Melissa Mendes
patreon
Book launch! And Grandpa Zine!
🕑 Added 2025-09-09 17:22:47 +0000 UTCHi Buddiessssssss
The book has been birthed and is now in stores. It is a crazy and good feeling. It's real!!
I really hope you all like it. It feels really good to hold, and the paper we chose is really really nice. It has some tooth to it. And it smells good. Sometimes new books don't smell good, but this one does.
I'm working on getting better at allowing the good feelings in. I've never been great at taking compliments and praise, and being this proud of myself is a new feeling, but I'm trying my best to embrace it! Seeing all the pages together really is something else. Like I'm finally able to realize how hard I really did work for the last 10 years.
Have I said all this stuff before?? I don't know. Anyway we had my book launch at the Research and Development Store at Mass Moca last Thursday, and it was a dream. My old friend James Sturm interviewed me in front of an audience full of my family and friends, and it felt wonderful to look out and see all of their faces. Chuck video-ed it so maybe I'll be able to share it here. And Tom Devlin, my editor at Drawn and Quarterly, came down from Montreal for it! I've known both him and James for around 20 years. They're like my comics dads. I feel really lucky.
This weekend I'll be at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. I'll be signing books at the D&Q table (W1-W5) at noon and again at 4 on saturday, then on Sunday at 2 and 4. On Saturday I'm on a panel at 3 pm called "Navigating Family Trauma". Chuck is signing at the Fantagraphics table too at some point! Come see us.
It's crazy to me that I am signing at the D&Q table. I can't believe it's really happening. I've dreamed of this since I was a little baby cartoonist in my 20s scraping together funds for a table at SPX, hoping to break even, trading minicomics and giving minicomics away to people I admired. We haven't been to SPX in about 10 years, and I'm sure it's a way different scene now, but I'm really excited to be around cartoonists again.
Long post, whoops.
Here's a pdf of the zine I made as kind of a supplement to the book. I used a gluestick and exacto knife to collage photos and text from Grandpa Jack's essay, and I cut up the proofs of the book that I'd gotten months ago. I'll be handing these out at SPX too.
I also have plans for a special Patreon thing, maybe a bookplate? I've been wanting to try printmaking.
ANYWAYYYYY
xoxo
mm
Comments
lilula9
YAY MELISSA!! So sad I can't go to a signing despite my East Coast trip in October, but I can't wait to see you on Office Hours!
Marcie Neubert
Congratulations, Mel ❤️
