Friday, February 5, 2010

KOKO BE GOOD

Finally, annoucements! I've teased about this for a long time and you may have already seen this on my Flickr, or elsewhere, but I got the advance copy of my book "Koko Be Good" this week. Check out the video flip-through:



And we have a release date: September 14th!

As you've probably guessed, it's a revamped long-form novel version of my short comic "Koko Be Good" (2004) you can read online. It's 300 pages, watercolored, published by the wonderful, wonderful, First Second Books. It should be available at regular book and comic stores, and while the messiness between Amazon and Macmillan isn't quite over yet, I'm sure by then you'd be able to order from them too. Just order from Powells instead. ;)

That seems like a long time, but it's relatively short compared to what's come before. Since I've been mostly silent about the subject, here's a breakdown of the timeline:

Winter 2006: Started scripting a few chapters in my notebook.

April 2007 - April 2008: Penciled the entire book. Printed it up, and sent it to my agent.

May 2008 - September 2008: The Waiting Game, part 1! Wrote another script, shelved it in time to get picked up by :01. Signed contracts, started going over tweaks and edits.

October 2008 - April 2009: Inking and coloring marathons.

May 2009 - now: The Waiting Game, part 2! Mainly copy-edits, cover design, etc. This was the longest wait, but now that it's here it's been pretty worthwhile. The book looks great. This really was a labor of love for me and my publishers did an fantastic job putting it all together. I hope when it finally comes out, you really enjoy it.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm saving more stuff for closer to the actual release date. Until then, enjoy the teaser!

cover

11 Comments:

Blogger ashton said...

Holy bejeezus that's great news.

February 7, 2010 at 8:18 AM  
Blogger lefroggy said...

thats pretty cool! I didn't think it would take so long to make a book.. this made me re-think about what I will have to go through to get mine published.. yikes.. ANYWAYS! i cant wait to buy it when it comes out.

February 11, 2010 at 6:16 PM  
Blogger Thomas Verguet said...

Great ! I want a copy now ! Hope I'll be able to find it on amazon quite soon :).

February 16, 2010 at 12:33 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Wow, that looks like an amazing book with great art. September can't come fast enough for me!

February 16, 2010 at 2:14 PM  
Blogger Michelle Xin said...

Oh man... oh man, that looks awesome.

March 28, 2010 at 5:06 AM  
Blogger Ben Hatke said...

Hey Jen, I got to flip through Koko at MoCCA. Amazing work! Simply stunning.

April 27, 2010 at 6:01 PM  
Blogger Chris Battle said...

uh.... WOW.

Looking forward to it!

May 11, 2010 at 1:11 PM  
Blogger ZZ said...

I do believe I'm in love with your artwork; can't wait for this. :)

June 22, 2010 at 11:58 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Awesome book. I'm a librarian who reviews graphic novels for the state of Texas and I loved the story. One question, though: How do you translate the protesters' sign "Si, se puente?" Do you mean "Si, se puede?"

July 27, 2010 at 8:23 PM  
Blogger rad sechrist said...

Wow, I can't wait to get this!!!!

August 27, 2010 at 10:10 AM  
Blogger nana said...

Normally I spend quite a lot of time looking up reviews and researching a book before buy it, but all it took was one glance at your artwork for me to bolt straight for Amazon Checkout.
When the book arrived I was pleasantly surprised by how chunky and heavy the book was, not to mention the wonderfully textured cover and the printing. It's one of the most beautiful comic books I own now.
I just finished reading it and I absolutely loved it! The life that your characters exude makes them so charming and endearing. It was a wonderful way to tackle thoughts that many of us share. I enjoyed the contrast between the calm, introspective moments and the moments of frantic action, which was so well conveyed in the lively artwork, the questions asked felt familiar and current, the dialogue flowed naturally... I could continue to praise this for hours on end... :)
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed taking a journey with these characters. Thank you for making this book! :)

September 25, 2010 at 10:29 AM  

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