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I'm totally freaking out in a good way because Sonny Liew has been nominated for an Eisner Award for his pencilling and inking on our book, "Wonderland!"  Here's the SLG news blurb about it, where you can congratulate Sonny.  Issue #3 is out now, and I have to gush that with every issue, Sonny's work gets more textured and nuanced.  I am very pleased indeed.

     I've had a weird, long day.  But let me backtrack a little, and mention that I was pee-your-pants excited to see Dame Darcy sitting in the front row of last night's episode of America's Next Top Model.  I will not apologize for watching that show.  It is my religion.  As soon as Anthony said, "Oh my god, that's Dame Darcy!" in my head I was doing a "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" type thing, connecting Library Bonnet to ANTM.  Because Dame Darcy reads Library Bonnet.  It made me feel closer to the show, and... closer to God.       
     Now on to my weird, long day.  This morning I was checking books in, and when I opened one of the books, a white sealed envelope slid out of it.  I thought maybe there might be something important in it, so I opened it.  To my horror, it was full of BLACK HUMAN HAIR.  I don't mean just a few strands, I mean a LOT of black human hair, in a bundle.  I immediately ran for my anti-bacterial handsoap.  I almost kept the hair-filled envelope, just to show people, but it was so gross and nasty, I had to throw it away.  
     Later in the day, I had a disturbing incident when these kids came into the library to take a history test.  One of the girls was loudly disturbing the other kids, and finally one of the boys said, "She's talking so much I can't even concentrate!"  The girl said something nasty back to him, which I didn't quite catch, so I said, "What did you just say to him?"  She said, "I didn't say nothing," and gave me a dirty look.  I said, "You better watch the way you look at me, and stop lying, because you DID say something.  Now tell me what it was."  
     She looked straight at me with this frighteningly hateful look in her eyes, and said loudly and proudly, "I said FAG."  I was so stunned, I stupidly asked, "What?" and she repeated, "I said, FAG."
     Of course I called her teacher, and sent her off to detention with him, and he gave her the full-on talk about why that's so unacceptable, but what really upset me was how much it threw me off-kilter.  Normally I would have handled the detention and "the talk" myself, but I was so freaked out by the pure ugly hate in her eyes, I sort of blanked out, and got all jittery.  I HATE that.  It's bad enough when they throw that word around casually in an ignorant way, but it was like this girl really MEANT it.  Ugh.  I just wasn't up to that today, even from some twatty 13-year old.
     But then after school something funny totally made up for it.  
     I was standing there appreciating the relative quiet after the big after-school rush was over, and this one really quirky, smart kid came in.  He walked up to the circ desk, looking freaked out and desperate, and said, "Mr. Kovac, I don't why, but I just thought maybe you would be the one to come to with this... dilemma."  I looked at him, and saw that he was wearing eyeliner on one eye, with some creative design coming off of it, and across part of his cheek.  Sort of a glam-rock thing.  He said, "Do you know how to get eyeliner off?  Do I wait for it to dry first?!"  
     I said, "Dude, I always used eyeliner pencil, I can't help you with the liquid kind."
     Apparently he forgot what day it was, and was thinking he had several hours before any parents got home, and would have time to, as he put it, "prance around with my eyeliner on, and listen to David Bowie, and... you know..."  I supplied, "Pretend to BE David Bowie?"  "Of course!" he responded proudly.  Anyway, the problem was that he remembered this was NOT a day when he'd have a few hours to himself, and in fact his conservative hillbilly grandmother was coming home soon, and if she saw any sign of eyeliner on him, he would be in big-ass trouble.  Not to mention if his DAD found out.  So I let him use the sink in the library workroom, and he scrubbed and scrubbed at his eye until I verified that all trace of the eyeliner was gone.           
     He said, "So, my grandmother isn't going to look at me, and know I had makeup on?"
     I said, "No, not at all!  Unless I TELL her..."
     He laughed, then said, "Wait, you're kidding, right?"
     He hung around for a while, then as he was leaving, he came up to the desk, and said, "Mr. Kovac I would just like to thank you for being so understanding.  I would appreciate it if this didn't... uh, you know... leave this room.  May you and all your Slovak brethren have a good evening."
    

Well, it's only a matter of days now.  If you're going to be at Comic-Con and feel so inclined, there's a "Spotlight on Tommy Kovac" panel from 1:30 to 2:15 on Thursday, July 20th in room 9.
     
We'll be driving down to San Diego with a friend on Wednesday morning, and it should be loads of fun.  Barrel of monkeys, etc.  I even have copies of the brand new hot-off-the-copier Library Bonnet #8!  It's true!  Not to mention that SLG will have copies of Autumn #5, which I don't believe has appeared in stores quite yet. 

I'll be signing Wonderland and my other stuff at the SLG booth Thursday through Sunday, along with Sonny Liew, fabulous artiste of Wonderland.
 
There will also be an official "announcement" of a new SLG comic I'm developing with Malaysian artist Leong Wan Kok.  I think "official announcement" means we'll have a postcard or something cool like that.

     With a rustle of leaves and a whiff of smoke, Autumn #5 is finally in stores.  Check out this SLG news blurb. 

     Today I was a "special guest" at the LA Comic Book and Sci-Fi Convention.  It was fun, and I felt "special," and a bunch of people bought "Wonderland," and some of my other comics and zines, and original artwork.  Since we were there for 4 1/2 hours, though, there was some downtime between interested fans and perusers.  To look busy, I started drawing a spontaneous comic about "Buttwing," one of my favorite characters that I haven't used in anything published yet.  Click on the link below if you want to see what I ended up with by the end of the convention.  Anthony laughed appreciatively, paused, and then said carefully, "You know... I'm not sure that really makes sense..." 

     I finally finished Autumn #5!  That's what the above image is from.  It should be out the first week of June.
     I also found out that apparently Wonderland #1 will be out May 17th, which is earlier than I thought.  Exciting!  
     Also, I'm just ripping these links off from the SLG news journal, but here's a cool preview of Wonderland #1, and here's an interview with me about it.  Both are from The Pulse.
     I'll be a special guest at the June 4th L.A. Comic Book and Science Fiction convention, signing Wonderland, which should be fun.  And I get to be a "sponsored guest" at Comic-Con in San Diego, which is way cool.  So I think it will be a fun summer.  Oh, speaking of Comic-Con, fabulous artist Sonny Liew will be there, signing Wonderland with me!  We've only corresponded by email so far, so hopefully he won't be put off by my foul stench and screechy, grating voice.
     Right now we're very frustrated because Anthony's trying to put together a black slat-backed swivelling banker's chair for me, for my drafting table.  There are pieces of chair, screws and bits of foam packing scattered all over the living room floor.  Nothing seems to be fitting right, but this is what you get for buying furniture that has to be assembled.  It had to be THAT particular chair, though.  It just did.