Panel from Hereville 3: Fruma tells a story

Fruma Costume Design for Hereville book 3

I can just make up outfits on the fly, rather than stopping drawing pages to design an outfit, but the resulting clothing tends to be extremely repetitive and bland. Much better to try and think the outfit through, and wind up with something that doesn’t look exactly like all the other outfits I’ve drawn Fruma in. (Although it’s clear that Fruma likes horizontal stripes, since I think this is the third or fourth time I’ve used horizontal strips in one of her outfits.) I haven’t shown Fruma wearing boots before, but this story takes place in the autumn, so I think boots make sense.

I like this outfit; it seems to occupy a point partway between frumpy and pirate.

Panel from Hereville 3: Mirka and Rochel Look At A Photo

Mirka as the 11th Doctor

A Mirka sketch done for a Doctor Who fan.

Costume design for Hereville book 3

Hereville Wins An Oregon Book Award! (And I Am Surprised)

I attended the Oregon Book Awards tonight with my friend Becky Hawkins; Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite was nominated for the “Graphic Literature” category, but had no chance of winning, since the competition included Joe Sacco and Craig Thompson, both of whom are 600-pound gorillas of cartooning awards (and deservedly so). And also nominated was my pal Shannon Wheeler, who is a friggin’ New Yorker cartoonist, and an award-winning gorilla himself, albeit perhaps more of a 450-pound gorilla.

So I had NO chance.

And then I WON!!!!!!!

I can’t possibly describe how surprised I was. (And thrilled. And honored.)

BTW, Joe Sacco wasn’t there tonight, but Craig Thompson greeted me afterwards with a big hug and congratulated me. (I had only met him once before, but he seems very nice). And Shannon was also very nice, but of course I know him well enough to expect him to be gracious.

This little girl sure looks a lot like Mirka

A photo from an episode of the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” that I saw on Twitter.

"This is a claymore landmine. Use that to protect your property." "Thanks, Ron!" #ParksandRec #RonSwanson pic.twitter.com/Q4paM16ytZ

— Intrepid Eronaut (@GentlyPress) March 17, 2014

I bet Mirka would love to have a landmine.

Cybil Award Winner!

I’m thrilled to announce that Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite has won the 2013 Cybil Award for best middle-grade graphic novel!

You can see the full list of winners here. Congratulations to all my fellow winners. Congrats as well to all the nominees in my category: Matt Phelan, John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, Nathan Hale, Jennifer Holm, Matthew Holm, and Greg Ruth.

It’s an amazing list (John Lewis? When will I ever again be on the same list as John Lewis?), and I really am honored to be on it.

Barry’s Guest Strip Is Up On Modest Medusa Today

I’ve got a guest strip on Jake Richmond’s webcomic “Modest Medusa” today; Jake is my housemate, my studiomate, and the colorist of “Hereville.” Bizarrely, considering we share a home and a workplace, it feels like I don’t actually see Jake all that often.

Anyhow, click on the panel to read the whole guest strip. It was lotsa fun to draw.

* * *

Also, my friend Ben Hsu is having a kickstarter for the first book collection of Licensed Heroes, a webcomic Ben writes and Elaine Tipping draws. On the surface a swords-and-monsters adventure set in a generic D&D world, it quickly turns out to be a lighthearted not-very-disguised autobiographical strip about being young and with no money and no idea how to proceed. But, you know, with monsters.

And while I’m linking Kickstarters I’ve supported, fans of Jewish comics should definitely check out The Jewish Comix Anthology, which looks like it’ll be really excellent.

“My name is Mirka…”

My friend Rachel Swirksy, who is a wonderful writer and a major help to me in creating Hereville books, just sent me this snippet:

My name is Mirka, and I grew up in a small town where all the women wore long sleeves and all the men wore beards, where everyone spoke Yiddish and prayed to Hashem, where almost no one watched TV, and the men studied books all day while the women worked and took care of the children.

Most didn’t know it, but there was a troll there, and a witch, and a talking pig, and a wishing fish, and a time eater, and a demon, and there were other things, too.

I wanted to be a dragonslayer, but instead I learned that the world needs a lot of things other than dragonslaying. Cooperation, and clear-thinkingness, and mercy, and willingness to do the right thing no matter the consequences.

That doesn’t mean the world doesn’t also need dragon-slaying.

My name is Mirka, and I am a dragon slayer.