I am happy to report that this week, Chris Pitzer and I sent the final edits for PULPHOPE to our printer in Singapore. The book is late and in retrospect, we should've waited to send out advance solicitations, however we sincerely hope the fans and retailers will be more than satisfied with the end results. I can honestly say PULPHOPE is the single most ambitious project I have ever undertaken, and also Adhouse's biggest, longest, and most labor intensive publication to date. Clocking in at nearly 250 pages with an almost square 9.5x10 format, PULPHOPE features page after page of never-before-seen full color artwork, including new comics, samples of my various design and illustration projects, and two large gatefold poster images. There are eight essays, covering a wide body of topics including erotica, science fiction, and child drawings, for a total word count clocking in at just over 30,000 words.
The book is shipping by freighter and it looks like it will likely leave Singapore in late May. Chris and I will have copies of the book for sale at MOCCA in NYC, the San Diego Comic Con (where I will be a feature guest this year, doing a signing with James Jean for his new PROCESS/RECESS book, also from Adhouse Books), and at TCAF in Toronto. Adhouse Books will also be at the Heroes Con show in Charolette NC. We are in the early stages of planning a sensational book release party for the week of MOCCA in NYC, and it will hopefully be something to top the legendary Batman/X Men release party John Cassaday and I threw last year.
The book has been a labor of love and a deep passion of mine for well over a year of creative work. We've put a lot of time and energy into this production, and we went through ten drafts before arriving at the final edit for the book. This is a true graphic album, unlike any other cartoonist's art book out there today. My big inspiration for PULPHOPE is the 1977 release of THE COMPLETE TADANORI YOKOO, an exhuberant catalogue of works by my artist-hero, Tadanori Yokoo. PULPHOPE includes an essay about Yokoo and the legacy of the traditional Japanese woodblock print, as well as over a dozen of my own contemporary Ukiyo-E inspired images, in a section called "Ukiyo-E-Pope".
Also included in the book are a number of images from the various projects I have done for the Italian fashion label Diesel, including some photos and pictures documenting the process used for the 12 color silkscreen I did for Renzo Rosso's 51st birthday this year. Thanks to everyone for having patience-- the wait will be worth it.
