This weekend:

This weekend is the first of only two comic fests I'll be doing this year: MoCCA. I'll be at table H1 selling my last few special edition copies of VIETNAMERICA and various other ephemera.  Swing by and say hi... and even if you don't and try your best to avoid seeing my work, I created the art for the show badges so there's no escaping the sight of me. Mwahahaha!

Speaking of artwork, here's a recent illustration for the current issue of American Cowboy about the 12 rodeo circuits.  Thanks to art director Eva Young for being open to my lighthearted spin:

Crossing another item off my bucket list:

VIETNAMERICA is nominated in this year's Eisner Comic Industry Award's Best Reality-Based Work category!

For those unfamiliar with the Eisners, they're basically the "Oscars" of comics but with less tuxedos and shorter speeches. Voting is open to creators, editors, publishers, educators, librarians, and retailers here. So to everyone that fits any of those descriptions who's enjoyed VIETNAMERICA and helped it find a home on book shelves, I humbly request you consider voting for it before the ballot deadline of June 4th.

And while I have the attention of the locals, I'd like to mention a free public VIETNAMERICA event on Thursday, April 19th at the APA Institute:

It includes a discussion with fellow awesome cartoonists Christine Norrie, Fred Chao, and Jerry Ma! Additional deets here, and APA requests RSVP-ing at their site or Facebook event page for seating and catering purposes. APA throws great events so I hope to see some familiar faces there!

Staying in practice...

Life just got another 6 lbs 12 oz of unimaginable awesomeness:

Midwest university visits this week!

Hey y'alls... sorry for the silence, but wanted to quickly mention two VIETNAMERICA events this week:

Tuesday noon, Feb 14th, I'll be the guest at University of Illinois Asian American Cultural Center's FOOD FOR THOUGHT speaker series (more info here).

And then Wednesday at 7:30 pm, Feb 15th, I'll be speaking at Purdue University (all the deets here). Both events are free and open to the public, so c'mon out and help me celebrate my final days before fatherhood begins!

To health, happiness, and prosperity in 2012!

Last Friday was the opening reception for the Society of Illustrators 54: Sequential, Moving Image and Uncommissioned exhibition. An evening full of good cheer, speeches, and gracious disbelief from all those artists awarded medals... me especially (thankfully, my wife was present to keep me grounded). For anyone interested in seeing a staggering collection of talent in current illustration, the show will be up till Jan 21st. (See more party pics from Johnny Dombrowski here)

I keep intending to post a 2011 wrap-up because so much amazing, unexpected craziness happened (some of which is noted over at my site's refresh), but I've accepted life keeps hurtling along and I'm holding on for dear... life? Hopefully, I'll be more consistent with blog updates in 2012. Needless to say, when I reflect on where I was a year ago—on the cusp of VIETNAMERICA's release and the complete unknown—I can barely recognize that person now.

But even in constant change, I'm still making it to figure drawing...

Show extended till January 16, 2012:

Last stop: Rochester!

Heya, upstate NY! Shake off that tryptophan-induced food coma and help me celebrate the conclusion of VIETNAMERICA's first year of publication this Wednesday at the Mercer Gallery!

"WTF?!OMG!!! and upcoming events" update:

Just informed that VIETNAMERICA won the gold medal in this year's Society of Illustrators competition's sequential category! Un-freakin'-believable!

I will be taking my "stunned speechless" look on the road with several terrific November events, the first being at the...

I'll be giving an author talk this Thursday 17th at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It's free and open to the public, so if you're interested all the deets can be found here.

Then on Friday and Saturday, I'll be participating at the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention:

Friday, 11 am- 12:15 pm: NARRATING LIVES: THE POWER AND POSSIBILITIES OF GRAPHIC LITERATURE with Sid Jacobson, Josh Neufeld, and GB Tran.

Saturday, 2:45 - 4:00 pm: IMMIGRANT LITERATURE FOR THE CLASSROOM with Aleksandr Hemon, Bich Minh Nguyen, GB Tran, and Loung Ung

Outside of these two panels, I'll be loitering at the Random House booth to chat with teachers and attendees and doodling in books until my publisher's Academic Department kicks me out. I'm hoping to have time to partake in other local attractions like Quimby's Bookstore, deep dish pizza, and sleeping on my friend's floor of his under-construction bike shop: Heritage Bicycles.

After the craziness of Thanksgiving passes, I'll be in Rochester November 28-30 for a three day residency at Monroe Community College which includes a workshop, author talk, and the opening reception for a VIETNAMERICA exhibit at the Mercer Gallery. This will be my final event for 2011, and a phenomenal conclusion to the book's first year of publication. That is, getting to show the story in a new context... with free booze and hors d'oeuvres! (Final details forthcoming in the next blog post...)

And despite the deluge of all the great new Fall books, huge gratitude to people still giving my little labor of love, sweat, and tears notice: thanks to Publishers Weekly for including it on their shortlist of Comics and Graphic Novels as Gifts 2011, a great review by Nawaaz Ahmen over at Hyphen, and shout out from Colorlines.

In non-VIETNAMERICA news: I'm illustratin' my ass off, and lovin' every second of it. Example: sketches for a series of textbook illustrations...

Highlights from the week = Highlights for my life

I'm definitely not worthy of this company; spotted by friend (and great cartoonist) Andres Vera Martinez at NYCC:

And my wife and I are having a girl!