Well it does for me. Already taking meetings and doing bloody interviews.

A quick recap to get to this point.

Dinner with Aaron Weisenfeld.



Who does comics no longer, but instead does fantastic paintings. ( he's on the far right of the blurry photo )


SDCC Pre-con cocktails



Held at my place downstairs where a bunch of delightful people proceeded to show up and drink all me booze.

Big cheers to Fraser Irving, Jaime McKelvie, Kieron Gillen, Jim Lee, Joe Keating, Brian Hitch, Heidi MacDonald and a bunch of other people I forget, for turning up to the little shindig.




Silent Mexican films played on the wall the whole time.




Royd Burgoyne and Mr Fraser Irving. Top blokes for foreign types in a strange land.




Brian Hitch and some tosser named Templesmith.

And now onto the real convention. I will have the last few copies of PoppyCock, my first sketchbook/exhibition book on me at the con, so if you see me and want one, just ask and ye shall receive. ( For a donation of twenty bucks or so )

The madness begins. And I still have deadlines to contend with.

I still have a horrible amount of work to get done, some of which will have to wait til *after* as I'm damn near burned out here...but this is how you prepare for the coming nergasm that is San Diego Comic-con.

Deadlines swamping me right now, as I verge towards insanity leading up to San Diego Comic-con.

I'll be there, so if you want to meet me/get stuff signed/give me ebola ( though please don't I'm still getting over the last bout ) then here's what you need to know!

This list is just the signings, not including the bazillion meetings and other things I have to do, alas. When I can I'll be off down to the Gaslamp Hilton for a drink or some desperately needed food.
Templesmith at SDCC:

THURSDAY:

EA/IMAGE DEADSPACE COMIC SIGNING: 2pm-4pm

SPLASHPAGE COMIC ART 4pm-5pm

FRIDAY:

IDW PUBLISHING: 11am-12pm

EA/IMAGE DEADSPACE COMIC SIGNING: 2pm-4pm

SATURDAY

IDW PUBLISHING: 10am-11am

IDW PUBLISHING PANEL 11am-12pm room 3

EA/IMAGE DEADSPACE COMIC SIGNING: 2pm-3:15pm

GENTLE GIANT 3:30pm

EA/DEADSPACE COMIC PANEL 5pm-6pm room 2

SUNDAY:

IDW PUBLISHING: 12pm-1pm

FEARNET 3pm-4pm

Yup, if you speak/fread French, there is now an edition for you, coming from the delightful chaps over at Delcourt. I even gave them a new cover just because they were so nice.

Over in France, Wormwood is literally going to simply be known as "Wormwood" with the first collection's story title being Gentleman Zombie. It's a name change I'm fine with since the book does more than just collect Birds Bees Blood and Beer.

Delcourt have been so nice to me, I'l even be in Paris in September doing, uh, French things to help celebrate this puppy coming out.

And yes, it's a hardcover, in true French Album style. Way better than the US pamphlets in my opinion. English version hardcovers in some form are not too far off either.

Yeah, the wee bastard is going places.

Just landed on my desk while I was away...

Available exclusively from IDW Publishing at San Diego Comic-con. A preview of the actual comic, plus extra content that won't be found in the comic itself.

Hoxford.com is now percolating along. Will have some desktops & extras up shortly.

Yes, some actual art!

New covers for Welcome to Hoxford #2

Diamond Order code: JUL084075

Ray hasn't been taking his medication. No surprises there. Turns out the Hoxford staff don't really have the prisoners welfare at heart... more like their own stomachs. Dr Ainley keeps trying to gain access to her old patients, only to find herself locked in the Warden's office with a strange old man as night falls, the full moon lights the sky... and the screaming begins.' Eisner-nominated writer/artist Ben Templesmith (Wormwood Gentleman Corpse) offers up two bloody good covers to go along with chapter two of his latest opus.

Codes: 82771481524500211 82771481525200211 JUL084075 JUL084076

Release Date: September 24, 2008

Yes, LAX continues to be one of the most horrible airport experiences out there but I have survived the entry back into the States. Still shaking off this damn virus though.

But onto the San Diego Comic-con!

Yes, the big one. The mother of all cons. The Grande Armee of convention paper mache deathstar cosplayers, will soon be upon us. And let's not forget the virtual soft porn nature of some of the female outfits. Sometimes it feels like a strip club with the lights turned on.

And yes, I will be there. Some people have been asking, but can only assume they don't check my appearance section on www.templesmith.com, which you know, has a fair bit of info...and I'll be updating it with more soon.

So! If you'd like to meet me, get any/all your books signed, come by these booths at these times, or possibly seek me out at the IDW Booth anyway, my official home on the con floor, or in the Gaslamp Hilton bar, though if you do that, you gotta buy me a drink/beverage or buy a sketch off me or something as I will also be working at the con. But it may be a better way for a more informal chat outside of the convention madness. ( this isn't madness, this is Sparta etc. )

I will have a small amount of personal art on me for sale, plus Splashpage art in the original art dealer section has my more commercial work, though I've yet to hear back if I'll be appearing at their booth as yet. IDW will also have an EXCLUSIVE ashcan for WELCOME TO HOXFORD.

Here's my current schedule that I'm aware of, though I have a bunch of meetings I'm told I'll be doing also, yet t slot in:

Wednesday

Injecting myself with as much caffeine as I can in preparation.

Thursday

Image Comics Signing 2pm-4pm

Friday

Meetings 9am-10am

IDW Publishing Signing 11am-12pm

Image Comics Signing 2pm-4pm

Saturday

IDW Publishing Signing 10am-11am

IDW Publishing Panel 11am-12pm room 3

Meetings 12pm-2pm

Image Comics Signing 2pm-3:15pm

Gentle Giant booth 3:30pm- 4:30pm

Sunday

IDW Publishing Signing 12pm-1pm

Just learned that I've been nominated for the International Horror Guild Award in the Illustrated Narrative section...not once, but kinda...twice. Freaky stuff! For Wormwood and a short I did in an Anthology ( Put together via Heidi MacDonald yay! )

It's always nice to get nominations ( but of course, I'll never actually win! ) but especially nice this time to get a nod for my writing, on Wormwood, which has never happened before. Someone out there apparently likes me, so many, many thanks.


ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE

* Scalped: Indian Country. Jason Aaron (writer) R.M. Gu�ra (artist) (Vertigo/DC Comics)
* The Nightmare Factory. Thomas Ligotti (creator/writer), Joe Harris & Stuart Moore (writers), Ben Templesmith, Michael Gaydos, Colleen Doran & Ted McKeever (illustrators) (Fox Atomic/Harper Paperbacks)
* The Blot. Tom Neely (I Will Destroy You)
* The Arrival. Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine Books)
* Wormwood Gentleman Corpse: Birds, Bees, Blood & Beer. Ben Templesmith (IDW)

Now I'm off for 17 hours on a plane.

Oh yeah, recently I had the honour to be asked to do a piece for Advanced Photoshop Magazine ( issue 44 I think ) on my process, so if you want to delve into my process on how I basically put together the Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse Volume 3 cover, go grab a copy!