Happy Book Birthday!

Tomorrow is the release date of the 2nd book in the Stratford Zoo series by Ian Lendler and Zack Giallongo, colored by yours truly. Find The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Romeo and Juliet at your favorite comic shop, bookshop, or online seller. It already has some great reviews on Goodreads and here is what the Kirkus Review says. If you enjoy it, consider writing a review on Amazon or Goodreads. It helps the publisher decide if more books will be made for the series!

Here is a peek at a few of my personal favorite pages (without too many spoilers) from my review copies:

(Full disclosure: I did not color the delightful cover.)

Mangosteen and Lanzones

I've been working on some little watercolors of the delicious tropical fruit we ate while in the Philippines. Here are the first two!

Philippines watercolor sketches

Oh blog, sorry to ignore you for so long! Short update: I finished illustrating two books earlier this summer that will be out this November. More on that in a later post. Then my husband and I moved to a new place in late July (still in Queens) and we just got back from 3 weeks in the Philippines!

Here are a few little watercolor and ink sketches I did on location while there. The first three are from The Pearl Farm Resort on the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao. The last one is of the Manila Film Center that I painted from our hotel balcony.

I did some travel comics and took a bunch of notes for the days I didn't draw, so I may get those up here at some point when they're finished.

A great weekend in Toronto

Thanks to everyone who came out to say hello at TCAF in Toronto this past weekend! I had a lovely time tabling at the convention and exploring the city a bit before returning to New York. As always, it is great to catch up with friends I know from Twitter, Kickstarter backers and meet lots of new creators and readers.

Although I didn't get too many photos during the convention, here are some of my photos from Toronto this weekend:

Refreshing apple juice and pretzels on the short flight.

CN tower from our cab to the hotel.

My beer (Dieu du ciel rosee d'hibiscus) and grey owl cheese with bread (not pictured) at Barvolo.

Hotel elevator selfie with my husband Allan.

I was sad this cookbook store was closed, but found another cute one in Kensington Market on the weekend.

The Toronto Reference Library where TCAF was held.

The crowd on the first floor on Saturday.

Dave Roman and Allan were in their NYC uniforms (all black).

My Veggie Explosion sushi at spring rolls.

The space age interior of the Reference Library.

The cutest firehouse.

Even the mannequins near TCAF were sporting undercuts.

Exploring on Monday before our flight back to NY.

A delicious peanut butter and banana crepe at Karine's Fresh.

Allan and I explored some street art in Kensington Market

We found a freshly drawn slush cat outside Wanda's Pie in the Sky.

The TCAF pop up store in the Reference Library had some really great displays including some of my favorite authors.

And an appropriate Scott Pilgrim display to end this post about Toronto.

Thanks for the hospitality, Toronto! I'm looking forward to returning at some point. Back to deadline mode!