Jun 9, 2008

"Scrambled Ink" starts to spill


The other day an advance copy of Scrambled Ink-the book that I and six of my friends had collaborated on-arrived in my mailbox. It's a weird feeling, to be able to finally hold an actual book. In hardcover, 180 pages and with a gracious foreword by Mike Richardson(owner/publisher of Dark Horse), it's slated to be on shelves in bookstores everywhere in July as well as, of course, online.
Dark Horse did a beautiful job-they're really a class outfit. Diana Schutz(our editor), Dave Marshall and Tina Alessi all went above and beyond with its production.

I'm very proud of my friends who managed to produce beautiful extracurricular work while busy variously animating, doing story and visdev. We're all very different from one another and our stories reflect it, but when I flip through the book I see the personalities of these guys I've come to know and love on the page, and the stories seem to me to go together in much the same congenial way we did sitting under the olive trees at work eating lunch, chatting cross-legged on the floor of one another's offices, crammed into an Amtrak booth bound for San Diego or leaning furiously over the foosball tables. Good times.
I hope it finds readers who enjoy reading it anywhere near as much as we did doing it.


There's plenty more where this came from, but here's a sampling of what's inside the covers:

a page from "Burger Run" by Dave Pimentel

Ken Morrissey's illustration from "Greedy Grizzly"; he wrote and illustrated it, with an assist on the prose from Keith Baxter

a glimpse of J.J. Villard's work

Dave Derrick's is a story set in Africa

Ennio Torresan's roman a clef, highly autobiographical

...and me(plus my inspiration on my mousepad there):



The table of contents; click to enlarge
When the book's more readily available we're probably going to do a couple of shindigs with it(the fun part of publishing!), which I'll post about here as they're scheduled.
Certainly most of us will be lurking in San Diego the week of the Con. Hope to see you there!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks great! And, oh wow, the page from your illustrations looks beautiful--simple, but very elegant.

pbcbstudios said...

This looks AWESOME!!! I love it! Can't wait to add it to my collection!

Can I also buy the typewriter the book is sitting on?

mark kennedy said...

Very cool, and it looks very professionally done! I can't wait to buy a copy!

Vanwall said...

I can't wait to get this! Signings at the Comic-Con, I hope? Congrats, Miss J!

Randeep Katari said...

I LOVE that all you guys are doing anthologies! I'm totally picking one of these up.
How are you these days by the way?
R.

Jenny Lerew said...

Daphne--thank you so much!

Paul-ditto! But the typewriter's mine, all mine, pal-I went through conniption fits to find a good one. Ain't it the coolest?

Mark-aw, shucks. You guys are all going blow us away in Rocket Johnson, speaking of professional--then I'll be gushing over you on your blog(which will be a pleasure)!

Vanwall-thanks a heap! I think we'll be at the Con doing something at the Dark Horse booth--heaven knows they've got a full roster of veteran authors to host there as it is. It'll be so strange to see it there. We're probably going to do some local L.A. things too, beforehand.

Randeep--thanks much for the comments~I'm super busy (in fact we all are) and doing well, thanks!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Wow, nice cover! Lots of good artwork...but I thought your story was about your dog!

Murray Huber III said...

I love old vintage stuff.

David said...

Great post Jenny I can't believe teh book is for real it's taken so long- but well worth the wait

disneynorth said...

The book looks awesome. The artwork is just great. Since I live in Canada and have no way to get to California for Comic Con, is there any other way I can have my copy signed by you and some of the other artists?

BTW, having artists/animators like you blog, is such an amazing way to connect with your fans and have you front and centre as the true "actors" of so many great animated films. THANK YOU!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!


Cynthia

Unknown said...

Hello! I just thought I'd say you have a very lovely and informative blog! Thanks so much for sharing everything on it! Congrats on the book! It looks amazing (love your style!) :D
-katherine

Anonymous said...

That is so cool!! Congrats!

Ben Balistreri said...

I saw Dave P's copy the other day and it's AWESOME! Can't wait to buy a copy and get to read all your stories!

Matt Jones said...

Great looking cover-& the stories look even better! Good luck with it Jenny-

william wray said...

Kool looking foward to picking it up.

MikeS said...

I preordered mine yesterday and can't wait get it next month! Looking forward to reading your story and the others. All the best with it, Jenny.....

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! I hope to see you at Comic Con!

Anonymous said...

I just have to say that them kodak moments I've been looking at brings back happy memories!
I sit back with excitement and tears looking at this priceless art! Hey guys thanks so much for sharing, sometimes people need an enlightment of visual beauty to uplift the soul, and this sure did do the job!
-Very intriguing work! Very Well Done!
Plenty of kudos to you missy!