbell's Lovely Horrible Stuff, at Publishers Weekly.

"Campbell is one graphic novelist who has the potential—both creative and intellectual—to reach beyond the typical audience and into the wider world of essayists traditionally inhabited by the likes of Bill Bryson or Christopher Hitchens. Coupled with personable artwork that often seems like it’s torn straight out of a sketchbook, Campbell’s erudition comes off as comforting and familiar, with a conversational presentation of heady topics that brings it all down to earth."

In the current issue of the New York Times Book Review, Neil Gaiman gives Eddie Campbell big love for Alec and From Hell.

NYTBR: "What’s the best comic book you’ve ever read? Graphic novel?"

GAIMAN: "Ow. That’s hard. I think I love Eddie Campbell’s ALEC: The Years Have Pants best of everything, but it’s a hard call."

Um, yeah... that's pretty cool.

• And this just in! Jennifer Hayden Art on a T-Shirt!

FROM JENNIFER HERSELF:
Today Comic Strip Tees introduced a t-shirt with my comic on it! This site just launched and offers a comic by a different artist each day, available on t-shirts you can buy for the next seven days... So you've only got a week to order mine! Oh my God! Available in classic black-on-white.

Last weekend I got out of the house to go to the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Arts Festival in Manhattan, where I got a chance to speak on a panel about memoir, but otherwise I've been pretty much under a rock. I'm on page 220 of my graphic novel, with 117 more to go, and I'm posting my monthly webcomic S'CRAPBOOK at Trip City, and my daily diary comic RUSHES (new this year) on its own blog. Today RUSHES was spotlighted in the "Go, Look" column at Comics Reporter.

And just this month, Underwire got this nice review.

Feel free to drop by my blog if you want to follow my adventures. And thank the Goddess for my friends!

All the best,

Jennifer