Title?

Here’s another page from my book about Turkmenistan. At the moment Terry and I are discussing the title of the book. In my head I’ve been calling it The Golden Age, which comes from the former totalitarian leader of Turkmenistan Saparmyrat Niyazov a.k.a Turkmenbashy (which roughly translates to “the grandfather of all Turkmen”). He declared that the 21st Century would be the Golden Age for the Turkmen people. All the propaganda showed Turkmen living in an wonderful utopia, but the reality was far from that.

So I like The Golden Age as an ironic title. But then again, for someone who has never heard of Turkmenistan or Turkmenbashy, it’s a bit uninformative (and this being a comic they might be thinking it’s something about the early days of Superman).

The book is about Azat who believes in dreaming big, getting rich, and marrying the prettiest girl in town, but sadly he lives in a totalitarian state where dreams have a habit of not coming true. It’s told through the eyes of an American Peace Corps volunteer named Joe. 

Titles: An American in Turkmenistan? Joe and Azat? Two Years in Turkmenistan? Turkmenistan? 130 Degrees in the Shade?

So the name still isn’t settled, but the book is coming along nicely. I’ve got a big final wedding chapter and a little epilogue piece and then some editing and redrawing to do. I’m shooting to be done in March.

Library Journal on Moresukine

“Throughout, Schwieger shows both funky humor and affectionate awe toward this alien culture immersing him. As popular anthropology, this title will have strongest appeal in collections where manga is hot.”

Says Martha Cornog of Moresukine in an issue of LJ out earlier this month. She reviews graphic novels regularly for Library Journal and other Library publications

Miss Don’t Touch Me gets a star from Booklist

Miss Don’t Touch Me, which has just hit store shelves is starting off its press with nothing less than a starred review from the highly-regarded Booklist, a magazine for Libraries:

“It’s hard to imagine a sequential art story better than this in terms of character development, plotting, realization of settings, and interconnection between visual and narrative elements.The coloring alternately provides glowing light and scary shadows in fine re-creations of crowded streetscapes, the boudoir of a black transgender escort, the depths of the murder dungeon, and a nearby chapel. Police corruption, aristocratic privilege, and petty jealousies among the working girls all figure in Blanche’s efforts to identify Agatha’s killers.”   

 Note from Terry:

I wanted to put in a post before on this book we just shipped. As the above conveys, it’s full of pep, gripping, mischievous and just plain irresistible.  Get back to us on what you think!

Why I Killed Peter gets rave attention

Reviews for this book are rolling in at quite a clip!

“Highly successful both as literature and visual art, this is a book to recommend to abuse survivors as well as readers who appreciate exploring life’s difficult realities.”

Booklist

“touching story of trust and betrayal.”

Litmob

“It’s a strong and important book, and above all, yet another testament to the power of this medium.”

Daily CrossHatch

“The ink vanishes; the trees become doodles. The colors are dabs of paint. Something is accomplished. Ka’s story, so ferociously arranged to address its center event, can only stop; a final image freezes Ka’s age, his many selves gathered together. The book is done. It’s all out of him. It’s something else. He killed it.
It’s absolutely harrowing material.”

Happy Hooligan, Moresukine and more, reviewed…

Time Out NY says of Moresukine:

“Hilarious, sharply observed”

RC Harvey (his site needs token subscription) the noted historian and rant and raver says about Geary’s Lindbergh Child:

“Reading one of Geary’s books is always a delight. He methodically researches and then displays the facts of whatever crime he is exploring, deploying a hypnotic drawing style that has both charm and menace. “

and about Happy Hooligan:

“Opper’s strip was the first to deploy all of the medium’s basic ingredients from its very birth. “

 

 

 

 

Back from California and back to work.

So, I just got back from three weeks in California and Oregon (and a night in Philadelphia when my flight got cancelled), and I didn’t draw a thing the whole time. Now, it’s back to work. I’ve got a little more than a chapter left and I’m hoping I can get it done pretty quickly.

Anyway, here’s a page from the beginning of the book. It comes right after the page I posted back in November. It’s from the first chapter and introduces Turkmenistan and what life is like there. I’ll be posting more in the next few weeks.

Hope everyone had happy holidays and a good start to the new year.

monoceros

a small snippet from a starry sky spread i worked on all day. i’m almost 90 pages done! this is surreal.

things are very much back in business here at the studio. i eat most of my meals here. living and breathing drawing and colouring.

Reviews: Dungeon Monstres and Ordinary Victories

Ordinary Victories volume 2 “What is Precious” was placed in Comic Book Resources top 100 at #36:

“[The two volumes] taken together offer a glimpse of the world that is not heavy handed or soft pedaled, but in its greatest moments, like any great work of art, it is possible to hold the pages up and through them, see the world.”

And Dungeon Monstres vol.1 is recommended by Library Media Connection.