Thank you so much for the flood of pre-orders for the Sailor Twain book—your support is much, much appreciated.  I have no real way of tallying how we’ve done so far, but fingers crossed this webcomics experiment will be vindicated, from the publishing business standpoint.

It’s not totally formalized yet, but there’s news building for Sailor Twain events in early October!

First off… Guess where a little Sailor Twain exhibit is coming…?

That’s right! The New York Public Library will host a special presentation and a SAILOR TWAIN EXHIBIT opening reception on THURSDAY OCTOBER 4th—in the Old Maps Division, no less! And then, the next day…

Wine, Food, Fellow Twainers and the glorious Hudson River under the stars… The SAILOR TWAIN SUNSET SAIL looks like it will be on FRIDAY OCTOBER 5th!

And just to round things out, and give you one more argument for planning a little NYC-Twain Trip: there may be a book launch at a bookstore on October 3rd… Wednesday, Thursday, Friday! Dates will all need to be confirmed, pretty soon—but you heard it all first.

Can’t wait to meet more of you, and see some of you again.

I love meeting you Fellow Twainers! There were a whole string of you throughout TCAF, including SpookieMeggie—aka Megan Kearny, very talented artist (see her work at theQuietly.com) who showed up with this lovely Twain original… THANK YOU.

Please note there is a short pause—on May 16th, we return for the conclusion of our little tale!

Ship’s Notice:

As of May 7th, 2012

PRE-ORDER SAILOR TWAIN

from your choice bookseller, online or in stores:

Amazon.com

Indie Bound

Barnes & Noble

And your comments and ratings on any or all of these—will go a long way.

Thank you for supporting Sailor Twain.

On the back cover, you’ll find some kind words from some of my favorite living authors:

“This extraordinary work of fiction pushes the graphic novel well beyond its previous limits. The narrative takes us on many journeys through space and time, but is more than a mere tale. It’s about past and present, the absolute importance of myth, of language, of stories themselves. In superb words and drawings, it also explores obsession and love in a way that is original to the genre, and to literature itself. In the best sense, the completed work succeeds in a very difficult task: making the reader more human. Bravo!”

—Pete Hamill

*

“Wow. Fabulous.”

—Robin McKinley

*

“A gorgeous piece of work about moral conflicts, romantic distress, and fishy secrets.”

—Laura Kipnis

*

““A romance in the truest sense of the world, Sailor Twain is a marvel of graphical beauty and complex, intelligent storytelling. Siegel creates a misty, magical Hudson river that is somehow realer and truer and more seductive and many fathoms deeper than the real thing.”

—Lev Grossman

*

“I had a most engaging voyage on the doomed Lorelei, and I much enjoyed meeting young Captain Twain, not to mention the mermaid in the Hudson. This is a gripping novel with compelling characters, enhanced by haunting, erotically charged drawings.” 

—John Irving

*

REMEMBER: Monday, May 7th is Sailor Twain Pre-Order Day!

As you know, we’ll be pausing after this chapter ending, and returning for the conclusion of Sailor Twain, beginning May 16th… (Next Monday’s page is almost a blank page.) During the break, there will be some 19th century treats, though, and our delightful onboard conversations.

Say, you quiet ones: surely at this eleventh hour you might speak up? Say hi before the story is over!

*

AND REMEMBER TO REMEMBER:

Monday, May 7th is Sailor Twain Pre-Order Day!

 *

More about some very cool stereoscopic images from the New York Public Library, next week…

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

AND REMEMBER TO REMEMBER TO REMEMBER:

Monday, May 7th is Sailor Twain Pre-Order Day!

Ship’s notice:

Thank you Warren for starting the Facebook group The Lorelei Historical Society—which you’re all invited to join of course!

*

And for a treat: The only known voice recording of Virginia Woolf… On the English language, no less—

May 7th is Sailor Twain Pre-Order Day.

*

Lovely prescient comment from Anne M. last month:

Headline: “Author Mark Siegel thanks loyal readers by adding their likenesses to his waterborne creation and violently murdering them during a spectacular shipboard explosion.”

For the record, none of us seems to mind.

A few ship’s notices…

*

There will be a short pause at the end of this final chapter, with a little week’s break before the epilogue. Would you believe we’ve come this far?

*

Shall we keep in touch after this is done? Should I have a place to collect emails for the odd Sailor Twain update, bonus features, etc.?

*

AND:

May 7th is Sailor Twain Pre-Order Day.

Would you like to help drum up attention for the Sailor Twain book? All who would: DON’T PRE-ORDER YET. Let’s all do so—each from our favorite bookseller—on the same date: May 7th. More details to follow!

*

I’m in Rochester, NY today as this page goes live, with another round of talks on behalf of First Second. This one is for librarians, my favorite!

What flows through Rochester, pleases river lovers and rhymes with Tennessee? The GENESEE RIVER.

“High Falls” are one of three waterfalls on the Genesee. In the early 19th century Rochester rose to its heyday with hydropower. It thunders and feels very powerful, more than this photo can say. I took it from the high bridge, and looking downriver is a little flooded island on which a crow couple has a large treetop nest (couldn’t capture it on my phone)…

I’m enjoying the stroll around Rochester. It feels a bit deserted in the old part of town, it’s drizzling, just the right mood. I’m a sucker for old brick and stone buildings, cobblestone streets and remnants of the 19th century… There’s also an appealing palette of colors to the buildings here.

And the river feels like a big part of the city’s life.

*

The Genesee river is apparently the setting for Longfellow’s epic poem “The Song of Hiawatha.”

“When thou are not pleased, beloved,
Then my heart is sad and darkened,
As the shining river darkens
When the clouds drop shadows on it!

When thou smilest, my beloved,
Then my troubled heart is brightened,
As in sunshine gleam the ripples
That the cold wind makes in rivers.”

― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha

By 1887 there was a growing tide of influence between artists in Japan and in the West. Van Gogh and many of the great impressionists were absorbing elements of the Japanese esthetic, and in Japan itself art from Europe and America and new printmaking techniques touched and transformed many, especially in woodblock prints.

There are a few books I treasure for inspiration in the studio, and I’m surprised there aren’t more out there about the late 19th/early 20th century Japanese woodblock print. In Japan itself, some scholars considered this a low point in the arts, and the outside influences a corruption of classic traditions.

To add to our onboard pleasures:

Evening Rain… by Kawase Hasui

Earlier work by the master Hiroshige: Spring Rain at Tschuchiyama

 (At the start of Sailor Twain I had intended for it to have one-hundred views of the Hudson River. With seven chapters struck from the final script, I don’t think it’s quite that many…)

Night Rain by the great Kiyochika Kobayashi

Sight at Ochanomizu (1880) also by Kiyochika Kobayashi

And another from Kiyochika: The Sumida River at Night

*A REVISED SCENE*

I made a whole bunch of small revisions and refinements throughout the story for the final version (now on press!)… There was one sequence which I was never settled with, and some of your comments confirmed my feeling it wasn’t scanning or coming across. It’s the first ten pages of “The Chained Heart” chapter. A couple of pages were reconfigured, and one new page inserted between 332 and 333.

The earlier version will stay up online where it was (for comparison here), but I thought I could share the final version with you below…

Here’s the first of five segments from a gripping show from the History Channel—narrated and soundtracked in typical History Channel style——but it’s a nice introduction to some of the wild doings of this mad, brilliant, astonishing man.

And here are links to segment two, three, four and five. Filled with fascinating things.

He’s also played by David Bowie in The Prestige—which is worth seeing. Though the book is better, especially the very end, which got a bit muddled in the movie.