Off to Portland for Stumptown Comics Fest!

It's early in the morning and I'm doing my last minute packing of things for the con. Trying hard to not to forget to include the things that I am going to forget anyway.

So, I will be at Stumptown Comic Fest this weekend--both days. I'll be at my table for the duration except for:

Signing at the Dark Horse booth
Saturday 3 -4 pm.

That will be the exclusive time and place to get a nifty free signing plate of the cover of "A Gift Comes!"

Also...on a different note:

Beanworld Review on Aint't It Cool News.

Got an e-mail from my friend and colleague, Jacq, at Dark Horse:

"I think this might be my favorite write-up yet. It really captures the Beanworld reading experience. The colloquial tone of the piece is inviting and accessible. If I had never read Beanworld I think this review would compel me to pick up a copy of the book. "

I think she is right. I really enjoyed reading this piece by Ambush Bug.
I do sometimes feel as if I'm looking through a microscope trying to get it all in focus and transcribe what I see as fast as I can!

CBLDF Announces New Board of Directors!

I'm quite proud to announce here that I have been given the honor to serve on Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Board of Directors.

Chris Staros has stepped down after an amazing tenure as President of the Fund. He is being succeeded by Chris Powell, and so, for the first time in its long history CBLDF's Board is going to be chaired by a member of the retail community. This is very exciting and I look forward to working with Chris, the Board, and of course, CBLDF's Executive Director, Charles Brownstein.

As I stated in the press release, "Over the years I've drawn comics, published them, and did marketing work for comics shops and distributors. I've witnessed how swiftly and arbitrarily comics can be assaulted in the marketplace and now, even the home. I'm really quite privileged to have been given the opportunity to join the Board and add my ideas to its vigorous efforts to guard every one's First Amendment rights."

For the last year and a half, I haven't had my Business Thinking Cap tilted towards anything other than Beanworld. I'm really looking forward to have an opportunity to be on a platform where I can state my theories and ideas and have opportunity to work with others in guiding the trajectory of CBLDF's mission for the next few years.

Speaking of Beanworld....one of the reasons I've been so silent here (and elsewhere) is because I'm in the final stretch of "Here There" and cranking out new pages at a very rapid clip and it is happily taking up ALL of my time and blogging seems like a time sponge taking up minutes I can ill afford to give up.

Once the book is turned in--I'm sure I'll be yakking it up on this blog all summer.

Oh, and one last thing, in case I've failed to mention this before--I will be at Stumptown again this year.

Stumptown Badge Art

In a long post about a whole lotta stuff, that he accrued on his most recent travels, The Spurge featured a picture of his Stumptown badge as seen above.

In all the rush leading up to (and during Stumptown) I'm not sure I remembered to mention that I did the artwork for the badges.

Well, all I did was the line art. The colorwork and typography was all superbly rendered by Jenn Manley Lee.

I have absolutely zero idea of exactly where and when I first met Jenn and her husband, Kip. But it was a very long time ago and almost certainly through Ivy and Scott McCloud. They were part of Scott and Ivy's first group of "Kids" as Ivy recently wrote about.

And just so you can see how much elegance Jenn contributed to the embellishment of my simple drawing--here it is!

Home Sweet Home!

Larry Marder and Dark Horse Publisher, Mike Richardson

After almost a month of continuous movement--I'm home! And catching up on my sleep. Tomorrow I'll be back in my studio and get to the thing I like to do more than anything else--draw Beanworld.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in the last few days. I am really excited to be going to Dark Horse. I had a great day of meetings at their offices on Monday and the future is looking very exciting, not just for comics but other things too. As soon as there is something to say; you will be the first to know.

The above is my new poster. It went on sale at Stumptown. As soon as I can get some envelopes for it, I'll post a way for you to get them directly from me.

If you haven't already, go check out the Beanworld animation that Fashion Buddha Studios made in like three weeks. Kudos to Robert, Indigo, and Erica for bringing the little guys to life. Below is a scan of a quicky model sheet I did for them on the plane on the way to Boston only like 3 weeks ago!

Finally for today--I've posted a new photo set on Flickr--Larry Marder's Springtime Travels. I'm slowwwwwly catching up.

Beanworld Going To Dark Horse!

Yep. It's true.

Comics.

Toys and Collectibles.

Entertainment.

Steve Duin of the Oregonian did a nice write up of today's panel--including the announcement above and includes the following summary:"Dark Horse plans to republish the first 21 issues of Tales of the Beanworld, possibly in deluxe hardcover editions, then deliver Marder's new adventures sometime in early 2009. Diana Schutz will edit."

I'm really very excited to be affiliated with Dark Horse. I've admired Mike Richardson and his crew from across the playing field for two decades and have always had the greatest admiration for the entire Dark Horse team.

Today I gave the first solo Beanworld panel presentation in over 15 years. It covered a lot of ground, and I'm almost certainly going to be giving it again at SD08. Also revealed was the name of the up-coming NEW graphic novel: "Remember HERE when you are THERE."

Also had the world premiere of a one minute Beanworld animation by the talented folks at Fashion Buddha Studios. As soon as it is posted on their site, I'll be sure to let you all know about it and tell you the back story behind it!

The biggest and most amazing thing that happened today, however, was meeting Mark Irons aka Half for the very first time. Half is the guy who bravely put together BeanWeb. We had an incredible conversation before and after my panel.

It's getting late but I really wanted to get this up tonight. I'll be back to share more with you very soon. Also breaking today is a piece about me and by me at CBR--orchestrated by George Khoury.

I'm going to bed--I'll be at the Dark Horse offices tomorrow and home (at last) on Tuesday. I'll be summarizing the entire continuum of the last 3 weeks then.

I'm Going To Be At Stumptown Comics Fest In April!

THIS JUST IN!

From the Stumptown Comics Fest home page:

The Stumptown Comics Fest is moving to Spring! Hot on the heels of our successful 2007 show, the Stumptown Comics Fest organizers are moving the 2008 show to the early spring months. The date for this Fifth Annual Stumptown Comics Fest is set for April 26th & 27th, and we will be returning to the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel for our second year.

We are also pleased to announce several Special Guests for the 2008 Fest, including:

Nicholas Gurewitch, The Perry Bible Fellowship
Larry Marder, Tales of the Beanworld
Craig Thompson, Blankets, Good-bye Chunky Rice
Raina Telgemeier, The Babysitters Club
Dave Roman, Astronaut Elementary, Agnes Quill
Derek Kirk Kim, Good As Lily

Additional Guests will be announced in the coming weeks, and registration forms for exhibitors will be posted by January first. We'll also be posting links to other comics-related events going on in Portland leading up to the 2008 Fest, including parties and gallery shows around town.
See you all in April!

I'm already working on a few special things for this--I'll keep everyone informed as details develop!