For your consideration, two web pieces about me and my book:
1. A little feature in Blast, an online magazine based in Boston, written by Anthony Geehan. Anthony interviewed me a few days ago and said he liked the book, so I wasn't surprised to see this swell article turn up. An excerpt:
The story of “Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?” is interspliced with a sub story, following the son’s favorite comic book “Space Age Adventures with Commander Cap Crater and his young aide Cosmic Kid.” As the father and son see the actual world change, Cap and the Cosmic Kid go through their own metamorphosis. From carefree defenders of the city of tomorrow to Commie-bashing patriots to socially concerned sci-fi characters, the comic within the comic sees the effects of the changing attitude of the world almost as much as the father and son do.
2. A gracious blog post by my friend Sherwood Harrington. As I explained in my webcast, I got to know Sherwood through the Internet and our mutual interest in comic strips. Sherwood is also one of the handful of people I trusted to read an early draft of the book and provide some honest feedback. There's a chapter in WHTTWOT in which my father and son characters take a road trip to Florida in 1965. Days before I sat down to draw that sequence, Sherwood posted an old family snapshot on his blog of he and his mother eating lunch in a Florida diner in 1961. It was perfect! Exactly where I wanted my characters to be! I asked Sherwood if I could use it, he said yes, and that's what his post's about.
I've got a couple more interviews scheduled early next week. Haven't seen any real book reviews yet; still anticipating/dreading those.
A few friends, including Sherwood, have told me their Internet-ordered books have arrived in the mail. I haven't been in any bookstores lately to see if they're available in the wild yet. If you happen to spot my book in an actual physical bookstore, I'd love to hear about it.
7 comments:
Wow. I was looking forward to the book before, but now I really want to get my hands on a copy. I'm sooo jealous that Sherwood already has his.
I picked up my copy at Diesel Books in Brentwood.
Thumbing through it, I noticed a really cool unattributed inspiration on pages 176-7. You assume you are looking at a futuristic city plan, but it is a tracing of the silver wall mural design from the 1967 Tomorrowland in Disneyland. Awesome.
I have not read it all, but on the surface, it seems heavily inspired by the Jason Robard's Doc called "World of Tomorrow" where he discusses why tomorrow had to be "dragged" into the future. The Westinghouse films, Highways and Horizons, etc. All fine by me.
Thanks, Namowal. Let me know what you think--unless you're disappointed, then lie to me.
Ah, my Anonymous friend, you found an Easter egg! Faster than I expected anyone to, to tell the truth. Good eye. I didn't actually watch the Robards film, but I did see most of the original source material that went into it, including Highways and Horizons et al.
And thank you both for buying my book.
I discovered the book yesterday when doing my weekly comics shopping at Forbidden Planet in New York, so it's in all comicbook stores (well, the ones smart enough to order it).
I purchased it at B&N (employee discount), and they had just received it Tuesday.
I got my copy.
It's wonderful!
Some things I loved (sans plot spoilers) include
*the clever mix of photos and cartoons
*the facial expressions of the characters
*the blending of real life evens and wacky sci-fi
*the printing artifacts in the comic books
*the adds in the comics (you either have a good memory or you've done your homework!)
*the boxes of facts and observations
*Cosmic Kid's exclamations ("Holy Hertzsprung!")
*the Googie style Space Age Motel complete with a sputnik ornament
I could go on and on.
Thanks for creating this.
Thanks for the scouting report, Torsten, and for buying my book. Right now, it seems that some stores have it in stock and others think it's not coming out until July. All the best comic book shops seem to be on top of it, though.
Namowal, Thanks for the compliments, especially regarding the Googie (it's real hard to type that without having it come out "Google") motel. Of course it's based on a couple of real places, and I had a lot of fun drawing that panel. And thank you for buying my book. I appreciate it.
Brian;
A little late, I know, but I've seen it at Copperfield's in Sebastopol, and the Four-Eyed Frog in Gualala called me on Saturday to say that the book had come in.
--Marion
Post a Comment