Wish I'd Thought of That

My pal Jeff Kinney just revealed the cover art for his new Wimpy Kid book, Dog Days, which will be released October 12. The best part: throughout August, a tricked-out minivan will be touring the nation's libraries to promote the book on a Summer Reading Coast-to-Coast Ice Cream Truck Tour. See if your city made the list here.

As a guy with the life-long dream of driving the Oscar Meyer wienermobile, I can scarcely imagine a cooler honor than having an ice cream truck/van covered with my characters (and also supporting libraries, encouraging literacy, blah blah blah). This is a lot better than that Time magazine "100 Most Influential People" thing.

I just wonder: if Jeff actually went to one of the stops, would they give him a freebie?

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Two things a couple of people have asked about lately:

1. I decided not to go to the San Diego Comic-Con this year. No big reason, just a combination of time/money/hassle plus not really feeling like I had a good reason to be there. I love the event, and the people there have been very good to me, but it's also a business meeting as much as a vacation and I didn't think I had a worthwhile amount of business to conduct. I will miss seeing some friends I only get to see there once a year, although I hear some of them aren't attending, either. It's like Yogi Berra said about a once-favorite restaurant: it's so crowded that nobody goes there anymore.

2. I am working on a new cartooning project, something I've had tumbling around in my brain a few months now. I know the plot and am working on character designs: I've got three main characters and think I've got the look of one of them down, one of them close, and one I haven't figured out at all. I don't know if it's a book--it's just a nice little story that may not be "big" enough for print. Maybe it's a webcomic. Maybe nothing at all, I dunno. I do find that when I have an idea stuck in my head like this, pretty much the only way to move on is to do it and get it out of the way. We'll see.
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