Zeus and Kampe

Ah, Google alerts, I love you. How else would I find out about cool stuff like this? N.S.Gill is a classicist with her own ancient history blog on About.com. Every Monday she writes a piece spotlighting a myth of the ancient world (and not just limited to those of the Hellenic persuasion)and, by way of a review of Zeus: King of the Gods, she talks about Zeus and Kampe.

Ms. Gill, at her own admission, has never read a graphic novel before, but man, she knows her stuff. She deftly pinpointed the literary sources I used to construct my own depiction of the encounter between Zeus and Kampe, who was the guard of the Hekatonchieres and Cyclopes during their imprisonment by the Titans in Tartaros. Check out the review, and her blog. Some very interesting stuff.

This dude looks familiar...

Some more artwork for the Olympiansrule.com website. A self-portrait this time. Either that, or the standards on Mount Olympus are seriously slipping.

BTW, as part of the new site, I'll be running a new blog, the aptly named olympiansrule.blogspot.com. Head on over and check it out.

Interview at Thick Mick's blog

Check out the recent interview I did at Thick Mick's Blog, also known as the blog of cartoonist John A. Walsh, a man with a name almost as Irish-sounding as my own. Visit to snicker at my windbaggyness, stay to check out some of John's sweet cartooning.

Real Blushworthy Zeus mention in The School Library Journal

Well, sometimes in this business people write some nice things about your work, and sometimes they write some really nice things about your work, and then there's this.

The good folks at Macmillan (the parent company of Roaring Brook and First Second) recently hosted an event where they presented some of the companies upcoming offerings to an invited crowd of Alpha Librarians (the best sort of friends one can hope to have for your book. Librarians are teh awesome). The above link takes you to a preview of some of the offerings they saw. My own Zeus comes way down at the bottom. As the title of this post may lead you to believe, they say some very nice things indeed.

Thanks to Tim Bush and Sara Hudson (by way of Phil Stead, apparently) for the heads-upses.

Zeus preview at the Graphic Novel Reporter!

Want to read some Zeus-y action but just can't wait until the first week of January? The Graphic Novel Reporter has ten pages up for your viewing pleasure right now. Click here!

Guest drawing from Becky Cloonan

So here's a nice side effect of working in a studio with a bunch of amazingly talented artists. Sometimes you come in and there will be an awesome little drawing by one of them at your desk. Becky Cloonan drew this great portrait of Poseidon on a scrap of paper at my desk. How cool is that?

Blush-worthy article on Comic Book Resources

Didn't I just say I normally don't link to reviews? Maybe I should give that practice up for the new year. Regardless, this article at Comic Book Resources, while it does say some very nice things about Ball-Peen Hammer is not really a review, per se, but a rather cool little piece about Adam and my thoughts on Ball-Peen, before veering off into Olympians territory. I humbly suggest you give it a read.

Ball-Peen Review in the Comics Journal

I normally don't link to all that many reviews on my blog, but I had to make this exception. The Comics Journal (bold and italics! It's that important!) has a brand new website and right up there, on day one, a big, two-paged review of Ball-Peen Hammer. The reviewer says some very nice things about Adam Rapp's and my cheerful little tale. Check it out here.

Hestia

Poor Hestia, the least developed of the Olympians. Despite being extremely important in cult and ancient everyday life, she had virtually no presence in myth or art, which has lead to her being the most overlooked member of the pantheon in the modern day. As a goddess of the hearth and fire, I chose to depict her as a barely humanoid being of living flame, as a nod to her barely-personified role in myth.

As an aside, I drew this whole piece up in about, no lie, 5 minutes. I was actually going to scrap it until a couple of my studio-mates, with no prodding from me, came up and told me how much they liked this drawing, left on my drafting table, in particular. I guess I was too close to see its merits.

Preview of Olympiansrule.com

Masks!




A cool feature on the upcoming Olympiansrule.com-- tons of downloadable masks! With little dramas from the books for classrooms to act out! Or for you and your buddies to reenact the Trojan War with on the front lawn! Pictured are Ares, God of War, and Hephaistos, God of Fire.

Olympians Rule preview

Just a little preview of an image I created for the soon-to-be launched Olympiansrule.com website. Enjoy!

Well, Duh

from Newsarama, an article about a new study that found that comic books are legitimate kids literature. In my opinion, very cool news indeed.