I’m still in New York, taking thousands of reference photos for the graphic novel. The two-day seminar (Friday and Saturday) was packed and energized; a great class with a lot of talent and spirit. Now it’s just me and my camera for a couple of days. I promise they’re not all of high horizon line rainy sidewalks like the above, but damn, I do love me some high horizon line rainy sidewalks…

Originally planned as a solitary expedition, this part of my trip still had me crossing paths with some old friends including Tracy White and baby Suniva, Heidi MacDonald and beau Ben, and the Legendary Brian Dewan who was showing his work with a bunch of terrific cartoonists Thursday night as part of the Cartoon Carousel series (which is very cool, though I’m not sure how to explain it, and I’m not sure if they have a website). Also saw a slew of great artists, old and new, at S.V.A.’s great Fresh Meat show Saturday and met briefly with the astounding Shaun Tan at the tail end of his signing at Books of Wonder.

Dropped out of sight a bit, web-wise these last few days, but it was for a good reason. I’ve been thinking non-stop about the graphic novel and the role of this city in the story. It’ll be a long time before I can show you guys anything from the book, but I hope it’ll be worth the wait. I still have a few trips to go (including fun ones like next week’s TCAF), but there’s big part of me now that just wants to draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw.

This was pretty much our experience with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well (during our drive through B.C. on the way down from Alaska in 2007). A fine, polite fellow was our Mountie.

Off to New York for the seminar and reference photos for the GN.

Hm. Must blog something…

Ooh—Kate Beaton collection! There. That was easy.

Still catching my breath after China, but three more trips loom in the next five weeks. First Manhattan for the two-day seminar. Then Toronto, where the whole family will be joining me for TCAF, a show we’ve wanted to do for a while and which we’re all very much looking forward to. Then I’ll be swinging by Barcelona for the 27th Annual Comics Festival there.

Despite a busy spring, my travel schedule will cool down for the rest of the year as I focus increasingly on my new graphic novel for First Second, The Sculptor. In fact, the Manhattan seminar will be doubling as reference-taking for that story which takes place in New York City.

We announced The Sculptor before the blog relaunched, and I haven’t written much about the project here because it’s still in the very early stages, but hardly a minute goes by at home or abroad when I’m not thinking about it. As exciting as China was, I couldn’t wait to get back to the studio and resume work on this story. I may be away for 12 out of the next 37 days, but I’ll be devoting the remaining 25 days—and the 1,000 days that follow it—to finally using everything I’ve learned in 25 years to tell a story I love, as clearly and effectively as I possibly can.

Dude, that’s totally Sky on the Great Wall of China.

Though most of our journey to China took place in spectacular Shanghai, we decided since it was Sky’s 16th birthday to splurge a bit on a couple of brief side-trips.

First to the enchanting Hangzhou with our great hosts Mikey and Alyssa and new friends David and Kim, where, thanks to some light rain, we fulfilled every tourist photographer’s dream: To make China look as much like China as possible.

Then, of course, to stately Beijing, for the great triumvirate of all photo ops: Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and of course, The Great Wall of China (a ringed section thereof with some extremely steep and intimidating climbs).

Sky and I are home now. We arrived in Los Angeles about 40 minutes before we left Shanghai. Efficient.

In honor of Earth Day, the world just got a little smaller for my daughter and I—and much, much bigger all at once.

[Note: I’ve added many photos to these sets since Wednesday afternoon. Also finally adding some captions to these albums]

Just time for a quick update to my photos. Our time in China has been amazing, but also left little time for blogging. Sorry about that.

All five of my lectures and all our class visits are now complete. We’re taking a weekend in beautiful Hangzhou with our fantastic hosts, Mikey and Alyssa, and new friends Dave and Kim, then off to Beijing for a couple of days before returning Wednesday.

Meanwhile, if you’re in Portland for The Stumptown Comics Festival, you can say hi to Ivy and Winter who are visiting this weekend. Give them a hug for us. We miss them!

Sky has uploaded some pictures and I’ve uploaded more of mine. 

Still hoping to get captions in, but for now… sleeeeeeep.

Just time for a quick post from Shanghai. Celebrated Sky’s 16th Birthday here in one for the first cities that the April 12th sun hit (when it was still April 11th back home in California).

Just some photos for now (like this one from the Modern Art Museum) and hopefully some captions soon, but suffice it to say that it was a great birthday, thanks to our gracious hosts/guides Mikey and Alyssa from the Shanghai Community International School and David and Kim from the Shanghai American School.

With only two of twelve days complete, this has already been a trip to remember and Sky had a great time (though, as readers of the 50 tour blog will remember Sky rarely smiles for pictures!). I’ll throw in more news and updates as time allows.

…starts Friday morning and will last 12 days, so updates to the blog might be a little spotty during this period, but I’ll see what I can post from the road.

From Monday to Friday of next week, I’ll be presenting lectures to school groups from the Shanghai American School, Shanghai Community International School, and Concordia International School (five lectures in all) and having discussions with students and attending some workshops. Then on Friday, I’ll be on hand to help kick off the Shanghai Student Film Festival. Should be an exciting week, to say the least!

Sky is coming with me and we’ll be celebrating her 16th Birthday in Shanghai this Sunday, and after the week of school visits, we’re also making a couple of neat side trips. Keep checking back starting in a couple of days and hopefully I’ll have more news and maybe even some pictures to share.

Big image here.

Context here and here.