
Hereville: How Mirka Caught A Fish is the long-awaited third book in Barry Deutsch’s Hereville series, about “Yet Another 11-Year-Old Time-Traveling Orthodox Jewish Babysitter.” And it’s finally here!
Hereville creator Barry Deutsch will be on hand at 6pm on November 13th at The Spritely Bean, Portland’s comics and coffee cafe, to sign and sketch in books, alongside his collaborators, longtime Hereville colorist Jake Richmond, and new background artist Adrian Wallace. There will also be a presentation at 7pm, featuring live drawing demonstrations, an animated film of the Hereville drawing process, and other fun stuff. The festivities will continue pretty much until people stop showing up.
“Deutsch has created a wonderfully inventive world, in which fantastic creatures believably reside alongside a religious community; Mirka is a delightfully flawed heroine that nearly anyone can relate to and enjoy. Backgrounder Wallace and colorist Richmond augment Deutsch’s busy panels, providing a pleasingly earth-toned setting for Mirka’s latest adventure. This consistently clever and thoughtful series hasn’t lost a particle of momentum.” –Kirkus Reviews
Past Hereville books have been nominated for Eisner, Ignatz, Harvey, and Andre Norton Awards, and have won the Sydney Taylor Book Prize, the Oregon Book Award, and a Sybel Award.
The Hereville Book Premiere event will take place at The Spritely Bean, located at 5829 SE Powell, Portland, Oregon, beginning at 6pm. We’ll have copies of all three Hereville books for sale.
If you’re in or near Portland, I hope I’ll see you there!

I’m so excited that this is out!
Kirkus’s review:
“Deutsch has created a wonderfully inventive world, in which fantastic creatures believably reside alongside a religious community; Mirka is a delightfully flawed heroine that nearly anyone can relate to and enjoy. Backgrounder Wallace and colorist Richmond augment Deutsch’s busy panels, providing a pleasingly earth-toned setting for Mirka’s latest adventure. This consistently clever and thoughtful series hasn’t lost a particle of momentum.”
Hereville 3 at Powell’s Books
Hereville 3 at IndieBound
Hereville 3 at Barnes & Noble
Hereville 3 at Amazon
And it’s also available as a digital download on Comixology!

My short story “How To Make A Man Out of Tin Foil” is online! This angsty story about boyhood and masculinity at a Jewish summer camp is now available on Bitch Magazine’s website.
I did this story for the upcoming feminist comics anthology The Big Feminist BUT, an anthology of feminist comics by both women and men. The list of contributors is, frankly, AMAZING — Hope Larson! Jeffrey Brown! Sarah Oleksyk! Jen Wang! Shaenon Garrity! Tom Neely! — and I can’t wait to read my copy. If you’re interested, please kick in a few bucks to the Big Feminist BUT’s kickstarter campaign.
These are possible covers for a short self-published comic I might have with me at Comic-Con. Please let me know which design you like best.
Thanks!

UPDATE: And a fifth option (variation on the first option):

UPDATE AGAIN: Option number six (variant on #4)

I finished drawing the “Hereville” graphic novel this weekend, and Jake finished colors. That doesn’t mean I’m all done — there’s still a significant amount of work to do (title page, back cover art, fixes requested by the publisher, etc) — but still: YAY! I’m very happy to have gotten the principle art done, and I’m pretty pleased with the book as a whole.
Below: All 139 pages of the graphic novel, plus the front cover. It might be a tad hard to read at this size, though… A larger sized version will be in bookstores in November. 😛

On January 29, 2009 · Comments Off on More Hereville Title Page Sketches!
Remember, you can own a paper copy of “Hereville” of your very own!
For folks that pay extra, I do a sketch on the title page. Each sketch is different. Here are three sketches I haven’t posted before; you can see a bunch more here.

Continue Reading…
On the website, at least. (There may be some spoilers there, so don’t click if you’re allergic!) Author Brigid Alverson was very patient with my babbling during the phone interview.
From Brigid’s article:
Hansen first saw Hereville at the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland, Oregon, where Deutsch had a booth next to his friend Scott McCloud, acclaimed comics theory guru and author of Making Comics. “One of the first booths I saw was Barry’s,” she said. “He had this amazing banner, and he showed me his comic, and I thought it was delightful, but I don’t take new clients except by referral,” she explained. The next day she saw Scott McCloud, who is one of her clients. “The next day I went to see Scott McCloud,” Hansen says, “and he walked me to Barry’s table and said ‘You really should think about representing him.’”
After reading the comic, Hansen quickly agreed to represent Deutsch, but she told him the book needed to be filled out. Deutsch agreed, and the Amulet edition will be 130 pages long as opposed to the original 57-page story. The new edition will fill in the details of Mirka’s family and introduce some new characters, but it will end in the same place as the webcomic. […]
Although he signed a one-book contract with Abrams, the publisher has the option on future volumes, and Deutsch definitely sees Hereville as the first in a series. “I don’t know how many volumes there will be,” he said. “There may be comics focusing on characters other than Mirka who live in that community but I do know there will be several more Mirka stories, ” Deutsch says.
Some good news that was finally publicly announced today. Here’s the press release:
Author Name: Barry Deutsch
Book Title: Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
Category: Children’s / YA graphic novel
Book/Deal Description:
Amulet Books has acquired the publication rights to Hereville, Barry Deutsch’s fanciful adventure comic, currently scheduled for publication in Spring 2010.
Charlie Kochman Executive Editor of Abrams Comic Arts and Judy Hansen of Hansen Literary Agency negotiated the deal. Film rights will handled by Nick Harris of Rabineau Wachter Sanford & Harris for Hansen Literary Agency.
Hereville, portions of which initially appeared as a web comic on Deutsch’s web site www.hereville.com, chronicles the adventures of Mirka, an 11-year old Orthodox Jewish girl, whose dreams of slaying fairy-tale monsters conflict with her highly structured life in an isolated, religious town.
The Washington Post has described Hereville as "what you get when you cross Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Isaac Bashevis Singer."
About the Author:
Barry Deutsch grew up in Connecticut and studied under comics master Will Eisner at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Deutsch’s cartoons have won the Charles Schulz Award for college cartooning, and in 2008 Deutsch was nominated for the Russ Manning Award for outstanding new talent. Deutsch currently lives in Portland, Oregon, in a bright blue house with bubble gum pink trim.

On October 22, 2008 · Comments Off on Hereville Title Page Sketches (moon edition)
Remember, you can own a paper copy of “Hereville” of your very own!
For folks that pay extra, I do a sketch on the title page. Each sketch is different. Here are two sketches I did recently; you can see a bunch more here.

Continue Reading…
The second printing of Hereville will be delivered on Thursday!
So just a reminder — you can order them here, either for $15 for an unsketched copy, or $30 for a copy with an original sketch on the title page. Here’s an example of one with a sketch:

You can also buy an electronic copy for $5.