Welcome

Frank Young and I are proud to announce that we have begun work on "Don't Forget This Song," a graphic novel that tells the story of country music's first family, The Carter Family. We first came up with the idea of making a c0mic about the Carters back in 2002, and created a "pilot episode" which appeared in the anthology Kramers Ergot (No. 4). We had hoped a publisher would ask us to make more Carter Family comics. A few comic book publishers did express interest, but shied away from the cost of color printing.

I went back to college to study graphic design in 2003 and 2004, then fell into a bread delivery job. It seemed the Carter Family idea was destined to be yet another interesting "could have been but wasn't."

Jump to early 2007, and my visit to a cold and snowy New York City. My cartoonist peers were all talking "book deals" and "agents." I felt like I'd been living in a cave. I began to ask myself why I didn't have an agent.

I began to think about the Carter Family project again, and devoted the rest of the year to finding an agent and creating a book proposal. Fortunately, Frank Young was still willing and able to collaborate on the book. With the guidance of agent Bob Mecoy, we got a few good reactions from editors and finally a "yes" from Abrams. I'm thrilled to be working on a project for the publisher of "The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics," an essential book for anyone who loves comics.

Check back in at this blog to read anecdotes about the Carters and other musicians, posted by Frank and myself, and follow the progress we're making on "Don't Forget This Song." We'll be hard at work for the next 10 months...