I finished drawing the “Hereville” graphic novel this weekend, and Jake finished colors. That doesn’t mean I’m all done — there’s still a significant amount of work to do (title page, back cover art, fixes requested by the publisher, etc) — but still: YAY! I’m very happy to have gotten the principle art done, and I’m pretty pleased with the book as a whole.
Below: All 139 pages of the graphic novel, plus the front cover. It might be a tad hard to read at this size, though… A larger sized version will be in bookstores in November. :-P
On January 29, 2009 · Comments Off
Remember, you can own a paper copy of “Hereville” of your very own!
For folks that pay extra, I do a sketch on the title page. Each sketch is different. Here are three sketches I haven’t posted before; you can see a bunch more here.
Continue Reading…
On the website, at least. (There may be some spoilers there, so don’t click if you’re allergic!) Author Brigid Alverson was very patient with my babbling during the phone interview.
From Brigid’s article:
Hansen first saw Hereville at the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland, Oregon, where Deutsch had a booth next to his friend Scott McCloud, acclaimed comics theory guru and author of Making Comics. “One of the first booths I saw was Barry’s,” she said. “He had this amazing banner, and he showed me his comic, and I thought it was delightful, but I don’t take new clients except by referral,” she explained. The next day she saw Scott McCloud, who is one of her clients. “The next day I went to see Scott McCloud,” Hansen says, “and he walked me to Barry’s table and said ‘You really should think about representing him.’”
After reading the comic, Hansen quickly agreed to represent Deutsch, but she told him the book needed to be filled out. Deutsch agreed, and the Amulet edition will be 130 pages long as opposed to the original 57-page story. The new edition will fill in the details of Mirka’s family and introduce some new characters, but it will end in the same place as the webcomic. [...]
Although he signed a one-book contract with Abrams, the publisher has the option on future volumes, and Deutsch definitely sees Hereville as the first in a series. “I don’t know how many volumes there will be,” he said. “There may be comics focusing on characters other than Mirka who live in that community but I do know there will be several more Mirka stories, ” Deutsch says.
Some good news that was finally publicly announced today. Here’s the press release:
Author Name: Barry Deutsch
Book Title: Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
Category: Children’s / YA graphic novel
Book/Deal Description:
Amulet Books has acquired the publication rights to Hereville, Barry Deutsch’s fanciful adventure comic, currently scheduled for publication in Spring 2010.
Charlie Kochman Executive Editor of Abrams Comic Arts and Judy Hansen of Hansen Literary Agency negotiated the deal. Film rights will handled by Nick Harris of Rabineau Wachter Sanford & Harris for Hansen Literary Agency.
Hereville, portions of which initially appeared as a web comic on Deutsch’s web site www.hereville.com, chronicles the adventures of Mirka, an 11-year old Orthodox Jewish girl, whose dreams of slaying fairy-tale monsters conflict with her highly structured life in an isolated, religious town.
The Washington Post has described Hereville as "what you get when you cross Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Isaac Bashevis Singer."
About the Author:
Barry Deutsch grew up in Connecticut and studied under comics master Will Eisner at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Deutsch’s cartoons have won the Charles Schulz Award for college cartooning, and in 2008 Deutsch was nominated for the Russ Manning Award for outstanding new talent. Deutsch currently lives in Portland, Oregon, in a bright blue house with bubble gum pink trim.
On October 22, 2008 · Comments Off
Remember, you can own a paper copy of “Hereville” of your very own!
For folks that pay extra, I do a sketch on the title page. Each sketch is different. Here are two sketches I did recently; you can see a bunch more here.
Continue Reading…
The second printing of Hereville will be delivered on Thursday!
So just a reminder — you can order them here, either for $15 for an unsketched copy, or $30 for a copy with an original sketch on the title page. Here’s an example of one with a sketch:
You can also buy an electronic copy for $5.
On April 21, 2008 · Comments Off
Many of you know this already, but I thought I’d make an “official” announcement that the paper edition of “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword” will be premiering at Stumptown Comics Fest, this Saturday and Sunday, in Portland, Oregon.
The print edition contains 57 full-color pages of comics, and sells for $12.95. I’ve now seen a copy, and frankly, it looks good — the art and color reproduced very well, and the paper is a decent stock as well.
I’ve attended Stumptown every year since it began — in fact, I helped start it — and it’s an exceptionally good comic book convention, with a strong focus on creators (rather than three bazillion tables of dealers with long boxes). So I highly recommend attending — it should be both cheap and fun.
And if you do go to Stumptown, please stop by my table and say “hi.” (I’ll be the one sitting under a huge banner that says “Hereville”).
And by the way, if you’re not going to be able to make it to Stumptown, you can always buy Hereville directly from my website, in both paper and electronic editions. Plus, I hope to soon have a Wowio edition available — I should have news to post about that sometime in May.
Hereville is available on paper!
But I don’t recommend buying this edition!
In November 2010, you will be able to buy the “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword” graphic novel in your local bookstore or online! It contains over twice as many pages as the original comic book version, and it costs less to buy.
So although I’ll sell the old comic to you, I don’t recommend that you buy it. (And I’m not going to print any more copies, either.) If I were you, I’d wait until November and buy the graphic novel. More comics for less money is a better deal.
But I want to buy the original version anyway! Then I can have both versions!
Okay, okay. Send me $20 and I’ll send you a copy of “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword!” on paper. This comic is 57 pages long (not including covers, title page, and stuff like that) and in color. It’s printed on a pretty heavy stock and is about six inches wide and nine inches high.
If I read this, does that mean there’s no point in reading the graphic novel version?
Definitely not! The 2008 comic is 57 pages long. The graphic novel is 129 pages long; most of those pages are brand-new, and about half of the pages that aren’t brand-new are redrawn and recolored. The graphic novel tells the same basic story, but with more characters, more plot, and in my opinion with better artwork.
Can I get you to do a sketch in my copy of the 2008 comic?
If you pay $50 for your copy, I’ll also create an original, one-of-a-kind sketch on the title page for you. You can click here to see examples of what these drawings look like. Choosing this option will add several days to how long it takes me to mail your copy, obviously.
Whether or not you pay for a sketch, I’ll be happy to sign it to whomever you’d like.
How to donate.
You can donate through PayPal by clicking on this link. After you’ve made a donation, this page will tell you what to do to get your thank-you gift.
Thanks!