This Week's Shenanigans

Tamaki fanclub, a new window display and a finished cover!

Hi Cool Kids!

We’ve recently had a lot of new people join our little club through pre-ordering my book! How exciting! A reminder that my book comes out next week and if you preorder my book through any bookstore and forward your receipt to liantomato@gmail.com, you’ll get a FREE YEAR ACCESS to PAID POSTS!! So for $20 you can get my book, a bunch of free goodies and also a yearly subscription that usually goes for $50!

It seems my last post about 5 lessons has been really resonating with everyone who has read it which warms my dear little heart. Everyone keeps telling me I should teach and my answer is “do you know who is hiring because I’d love to.”

Yesterday night I went to Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki’s book launch for their new graphic novel Roaming at Greenlight Bookstore. I basically saw every single person who has ever touched an illustration and lives in New York at the event. It’s the Tamaki’s world and we’re just living in it.

My signed copy!

They did a little presentation and answered some questions while all of us sat in awe of their brilliance. If only I too had a genius cousin whom I could collaborate with. Below are some notes I took of their wise words:

On the way there, there was a violinist and cellist playing up a beautiful duet on opposite platforms.

And if you can’t read my handwriting, here it is transcribed:

• Innocence and not knowing what needs to be done as a young/inexperienced artist can be a good thing.

• The process will inform the final result.

• If you’re unsure about how to tackle a graphic novel alone or with someone else, start out with a mini comic first to see how it goes.

• Learning to tell a story is an incredibly empowering process regardless of whether or not you do it professionally.

• Lack of clarity and ambiguity is far more interesting

• When you read comics, you’re reading on parallel lines. You’re both reading the text and image which may or may not be depicting the same things.

In other fun news, we decided on a cover for my next book! I finished painting it this week. Here’s a sneak peek of what it looks like: