I gave him my Omnibus edition of Bone back when he was 7. When I asked him what he thought of it, he lit up and said, “It’s almost as good as Bone!” On his third time through, he read big chunks of it to his younger brother. I rolled the dice again and gave him the book. Complex story and relationships, Non-western philosophy but presented with care and clarity… This was more than two years ago, so he was only 10, and even though I loved Digger, I didn’t know if I should share it. ![]() As a result, he’s crushingly literate with a tender heart and has a real distaste for what he refers to as “Dead Dog Books.” Which is to say, books where there’s needless tragedy, cruelty, violence, etc. The only thing that keeps me from burying him in books is the fact that I only want to bring him truly good things to read.Īlso? He’s 12, and I’ve tried to keep the worst of the world from poisoning him. And these days, my older son bears the brunt of the impulse. I shouldn’t stand around, hands in my pockets, eyeballing you intently while rocking back onto my heels, like I’m expecting the two of you to immediately kiss. “What a fortunate happenstance, my good friend Book! I suspect the two of you will form a delightful acquaintance.”Īnd then I should leave. I hear you like Books.” I turn to face Digger with an expansive gesture. If my job here is to introduce you to the book… shouldn’t I do it in the same way I introduce people? “Hello there, Reader. I believe a story should stand on its own, and that the first time you experience it is precious. Simply said, I don’t want to tell you about this book. More often I think of them as belonging in the same circle of hell as spoilers, paid endorsements, and people who talk in the theatre. I find the entire concept baffling at best. Whenever I write a foreword or introduction, I feel the need to explain that I don’t like introductions. ![]() I rolled the dice, bought it, and ended up having to throw away two t-shirts so I could fit it in my bag.Įvery once in a while, apparently, I make a good decision. I flipped a couple pages to look at the art and suddenly there was a full splash page showing Ganesha. Hold on, Phil Foglio wrote the foreword? I’ve loved his work for ages, especially Girl Genius.īut luggage space was limited, and this book was beefy. I found this comic in the store after I was done with my signing. I was on a book tour, which meant I needed something to read in airports and hotel rooms. Once, years and miles away, I stumbled onto a comic called Digger. This is, at best, going to be an odd, maundering aggregation of anecdotes and elegy. I don’t know what you might be expecting from a forward, but odds are you won’t find it here. You have permission to skip this whole foreword and get straight to the good stuff. (Forgive the occasional error, this is the raw text, not the nicely trimmed and copy-edited version that exists in the book itself.) But I do my best work when I don’t take things *too* seriously.Īnd now, without further ado, here’s my rambling mess of a foreword. I’m trying to do my best on this project, because I love Ursula’s book. That was a ton of fun to make with Julia and the folks on the stream. Here’s the promo graphic I was talking about… So that means everyone can get their book signed, after a fashion.īut anyway. And Ursula has been gracious enough to agree to sign *all* of them. And god help us if we lose a box…īut the kickstarter has done well enough that we can manage it. We still have to do a proofing process, pay to get things printed and shipped to Ursula, then shipped back. And extra money.Įven a bookplate is tricky. ![]() Plus the books get damaged boxing and unboxing. The books are *way* too big, and shipping them to Ursula would take a truck, then a crew of people to unload, unbox, present, re-box, and re-load. Here’s the thing: I know everyone jumping into the kickstarter would like a signed book. But I’m going to show you the graphic we have ready for when we hit $350K because that’s kinda the final big goal for us.īecause at $350,000 every Softcover and Hardcover book people get through the kickstarter will include a special bookplate with new, original art by Ursula Vernon. Right now the kickstarter is at $339,827. ![]() So I’m going to throw that up here today.īut first, I want to show you the graphic that I made with Julia on the livestream a couple days ago, that shows nice mockups of the books and gives details about them, including all the upgrades we’ve been able to include.Īnd you know what? I’m going to do you one better than that. So there’s one day left on the kickstarter, and among the many stretch goals we’ve unlocked while bringing Digger back into print, was one where I said folks would get a sneak peek of the foreword.
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