And so it begins...

Awaiting me upon my return to NYC last week were advance-reader-copies of VIETNAMERICA! My publisher Villard is releasing them into the wild, and so begins a completely new phase of the book's road to publication: trying to drum up press and publicity.



Although it's a full color book, I think the b/w galleys do a good job of reproducing the tonal artwork. Specific color palettes are threaded throughout to help distinguish characters, plots, and time periods (as hinted in this earlier post) so it'll be interesting what readers will think without color to aid in their preview (i.e. I hope it still makes sense!). Villard is considering including a small full color chapter excerpt with each galley they send out, so crossing my fingers that happens.

If you spot one of these in the wild, please don't make any sudden noises as it scares easily. Approach slowly and if it doesn't run away, please give it a good home. All it needs to flourish are occasional sunlight and kind words.

Road-trip wrap up:

After a absolutely phenomenal 4,000 mile trip along the Left Coast, we're back in NYC in one piece! Aside from the obligatory family vacations, I've never taken a "real" road-trip and to finally get to do so for an entire month with my wife along such a beautiful stretch of the country was amazing. We are so fortunate and grateful to have so many wonderful family and friends who welcomed us into their homes and created memories we'll cherish for a lifetime! Definitely didn't take as many pics as I should of, but here's some randomness:



A cable car view of the Wanderlust village in Squaw Valley. My wife was teaching at the 4-day event so I was her +1. Apparently, marriage does have its perks--who knew?!



Our typical breakfast: fresh sauteed vegetables, dal, and brown rice for her; waffles soaked in sugar, topped with sugar, with a side of sugar for me.



This is the view from morning meditation held on a mountain side with live upright bass music by this friend. Best. Alarm. Clock. EVER.



There's always room for Mediterranean food. ALWAYS.



The world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium! Star Trek IV, anyone?



Check out the bravado on this dude! He's wearing a chef's hat, fish apron, AND spinning two pies simultaneously. Thank goodness he's wearing shades or else he'd look silly.



Having missed its one month engagement in NYC earlier this year, I had another opportunity to catch Crumb's GENESIS show while in Portland. Just like at home, except with no crowds [yay!] and not free [boo!].



Donuts and anime porn are a perfect match. You stay classy, Portland!



My pastries came with two babes! Too bad my wife and sis-in-law aren't always carrying a box of Voodoo donuts.



Seattle puts its best face forward.



Assorted deli sandwiches crossing the Golden Gate Bridge only to be devoured by an enormous shark? The perfect metaphor for life.



You know it's been a great road-trip when you've let yourself go and this is what you look like to a kid.

Have brush pen and sketchbook: will travel.

We're still on the road and currently find ourselves in Portland. Despite a lot of the friends we've visited being art directors, graphic designers, illustrators, and cartoonists, it's taken me this long to finally find one who owns a scanner (thanks, Leland!).

We interrupt our Left Coast roadtrip for breaking news:

Finished back in January, Random House has finally publicly released VIETNAMERICA's cover:



See, it's totally really gonna be a really real book 'n' stuff!

Time to hit the road...

Starting tomorrow, I'll be exhibiting and getting my senses shattered at the San Diego Comic-con! If you're attending, please swing by and check out my wares. Got a lot of new stuff for sale as well as a full color preview of VIETNAMERICA! As usual, I'll be tabling with this bum in Small Press at K12:



After that, I'll be staying on the Left coast for a few weeks road-tripping with my wife. We're escaping NYC's wet-blanket-in-a-sauna weather to visit friends and family from San Diego to Seattle. Don't know how much I'll be blogging while on the road, but anybody's who's reading this is gonna be on vacation anyways, right?!

Summer Slowdown--NNNOOOTTT!!!

Why I haven't posted for a few weeks:

Comic project #1: weekly online strips! Aiming to start serialization in a couple weeks, but if I fall short it's because of the reality of needing to keep a roof over my head with...



Apparel graphics! These are only in-progress shots because, as is the nature of working in the clothing biz, they won't be for sale until next year so showing the final versions now is a big no-no. But if you wanna buy some of my stuff before then, there's these...



Preparing for CON-slaught! Tis that time of year when our living room transforms into a printing, folding, and trimming factory. First stop: SDCC next week! Hopefully shortly thereafter, this will also be ready...



Comic project #2 gradually inching closer to a finished pitch! I'm so freakin' excited about this thing and can't wait to talk about it publicly! Speaking of public, how bout some public nudity...





Weekly figure drawing still goin' strong! Special shout out to Lillian Chan, a wonderful animator and friend, who came along for a session while visiting from Toronto. Yes, believe it or not, I still have friends despite my reclusive work nature, and my preferred mode of communication is still with horribly drawn email responses. Proof: in response to a friend who'd rather watch World Cup then hang out and draw...



Hope everyone's enjoying their Summer or Winter!

Website easter egg:

Heeding the advice from artists far more experienced at online presentation than myself, one of the things left on my new site's editing room floor was the sketchbook section:

The continual struggle with my portfolio is how much to show and how much not to show; that is, at what point does the amount of work stop distinguishing your voice and start diluting it. For me, having a comics, illustration, AND apparel graphics section is dangerously teetering on the latter so for now my life-drawing/travel sketchbook will stick to the blog.

The naked city never sleeps.

It's awesome to live in a city that offers figure drawing virtually any night of the week. Pages from the Salmagundi Club and Triskelion:

Emergency Back-Up Career #27: Professional Arm Modeling

I and some friends recently helped John Palvus on a spot for NPR's new Android news app:



I'm the arms attached to the green plaid shirt during the flurry of hands sequence. It was a fun group of artists who volunteered their Saturday afternoon to help out and, yes, I totally used this as a substitute for pledging during their recent spring drive.



Wanna know who all these great artists are? Check out John's comprehensive behind the scenes post.

GB Tran version 2.0!

Been quiet with the posts these past couple weeks because I've been sweating over my site's relaunch. I gave myself the month of May to learn xhtml so this last week was down to the wire, and without further ado, I present the new gbtran.com! There's loads of new stuff to look at including VIETNAMERICA preview spreads, illustration work, and several full comics to read.

I'll be adding new features over the next few weeks as I learn more coding--including the new weekly comic mentioned in the previous post--but wanted to get this up now before I throw it all in the trash in a fit of art rage and start over from scratch. If you notice any bugs, please lemme know (especially all you PC users)!