@smgoetter / smgoetter.tumblr.com
PREORDER SALE!!! If you were planning on picking up Warriors vol 1., BN is doing a promotional 25% discount until Friday for preorders!
Me and @smgoetter ‘s other upcoming release, Bitsy and Boozle Tell a Story, is also on BN preorder sale if you prefer something more educational fantasy meta-narrative flavored.
(Warriors comes out in July and Bitsy and Boozle comes out in September)
(painted bg by me, characters by @smgoetter )
Dungeon Critters illo as a last minute print for STAPLE! Hopefully they get here in time 😅
I really wanted to try ink/digital characters on top of a traditional painting and I think this looks cool! Much more to explore here I think…
Natalie and I will be at table 50 at STAPLE! here in Austin (4/13 & 14) where we'll be selling this print along with our books and some zines! Come check it out!
i try not to post abut work on tumblr, but I saw your ask about dungeon critters sequels, and can say as a children's librarian, I hope your publisher knows that there are absolutely kids interested in more Dungeon Critters. We recently had to replace a copy because it was falling apart from use
Thank you for this ask, we love hearing from librarians! Since we've been able to do signings again, some readers have brought us similarly well-loved copies...it's a huge honor tbh
I know you and Natalie probably get the question that if there will be a sequel to dungeon critters, and I also know that in the current situation (or at least I think) you two aren’t planning on writing one. But, that left me wondering; did you guys ever think about writing a sequel, or even the plot of a sequel? Did you write the Dungeon Critters thinking it would be a series? Or- maybe what I’m trying to say is: Do YOU think there will be a sequel to Dungeon Critters in the future?
(Natalie helped with writing this, but we both talked about it a lot)
Thanks for writing in! Dungeon Critters is really, really special to us, and we’re both really happy that it continues to find its audience. In a perfect world, we’d be diligently working away on volume 4, and designing the Baron’s minivan that he would use in the climactic fight (I’m serious).
I don’t know how much inside baseball I’m allowed to give about the inner workings of publishing, but basically: we signed a contract to do the one Dungeon Critters book, with the hope that it would sell well and we would get to continue making more Dungeon Critters books. Once we wrapped up the first book we immediately wrote and pitched a sequel that we were really excited about, with lots of ideas for more. However, while our publisher did support Dungeon Critters, they weren’t interested in any sequels. But they did still want to work with us, at least!
Which is where The Bawk-Ness Monster comes in! While we were understandably crushed we couldn’t work on Dungeon Critters, a lot of heart and hard work went into pivoting to a new series. And I’m proud of the work we’ve done on it.
Working full-time, we don’t have the time or resources to draw and self-publish a graphic novel by ourselves, and even if we did, having a publisher gives it better reach, especially ones for kids and young adults. We think there’s hope that eventually :01 might be interested in a sequel for Dungeon Critters, which is why we haven’t posted the old summary and concept art online yet. We’re currently reworking it a bit as well, along with some other ideas…we just have to wait and hope for the best.
All that being said, selfishly, hearing from people who read and liked Dungeon Critters helps us keep that hope. It’s niche and weird and doesn’t explain itself and the most purely self-indulgent and fun thing we could have made. Even if we never get to make another one, knowing someone found it and it spoke to them is really precious to us. Thank you again for asking.
Please know that no one are bigger fans of Dungeon Critters than we are, and we are keeping these characters close to our hearts.
(Also, (in response to the other message) thank you for the game recommendation! We enjoyed Hades very much when it came out a few years ago hehe. Our current gaming update is that Sara is a normal amount of hours into Balatro and Natalie is looking forward to the new Stardew update.)
I NEED you to know that at least a portion of the warriors fandom is Thrilled by your Silverstream design Thank you for making her buff. The age of skinny Silverstream is over.....
Thanks! I’m really glad you like her!
I'm very excited to finally show off the cover for our new book coming out this September from Harper Alley: Bitsy & Boozle Tell A Story! You can preorder it here, or wherever you buy books
Bisty & Boozle Tell A Story! is an educational adventure that explores story structure and how to tell a story. Bitsy is a Narrator (in training), and with her grumpy protagonist, Boozle, the story follows his journey up Story Mountain, in search of the legendary Happily Ever After.
I ended up doing the bulk of the writing and art, while @natalieriess did the backgrounds and colors, and we're really happy with how it's turned out!
Hello!! I made a public post on Patreon to update you all about what I did in 2023 and what to expect in 2024!
Well, I did write and draw this zine back in January but then forgot about it until uh, today, when I decided to finally finish it. Just in time to think about next year's GOTY round-up!
I have a lot of fun making these little zines, you can read my thoughts on 2021's games here.
EDIT: Somehow forgot a whole spread here, whoops!!
Reblogging to add a whole spread that I didn't realize wasn't uploaded!
Well, I did write and draw this zine back in January but then forgot about it until uh, today, when I decided to finally finish it. Just in time to think about next year's GOTY round-up!
I have a lot of fun making these little zines, you can read my thoughts on 2021's games here.
EDIT: Somehow forgot a whole spread here, whoops!!
hi! your artwork for the warriors graphic novel looks STUNNING!!!! i was curious if either you or your wife happened to be warrior cats fans before getting hired for the job. its very easy to say with just the sneak peaks that this is the most "labor of love" media the warriors franchise has officially gotten in YEARS, so i was curious if either of you happened to be fans beforehand!
Thanks! We’ve been working on this project for a few years now and it’s really nice to finally be able to talk about it and see readers’ reactions. The excitement is…really exciting! Aaa! ^w^
I read a LOT of talking animal fiction growing up, and have fond memories of reading series 1 and I think about half of series 2 from the library as a kid. I remember Yellowfang, Sandstorm and Cloudtail being my favorites (still true, although many cats have grown on me a lot since drawing the book and reading/listening to the audiobooks more recently).
We've both gotten a couple of asks about this so I wanted to put this here as well. For me personally, I think I was just barely too old to catch the Warriors craze properly, so I was more of a Redwall kid if I'm being honest. But I did read series 1 for this adaptation job and enjoyed my time with it!
We both also just love cats a lot, and have really enjoyed getting to draw these characters. It helps that we have such a beautiful model living here with us, haha.
I wanted to post the pages here as well. These spreads are some of me and Natalie's favorites in the book, and it's been fun seeing the reactions so far. Thanks, everyone!
Warriors Graphic Novel images!!!
It's exciting finally seeing the interiors being posted around today; I'm really proud of the work @natalieriess and I have put into this book.
For those curious about the art style: Natalie is doing all the pencils for both the characters and the background digitally, then we print them out, and I use a lightbox to trace them onto bristol and then ink traditionally. Then the inks get scanned and Natalie does the coloring. I feel like the result is more like Natalie's art with a Sara filter on top, which gives it a distinct look apart from our original work on Dungeon Critters/Bawk-Ness Monster.
The most fun part about collaboration is figuring out all the different configurations for different projects. I look forward to being able to show off the full book once it's out next July!
If you happen to be in the Boston area this weekend (Sept 30-Oct 1st), @natalieriess and I will be at table 31A! We'll have copies of The Bawk-Ness Monster, as well as Dibbit + Boo 2: Season 1, along with some other new stuff, such as a new DBZ comic!
I'll also be a part of the Iron Cartoonist at 1:30PM on Saturday!
Come and watch me win!! >:3c
Will you be selling Dibbit+Boo 2 online at all after MICE!
We only ordered 45 copies of the collection (paper costs went up and we're on a budget lol), so we have a pretty limited stock...what we do after MICE depends on what we have left after the show.
I would love to be able to get books to folks who can't make it to the show, but I don't have an online storefront and would have to put time into setting one up during a pretty dense work period. That being said, if it does well we will definitely reprint for other shows and events, and eventually we will set up that online shop as well.
BOOK REAL @dibbitandboo-two
BOOK REAL!!!!
We'll be selling these at MICE on September 30th-October 1st at table 31A!!!
Natalie's been putting together the print files for the Dibbit + Boo 2 print collection we'll be selling at MICE this year! It'll have the first year's worth of strips, plus a couple of new illustrations, such as these ones!
Thank you everyone at First Second and also to my wonderful creative and life partner, @smgoetter !!!! I’m really happy to see this book become real! WOW!!!!!
Time to get back to work…more announcements about other things we’ve been working on hopefully coming soon!
