Originally posted June 9, 2010.  After more than 4 years in the making, Neil Young’s Greendale goes on sale today in comic shops. It’s hard to believe that I’ve spent nearly 2 years working in some form on this book, and it’s now finally in print, available for people to read and hopefully enjoy. I’ve talked about this project quite a bit in the last few weeks, mostly to newspapers and websites which I’ll link to in the coming days, and there’s not much left for me to say that you can’t read somewhere else. So I’d like to simply express my gratitude and admiration for all my collaborators. Thanks to Karen and Pornsak for their generosity and patience, to Josh for his energy and collaborative spirit, to Todd and Dave for their skill and experience, to Pamela and David for their tireless efforts, and lastly, to Neil for his vision. It’s been an honor.

Greendale will be available in comic stores this week, and in bookstores on June 15th. Please come back tomorrow, when I’ll post some of the character sketches I did in preparation for the book.

There will be a special Greendale signing and art show on Friday, June 18 at Rocketship in Brooklyn.

 New York Times readers, you might be looking for these 12 Inch Remix pieces mentioned in the article.

NEWS UPDATES:

• The New York Times interview with Neil, Josh and me.
• Wired’s article on Greendale.
• We made a Greendale playlist for Largehearted Boy.
• The Huffington Post has an exclusive 13 page preview.
• Newsarama has put up 2 interviews with  Josh and me.
• CBR interviews Josh. I’d definitely draw a Bowie book!
• Techland posts a 3 page preview.
• Comics Alliance previews another 3 pages.
• Amazing reviews from The Seattle Times, Sundance Channel, CBR, CraveOnline, and Newsarama.

Though haunted by bloody dreams and possessing a supernatural control over nature, 18-year-old Sun Green is very much your typical high school student, unsure of her destiny and what the future will bring. In the midst of her turmoil, we meet The Stranger, a man in black who may or may not be the devil himself. He likes to play games and push people’s buttons. One ripe target for him is Sun’s cousin, Jed Green. Orphaned at a young age, the now 30-year-old Jed was raised by and still lives with his grandparents, who surely wouldn’t approve of his side-job running pot down to Los Angeles.

Arius Green is Sun’s grandfather, a lion of a man now brought low by Alzheimier’s. He has his moments of strength and lucidity though, so watch out. Ciela Bleu Oaks was his first wife, whom Arius married after she divorced his brother, John. Ciela disappeared under strange circumstances in 1965. Arius married his second wife, a much younger woman named Close Thibodeaux, several years later. Raised by Native Americans, Close is a smart and practical woman.

Earl Green is Sun’s father, and has lived off his family’s success most of his life. He’s a painter, but has yet to sell anything. A former singer who now raises horses on their ranch, Edith O’Riley married Earl and has never really come to terms with all the tragedy and strangeness that surrounds the Green family. She’s tried to protect Sun from it as much as she can, but some things can’t be helped. For example, at age 10, Earl’s sister, Sea Green, was lost for 6 weeks in the Sequoia National Forest during a family vacation. She never spoke of her time in the woods. At age 18, Sea disappeared for good in the Alaskan wilderness in 1967.

John Green is a retired Navy Captain who now operates a fishing troller outside of Greendale. Calling it the “devil’s sidewalk”, he hasn’t set foot on dry land in years and refuses to speak to his brother Arius. Earth Brown is the nickname of a visiting college activist who is almost literally entranced by Sun Green one night in a bar. He’s on his way up to Alaska, to protest drilling on the National Preserve. Mahalia Cross is Sun’s great-grandmother, a superstitious hermit and a witchdoctor, by all accounts. According to Arius, she has an old shack up in the mountains, though no one’s sure if she’s even still alive.

There’s an article here at the the New York Times (requires free registration) talking about a musical production of Greendale, with a couple brief paragraphs about the upcoming graphic novel. They also feature a piece of character art that I did, making this the 2nd time my art has been in the Times (here’s the first, waay over on the right). That’s right, baby, I’m all OVER the NYT. They didn’t use any of my choice quotes, but then again I was drunk and surly the whole time. My pal Jack Daniels and I kept hassling them about their comics section getting smaller and smaller each year. “Whutever happena Ziggy? Dat guy’sh funny.”