Lake

Here’s a background I just drew, to a couple of panels on page 57 of the graphic novel.

The Hereville graphic novel will be released in November, but until then I’ll be occasionally posting preview images. Thanks for your patience!

Mirka’s school’s cafeteria

I haven’t forgotten Hereville! I’m still working hard on the graphic novel.

Right now, I don’t have time to do much of anything but draw Hereville, which is one reason I’ve been posting so rarely. I should finish drawing the graphic novel in March, and after I’ll be a bit more active with posting.

Here’s a panel I just inked, showing Mirka’s school’s cafeteria. You can see Mirka and her sisters Gittel and Rochel, sitting at the table closest to the viewer (behind the girl with the spikey hair). Gittel is the one with glasses.

Click on the panel to see it bigger.

Hereville nominated for two Lulu Awards!

I’m thrilled to announce that Friends of Lulu has nominated Hereville for two awards! “The Lulu Awards recognizes the the people and projects that helped to open eyes and minds to the amazing comic and cartooning work by and/or about women.”

Hereville was nominated for the Leah Adezio Award For Best Kid-Friendly Work, and Mirka was nominated for Best Female Character.

To vote for Hereville (or for the other nominees — swell folks, all of them!), go to Friends of Lulu and follow the directions there.

* * *

Hey, speaking of Hereville, whatever happened to it? I’m still working on it, believe it or not. Comics are slow!

The graphic novel will be coming out from Abrams in late 2010 (in time for Hanukkah!). I’m just finishing up the second draft of the pencils now, and I’ll begin work on the final art in a bit over a week.

Meanwhile, just to whet people’s appetites, here’s a penciled page from chapter one:

Sketch of Mirka’s siblings

Although most of them don’t come up in the graphic novel (which I’m working on, really!), Mirka actually has a lot of sisters. Just one brother, though. Anyhow, I thought this sketch of all the siblings would be fun to post.

Barry will be on The Erika Moen show tonight

I’ll be on Erika Moen’s weekly video podcast tonight — you can watch it here, starting at 7:30 west coast time. We’ll be talking about Hereville and whatever else comes up. And you can also type in questions for me live. (There’s an archive of Erika’s past shows here.)

Erika’s a terrific cartoonist, by the way; I’m a fan of her autobiographical comic strip “DAR: A Super-Girly Top Secret Comic Diary.” (But be warned that Erika’s comics include lots of nudity and jokes about genitals and farts, so willing adults only should check out her comics.)

More Hereville Title Page Sketches!

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…

Two positive mentions of “Hereville”

The School Library Journal blog has a “best graphic novels of 2008″ post, in which longtime friend of Hereville Brigid Alverson is nice enough to recommend Hereville. Thanks, Brigid! (And reading through the rest of the post, I’m very jazzed to be in such great company.)

And the blog Jewschool, which I’ve liked for a long time, posted a very positive review, as well.

Beyond the thrill of a well-told story that is steeped in Jewish culture without feeling forced or condescending, it’s a pleasure to read a story with an Orthodox heroine who’s both a feminist and feminine without being, well, a cartoon.

I recorded a Peter Beagle short story for Podcastle!

Head over to Podcastle to hear me read "Gordon, the Self-Made Cat," by Peter S. Beagle. I was a huge Beagle fan as a kid, so being able to record this was a major “squeeeee!” moment for me.

Hereville in Publisher’s Weekly!

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.

Press Release: Hereville Graphic Novel To Be Published by Harry Abrams

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.