Hey, all you Chicagoland residents, Delia Awesome #1 can now be found at your favorite comic store…assuming it’s one of the following seven shops:

G-Mart Comics in Logan Square.

Challengers Comics + Conversation in Bucktown.

Brainstorm Comics in Wicker Park.

Quimby’s Bookstore in Wicker Park.

Chicago Comics in Lakeview.

Third Coast Comics in Edgewater.

Comix Revolution in Evanston.

Also, it’s my great pleasure to announce that DJ Phantom Power will be performing a set during the launch party next Wednesday at the Hideout.

…there will also be buttons.

Check out the Facebook event page for further information.

I’ve been planning this on the down low for the past couple of weeks, and it is now with an enormous amount of excitement and gratitude that I can announce Delia Awesome will be having a launch party at The Hideout on Wednesday, October 23rd.

From 6-8pm, both myself and my editor, Jane Huh, will be slangin’ books and stickers, talking comics, fielding questions, and just out-and-out celebrating the release of Delia Awesome #1 and the overall launch of the series.

That this event can take place in the very same venue where Delia’s journey begins – both in terms of the narrative and the character/plot development – is particularly meaningful to me, and I’m hugely grateful to Seth Dodson and everyone else at The Hideout for their help in making it happen.

I’ll have more details to share soon. But in the meantime, mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 23rd from 6-8pm.

See y’all real soon!

I’m very excited to announce that Delia Awesome is now available for purchase through IndyPlanet! So anyone interested in owning their very own physical copy should head on over to their website and pick one up. A direct link to Delia Awesome’s page on IndyPlanet is located in the sidebar of this site. Or, if you’re reading this post, just click here.

There it is. Delia Awesome #1. Real. Bonafide. Ready to be sold and promoted and held and opened and closed and all the other awesome things one can do with a real, live book.

I’m also incredibly pleased with the quality of the printing. The paper has a good heft to it, the ink is nice and dark,  the bleeds all look great. Ka-Blam gets high marks for this project.

Since everything checked out with the proof, the next step is to put in a bulk order. Which means I should have copies ready to be sold in the next couple of weeks. Possibly sooner. Anyway, I’m super excited…this easily makes up for the fact that my job neglected to pay me on time for the fourth straight week. (Now I can just sit and stare at this when I’m reduced to eating nothing but ramen and oranges by the middle of next week.)

Just got home to find some samples from Ka-Blam waiting on my doorstep. Overall, I’m pleased with the quality. The paper feels good – if a bit light – the halftones are crisp, and the black ink is nice and dark. It’s gonna be hard waiting for the proofs to arrive, but this has at least dispelled many of my concerns about the printing.

So yeah, color me excited.

I’ve had a relaxed but productive couple of weeks since completing issue #1. Delia Awesome now has a Facebook page (please note the handy link located in the sidebar), I’ve been working on the script for issue #2, and am writing not one, but three articles on various aspects of this project.

I’m also waiting on proofs to come back from the printers, which is pretty damn exciting. With any luck, I’ll have hard copies available no later than mid-October.

Anyway, here’s a fun thing that I cobbled together from some of the artwork on this site…a side-by-side comparison of Delia’s original design and her final, revised appearance:

I’ve decided to post an informal preview of what amounts to the first chapter of Delia Awesome. So head on over to the comic section and check out the first ten pages of issue one. I may still need to make the odd tweak here and there, but otherwise these pages are in their final form. Enjoy!

That’s it. That’s the day. Mark your calendars. Tell your friends.

Delia Awesome issue #1 will be out on August 1st. I know the date keeps slipping, but I can now say with certainty that the first issue will be complete before the end of the month. Whether that’s two days or two weeks before July 31st remains to be seen. (I’m guessing it’ll be closer to the former.)

I make no excuses. The occasional and unwelcome interruption of my day job, illness, the rare social obligation, and the fact that – apart from the contributions made by my editor – 95% of the work is being done by me alone have all had their impact. Though it’s really the latter-est of those reasons. Creating a long form comic on one’s own, from scratch is a lot of fucking work. Christ, I spent over four hours last night designing a font for it. Then there’s the penciling, inking, shading, laying down all the word balloons and copy…not to mention all the time spent tweaking the final product and correcting mistakes.

But it’s all worth it when you start to see something you’re (cautiously) happy with take form. And in no more than three weeks time I’ll know if it’s all been worth it.

Anyway, as a treat for the few people who actually follow this blog and a surprise for those who simply stumble across it, I’ll be doing a soft launch of issue #1 as soon as it’s ready. But seeing as how I have no idea when that will actually be, you’ll just have to keep checking back. But August 1st is the official, hard launch of the comic…meaning it’s what I’m telling people on Facebook and putting on the flyers I’ll be leaving at Quimby’s, Chicago Comics, The Empty Bottle, New Wave, and so on.

Really binding stuff, I know.

July 1st. Delia’s (re)debut is nearly here. Her redux-over, maybe?

Terrible wordplay aside, I’m in the home stretch – and really doing my damnedest to make sure “July 1st” doesn’t become a more nebulous “first week of July”. But hey, shit happens.

Anyway, I’m gonna try and post a little preview along with some reflections on the whole project very soon. But right now actually producing the comic has to take priority over everything else, so my musings on Delia Awesome may have to wait until sometime next month. Either way, it won’t be long now before this site serves as more than just a repository of status updates. See y’all in a couple of weeks.