drew weing dot com

Back in the cold winter months, shortly after I finished chapter 2 of Margo, Eleanor and I were sitting at our local donut shop. I’d drunk a lot of coffee, and somehow we came up with this really silly idea for a story about a dog that got famous on the internet, and his less-than-pleased owner. What the heck, let’s pitch this to Toon Books, we thought. They’re never going to go for it.

Well, this September, it’s actually coming out! I’m super-proud to announce our book Flop to the Top!

We wrote the story together, designed the characters together, and drew it together – half of the pages were drawn by me, and half are by Eleanor. Hopefully, you won’t even be able to tell which. I don’t know, maybe you can? Here’s a couple of sample pages:

And there’s more preview art and info at the Toon Books site. It’s gotten some good reviews, if you trust the New York Times or Booklists’ opinions on such things:

“The book is so much fun that both lessons—in reading and in life—go down easy.”
     –Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW

“There is a lot going on here, including an underlying commentary about social media use, celebrity obsession and struggles with emotional expression.”
     –The New York Times

“A chuckle-worthy tale for young comics fans.”
     –School Library Journal

“Davis and husband Weing have likely set a record for the number of selfies taken in a children’s book…Chunky digital illustrations playfully spoof the lifestyles of the rich and famous…but Davis and Weing never lose sight of the story’s emotional underpinnings.”
     –Publishers Weekly

“Though centered on difficult emotions that will feel familiar to kids, the story is leavened with comedy, allowing readers to navigate comfortably even as the robust sentences and repetition massage new reading skills.”
     –Booklist

I really recommend you decide for yourself, though. And maybe buy copies for ALL the kids you know, and ask them what they think! Maybe for all the fun-loving adults in your life, as well, what could it hurt?

I’ve still got that promised wallpaper coming for Patreon subscribers! It’s big and complicated, gives you a peek at the next chapter and expands a little on the Margo-verse, so it’s taking a minute! There’ll be desktop and smartphone versions, and however else you guys want it delivered (smartwatch? Mayyybe not). It should be dropping in a week or two – shortly after the chapter ends and I get a moment to catch my breath.

When I was looking back over the story so far, I realized I didn’t do a chapter illustration (like these) for the very first chapter, so I’m going to add that as the next big goal for the campaign! Help me hit $300 and give me a reason to go back and make a nice Chapter 1 titlecard (featuring Marcus the troll, of course.) So, if you needed any reason to spread the word about Margo, here’s your excuse!

And I’m adding a new perk for $5+ subscribers! Back in the early 2000s, I did a journal comic for the better part of a year, which I then collected into a long-out-of-print book. I’ve had some queries about it recently, so I thought I’d make it available as an e-book! I’ll be trying to find other little perks like this to add, because I feel really indebted to all of you guys for supporting this comic.

We got way more entries than I was expecting, and y’all have some sharp eyes! Out of the 75 entries, 31 of you managed to spot 10 crouching Gertrude, hidden ogre. When the entries started rolling in, I realized I hadn’t disqualified Page 102’s blatant Gertrude appearance, so that actually made 11 total hiding places! And lucky 13 of you folks managed to find those! (Don’t worry, as long as you found at least 10, I put your name in the pot twice). But skill only gets you so far, then it’s all down to luck. And our lucky winner is…

Alejandro A.!

Alejandro gets the piece of original Margo art featured above!

And for your peace of mind, here are the locations of all the sneaky places Gertrude was lurking: