Danger Country reviewed on The Comics Journal

I'm thrilled to receive this mostly positive review of Danger Country #1. I've started on #3 and hope it will be out in time for SPX next year. I also have some other Danger Country related things going on which I hope to announce next month.

A Princess of Mars

Just did an illustration of A Princess of Mars for the latest Art Order. Trying to get my sci-fi/fantasy skills up.

APE 2011

Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be at APE, and there's a few details you should know.

1. I have a table this year! I'm sharing table #255 with my publisher Tim Goodyear/Teenage Dinosaur. He'll have a bunch of awesome books, including...

2. Danger Country #2!!!! It will debut at APE. Danger Country #1 got nominated for 2 Ignatz awards. Can #2 possibly live up to its predecessor? The answer is.... Yes. Yes, it can.

3. I'll also have a RANGER STEEL mini-comic, compiling the first 10 Ranger Steel web strips in a format deadly to trees. I'll also have some old books and zines including DANGER COUNTRY #1, FORK FRENZY #1, ORDINARY FIELDBOOK, and THE ONLY ONE THERE COULD EVER BE which is an illustrated book of extremely personal poems based on the Highlander movies.

4. I'll also have some posters!

5. And on Saturday, I'll be on the Comics Claptrap Live! Panel. That's at 2:00 PM.

A Fan

Last week I got this e-mail and attached picture from Eli Bishop of Global Hobo:

hi Levon,
Thought you'd like to know that this elderly lady walked into SF Zine Fest randomly having no idea what it was, went to the Global Hobo table and read Danger Country #1 intently from cover to cover, laughed gleefully, said "I love this kind of writing!", put it down and moved on without buying anything.
best,
Eli

I love stories like this as long as I'm not there to witness it.

Dylan Williams

That's him, second from the left. This is the only picture with both me and Dylan that I could find. ©David King.

Yesterday afternoon my friend Dylan Williams passed away after a long fight with cancer. He was the cartoonist behind Reporter and was the publisher of Sparkplug Comic Books. I really can't say much about him that hasn't been already said better elsewhere. I just wanted to share some of my Dylan observations from over the years. 

I can't remember the first time I met Dylan. I almost always saw him in the context of a comic convention. He'd share a table with Tom Neely, and Tom would let me have a spot at his table, so we'd spend most of the weekend together. Comics folks, no matter how well adjusted they are at home around their friends, become socially awkward and dysfunctional when they are in the same room together. It happens to me, still, and it's hard to not blame myself for not being congenial enough or saying the wrong thing. Dylan didn't seem to have this problem, but he was really good at spotting it. He had this particular sidle he'd do, that always made me secretly smile. If you ever saw Dylan at a convention you'd know what I'm talking about. He'd spot you having an awkward moment with another comics person, or with a customer, and he'd sidle over and interrupt, and make a recommendation or compliment one of the people or jokingly insult one of the people or just say whatever needed to be said, and everyone would be at ease.

When we visited portland years ago, Lila and I stayed with a friend who didn't have a car so we walked everywhere, and even though we didn't plan on it, we kept running into Dylan all over the city. Any time he saw us walking around, he'd make a crazy U-turn and drove us to wherever we were headed even though he didn't know me that well at that point. 

He encouraged me to make comics, and said nicer things to me than I ever felt I deserved. As a publisher his attitude seemed so insane to me at times. He built the careers of so many great cartoonists, but never strived to make a name for himself off of their efforts. He just loved the work. 

His absence at San Diego Comic-con this year was really felt hard by me. In all that insanity, he was a center of gravity. Without him, it was just too crazy. I won't be going to Comic-con next year. Goodbye Dylan, I love you.

Danger Country #2 Preview

I thought I'd post a couple of preview pages from Danger Country #2. It's at the printers and should be out in time for APE, on October 1 and 2. I'll be exhibiting there with my publisher, Teenage Dinosaur. at booth #255. More on that later.

If you're at SPX this weekend please vote for Danger Country #1 for outstanding comic or outstanding mini-comic! Tom Neely will be selling copies at the I Will Destroy You booth.

Danger Country 1 nominated for 2 Ignatz awards!

I just wanted to quickly congratulate myself on getting nominated for 2 Ignatz awards! One for Outstanding Comic and another one for Outstanding Mini-comic. I'm standing side by side with some big league names, there. Pretty impressive!

If you end up going to SPX, please please give me a little vote or two! I'm going to go ahead and be honest with you and tell you that Danger Country is the best work I've ever done. It really deserves to win and if you read it you will agree. If you haven't read it yet, give a little click on the big graphic on the right side of the screen and buy it from the Fork Frenzy shop. Anyone who knows me will be surprised by my outspken self-confidence, but I'm damn proud of myself and I'm proud of myself for being proud of myself.

In other news, I'm now selling PDF eBooks on the ForkFrenzy shop. Right now we have 3 new David King titles for sale, for super cheap. Please buy!