I’ll be at Emerald City Comicon this Thursday through Sunday – if you’re attending, please come and say hi!

I’ll have copies of all three Hereville books, and also of “First Glance,” my short with Becky Hawkins.

I’m sharing a table with Jake Richmond, creator of “Modest Medusa” and colorist of Hereville. Our table is extremely easy to find – we’re actually on the Skybridge! Our booth number is #1114, which is nestled between Dave Kellett’s booth and the gigantic TopatoCo booth, and across the aisle from the (also gigantic) Boom Studios! booth.

“Hereville” colorist Jake Richmond will also be there.

That’s at 2305 SE 82nd Avenue, Portland, OR.

I usually don’t use photo reference for figures – it’s difficult to prevent photo-referenced figures from looking lifeless, at least for me (other cartoonists do it better). When I use a photo ref and the resulting drawing looks like it was photo-referenced, I think of that as me “getting beat up by the photo.” But some poses are just too hard to figure out without reference. This three-way hug is definitely one such pose.

So I made my housemates Matt, Maddox and Sydney pose for for this photo (Matt is the girls’ dad), and used that as the basis for my drawing. Even with the photo, there are still differences between the reference and the final image – although there are also bits that are very similar (compare Fruma’s hands to Matt’s). The biggest change was Mirka’s entire figure, and turning Layele’s head so that readers could see her happy expression.

I think I’ve gotten much better at not letting source photos beat up my drawings. In the first Hereville book, there are some drawings that still make me wince because they look so obviously drawn from photos.

Hereville: How Mirka Caught A Fish is the long-awaited third book in Barry Deutsch’s Hereville series, about “Yet Another 11-Year-Old Time-Traveling Orthodox Jewish Babysitter.” And it’s finally here!

Hereville creator Barry Deutsch will be on hand at 6pm on November 13th at The Spritely Bean, Portland’s comics and coffee cafe, to sign and sketch in books, alongside his collaborators, longtime Hereville colorist Jake Richmond, and new background artist Adrian Wallace. There will also be a presentation at 7pm, featuring live drawing demonstrations, an animated film of the Hereville drawing process, and other fun stuff. The festivities will continue pretty much until people stop showing up.

“Deutsch has created a wonderfully inventive world, in which fantastic creatures believably reside alongside a religious community; Mirka is a delightfully flawed heroine that nearly anyone can relate to and enjoy. Backgrounder Wallace and colorist Richmond augment Deutsch’s busy panels, providing a pleasingly earth-toned setting for Mirka’s latest adventure. This consistently clever and thoughtful series hasn’t lost a particle of momentum.” –Kirkus Reviews

Past Hereville books have been nominated for Eisner, Ignatz, Harvey, and Andre Norton Awards, and have won the Sydney Taylor Book Prize, the Oregon Book Award, and a Sybel Award.

The Hereville Book Premiere event will take place at The Spritely Bean, located at 5829 SE Powell, Portland, Oregon, beginning at 6pm. We’ll have copies of all three Hereville books for sale.

If you’re in or near Portland, I hope I’ll see you there!

I’m so excited that this is out!

Kirkus’s review:

“Deutsch has created a wonderfully inventive world, in which fantastic creatures believably reside alongside a religious community; Mirka is a delightfully flawed heroine that nearly anyone can relate to and enjoy. Backgrounder Wallace and colorist Richmond augment Deutsch’s busy panels, providing a pleasingly earth-toned setting for Mirka’s latest adventure. This consistently clever and thoughtful series hasn’t lost a particle of momentum.”

Hereville 3 at Powell’s Books

Hereville 3 at IndieBound

Hereville 3 at Barnes & Noble

Hereville 3 at Amazon

And it’s also available as a digital download on Comixology!

I’ll be tabling at “Stan Lee’s Comikaze” comic-con in Los Angeles this weekend! And at my table, at least part of the time, will be the award-winning science fiction writer Rachel Swirsky! So if you’re in LA, please come and say hi. The con is open today, Saturday, and Sunday.

This is the first event where I’ll have copies of Hereville 3 on sale, so I hope someone buys it! We’ll be at table #SSA08, which is near the Bob’s Burgers Pavilion and also near the R2D2 maker’s booth.

If you’ll be there, please come and say hi!