Animated still photography of Jane’s World Cartoonist, Paige Braddock. Animated in After Effects by Jules Tortolani.

Thanks to Tiny Heroes for giving our Martian Confederacy book a great review. It’s the perfect sort of story to get readers excited about book 2. Heck, it even inspires me to get crackin’ and finish inking pages. Most of book 2 takes place off world, which is giving Jason and I great opportunities to create unique environments in space. Here’s a sample of one of the “approach shots” to a space outpost… think strip mall in space.

Me, age 8, obviously BEFORE my discovery of Converse Tennis Shoes.

It’s my birthday tomorrow. Usually, I’m giddy with anticipation for the new pair of Chuck’s I inevitably pick up on my birthday… usually in a color that I don’t currently have in my collection. But for some reason, this year I’m just not excited about the big day. What’s up with that? Am I really finally growing up?… to the point where a birthday is just another day? How sad.

In two weeks I’ll be in NYC for the Doodle for Google event, as previously mentioned, I’ll be one of the judges. The contest is for kids (obviously) so the folks at Google asked me if I had any art that I’d done as a kid that I could share… something for the kids to see that I might have done when I was their age.

Well, as luck would have it, my dad had recently sent me this drawing of a stressed out Snoopy he’d dug up. The date on it was October 1973… that would mean I was 10 years old. Pretty wild that I was drawing Snoopy and dreaming of working for Snoopy one day. Too weird.  And a testament to any of you who don’t believe in destiny! (Lex.)

I guess a birthday is a good time to reflect on where we’ve been, where we’re going and where we’d like to end up.

An early morning view of Osaka from the 24th floor. (Except that Jane looks a lot more awake in this photo than I am right now!)

Art by Paige, Color by Brian Miller

Someone asked me about this cover art the other day. Back when this image graced the cover of Issue 10 I should have included a little blurb to let readers know this was based on an actual event.

In high school, I drove a Jeep, which I notoriously kept the top off of. My mom made me a dress to wear for graduation and I wore the dress, in the topless Jeep and of course got caught in a downpour on the way home. It gave me the perfect excuse to change out of the dress for the graduation family cookout that followed. The original Jeep was Carolina Blue (light blue) and the dress was white… and unfortunately I didn’t own cool goggles and a hat… but otherwise, this is pretty accurate.

QUICK NOTE ABOUT WONDERCON

Wondercon is this weekend in San Francisco. I will be sharing a booth with Justin Thompson because neither of us could be there for the whole weekend. Justin will be there Friday and Saturday if you want to stop by and check out his new book, MythTickle. I will be there all day Sunday. We’re in Artist Alley, table number AA125 and the hours on Sunday are from 11 am to 5 pm. I hope to see you there!

Hi there. My web pal, Michael, helped me make some overdue updates to the JW main home page. Easy links to where Jane’s World appears and more importantly WHEN. There’s also a link to The Martian Confederacy website. I’ll be posting some new art there later today so you might want to check back for that stuff. Jason and I have been pulling pages together all week.

The special treat on the new home page is that I pulled some guest cover art that Terry Moore did for JW Issue 8 way back in 2003, when JW was just getting started. (Brian Miller did the color work.) Terry was kind enough to lend his time and talents to help Jane get noticed. I’ve been revisiting some of these old issues and some of the cover art is too fun not to circle back and enjoy again. These 24 page, early issues had such a short shelf life that the art needs a second debut. Enjoy!

Sometimes I sit around and just sketch potential new characters. Lately those sketches have included lots of frogs… but recently these two dogs showed up and I thought they were funny enough to share. It looks like one of them swiped Jane’s Fantastic Four t-shirt.

I’m printing a 24-page special issue in honor of Wondercon, the next comic convention in San Francisco. I printed a few extra copies for anyone who will not be able to attend the event but would like to have a copy of this comic book. Basically, this features the first chapter of what will eventually become Jane’s World Volume 10, but that book will not be out until October.

The book is $3, plus $3 for shipping (in plastic sleeve, with backing)

If you’re interested in getting a copy, they will be shipping on March 24th, but you can order one anytime

I’ll post an update in a few days about Wondercon, but I do know that my booth number will be AA125 (in Artist Alley) and I will only be there on Sunday, April 4th. Hope to see you there!

I was lucky enough to be selected as a juror for this year’s  Doodle 4 Google competition. Each year, Google invites K-12 students to work their artistic will upon the website’s homepage logo. This year, Google believes in thinking big and dreaming big, so they’re inviting U.S. kids to create around the theme, “If I Could Do Anything, I would…”

I’m excited to be involved and happy to be working with some great fellow jurors: Eric Carle, Andy Harkness (Art Director, Walt Disney studios), Ryan Heuser (co-founder of Paul Frank), Jim Lee (DC Universe), Keith Malone (LEGO), Bob Pauley (Pixar), Evelyn Viohl (Barbie), Frank Caruso (King Features), Karen Driscoll (Sesame Workshop) and Susan Brandt (Dr. Seuss Enterprises)

I lifted this from Le Monde De Jane, the French blog set up by my pal, Celine. Even though I can’t really read French, everything seems sexier. Just thought I’d share the translated version of this comic. Cheers!