Meanwhile, at work …

As we head into Comic-Con this coming week, here’s a look at this year’s covers for 3 of the publications you can find onsite: (left to right) the Souvenir Book, the Events Guide, and the Quick Guide. The Souvenir Book and the Quick Guide are both produced by yours truly. The SB is all original content, including some amazing art and articles on the history of comics (and other pop culture) topics; the QG is a map- and info-filled “quick” look at Comic-Con, including schedule grids. Both are edited and designed by me. The book in the center, the Events Guide, is edited by Jackie Estrada; I just designed the cover (and no, I didn’t do that drawing of Spock; the artist’s name is Ty Mattson).

I normally don’t blog about work, but this year marks my 10th Souvenir Book, so I’m a bit proud of that. In fact, over the past decade I’ve done almost 50 (like 48) public publications for Comic-Con, including Souvenir Books, Quick Guides, and WonderCon and APE Program Books, in addition to Update, Comic-Con Magazine, and Comic-Con Annual. In addition, I wrote a great deal of the 40th anniversary book published by Chronicle Books in 2009, Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans and Friends. I spent a year on that book,  working as the in-house editor with the Chronicle team on everything from picking photos and writing captions to working with cartoonist Sergio Aragonés on the amazing wraparound cover.

The past 10 years have been an evolution for me and hopefully, if you’re able to get hold of these books, you’ll see it from year to year. This year’s Souvenir Book is (in my humble opinion) the best one yet, or at the very least, the best one I’ve done.

If you’re coming to Comic-Con, please pick these books up and enjoy them. And to keep track of what I do year-round (beside the occasional photo or musing here), please visit www.comic-con.org. I edit and design that, too, and do a lot of the writing.

This rare moment of self-aggrandizement is over.