I should be sleeping. Let’s put it that way. In the meantime, here are a few things.

Newsarama has the full creator list for the Tori book. There is also a glorious Carla page from our story. Yes, that is “Here. In My Head” (as the Undented peeps have concluded). I’m totally amused at how they put one of the naughty pages up there. (I’m referring to the hand-down-the-pants, not the makin’ out. Click to see what I’m talking about - I wouldn’t put it as not-worksafe, so don’t worry.)

The IAF jewelry auction is on!! All money goes to Interfictions 2, I believe. Here’s my contribution, which is based on K. Tempest Bradford’s story “Black Feather”:

Yes, all knotting (read: a lot of it) was done by hand. Some of those beads are vintage glass. Athankyewverymuch!!

And the copy gigs just keep on coming. I gotta figure out how to write copy faster. I’m typing as fast as I can!

Huzzah! We have the order code for BLUE:

So what does that mean to you? Short answer: to make sure you get your hands on BLUE, pre-order the book from your local comics shop sometime this month. Just give them the code MAY083778 and you’re good to get one when it’s released in July.

Longer answer: Diamond Distributors are the folks that get the comics in the comics shops. Retailers look through Diamond’s catalog, PREVIEWS, every month to decide what to order. PREVIEWS is huge, they have a ton to choose from, and aren’t able to return books that don’t sell. This means that a lot of indy books get passed over at order time. Pre-ordering the book will guarantee you get a copy (huzzah for you), tells retailers there’s interest in/demand for the book (huzzah for me), and is another sale (huzzah for retailers).

In closing: pre-ordering is good, all around.

Finally! Dean’s Next Door Neighbor project has launched!

“Everybody has one. And, no matter how close or how far, we all live next to someone, and we all have a Next-Door Neighbor story,” says NDN Editor Dean Haspiel. “With this in mind, I asked some of my favorite storytellers and cartoonists to create their favorite NDN stories so that we at SMITH Magazine could share them with you over the next year.”

The first wave of stories launches with an urban “daymare” titled “Next-Door Neighborless” written by novelist Jonathan Ames and illustrated by Nick Bertozzi, whose graphic novel The Salon, was hailed as among the best comics of 2007. Upcoming stories feature the talents of Kevin Colden, John Cebollero, Joan Reilly, Ed Piskor, and Miss Lasko-Gross. The second wave will be announced in June and includes a super-secret, special first-time writer/artist matchup.

And me.

(Incidentally, what Dean says up there rings true, at least for me. I didn’t think I had a next door neighbor story. Turns out I did, with a little pondering.)

Not sure when my story goes live, but I can say with all definitiveness that it was drawn by talented newcomer Mike Jasorka of Bombshell Comics.

Anyways. Ames and Bertozzi are up first; it’s pretty sweet stuff so check it out.

Huzzah! Announcement time!

BLUE will be in the May PREVIEWS for a July release:

I’ve started a blog for news and updates (including that all-important order code when we get it). You’ll see some sample pages there already:

http://bluecomics.blogspot.com

Much more to come. Like a cab, in an hour, to take me to the airport. (Meep.)

(Confidential to Ms. Gwenda because I’ve been too crazed to answer: aside for the 5 minutes I’ll steal for Athena this afternoon, I’ll be in a hotel straight through Sunday afternoon. Good times!)

I don’t think I revealed the artist of awesomeness on the Tori Amos anthology story, did I? I meant to, and was going to, then promptly forgot.

Anyway, huzzah:

And the squeeing continues! And sympathy. As Lady Speed ’splains on her blog, she’s currently choking under a killer deadline - four inked pages a day or some such. As we’ve been through it a time or two in this household, I’ve seen that bad boy firsthand and up close - it ain’t fun.

I’m still not allowed to spill which song we’re doing for the Tori book, else a certain Darling Yet In No Uncertain Terms Mighty Editor will have no choice but to defy time and space between Southern California and Brooklyn to smite me, uh, mightily. Trust me, he just doesn’t need the hassle right now.

In other news, Streetfables veteran and Brooklyn comics maverick Kevin Colden has unveiled Strangle/Switch on Zuda. It’s sharp as tacks so far, so go give it a whirl. And your support! Because then we’d have two Brooklyn comics maverick Zuda winners, and that would not be a bad thing at all.

David Gallaher, the second maverick alluded to above, dropped a note yesterday to announce a new webcomics collective, The Scienteers. Yay! However, I would love it if I had an easier list of contributors to navigate, as I am impatient.

The primitive mad dash for SDCC hotel rooms begins tomorrow @ 12 pm EST sharp. Yes, I will be participating. Our “backup plan” - hastily arranged yesterday - would cost more than our monthly rent. Sweet Lord In Heaven. (Confidential to all finances-paranoid parents who are reading this: relax. It will work out, much cheaper.)

Blogging is not the only thing we’ve neglected in the past couple of weeks. Yesterday, we wheeled three bags of laundry to the ‘mat down on MacDonald. Plus a backpack. Plus two quilts, which I carried by hand. Someday, and someday well before we make our millions, we’ll have our own washer and dryer.

Big news first: last week, Leland delivered 120 pages to Simon & Schuster. Yay! One book down, four to go. Go, baby, go! So we’ve been taking it a bit easy for a few days and getting caught up. I spent Friday at Deep 6, working and chatting it up with the fellahs. Which was actually considerably more productive than you might think.

Got my contributor copies of the latest WEIRD TALES in the mail, and they are stunning. I continue to be impressed with the reboot of the magazine. And it’s got comics this time! Oh yeah, and an interview of mine, with Donald Tyson. I think it’s on stands now.

Sami has another look at this thing we’re working on over at his blog. Also check the cute new vampiric profile photo! And another one in an interview that you might not be able to read, but that’s okay! Because the picture is awesome!

Lots piling up on the reading shelf, including this Yeats biography (with some crappy reviews on Amazon that I don’t agree with), The Hound Of Rowan, a smart, readable introduction to Western esoteric traditions (from the guys who brought us Gnosis magazine, back in the day), and Betwixt, a young adult novel I’ve been wanting to read for a while now.

If you missed the Superbowl, you missed the new Iron Man trailer. My only complaint: it’s too short.

Electric Angel New Wave Rock N’ Roller crush I forgot about ’til some recent late night YouTube surfing with my Lady Bee: Ben Orr.

Fixed the broken link of Sami’s image of the second page here.

(it was 2 in the morning - whaddaya want? )

A couple of pages Sami and I are working on:

…

Click to see ‘em bigger.

How do I love thee, Portland? Let me count the ways…

Powell’s. We were there for well over three hours and I still felt (marginally) rushed. Not in that “Leland, quit rushing me” way, mind. Because he doesn’t rush me. There’s just never enough time at Powell’s.
Fat City Cafe. Breakfast here, full ’til dinnertime. O yes.
Fred Meyer. Comfort shopping at its best. Makes me think of a ten-year-old Leland in Toughskins & snowpants. That warm & fuzzy feeling.
The Moon & Six. Leland’s old haunt. Kevin Burke’s current Monday night hangout. Home of the world’s best bread pudding (it’s all about the whiskey and the melted butter). ‘Except I didn’t have any last night. Too many sweet potato fries at McMenamin’s.

Now we’re at Periscope, attempting to get a little work done. But I’m blogging, as you can see. Lieber is here! We thought he would be off for the holidays by now.

I do need to get working, though. Yes, I’m doing a story for the just-announced Tori Amos anthology due out next year and, well, it’s, like, due. Like, soon. Can’t mention the song/story yet (one of my all-time favorites) and I haven’t asked the artist if they mind being outed on the blog here. It’s been tough holding back, though - I like to think I’m above the squeeing, but not where this particular artist is involved.

And Tori too, of course. Her influence on my inner landscape, and therefore my work, cannot be overstated.

“Dang, I wish I could draw,” I said.

“Well, everyone can draw something,” he said.

“I used to sit around drawing dolphins in, like, 1984.”

And he handed me the pen:

Then Nikki took over. I don’t know who drew the little dude in the corner. Why dolphins, you ask? Here’s a clue.

We’re leaving for Portland in about 15 minutes. The new issue of WIZARD arrived just under the wire (shush - Mr. WIZARD put me on the comp list like 5 years ago). Guess who’s on the cover! Why, Heath Ledger! Root around in the comments over here for Adam “theatrical rad villain design psychic” Boorman’s amazing pre-casting Joker sketch.