I’m very happy to say that Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry is available now. Co-published by the Poetry Foundation and McSweeney’s, the book is a collections of essays and resources for writers and teachers to encourage and instill an excitement about poetry in children.

My comic adaptation of, nine-year-old, Kameron Quinlan’s poem “The Lion on My Hair” is included as part of an essay by Matthea Harvey entitled, “Poetry is an Egg with a Horse Inside.”

The collection is edited by Dorothea Lasky, Dominic Luxford, and Jesse Nathan. Contributors to Open the Door include: Dave Eggers, Ron Padgett, William Stafford, Eileen Myles, Kenneth Koch, Theodore Roethke, Katie Ford, Yusef Komunyakaa, Matthew Zapruder and more.

Check it out.

I’m very excited to have a poetry comic in the newest issue of MOUNT HOPE.

READ THE WHOLE THING HERE!

The comic entitled MOTHMAN prominently features the mothman, a winged creature that I’m a little obsessed with. A large part of the legend of the mothman is that it appears before, and possibly causes, massive tragedies. Most notably the Silver Bridge collapse. Following other large scale disasters, there tend to be people claiming to have seen the mothman just prior. It could be post traumatic hysteria, people just trying to explain a frightening catastrophe or someone looking for attention. In any case, they are fascinating claims.

In a weird but completely random coincidence, while I was making this comic, Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast. I live in Queens, New York, and was fortunate to not be directly affected. I did include some of the aftermath that was around me in the comic in tone and a couple images. Usually, I feel that my work isn’t dealing with my immediate surroundings, but looking back at this comic I can see how those Sandy shaped my choices and what I was processing.

Anyway! It’s a great comic, go read it.

Do you process disaster by seeing monsters or drawing them? Tell me in the comments.

I put together an ONLINE PORTFOLIO. Finally, I know.

So if you know someone looking for a charming fellow with a specialized skill-set, send them here. Let them know that I can draw happy looking people too. Happy, but maybe in pain a little.

LOOK! It’s cute cat. You had doubts.

The excellent Adam Ford interviewed me for The Blue Corner blog of the Austraillian literary journal Going Down Swinging.

SEE INTERVIEW HERE!

I decided to draw a response. By-the-by, Knuckles is an unlockable character in all of my poetry.

Thank you very much Adam.

Come make comics with me!

Recently, SideTours got in touch with me about offering folks an experience in poetry comics. I thought it sounded like a great idea.

It’ll be a fun crash course in poetry comics and oubapo, I’ll present work by some of the other characters in the genre, and then we’ll make some comics of our own. Plus, you’ll get a book!

If you’re in the New York area, you should give it a try. Whether you like comics, poetry or just want something new to do, we’ll have a great time! The first one is February 16th.

Comics as Poetry is now available to order New Modern Press. Above is a snippet from my part.

Grab a copy! I wouldn’t be surprised if this print run ran out, then you’d have to wait for the next one.

Contributors include:

Kimball Anderson
Derik A. Badman
William Corbett
Warren Craghead III
Julie Delporte
Oliver East
Franklin Einspruch
Jason Overby
Paul K. Tunis (me)

If you want to help spread the word, please get in touch.

Cover, Comics as Poetry, © 2012 New Modern Press, comicsaspoetry.com

I’m starting to work on a new longer comic, perhaps really long, called Flu. It’s going to be a massive undertaking, but I’m excited about it.

Also, starting February, I’ll be taking on more freelance illustration projects, so if you want to hire a dapper fellow with doodling problem, get in touch.

 
Click to enlarge!

Back log of Blind to Blue today. I’ve been swamped in the best way with lots of work and projects that I have been strongly committed to. However, I’ve also fallen behind on a number of projects that are less deadline-specific.

This last weekend I finished a poetry comic for Mount Hope. I’m pretty happy with the result and will let you know when they make it available. Here’s a tease.

Later we’ll probably have to talk about the 1994 Double Dragon movie starring Scott Wolf and Alyssa Milano. Not right now though.

2012 is almost over and I’m excited to have been able to see so many prophesied apocalypses in my life time. Y2K, Harold Camping’s Raptures 1, 2 and 3, now we are on 2012 eve. If this is another over-hyped flop, does anyone know of more armageddons to plan a good bacchanal around? Tell me in the comments.

It has been a complicated month, a number of figurative and literal storms lately. I’m trying to compliment people more. If I haven’t seen you I miss you, stay out of trouble. Don’t watch Doomsday Preppers if you live in a one room apartment. Those MREs will never fit under the futon. What’s your apocalypse?

Had a very nice interview with Kallie Falandays for TellTell Poetry. We talked about fictional prom dates, poetry, comics and the constant risk of ocelot attack. Check it out.