Review wise, we’ve had a pretty nice response from places like Bust, Boing Boing, and the Onion A.V. Club — check out the blurbs here. Also, tor.com has published an excerpt — you can read the first chapter there.

We got a bit of coverage at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival — the guys from Vepo Studios interviewed me for their great piece on self-publishing comics and I rambled on with the guys with RGB Filter as well. (Sadly, Shannon hates being videotaped.)

More recently we drove to Detroit and did a launch at Leopold’s Books, a fantastic new bookstore with an emphasis on comic/zine/visual culture. Greg, the owner, interviewed us on stage. Probably the nicest thing was hearing that he was worried the comic was going to be another exploitive take on Detroit in the “ruin porn” genre but was pleasantly surprised to see it was not.

UPDATE: Quill & Quire gave it a starred review: “Munroe has created another stunning, thought-provoking work that will linger in the reader’s mind.” The Indypendent has an interesting contrasting review of three Detroit books, including ours. Also, Shannon’s touring the west coast in August! Drop her a line if you want her to come to your town.

Hey, we’re putting out a graphic novel treating the Rapture irreverently — we’re damned anyway, might as well get the word out about Sword of My Mouth! First up — science-fiction powerhouse io9.com is running a contest where you can win a copy of the print edition by rewriting my dialogue. It’s had a hundred entries in the first six hours, but there’s 18 hours left!

Secondly — what with the urban farming theme and spring being here and all, we figured it’d be fun to make seed packets marketed for the post-Rapture world — ones that don’t need the light of God to grow. (The first twenty people to buy a copy of Sword of My Mouth at the Toronto launch get one.) So Scott made a nice design and Shannon went to take some pictures “in context” as it were at a garden centre. The photo and the altercation that followed with the manager follows below. Read the rest of this post »

The amazing TCAF is happening May 8-9th. Reasons to go, organized via flavours of nerds:

Comix nerds: It’s got an amazing array of international talent and all the local lights as well.
Book nerds: It’s at the newly renovated Toronto Reference Library, with new rooms and facilities to wonder at.
Game nerds: The Torontron will be there alongside the Hand Eye Society table.
No Media Kings nerds: Shannon and I will be there selling & signing Sword and chatting on panels
Cheap nerds: It’s free.

UPDATE: I am doing two panels on Saturday:

The Spirit of Indie: Where Comics Meet Video Games
Saturday, May 8th, 2:00 – 2:45pm, The Pilot

There’s more to the game industry than blockbuster, multi-system titles just as there’s more to comics than Batman. This panel
seeks to explore the ways in which independent comic artists and game developers have influenced each other and spurred each other on to explore the possibilities of their medium. Cartoonists/game contributors and creators Scott Campbell, Jamie McKelvie, Jim Munroe, and Miguel Sternberg will be interviewed by games journalist Matthew Kumar.

Tracers, Photoshoppers, Cut & Pasters: Cheaters or Revolutionaries
Saturday, May 8th, 3:30 – 4:15pm, Novella Room

Comic artistry has traditionally valued drawing things with nothing but a pen and raw illustrative talent. But people working from photoreferences, using digital tools and collaging techniques are producing some of the most innovative and beautiful work in the comic world. Does this diversify comic expression and represent an unshackling from the draftstable? Or is it just cheating? Four non-traditional comic artists discuss this and their approach to comic making. Featuring Shannon Gerard, Emily Horne, Sonja Ahlers, Ryan North, and moderator Jim Munroe.

We’re driving over to Detroit to launch the book in the city it’s set in on Saturday May 15 (7pm, Leopold’s Books, free) with Gayla Trail. If you are on Facebook you might like to check the event page or take advantage of Gerard’s crazy offer to draw your Face!