Exactly, etc.

826 Valencia in conjunction with students from Wallenberg Highschool in San Francisco collaborated to produce this beautiful book Exactly. juniors and senior students from the highschool wrote children's stories and were paired up with illustrators who would then produce an illustration special for their story.
i drew a little something for Regina Tam's story the Town of No Smiles. ironically, when i was in highschool, i had tried writing a story that was quite similar. but unlike Regina, i never finished writing my version!


so hats off to regina and all the peeps at wallenberg high who made this book so great. thanks also to 826 valencia for equipping young folks with the tools to pursue their inspiration.





FLIGHT #4 is coming in july. newsarama.com did a preview spot for it. it's also already (!) available through amazon.com. #4 has a lot of indypress people and newcomers, including scott campbell and graham annable from the hickee crew.

this is an excerpt from my FLIGHT story
the Story of Binny

The Girl's Guide to Guys' Stuff by friends of Lulu will also be out soon. see a picture of it here. Thien and i have a story in it, a gamer story (totally nerdy, you will be laughing heartily). i am way, way excited to see dorothy gambrell's work in this book. yay, dorothy!




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Nominations and Awards

Chris Black and Ken James received an Izzie for their choreography on Cunning and Guile! See the full report at SF Chronicle here. Congratulations, Chris and Ken! you are the bestest!

and readers, if you are wondering what i had to do with this see this previous post here.


also, to report are the Eisner nominees for 2007! See the full list here.

Gene Yang, you are making waves, arentcha?

American Born Chinese has been nominated for Best New Graphic Album. It will be competing with some real great books, including Renee French's the Ticking. i heart Renee French, so competing with her in particular is weird. but Gene does not heart Renee French, so maybe it is not weird. Gene does not hate Renee French. don't get any weird ideas!!


my personal hand clap goes to Kasimir Strzepek of Mourning Star whose minis i have loved forever. i can't wait to see your comics in everyone's hands! kaz has been nominated for the Special Recognition - basically for being so talented and magical.
for Mourning Star, go here! click on the cover for a preview.


also here is an interview with kaz. go here.

yay, everybody!

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APE pictures etc.

i always forget to take photos, so this APE i made a concerted effort to bring my camera and snap shots of friends and fellow comikers. i still missed a lot of people, and took a lot of horrible shots (which i am not posting), so sorry if you feel you should be somewhere here but do not see yourself in this post. email me direct and i will send you your photo (if i have it).

APE was fun! it was a real treat to see old friends and make some new ones too. i feel really lucky.

i didn't get many books (this happens every year) because i was manning my table for most the time. but of the things i bought or received my favorites so far are the lewis carroll illustrated Alice in Wonderland, as well as austin english's new Windy Corner Magazine. i am absolutely happy to have them.

my table, a little lacklustre this year


sarah and thien
200% awesome

jason shiga of Bookhunter
published by Sparkplug Comic Books

tim and stephanie's table (steph not in picture)
they are from bellingham
their books are great! buy them.

hot hot hot mei mei, stop motion genius
i heart her

talented writer chellis ying, and her man mike

see you in the studio!

nick mullins of nijomu

elizabeth and natasha who i all adore

random small dog picture

paige braddock of jane's world and
carissa and cai, proud owners of banana pancake

banana pancake

fredo, armed

lovely grace, letterpresser
who i met first at kearny street workshop

miss jing lee bentley of punkpunk
their zines are endearing
but where is mark?

gene yang, author of American Born Chinese

now nominated for an Eisner
mee too

alex and meimei

ben collison and jamie o'keefe
my neighbors on saturday
also, coordinators for the 540 club robot show

kazu kibuishi of bolt city and amy (i think that is her ponytail

eric wu and jen wang, all at the gallery 1988
Flight #4 is coming out July 10th

martha chong, photographer extraordinaire

geegar looking for a fight

oh, there are the contenders

not everyone was on the same page

i couldn't stop laughing, so the photos are blurry
the thien-clones were beat into submission

geegar wins!
the prize: beautiful art and a piece of lou's ass

robyn chapman and her friend
(i'm sorry, i didn't hear his name)
drawing at Jupiter's

tom kaczynski of vague cities
brian kaas (my sometimes comics partner in crime)
and joe sayers of thingpart and i'm going to rip your face off

vanessa davis of spaniel rage and
trevor alixopulos of hut jacked, hot junk and mine tonight

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Elephanter

here are a few pictures from my new book Brave Mr. Elephanter. it will be available at APE.

New New New!

will have pieces in a large group show at the new Gallery1988 on Sutter street in San Francisco. opening is Saturday. see the previous blog entries for info. this piece is really a self-portrait of sorts because it has my fellow birds and things i know and things i don't know awaiting me, awaiting me. this paintings makes me miss travel. i would like to go see the world some more.




i am embarrassed for painting the one with the octopus, because they are suffering, just like bears and deer and antlers and all that garbage. stuff looks hot but leaves me empty. that is not to say that i wouldn't want a piece with an octopusbeardeerbeer with antlers. as a shopper i can't help but {heart} commercial consumption. but for the record i have {hearted} octopuses for a long time and they appear in my sketchbooks often (along side my {heart} for pears and weird abstract shapes that are not sculpey).




this piece is not as new, but it will be in the show with all of everyone else's octopusesbearsdeerbeersandmegatrons.

at APE i will have a new long tail kitty sketchbook as well as a new story called Brave Mr. Elephanter, which i had lots of pictures of last night, but foolishly disposed after having lost my mind while doing my taxes. Loose Ends is 32 pages of development and design, doodles and duds. many never seen before ltk comic strips included.




***

April SHOWS! - 540 Club, 1988 Gallery, APE

whoops, i'm a little behind on announcements. sent out my newsletter, but forgot to update the blog. here you go.

ROBOTS INHERIT THE EARTH
A display of crazy Robot Power fires itself up Saturday night April 7th at 7pm! That's right, as advertised in the SF Guardian it's going to be fun, fun, fun! Those who have hung out at the Richmond Dist's beloved watering hole know what I'm talking about.

the All-Star pilots include Wahab Algarmi, Brandon Bird, Adam Cahoon, Ben Collison, David Crosland, Matt Delight, Randy Dodson, MeiMei Everson, Lady Felon, gaNyan, Anthony Hon, Debbie Huey, Marco Mejia, Jamie O'keefe, Jerome Opena, Thien Pham, Alexander Smith, Canon Tissue, Kevin Wadzinski, and me!

I will have robot gouaches on display! architects and Star Wars fans, i think you will like these. See pictures here:
http://larkpien.blogspot.com/2007/03/robots.html

'My favorite' vote goes to Wahab Algarmi, for his Constructivist Robotcop drawing.


540 CLUB in San Francisco
April 7th - May 6th, 2007
540 Clement Street, between 6th and 7th
Richmond District San Francisco 94118
415.752.7276

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for those who came to the PET NOIR READING at SanFrancisco Main Library last thursday, thanks. i was so nervous that i thought my ears would melt off my head, and i felt like throwing up afterwards. so thanks for being nice to us. i hope you enjoyed the readings.

***

THE INDIE SHOW
Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles is opening a sister shop in San Francisco, and starting mid-April it will be hosting its first bay area show. I kid you not, this will be an impressive opening.




Artists are Albert Lozano, Andrice Arp, Anna Chambers, Annie Owens, Attaboy, Brandon Bird, Bwana Spoons, Camilla D'Errico, Daniel Arriaga, Daniel Lopez Munoz, Dave Crosland, Dave Long, Derek Thompson, Dice Tsutsumi, Don Shank, Eric Tan, Eric Wight, Food One, Graham Annable, Heiko Windisch, Jason Deamer, Jason Sho Green, Jen Wang, Jeremy Tinder, Jerome Ranft, Jesse Reklaw, Joe Sayers, Joe White, John Lee, Jon Klassen, Joshua Ellingson, Kevin Dart, Kevin Scalzo, Lark Pien, Lesley Reppeteaux, Lou Romano, Louis Gonzales, Martin Cendreda, Nate Wragg, Nathan Stapley, Nick Sung, Paul Maes, Rich Tuzon, Robert Kondo, Sam Henderson, Sanjay Patel, Scott Campbell, Scott Morse, Steve Purcell, Thien Pham and Vera Brosgol.

I will have 2 new Nature Series pieces, as well as the Naked Series set exhibited.

The Indie Show in San Francisco
April 21st - May 12th, 2007
Opening Reception Saturday, April 21st 7pm to 11pm
hosted by Dave Crosland, Food One and Scott Morse
1173 Sutter Street at Polk
Downtown/Tenderloin, San Francisco 94109
415.409.1376

http://www.gallery1988.com


APE 2007 - THE ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO
i will have a new Long Tail Kitty sketchbook, consisting of process drawings, doodles and duds. along side this i also have little paintings and sculpey art for sale. Sculpey pics are here:
http://larkpien.blogspot.com/2007/03/sculpey-no.html

Saturday, April 21
11:00am-7:00pm
Sunday, April 22
11:00am-6:00pm
$7 a day pass, or $10 for weekend pass
The Concourse Pavillion
620 7th Street at Brannan
SOMA, San Francisco 94103
http://www.comic-con.org/ape

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post 99

this is post 99.

here i am in my sort of new studio.
it has spectacular natural lighting, woven mat flooring, and 5' ceilings. no, i don't have to duck.



this is what i'm working on now, along side the small animal paintings. it will be done in the next week or so. i thought of a name for it yesterday but i've forgotten it since. bad at keeping track of these things.

that's it for post number 99.


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