Real Fast

Some really amazing stuff going on this week(end) that I just need to take a break from making comics to tell you about!

First, Saturday is Genghis Con in Cleveland! I’ve been stoked about this show for a while and it’s finally here. I think it’s going to be the best show yet – Cleveland’s amazing comics scene is coming out of the wordwork for this, and we’re going to have a bunch of special guests. Not least among them are the Andromeda crew from Pittsburgh as well as the great John Porcellino. It’s a big deal to me that all these folks were able to come out, so I want to make sure Cleveland treats them right.

I’ll be debuting a new 8-page mini that I’ll give away for free! Man, so excited. See a preview of the first page below:

Ok, so then, you may or may not have heard he talking about some secret project for the better part of the past year. Well, as of yesterday, it is no longer so secret! I’ve joined up with writer and critic Michael Peterson to make Project: Ballad, a new webcomic that will debut Spring 2012. The website is up right now, though, so get your bookmarks ready! Michael was written a ton of great stuff and it’s just sitting there, waiting to be read. Go!

Finally, today is my co-Cuber Darryl Ayo Brathwaite’s 30th birthday! Damn! Go wish a good one, eh?

Ok, and now a post script. Next weekend I will be traveling to New York to visit some fams and to check out the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest. It feels like it’s going to be a reprise of TCAF so I am very excited. Especially since my other Cube-mate, L Nichols, will have a table! She’s got a lot a lot a lot of really exciting new stuff so you would be wise to do like me and pick it up. There’s also a bunch of other cool debuts, but I’m out of time! Be sure to check out my show report after the fact to see what I get.

Ok love you guys. See you tomorrow, yes? AWESOME.

It’s my brother’s birthday today, so I drew this picture for him.

Hey guys. Lots of shaking going on around this internet. Livejournal seems more and more like a sinking ship each day, the latest round of loud mumbling being set off by the departure of Brandon Graham to greener pastures. In my small circle at least, there’s been a lot of talk about consolidation and streamlining this whole web experience.

I think it’s always a good idea to trim as much fat as you can, to be able to make your life work for you. So it’s healthy to review your situation and explore whether or not you are taking the most efficient steps you can take. As for my own self, I’ve settled into a comfortable little groove with my constant twittering, my tumblr-ing for extra cool things I find lying around, and now my writer-ing that I’ve been doing at the Comix Cube. Each of these satellites serve a distinct purpose, and I enjoy doing each one. But among them all, I’m more or less able to squeeze all the interesting content out of me before I finally make it back here. I mean, since I’m exerting so much of my brain power at the Cube, I find coming up with worthwhile content for the Encyclopedia to be more of a chore than it used to be. And that kind of goes for the livejournal as well, since I just repost whatever I write here there (or there here, if you’re reading it there/here).

Anyhow, just things to think about. Speaking of the Cube, I just put up a long post about one of my biggest influences. Read it, please, and leave lots of comments.

Other than all this self-reflection, I’ve been continuing to get a lot of stuff done! Hopefully I can show you some of it soon, but in the meantime, enjoy some sketches.

GOT-TA-GOT-TA-GOT-TA

Beyond that, I’ll leave you with a short list of things I’m wild about at the moment: Homestuck, Duncan the Wonder Dog, Extras, Tyler the Creator and OFWGKTA, my buddies.

Oh yeah

I’m excited to have contributed a drawing to Conor Oberst’s new website (made by Imbeccable, y’all!!)(I drew the picture frame around the content). Bright Eyes played a big role in my early college years and was a common currency among my circle of friends. Needless to say, it is an extreme honor to have our worlds overlap in even this small of a way!

PS. The pictures of Otis Redding are for no other reason than he’s amazing. Did you know that the last show he ever performed was in Cleveland!? His plane from here to Wisconsin crashed the night after his final show.

Hey gang,

I’m in the midst of a lot of different things, so I don’t have any really new work to share. As punishment, I’ll post some old (2004 or 2005) comic work I did in school. It’s essentially an X-Men fanfic. Hope you enjoy:

This is a little more than half of what I did for it, but I never finished. This is where I was at by the time we had to crit, so after that I didn’t see much point in carrying it on. How times have changed.

But that’s not all!

I did write a lot over at Comix Cube this week. That’s probably where I’ll be devoting a lot of my writing energy from here on out. I’ll try to keep posting art related stuff here. Do you think I should cross blog my CC articles here or just link to them like I’ve been doing? I feel like since Comix Cube is a group effort, I should keep ‘em separated. Anyway, please read and enjoy.

I got a nice surprise tonight when I saw Sean T. Collins linking to us and saying some nice things, particularly about my own writing. Can’t stop won’t stop, comics for life.

Also, I heard a rumor that there would be new pages of Sacred Heart up soon…

Ok guys, take care of each other!

Hey guys,

I mentioned last week that I had an exciting (for me) announcement to make this week. And well, I don’t want to draw it out. Check it:

We had a lot of fun making the first PUPPYTEETH last year that we’re going to do it again. This one is going to be bigger, better and in full color, baby. I know I’m super excited and hopefully some of y’all will join in that excitement. The plan is to launch this puppy at TCAF this year in May, so I hope if I see you there you’ll pick one up. When I get back from there I’ll set up a link where you can order it from the blog. If you all want, I can maybe set up a pre-order kind of thing as it gets closer to the date. We’ll see.

But yeah, the book will feature ALL of the original 10, as well as a whole host of other first rate cartoonists. We’re still waiting on the comics to come in, so I can’t tell you a guest list for certain, but just know it will be so high quality shit. Maybe we’ll run something like they did for the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and I’ll release new playable characters every week or something… This project is looking like it will be the greatest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever worked on.

What about the first PUPPYTEETH?

I’m glad you asked. We still have copies available for you to purchase through the very convenient link to your immediate right. Or, for more information, you can check out the page for it. And perhaps in an effort to entice you, I’m going to show you guys the comic I put into it. See below:

And there are nine other utterly fantastic comics in this little zine, so think about getting one for yourself.

OTHER NEWS

So I’ve been busy! I had the pleasure of drawing a poster for a local Cleveland establishment, Star Pop, on Waterloo Rd (the coolest single street in the city). I thought about putting it up here last week, but I had just handed it off earlier that night and it felt weird. But I feel like, since the event it’s for is coming up, might as well do my part to advertise. Here you go:

COMIX CUBE

Aaaaaand finally, L, Darryl and I started a new comics blog! I wrote about Blaise Larmee’s new webcomic “2001.” Check that out when you’re done here, ok?

I think that’s all I got for this week.

Hey folks

Just stepped off the work train to do some blogging with you all. I’m trying this weekly schedule thing where I set aside an hour or so a night to take care of business that’s not drawing comics. Wednesday happens to blogging night, so if everything works out, you can expect me to put up something new on regular schedule.

Anyway, last week I was sharing my excitement about a couple of great young cartoonists who really inspire me. Today I’m going to show you some of what I’ve been working on recently. But first, I want to talk about the amazing haul of comics I picked up last month.

What we have here is a smattering of great and, for the most part, new stuff in the vast world of comics. A couple I ordered online but most of them I picked up on my travels from VA to NY. So what can I recommend to you?

King City Brandon Graham has put together one of the best and most original comics epics in a long time. I was lucky enough to get together 9 issues of the 12 issue series (if anyone knows where I can get #1 I’ll be very grateful). The series, despite from being close to universally lauded by the critics, seemed to be mostly ignored by a lot of comics shops (well, ok, I can only speak from personal experience. I’ve kind of got a huge grudge against my local shops for refusing to carry it. If only it was so easy to just “wait for the trade…”). I won’t give anything away in terms of plot, but I will say the way Graham handles the ending is pitch perfect, unique in the execution and really moving personally. I also really like how Brandon thrives in the pamphlet format, capitalizing on all the things that make serialization so engaging.

Wowee Zonk #3 The ever-widening footprint of http://koyamapress.com/ on the landscape of art comics has been something I’ve been watching with great interest for the past couple of months. Kickass Annie displays her knack for gathering together world-class talent in this volume, stand-outs including Michael DeForge, Selena Wong and Dan Rocca.

Diary I’ve been really loving Gabrielle Bell‘s online diary strips, and so I was excited to pick this up. I love love love the pink cover with silver printing, and how it goes with the off-white, ivory pages inside. Bell is a master. The thing I still can’t get over is how the inside covers are sketchy early versions of her comics. Particularly the inside front cover, which is just too cute for words. But what really amazes me is the fact that this strip appears in its final form later on, and from the jump in sophistication, you can tell just how much Bell puts into this simple, little strips. Big hearts.

Cyanide Milkshake #2!!!! Liz Suburbia was so kind as to give me a copy of her new zine, and let me tell you, folks, you better write her and beg to have this thing sold online. Dogs, fart jokes, bonin’, zombies, bonin’… I’ve said this before and I will surely say it again – Liz is doing the best work of her career, constantly one-upping herself. Beautiful.

Closed Caption Comics 9 Lots to like about this book. Standouts for me were the comics by Molly O’Connell (really loved this one, love the Squeezee Brothers) and Chris Day. Order one for yourself and get the beautiful screen-printed chipboard slip.

RAV 2 – 4 I told you guys Mickey Z is great. Here’s the proof.

Spotting Deer Typical DeForge – gorgeous, funny, unnerving and thought provoking.

minis by Derik Badman I got a small handful of abstract minis from Badman, one of them featured in the Abstract Comics anthology. I really like what he does with the comics form (the set of three mini minis were bound together by a fourth comic strip – brilliant).

I also got Duncan the Wonder Dog and Go Go Monster but haven’t really gotten to them yet. Pretty eager to dive into them both.

MY STUFF

Ok, I promised you comics, so here you go.

This four pager I put together as a freebie to give out at Genghis Con in November. I was thinking a lot about space and architecture and poetry. The interior scenes are taken from photographs of a Frank Lloyd Wright house and the exterior is a home designed and built by a regular woman out of rocks for her family to live in. The painting on the last page is a Dan Tranberg.

This one I just did for the SPACE 2011 Anthology. To tell you the truth, I really want my comics to be like songs, so this was kind of practice for that. It’s an adaptation of the Fugazi song, “Latin Roots,” from Steady Diet of Nothing.

I’ve been getting excited about color, so it was really great to start playing around with it.

TIL NEXT TIME

Next week I expect to share some really exciting news with you all. Speaking for myself, I’m pretty thrilled about it, so it will be fun to share.

And more comics, why not.

Take care, y’all.

Hey guys, how’s it going?

I’m returning to the blog after a very successful east coast tour to celebrate the new year and completion of Spoilers. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, I made a big fuss about putting up the final chapter about a month ago. I’m happy with how it all came together, but as I’ve said, it’s not totally finished yet, so there will still be things to say about it.

Besides all that, I’ve been working on a few side projects – some I can talk more about in the next couple of posts, while some are still in the works.

Anyway, on to the content.

ARTISTS TO WATCH in 2011

Last year I picked out 5 young(ish) cartoonists that I was really excited about and knew that they had a lot to offer the world of comics. In each case, my enthusiasm only increased throughout the year as I got to know their work better. They’re all still making amazing work so I’m not planning on letting them off my radar any time soon.

2010 was a great year for me in terms of my comics education – by getting more invested in what’s happening, I kept finding more and more artists who were making really daring and smart work. So, while a lot of other blogs are talking about which were the best books of the past year, I think I’d like to continue looking forward. These are artists who are still relatively early in their careers who I can’t help but obsess over. Here’s my list: (more…)

Welly welly well. Hey folks, how are you doing? Do you all know Madéleine Flores? I got wise to her work back at SPX when I brought home her very funny comics “DUDES!” and “Gentlemen.” Since then, I’ve been following the daily cartoons she’s been putting up on on her blog. Around September, she was in the middle of a really wonderful short story called “The City.” I highly recommend this story when you have the chance.

But as much as I love “The City,” I’m here to talk about Flores’ recent release from Blank Slate Books, The Girl and the Gorilla. I may not be able to keep myself from comparing the two, however, for a variety of reasons, but at the more superficial level, both have a gorilla in them.

The Girl and the Gorilla, Flores’ debut, is an all ages parable centered on the importance of art as cultural production. Taken quite literally, midway through the story, we see a glimpse of the world where artists of all stripes have given up on making, and the result is an empty world without sensation. The lesson is pretty clear — art and creativity is the backbone of our culture.

The plot is a fairly straight forward, A to B kind of set up, solidly structured and depicted very nicely by Flores’ brushy style. Make no bones about it, Madéleine is an extremely talented cartoonist, and deserves plenty of attention paid to her flourishing career. As the lead character, Aurelie, strolls through the city with her friend, I noticed a similarity with Jeff Smith’s line work, particularly in the scenery. The thickness of the outlines ebbing and flowing, surrounding surfaces marked with little dashes, adding texture. All the drawings are lively cartoons — simple, characteristic and versatile.

Madéleine also makes really good use out of the paneling in the book. The comics is made up of open-air vignettes arranged organically on the page. This effect works best when showing scale shifts, such as when the point of view pulls back, reducing a pair of sleeping bags to little caterpillars in a vast expanse. It’s even more effective when, towards the end, Flores switches it up on us, and the blank page becomes drenched in black. Aurelie wanders around this darkness, the proverbial Artist’s Block, somewhat aimlessly, leaving a big black hole in the middle of the page. If the book were longer, I would have loved to be trapped in this negative zone for quite a while.

The pace is pretty brisk, having Aurelie walk us from the Real World, through the Gorilla Hole into the Kingdom of Wisdom (or “Creativity,” as it’s called in this particular book). She immediately meets Leonardo DaVinci (who else, really?) who escorts her into town, a veritable Dictionopolis where ones home is built by creative deeds rather than physical labor. Upon realizing Aurelie has given up on her dreams of being a writer (her house is an empty lot), the two dash off to remedy the situation (having DaVinci raising his robe, showing off his tube socks, is a nice touch). Events continue at a pretty consistent clip, involving a sojourn into the woods to hunt for books which couldn’t help but remind me of the Legend of Zelda. It isn’t long from this point that they discover the dastardly plot that is threatening to rid all worlds of imagination which, again, is the building material of society.

Whereas “The City” is more adventurous in its narrative, passing organically from story to story as easily as passing someone on the street, The Girl and the Gorilla has much more of a purpose to it. If it has a failing, it’s perhaps the comparatively rigid dedication to its plot. I think the difference between the two approaches is explained by a difference of intended age group. The Girl and the Gorilla reads much more like, again, an all ages book, whereas “The City” is much less so (there’s a penis!). With that being the case, The Girl and the Gorilla is very well made, and most of the faults I find with are come simply from me applying criteria which it isn’t meant to meet. Taken for what it is, it is funny, beautifully drawn and told in a very mature manner. Flores doesn’t talk down to anyone with this book, depicting Aurelie as a believable young adult.

Personal tastes aside, I think it’s really wise and admirable to make this kind book for a younger audience. In a culture where the role of the artist has little room left to be diminished, I feel it’s extremely important to get this message into the heads of as many young folks as possible. The way we live is riding on the innovations and hard work of the creative set, and the more that group is marginalized, co-opted and discouraged, the worse off we will become as a whole.

This is a good book, and I’m excited for anything Mad&eacuteleine works on next. I know there are plenty of folks who love books as cute, silly and fun as this one, so do yourself a favor and check it out.

Have a good one, everybody. And if you’ll indulge me my soapbox a little longer, if you make anything, even if you might think it’s not so great, or you’re just starting out, recognize that you’re doing something really important. I know everyone feels the term ‘artist’ is super pretentious and it’s not something one should apply to him or herself, but maybe we should think about what the term really means. And besides, when it seems the majority of people see being an artist for a living as being synonymous with doing nothing, what’s so pretentious about that? I feel like it’s all part of a larger campaign to discredit and steal the power away from creative folk. Schnurbad. Your guitar is in your mind.

Peace out, y’all.

Hey hey evrybuddy. I’ve got a lot to tell all of you, but tonight is not the night. But I really wanted to let everybody know that I’ve got a new Spoilers chapter up.

It’s a very special, very spooky one, Chapter 24. Hope you like it. This one is called “Ghosts.”

We’re almost to the bottom of this one.

OTHER NEWS

I’ve got a con report and a book report for you guys, coming up this week. Stay tuned.

OK brothers and sisters, I don’t want to go too long between posts so I thought I’d say hey to everyone. It’s also a good opportunity to remind you about Genghis Con coming up next Saturday. This is a really amazing thing to happen to Cleveland so show your support! Let’s make it happen!

I will be there with all my good stuff that I was talking about at PIX the other week, plus (!!) an exclusive, brand new 4 pager that I’ll be giving away for free! I think it’s one of the nicest looking comics I’ve ever made and I would love to give it you guys, so stop by and say hey.

Here’s a sneak preview:

A Wonderful Night

So I told you guys that Catherine Irwin was coming to town a few weeks ago. Good lord, what a show. So so so beautiful. I got to spend some nice time with her afterwards to let her know how much her work means to me. As I mentioned in my big music post at the beginning of the year, her record Cut Yourself a Switch is one of the most influential artworks of the past decade for me. And only living a bit over two decades, that’s a pretty significant amount of time.

She has plans to record her next record sometime soon, and judging from the new material she had for us the other night, it could be even more powerful than the last. We’ll have to see. And if that wasn’t enough, I now have a Dan Tranberg piece, so things are pretty good in the art department.

This was not from her Cleveland show, but a couple days afterwards. Source

OTHER THINGS

So I participated in the annual HARVEYJAMES™ “Choose a Cat, Draw a Girl” fun internet activity. Compared to many of the other mind-blowing examples, mine is kind of standard fare, but I had fun with it.

I’ve also been working on a secret dream project that I might be able to share with you guys at some point in the near future.

Also! Karen Lillis, who I met and spoke with at PIX, has been hosting a series of small press recommendations over at her blog. She was kind enough to let me offer up my two cents, but even more than that, I got to share a post with the great Jim Rugg! Imagine that. Go check it out, won’t you?

Also, internet buddy Costa K. audaciously declared my brother and I as artists he “loves.” He says some very nice things about the two of us, so I think that warrants you to go read some of his own stuff. Wouldn’t you agree?

The year is wrapping up pretty soon now and I’ll be pretty busy I think. We’ve got two more chapters left for Spoilers and I have every intention to wrap that up before the end of the year. So hang tight and have the hanky close at hand. I’m planning on dropping the penultimate chapter in a week or two.

I’ll be headed back to the homeland of Northern VA for Exmuss and then going up to New York City to attempt the most magnificent sphere collision you could imagine for New Years. I think I’ll be proclaiming my travels the Spoilers Tour so hopefully you can make it to the wrap party (there may be rapping).

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. Wait, one more thing. Remember, Alex Martin? He made that amazing board game in the middle of PUPPYTEETH (Glasp! What, you don’t have it yet?!!). Well, that cat, my main mayonnaise, he’s finally outfitted himself with an honest to goodness blog. He has some great stuff. Go go go.

ok, that’s it. For real.

PEACE OUT

see you next time.

Here it is y’all, Chapter 23 of Spoilers: “Pizza Time Comics.” Finally, we get to see our beloved pizza guy in action, eh?

Only two more chapters after this! Oh geez oh man, as they say around these parts. Are you ready for the final solution? I love love love to hear what you guys have to say about Spoilers so please don’t be shy! Even if you think it sucks!

TEACHIN’ AND LEARNIN’

So I’ve been doing some stuff in the past week or so, most noteworthy of which was running a teen comics workshop at the Akron Art Museum. It was a lot of fun and the gang got a kick out of the whole comics thing, I think. I posted up images of all the slides I showed them over at the Art of Comics blog, so you guys can take a look as well! I’ll be returning next weekend to round out the course, and I’ll have the group tackle the Marvel Method! (Nods to Darryl Ayo)

So so so, all I’ve got to do now is work on chapters 24 and 25 of Spoilers, get those finished before the end of the year, and more or less see how well 4 and a half years of confusion has paid off.

And yes, I was a bee for Halloween.

This was it, no more messing around. After a week or so of intensive comics production, including last minute trips to the local Kinkos, I was Pittsburgh bound. So Friday, when 5 o’clock rolled around, I hopped in the little Alero and headed out.

Not only was I making this short pilgrimage for comics (the love of comics), but I was also going to be reunited with my dear, dear friend Dr. (pending) Veronica Fitzpatrick. Besides being a member of my tight-knit high school family, Veronica has the distinction of having inspired Amelia’s desire to “disappear completely” in Spoilers. We hadn’t gotten to spend much quality time together in a very long time, so I was glad that she agreed to host me for the weekend.

So, after getting slightly lost for the first time (out of many) in her neighborhood, I finally rolled up to her cute-as-hell little apartment later on that night. She fed me my first tofu scramble (thanks Steven) and expensive ice cream, after which we watched Single White Female.

I crashed on the couch with some of the warmest blankets I’ve ever wrapped myself in. Still, I ended up waking up a lot through the night for whatever reason. Nerves? Who knows. Early the next morning I let myself out and headed down to the Guardian Storage center in the strip district (where the strip clubs are) so set up my first table.

The space was really beautiful and it was nice to see Katie Skelly and Pat Lewis were already there. I picked a table behind Katie and tried to get over mild regrets for not ironing my table cloth.

When I was coming back in after moving my car from the loading dock, I got to meet my friend-of-the-near-future Dan, from Cupcakes and Comics. More on those dudes later. Things were feeling good. We got menus for lunch that at first seemed a bit too pricey, but then I sold a book or two and it all suddenly seemed so possible. I’m the kind of person who feels really great when someone I’ve met before remembers that they’ve met me before, so it was pretty cool that Frank Santoro remembered my name. Everything was really coming together.

So what do we got here? Of course, I was selling PUPPYTEETH, but I also pulled out my stack of the new pushups to try out. As my official “old book” (even though I had older work there), I was not sure how it would be received. Honestly, I had low expectations, but you know, I was going to have fun one way or another. The rest of my table was all free stuff (I love it)! In addition to the Spoilers flyer I had put together for SPX, I was giving out free mix-CD soundtracks, featuring a number of tracks that have been featured in the strip or directly relate thematically or lyrically. In addition to that, I was also giving away the curious Melting Pot zine from Chris McD (featuring my lizard eyes), old old old copies of Worry Turtle and my “At Least Three” pamphlet. Enough about me though, because I was also giving away samplers for Liz Suburbia‘s amazing Sacred Heart, Matt Czap’s Eat That Toast humor strips as well as postcards for Niki and Michael‘s In Maps and Legends. There was something for everybody at the Czap Books table.

My neighbors were Tom Zombie-Soybot and Karen Artnoose (not their real last names, either of them) of Ker-bloom! zine on the one side, the latter becoming something of the show star for hammering out custom stories on her typewriter, priced by rating (G to X — I ended up getting an R). On my right sat originally Juan and Caitlin repping Carnegie Mellon, but they had some other friends set up across the room, so they split. Soon to be replaced by Lena and Paul from the prestigious Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Equally friendly, if not more so. Across the way were their classmates, Carl and Max, with a third, Bill, somewhere closer to cupcake territory.

At around noon, I headed downstairs to join the three-deep crowd attending the Jim Rugg, Frank Santoro and Kevin Huizenga panel. Turns out the other two folks sitting in on the panel were a part of the infamous Bowling Green Mob (think Wu-Tang Clan), who had impressed the hell out of me with their book which I picked up at SPACE earlier that year. Jory and Geneva were good sports (even if Jory doesn’t have a website) and it was a great panel. Frank was acting moderator, swinging the mic back and forth as Jim and Kevin talked about mini-comics and professional work (the difference? one you get paid for). It was all recorded for Comics Comics, so I’ll link it up when it gets posted.

Turns out the new pushups did a lot better than I ever thought it would be, actually outselling PUPPYTEETH. Maybe because it was in color? Frank and Kevin H both picked up copies which was really an amazing feeling. I got a lot of compliments for my design work on all the books so that was also a nice thing.

Eric Kubli came over after a little while, saying he remembered my Czap logo from SPACE and I soon became friends with the entire Bowling Green Mafia. I even learned that the untouchable Keith Pakiz lives right here in Willoughby Hills. Watch out, man — I’m recruiting you into my gang. After a couple hours, the guys with lunch finally found me to deliver my sandwich.

Also of note on that first day is I blew Liz Suburbia’s secret identity (no not that one, let me essplain). I overheard a fellow exhibitor tell my CCS neighbors that she was from Northern Virginia, and hey, I’m from there, so I asked where at? Fairfax. Well, in that case, take this Liz Suburbia sampler, she stomps around those grounds as well. In fact, she works at a comic book store there. APPARENTly, this girl, Carolyn was a regular customer who knew Liz pretty well. HOWEVER, Liz does not give any impression to her clientele that she is a burgeoning comics master. She needs more readers anyways.

Other folks who I re-met included Katie Omberg and Sally Bloodbath, from SPX, and Joe Kuth, who you might remember me talking about from my SPACE write-up. Ed Piskor was also there, defending his title of absolute best-dressed of every show. Seth can have his 1930s, but I’m totally down with Piskor’s dookie chains and Adidas.

Before you even knew it, the first day of the show was over. Since Veronica was still grading papers, I headed off in the direction of the after part at the Brillobox. It was not as Warhol-themed as I was picturing, but it was still a pretty cool place. They gave us free perogies and carrots upstairs, where I talked more with Carolyn, Joe and Rafer, who was in and out. After those kids left, I got to talk a bit with the man himself, Bill Boichel, who organized the whole thing. He also runs the comic shop that I’ve often dreamed about, with minis and art comics out the ass (it’s still a dream place, haven’t been there yet, but I did get to look through some of their wares at the show).

V gave me a ring to let me know her grading was done and she was ready to hang, so I went to go pick her up. I got pretty lost, getting sent in circles all through Pittsburgh, but an hour later I got back to S. Braddock and we were off. Well, first we went to pick up Veronica’s buddy, Javier. Then we were off.

First we grabbed some food at The Cantina. I was still full from lunch and perogies, so I just got chips and salsa (very good, by the way), but I did try a bit of the sweet potato dish they got (another winner). Where we were sitting seemed to be in the middle of an in-progress middle-aged birthday party in a half-heated tent (the half that was heated was the upper half, our seats were in the lower). All that aside, it was a very pleasant experience, fine food with fine friends, spanning time.

Afterwards we went to Kelly’s, a cute diner/bar dressed in pink. The three of us talked about the finer points of writing English papers and whether Javier liked anything if he didn’t even like the Descendants.

I was mesmerized by this guy who looked like the Hollywood stand-in for my brother.

I was pretty destroyed by this point from lack of sleep, having spent at least four second winds. After Kelly’s I was getting my sleep on, no joke.

DAY TWO

Day two, ready for more sweet comics-life. There was a lot of speculation about whether Sunday would be dead or not, the usual Sunday slowdown combined with a big Browns/Steelers game that night (ah! torn!). What really happened, however, was the show maintained a healthy foot traffic all day! I was able to use my experience on Saturday to rearrange my table display into a better configuration (all the free stuff on the right, marked with a sign), as well as fine-tuning my sales pitch.

The day went by pretty quickly for me. There was no lunch delivery that day, but it would turn out that I was saving room for some of the most amazing food I will ever eat. But more on that later. I had a bag of chips left over from the day before, a peace offering for being so late with my lunch. I also made the wise decision of trying out some of those cupcakes over at Cupcakes and Comics. Dan and his sister Kerry have a pretty solid business model — first, be really nice and cool to hang out with, and then sell some cute comics about cupcakes that come with actual cupcakes! These cupcakes were great, not just all sugary, but they actually had real flavors, like a muffin. I got to try the Apple and the Pumpkin, which were excellent, but they have even more kinds. I came ’round their table a few times throughout the weekend, just to enjoy the pair’s company.

Other cool things that happened include talking with Jim Rugg about webcomics and teaching, and then being officially documented as part of the first PIX. First it was in Rafer’s video podcast, then when Karen Lillis photographed my table, and finally having the honor of doing a mini-interview with Professor Frank Santoro (If it ends up on Comics Comics I’ll be sure to let y’all know).

Traded some comics, sold some comics, had a whole lot of fun. The second day was as good if not better than the first. Anyway I size it up, PIX was an outstanding success for me, as it was for most of the folks who I got to meet. Looking forward to next year.

Bill Boichel, in the white PIX shirt, who I mistook for David Mazzucchelli when I saw him walking around SPX. He did an amazing job putting this whole thing together and I am really grateful for all the work he put in.

Comics.

Dan and Kerry of Cupcakes and Comics. First-class dudes.

The always great Katie Skelly. Check out that fucking print of hers! Amazing.

The whole Bowling Green family, otherwise known as Apple Juice Press, barely contained within one camera lens. From left to right, we’ve got Jessi Z, Kelli F, Eric K, Jory G, Geneva H and Keith P. And the thing of it is, people, each and every one of these dudes does amazing comics. I told you a bit about that before, but really, there’s much more. Shit.

From Frank Santoro’s longbox. He had a great labeling system in place.

DENOUEMENT

When all was said and done, and everyone was packing up and going home, there was a lot of great memories to reflect on. A fine weekend to be sure, but it was not over for this human being.

I went back to Veronica’s and watched REC while she finished dinner, which she had been slaving over all day while I had comics fun. The thing that I’ve put off mentioning so far is that Veronica is an amazing chef and baker. As you can see from her blog, she makes some amazing deserts, and I’ve always dreamed of having the opportunity to enjoy something she’s made. Well, tonight was my night.

We had a delicious squash soup as we watched Project Runway and then, for desert, we had this:

I’m going to have a hard time describing how perfect this apple tart was. The crust was just perfect. You can tell a little bit from the picture, but to actually taste it… Really and truly an amazing desert, topped with homemade whip cream. It was one of those happy moments when reality turns out to be better than your wildest dreams.

Before the night was over, V’s roommate Steven returned from a knitting show, so it was nice to see him again (last time I met him was way way back in the day during Andy and I’s Surprise Michigan trip, which has a solid spot in my top ten life-experiences list). He joined us on the tail-end of PR which helped to relieve some of the tension (such an emotional episode!). After it was over, things were looking like it was time to head back to Cleveland.

COMIX

Ok, I know I will not have the time or space to list all the awesome shit I got from people at PIX, and I feel terrible leaving anyone out. HOWEVER, I’m going to list some notables here, so check it.

• “Thursday” by Jessi Zabarsky — I’m telling you, these kids understand comics. As if the beautiful purple silkscreened cover weren’t enough, Jessi’s beautiful cartooning and no-less-than inspired formal play make my brain sweat like crazy. She takes the marginalia tricks Eddie Campbell was using in Monsieur Leotard and builds this short comic around it.
• “I know where I am” by Eric Kubli — Cute night-time story with some really pretty word balloons and lettering.
• “Crumble” by Kelli Fisher — Page design with (at least to me) a strong manga influence. I remember I was going to pick this up at SPACE but decided to catch more birds with “Stampy.”
• “Zero Over Nothin” by Jory Griffis — Really handsome cartooning and great balance of blacks. A line full of personality. This one’s got a bunch of short little works, some of which are reruns from “Stampy,” but I don’t mind seeing them again. I’m in love with the covers on this.
• The Condiment Squad by Keith Pakiz — I didn’t actually get this book, but looking at Pakiz’ work online, I’m kind of kicking myself about that. This man is a cartooning machine, straight from the Watterson school. A lot of straight talent. I guess he lives close enough I can track down a copy easier than any of the other stuff I saw at the show…
• RPM Comics #1 by Rachel Masilamani — A blast from the past, Xeric winner from 10 years ago. A really nice book.
• “iNterruption” by Lena Chandhok — A little comic in the shape of an iPod, the simple restrained cartooning inside matches the concept. It’s the kind of comics you would expect to find inside an iPod.
• “Untitled (Architecture)” by Blaise Larmee — “What Blaise was doing before he discovered Christopher Forgues.” Larmee might not find much use in making comics like this anymore, but it’s really a great work. While the cover is in the vein of what we saw in the Abstract Comics anthology, the inside is fully rendered versions of Blaise’s child-adults. Really nice stuff.
• Secret comic by Kevin Huizenga — Kevin was saying he didn’t really want people to know about this, but I had seen a picture of it somewhere on the internet beforehand. Regardless, it’s all great, but what else would you expect?

So that’s just a tiny sampling of the great stuff that was on hand at the first ever “Pittsburgh International Comics Festival.” Mad shout outs to all my comics dudes, new and old. Check out all those links I posted above, it’s all great stuff.

Peace

Let’s talk! Enough of this TL:DR culture. Enough of shallowness and gimmicks. Let’s talk shop. Let’s talk craft. Let’s be honest.

And that’s the truth, Ruth. The above quote comes from L. Nichols (emphasis mine), one of the talented and super-friendly comics folk I met at SPX the other weekend. L has been posting examples of some of the influences on her work, notably ones that fall outside of what we normally might consider comics. I recommend checking them out, I’m sure you will learn something (she was inspired to start this practice because of similar posts over at Darryl Ayo’s and the ever useful livejournal de Brandon Graham).

Back to the start, I agree one hundred percent with her calls for more discourse in comics, more serious talking, and so I’ve been inspired to take my own whack at it. I’ve typically thought and talked about works that have influenced me in the past, but I think I’ll use this space to talk about stuff that I look to at present for guidance and inspiration. I’ve got a couple groupings in mind that we’ll take one at a time. Following in L’s step, I’ll try to include a majority of non-comics material, but I still want to bring it back to comics because, frankly, there is so much great stuff that I can only even start to pick at the surface.

So, without further yappin’, the first installment of this series will take us eastward.

NOBY NOBY BOY

I know Katamari Damacy is an amazing game, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, there’s a whole lot to admire about it. However, when I first caught sight of Keita Takahashi’s most recent game, something in my brain attained a perfect equilibrium. The innocent silliness and just absurd movement and downright basic concept, I always find myself at a loss for words when talking about this game. It just feels so right, like a perfect formula brought about by a keen mind that understands fun and joy. Noby Noby Boy seems to take Katamari’s spirit and distill it down, trimming away all the excess down to this stunning minimalist package. Now, full disclosure here, I have not played this game. That does not keep me from appreciating the concept, the art or the design. What really tips the basket over is the role of Girl — through the cumulative efforts of players connecting through the Playstation Network, Girl stretches throughout the solar system, unlocking new planets to play on. She’s up there right now! Stretching! Amazing.



Part of my appreciation also comes from how this game defines its own identity. Takahashi thinks like an artist, when approaching a design, he asks “how can I create something to play with” rather than “what will my next game be?” The distinction lies in form and function — he’s making decisions that are true to the art, rather than being prescribed by an industry. It’s no surprise then that the end result is so unique. Along with Fumito Ueda’s Ico, Noby Noby Boy is one of the few video games that sets a serious precedent for recognizing that games are art (side note: art in this case is not a value judgement — all video games are art. However, I would make the value judgement that Noby Noby Boy is serious and good art, which I would not attribute to most video games).

If I ever get a Playstation 3, it will mostly be to play this game.


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Here’s a little quick drawing I did for In Maps & Legends by a fine cartoonist I went to school with.

Go vote! Time is running out!