Saturday, April 10, from 11-12:30, Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan (the writers of City of Spies), and I will be at the First Second booth at the MoCCA Festival in New York City, scrawling our names upon any copies of City of Spies that are proffered up. So if you’re at MoCCA and would enjoy buying a copy of my book, only to have it defaced seconds later with illegible name-like scribbles and potentially a sketch, swing on by.

And if you miss the book signing, I’ll probably be wandering around the convention floor for most of the weekend (or at the very least most of Saturday), so hopefully I’ll see some of you folks I know there.

Check out this hipster, Lulu, and her teddy-bear best friend, Professor Hugg. I drew a sketch of them a few months ago and just recently was inspired to draw her again (although it wound up looking like a different hipster chick all together…). While I was at it, I took the opportunity to ink and color the original:

I imagine them going on wild Scott Pilgrim type adventures together, battling the forces of the un-hip, whilst rocking out (in a very subdued fashion) to some totally wicked indie bands. Maybe I’ll draw a comic about it someday.

Perhaps it’s not Lulu and the Professor in the second image after all, but their bitter rivals, Margo and Doctor Cuddle.

Hopefully, somebody enjoys looking at bored hipster chicks as much as I enjoy drawing them….

People are starting to read City of Spies and so far, they like it! Here’s what some of the advance reviews have had to say:

A starred review from Booklist says:

“With stupefying precision, Dizin’s art channels Hergé’s Tintin in tone, palette, and with the remarkable expressiveness of the clean, flexible figures. He also echoes the Belgian master’s sense of fun and action, even as Kim and Klavan put a sophisticated spin on classic boys’ adventure story elements…”

Another starred review, this time from Publisher’s Weekly (it’s the last review on the page) says:

“The writers manage the difficult trick of writing real children into a terrific adventure story, and the book is completely age-appropriate without ever talking down to its readers. Dizin’s loopily expressive art has a period feel while still looking fresh and kid-friendly. His work on “Zirconium Man and Scooter,” Evelyn’s comic about herself and her absent father as superheroes, is particularly charming.”

My publisher First Second Books has posted a short preview of City of Spies on their website here: http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/cityofspies/cityofspies.html
Sadly, the images are a little small/lo-res which makes the text a bit hard to read at places, but I suppose that’s just all the more incentive to get the book when it comes out.

(As a reminder, you can also see some sample pages (different ones than at the above link) on my site, here: http://dizin-art.com/cityofspies.html)