I will be attending the Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland, ME this weekend May 19. I visited the show last year, but this is the first time I will be exhibiting. It is a great show and the location is beautiful! Please come and enjoy Portland and all the great comics artists that will be there. I am looking forward to meeting some of you in person. (Plus, you know, Jeff Smith will be there. You might want to come for him too.)

The show is 10 AM to 5 PM at the Ocean Gateway. Adult admission is $5, and kids 12 or under are free.

The Kids’ Comics Revolution podcast are holding their own awards at the Kids Read Comics convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan next month (which I will be attending, BTW). I was honored to find out yesterday that my webcomic My Sister the Freak has been nominated for Favorite Webcomic!

Here’s the info you need to know:

Voting is open to kids only. You can vote online or by mail. You can also pick up a ballot in person at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival or at Kids Read Comics. Winners will be announced June 23 at the KRC convention.

PLEASE VOTE HERE!

My fellow nominees are all awesome webcomics in their own right, and I’m flattered to be included among them. They are:

Nemu*Nemu by Audra Furuichi and Scott Yoshinaga
Nedroid Picture Diary by Anthony Clarke
Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G.
Ellie on Planet X by James Anderson (fellow Spacedock 7 crew member!)

Please take a moment to vote if you can and show appreciation to your favorite comics creators, even if you’re not voting for me! Many of these people are some of the hardest working, most dedicated people I know and they deserve the recognition!

See you at Kids Read Comics!

There is a lot of ambiguous advice out there like “get your name out there” and “create a portfolio” – but how exactly do you do it? Based on my experience, here are some essential and very specific things I think you should do.

Continue reading: Advice for New Illustrators and Art School Graduates

I am prepping for some shows I will be attending (MECAF in May and Kids Read Comics in June). I didn’t have any new comics printed since last year, so I decided to make up some minicomics featuring my short Zombie Bunny comic. I’m also reprinting my Captain Bacon comic which I sold as a mini last year.

I love doing these quick homemade type books, and I love buying them from other artists as well. They’ve got an indie-artist-handmade-craftiness to them that I like vs. the pro printed books.

I’ve seen other artists make both down-and-dirty-photocopied-stapled numbers and the really-fancy-expensive-paper-individually-screen-printed kind. Mine are on the cheaper side, but I decided to use some colored cardstock to pretty them up a bit. I thought I’d share my process. Enjoy, and MAKE COMICS!

Continue reading: Making Minicomics

Check it out!

I recently had some work published in the children’s religious magazine Friend. These are some samples from three different Easter stories/activities that I illustrated in the March issue.

Check out the issue if you have a copy! You can even download the PDF for free here.

The Winners

The top pick goes to Kat Valencia, who made this super cute illustration:

Awesome! Congrats Kat! You can find more of her artwork here.

The contest also included one winner randomly picked from the rest of the entries. That winner was Seth Wilks, who also made a superb piece of artwork. Congrats Seth!

View more of Seth’s art here.

Winners, please email me your addresses so I can ship your books to you!

Other Favorites

A shout out to the lone kid entry by Lucien, age 4 (with help from mom Casey):

And this super twist on the theme by Seth Greenwald, in which the kitten gets the better of the monster!

Thanks again to all those who entered!

You can check out more info about my book MONSTERS VS. KITTENS here.

Amazon.com
Kindle
iBooks
Read-along storybook app

Stan Lee’s Kids Universe has officially launched with a new website, a book (MVK), and a game (Goobeez). They held an event at the bookstore Giggles n’ Hugs in Los Angeles to celebrate.

Media Coverage

Entertainment Weekly: http://family-room.ew.com/2013/02/06/stan-lee-kids-universe-new-imprint/

Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/stan-lee-unveils-monsters-kittens-418024

EGM: http://www.egmnow.com/digitalnoob/stan-lees-kids-universe-day-monsters-kittens-and-an-interview-with-stan-lee/

Mashable: http://mashable.com/2013/02/06/stan-lee-new-imprint-kids-universe/

Videos

Stan Lee’s Kids Universe Launch Video
Introducing MVK and other upcoming projects (including my second book)

http://youtu.be/t7ExzIALQ6o

Video of Stan reading MVK at the SLKU launch event:

http://youtu.be/wf9Eher2JbE

Interview with Stan and 1821 Comics’s Terry Dougas at the SLKU launch
with an appearance by actress Jaime Pressly, who hosted the event

http://youtu.be/OHLqdoMEsLg

Pictures

Buy the Book!

Amazon.com
Kindle
iBooks
Read-along storybook app

Remember to enter the giveaway!

Details here.

I have a new book! Monsters Vs. Kittens is now available in multiple print and digital formats.

Learn more and preview the book!

For all things monsters and/or kittens related, you can check out this page: danidraws.com/monsters-vs-kittens/

MVK Featured in USA Today

There was a nice article about the SLKU launch, and a preview of Monsters Vs. Kittens, in this USA Today article over the weekend:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2013/02/02/stan-lee-kids-universe-childrens-books-games/1885211/

Also, watch Stan Lee read my book!

SLKU has partnered with the makers of the A Story Before Bed app for a digital read-along version of the book. You can record yourself reading the book, or you can buy a pre-recorded version that is read by Stan the Man himself. To see it, you make an account on the A Story Before Bed website, then purchase the book from the link below. The book is then accessible both on the website and in the iPad app. I may or may not have watched this several times this past weekend. ;)

A Story Before Bed website

Buy Monsters Vs. Kittens!

Giveaway!

I’m going to giveaway TWO signed hardcover copies of MVK. Here’s how to enter:

UPDATE: Giveaway is done! Here are the winners.

1) Email me a drawing of a monster with a kitten. Send to dani@danijones.com with the subject “Monsters Vs. Kittens Giveaway”.
2) Include your name, age (if under 18), and website (if applicable).
3) Entries may be posted on my website later, so you have to be ok with that.
4) All ages and skill levels are eligible and encouraged. Kids, please have a parent send your entries.

You must email your pic by 11:59 PM ET on February 22, 2013.

Good luck!

Here is how my day went yesterday: