To see a few color pages from Volume 3 to get an idea of the awesome, check out this sneak peek at Majorspoilers.com

Also, of you’re in the Portland, OR area and are going to Stumptown this weekend, come get your signed copy at the Oni Press table. I’ll be there to sign it for you! A free Courtney sketch goes to the first person who gives me the password “Wilberforce.”

I believe that stories should end. Otherwise, they don’t truly say anything, and are therefore not really stories. Certain stories create rich, inviting worlds, and I often feel a deep desire to to return there over and over again. But I usually find that, after too long, the story stops moving, becomes stagnant, and the world loses its meaning. I didn’t want to do that with Courtney’s world, as much as I would have loved to dwell there forever.

Courtney had to grow, had to change. Otherwise, her adventures, her suffering, her lessons, would have been for nothing. And to change Courtney was to finish her story. I personally was less interested in the adventures of a mellow young witch who was wise beyond her years. But I wanted her to arrive somewhere near that peaceful place rather than just go on suffering. Otherwise, her stories wouldn’t have meant as much. Happily ever after isn’t much of a story, but it makes a great ending. So I’d just as soon leave it at that.

Anyway, last week, I did a post-mortem interview with Comics Alliance, discussing things Courtney, as well as future plans. Here’s the link.

And to all who came with me on this little adventure through the world of my grumpy little heroine, thanks for the company. I really REALLY couldn’t have done it without you. Stories don’t happen in a vacuum, despite what some story-tellers would have you believe. We need readers. Otherwise we’re just fools shouting nonsense into the void. Readers give our efforts their meaning. So thanks for that.

Ted Naifeh

San Francisco, the end of winter, 2013

For all you other folks that don’t live in France, I will hopefully be posting pics of all the lovely sites, shops, and meals you’ll be missing. That is, if I can manage to get ahold of a prepaid sim card, or get access to free wifi (which, in Europe,  is like finding water in the desert).  In the meantime, here is some commissions I did recently.

In any event, I’m heading off to New York Comic Con tomorrow. I’ll be sitting at the Oni table all weekend, promoting the very handsome new Courtney Crumrin vol2 hardcover. The first person who gives me the password “Ultra-Humanite” gets a free sketch, but not necessarily of the Ultra-Humanite.

Here are some more scribbles from my sketchbook to keep you busy.

Some quick info about Courtney #5.
Originally, when setting out to do the next series, I’d conceived it in a similar way to previous issues, as a stand-alone aside before the main story began. Little did I know that Oni’s editor in chief, James Lucas Jones, had big plans for Courtney this year. Specifically, I didn’t know the ongoing series would be in color, or that all the previous volumes would be re-issued in a huge promotional campaign to celebrate the series’ 10th anniversary. In short, I thought the new series would be more of the same, not a relaunch. I had this story stewing, so I went ahead and did it.

James couldn’t be more dismayed when he got the finished issue. It dealt primarily with back-story from volume 2 and the Aloysius spin-off. Courtney was barely in it. He had all these plans to push Courtney as a premier ongoing independent series, and somehow, I hadn’t gotten the message.

“Of all that cockameme- This is no way to launch a monthly series!” he shouted, chomping his cigar. “Get Naifeh in here NOW!”

I sat down in JLJ’s steamy office above the Oni sweatshop in Portland’s docklands, and he set me straight. “I’m tryin’ to hand you the brass ring, kid,” he growled, his cigar aggressively circling from one side of his mouth to the other. “But if you tangle with me, I will bury you!”

In a terrified frenzy, I went home and wrote out the arc I’d been planning to follow this story with, and nervously passed it to James.

“By cracky, this is just what we need to launch the new series,” he roared, thumping the table.

Sighing with relief, I agreed to launch with the new arc, and JLJ agreed to put the original first issue at the end. It’s a little out of order, and it may have to go at the beginning of the collected edition, though at this point, I’m not sure that makes sense. Anyway, the upshot is that this story is supposed to take place before the events of the last four issues.

Sorry for any confusion.

Also, I just got my copy of the new Courtney hardcover, The Coven of Mistics. Like the previous volume, it is exceptionally handsome, in an elegant hunter green with a full color interior. Colorist Warren Wucinich has outdone himself with this one, imbuing the book with even more lustrous, atmospheric color than the last one. Thanks again, Warren. It will hit shelves at the end of next month, with a cover price of $24.99.

For you folks in the southeast, I hope to see you at Dragon-Con this year, and personally sign your copy of Coven of Mystics. If you don’t have one by then, I’ll be bringing a stack (barring force majeure).  It may be my last Dragon-Con for a while, so don’t forget to come see me.

Also, I’ve been reading the latest Scott Snyder comics, plus resisting the urge to download the Arkham City downloadable extras, basically cuz I really need to work. But the Batman Universe is still calling to me, so that’s what my sketchbook playground looks like these days.

My basic take on Batman Beyond, which, for the layman, is the Spider-Man story set in the future with a super-powered bat suit instead of spider-powers.

This is another in a series of  sketches I’ve been doing, where the challenge is to reveal the superhero persona of the character without a costume.

People pick on Robin in the Batman Universe, and I can understand why. But he’s still part of it, in all his incarnations. So our challenge in the geek world is to make him fit. This is my first attempt at Nightwing, the grown-up version of Dick Grayson.

Batgirl always has a special place in my heart. I’m still experimenting with my brown paper sketchbook, and I think there’s some interesting stuff here, but Poor Barbara Gordon looks a little blue-ish, like she’s been taking mass amounts of colloidal silver. Not so sexy.

And Batgirl on a scooter again, a concept I just love. Does everyone have to ride a bad-ass motorcycle?