Thrilled to see that NICO BRAVO AND THE HOUND OF HADES has made the New York Public Library Best of 2019 list!

I’m back from Miami Book Fair, I had a great time despite the cold I brought with me from NY. Really too many great experiences to list…but I’m going to try!

Kicked things off on Thursday 11/21 by visiting students at Horace Mann and Henry H. Filer middle schools in the Miami area. That night, some live drawing and elementary deduction with George O’Connor, Nicole Swift, Conor McCreery, and Jeffrey Brown for the “Drink & Draw Exquisite Corpse Murder Mystery.” Given my cold, I was calling it “Sick & Draw”, but I did ok, except for my inability to draw a charades version of “In Cold Blood.” My “Farewell To Arms” rocked, though.

(This photo’s from my previous visit to MBF in 2017, but my presentation was in the same room both times.)

Friday started with a conversation between KidVision host Penny Bernath and myself, broadcast on South Floriday’s public TV station WPBT. Later, my NICO BRAVO presentation to a large group of students on Friday at the fair in the MDC Live Arts Lab was a blast. So many great questions in the Q&A portion, and signed about 150 books for the kids afterwards. A great hangout in town that night with other cartoonists attending the fair. 

Saturday I got to catch up with family and friends and just enjoy the fair, then the Author’s Party on the bay at the Standard Hotel.

Sunday morning I spoke with host Marc Bernier for his BookMarc radio show broadcasting from the fair. Marc was great to talk to, set this nervous cartoonist right at ease, and asked some great questions about comics and animation. His show can be heard on WFHG in Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky. It’s also archived online, and you can LISTEN HERE.

Later that afternoon, I joined a panel discussion moderated by Juan Navarro with George O’Connor and Jarod Rosello where we talked comics craft and publishing for a while. One of the highlights was having the panel drawn, live, by New Yorker cartoonist Bob Eckstein! 

At the fair, I picked up a first printing of Robert E. Howard’s KING KULL. It was coming across Marvel’s KULL THE DESTROYER #35 as a kid that helped kickstart my comics obsession to begin with. Happy to add that book to my collection!

Just a great, energizing experience. Then it was a long trip back to Queens thanks to Amtrak. Hope to return to MBF soon!

NICO and I are headed to Miami Book Fair next week! I’ll be doing some local school visits, live drawing events, and a few presentations at the fair, including bits for KidVision, on South Florida’s public TV station WPBT, and BookMarc with Marc Bernier on WFHG AM/FM!

The Fair features over 500 authors–a book for every age and interest–panels, readings, street fair, children’s events, live music, food, and BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!

Visit https://miamibookfair.com for more info, or head directly to the free, downloadable guide to see the whole calendar of events and plan your visit: https://www.miamibookfair.com/downloadable-guide/

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Take another look at your favorite myths and legends in this hillarious new graphic novel by Mike Cavallaro!

Got a problem? At Vulcan’s Celestial Supply Shop, you can find the magical merchandise to set things right. The seasoned staff—a kid named Nico Bravo, a sphinx named Lula, and a unicorn named Buck—pride themselves on providing “legendary service and expertise in all areas of the arcane.”

But Nico’s world is about to be turned upside down, and it’s all thanks his latest customer: Eowulf, the pint-size descendant of the monster slayer Beowulf. Determined to carry on the family business, this would-be warrior plans to slay Cerberus, the terrifying, three-headed hound of Hades. There’s just one problem—Cerberus is the only thing preventing the hordes of the Underworld from entering the land of the living. Can Nico stop Eowulf from unleashing a zombie apocalypse?

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  Buy IMPOSSIBLE INCORPORATED here!

Buy IMPOSSIBLE INCORPORATED here!

The fantastical sci-fi adventure of an extraordinary teenage girl and her amazing teammates, seeking the truth about the universe–and her own mysterious past.

Join seventeen year old Number Horowitz, daughter of legendary genius-adventurer Goliath Horowitz, as she and her companions board a cosmic train called the Non-Local Express, riding across the quantum sea and into the Infinite Spiral that leads anywhere, everywhere, and every place in between.

Time travel, other worlds, new dimensions, parallel universes: the Impossible Incorporated team can journey any place the mind can imagine–and also into mysteries far beyond imagination’s reach. But the greatest mystery of all is–what happened to Goliath Horowitz? Number’s father vanished when she was seven years old and she’s determined to discover the truth about Goliath’s disappearance, find him, and bring him home.

By J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Cavallaro

It’s Alive!

At some point towards the end of high school, I knew I wanted to make comics. Since then I’ve never wanted to do anything else. It hasn’t been easy. But seeing my first work published  in the 90’s was thrilling and nothing that’s happened since has managed to put a dent in that.

These proofs are both surprising and familiar. I mean, I know the book by heart of course, but seeing images and words you pulled from thin air, or which seemed to have been beamed into your brain and then onto the page by some outside force, now solidified in print…I don’t know how to describe it. After the hours, days, weeks, months of grinding away at it, I almost wonder where this all came from, as if someone else had made it.

On top of that, I love books, and I love that in a time with so much gadgetry, a book has lost none of its magic or appeal. I can’t wait for this thing to exist! First Second Books

I’ve been working hard on my new monthly series with writer J.M. DeMatteis, IMPOSSIBLE INCORPORATED. The first issue drops in September, here’s the scoop:

Join Number Horowitz and her team as they board the Non-Local Express, riding across the quantum sea and into the Infinite Spiral, seeking the truth about the universe–and her own mysterious past! Creator-owned cosmic odyssey by Eisner Award-winning writer J.M. DeMatteis, with art by Mike_Cavallaro. From IDW Publishing, In Shops 9/19/18, Diamond order code JUL180914

IMPOSSIBLE INCORPORATED #2, (w) J.M. DeMatteis, (a) Mike Cavallaro. Available October 17 2018, Diamond Comics order code: AUG180801, $3.99, IDW Publishing.

“While lost in the other-dimensional paradise called Conundropolis, teen genius Number Horowitz is reunited with her long-missing father, Goliath. Or is she? In a world where reality is plastic and perception is open to interpretation, how can she possibly be sure? Plus: the Impossible Inc. team faces the universe-devouring threat of the Time Termites!”

IMPOSSIBLE INCORPORATED #3, (w) J.M. DeMatteis, (a) Mike Cavallaro
Diamond Previews order code: SEP180665, In Shops: Nov 21, 2018, $3.99, IDW Publishing

With the Infinite Spiral collapsing and time periods colliding, Number Horowitz and her team must find a way to stop the Time Termites before all of Creation is erased! But will Number have to ally herself with her most dangerous foes, the alien Exterminators, in order to save the universe?

Just going through some old artwork here and came across one of my favorites from a previous project, worth talking about, but I have to back up a little first…

J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS is probably one of my biggest influences. I’ve read the books more than a few times and I vividly remember seeing Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation in the theaters. The film’s promotional artwork was mesmerizing. I stared at whatever scraps I could collect for hours. I think when you’re young, those images you see that really captivate you are absorbed into your artistic DNA, and can affect the way you approach a composition, or draw a leg or a hand, etc., forever. This was definitely one of them for me, and since the promotional artwork was mostly uncredited, it took me years to learn it was drawn by Mike Ploog. 

Ploog entered the animation industry in 1969, working at Filmation and Hanna-Barbara after completing 10 years in the Marine Corps. After that, he worked with Will Eisner on PS Magazine for the U.S. military. At Marvel Comics, Ploog co-created GHOST RIDER with Gary Friedrich, and worked on MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, KULL THE DESTROYER (another favorite of mine), WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, and many others.
In Hollywood, Ploog worked on WIZARDS and THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Michael Jackson’s MOONWALKER, John Carpenter’s THE THING, SUPERMAN 2, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, Jim Henson’s THE DARK CRYSTAL, and others.

My chance to bring my lifelong appreciation of Mike Ploog’s work around full-circle came in 2009 when J.M. DeMatteis and I were working on our LIFE AND TIMES OF SAVIOR 28 comic book series. We were given one variant cover per issue, so I had the great pleasure of seeing our character designs rendered by some of my favorite creators, including Sal Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Kevin Maguire, Don Perlin, and of course, Mike Ploog.

Here’s Ploog’s marvelous rendition of Savior 28 and his sometime-foe The Lemurian, colored by Andrew Covalt, for THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAVIOR 28 issue #4 variant cover.