Dear Secret Friends,

How have you all been? We haven’t really talked in a while, and for that I must apologize. There really has been a lot of activity going on with us in the past couple of months, and I feel like I should give you all an update on what’s been happening around these parts lately.

First, some exciting news! The Jellaby storyline will no longer be posted to this website, but will soon see print in two volumes! The books are going to be published in paperback and hardcover by Hyperion Books for Children and are tentatively scheduled to be released in early 2008. In the meantime, the first two chapters of the story will remain online at the SFS.

I should also point out that Jellaby has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the ‘Best Digital Comic’ category, and that a new Jellaby story, “The Tea Party,” appears in the Flight Volume 3 anthology from Ballantine Books, available in bookstores now! You can preview six pages of the story in Comic Book Resources’ Flight 3 article, as well as a couple more pages on the official Flight 3 preview site.

Hope has been even more busy than I, with the recent release of her excellent Gray Horses from Oni Press; her nomination for the Friends of Lulu’s Kim Yale Award for ‘Best New Female Talent’; the launching of Tulip Tree Press, her small press publishing imprint (which is currently offering her Summer print and latest minicomic); and last (but certainly not least), Hope has been signed to a two-book deal with ginee seo books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, who will release her next book, Chiggers, sometime in 2008! Very big news indeed.

Other than that, there may be some new Jellaby shorts that will see print in the coming future, so definitely keep your eyes peeled for that. Hope and I have also been kicking around an idea of collaborating one more time for another SFS project, but that’ll certainly be a little farther off in the future.

Once again, Hope and I just wanted to extend our deepest thanks to all of you who have read and enjoyed our comics for the past year and a half now. We’ve certainly come a long way since launching this website, not knowing exactly what was going to happen to our two little comics, but with your continued support, we intend to keep the Secret Friend Society going strong. Have a good summer, everyone!

Cheers,
Kean