mostly banal

30 Days of Comics: Days Twenty Three through Twenty Six

2011-11-30T01:05:00.000-05:00

Four Day mega post, cuz I'm lazy.

Day 23. I don't actually care that much for talking in circles...

Day 24.

Day 25, which is a thing that actually happened.

Day 26. Yep.

Anyway. Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(All of these posted these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Twenty Two

2011-11-28T23:20:00.000-05:00

Thirty Days of Comics, day twenty two. Did I ever have faith to begin with?

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Twenty One

2011-11-28T23:17:00.000-05:00

I should have drawn panels on the ducks journal page in panel 2.

Day 21, only a week behind in posting these now!

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Twenty

2011-11-28T22:05:00.000-05:00

Ten to go in two more days.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Nineteen

2011-11-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

I got a little behind on posting these. I was away from a scanner for a while, so now I'm playing catch up. Here's day 19.

Around this time I started thinking of these strips terms of parts to a whole rather than individual statements. That is to say, my approach shifted from thinking of this as a daily challenge, to thinking of this as a project. I started to think about how each strip I drew this month would fit together with the others, and how they would play off of each other in the end.

Not that I'd been really successful at making individual statements with each strip previous, but at this point I sort of stopped caring.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Eighteen

2011-11-19T21:03:00.000-05:00

On the seventeenth of this month Rosalie Lightning, the very young daughter of cartoonists Tom Hart and Leela Corman, passed away unexpectedly in her sleep. The shocking and heartbreaking news has passed through the comics community this weekend.

Tom and Leela have touched so many, not only through their work but through their commitment to the community through support and education of other cartoonists. Recently the family moved cross-country - from New York to Florida - to start a new cartooning school, The Sequential Art Workshop.

Personally: Tom was the very first person to contact me, with kind words of appreciation, at the inception of this website. To have an established cartoonist of Tom's stature (as well as a cartoonist whose work I already admired) contact me, unsolicited, with such words of support... well, it meant a lot to me.

My heart goes out to Tom and Leela at this unimaginably difficult time for them. No parent should have to go through what they're going through right now. Cartoonist Lauren Weinstein has set up an emergency memorial fund to help them with whatever they need in their time of grief. Please consider donating.

Today's comics were drawn by my own children, Sophie (6 years old) and Jamon (4).
I love them very much and I feel so lucky to have them both.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Seventeen

2011-11-18T00:22:00.000-05:00

You ever have that feeling, you just know you kind of have things figured out?
What's that like?

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Sixteen

2011-11-16T22:46:00.000-05:00

Sixteen days in. Just over half way through.
I'm in one of those moods.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(And as always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Fifteen

2011-11-16T00:11:00.000-05:00

Too many late nights.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Fourteen

2011-11-14T23:21:00.000-05:00

Day fourteen. Almost half way.

This one is a riff off of days 12 & 13 and also a collaboration with my son.
I've done comics with Sophie before, but I think this is my first jam with Jamon. I think he did a great job!

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Days Twelve and Thirteen

2011-11-13T20:07:00.000-05:00

Three pages (stitched together here), drawn over two days.
The comic itself is pretty self explanatory.

Days twelve and thirteen, and I'm all caught up.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Eleven

2011-11-13T11:41:00.000-05:00

Playing catchup this weekend. Here's day eleven.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Ten

2011-11-13T11:36:00.000-05:00

Day ten. Work comic. An altered text story born out of boredom, desperation, and bored desperation. Culled from a photocopied handout at work during some type of training where they taught us how to press buttons or something.

I am truly sorry for what you are about to read.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Nine

2011-11-10T22:51:00.000-05:00

Thirty days of comics, day nine.
Yes, it's kind of culturally biased and logocentric. I know. Deal with it.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Eight

2011-11-09T22:09:00.000-05:00

Thirty days of comics, day eight.
I'd say the third panel is in tribute to Bil Keane, except for the fact that I drew it before I 'd heard of his passing. I'll still say it though.

RIP Billy Keen.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Seven

2011-11-08T23:16:00.000-05:00

A comic about raking leaves. I drew the panels on my cell phone. With my finger.

Thirty Days of Comics info if you want it.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Six

2011-11-07T23:03:00.000-05:00

So I tried to draw a strip this Sunday and I just hit a wall. No focus and all thumbs. I tore up the result and made this bitchy thing with what was left. I kinda feel like a dick for even posting this. What a whiner!
I pretty much hate this one.

Ugh.
Gimme day seven. Quick!

Anyway, here's Thirty Days of Comics info.
And Derik has a roundup post of all the participants along with his own comic for today.

Follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Also posting these at my main site for some reason.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Five

2011-11-06T10:01:00.000-05:00

Day five. Saturday's comic.
Not much one for craft this weekend.

Thirty Days of Comics info.

Follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Also posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Four

2011-11-05T10:18:00.001-04:00

Day four. Talk.

Thirty Days of Comics info.

Follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Also posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Three

2011-11-04T16:20:00.000-04:00

Day three. Plus a detail of the second panel:

Derik Badman's Thirty Days of Comics info.

Not everyone participating is on Twitter, but a good portion are. Follow (almost) everybody at #30dayscomics.

(Also posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Two

2011-11-03T16:38:00.000-04:00

Day two of Derik Badman's Thirty Days of Comics. I will be making and posting one comic for each day over the course of November. Check out the link above to see the other fantastic cartoonists involved.
Other people will too.

Will be.

Doing this...

(Also posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day One

2011-11-02T16:28:00.000-04:00

I'm participating in Derik Badman's Thirty Days of Comics This year. I will be making and posting one comic for each day over the course of November. Check out the link above to see the other fantastic cartoonists involved.

This is day one. I spent most of the day trying to work out whether I could wing a sustained narrative in daily installments, all written on the fly. I balked at the last minute, it was just too much work to get into right now to try a continuity strip. So I went back to my old standby, the comics diary mostly banal. I dashed this strip off quickly to avoid missing the midnight deadline. Not my proudest moment, by far.

(I'll also be posting these at my main site.)

(p.s. I did some screwy things with posting day 2, which may have screwed up any rss feeds and whatnot. So if you're reading this in a screwed up feed, I'm sorry.)

goin' to Minnesota with an achin' in my heart...

2010-08-19T01:21:00.000-04:00

Gearing up for the long drive to Minneapolis, where I'm dragging my friend Chris to attend Minneapolis Indie Xpo and debut my book, "!".

Something else I'll have there are these handsome new prints based off of some artwork I did for Minneapolis natives (and really excellent band) Cloud Cult a few years back. Now newly colorized in three hand printed layers each.

These fancy show fliers, pictured above in their natural habitat, were exclusively printed for MIX (by agreement with the band), and are an extremely limited edition.

I'm planning on selling completely out of everything I bring to the show (that's how these cons work, right?) but If by some odd chance there are any of these left I hope to have permission to offer them for sale online, should anyone be interested. I'll keep you posted.

For now I'm off to Minneapolis. Wish me luck!

a real thing

2010-08-15T07:00:00.002-04:00

Pictured above, viewed amongst varied detritus, set upon the desk that birthed it, is the physical manifestation of my own labors combined with a Xeric Foundation self publishing grant. That is to say, I've finally got my book, "!" all printed up!

I never expected this to take me so long. Some readers, if they've stuck around, may remember the original incarnation of this comic, which was serialized right here on this blog. But for the initiate: ! follows a handful of disparate characters, navigating their way through a day filled with trials and triumphs, expectation and disappointment. It's a love story (or several), or an adventure or a vengeful morality play. It all depends on how you look at it. It's also, by my estimate, the longest (printed) gag strip ever, clocking in at just over 35 feet long (but accordion folded to a more manageable 10" x 7 3/4")

For those who remember it's predecessor: this version has been completely re-drawn. It's like the original in scope and appearance, but edited and clarified (and a tiny bit longer now too, actually)

And of course it's also ready for you to take home and call your own.

I will be returning from the dead, or the unannounced hibernation (evidenced by this blogs recent lack of activity) to debut the comic at the Minneapolis Indie Xpo on Saturday, August 21st. But you can also order the book through my site right now for $15 (postage paid, US). You could also click on that paypal link below.

To those of you who've stuck around to see this, I thank you for your support. I've put a lot into this comic and I hope that it does not disappoint.

And to everybody reading this: we'll talk again soon.

strangersinthenight

2010-02-06T22:24:00.002-05:00

Been pretty quiet 'round here lately.
Here's something I drew recently. It was for a thing.

blowingaway?

2009-12-01T16:50:00.001-05:00

You know, I almost like the original prep-sketch of this last comic better than the finished one.

The progression seems somehow subtly easier in a way. It flows better.
I messed it up, somehow on the final rendering. Too much trying to wrestle with the materials (which, in this case were literally crumbling in my grip) maybe. Not enough attention being paid to the overall flow?
The final version seems to have lost something in the translation from sketch to re-sketch

Or maybe it's just me.

blownaway?

2009-12-01T07:00:00.002-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

Well, this was supposed to go up last week (along with another truly tasteless gag which I thought better of than posting) but, whaddoyaknow? The Thanksgiving holiday got the best of me.

This is the last of the gag cartoons for a little while. I'm ready for something different.

I'll probably start with some simple sketchbooky-type comics and eventually start serializing short comics for a while.
I'm also now shooting for a weekly schedule. By "weekly," I mean one post a week. No set day.
So you can see why I'm calling this thing undisciplined.

Hope you liked the gags while they lasted. Should you ever wish to revisit these, they're archived at my site for easy browsing.

On to something else.

elegiac

2009-11-23T07:00:00.003-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

Okay. Just a few more gags, I guess.
This week I showcase, once and for all, my lack of good taste.

icanbewhatyouwant

2009-11-20T07:00:00.002-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

Are you tired of these gags yet?
Who's ready for something different?

definitionorjustabadpun?

2009-11-18T07:00:00.002-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

thereisnohumorwithoutvictim

2009-11-16T07:00:00.001-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

No text with this entry. Sorry.

okayokayokayokay

2009-11-13T07:00:00.002-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

I had a bad day and this is the drawing that said day begat.
Really, it's pretty crappy. But it also has a kind of ugly charm, maybe?

I dunno. I may take it down soon. I may not.

ameetingoftheminds,i'mcertain

2009-11-11T07:00:00.002-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

And thank you for reading.

youllonlyhurtyourself

2009-11-09T07:00:00.003-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

The hazards of smoking, I guess.

allthingsmustsometimeend

2009-11-06T07:00:00.002-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

It will. Someday. I promise.

letspretendthatthelikenessisdevastating

2009-11-04T07:00:00.003-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

I've settled on a name to group these strips under:
Undisciplined.

Actually I settled on it a long time ago, but now I've committed to it. There.

iampreparedtoloseyou

2009-11-02T07:00:00.004-05:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

Is it funny? Is it even supposed to be funny?
Who knows? I just follow my whims on these things.
At any rate, it's true.

howaboutacreepyhalloweencartoontoday?

2009-10-30T07:00:00.007-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

Happy Halloween, everybody! Halloween is for creepy things, right?

In not so creepy news (and let me assure you, this is completely unrelated to this cartoon) today is the tenth anniversary of me getting married to my wife. And also vice versa. Happy anniversary, Rachelle! I love you in a completely socially appropriate manner!

lesimagesdelatrahison

2009-10-28T07:00:00.004-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

You know, I should just quit after this one. As far as conceptual, formalist gags go, I'm never gonna be able to do any better than that.

Apologies to René Magritte.

Apologies to Scott McCloud, and to Tim Hall too, for that matter.
Apologies to David Lasky, and to Derik Badman.
Apologies to Emil Kópen ("So many cartoonists are afraid of words"). But I'm just being cute there. I mean Apologies to Dylan Horrocks, of course.

And Apologies to Alexander Danner, and Mark Danielewski, and Kenneth Koch (and Austin Kleon, just as well), and Jacob Lyon Goddard, and DRAW, and Saul Steinberg, and Mark Lombardi, and a million other cartoonists, poets, writers.

It's so simple, but it's got a lot of history behind it.

Apologies to you. And to you. And to everybody.
Everybody, everywhere. Apologies. Apologies.

It is a comic.

ifalltopieces

2009-10-26T07:00:00.003-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

In the end he gets recycled. Like all gags.

justanotherclotheshorse

2009-10-23T07:00:00.001-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

I fully expect these comic strips to continue to be the arbiter of men's fashion.

twoforno

2009-10-21T07:00:00.002-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

Two comics in a row, riffing on the same theme but following almost opposite tracks.
Why, that could be called a duality in itself.
Appearing back-to-back like this, it's almost as if it were planned that way!

(it wasn't)

But, hey! Do you remember these guys?

justoneduality,please

2009-10-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

This gag is either too subtle.

ohiamsosoclevertoday

2009-10-16T07:00:00.002-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

This cartoon is a sight gag.
Get it? Sight gag?

Get it?

(rim shot)

withbroadcomedicappeal

2009-10-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

When I was a boy, my big brother held on to my hand and he made me slap my own face. I looked up to him, and still do. He was trying to teach me something. Now I know what he meant.

He was giving me the idea for this strip.

dinnerdate

2009-10-12T07:00:00.003-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

This comic kind of calls to mind something you'd see in the New Yorker, if the New Yorker ran comics with severed heads.
I drew this for a "real people" profile on me in the company newsletter at work. Apparently I am a real person and they felt it important to make note of that fact.

truestories

2009-10-09T07:00:00.001-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

you'veseenittoo

2009-10-07T07:00:00.002-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

lowbrow+rerun(already?)

2009-10-05T07:00:00.003-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

politicalcartoon

2009-10-02T07:00:00.003-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

andnoneofyourbusinessanyway

2009-09-30T07:00:00.009-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

whatsinthepipe?

2009-09-28T15:54:00.001-04:00

as seen at the yellowlight.

big angry

2009-07-15T22:06:00.003-04:00

Another in a series. If you remember the first one of this set, I'll email you something like a dollar.

there be dragons

2009-07-12T22:31:00.002-04:00

wait... does this spoil the ending?

2009-07-01T18:59:00.005-04:00

Sorry about breaking your feed, here.

Announced today. Maybe you'd be interested to know that I've been awarded a grant from the Xeric Foundation to help me publish my comic strip, !
Pretty exciting news, for me. I join some good company in the current batch of recipients, as well as the former recipients (who include some of my favorite cartoonists)
I don't have many details just yet. I've got my printer lined up, and yes, it will be printed as one long strip (somewhere around 35 feet long) and look something like this:

(one of the mock ups I made as part of my Xeric application)

I'll have more details, of course, as I get closer to solicitation.

Anyway, I've taken down the archive I kept up as I was posting the rough draft here. It'll be back soon enough, but all re-drawn and stuff. Up top of this post is my original sketch of the story, which took about 45 minutes to draw and defined probably the next following two years of my comics making life.

Congrats to the other Xeric recipients. I'm looking forward to your books.
Special thanks to Alexander Danner who nudged me to apply for the grant in the first place.

And thank you guys for reading.

old comics

2009-06-29T21:35:00.002-04:00

Remember me?

Haven't been real post-y of late, huh? Been pretty busy, but nothing I can show here yet.
I'm gonna try to get back in the swing of posting things, starting with some older stuff.
If you've been with me a while you may remember this one. A short story I drew, written by "Calamity" Jon Morris for one of his planned BOO! Halloween collections a couple years back. Jon's no longer displaying it at his webspace so I put it up over at my site. Thought I'd share it here too.

When Flies Were Big:

a brief lesson

2009-05-24T11:10:00.003-04:00

If you look at this picture in the horizontal alignment, it's just a reg'lar old merman swimming along.

But if you turn it 90 degrees clockwise he takes on more of a topless trannie merman with a flair for the dramatic kind of vibe.

Context is everything.

do not be afraid of bad drawings

2009-05-18T17:03:00.003-04:00

Another in my series of geometric breakdowns. Getting closer to what I want out of these...

More sketches:

It's good advice. Something I'm trying to take to heart.
Tico is our younger dog.

I've been playing with my kids' crayons lately. I've got an idea I'm toying with... a comic in this color scheme. Something abstract. Part of the the growing diaspora, I guess...

But I'll end this post with something more representational:

projections

2009-05-06T16:36:00.003-04:00

Boy am I bad at this blogging thing lately.

I'm about halfway through redrawing my ! story. I'd hoped to be further along by now.
I've set a deadline to finish the whole thing by June 10th. I can do it but I've still got a lot of work ahead of me. Keeps me busy.
And I'm waaaay behind where I'd hoped to be on Uncertainty, too...
I'll get back to posting comics here someday.

But, hey! I built a wall this weekend!
The second-floor stairwell used to just open right into Sophie's bedroom. We had gates and everything, but her or Jamon falling down the stairs was always a concern. Chris helped me to build the barrier and to move around some of the electrical stuff. Now it looks like a real room up there. When you ignore all the still bare wall board.

Oh, yeah... plus I also fixed our flickering livingroom lamp!

Who needs comics when you can hear all that exciting stuff?

*sigh*

Here's another in an intermittent series of non-comic sketches. Not Quite Geometric.

titled

2009-04-07T21:08:00.003-04:00

Hey! Remember when I used to draw stuff and post it here?

*sigh*

I haven't gotten to the inking stage in any of my bigger projects so I decided to take some time and work up these gags a little. Other than this it's been all Uncertainty and !...

You know who does finish things on a regular basis?
Boxbrown.
(how's that for a smooth segue?)

Boxbrown writes comics with a warmth and earnestness that's rare and appealing. His regular gig, a kind of slice-of-life gag strip called Bellen, is one of my favorite ongoing comic. Examining relationships is his thing (Bellen = Ben+Ellen, his two main characters) and he does it well, with honesty and humor and always a terrifically humbling sense of humanity.
Boxbrown's also just published a book of some longer form comics, done in a similar vein. Check out his Love is a Peculiar Type of Thing, self published and subsidized by a Xeric grant.
I wholly endorse this book.

Look at that! A sort of comic and a little write up of someone else's work! Not too shabby for a guy who barely posts anything anymore.
Now, to keep from appearing too competent, the concept doodle, for the above:

doodle drop

2009-03-26T16:51:00.003-04:00

Why, oh why do we have to live in a world that allows insanely ambitious projects couched with unprecedented expectations to collapse under the burden of their own weight? Why, dammit, WHY?
(link from comics comics but maybe you saw it somewhere else...)

Here're some lousy doodles that I'm sure interest no one, but anyway...

I like the cat panels here:

the end.

"Uncertainty" process post

2009-03-19T16:26:00.003-04:00

So, another reason I don't post much sketchbook stuff is that it looks like that. This is me figuring a page layout for the upcoming Uncertainty in my 5 cent Walmart spiral-bound notebook. The lines are awful and nearly unreadable, but that's okay because they're really only for me anyway. Naturally, I chose to lead the post with this.

Some stuff looks more like this.

Starting to work my layouts into a real drawing, still messy and loose... figuring things out.

Then I go to pencils.

(Sorry about the crappy scan. I'm keeping my pencils pretty light on this one...)

Then Inks, which I have yet to do, and some "post-production" type stuff on this one...

I'm treating this work with a lot more of an illustration-vibe than some (all) of my previous comics, giving each panel quite a bit of individual attention. I was even drawing it one panel at a time on separate sheets of bristol, but man does that not look right when you put it all together. I'm back to composing whole pages at a time.
Here's a finished panel, drawn in the old way, which I've since rejected.

And, yeah... that's what I've been working on.

I are still heer, internet.

2009-03-07T16:07:00.003-05:00

Woah! It's been forever since I posted anything here. Didn't know this sketchblog-thing would become a monthly gig...
Here is something I drew just now, though. Especially for you!

Actually, I've been pretty busy with comics stuff lately. What's taking most of my (art) time right now are ! (which you've already seen) and Alexander's Uncertainty (which you can't see just yet). So, I'm drawing a lot, just not posting anything I draw here.
I'm going to try and get better with keeping this sketchblog stuff up. Maybe I'll post some in-process work for Uncertainty...

And wish me luck on getting ! into print. So far it hasn't been easy.
(but I am making headway)

I'll be in touch.

mother

2009-02-09T17:12:00.002-05:00

Chasing a notion this week.

footprints

2009-02-06T16:26:00.003-05:00

These last few sketches were done with a set of color Sharpies I've had for a few years now. In my crappy sketchbook they bleed like crazy. I have a proclivity for using only the cheapest of art materials.

I wanted to try and make a drawing work using only the colors available in the pack of markers. I drew this scene once and caught myself layering the colors to achieve a greater variation. I started over to try and keep it "pure"

Turns out "pure" looks a lot like crap and I ended up layering up on the second drawing too.
The two versions are pretty much the same, but I prefer the second (shown here) for the echo of Karel Čapek in the footprints.

this one's for Derik

2009-02-04T17:48:00.002-05:00

Derik said he saw panels in the ghost image under the truck sketch the other day, and so he did: Here in this little nonsense comic.

I remember now why I don't post too many things out of my sketchbook anymore. The book is 9" x 12" and my scanner can only take a little more than 8.5" x 11". That means I have to scan everything twice and piece it together in photoshop. Very annoying.
I am too stubborn (or lazy - or cheap) to buy a new - smaller - sketchbook however, so I guess I just have to live with it...

B-E-A-T

2009-02-02T16:19:00.003-05:00

(Did I say there would be sketches posted here?)

Sorry for the internet silence, but last week really kicked my ass. Like a real, physical beating. Between work, a funeral, and 18 inches of snow (okay, more like ten. It just felt like eighteen when I was shoveling it) I got pretty worn out. Y'know... "beat."

Here is a picture of a truck that I drew toward the end of last week. It is also quite "beat." In that way it could be considered a metaphorical self portrait. A connection hammered home by the sloppy typography.

I was tired and messed up the lettering at the bottom there. Something compelled me to try and fix it but it still doesn't look right.

Anyway. Yeah... yay for drawing.

Guest Artist: Tessa Varju

2009-01-26T16:01:00.003-05:00

Today is my niece Tessa's seventh birthday. This is a picture she drew while we visited her in NorthCarolina this past summer.

That little guy in the center - with the crazy eyes... that's me.

A shockingly accurate depiction.

Here's a little sequence she drew featuring the robot from my ! story.

Happy Birthday, Tessa! Love ya.

What now?

2009-01-24T10:23:00.003-05:00

With ! finished, and Uncertainty not yet ready to begin posting, this is going to turn into a more of a sketch blog than a comics blog. I see "cartooning" (comics making) and drawing as two subtly different disciplines - with "cartooning" more akin to writing than straight illustration. I've always felt the cartooning part of me is stronger than the image making part, but I have to find something else to fulfill my obsessive need to keep up an internet presence.

So bear with me until I get the next story up and running here.

To start off, here is a first sketch for a small project I'm toying with. Not much but it gives this blog a rare burst of color...

! - the end

2009-01-20T17:13:00.002-05:00

Pages fifty-two and fifty-three finish this story off. I hope the finish does not disappoint.
For better or worse, it's all over!

For those of you who are interested, there is a print version of ! is in the works. It may take some time though. I have many, many revisions to make to the comic and have yet to work out the particulars of publication (I'd really like one long accordion fold if I can manage it). All of this has to take the backburner to my next project too. I've been leaving Alexander hanging for too long now.

It'll happen eventually, though. And at least now you can read the whole story.

Thanks for reading!

! - page fifty-one

2009-01-15T21:55:00.003-05:00

The story so far.

! - page fifty

2009-01-13T17:06:00.004-05:00

I had to sit and think about how to draw that stairwell there.
Sit.

And think...

That's ridiculous!

The story so far.

! - page forty-nine

2009-01-09T14:33:00.003-05:00

If you've been with this blog a while, this should start to look kinda familiar.
Remember?

! - page forty-eight

2009-01-07T16:20:00.003-05:00

(The story so far...)

! - page forty-seven

2009-01-05T16:11:00.003-05:00

Okay, at this point I can say with relative certainty that there are only six more pages left to go.
(The story so far...)

! - page forty-six

2009-01-02T15:18:00.002-05:00

New year, new page. Ho-hum...

(The story so far...)

! - page forty-five

2008-12-31T18:28:00.003-05:00

Only hours left to go, one more page for 2008. This thing should finish up sometime in 2009.
Hope everybody out there has a great New Year!

(The stroy so far...)

! - page forty-four

2008-12-29T14:47:00.003-05:00

Derik Badman had some kind words for this blog posted over this past holiday weekend (words specifically on the diary comics, which I have not posted as of late. Whatever...) so I drew him into this scene. That's what flattery'll get ya! See if you can spot him.

Christmas was a lot of work but I should be able to get back to finishing this story up now. Here's the whole thing so far...

! - page forty-three

2008-12-20T14:52:00.001-05:00

The story so far...

! - page forty-two

2008-12-17T16:02:00.002-05:00

As always,click here to see how we got to this point.

! - page forty-one

2008-12-15T16:07:00.002-05:00

Here's page 41, and Here's pages one through forty-one.

! - page forty

2008-12-12T14:32:00.004-05:00

Back to new comics stuff.

Recently, I told a friend who has some interest in my moving on from this story that I was going to ramp up my production to hurry up and finish it. Following that conversation I promptly stopped drawing anything at all. I am a bad friend.

I am going exclusive to ! on this blog until I get the damn thing done!
Here is the story so far.

Untold Mysteries of (Popular) Science

2008-12-04T16:34:00.002-05:00

Journal comics have unfortunately fallen by the wayside for now. Been pretty busy with the holidays and my work schedule lately. I'll get back to them. Ideally, I'd like to make those strips as automatic and thoughtless a process as possible. I just haven't found that sweet spot yet.

Anyway, here's a story I did for Cat Garza's Secrets and Lies.
Looking back, I've got mixed feelings about the whole story - the ending seems kind of muddled to me now. But I am reservedly happy about the results.
Online, I know, the text is kinda small (it's better in print) but I did fix a typo that (GASP) made it into the final book version.

Anyway, here goes:

mostly banal: sure, comics are fun. but doodling is funner right now.

2008-11-21T16:38:00.002-05:00

mostly banal: white noise

2008-11-19T21:50:00.002-05:00

mostly banal: who cares?

2008-11-18T16:13:00.003-05:00

mostly banal: still autumn in Ohio

2008-11-10T16:46:00.002-05:00

mostly banal: weekend post

2008-11-09T17:50:00.005-05:00

We like to preview movies for the kids before they watch them so they won't sneak up and freak them out too much. This one might be a little much for a three year old to handle. I think I want Sophie to keep thinking of zebras as cute fuzzy little animals for at least a little while longer.

***sigh***

In other "news"...
The RCPS (Revolutionary Comic Presentation System) is a physical, infinite-canvas-type comic with a poster-sized base narrative and additional postcard additions to the branching story. A week or two ago I mentioned in the comments at my LiveJournal, but couldn't remember who made it - or even what it was called, really. I promised then that I'd dig up the info and, well now I have:
It was created by a Mr. Chragi Frei, in Switzerland as a graphic design graduation project. It's pretty impressive. You can find out more about it here.

Now on to Friday and Saturday's comics:
(or Saturday's and then Friday's, as the case may be)

! - page thirty-nine

2008-11-07T16:02:00.003-05:00

If you missed it or don't remember here's what's happened so far.

Apparently my old grade-school best friend, Nate Silver, accurately predicted the electoral outcome of the presidential election down to the exact number of (electoral) votes each candidate would receive. Here's a clip of Nate on the Colbert Report before the election (which I missed when it aired, not having Comedy Central).
I'd heard of Nate's success as a baseball statistician, but I haven't seen or spoken to him in, oh... say, seventeen years or so. Nate was my closest friend in all my grade school years, and I've always regretted losing touch (I kind of socially imploded when we moved from East Lansing to Wooster in the early 90s). Seeing him all over the news and on TV after all this time has been a bit surreal.

Anyway, good on ya, Nate. Way to statistitize.

EDIT:
As long as I'm blabbing I should point you to some drawings I did for Troy Swain's drawn word project he's been posting at his LiveJournal. The drawn word project is pretty cool (unless you ask Frank Santoro) and he's got a lot of really talented cartoonists and illustrators to participate - and then me too...
Check 'em out!

mostly banal: steam

2008-11-06T16:54:00.003-05:00

Also:

A slightly different version of yesterdays strip (because I am slightly obsessive)

mostly banal: th' dogs

2008-11-05T21:20:00.004-05:00

Broke out the ol' BIC for this one. One of these days I'm gonna nail down just exactly what month it is.

mostly banal: November Fourth

2008-11-04T16:41:00.004-05:00

I skipped up a day in my posting due to the ephemeral topicality of the subject matter. And it was easy to draw, so...

Hey! Anybody notice that I wrote "September" in the date for yesterday's (umm... Sunday's) strip? That's the second time I got the month wrong since I restarted Mostly Banal. I am a poor diarist...

mostly banal: trying again

2008-11-03T19:18:00.003-05:00

! - page thirty-eight

2008-11-02T15:00:00.003-05:00

Here is what is quite possibly the least interesting update of an ongoing comics serial ever. Ah, well... it's all part of the big picture, right?

mostly banal: SUPERPOST!

2008-10-31T16:17:00.004-04:00

Despite my bitching and moaning in the last strip I posted here, I have not quit these diary comics. I got pretty busy this week - lots of overtime at work and my mother was in town for a visit - and I just kinda went underground (internet-wise). I kept drawing though and I'm including here a bunch of the strips I drew this past week. Not one for everyday (as per the plan) but, whatever...

A "Thank You" to you guys that have read and posted comments on these strips. I appreciate the support. Most of you know this is not my first venture in autobio/journal comics and the subject is one that I've put a lot of thought into. I really feel like I'm getting somewhere with these that I'm comfortable with and comfortable calling my own. I appreciate you reading and hope you stick around for more.

(also: more ! tomorrow, hopefully)

! - page thirty-seven

2008-10-24T15:59:00.002-04:00

(up 'till now)

mostly banal: because crippling self doubt is a fun read for everyone

2008-10-23T17:24:00.003-04:00

This link takes you to my LiveJournal and the rest of this comic whose file size is rather much larger than it deserves.

mostly banal: a car is a car is a car

2008-10-22T17:02:00.005-04:00

I drew these really fast.

This is getting perhaps a little too ambitious. I mean, three pages for a friggin' car?

jeez!

mostly banal: a day in the life

2008-10-21T19:03:00.002-04:00

It may not look like much, but it took me all day to draw.
Sort of.

mostly banal: I'm none to happy with this one so I threw in some other sketches too

2008-10-20T16:35:00.003-04:00

I'm going to start posting these the day after I draw them. I think that's the way it's usually done with diary strips, right?

Not my best work. It was late and I was tired. What can I say?
To make up for the strip I threw up a couple other sketch-type things here:

These two are for the long delayed story I'm doing for Alexander Danner, "Uncertainty."

Essentially these are the first two panels and therefore the first page of a twenty-six page story.
I've had the script for coming on two years now and I can't seem to get my ass in gear. I'm trying again.

This is just the kind of doodle I do when I'm bored at work and don't want to think in panels. I don't know what's happening to this guy but I bet it isn't very pleasant.

Ugh... whatever.

Better diary strip tomorrow, I hope.