Ciudad Irreal

Hola! May 24 marks the release of the Spanish translation of Unreal City through La Cupula out of Barcelona. Here's a sample page:

La Cupula has done some great translations of numerous Fantagraphics and Draw&Quarterly books. I really like the look of these Dan Clowes covers.

Today also marks the 39th anniversary of the day I was born. Same with my Spanish friend Salvador Dali. Here's a comic he did called Surrealist Mysteries of New York from 1935. 

I've also been studying the work of the incredible architect Antoni Gaudi for a sci-fi comic I'm working on. Here's the artifice of the Casa Batllo and images of the still unfinished cathedral the Sagrada Familia.

So excited that my work will be available to Spanish readers. Hope I get a chance to visit Spain someday. Hasta la proxima!

Perhaps I Can Make One More Before I Die

Salaam Alaikum!
Unreal City has been nominated for the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album - Reprint

The other nominees include some of my favorite artists: Boundless by Jillian Tamaki, Fantagraphics Studio Edition: Black Hole by Charles Burns, Small Favors: The Definitive Girly PornoCollection by Colleen Coover and Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero by Michael DeForge.

I always think of this scene from Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix: Karma when I think about the effort it takes to make a comic. Unreal City took me over seven years to complete, although I didn't realize I was working on a book when I started.

The book is chalk full of references. One question I get asked is if the movies on TV in Objet d'Art are real so I thought I'd share those.

The movie Elise is watching at the beginning of the story is The Unsinkable Molly Brown starring Debbie Reynolds from 1964.

The movie Elise and Leon Lyddell are watching is called The Beautiful, the Bloody and the Bare also from 1964.

The naked girl siting in a chair at the party next door is from the same film.

And of course that's Star Trek playing on TV at the bar in the end of the story. The episode in question is The Naked Time, that one where the crew gets drunk.

Live long and prosper!