Hello readers, new ones just discovering the comic and those who’ve been with it since the beginning. Friends With Boys is now complete online. You may read it in its entirety, all 200+ pages, for free, for the next eight days. Then the image files of the comic (except for a short preview) will be taken down. While the comic was being serialized online, I blogged a lot about my comic making process. I did write ups about how I make comics, what my opinions on what makes a good comic are, and pointed out various Easter eggs throughout Friends With Boys. That stuff will all remain up, so if you buy a hard copy of Friends With Boys, you can still read along with my thought process.
And now (today!), Friends With Boys is a published book! Yay! I hope that if you’ve read the web version and liked it, and want to support me as a creator, you’ll consider buying the book.
I’ve really enjoyed serializing Friends With Boys online. If you’re new to my work, I started out making comics online before moving into print. I posted the very first page of my very first online comic on my very first website back in August, 1999, and wow, was that page ugly. Here it is! Notice a weird similarity to the first page of Friends With Boys? Yeah, that was not deliberate, I promise. But look how much your drawing skills can improve if you draw thousands of pages of comics over a ten year period! Anyway, I’m really thrilled my wonderful publisher First Second Books has allowed me to return to my roots and put Friends With Boys online as a lead up to its publication. As a reader and purchaser of comics, I have bought quite a few hard copy versions of online comics, because I enjoy the reading experience of having the whole thing collected, and I want to support the author. I hope you will too. :)
Otherwise, there are a few upcoming events I hope to see some readers at:
Book signing! At my local comics shop Strange Adventures, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 3rd (Saturday), 2-4pm (EDITING TO ADD: The book launch has been moved to the following Saturday due to the books not shipping to Strange Adventures on time. The launch will now be March 10th from 2-4pm. Go here for info).
Comic convention! I’ll have a table at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, May 6th-7th. There are a few other conventions I am trying to attend, but everything else is up in the air at the moment. For updates, please follow my twitter or join my Facebook fan page. I’m pretty good about updating those two spots.
Both Alistair and the girls are correct. Ripley did kick ass and look hot while doing so. I say this even though I have never seen the movie.
You need to see the movie. ;) Watch it with the lights on and surrounded by lots of weapons!
I’m sorry, but Alistair is reallllly, really hot.
Damn he is. He’s just like my teenage dream.
Guys love underwear scene in Alien ;) Girls love Ripley cause she’s kickass lady.
Guess that I loved cat the most.
That last panel is wonderful. Underoos. Lawl.
Based on your comment here about pop culture references, my guess is that shows such as ‘Family Guy’ really get up your nostril. :D
Anyway, as I mentioned before, I was all of ten when I first saw ‘Alien’, and maybe I was precocious, but I was in full agreement with Alistair.
I really hate Family Guy. It is a lazy, lazy show. All comedy that relies on reference (just reference! no actual jokes about what they’re referring to!) is the worst.
I actually prefer American Dad. The pop reference stuff isn’t as much in your face on that show as it is on Family Guy.
Favourite panel so far. Awesome. :)
I love that ‘did I just say that out loud’ look on Alistair’s face.
Haha, yeah, that is one of my favourite takes to draw, when a person’s eyes turn into dots. I just think it’s hilarious.
Alistair, probably thinking he needs to hang out with some guys.
I like how you think! :) haha. Also I love their reactions in the last panel. awesome.
I really want to see a bigger version of Alistair’s face in the last panel. His expression in the second panel is pretty great too. He’s all :D undies! oh wait, angry girls D:
I love how Alistair’s hair deflates when he gets The Glare.
The hair knows the head underneath’s been bad.