Kirby Studies

More exciting news—and not a moment too soon!

Right on the heels of The Comics Journal‘s spirited roundtable about Hand of Fire, Brave New World Comics, my local, Eisner Spirit Award-winning shop—and one of my favorite haunts in greater Los Angeles—is hosting a signing for Hand of Fire this very afternoon!

Yes! Today, Saturday, May 12th, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm, Brave New World, in the yellow Victorian building at 22722 Lyons Avenue, Newhall, CA 91321, will be hosting Kirbyana with a vengeance. Read all about it at BNW’s ever-busy Facebook page!

I’ll be previewing and reading from Hand of Fire, discussing the book’s major themes, and revealing a bit of how the book came to be—then taking questions, chewing the fat, and personalizing copies. Once again, in fiery red ink!

It’s a great pleasure to do a signing at a shop that I respect and that has been such an important part of my comics buying and reading life over the past decade. Brave New World is a genuine innovator in comics retailing, and a friendly, welcoming, super-smart shop. I hope some of you, my readers, can make it there today! You can find directions to the shop here.

Looking forward to meeting you!

And thanks to Portlyn Freeman of BNW for setting this up!

Thanks again to Modern Myths in Northampton, Massachusetts, for hosting my first talk and signing for Hand of Fire on April 3rd! And thanks to everyone who came. I had a wonderful time discussing Kirby and highlighting the themes and concerns behind my book.

Modern Myths captured the event on video in six parts, and has posted all six on its YouTube channel, here (the link leads to Part 1, but the remaining parts can easily be accessed from there).

Odd, to see myself online in something like “real” time. But it was a delight to live it!

Newsflash! I’ll be speaking about Kirby tomorrow, Monday, April 2nd, at my alma mater, the University of Connecticut—thanks to my friend and colleague Kate Capshaw Smith, her English 6200 seminar, and the UConn Department of English!

Wow. I’m really looking forward to this!

The topic of my talk? Well, besides joining Kate and 6200 for a discussion of Morrison, Quitely, and Grant’s We3, I’ll be presenting (gasp!) an outtake from Hand of Fire—an examination of Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth, my own boyhood favorite and a subject I am absolutely not done with.

My talk will take place at 7:00pm as part of English 6200, in CLAS (Liberal Arts and Sciences), Room 216.

Exciting news!

Modern Myths Comic Books and Games, a terrific shop and always one of the highlights of my annual to biannual visits to Northampton, Massachusetts, will be hosting the first-ever signing event for Hand of Fire!

That’s right: on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm, the oh-so-fittingly named Modern Myths will be up to its ears in Kirbyana!

I’ll be discussing Hand of Fire—what the book is about, how it came to be, and what I hope it contributes to the study of comics—and then taking questions, chatting for a while, and signing and personalizing copies. In fiery red!

I’m really looking forward to this gig. It’s a distinct pleasure to do an event at one of New England’s finest comic shops and one of my favorite ports of call. Please come if you can (here’s how to get there), and let others know about it too. This should be a blast!

And check out the Facebook page that the Mythos has kindly created to announce the gig!