Hey guys! I know it's been kind of quite around here. I've been working like mad on Ghosts, which comes out next fall. I hope it will be worth the wait! I have a few things to share with you guys about holiday items and promotions:

SIGNED BOOKS! My local indie bookstore in San Francisco, Green Apple Books, is offering signed copies of my books by mail. I don't have the ability to personalize copies, but if you'd like one with a signature and a drawing, you can order here!

ORIGINAL ART! I still have some non-request original Baby-sitters Club comic pages for sale in the webstore. These are only $35, plus shipping. To unsure Christmas delivery, please order by December 15! (Please note that I do not sell artwork from Smile, Sisters, or Drama.)

T-SHIRTS! I am limited to unisex large-sized Smile t-shirts, but if you'd like one, order by December 15 for Christmas delivery. At this time, I don't have a plan to re-print the shirts, but if I have any news about merchandise or other promotional items, I'll certainly announce it here.

Thanks, everyone. I hope you are warm, happy, healthy, and have something good to read. Happy Holidays!

Hey guys! Hope you're all having a nice October so far. I'll be in and around the New York Comicon this weekend! Here are all the places you can find me: Friday, October 9

Camp Out with Lumberjanes! 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM Room 1A24 Pack your bags, bring your s'mores kit and get your badges ready! Join the brilliant minds and collaborators behind the breakout hit Lumberjanes, from the BOOM! Studios imprint, BOOM! Box! Shannon Watters, Brooke Allen, and Special Guests discuss what's down the pipeline for the Mal, Molly, April, Jo and Ripley and the importance of hardcore lady types! Moderated by Raina Telgemeier (Drama).

Saturday, October 10

Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Room 1B03 Already a legend for his creation of The Spirit in 1940, Will Eisner – with the 1978 publication of his A Contract With God – would be instrumental in popularizing the graphic novel format, changing the world of comics forever. Join us and find out how and why Eisner did it, with moderator Paul Levitz (author of the upcoming Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel) and Panelists Todd McFarlane (Spawn Creator & Image Comics President), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Dennis O'Neil (Batman) and Denis Kitchen (The Best of Comix Book).

Sunday, October 11 Goosebumps & The Baby-sitters Club Revisited 10:45 AM – 11:30 AM Room 1A10 Join legendary Authors R.L. Stine (Goosebumps) and Ann M. Martin (The Baby- sitters Club) as they chat with bestselling and award-winning graphic novel creators Dave Roman (Graphix Presents: Goosebumps) and Raina Telgemeier (The Baby-sitters Club Graphic Novels) about re-imaging their classic stories as graphic novels. From Stonybrook to HorrorLand, the original Authors and their reimagining Illustrators describe the process and challenges of drawing their classic characters in full color.

11:45 AM – 12:45 PM WORD SIGNING Hall 1-B, Table 25 SIGNING WITH Ann M. Martin & R.L. Stine

4:00 PM Stock Signing at Astoria Bookshop 4:00 - 5:00 PM 31-29 31st Street Astoria, NY 11106 I'll be swinging by Astoria Bookshop to sign some stock after the con. Everyone is welcome. Come say hello!

Hey guys! I'm doing two quick stock signings at a couple of bookstores next week. That means I won't be giving a full-fledged presentation, but will be hanging out for about an hour at each location, signing books and chatting with anyone who wants to stop by and say hi. CHICAGO AREA: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 5:00PM The Book Stall at Chestnut Court 811 Elm St, Winnetka, IL 60093 Phone: (847) 446-8880

SALT LAKE CITY: Sunday, September 13, 2015 10:00AM The King’s English 1511 1500 E Salt Lake City, UT 84105 Phone: (801) 484-9100

Hope to see you there!

2015 marks FIVE YEARS since Smile was first published, so Barnes & Noble decided to publish an exclusive collector's edition of the book!

Here's a post B&N created for their blog, talking all about it. There are 16 extra pages of content, including a photo gallery, a step-by-step making-of section where I show off my entire creative process, and a Q&A featuring some of my most frequently-asked questions! And, how about that super-shiny cover!!

The book is for sale on September 1, exclusively at Barnes & Noble locations across the country, or from B&N's website. Hope you guys enjoy it!

GHOSTS!

Yes!!! I announced my next graphic novel's title earlier today at San Diego Comic-Con, and revealed the teaser image above as well as the first bit of information about the story.

Eleven-year-old Catrina and her family are moving to the small coastal town of Bahía de la Luna because her younger sister, Maya, is sick. Cat isn’t happy about leaving her friends, but she tries not to complain because she knows Maya will benefit from the clean, cool air that blows in from the sea. As the girls settle in, they learn there’s something a little spooky about their new town...

I'll reveal the book cover and a longer description of the story as the release date draws closer. For now, I hope this will pique your interest!

The book will be full color, published by Scholastic/Graphix, 240+ pages, and entirely fiction.

GHOSTS will be in stores in the fall of 2016.

I'm a special guest at this year's San Diego Comic-Con! That means I have something going on every day of the show, including a pre-con kickoff event! I'm also up for an Eisner Award, for Best Writer/Artist. I hope to see some of you over the course of the week!

Tuesday, July 7 An Evening with Raina at the San Diego Central Library 330 Park Blvd. San Diego, CA Free and open to the public! 6pm

July 8-12 San Diego Comic-Con International San Diego, CA I will have a table in Artist Alley: HH-16! Find me there, signing, at all times except for the following programming events:

Thursday, July 9 5:30pm - 6:30pm Capturing Teen Angst in Comics Room: 8

Friday, July 10 12:30pm - 1pm Graphix 10th Anniversary panel Room:

Saturday, July 11 3pm - 4pm Kids' Comics Panel Room 23ABC

Sunday, July 12 10am - 11am The Girls Are All Right! Room: 30CDE

1:45pm - 2:45pm Spotlight on Raina Telgemeier Big Announcement! I'll be revealing the title and a teaser image and description of my next book at my spotlight panel!! Room 5AB

Hello, everyone! I've finally got my summer schedule mostly confirmed. Here are all the events I'm doing between now and the middle of July!

June 20-21 Kids Read Comics Ann Arbor District Library, Ann Arbor, MI Free and open to the public!

Saturday, June 20

12 Noon – 1:00 pm Signing: Faith Erin Hicks & Raina Telgemeier Vault of Midnight (219 S. Main St )

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Comics Quickfire! Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Signing: Raina Telgemeier Downtown Library 1st Floor

Sunday, June 21

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Signing: Faith Erin Hicks & Raina Telgemeier Vault of Midnight (219 S. Main St )

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm The Kids’ Comics Revolution! Awards Ceremony! Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room

3:30 pm - 4:30pm Signing: Faith Erin Hicks & Raina Telgemeier Downtown Library 1st Floor

June 26-29 ALA Annual Conference Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA

Find me in the Graphic Novel Pavilion, Artist Alley Table 116 (Hall D), throughout the show except for the following:

Saturday, June 27 1:00pm-2:30pm Celebrating Graphic Novels: Graphix and Beyond! Graphic novels and the comic format have become increasingly popular, with both kids and adults. Join renowned authors and artists Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Sisters), Dave Roman (Goosebumps Graphix), Craig Thompson (Space Dumplins), Jennifer Holm (Sunny Side Up), and Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants) to learn more about how graphic novels support literacy, learning, and a love of reading. Location: Marriott Marquis, Yerba Buena Salon 05

Sunday, June 28 10:00am-11:00am Signing with Ann M. Martin! Location: Scholastic Booth

Monday, June 29 10:00am-11:00am Graphix 10th Anniversary Panel Graphix authors Jennifer Holm, Craig Thompson, Raina Telegemeier and Dave Roman will take the stage to celebrate the Graphix 10 year anniversary with a 30-minute presentation, followed by a 30-minute signing. Location: Graphic Novel/Gaming Stage

Two Bay Area Book Signings with Dave Roman! Free and open to the public!

Wednesday, July 1 Green Apple Books on the Park event & book signing 1231 9th Ave San Francisco, CA 94122 (415) 742-5833 7pm

Friday, July 3 Flying Colors Comics event & book signing Oak Grove Plaza Shopping Center, 2980 Treat Blvd Concord, CA 94518 (925) 825-5410 3-7pm

Tuesday, July 7 An Evening with Raina at the San Diego Central Library 330 Park Blvd. San Diego, CA Free and open to the public! 6pm

July 8-12 San Diego Comic-Con International Special Guest! San Diego, CA I will have a table in Artist Alley: HH-16! Find me there, signing, at all times except for the following programming events:

Thursday, July 9 5:30pm - 6:30pm Capturing Teen Angst in Comics Room: 8

Friday, July 10 12pm - 1pm Graphix 10th Anniversary panel Room:

Saturday, July 11 3pm - 4pm Kids' Comics Panel Room 23ABC

Sunday, July 12 10am - 11am The Girls Are All Right! Room: 30CDE

1:45pm - 2:45pm Spotlight on Raina Telgemeier I'll be revealing the title and a teaser image and description of my next book at my spotlight panel!! Room 5AB

SISTERS is nominated for an Eisner Award! The Eisners are basically the Oscars of comics -- the biggest and fanciest award my industry offers! SMILE won an Eisner in 2011 (that's the little gold sticker that's printed on the cover of most of the copies). It's a big honor to be nominated again, this time in the category of Best Writer/Artist!!

The Einsers are nominated by a jury, and then voted on by members of the industry. Incredibly, many people don't know they are eligible to vote -- but, if you're a teacher, librarian, bookseller, editor, or a small-press comics creator, YOU CAN VOTE! Do you make mini-comics? VOTE! Are you a teacher who includes comics in your curriculum, at any grade or education level? YOU CAN VOTE, TOO! Librarian who shares graphic novels with your patrons? PLEASE, JOIN YOUR PEERS IN VOTING!

You don't have to vote in every category, but there are some wonderful nominees across the board this year, all of whom deserve recognition. So please, head over to the ballot, register if you have not, and vote!

I'll be back soon with my summer schedule, including appearances in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego!

This weekend is the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, one of my favorite events in the world! It's free to attend, and I'll have a table at the Toronto Reference Library (Yonge & Bloor Streets): Table 103 on the first floor -- here's a map! The table is where you can find me for most of the weekend, and where I'll have tshirts, original art, and books for sale, including the brand-new color BSC #1, Kristy's Great Idea! Come by, get a book signed, hang out! I'm also on several panels and programs. Here's the info.

Saturday 10am - 11am How, Where, and Why Should I Start Reading Comics? @ Forest Hill Ballroom, Bloor Yorkville Marriott It can be daunting to enter the world of comics, and just not knowing where to begin as a reader. This panel features authors from some of the most important and widely-read books in the graphic novel revolution, speaking about their work, and the broad appeal of the medium. Featuring Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), George O’Connor (Olympians), Raina Telgemeier (Sisters), and Professor Glen Downey (The York School). Moderated by Robin Brenner (No Flying, No Tights).

Saturday 1pm-2:15pm Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman present: Comics Dance Party! @ St. Paul’s on Bloor, 227 Bloor Street East It’s a comics dance party! Join New York Times bestselling graphic novelists Raina Telgemeier (Sisters) and Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy, Teen Boat) for an hour of kids comics fun! With live drawing, games, and activities, this dance party just won’t stop! Followed by a one-hour signing at this venue.

Sunday 11:15-12:00pm Truth & Intimacy in Graphic Memoir @ High Park Ballroom, Bloor Yorkville Marriott Autobiography and memoir are among the most popular genres of contemporary comics, and with good reason; successful comics memoir renders its subjects explicitly, both textually and visually. In this medium where so little is left to the imagination, real experience may never have been so intimate, so ‘true’. In this feature presentation, moderator Johanna Draper Carlson (Comics Worth Reading) will interview four of the most acclaimed practitioners of contemporary comics memoir, to get at the root of what it’s like to put it all on the page. Featuring Dustin Harbin (Diary Comics), John Porcellino (King Cat), and Raina Telgemeier (Sisters).

Super exciting! I can't wait to see my Canadian friends, and maybe eat some ketchup chips and Greg's ice cream...see you there!

Just a reminder that the first of my Baby-sitters Club graphic novels is being re-released in full-color on Tuesday, April 28!

If you'd like to pre-order a signed copy, my local indie bookstore Astoria Bookshop would be happy to arrange it! Just go to their order page, scroll down to BSC Graphix #1, Kristy's Great Idea, and be sure to specify who you'd like your copy signed to!

Astoria Bookshop will take pre-orders until April 24, so if you'd like a signed copy to arrive as close as possible to the book's release day, be sure to get your order in by then!

I'll be at the bookshop signing copies and playing a game of Cartoonist Pictionary on Saturday, May 2, which happens to be Independent Bookstore Day! (And Free Comic Book Day, wow!) Come by at 1pm for some games, snacks, and a book signing with me and Dave Roman! If you'd like to pick up the new Baby-sitters Club Graphix then, we'll have lots of copies!

Cartoonist Pictionary! (We'll need some talented volunteers to join us!) The Astoria Bookshop 31-29 31st Street Between Broadway and 31st Avenue Astoria, NY (718) 278-2665 N or Q Train to Broadway in Astoria, Queens

It'll be fun--hope to see you there!

Hey guys! I know it's been a few weeks since I updated my site...since getting back from California, I've started penciling the actual, real, final art for my next book! I'm having a great time, but there's not much to talk about at this point. I've been posting a lot of sketches and process stuff over on my Instagram, so if you want more frequent art updates, that's the best place to find me!

I'll be attending the MoCCA Art Festival as a special guest on April 11 and 12...which is neat, since MoCCA was the very first comic convention I ever had a table and sold minicomics at, starting way back in 2002! I haven't tabled there in a while, but since I'm a guest this year, I'll be signing books and doing a couple of panels! Here's where you can find me that weekend:

MoCCA Art Festival Location: Center 548 West 22nd Street Between 10th & 11th Avenues New York, NY April 11-12 11am-6pm Tickets: $5/Day

Please note: Signings and panels are at different locations, approximately a two-block walk from one another. Below is a map. Please plan accordingly!

SATURDAY, APRIL 11

1-2 pm Book Signing Center 548 (main festival venue) Bergen Street Comics Booth, #220-221 You may bring books from home or purchase them onsite!

3:30pm Raina Telgemeier Q+A High Line Hotel The Matthews Room Reservations required, GET A FREE TICKET HERE

SUNDAY, APRIL 12

1-2 pm Book Signing Center 548 (main festival venue) Bergen Street Comics Booth, #220-221 You may bring books from home or purchase them onsite!

3:30pm CAROUSEL for KIDS! High Line Hotel The Matthews Room Cartoonist R. Sikoryak brings a special KIDS’ edition of CAROUSEL, his series of live comics readings and other projected pictures, to the MoCCA stage. Stories, gags, audience participation, and more, for kids of all ages.

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Also, please be sure to check out my updated event listings! You can always find those on the right-hand site of my home page. I'll be adding more events in the near future, but as you can see, I'm going to be appearing in Astoria, NY in May; Ann Arbor Michigan in June; and the San Francisco Bay Area in July!

I'm pleased to announce that SISTERS has been shortlisted for a 2015 Children's Choice Book Award...and YOU can vote!

Go to THIS PAGE, and vote for SISTERS in the 2nd Grade to 3rd Grade category. You can vote in all the other categories, too. Then, the winners will be announced during Children's Book Week in May!

Voting goes until May 3, so please encourage your friends and THEIR friends to participate!

Thanks & happy voting!

On Thursday, March 12, join me, Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), and James Burks (Bird & Squirrel) for an evening of fun and comics at Once Upon A Time Bookstore in Montrose, CA! We'll all be presenting and signing, and it's free to attend!

Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, & James Burks! Thursday, March 12 7pm Once Upon A Time Bookstore 2207 Honolulu Ave Montrose Shopping Park Montrose, CA 91020 (Where the 2 and 210 freeways intersect) phone: 818-248-9668

I mentioned a few months ago that Scholastic was releasing full-color editions of my Baby-sitters Club graphic novels...and now, you can pre-order a copy!

If you'd like a signed copy, my local indie bookstore Astoria Bookshop would be happy to arrange it! Just go to their order page, scroll down to BSC Graphix #1, Kristy's Great Idea, and be sure to specify who you'd like your copy signed to! I'll also be doing an event at the store in May, so stay tuned for more info.

The book's release date is April 28. Hope you guys like it!

My 2015 Hourly Comic Day comics. Some of these were done in a moving car. All were done straight-to-Sharpie in a notebook given to me by a Naperville middle school last fall with a parade of elephants along the bottom page trim.

Yesterday I was anticipating this morning’s ALA Youth Media Awards announcements, and while I was sure that SISTERS wasn’t going to win anything, I was holding out hope for some of my friends’ books, specifically EL DEAFO by Cece Bell. And we woke up today to learn that it did indeed receive a Newbery Honor Award — the most distinguished award in the children’s book industry, and the first time a graphic novel has ever done so. I didn’t want to name-drop in the hourly comic for fear of jinxing it, but that’s the book I was thinking about at 9:50pm last night. El Deafo is one of the most important books to come along in a long time, graphic novel or otherwise, and Cece deserves every ounce of recognition she is getting.

Today also happens to be the 5-year anniversary of SMILE in print. I was too busy making noise about El Deafo on Twitter to give it much thought, but Cece herself has told me that it was only after she read Smile that she decided to tell her story in graphic novel format. I could not be more proud or happy for her, and if I have contributed in some small way to moving both the worlds of comics and children’s literature forward, that’s all the honor I need.

Many congrats to my other friends who were bestowed with medals today, but especially Dan Santat, who took home Caldecott gold for Beekle, and Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, who collected both a Caldecott Honor and a Printz Honor for their graphic novel This One Summer.

Hey, guys! Yesterday was Graphix's Tenth Anniversary! My publisher (an imprint of Scholastic) is one decade old, and I'm pleased to say I've been working with them since the beginning! I signed my first contract in 2004, and my first Baby-sitters Club graphic novel was published in 2006. It has been a wild and wonderful ride, and we're all looking forward to more great stuff in the future. A few comics news sites broke the story about several upcoming Graphix books yesterday, and included among the news was the fact that...I've signed up to do three more books! That, plus the one I'm currently working on, means I'll be publishing FOUR graphic novels between now and 2022.

While I can't tell you any of the specifics yet, the press release teases that I'll be doing (another) nonfiction family story (along the lines of Smile and Sisters), a collection of short stories, and a fictional graphic novel. I have lots of ideas and I'm looking forward to getting them out of my head and onto paper!

But for now, it's back to work on my current project, which is a fiction story with a fantastic setting, slated for 2016. I hope to be able to share more details soon.

That's all for the moment!

My friends over at the Nerdy Book Club asked illustrators to post a sample of the size they create their original work at, and use the hashtag #iDrawThisBig. The quarter is there for reference, but I think the better reference is the books themselves -- all of my books have the same trim size, so you can easily see the paper size in contrast to the books in the photos. I posted my results on Instagram along with some annotations, but thought you guys might like to see them too, and putting everything in one post seemed like a good idea.

First up: SMILE! Smile and Sisters were both drawn on 9x12 Bristol board. When I began Smile as a weekly webcomic back in 2004, my goal was to spend as little time as possible on each page, and working small kept me in line. It also lent a sense of intimacy to such a personal project. I repeated this technique with Sisters, as you will see! Drama and the four Baby-sitters Club graphic novels were all drawn larger. Also, for those interested, Smile is my only published book to date with hand-lettering. All of the others were lettered with a font based on my handwriting.

Fun fact...I chose to show this page because it takes place on my first day as a student at Lowell High School in San Francisco...and my 20-year reunion is this fall!! Time truly flies when you're having fun.

Next : DRAMA! Drama pages were drawn on 11x14 Bristol board. The four Baby-sitters Club graphic novels were also drawn at this paper size. Drama is the project where I began adding panel borders digitally. It saves some time and ensures the margins are straight, which pleases the design team at the publisher! I chose this page because I love bookstores.

Fun fact...The store in this scene is called Longacre's...Mrs. Longacre was a frequent substitute teacher at my elementary school, and she subbed long-term in my third grade class while my regular teacher had surgery or something. Mrs. L was kind and caring, in stark contrast to our regular teacher, who was an angry, tough lady, and I remember that being a wonderful month within a really difficult year. However, both teachers left a mark, and I learned SO much from both of them.

Finally, SISTERS! It was actually quite challenging to go back to this smaller paper size after Drama, but I felt that it was important to work similarly to the way I created Smile, because this was a companion book. My working methods changed a lot between Smile and Sisters, though...I no longer hand-letter the dialog (although I still create sound effects by hand) and panel borders are digital. I have also worked with a different colorist on each project, although I have had the same editor, book designer, and letterer since Smile. It's nice to have a team that's comfortable working together!

Fun fact...We really did hit this huge storm while driving across Nevada, and Lovelock, NV was the town we stopped in to wait it out for the night. We had planned to go further, but traveling requires thinking on your feet sometimes. To this day, when my sister and I joke about the worst places we've ever been in our lives, that town always tops the list! I'm sure it's totally fine now, but in 1991 (when Sisters takes place) it was pretty sad. Especially in a torrential storm.

Hope you enjoyed this peek into my studio!

Whoa, so...every year, The Beat, which has long been my favorite comics news source, asks folks across the industry to cast their vote for the Person of the Year, defined as “the most important person, someone who had the biggest impact, an innovator, someone who set the pace, or had a banner year creatively” in comics.

This year, I won.

I can certainly concede that my 2014 was incredible, and felt like it built in intensity with each passing month. But to round it out with this honor is astounding...my career feels like it's pretty swell to me personally, but being recognized by my peers is on a whole other level of awesome.

I've loved comics for a long time. From the day I discovered them as a kid, there's been little else I've been so passionate about, and nothing else I wanted to do more. I've been fortunate to be able to make work I care about, and to have such great readers along the way, as well as a community of people that supports me and cheers me on.

So, thank you!

Congratulations to all the other people nominated for the PotY, too -- smart, talented, hard-working people who deserve just as much (if not more) credit as I do.

I'm ending the year on a sweet note -- the Wall Street Journal has published an article called The New Wave of Graphic Novels, which talks about the last ten years and how things have shifted and changed in my industry, and heavily features me and my work. I couldn't be prouder.

2014 has been a banner year for me. It had its ups and downs, but overall, it has been an overwhelming success. The debut of SISTERS surpassed my (and my publisher's) wildest expectations, and it was a real treat to meet so many of my incredible readers on my book tour.

Then, I came home and finished the first draft of the script for my next graphic novel -- the article hints at some of the themes in the story towards the end. I'll spend most of 2015 at my desk (pictured!) creating the art, and in 2016, I'll have another book to share with all of you! So, thank you. Without you guys, none of this would be possible. Thanks for letting me share my stories, and for sharing so many of your own in return. I'm looking forward to even bigger and better things in 2015, and beyond!

photo by Sasha Maslov for the Wall Street Journal

One last reminder about holiday orders and shipping deadlines! ***Signed copies of my books can be ordered from my local indie bookstore, Astoria Bookshop, and they will ship it directly to you! Please submit orders by December 17 (Dec. 10 for int'l orders) to assure they arrive in time for Christmas. (Need some suggestions for other graphic novels to gift? Here's a list!)

***SMILE T-shirts are BACK! We're taking orders for the holiday season over on THE COMICS BAKERY website. Please place your holiday orders by December 17 at the very latest to receive them in time for Christmas!

***If you're looking for original artwork, I sell pages from the Baby-sitters Club graphic novels right here on my site! Please order by December 10, as the packages are a specialized size and therefore sometimes take a little longer for the post office to process and send.

***ALA SMILE posters are available from ALA's website!

Thanks, everyone. Back to work for me!