Hereville had over 235 visits yesterday!

235 isn’t a lot of people, I know, but it’s the most Hereville has had so far, and the first time I’ve gone over 200 in a day. And most of those folks stayed a while and looked at multiple pages. So I’m pleased.

Also, there have now been a few actual sales of the first Hereville story, both in electronic and paper editions.

Let’s hope current trends continue… and if you’re a friend of mine with a website, please don’t hesitate to link to hereville.com. 🙂

Joe Kubert’s Jewish Kids Comics from 1984

I was looking through the Chabad of Oregon website, and came across a series of Jewish-themed kids comics by Joe Kubert, entitled “Yaakov & Issac.” The comics themselves are too moralistic and religious-school-lessons in approach for my taste, but the art, as you’d expect from Kubert, is lovely. Here’s a sample:

Worth a look if you’re a big Kubert fan.

“How Mirka Got Her Sword,” page 19

Sketchblogging: Big Scowl

I’ve decided to experiment with posting scans from my sketchbook here. Hope folks enjoy it. You can click on it to see the bigger sizes on Flickr.

People who flip through my sketchbook always ask me if these drawings are supposed to be of any particular individual. It makes me wonder what the people they know look like.

Hereville: The Dead Tree Edition!

Hereville is available on paper!

But I don’t recommend buying this edition!
In November 2010, you will be able to buy the “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword” graphic novel in your local bookstore or online! It contains over twice as many pages as the original comic book version, and it costs less to buy.

So although I’ll sell the old comic to you, I don’t recommend that you buy it. (And I’m not going to print any more copies, either.) If I were you, I’d wait until November and buy the graphic novel. More comics for less money is a better deal.

But I want to buy the original version anyway! Then I can have both versions!

Okay, okay. Send me $20 and I’ll send you a copy of “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword!” on paper. This comic is 57 pages long (not including covers, title page, and stuff like that) and in color. It’s printed on a pretty heavy stock and is about six inches wide and nine inches high.

If I read this, does that mean there’s no point in reading the graphic novel version?

Definitely not! The 2008 comic is 57 pages long. The graphic novel is 129 pages long; most of those pages are brand-new, and about half of the pages that aren’t brand-new are redrawn and recolored. The graphic novel tells the same basic story, but with more characters, more plot, and in my opinion with better artwork.

Can I get you to do a sketch in my copy of the 2008 comic?

If you pay $50 for your copy, I’ll also create an original, one-of-a-kind sketch on the title page for you. You can click here to see examples of what these drawings look like. Choosing this option will add several days to how long it takes me to mail your copy, obviously.

Whether or not you pay for a sketch, I’ll be happy to sign it to whomever you’d like.

How to donate.

You can donate through PayPal by clicking on this link. After you’ve made a donation, this page will tell you what to do to get your thank-you gift.

Thanks!

“How Mirka Got Her Sword,” page 18

I’m oddly fond of the checkboard pattern worn by the boy in the middle panel. (He’s Mirka’s cousin, by the way, not a brother. Mirka has a bunch of siblings, but only one brother.)

“How Mirka Got Her Sword,” page 17

The sidebar is now on the side!

The sidebar is now to the side of the comics page, which is where I want it (rather than below it, which is the standard comicspress layout). Many thanks to Brian of Breakpoint City for generously creating and sharing the code — I don’t think I would have figured it out myself.

First person to put up a “Hereville” banner?

Yay! Check out the newest Don’t Know Either — I think this is the first link to “Hereville” from another webcomicker since I restarted! Makes me happy. Thanks, Theresa!

As well as creating one of the longest-running webcomics out there (closing in on an incredible 500 pages — it’ll be too many years before “Hereville” reaches that pagecount), Theresa is also doing incredible work promoting the very successful drive to help out Rachel Nabors (which I posted briefly about last week). She’s currently offering a great deal — donate ten bucks to Rachel, and she’ll do an original drawing for you of the subject of your choice. Donate more, and get a nicer drawing — check out Theresa’s site for details.

Click on the image to see the next page

Well, trying to get the new site in order continues. It’s a slow process, but “Hereville” now has a navigation option I really wanted: When reading “Hereville” pages (other than the most recent page), the page art itself is a link to the next page. This makes me very happy.

Many thanks to Karchesky, the cartoonist behind the ultra-quirky strip “Imaginary Daughter,” who generously wrote the code that makes the “click on the image to see the next page” thing work.