Tag Archive for 'book'

TORONTO COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL!

Published
by
Phil
on May 7, 2013
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

I’m hanging out in Syracuse, NY right now after an awesome few days in New York City. I had the pleasure of visiting the MAD Magazine offices and the First Second Books offices. I’ll write more about all this stuff later - right now I need to tell you that I’ll be in Toronto this weekend for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival! Lots of great things will be happening at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (aka TCAF)!

First thing: My book, CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES, will be debuting at the festival! I’ll be spending most of my time hanging out and signing copies at the Grimalkin Press booth. This is the first place anyone will be seeing and buying and reading actual copies of this book. It’s very exciting.

Second thing: Benign Kingdom will also be at TCAF! I’ll be visiting the Benign Kingdom booth to sign copies of my art book from time to time as well. I don’t know the official signing schedule yet, but keep an eye on my twitter feed for that info.

Third thing: I’ll be participating in a couple of events at TCAF! First, on Saturday, my friend David Huyck and I will be hosting a drawing workshop for kids at 10:30 am. Here’s a little info from the TCAF website:

Join children’s illustrator David Huyck (That One Spooky Night) and Mad Magazine cartoonist Phil McAndrew on how to make a face that sticks. Learn how to show emotions through facial expressions and body posture - make your characters pop off the page! What do the eyebrows say? And why the heck are the eyebrows talking in the first place?

Then, on Sunday at 4:00 pm, I’ll be one of several cartoonists participating in a live drawing event. Here’s the info on that:

Four creators enter, one creator leaves! Come watch four artists draw for their lives - and for your entertainment. Winners will feast on the souls of the losers (vegetarian option available). Featuring Phil McAndrew, Lucy Knisley, Jim Rugg, and Scott C.!

Both events are going to be awesome, I am pretty darn sure!

Fourth thing: I’ve got a comic in The Hic & Hoc Illustrated Journal of Humor, which will also be debuting at the festival!

I hope to see you in Toronto!

Exciting Packages and Exciting News!

Published
by
Phil
on March 28, 2013
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

The proof copy of CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES arrived on my doorstep this morning! I spent a couple hours reading and re-reading the book, cover to cover. I’m really proud of this thing!

Here’s a little pattern that I put together (my first ever!) for the inside cover of the book. It’s a little rough around the edges, but I’m still real proud of it.

Speaking of the book, an early review hit the internet a few days ago over at?Thirteen Minutes. They really went into great detail and wrote very thoughtfully about almost the entire book. Here’s a little excerpt from the review that I really liked….

“There’s always a bigger picture. Things could always be better. Things could always be worse. Enjoy. Grade A.”

Read the rest?over at Thirteen Minutes.

Some of my brilliant friends wrote really nice blurbs for the book. One of them is from Phil Dickey, who is in one of my favorite bands, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. He put this up on the SSLYBY tumblr today:

“Here’s a picture of Phil McAndrew’s dad and a shirtless Jimmy Carter in the 80s. I talk about it in our blurb for Phil’s new book. The book is called Crying in Front of Your Dog and Other Strories. So you know it’s good.”

It’s true! That’s my dad and shirtless Jimmy Carter. If you want to read Phil’s blurb, I put it up over here.

You can still pre-order copies of CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES right over here and can read more about the book right over here. And hey, it’s up on Goodreads! Maybe consider adding it to your “want to read” list, if you use that website.

I also recently received a bunch of copies of THE BOOK OF NICE from Workman Publishing, a fun little book that I spent a few months last year creating illustrations for. I believe the book officially hits stores in April, but you can pre-order a copy on amazon right now if you’d like.

What else is going on? What am I doing now that work on CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG is complete? Well, I’ve got a ton of little projects on my plate right now. At the moment I’m working on some cards for the MACHINE OF DEATH game. I’m also trying to get a few paintings done for various gallery shows. I just had another comic book cover art assignment land in my inbox and I’m finishing up work on a proposal for what will hopefully be my next big project.

Oh! And! Also! Big news: my girlfriend Rachel and I are officially going to be moving across the country from San Diego, California to Ithaca, New York soon. You may remember that we moved to San Diego a little over two years ago, driving across the country from Syracuse, New York. Well we’ll be making a triumphant return to upstate New York at the end of May. Rachel will be starting a PhD at Cornell University, which is pretty awesome. And I’m thrilled to be moving back to New York state. The last few years in Southern California have been a fun change of scenery, but I miss the lakes and trees and seasons of upstate New York. I miss being close to New York City, Toronto, DC, Pittsburgh, Boston, Philly…. and Ithaca has always been one of my favorite little cities. I can’t wait to get settled in there.

BOOKS

Published
by
Phil
on March 20, 2013
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

Here it is. The cover to my first book, CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be debuting the book at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival in May and shortly afterwards will be available online and in certain fine comic shops. I want to write something long and detailed about this book, the time I spent working on it, the comics going into it, etc. But I’m going to save that for another day because holy moly, I’m exhausted! And I’ve got a few other things I want to mention today. So for now, I’ll just remind you that you can read a little bit more about the book over here and you can PRE-ORDER a copy for yourself over here. Oh! And I want to show you the full wrap-around cover illustration (sans text). Click the image to see a larger version…

Next thing on the agenda: The Hic & Hoc Illustrated Journal of Humor!

I’ve got a little comic in this book, which I understand will also be debuting at TCAF. The book was edited by the brilliant cartoonists Nathan Bulmer and Lauren Barnett. It features work by a ton of hilarious, great cartoonists and has an incredible cover (as you can see!) by the great Joe Lambert. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy for myself.

Also! Physical copies of my Benign Kingdom art book exist! I have seen them! I have touched them! Here is a photo…

These should be available soon in the Benign Kingdom store.

TWO DAYS

Published
by
Phil
on February 5, 2013
in Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

Hello friends! As I am writing this you only have 48 HOURS left to help fund the Benign Kingdom spring 2013 art book collection.

It’s going to be amazing. Do yourself a favor and get in on this!

And please, help spread the word!!!

Crying in Front of Your Dog and Other Books Too!

Published
by
Phil
on January 21, 2013
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 1 Comment

January! 2013! I’ve got lots of new things to show you and talk about!

The first big thing is that my very first book, CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES, is now available for pre-order! I’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s finally coming out this spring. The image up above is just one of many, many pages from the book (colored slightly just for the internet). Here’s a little info about the book from the Grimalkin Press website…

CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES by PHIL McANDREW - Over 200 pages of new and collected stories about life, death, love, ghosts, cats, time travel, humans, literature, fear, magic, evil organizations, happiness, television, secrets, dogs, loneliness, house plants, ancient dark rituals, pizza, failure, power, money, nature, government conspiracies, regret, the internet, horrifying monsters, awful jobs, wizards, the ocean, aliens, dads, kissing, crying and teeth.

All pre-orders come with a FREE limited edition print. This particular print will only be available as part of the pre-order deal and will not be available ever again once the pre-order ends.

Okay! The next big thing I have to tell you about is BENIGN KINGDOM!

I’ve got an art book coming out as part of the next Benign Kingdom collection! I couldn’t be more excited. If you don’t know, Benign Kingdom is “a creator-owned publishing project designed to showcase the art of independent comic creators…. the goal is to produce an individual art book for each artist but also manufacture a hardcover edition that collects all four of their individual books in one beautiful collection.”

The image up above is my cover illustration for my art book. The other three artists doing books for this set are Emily Carroll, Gigi D.G., and Tyson Hesse. They’re all amazing and you can snag the entire set of books for yourself or a friend right over here.

The third thing on the agenda is… REGULAR SHOW!

My friends over at BOOM! Studios asked me to draw a variant cover for the first issue of the new Regular Show comics that they’re publishing. I love doing these covers for BOOM! and I hope I get to do more. I don’t know when exactly the first issue comes out, but I do know that my friend KC Green is writing the comics and that is absolutely perfect.

Speaking of comic book covers, the Adventure Time cover that I drew last year was named the FOURTH BEST comic book cover of 2012 by ifanboy.com. Holy moly.

Phil McAndrew Awareness Month

Published
by
Phil
on December 12, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

My friend Nathaniel MacDonald recently commented on facebook that “it’s officially Phil McAndrew awareness month.” I think he might be right! A bunch of stuff with my work in it (or on it) is hitting shelves this month.

First thing! The new issue of MAD MAGAZINE hits shelves next week on the 18th! I wrote one of the 20 Dumbest Things pages (I got paid to make fun of Rush Limbaugh - a dream come true). This was my first time getting paid to write stuff without also providing illustrations! But don’t worry - I’ve got a comic in this issue too (which I did illustrate). I posted a little tiny glimpse of the comic a while back, but you should pick this issue up and read the whole thing.

Second thing! Also coming out next week on the 19th is issue #3 of the BRAVEST WARRIORS comic! I did a variant cover for this issue (above). Many thanks to Shannon Watters at BOOM! for letting me do another cover. I highly recommend picking up a copy, if not for me, then for the amazing back-up comic that my friend Ryan Pequin has in this issue. It’s pure gold.

Third thing! Speaking of variant covers… if you missed out on the cover I did for issue #8 of the ADVENTURE TIME comics (above), I just learned that it’s been collected in this little book that came out last week, ADVENTURE TIME: COVER SHOWCASE. I ran out and picked up a copy for myself today and it’s awesome, having all these great cover illustrations by so many great artists, many of whom I consider good friends, collected together into one little book. The Cover Showcase book looks like this, with a great cover by Paul Pope.

Other things! I’m working on ANOTHER comic book cover right now. I can’t say what it’s for yet - the comic series hasn’t been announced by the publisher yet! I’m also working hard, trying to finish up drawing my book. I posted a full new comic from the book online a while back, right over here. And here are some assorted little bits and glimpses.

My friend Maré Odomo recently drew me and lots of other cool people into a comic that he made for VICE. I’m towards the end, shaking my booty. If you follow me on twitter, you probably know that I love Maré’s comics. I think he’s doing some really neat, genuine, magical things and I desperately hope lots of publishers start scrambling to work with him because I want to own some Maré Odomo books. Maré interviewed me earlier this year… you can read that over here.

It’s almost Christmas time! Around this time I like to re-post the Krampus illustration I did for the Rochester City Newspaper a couple years ago (above). For the holidays I’ll be heading back to visit the snowy wonderland from which I came: Syracuse, NY. I’m going to be hanging out on the East coast for a couple weeks, from the 18th of December until the 3rd of January. I haven’t been back home to Syracuse (or anywhere on the East coast) for a year and I’m really looking forward to it. While I’m home I’m mostly going to take it easy, but I am planning to spend some time working on a few different book proposals that I’ve been tinkering with for a while now so that I can get the ball rolling on a few big projects I’d like to tackle in 2013. Maybe I’ll write a bit more soon about what’s in store for 2013 and reflect a bit on 2012, but for now I gotta get back to work! I have to finish a ton of stuff before I head to the East coast next week!

In the Middle of the God Damn Pacific Ocean

Published
by
Phil
on October 30, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 1 Comment

Hello friends! I’m working on my book, on schedule to have it finished very soon. Up above is a recently completed page.

I also recently finished work on another book project, creating 45 illustrations for a book that is being published by Workman Publishing. This project is what filled most of my time the past two months, one month spent working on rough sketches and the other spent working on the final illustrations. Here’s what 45 illustrations looks like, stacked in a pile…

I’ve also got yet another book project in the works right now. I’ll talk a lot more about that one as we get closer to the end of the year.

Oh! I also wanted to mention that I’ll have a comic in an upcoming issue of MAD Magazine. This will be the third time I’ve contributed comics to MAD and it’s also the biggest comic I’ve sold to them so far. I’m not certain which issue it’ll be in, but I think either #519 or #520. Here’s a tiny peek…

There’s just a couple days left to enter the cartoon caption contest I’m holding! Do it!

And on that note: back to work I go!

PIZZA SANDWICH & DRAW LIKE A SIX-YEAR-OLD

Published
by
Phil
on October 9, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 1 Comment

Good morning! Maybe it’s not morning as you’re reading this, I don’t know. It’s morning as I’m writing it! Anyways, I’ve got three things for you today!

First thing: last night I put a bunch of stuff up on my website from Pizza Sandwich, the project I had in development with Cartoon Network. Click the image up above to go take a look.

Second thing: I also recently put a little article up on my website, an adaptation of the talk I gave this past weekend at SketchCamp SD. DRAW LIKE A SIX-YEAR-OLD. I’ve gotten a really great response to it so far!

Third thing: I sent a big update out to all my book backers last night with a few complete comics and a bunch more peeks at stuff in progress. Here’s a little peek at some work in progress for the rest of you…

And here’s a page I finished last night and am pretty darn pleased with…

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Published
by
Phil
on October 5, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

I’m currently working on three different book projects at the same time and I love it.

The first project is of course my book, which I’ve been working on for a little over a year now. I’m getting closer and closer to finishing it and am really happy and excited about all the new comics that are going into it. I’ve been posting little teasers (like the image up above) now and then over on twitter and tumblr. Last night I even posted an entire comic from the book. Sharing the whole thing just felt right. It’s about UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS and I felt like now was a good time to show this one to the world. Here’s the first panel (below), which you can click on to read the rest of the comic…

Here are a few in progress shots of pages from the book…


I’m currently on track to finish my book up in November.

The second book project I’m currently working on is for a large publisher. It’s not a project of my own creation, I’m just providing illustrations. It’s been a lot of fun so far and I’m working on it at a break-neck speed - I’m doing 45 illustrations from start to finish in just two months. I’ll be done with it at the end of October.

The third book project I’ve got on my plate is TOP SECRET! I don’t want to reveal anything about it yet. It’s really exciting though. Extremely exciting, even! I think all the details about this one will be revealed closer to the end of the year. I’ll be wrapping this up in mid-November.

Oh! Hey! SketchCamp San Diego is TOMORROW! I’ll be there, giving a little talk in the afternoon. Tickets to the event are sold out, but if you’re already registered to be there: See you tomorrow!

Bugs! Adventure Time! Dark Rituals! Public Speaking! The Piranhamoose! Rainn Wilson?

Published
by
Phil
on September 19, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 1 Comment

Hello, true believers! Up above is the the timelapse video from when the friendly folks of Soul Pancake filmed me painting in Los Angeles earlier this month. And here is a closer look at the painting I made in the video (click for larger view)…

When the timelapse video went online a lot of people were nice enough to link to it and tweet about it, including Rainn Wilson.

In other news, issue #8 of the Adventure Time comics hits shelves next week, the week of the 24th. Keep an eye out for copies with my variant cover!

My good friends Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson have a back-up story in this issue too, so if you only buy one issue of Adventure Time this year, make it this one.

I was just added to the roster of speakers that will be giving talks and workshops next month at SketchCamp San Diego. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I’ve been intrigued by the idea of attempting to give some talks or workshops for a while now, so I’m excited to have an opportunity to finally give it a shot. Unfortunately, seats have already completely sold out for SketchCamp, but if you’re already signed up to attend: I’ll see you on October 6th!

I’m happy to report that, despite being busier than I’ve ever been, I’ve been making a lot of progress with my book recently. Here’s a peek at a creepy page I finished recently, colored slightly for the internet…

Oh! Another bit of exciting news! I created some illustrations for a little story that was included in David Malki’s new Wondermark book, which debuted at SPX this past weekend and is now available to purchase. Here’s a peek (photo yoinked from David’s website)…

Okay! This blog update is long enough! Back to the drawing board I go.