On our recent trip to New York, Amy and I received a few copies of Amulet 2.

The quality of production is simply incredible, and it just feels so good to hold.  With about 40 more pages than Amulet 1, the second book has a nice heft to it, and what a bargain at 10.99!  Quite a few of our friends have read it already and they all seem to love it.  I've read it quite a few times, and yet when I read it again, I still have a fun time, so I take this as a good sign.  I'm really proud of the work we did on this one, and I can't wait for the younger readers to be able to get ahold of it.  This story was really informed by the comments I got from kids and I made this book especially for them.

As you can see in the image up top, we also got hold of the bound galley for the upcoming Copper book.  This one just makes me smile.  It's so nice to see the Copper strips in one place, and I noticed people already getting hooked into reading them.  I have the new Copper strip thumbnailed, but I've been busy with so many other projects lately that I haven't been able to keep up with my webcomic commitment.  However, I will be back with the new strip very soon.

Speaking of being busy with other things, Amy and I are expecting our first child in November.  It's a boy and we are naming him Juni Kim Kibuishi.  While we're really excited about all the book projects coming together at the studio, it's the baby project that we're excited about the most.  I can't wait to meet the little guy.  :)

Annnnd, in Flight news...

Flight 5 was just nominated for a Harvey Award.  Please vote for us if you have the time by going to this link!  Harvey Kurtzman was the man, and MAD has probably been the biggest inspiration for the format of the Flight anthology, so this award means a lot.

Here's a photo of the new Flight 6 banner!  We're getting ready for Comic-Con, and this year we're more excited than ever.  I'm a special guest at this year's event, so I also feel a little more important.  Heheh.  When they said they wanted to fly me out there and put me up in a hotel, I was wondering "do they know I already pay to be there and exhibit?"  Heheh.  But man, this is great.  And with all the new projects we're working on at Bolt City Productions, the end of the year is shaping up to be a very productive time.  I'll be posting more news as the Comic-Con gets closer.  For now, I can let you all know that we will be located at booth #2329.  I hope to see everyone there!

The online voting for the Eisner Awards will be over in a couple of days, so I'd like to ask you to vote for Amulet if you are a professional working in the industry.  I've been nominated for the award a few times but have never won.  It would be so great to finally win one on this particular book.  I usually don't ask people to do this, but I'd like to at least let people know about the voting.  Here's the link:  http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_09nom.shtml

We've been working round the clock at the studio to prepare some material to show folks in New York this week.  Aside from the two graphic novels I'm developing with JP Ahonen and Richard Pose, Amy has started a new illustrated chapter book project that has everyone here buzzing about it.  We're getting proposal material ready to go and we'll hopefully be announcing the projects in the very near future.  Preparations for the 2009 Comic-Con are also underway, with hundreds of Flight 6 books ordered and a nice new display banner on its way.  This year's Con should be a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I recently received copies of Amulet in several foreign languages.  Pictured above are the French, Spanish, Danish and Italian editions.  Pretty neat!

The amazing Ronnie Del Carmen (lead story artist on the upcoming Pixar film, Up) will be speaking and signing books at Gallery Nucleus this Saturday from 2pm to 5pm.  We love Ronnie and the work he does, so I highly recommend attending this special event.  I'll definitely be there, so stop by and say hello!

My good friend Shadi Muklashy recently completed his first official iPhone app, a game called Last Cannon, and it was recently approved for distribution on iTunes. A bunch of us here at the studio and Gallery Nucleus think it's the best game on the iPhone right now. I've played it while waiting in line at the store or the doctor's office, and it gets me hooked every time. Be sure to check it out, and tell your friends! I want to see Shadi make more games!

In other news, we've been developing a couple of new graphic novel projects at the studio (Bolt City Productions) that I'll be co-writing with a couple of Flight artists. The pages will be drawn by them and the final color work will be done here at the studio. I'm pretty excited to get to work on some projects aside from Amulet in the studio, and to test the production system we've been developing over the past few books. Looking forward to seeing where this goes...

I'll be signing at the L.A. Times Festival of Books tomorrow from 11 am to noon.  You can find me at booth #813, and I'll be there with the nice folks at Mrs. Nelson's Bookstore (working in conjunction with Scholastic).  I had a great time last year, so I made sure to schedule for a return visit.  Even if you miss me at the event, there's plenty of really great stuff to do while you're there.  It's a fantastic way to spend a beautiful Sunday (the weather's going to be perfect), so I recommend heading out there for the event!  Hopefully, I'll see you there!

I recently drew this pin-up of a character I created called "Go" for the Secret Identities Asian American Superhero anthology.  The book was put together by Jeff Yang and it features comics by a bunch of Asian American artists and writers, including my friends Gene Yang, Sonny Liew, Benton Jew, and Anthony Wu.  For more info on the project, check out the Secret Identities blog.  And here is the plot synopsis for GO...

John Go is an ordinary programmer working for a tech company in Chicago.  Working late one night, an elderly man with a briefcase informs him that the company he works for is actually from another planet, and run by a race of beings that are not quite human.  John laughs nervously and goes to call security, but before he can pick up the phone, the elderly man opens the briefcase to reveal a strange, purple smoke swirling from inside.  The smoke surges forward and enters John’s mouth, nose, and ears, sending him to the floor in a panic attack.  The elderly man sits calmly next to John, his eyes glowing, and he begins to explain…

“In several months, an alien invasion will take place.  The work you have been so diligently performing for this company has helped lay the groundwork for the destruction of the human race.  Since you have been blissfully unaware of all this, we will give you a second chance to save your people.  The spirit that now lives in you will give you the strength needed to fight and destroy the enemy from within.  As soon as your job is done, you will be set free.”

And thus begins John Go’s quest to stop the oncoming alien assault.  He must enlist the aid of the few co-workers who are human and secretly work to subvert the plans of the company.  Will he succeed?  Will people think he’s gone crazy?  Find out what happens next in the first issue of GO!

In other news...

Tomorrow is the Street Fighter tribute show at Nucleus!  I just saw the pieces and they are incredible.  Lots of talented folks contributed.  And hey, there's a Street Fighter 4 tournament going on!  If you have the skills, you ought to give it a shot.  This should be one of the biggest shows of the year, and I'll hopefully see you there.

According to my latest royalty statement, Amulet 1 has sold 180,000 copies in its first year.  While I know we can do better, and I have high hopes for what Amulet 2 will bring to the series, we seem to be off to a great start.

The Copper book and Flight 6 are pretty much wrapped up, which means Amulet 3 is now officially underway.  The initial draft of the synopsis is done and I will be moving onto the thumbnails in the next few days.  The story is shaping up to be really good, so I'm excited to get cranking on this book!

Jellaby 2 is out!  This book is awesome.  Not only does the story really get rolling, but there's some great monster battle action in there.  I was lucky enough to help out a tiny bit by coloring a couple of panels. All of the interiors pages look fantastic, and everything reads well.  Kean and Naseem did an incredible job putting this together and I hope more people get to discover why Jellaby rocks.

The new Copper comic is inspired by the only real hobby I make time for.  My daily schedule is so packed I barely have enough time to do anything other than draw, eat, and sleep, but when I do take a break, it is usually so that I can play a few games of Halo 3 with my friends.  Since it's become such a regular part of my life, I figured I should draw about it at some point.  If any of you folks are good Halo players (I'm a 47 in Team and 46 in Snipers), are nice, mature people, and want to run some MLG games, feel free to send me an email and we can exchange gamertags.

In other news, Amulet was nominated for an Eisner Award!  The books I've worked on have been nominated a few times before, but they've never won.  Maybe this is the year!

The Copper book is very close to completion, and it features an all-new 8-page story.  My assistants Anthony Wu and Jason Caffoe are taking a crack at the coloring on the story and it's looking great!  I'll have previews of the material posted here soon.

Also, the Graphic Narrative Course at Gallery Nucleus is about to begin!  Be sure to sign up soon if you're interested.

I recently got the Amulet 2 proofs in the mail.  The orange on the cover proofs is printed on an overlay to indicate where the spot UV varnish goes (and is not the color of the actual titles).  Since I haven't yet posted the cover image on this blog, I guess this is the first preview I have shown of the second book.

Along with the color proofs for the pages and the covers, I was also sent a copy of the book in black and white, printed on less expensive paper.  It was nice to see the project in book form for the first time.

This is a picture of the color proofs for the interior pages.  Sometimes I get a little woozy thinking about the number of work hours this stack of papers represents.  This volume is nearly 20 percent larger than the first book, and it clocks in at 225 full-color pages.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the readers think of it!  Next month, I begin work on the thumbnails for Amulet 3.  I have the basic storyline in mind, but now I'll have to spend some time designing the new characters and sets.  Should be fun!  In the meantime, Flight 6 is nearly complete, and so is the Copper book.  Both books look like a lot of fun, and I look forward to seeing them in a bound format as well.

Last week, Amy and I attended the wedding of our good friends Chris and Jade Killian in Puerto Vallarta.  The wedding itself was wonderful, the people even more so, and the trip was an overall fun and relaxing experience.  Here are some photos from our trip. 

Thanks for inviting us to be a part of this wonderful event, guys!  We loved it.  :)