In honor of my 27th birthday, the great folks at Khepri are offering 27% off my books! If you know someone who still hasn’t read AIR, or whose dog ate their copy of CAIRO, today is the day to buy.

Thanks, Khepri!

Yes, it’s time for the San Diego ComicCon.

And we’re all going to be there! Jason! Brian(s)! Josh! Jeff! Cliff! ME! (Jock, are you coming?) Here’s where you can listen to us spill our guts:

Thursday, July 23rd
6:00 -7:00 Vertigo New Ongoing Series/Crime Line
It’s a new beginning for Vertigo with the launch of new ongoing titles such as The Unwritten, Greek Street & Sweet Tooth. In addition to these titles we will be launching the highly anticipated Vertigo Crime Line with some of the top talents in the industry. Hosted by Senior VP – Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger and Senior Editor Will Dennis, this panel is not to be missed, especially considering the talent present: Peter Gross (Unwritten), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, The Nobody), Jason Starr, Chris Gage, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon and others! Room 5AB

Friday, July 24th
5:30-6:30 — Vertigo: View of the Future
Vertigo, DC’s edgiest and most provocative imprint, returns to San Diego! Come and discover what’s going on at the imprint that birthed The Sandman, Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Fables and more? Wait ’til you hear about what new projects the Vertigo team is going to thrill us with next! Hosted by Senior VP – Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger, Group Editor Shelly Bond, and Senior Editor Will Dennis, with Jason Aaron (Scalped), Mike Allred, Mark Buckingham (Fables), Josh Dysart (Unknown Soldier), Peter Gross (Unwritten), Amy Hadley (Madame Xanadu), Jeff Lemire (The Nobody), Chris Roberson, Matt Sturges (House of Mystery), Matt Wagner (Madame Xanadu), Bill Willingham (Fables, House of Mystery), G. Willow Wilson (Air), Brian Wood (DMZ, Northlanders), and others! Room 5AB

Saturday, July 25th
4:45-5:45 Vertigo Voices: The Fables Forum
It’s the Fables Forum – San Diego style! Come armed with your best questions and find out everything you want to know about Fables. Featuring the creators behind Fables, Jack of Fables, and House of Mystery: Vertigo Group Editor Shelly Bond is joined by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Matthew Sturges, Steve Leialoha, Lee Loughridge, Shawn McManus, Andrew Pepoy, Chris Roberson, Chrissie Zullo and Todd Klein. Room 6DE

Sunday, July 26th
12:00-1:00 Spotlight on Bill Willingham
Both a master storyteller and an incredible artist, Bill Willingham has created a huge following for his best-selling books. His credits range from the DCU’s Justice Society of America, Salvation Run and Robin- to the already- classic Vertigo titles Fables and Jack of Fables and the new House of Mystery. Hosted by Vertigo Group Editor, Shelly Bond with Fables co-horts Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha. Room 2

Congrats also to the creators of BAYOU, which swept every category in which it was nominated. A Zuda success story. If you’re not reading it online, start; it’s also coming out in print late this year.

From the press release: The Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact. By doing so, the goal is to encourage more diverse and high quality work across the board and to inspire new creators to add their voices to the field.

Friends and colleagues,

As most of you know, the first volume of my comic book series AIR debuted last month. Drawn by the incomparable MK Perker, AIR is the story of Blythe, a fight attendant with a fear of heights who is drawn into the race to develop a radical new form of flight based on Aztec technology. She also falls in love with a guy who might be a terrorist. It’s a look, through a surrealist lens, at the nature of borders, identity and travel in our post-9/11 world. Though fans have been calling the series entertainingly bizarre and unexpected, I feel quite sane when I’m writing it. Who knows what that says about me!

Happily, the trade has been getting good reviews. Two weeks ago, MK and I learned we’ve been nominated for the Eisner Award for best new series. We’re totally psyched; this is a great honor. But I’d still like to kick things up a notch.

Whacky as it is, AIR is a book with a message. So, for every copy of AIR bought this May Day (Friday, May 1st), I will donate $1 to the Koru Foundation, a UK-based charity that helps impoverished communities the world over develop low-cost renewable energy projects, bringing climate-friendly electricity to villages without a single light bulb. Ironically, the people most threatened by climate change are those who had the least responsibility in creating it. I saw this firsthand in North Africa, where desertification is already destroying ancient farming cultures. By acting now, we can help ease the burden on our planet while bringing power to communities without it.

Here is what to do:

1. On Friday, May 1st, click here to purchase a copy of AIR: Letters from Lost Countries from Amazon.com
2. Email info [at] gwillowwilson [dot] com. Write ‘May Day AIRlift’ in the Subject line. In the body of the email, copy and paste your Amazon order number. Do NOT include any financial information, your address, or anything else! Just the order number.
3. Sit back, wait for your book to arrive, and feel good about having done something for our planet.

A copy of this email is available here on my website. Feel free to link to it, forward this email widely and/or post this message to your blogs. I appreciate your support.

All best,
Willow

Vertigo makes a good showing in the Best New Series category, with Unknown Soldier and Madame Xanadu also nominated.

For the other trade-waiters…and my favorite people in the whole world, who buy BOTH the monthlies AND the trades…hope you enjoy the collected adventures of Blythe and Co.

But we’ll take a few on writing monthlies, blogger critiques, and Where Brian Gets His Ideas, Redux. All this and more when Brian and I chat writer-to-writer at Newsarama.

That’s right, you heard me. His forum is already up, so go say hi.