Notes from the Studio

Lordy, my back can really tell that I’ve spent the last several days (weeks) chained up in my studio struggling to finish my illustrations for the ‘Blueberry Girl’ picture book. But I am finished! I can now answer e-mails, pick up the phone, maybe even venture outside into the rather sweltering late summer air of southwestern Virginia. Neil’s poem is quite beautiful and I had to go a few extra miles to live up to his words. I still need to hand letter the book but right now I’m going to relax… Enjoy! Charles

I wish that this could be a much longer post but I’m up against an extremely tight deadline for the ‘Blueberry Girl’ book. It seems that if I don’t turn in all the finished paintings by the 15th of this month then the release date will be moved to Spring of 2010. Yikes! That bit of information has added glowing wings to my hands and untold hours at the drawing board. Anyway I wanted to thank everyone who came by my booth at the recent San Diego Comic Con and helped to make it such a successful event for me. And very soon I’ll need to ask your help in saving my ‘Fairy Princess’ sculpture, but more on that later. The Thursday night screening of Stardust ended in a standing ovation and then the premier in LA on Sunday night was a surreal event (at least for me). Here’s a shot of Neil and I. At the last moment I discovered that I didn’t have any button studs for my tux shirt or we would both be dressed to the nines. Two days after arriving back home I hosted four additional screenings of the movie at the local Abingdon Cinemall.

Come on down for a very fun evening next Friday, when I will be signing books at the Barnes & Nobles store in Johnson City Tn. during the extended Harry Potter costume party which will, of course, preceed the midnight release of J. K. Rowlings’ “Deathly Hallows”. There should be a high incidence of clamor and chatter amongst young and old, veterans and newcomers and I look forward to the event. All this week I’ll have about 20 framed prints of my art on display. They’ve ordered lots of the new “Stardust” (both hardcover and soft) as well as many, many of my other books for your signing pleasure. Come on down! Friday, July 20, 7-11 pm Barnes & Nobles 3030 Franklin Terrace Drive Johnson City TN 423-952-5577, 7-11 pm. On the following Monday I’m off to the San Diego Comic-Con where my Green Man Press will have a two booth (#4821) set up almost directly under the big ‘Fantasy Illustrators’ sign. Its always almost impossibly hectic at this event but still somehow enjoyable AND you never know who will drop by your table. Several years ago Mr. Ray Bradbury himself attempted to purchase a copy of my ‘Circle of

I’ve been working on this project for quite some time. It’s a 32 page picture book for HarperCollins based on Neil Gaiman’s poem, ‘Blueberry Girl’. I’ll be finished with the paintings by the end of this month and then it will be a necessarily long wait for the actual book to be published. Taking Neil’s lovely poetic medatation on the the inherent joys of a mother-daughter relationship and developing a compelling narrative impulse without robbing the poem of its highly symbolic nature was an interesting conceptual journey. Here are a two of the original pencil drawings I’ll be hand lettering the text on a seperat overlay. Here are the painted versions: I’ve a lot more paintings to go so I should head back to the drawing board now. Between finishing up this project and preparing for the San Diego Comic-Con at the end of July its going to be a busy few weeks! Enjoy, Charles

So, after what has seemed like endless delays, I’m now holding in my hands an advance copy of the very lovely new hardcover edition of Stardust from Vertigo. My color choices for the new binding and the cover art seems to have worked out very well and the additional 50 pages of material really gives much needed visual breathing room room for all the (and I do mean ALL!) the existing art related to Stardust. The book should be out in stores and comic book shops by next week. I also just received my comp copies of ‘The Stardust Visual Companion’ from Titan Books. It seems that there will be, besides the standard trade paperback available everywhere, a hardcover edition issued only in the UK and as a sort of in-house gift book from Paramount. The book is huge, filled as it is with loads of concept art, behind the scenes photos, lots of commentary from Matthew Vaughan, Jane Goldman the cast and crew as well as Neil and myself, the entire shooting script and a special introduction by Neil all lovingly assembled by editor Stephen Jones. All around it is a sumpteous volume deserving to be in your very