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I wasn't expecting them yet, since the book doesn't come out for two more weeks. Very exciting! Hooray!

I had thought we were going to launch Morris the Mankiest Monster in London, but plans have changed... I had a very nice invitation from BICS coordinator Shane Chebsey and now the Morris launch will take off at the British International Comics Show! While I'm there, I'm going to interview one of Japan's upcoming and very talented comic artists, Michiru Morikawa. I still need to find out more about her work, but from what I've seen, it looks amazing. She'll be launching her new book, Buskers. (Edit: Ooh, some more of her pictures here, thanks to Rob Davis.)

I'm a bit nervous, I've never even been to BICS, much less had a table, but I'm thinking of lots of fun stuff that I could do with it. I woke up in the middle of the night still having lots of ideas about it and couldn't get back to sleep, so I made a pair of Morris horns:



In the cold light of morning, they look like a real DIY jobbie, but I might wear them anyway. I should've learned to crochet, they'd look cool crocheted. Ooh, a woolen Morris hat with horns... dangit, this is when I need to know how to knit! Or felt! ...Ah well, knitting and felting for another time. And I've ordered some badges with these designs:



Are any of you going to BICS? Do you have any tips for me? Hope to see you there!

Hey, this is cool! Cliodhna (ztoical) made this poster for one of Morris's events, while we're in Dublin. Pretty lettering! Thanks, Cliodhna! She's rushing around getting ready for the Irish 24-Hour Comic Day, which is combined with Dublin's Children's Book Festival and also joined up with the Kyoto International Manga Museum. It's going to be so fab!

Ha ha, previews of our book, Morris the Mankiest Monster is going out in its own special bio-hazard protection wrap!!! Lauren the publicist sent this photo, where you can make out some of the little creepy crawlies from the book's end papers. I need to get me some of that paper.



Have you seen joedecie's Grandpa Al comic on The Daily Crosshatch? It's a corker!

Whoo hoo! Here's the first press release for Morris the Mankiest Monster!

TURNED DOWN by 15 editors, REFUSED by 10 publishers, 12 years before anyone was brave enough to publish it... until now. [buh boom.]


(Keep clicking on the pic and it just gets bigger and bigger and more horrifying.)

I guess that means there is hope for even the mankiest of us (like James Turner, he is also very manky).

Giles and I just heard from our lovely publicist, Lauren Bennett, that the monthly Booksellers' Choice picked our Morris the Mankiest Monster to review! Our first review for my first-ever book in the UK, so exciting!





And 'good', if 'most revolting' is good. Yes, it is, of course it is! heh heh. Anything with the word 'pustule' in it has to be good.

My lovely publisher, David Fickling, says I'm allowed to talk about my book now as much as I like, and I can even post a few images! So here is the book that is going to blow off your head with its fabulousness this autumn. Woo woo!!


This is a picture of me with the breathtakingly dashing author, Giles Andreae and our revolting hero, Morris himself. Go on, say it, isn't he the best thing ever? I can't even tell you how thrilled I am that my first book in Britain has a big, shiny, green bogie stretched across the front cover. We are going to have SO much fun with this one.

Hey, the Amazon link is up already! They are speedy.

by Gerald Morris illustrations by Aaron Renier Houghton Mifflin 2008 It's been way too long since I read me some Arthurian legend. And while I should probably go back and remind myself of everything I've forgotten from T.H. White's The Once and Future King, or perhaps Roger Lance Green's King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (with it's spiffy new Puffin Classics edition), it was more