JaMiE BaKeR: fallout

Here is the final cover for ELEPHANTS IN THE NEWS, very similar to that used in the mock-up shown to the publisher back in 2005, when the working title was “Pachyderms in Limerick”.

In a classic good news/bad news situation, the publisher has already sold out of all their Australian stock even before the book has been released. That is clearly good news, especially if they are prompted to do a reprint. The bad news is that my own order of books got passed over in the rush to fill orders from bona fide customers.

Thankfully, there were a few remaining boxes in a warehouse in New Zealand and, even as I write this, 144 elephants are flying through the air over the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between New Zealand And California. My plan was to have ordered twice that many copies, but fingers crossed that there will be at least some elephants waiting for me in San Francisco when I return next month.

For those of you who live in Australia and New Zealand, you should see this cover appearing on the shelves of your local bookstore starting on April 4th. If you want one, it might be a good idea to pick up a copy as soon as you see it, because they wont be able to re-order, at least in the short term.

Otherwise, it can be ordered ONLINE right now from the Pan Macmillan websites in both Australia and New Zealand, or from Piccadilly books. (Note that the cover graphic used in these online catalogs isn’t the FINAL version).

Another quick Super-Heroine sketch done while sitting at my booth at a comics convention. This one is of my new favourite super gal; POWERGIRL.

I got a bit lazy with the hands and feet on this one, so I’ll tidy them up later.

There are quite a few pics in the Elephant book that deal with grim subject matter in a ghoulish manner, this one about an elephant handler getting crushed at London Zoo being an example. The pencil sketch for this illustration was posted earlier here.

For the past few weeks I have been having fun working in Culver City on a feature animation project being directed by my two friends Tony Stacchi and Dave Feiss. When not at work I have been trying to figure out how to get around in Los Angeles without either a cell-phone or the ability to drive a car…

I did this BATGIRL doodle (in grey brush-pen and pencil) along with a bunch of other super-heroine sketches, while sitting at my booth during last year’s Comic Con in San Diego. Rafael Navarro put dibs on this one almost immediately, but in the hectic swirl that is Comic Con, we didn’t get a chance to meet again before the con ended. However we finally got to close the transaction earlier this month at Wondercon in San Francisco. It is nice to know that she has gone to a good home…

This is the title page for my Dad’s book “Elephants in the News”. At one point I had thought it may have been a good design for the cover, but instead the publisher used an interior illustration that had been featured on the earliest mock up, because that image had become associated with the book in the minds of so many people.

This illustration was done in coloured pencil on Canson paper and then I adjusted the saturation and contrast in Photoshop. The rough sketch for it was already posted here.

Thanks to all the people who came by the Abismo/ Nerve Bomb booth at WONDERCON last weekend. It was a low key show for me (as I didn’t have any new books and I didn’t do any shopping) but it was fun, as always, because of the people-watching and meeting old friends.

See you all at A.P.E. where I should FINALLY have my new book on sale!