TRIPWIRE ANNUAL 2008 IN PREVIEWS
If you pick up the latest Previews (Vol. XVIII #5), May 2008 and turn to page 397, in the magazine section, you'll find TRIPWIRE Annual 2008. So with the lovely Tommy Lee Edwards Doctor Who cover, there is the following content:

•A look at the history of Doctor Who on TV and in comics, looking at the Doctor's assistants and his rogues gallery, and examining his renaissance…

•We also talk about Primeval and Ashes To Ashes and Life on Mars, the other current UK genre hit shows…

•In our behind the scenes movie features, we talk to Martin Asbury about his work as a storyboard artist on many of the top movies of the last 25 years, including James Bond, Greystoke, Alien and Legend, we take a look at the plans for the expansion of Pinewood Studios and we examine the way that George Lucas's ILM is run…

•Matt Groening and David Cohen discuss the return of Futurama…

•Michael Moorcock talks about his extensive writing career…

•A career retrospective on Posy Simmonds…

And lots more including Superman's 70th anniversary with Grant Morrison and James Robinson and strips from Roger Langridge, Jamie McKelvie and the Punx guys.

So what more do you want for £9.95 or $14.95 for the colonials for 132 pages in colour?

DIAMOND ITEM NUMBER MAY08 4264

IN AN EMPIRE STATE
And here are five more pics including one of Grant Morrison who I saw at the show too, Bill Baker with Dec, Jeff Carlisle arsing around at the DC offices and the aforementioned Molly Crabapple…

NEW YORK STATE OF MINDLESSNESS
So this is my last day in New York and tomorrow (Thursday evening) I get back on the plane and fly back to Blighty. It's been a pretty good trip and here are some of the highlights:

•I got to spend quite a bit of time with Jeff Carlisle (my regular roommate or my 'show wife' as he calls himself now ;)) and his friend Steve Ellis, who I had met briefly before but not spent proper time with. I also got to meet Steve's wife Emilia, who was also very nice. Steve will be appearing as part of the Elric feature in the Annual this summer, although if you check out a later post, you'll see both his and Jeff's talents may lie elsewhere…

•I got to see my friend Mark Chiarello up at DC albeit far too briefly…

•I got to show the book around to lots of different people, all of whom were impressed. Del Toro even remembered that he'd written the intro and he was extremely nice again and I got to see but not properly interview Doug Jones, Ron Perlman and Luke Goss. They were at a press line and there was no roundtable activity so that was a bust. I did run into Jones, Perlman and Goss in the gents on the same day and the words 'Quarter Pounder With Cheese' will never mean the same again…

•I lined up some artists for the next studio book. I know people probably think I am a complete masochist but I'd like to think that me and Gary have both learnt from our mistakes with this one. Names so far? Bryan Hitch, Mark Schultz, Frazer Irving and Glenn Fabry. Not a bad start. Of course, we don't definitely have a publisher but hopefully Image will fancy doing another one…

•Seeing lots of people from home. I don't remember the last time I was at a US show and saw so many Brits. So in no particular order, here's a list (in no particular order): Rufus Dayglo, Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips, Chris Weston, Tony Lee, Simon Coleby, Frazer Irving, Rob Williams, Jamie McKelvie, Laurence Campbell, Kris Justice, Dave Elliott (although he lives over here), Mike Perkins (and so does he) and some others I've probably forgotten…

•I got to potter around the city with my camera. The weather was perfect and even got to about 80 degrees (26 in celsius) and I got to see Central Park in the Spring…

•I saw my friend Bill Baker and John Lustig and got to hang out with them and I saw Declan Shalvey and his mate Will Sliney, both very talented artists. I also met two artists, one a friend of Andy's who is an incredible portrait painter, Steven Assael, and Molly Crabapple's boyfriend, Fred Harper, who is a stunning illustrator. I also saw Walter and Louise Simonson who were as lovely and warm as ever and I saw Tommy Lee Edwards, whose current haircut raised a few eyebrows…

Lots more happened but my brain has stopped working a bit after the show. But everybody at Bristol will get the chance to pick up a copy of Studio Space in paperback from the TRIPWIRE table…

I LOVE NEW YORK IN APRIL
I am coming to the end of my New York trip. I came to the city to visit the New York Comic Con and I'll post a proper entry in the next couple of days but here are some photos (of Tommy Lee Edwards with his New Wave haircut, Jeff Carlisle at Steve Ellis's table, a man dressed as Zap Brannigan from Futurama, Duncan Fegredo and Chris Weston at the Splash Page Art table).
Studio Space is at the printers now too which is very exciting…

STUDIO SPACE COVER
And because I was feeling generous, here is the cover design to the paperback of Studio Space. It's going to be an exceptional book…

FOUR YEARS IN THE MAKING
After four years (which is how long it's taken since we first started hawking it around, doing the interviews, getting it picked up, dropped and picked up by another publisher) Studio Space goes to the printers this weekend. So myself and Gary can breathe a collective sigh of relief. What's also exciting is the fact that we have a number of signings confirmed to support the book. The first one will be at Bristol in a month where we'll have a limited amount of copies of the paperback, which visitors to the show can get signed by Walt Simonson, Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips, Dave Gibbons, Bryan Talbot and Dave Taylor. Bristol from 10th to 11th May will be the first place anywhere in the world that you will be able to buy the book. So here are a few more pages from a couple of the chapters…

MORE STUDIO PAGES
To continue to tantalise you, here are two pages from the George Pratt chapter…

WESTON ORBIT
Last Saturday, Chris Weston signed at comic shop Orbital near Centre Point in London so I went down to see him. There was quite a decent turn-out which didn't surprise me as he's a great artist (the series The Twelve that Marvel is publishing, written by JMS and pencilled by Chris, is really great stuff so highly recommended) and a nice guy. In fact, myself and Gary have considered him if we do another studio book, which hopefully sales of the first will warrant this.
Anyway, here are some photos I took at the signing…