comics

A week of books!

It’s been a thrilling seven days here at G.T. Labs!

July 2nd saw the release of Hawking (art by Leland Myrick) and today, July 9th, the paperback version of The Imitation Game (art by Leland Purvis) comes out.

We celebrated the former with release parties on the West Coast—hosted by Vroman’s and featuring Leland Myrick—and one on the Third Coast, hosted by Literati Bookstore and featuring me talking about the view from Hawking’s bedroom and other places and ideas that have been on my mind for years. We followed the event in Michigan with a party that featured a thematic, frozen treat. For it I gave Rob of Go! Ice Cream some loose parameters: your chocolate sorbet as the foundation, the April, 2019 black hole photo as inspiration, and a singularity in the middle. He added stars, named it (that wasn’t me, really!), surprised me with the choice of the singularity, and it was 100% delicious.

I can’t promise I’ll have any on hand for future events this summer, since those all involve hours of travel, but I do hope to see you somewhere out in the world where we can talk about comics and science and math and Pop Rocks and whatever else you want to hear about!

Astronauts! Coming in February 2020!

It’s about to get all Hawking, all day every day here at G.T. Labs, but before that happens I wanted to get this great news on the blog: Astronauts, in collaboration with Maris Wicks, is an official thing that will come out next year.

This book was a joy to do, from my first interview with Mary Cleave through the writing (I can remember struggles while making every book but this one) to seeing the first panels Maris drew. And now it’s on First Second’s official schedule. (You can preorder it here.) I sure hope readers love this one as much as Maris and I do.

Cheers to her, cheers to our protagonist Mary, and cheers to exploration.

Ending Hawking

Hey, there’s an ARC giveaway of Hawking going on right now! Enter today: https://bit.ly/2ZypPLA

I hope you get one, and in case you do here’s a quick note to say congratulations, thanks, and…we changed the ending. Not much, but enough that you’ll notice the difference between what you’re holding now and what your readers will see in July.

(Well, that and the “Hardcover and Full Color Everywhere by Aaron Polk” thing. You’ll love this book in its final form.)

Here’s how that happened: In a television writer’s room there’s a fairly common occurence: someone pitches a plot-twist or a joke, and other writers nod. But if too many nod in agreement and say “right, that’s just what I was thinking” they’ll toss it out and think some more. Why? Because they know they’ve come up with the exact same thing their savvy audience will expect at that point in the story.

Something similar happened to us, and it was brought about by the sad occasion of Hawking’s death. As we revisited our original ending in light of his passing, we realized that what might have worked soon after we first visited Cambridge to meet him** in 2013 was not as good five years later. The imagery that seemed fresh and appropriate then? It no longer did. Our sensitivity reader made this point as well, pushing us further, and we took heed. The result is a closing sequence that’s subtly different from what’s in the ARC.

It’s now more abstract, leaves more to your imagination, and keeps you in Hawking’s mind—in Hawking’s world—for just a little longer. Perhaps even after you close the book.

I hope you enjoy the story, and come back for more on July 2nd!

**And by soon, I mean I came up with the ending, in outline form, while still in England. In fact, I wrote it down in the rain (England, right?) in a tiny notebook while I was on Darwin’s Sandwalk, pictured above. It was a wonderful trip.

What I’ve been up to

In addition to Hawking, and besides working with* my pal Jane to revise this website, I’ve written a bunch of books in recent years.

(*”Working with” means asking her to help and then saying what I like and don’t like about what she made happen. It was mostly improv-like** with lots of “yes, and”s.)

(**I also took some improv classes in the last couple of years. Boy, did I learn a lot about what scares me and gives me enjoyment.)

It hasn’t looked like it, because comics take a long time to finish, but in 2017-2018 I sent over 600 pages to editors for their approval. Here are the projects underway:

Hawking

You already know about this, right? It comes out in the U.S. on July 2, 2019. It will come out in other languages and countries too, but not all. China, Japan, Brazil…your move!

Astronauts

Maris Wicks (yes, the Primates team is back together!) is hard at work on the story of the first women astronauts as we speak. I wish I could show you how good it looks, but for now please trust me—it looks fabulous. This is scheduled for a February 2020 release.

Naturalist

This book was a departure for me, in that I didn’t know I wanted to do this project until the publisher of E.O. Wilson’s memoir approached me about adapting it to comics. Huh, thought I. What would that be like? Turns out it was fun, and a challenge as well. Chris Butzer (Gettysburg) is the artist for this, and he’s turning Wilson’s words and my staging into pictures. Side note: an adaptation means I can actually do the calculation of how many words a picture is really worth. (I know the number of words we used from the original text, and the number of panels we’re using, and beyond that it’s simple arithmetic.) More when the book comes out.

And then there are the monthly comics in celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table for the Royal Society of Chemistry, but that’s a post for another day.

Hawking, in the house

Hi everybody. This book is real, in that you’re now looking at an actual copy…or looking at Hawking looking at a copy, depending on which photo you checked out first. So if you haven’t already, you can pre-order from your favorite retailer now. Because it’s real. Really real.

To celebrate I’d like to give someone an advance reading copy (ARC) of this very book, so here’s the offer:

As mentioned a while back, I also have a new website, and to test out the store here’s an offer to one and all. The first ten orders of any book there will get a free copy of one of my other books. I have Feynman, The Imitation Game, and even a copy or two of T-Minus to give away, not to mention the self-published titles.

So please head over to

https://gt-labs.com/store/

and let me know your preference(s) in the “Order notes,” especially if you’re quick on the draw and don’t want that Hawking ARC. No guarantees I can give everyone the book they request, but I’ll try! And thanks, readers and friends.

Abrams ComicArts: 10th Anniversary!

I’ve had the honor of working with many great people and publishers, and Abrams is one of the latter, filled with the former. They celebrate their 10th anniversary this year, and are doing so with some really cool events, like a show at The Society of Illustrators. They’re also doing a cool giveaway, which you’ll want to enter.

So thanks to Charlie, Nicole, Orlando, Pam, Maya, and everyone else there for inviting Leland and me into such good company. And congratulations on ten years of superb books; I look forward to many more decades of great reading!

comics

Footer