Trilogy Tour
A Short History of the Trilogy Tour
The group first consisted of (in alphabetical order): Linda Medley (creator of Castle Waiting); Jeff Smith (Bone), and Charles Vess (Ballads & Sagas). In 1998 Mark Crilley (Akiko); Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo), and Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) also joined the group. Plans were made for a third tour in 1999, but individual scheduling conflicts prevented it.
The talented band were known at national and regional conventions for their unusual display setup -- a series of ancient-looking "standing stones" scattered around a large, hollow tree. Characters from their books peered out from various parts of the set, giving passersby the feeling they were looking at (or being observed by) denizens of another world. Their effort to attract attention amid the mass of suburban-styled superhero displays may have paid off -- all the artists' work schedules increased to the point that holding the tour together for a third year proved impractical. And although the the group no longer works as a convention unit, they proved to many in the comics industry that character-driven, independent comics can be a strong draw for a lot of people.
In 1999 Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo won an Eisner Award -- the comics industry's highest honor -- for Best Serialized Story (Grasscutter). Letterer Todd Klein also won another Eisner award for work that included Castle Waiting. Jeff Smith was presented with a Harvey Award for "Best Cartoonist" in April 1999. Mark Crilley signed a publishing deal that will give Akiko a much larger audience and Jill Thompson was not only a Guest of Honor at the 1999 San Diego ComicCon (the world's largest annual comics convention), but her Scary Godmother was optioned by Mainframe Entertainment for television and direct-to-video sales. Fellow Tour alumni Vess and Medley also won Eisners in 1997 and 1998, respectively.
Thanks to everyone who supported the tour; may the work you've seen via the tour will inspire you, whether you read, create, sell, distribute or publish, to support quality, all-ages comics.
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since about 4pm on July 22, 1997.
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