CONTEST

Hey, does anyone want to win a sketch by me? Head over to twitter and tweet a 140 character Halloween poem to @stevenmalk before midnight tonight!

Austin was a good time.

Birdie.

Bunny.

Art Show

Hey, if you're in or around Tucson tomorrow (Friday), maybe come by the opening of this art show. Features me, Mike Nolan, cartoonist Max Cannon (Red Meat), and my teacher, David Christiana. 

Effin' G's!

SMEKDAY MOVIE

Oh! Well, apparently Dramworks has officially announced their Smekday movie, starring Jim Parsons and Rihanna: http://bit.ly/N9jRn9

Our Cat is Missing

I realize this blog is kind of a blunt instrument, but if you live in Tucson, please keep an eye out.

I Did a Podcast!

On which I make semi-coherent points about censorship!  Also I think I use the word "ass" twice.

http://katiedavis.com/the-dirty-cowboy/

This Is So Raven

Piece I just finished for the sequel to Cold Cereal.

Holy Cats.

This 14-year-old Japanese kid Konan (named for Arthur Conan Doyle!) took it upon himself to translate the entirety of Brixton Brothers #1: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity.  Apparently he's well into translating the second book, too.  He did it all for an annual event called Rōsaku-ten, or "Painstaking Words Exhibition."  He won an award!

Speaking of Great Letters...

From the National Coalition Against Censorship:

TDC Letter to AC Schools 5-15-12

Sequel to the Best Fan Letter of All Time

Dear Abraham Superlincoln (again),

My two through four favorite books are these: Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick), The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick), and The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien). Although, I do very much like Frankenstein Makes A Sandwich and Other Stories You’re Sure to Like Because They’re All About Monsters and Some of Them are Also About Food. You Like Food Don’t You? Well All Right Then.

We love the Dracula with spinach between his teeth and the Phantom of the Opera.

In fact, my two friends Adam and Ian K. are writing a book of short stories inspired by your Frankenstein Makes A Sandwich and Other Stories You’re Sure to Like Because They’re All About Monsters and Some of Them are Also About Food. You Like Food Don’t You? Well All Right Then.. They’re short stories not poems, mind you. Sorry. So far, I’ve written one called When the Man in the Moon Had to Blink. It was written by guub in co-op with Equivalent Fractions. Ian K. wrote a sequel to Godzilla Pooped on my Honda. It was written by Ian K. in co-op with Miss Prime Minister. Adam wrote a story about why Medusa cut her hair.

I’ll try and send the stories once we finish them.

Your most likely #1 fan (I don’t think anybody is more fanly then me),

Gargantuan Space Scum

Fan Letter Fan

Everybody can stop writing fan letters now.  We've summited:

Hello Abraham Superlincoln,

My name is Gargantuan Space Scum. No. Actually, it’s Ian. Ian O. You can’t forget the O. Because I’m Ian O. and my friend is Ian K.. So we don’t get called Ian. We get called either Ian O. or Ian K.. Anyway. I am a 4^th grader and I live in Seattle, Washington.                             After I read your book Cold Cereal, my friends Adam and Kate read it. Then we started talking about Gorn, Weet, Noats, and Gorn-free, the Gornless Gorn substitute. Then we came up with a new type of Weet. Hole Weet. We thought it could be a new, healthier, type of ingredient that Goodco puts in their cereal. That’s my suggestion for a new ingredient called Hole Weet. If you like it or don’t like it or whatever, please write back.

Then also, one day I was eating cereal. I was thinking about your book because I was eating cereal. I thought of some new book titles for your next two books (if you make the Cold Cereal Saga a trilogy).

Frozen Oatmeal (or Frozen Porridge)

Sub-Zero Museli (or Sub-Zero Granola)

Those are my suggestions for book titles. If you like them or don’t like them or whatever, please write back.

               This letter has been written in crude handwriting by Gargantuan Space Scum.

P.S. Your book, The True Meaning of Smekday, has been officially proclaimed by me as my number one, all-time favorite book ever.

P.S.S. Your book, Cold Cereal, has been officially proclaimed by me as my number five, all-time favorite book ever.

Happy Beltane

So for May Day, here's something appropriately pagan-ish from Cold Cereal:

Chocolate Rain, Redux

Free Comic Book Day

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Eric M. Esquivel
Phone: 520-321-4376
Email: EricEsqu.comics@gmail.com

HEROES AND VILLAINS GIVES AWAY THOUSANDS OF FREE COMICS

Local comic book store gives away free comics to promote the art form

Heroes and Villains plans to give away thousands of comic books on Saturday, May 5th from 10am-7pm, as part of their annualFree Comic Book Day celebration.

Titles include:  The Avengers, DC Comics: The New 52, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Transformers, Donald Duck, Sonic The Hedgehog, Yo Gabba Gabba, Peanuts and many more!

Popular fine artist/children’s book author Adam Rex will be in-store from 10am-3pm, signing (FREE!) copies of The Guild--The Dark Horse comic based on the popular web show of the same name, created by writer/actress Felicia Day (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)--which he painted the cover for.

Philanthropic costuming clubs The Justice League of Arizona, The Arizona Ghostbusters, The 501st Legion, and The Arizona Avengers will be on-hand to pose for photos and welcome kids to the world of comic books.

To date, Heroes and Villains has given away over 50,000 free comics as part of their annual Free Comic Book Day Initiative.

If you’d like more information about Heroes and Villains’ Free Comic Book Day or to schedule an interview, please call Eric M. Esquivel at  (520)-321-4376, or email Eric at EricEsqu.comics@gmail.com.

Visit Heroes and Villains  online at http://www.facebook.com/HeroesAndVillainsTucson, Twitter.com/HnVComics, andwww.HeroesAndVillainsOnline.com

Chloe and the Lion is Out TODAY.

So to mark the occasion, Mac and Adam puppets:

Chloe and the Lion

Actual documentary footage of one of my therapy sessions with author Mac Barnett.



Chloe and the Lion is on sale starting April 3rd.

Tucson Festival of Books

It's that time again.  Here's my schedule:

i-Illustrate: Art, Technology and Picture Books
Panel / Sat 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Education Building - Kiva Auditorium

Chloe and the Lion: Our Author/Illustrator Relationship
Children/Youth Workshop
Workshop / Sun 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Education Building - Room 333

Three Very Funny Guys: Humor in Books
Multi Genre: Current Events/Pop Culture/Children's
Panel / Sat 1:00 PM - 02:00 PM
UA Mall Tent

Creatures!
SciFi/Fantasy Workshop
Workshop / Sun 4:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Integrated Learning Center - Room 119

I believe I'll be signing books after the Three Funny Guys panel on Saturday, and probably after both panels on Sunday.

Know What's Fun to Paint?

VINES.

Tempe Event

By the way, I'll be at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ this Saturday (the 3rd) at 2pm, talking about COLD CEREAL. The book, not the cereal.

Head Games

“You!” he barked as he dismounted.  “Stay there!  Keep those hands where I can see them!”

 The normal-sized man with the tiny wrinkled head raised his arms.  “These hands?” he asked.

 The rider was all in black, with some thick and undoubtedly bullet-proof vest and an oily black gun slung over his shoulders.  He reached back to touch this gun as if drawing some shallow sense of strength and security from it, which of course he was.  He also had a small stone around his neck on a tether, a coldstone, and this was busily giving off purple sparks.  But in the glare of his headlamp the rider hadn’t noticed.

This old man was strangely built, like he hadn’t enough head but had entirely too much neck.  “The park isn’t safe tonight,” the rider told him.  “You should return to your home.”

“Mind turnin’ that off, lad?” the old man asked.

“Sorry,” said the rider, and he reached up to switch off the pink light of the helmet.

“Yeh have somethin’ in your eye,” the old man added.

“I…huh?” 

The rider pulled the goggles up and over his helmet.  And then he winced when he saw that, while the old man was still standing before him, his head had just now disappeared.

(From Cold Cereal)

Cold Cereal Available In Stores

I mean, obviously.  But my new book, Cold Cereal, is also now available.  I'm visiting schools in the midwest at the moment and couldn't make the time to really mark the occasion of its official on sale date earlier today, as I was too busy teaching children about the concept of the Uncanny Valley vis á vis pictures like the one to the right.

But Cold Cereal is available!  Now!  I was super flattered today to see that its audiobook performer, Oliver Wyman, called it the best kid's book he's ever read.  So.

Here are some Mick paper dolls for your amusement.  If there's enough interest I'll put high-res versions up somewhere and people can use 'em for bookmarks.

Appearance at Anderson's

ILLINOIS PEOPLE: I'll be reading and signing at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville this Wednesday from 7-8 PM. If you'd rather I not come to your state, now's the time to say something.