Category Archives: Signings & Conventions

Baltimore Comic-Con or bust!

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Hi, heroes!

For your information, I will be sharing table 1710K with my esteemed and bearded co-writer/bff Adam P. Knave at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con! If you happen to be in Baltimore August 20 or August 21, please stop by our table for book signing and chatting and whatnot!

We’ll have copies of the POPGUN books! Adam will be selling his terrific novel STAYS CRUNCHY IN MILK and his hilarious book of essays I SLEPT WITH YOUR IMAGINARY FRIEND! And I’ll have some of those silly DO YOU BELIEVE IN NINJAS? poetry books!

Oh, and we’ll have a special, discounted, 100 copy run of our one-shot comic AGENTS OF THE W.T.F.! It features stories that appeared in POPGUN 3 and 4, plus some bonus coolness.

Really, to be perfectly honest, it’s going to be the best time.

Love,
D.J.

Popguns, Ninjas Poems, & D.J. – Anaheim Comic-Con 2011!

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Check it out, heroes:

D.J. Kirkbride is an editor on all four volumes of the Eisner and Harvey award winning POPGUN anthology from Image Comics. He also wrote “Soulless, Man Without A Soul” stories for POPGUN volumes 1 and 2 and with Adam P. Knave co-wrote “Agents of the W.T.F.” and “The Black Decahedron” for volumes 3 and 4. His book of ninja poetry, DO YOU BELIEVE IN NINJAS?, was recently released by Creative Guy Publishing.

I’m really looking forward to this, especially since I’ll be sharing my table with my friend and fellow POPGUN contributor, the amazingly talented Robert Love! We’ll also be around all sorts of other POPGUN pals, so it should be good times!

If you’re going to the con, please stop by our table. I’ll have copies of all four volumes of POPGUN, a bunch of DO YOU BELIEVE IN NINJAS?, and some friendly chatting!

Your pal… D.J.

Do you live in LA? Do you love ninjas? Do you love and live poetry?

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If you answered “yes” to the three questions in the subject line, swing by Golden Apple Comics on Melrose. There are many terrific reasons to go there, but I’m posting this right now because they have copies of my ninja poetry book “Do You Believe In Ninjas?” from Creative Guy Publishing in stock. The book is a weird little thing — not a spoof or a goof, just kinda goofy and spoofy … not really spoofy. It also features delightful illustrations from Chris Moreno. Honestly, you should own it.

If you are not able to make it to Golden Apple, you can always order the book on the Amazons dot coms.

LATE BREAKING NEWS: POPGUN 3 Won An Eisner!

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It happened a little over month ago, but I still have a smile on my face… At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, POPGUN 3 won the Eisner Award for Best Anthology.

I said in my happily shocked acceptance speech that everyone who worked on the book basically won about 1/80th of an Eisner — but it was more like 1/95th! Holy smokes.

Below are the fine folks I was too tongue tied and time constrained to thank / congratulate by name back on July 23rd…

Alison Acton, Joshua Agerstrand, Laura Allred, Anjin Anhut, Kris Anka, Amanda Becker, Peter Bergting, Patricio Betteo, Danilo Beyruth, Sam Bosma, Dan Brereton, Olaf Brill, Dennis Brown, Antonio Campo, Dominique Carrier, Celor, Jim Charalampidis, Bobby Clark, Ryan Cody, Dave Collinson, Dave Curd, Tim Daniel, Mike Dawson, Ben DeRosa, Michael Dialynas, JEIK Dion, Juan Doe, Becky Dreistadt, Nathan Edmondson, Ulises Farinas, Ray Fawkes, Gary Fields, Frank Gibson, Vassilis Gogtzilas, Zac Gorman, George Gousis, Paul Grist, Scott Hallett, Jason Hanley, David Hopkins, Jason Ibarra, Joëlle Jones, Joe Keatinge, Janet Kim, Nic Klein, Peter Krause, Edward Kwong, Erik Larsen, Robbie Lawrence, Johann “Ullcer” Leroux, Maximo V. Lorenzo, Thomas Mauer, Dylan McCrae of SatteliteSoda.com, Derek McCulloch, Sam McKenzie, Tara McPherson, Alberto Mielgo, Robb Mommaerts, Paul Montgomery, Chris Moreno, Matt Moylan, Ralph Niese, Anthony Nixon, Josh Parpan, Jeff Powell, Isam Prado, Justin Randall, Stephen Reedy, Jamie S. Rich, Rachelle Rosenberg, David Rubin, Matteo Scalera, Douglas E. Sherwood, Guillaume Singelin, Eric Skillman, ericstephenson, Alisa Stern, Amy Stern, Chris Stevens, Frank Stockton, Andre Szymanowicz, Gregory Titus, Ron Turner, Christian Ward, Daniel Warner, Connor Willumsen, Brian Winkeler, Michael Woods, Derek Yu, K.I. Zachopoulos, Tonci Zonji, Jim Zubkavich, and the fine folks at Image Comics.

I’m so proud to have had the opportunity to work with all of you on the book!

Baltimore Comic Con 2009 pt 2 – In The Presence of Giants

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After the long journey to Baltimore, actually being at the Baltimore Comic Con was a cakewalk. Groggy but excited, Adam and I made it to the convention center and set up the POPGUN 1/2 table. It was in the Image Comic Booth, which was glorious. Whenever the Image Founders and Bigwigs had a signing on the other side of the booth, the line would stretch all the way around, in front of our table, and occasionally we’d be able to sneak a few sales.

“You looking for Erik Larsen’s signature? Well, you know, he’s contributed to every volume of POPGUN, sooo…”

“Rob Liefeld once told me POPGUN was awesome, sooo…”

“If we sell out of these, we can hang out and walk the floor for the rest of the con. It’s what Jim Valentino would want… c’mon!”

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(Photo by Branwyn Bigglestone)

It was fun, though. Sales weren’t as brisk or huge as my last con experience in San Diego, but Baltimore had some wonderful charms of its own. One was the fact that this con is about COMICS. No Hollywood or video games. Now, I love Hollywood and video games and had fun with all the pseudo celebs at SDCC last July, but to have Chris Claremont, a huge force behind the stories that inspired the X-MEN movies, writer of a very large stack of comics I bought from my pre-teen to teen years — stopped by to chat with me and Adam, well, it was pretty exciting. Geek out time and whatnot.

The whole con and floor experience was a hoot. It was capped of wonderfully by the Harvey Awards Saturday night. POPGUN volume 2 was nominated for Best Anthology of 2009, so I actually kind of had a reason to be there. (Despite Image PR/Marketing guru and POPGUN co-creator Joe Keatinge constantly asking me, “What are you doing here?” during the entire con.) It was great in that I didn’t have to pay for dinner, and I was at a table with some amazing creators. I did actually start to wonder what I was doing there. The awards ceremony was fun, PVP’s Scott Kurtz making a very funny MC.

POPGUN lost out for the Best Anthology 2009 Harvey to the Tori Amos inspired COMIC BOOK TATTOO — but, c’mon. Have you seen that book? It’s amazing, and it deserved to win. (POPGUN 3 for next year!!!)

My favorite moment was when writer Bryan Glass won for Best New Talent for his book MICE TEMPLAR (with artist Michael Avon Oeming). His acceptance speech was very heartfelt, and to see that kind of genuine emotion was really a highlight.

Not long after, Joe Keatinge drew an unrelated and horribly dirty comic in my little notebook.

Though I’d already voted, we were all provided with a program that had a checklist of all the nominees. Due to my horrible memory, I re-voted, just to see how I’d do. I went 10 for 21. Not that… good.

The next day continued the trend of fun and lots of surprising goodwill from creators I’ve been reading for years. I was also recognized by someone from near my hometown of Waverly, OH, which was weird. Small, small world.

After the con wrapped and we broke everything down (and I managed to stab myself with a box cutter — thank goodness the Baltimore Comic Con floor team were prepared with a first aid kit), it was off to the bar for one last drink with the Image gang. What a great bunch of people. And beer out of a martini glass is the only way to drink beer, fyi.

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(iPhotograph by Capt. Joe Keatinge)

All in all, a very good trip. I got to hang out and work with my friend and frequent co-writer Adam P. Knave (who is on the opposite coast of me), see my pal Joe Keatinge, and work side-by-side with Image Comics Accounts Manager Branwyn Bigglestone, Publisher ericstephenson, and the rest of the Image Comics gang.

Good times.