Hi, everyone!
Just a quick update to let you know what I’m doing at the San Diego Comic-Con this week! The answer is: not much. I don’t have a table at the show, so I won’t be selling anything or doing scheduled signings. But I’m on a couple of panels that might interest you!
 
The first is the Assassins Creed: Behind the Brotherhood panel, on Thursday from 3:30 to 4:30 in Room 7AB. I’ll be there with Cameron Stewart, talking about our new Assassin’s Creed comic and revealing more images and story information!
 
And after that, on Sunday, I’m on the Archaia: All-Ages panel talking about making comics for, well, readers of all ages. I’ll be sharing the stage with David Petersen, Jeremy Bastian and Katie Cook! Check it out in Room 3 between 2:30 and 3:30.
 
Aside from that, I’ll just be wandering the show floor (and the streets of San Diego) for the week, so if you see me, stop and say hello!

 
Hi, everyone! A bunch of you have been emailing me to ask where your book is, so I put together a small video to help explain.
 
The books were slated to begin shipping on May 12, and they did! We started our initial batch on that day and have been fulfilling orders ever since. In fact, as of the end of this week, if you ordered one of the Regular Editions (without a sketch) it will have shipped and you should have it in your hands as soon as Canada Post can get it to you.
If you ordered a Master Edition, the story is a bit different. I didn’t expect the volume of sketch editions ordered and because I only had the book in my hands a week before the shipping began, they’re backlogged. I’m doing my best to get them drawn and out the door!
 
So, I apologize for the delay. But I think you’ll be pretty happy with the sketch once you get it – in terms of quality, they’re pretty much the same level of drawing I do for the actual strip. Each one is a random character from the comic, and I put a lot of love into them. You can watch me drawing one in the video above.
Again, thanks for your patience and your support!
 
-karl

 
I’m proud to officially announce Book One of The Abominable Charles Christopher, collecting Chapter One of the Eisner-nominated webcomic.
 
Wrapped in an embossed, faux suede hardcover, this 144-page tome collects all of the comics from the first two years of the series, along with lots of additional illustrations and a 40″ gatefold at the end of the book, featuring an enormous pencil rendering of the key players, all in one scene.
Inside the front cover is a “This book belongs to” page, so you can personalize it for yourself or as a gift to loved ones. I’ve also included a space for sketches, so if you meet me at a show, I can further personalize your book with a one-of-a-kind, original drawing.
 
I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting to announce this. It’s the treatment of the book I want for myself, and it’s been a tremendous amount of work to put together. The files are going to the printer today, so it looks like I’ll be officially launching at TCAF on May 8-10! If you’re going to be in Toronto that weekend, be sure to come by and see me for your own signed copy! And tell your friends! I’m self-publishing this thing, and I can use all the help I can get. :)
 
Buy it HERE!
 
NOTE: This is a Pre-Order, ending on May 12th! Shipping will begin on May 17th.
 

hey, Torontonians! Got room in your hearts and homes for a new friend? The Toronto Humane Society needs your help:

The Toronto Humane Society (THS) will be closing its doors April 12th to take drastic restructuring steps. Renovations, intense staff training, a new board, a NEW THS! By June 1st we will be reopened and ready for admissions at last. Exciting times indeed!

What this means for the animals we are currently housing is that by April 12th they ALL must be removed from the building either by adoption/fostering/sheltering at other locations.

Please pass the word on for me that we must take aggressive steps to find as many animals as we can homes, either forever or foster. There are NO kittens in the shelter and a number of our animals have health issues (ranging from mild to serious).

Help us find adopters and foster parents! I would love to see all these animals out of the THS shadow they have been living under! All our animals can be viewed online at www.torontohumanesociety.com

Pass it on!

 
I posted a few pictures from my trip to Egypt in the Abominable Facebook Group.
Disclaimer: it’s mostly pictures of cats.

While building the new TX Store and this new version of the Abominable site, I started toying with ideas for a new shirt design. What I came up with was this image. It was done in Adobe Illustrator as an experiment – I wanted to see if Charles Christopher and the rest of the gang could be translated in different art styles while maintaining their personalities. Turns out they can!
 
I wasn’t crazy about the way it looked on a shirt, though, so I decided to pour extra time into it and produce the image as a fine art print – something I plan to do more of in the future.
 
Here’s a closer look at the full piece, as well as some zoom-ins so you can see the detailing in the textures. These are giclée printed on nice, thick 13″x19″ art paper. I’m very happy with them.
 

 
  

Notice anything different?
I’ve been working behind the scenes for the last several weeks to completely redesign the Abominable site. It’s streamlined, allows for easier navigation and quick access to comments and, coolest of all (at least to me) it’s searchable! I’ve tagged a bunch of the strips and I’ll be finished with the rest of them soon, so if you’re looking for a specific story or a particular character, they’re only a keyword search away.
I’ve also added a new sidebar on the left which I’ll use to feature Abominable items in the store.
Speaking of which… we’ve also constructed a new, unified storefront for the TX crew. All of our shirts, prints and assorted merchandise will be there for you to browse, and it’ll grow rapidly as we populate it with everyone’s stuff. This is particularly exciting for all of us because it’s the first real step in moving our careers into the world of webcomics and the characters we love. Reducing reliance on mainstream publishers and work-for-hire means we can devote more time to bringing you regular, frequent updates, and we’re extremely grateful for your support.
I’ve already done a new print to commemorate the event!
 
So, welcome back. It’s going to be an exciting year.
 
-karl

Hi everyone.
So, this morning I woke up to find that abominable.cc had been hacked. I’m currently working on a fix, so please bear with me. Today’s comic is finished and I’d like nothing more than to present it to you before the day is out.
Fingers crossed…

UPDATE: Now that I’ve moved to a new host and rebuilt the site, all traces of the hack are gone. I apologize to everyone who was affected and I’ll leave this post here in case anyone has information to share regarding fixes.

I know I should have done this much earlier, but if you’re still wrapping presents or attending parties or just in the habit of giving cards to people, I’ve made a holiday card of today’s comic strip.
Just download it, print it out and fold it in half, and presto… you can depress your loved ones with an image of sad, lovelorn bears.

Happy holidays, everyone!

I’ll be travelling around Europe with fellow TX pals Ramón Pérez and Cameron Stewart for the next month, appearing at various comics festivals and shops. If you’re nearby and can make it to any of the following events, I’d love to see you!
The Amadora Festival in Portugal is especially exciting because our webcomics work will be on display in the gallery. If you’d like to see the original art from our TX strips, this is the place to go!

October 23-25
Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada na Amadora (FIBDA)
Amadora, Portugal

October 28
Kingpin Books
Lisbon, Portugal

October 31-November 1
Lille Comics Festival
Lille, France

November 2
Album Librarie
Paris, France

November 7-8
La Fete De La BD
Andennes, Belgium

November 11
Alastor Milano Fumetto
Milan, Italy

November 12
Alastor Novara
Novara, Italy

November 15
Forbidden Planet
Dublin, Ireland

November 16
Comica – ICA Nash Room 7:30pm
London, England

November 19
Orbital Comics
London, England

November 21-22
Thoughtbubble Festival
Leeds, England

More details as I get ‘em!