mostly banal: Friday, Saturday , Sunday, Monday

The past weekend, In reverse order (all blog-style):

! - page thirty-five

previously...

Page thirty-five. Not finished yet, but getting there.

Also in comics-posting news: Awhile ago I put my contribution to The Future is so Futuristical up at my site in a bare-bones HTML interface. I always liked how these turned out and thought I might un-bury them from the blog archives. Of course, then I never told anyone...

UNTIL NOW!!!

mostly banal: the gag(strip) reflex

Thanks to everyone who's commented on these last few strips. I apreciate the support.

I guess I am a diarist again.

mostly banal: first impressions

This is starting to get a little less Porcellino, a little more "me."

Good thing or bad? You decide.

mostly banal: autumn in Ohio

More mock Porcellino nonsense. And a reference to my strip from yesterday.

Look! Up in the second panel! That's me!

mostly banal: a la Porcellino

I've been toying around with reviving my boring diary strips. It'd have to be something ultra-simple, something I could jot off at the end of the day. Like this Porcellino meets Kochalka strip.

Something to think about...

! - Page Thirty-Four

Say you draw little comic strips and post them to the internet.
Say you're in the middle of a rather drawn-out narrative and you just stop posting one day.
Maybe a couple people had been following your story. Maybe you never told them you'd be gone.
Say you want to return to posting after a long, unannounced hiatus.
You've got a few options:

You could make a long-winded post detailing your excuses for not posting anything for two months running.

You could make a lame apology to anyone still granting you their attention.

You could make promises to keep up with the story now, and see things through to the end this time. (whether you later keep these promises would remain to be seen, of course.)

Or, you could just pretend that the whole pause never happened and continue posting at your leisure...



Anyway, I came across a live cover of Radiohead's Black Star, by country singer Gillian Welch. It's a sweetly melancholic, acoustic-country version of the song with an awesome guitar part, courtesy David Rawlings. It's been my musical obsession this week, despite the fact that she consistently pronounces "black" as "blake" throughout. I recommend.


(psst--- don't remember how the story got to this point? maybe you should look here.)
(maybe.)

! - page thirty-three

This is another one of those page where I'm just... kinda... ehhhhhh......
I'm not sure you can even tell what's going on up there in the speech balloon - just that it's drawn especially poorly, whatever it is...

Another one for the "needs work" pile.



Well, um. Anyway...

Hey! Look! The story so far...

! - page thirty-two

Last week I had a couple of wisdom teeth removed. This week I'm feeling existentially morbid - a keen awareness of the unavoidable fact that one day I will be dead. This weekend we're going to the zoo.

Apologies for the delay in the comics.

! - page thirty-one

Talking with our pediatrician this week for the kids' checkups.
She says that children have trouble drawing one line across another until about age three and a-half. They just can't bring themselves to do it. The doctor asked Sophie (three years old) to draw a + and sure enough, she had trouble doing it. She kept drawing vertical lines, one after another until the doctor showed her again what she wanted her to try. Even then her horizontal line was labored and misplaced, and Sophie seemed a bit confused as to the whole thing.

Tony Millionaire has said that he doesn't like to draw one line through another either.

! - page thirty

No WAY!! Those guys should totally be toast! This cartoon is soooo unrealistic!

I've been away from the internets a few days. Looks like you got along fine without me.

! - page twenty-nine

It was really tempting to just end this thing with last weeks pages and be done, but I guess I'm gonna drag it out a little longer. There is an end in sight...

In other news, my buddy Grant released his annual June Bug Mix this week, for free download. The June Bug is a collection of some of Grant's recording work over the past year - demos and alternate takes from his albums and other odds n' ends. This year is a double bonus too, as some of the tracks feature Red Eyed Johnny, Grant's side project with my other buds Neal and Steve.

Here it is: The Free Download that Engulfed the World in Terror! Like every year, the June Bug's free so go get it. Then buy some of his other records!

! - page twenty-six through twenty-eight

I could not resist re-drawing that last page any longer. It's still kinda meh, but better. The next two pages were more difficult to draw than it seems they should be. Pretty happy with how they turned out, though.

I've been kind of obsessing over the last track on Deerhoof's The Runners Four album this week.

Only so-so sound on this live video via YouTube:


Better sound here on a band High Schoolers(!) from Sweden doing their cover:


Tomorrow is my Sophie's third birthday. Happy birthday Sophie!!!

! - page twenty-six

Not feeling all too inspired lately.
I'm not loving this page but it is what is is, I guess. I will be redrawing the stuff I don't like for the final version anyway...

Hmm... Friday.
A crappy end for a crappy week.

Feeling crappy.

! - page twenty-five

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of attending the opening for my friend Jeff's first solo gallery show. Chris and I braved a small monsoon* - the course of which seemed to attach itself right to our route - to get there. Jeff seems to have done very well for himself and I was happy to attend, though the violent buzzing of the Cleveland Arts scene was somewhat intimidating to a small-town chap like myself.
If you're in the area, his paintings will be up until the 28th. Go down there and buy one, whydon'tcha?


(* -some hyperbole employed)

! - page twenty-four

A couple things to measure this little comic strip up to:
The record holder for the world's longest continuous drawing. 1,350 feet, but not quite a comic. Wish there were better photos, but it appears that it might be done on one long sheet of paper too.
(Link from Steve)

And Elvis Road. Only twenty four feet, but extremely dense drawing. And it's a comic!
(from Troy)

! measures in at just about seventeen feet (so far) and is also dense, but in a different way.

! - page twenty-three

Hey! Two pages in the same week! When was the last time that happened?

Happy MoCCA, to everybody who is so inclined. On the off chance you're there and you're still reading this - then don't forget.

! - page twenty-two

I've got a lot of cleaning up to do before this whole thing is finished. I'm looking at printing this in traditional pamphlet format - probably - as well as on the web. But anyone got any ideas on how I do a continuous version in print?
I have not looked into any options at all, but man would it be cool to print it that way! So far this thing is a little over 15 feet long at it's original size (and it's not over yet).

! - page twenty-one

Finally!

The Briefest of Interludes: a not-so-brief interlude, part two

I really do have a page of ! coming, but I got back from vacation to find a preview of Secrets and Lies in my inbox. I have seven pages in the book, so you know I gotta pimp it here.

press release:

White River Junction, VT, May 20, 2008 – SECRETS & LIES is an anthology of comics edited by veteran web cartoonist Cayetano Garza Jr. which will make its debut at the 2008 MoCCA Art Festival in New York, NY (June 7-8, table C27).

The book features a wide spectrum of comics creators from all over the United States and from every corner of the comics industry. Comics legends SR Bissette (Swamp Thing, Tyrant) and Rick Geary (A Treasury of Victorian Murder, Gumby, Heavy Metal) share the stage with webcomics luminaries Shaenon Garrity (Narbonic) and Chuck Whelon (Pewfell). The book also features work from alumni, current and upcoming students from the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont and the surrounding cartooning community including recent graduates Joe Lambert and Bryan Stone, freshmen Lucy Knisley and Dan Archer and recent Xeric grant winner Colleen Frakes (CCS Class of 07) as well as many, many others.

For an expansive preview of the whole book, as well as pre-order information, click here.
Print run is limited. If you're not going to MoCCA, then I'd suggest ordering one now.

Following is a two page preview of my story, titled Untold Mysteries of (Popular) Science:


I get a free copy for being a contributor, but you'll probably want to buy one.

Next up: more !


Really.

The Briefest of Interludes: a not-so-brief interlude

Hey! Remember me?
Been a while since I posted an update for ! here and I have more coming, but I'm going away for the holiday and I thought I'd let you know what else I've been up to lately before I disappear again.

Some of you may remember me mentioning that I was working on a rewrite of my Lost and Found story-sketch (or sketch-story) for Cat Garza's Secrets and Lies anthology. Well I finished it now, and it's ended up quite a bit different than the original.

I cut the length by more than half to seven pages. The layout treatment is altered a bit, as are the character design and dialogue. It's also a completely different story called The Untold Mysteries of (Popular) Science.
Here's a brief exerpt from page two that pretty much sums up the premise:




I've also been playing the "part-time illustrator." My friend Chris is on the board of directors for the local Humane Society. He asked me to work up a design for their "Animal Transport Vehicle." Here's the colored pencil rough:



So all that - and, like, real life - has been keeping me pretty busy. Thanks to everybody for your patience. I'll be back with a page or two of ! next week, after the holiday.

! - page twenty

This has been a story about convergence and just about everything finally comes together on this page. All the threads get tangled up over the next couple of pages and the rest of the story will be spent unraveling them.

Here,of course, we have monster meeting robot, so it seems as good a time as any to give a shoutout to Monster and Robot Industries, three talented cartoonists to whom the entire tone of this story owes a debt.
Not incidentally, Monster and Robot's own Edward J. Grug III has begun serialization (at his LiveJournal) of a story written by my friend Alexander Danner - author, poet, cartoonist. It's called "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day" and I've been looking forward to this collaboration for some time. Alexander and I are also working together on a story which will eventually run right here on this blog.

So how's that for convergence, anyway?

! - page nineteen

Go on, try to make some sense of what's going on here without the benefit of the previous pages. I DARE YOU!!

(reminder)

! - page eighteen

For those of you who are interested, I've cobbled together a rough "story so far..." page at my site. I just threw everything in as is so some of the pages don't line up and the images aren't scaled down at all - which makes it a little tall for most browsers.
As I get nearer to completion I'll try and tighten up the presentation a bit, but this gives you sort of an idea of the overall scope.
enjoy...

! - page seventeen

I'm only partly sure what Derik is up to lately with his comic Things Change, but I know I like it. Check out the trick he pulls over the last couple of pages of the "Tiresias" chapter.

! - pages fifteen and sixteen

As promised.

! - page fourteen

I guess I lied about that two page spread this week. Turns out the next two pages work much better together than this one would. Actually, I was just gonna make it a three page spread but I haven't finished the third page yet.
I guess I could've just put this page up last week. Sorry.

The Briefest of Interludes: Welton Colbert

I'm holding this weeks page of ! back for a two page spread next week.
In the meantime you get this guy:


Anybody else notice that Ryan Estrada has been sneaking more and more Welton Colbert appearances in lately? He's been popping up more and more often at Ryan's livejournal. And just recently ol' Welton even (almost) reprised his roll as online host of the WCCAs. It's like he's coming out of retirement or something.

I was once a target for one of Ryan's Comixpedia pieces featuring Welton* I even wrote a kind of rebuttal strip for the Welton Colbert "guest week" a few years back. I had a whole story worked out featuring Welton, Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, Ryan Estrada himself, and an overall indictment of modern society. Turns out it's a lot more work than I had thought to turn out a NINE PART INFINITE CANVAS EPIC!?!. I never made it past the prologue. The panel above is one of my restart attempts (when I first got my Wacom - note the shaky line). The original prologue is still up at my website.

I don't much feel a part of the whole "Webcomics" thing anymore. But, as Derik already pointed out, ! could be considered an infinite canvas comic. I guess I'm still right about where I was three years ago...


* Although, take out the text intro and the attack could've been leveled at Cat Garza, Patrick Farley(sites' down), Demian 5, Daniel Goodbrey , Neal Von Flue, or any number of better known (and, dare i say, just better) "Infinite Canvas" cartoonists.

! - page thirteen

Lucky page thirteen. Why do I say lucky? My son got pretty sick this week. I've spent the last two days pretty much exclusively taking care of him, so you're lucky* to see a page at all this week.


(*- or unlucky, depending on how you feel about it)

! - page twelve

Just another page for ! this week.


Ho hum. Hum de dum...

sketchbook: more postit stuff

More postit sketches, drawn at various times throughout the day. Not really a comic this time, but it kind of looks it.

They really oughtn't have given me access to the postit notes.

! - page eleven

You know, I haven't read many reviews of Yuichi Yokoyama's New Engineering that say anything beyond "It was weird. I liked it." (or sometimes, "I liked it, it was weird"), but Ryan Tokola manages a step better in his review of the book. 

He makes some good points about the "architectural" treatment of the stories and the role that the incidental material plays in the reading experience which only really touch on part of what makes this book really great.

And it is great, but like all great thing it's not always obvious why. Sure, the character design is "out there" - that's cool. There's a stylish, otherworldly disconnect throughout. And the omnipresent "sound effects" give the stories amazing tension - but fuck all that, really (isn't that just a hyper stylized version of what happened whenever Adam West socked Cesar Romero in the jaw, after all?) It's the treatment of "story" that blows me away here.

There is nothing so much as plot - or characterization - or dramatic tension/resolution here (not in any traditional sense). What we have instead are finely choreographed construction scenes, or battles, or whatever... that ultimately lead... nowhere. These are narratives- sure - but not "stories." And yet it's as engaging a read as any you'll find in comics. It reinforces a belief I have that runs counter to what so many express - that "telling a story" is not necessarily the be all and end all of all comics. Yuichi Yokoyama conveys his message without the traditional constraints of storytelling that everyone says are so all-fired important.

His book, and comics as a whole is better for it. New Engineering is a fantastic, and important, and challenging work.

That is to say, It was weird. I liked it.

(Link to the review via Derik because I keep forgetting to read Guttergeek myself)

The Briefest of Interludes: on Religion

Last week I spent all my comics time - when I would usually be preparing another page of ! for you all - on Alexander's Uncertainty and on my rewrite of Lost and Found for Cat Garza. To make up for the lack of a ! here is a little doodle postit comic I made when I should have been actually working for a living.
I hope the three of you left reading here will enjoy it:



Next: back to !

! - page ten

! - page nine

Page nine. Are you following all of this?

! - page eight

This was the roughest week yet in a rough new year, I think. The kids aren't sleeping well (well... Sophie, mostly) so that means we aren't getting any sleep. Jamon picked up a cold (so it's kind of like sick all over again). And then of course we picked it up too. Pile that on everything else that needs to get done every day (but quite often doesn't). For most of the week I've been like a sick-sick zombie with too much to do and no energy to do it. I feel lucky to have squeezed this page out.

(Aw, quit yer griping Tim)

Anyway... !, page eight here. I'm noticing a lot of visual echoes between the threads from page to page. Not quite planned... but I like it. Go ahead, see what you can find.

! - page seven

Not much to say for this week. Been keeping extremely busy without having much of anything to show for it. Here's ! page seven.

! - page six

Page six - and, wow! Where the hell have I been?

This new year has not been kind to me so far. Times've been tough and they're getting tougher, so posting will slack down here for a while as life slowly grinds me into a fine pulp.
I'm shelving Squirrel before it even really gets started. It's far too time consuming a process and what little time I have at this point needs to be focused elsewhere (i.e. non-blog stuff).
I'll continue to post ! pages as they're finished. Maybe one a week? More if I'm lucky. It's probably hard to follow, trickling out like this. When it's done I'll collect it in some form and you can see the thing all at once.
Beyond that, maybe I'll post some sketches and doodles and stuff. I've got a couple of projects that I just don't feel comfortable posting on here, at least until they're done. A rewrite of Lost and Found (hope none of you were too attached to that one as it appeared here) and a long-delayed project with Alexander Danner. So much to do, so little time...

Real life is kicking my ass right now.

! - page five

Happy New Year ever'body. To celebrate I drew the next page of ! for you.

Go nuts.

A Boy and His Squirrel - Page Three

Finally!
Continued from here, as you'll remember...

! - page four

Told you this would pull ahead. Really, I am still working on A Boy and His Squirrel...

! - page three

Page three. Almost done with page three for squirrel too, so these stories are neck and neck right now. I imagine ! is gonna pull ahead though.

If this weren't just a little sketchbook comic I'd have soo many ideas to artsy it up. Don't want to keep redoing what's already done, though. Not even at this early point, not when I have so much else to do.

! - page one(again) and two

I redrew page one of ! cause that's what I do: redraw things. Tightened it up a little, compressed the narrative (i.e. added a panel) and left out the hatches.

and then I drew page two:


One and two are a two page spread so here they are side by side:


I'm having a bit of trouble with drawing A Boy and His Squirrel this week. I hope to have some up next week. I'm still working on it...

! - page one

So much for "obsessive need to post here..."

I bought a new pen over the weekend. Rather than jump back into A Boy and His Squirrel, I wanted to warm up/break in the pen. So here's page one of another story called !. It's meant to be my best bad Steinberg impression but with all the hatching I accidentally put in it's like a poor man's (bad) Gauld. I'll be using this as a warm up to Squirrel pages so I'll jump back and forth between the two, posting here.

You know, if all goes well...

The Pen Runneth Dry

Continuing the stellar launch of my latest project here at the ol' blog: two pages in and I've hit another stumbling block.
The pen I've been using to ink these pages has gone and dried up on me. At least dried up enough that I can't get the line I want out of it. It's taking me about four times as long as it should to ink each panel - retracing the lines to get a good mark. Very frustrating. I can only use the one kind of pen as every other I have bleeds way out on this cheap sketchbook paper. Rather than butchering the new pages (as in the exerpt above) I'm gonna wait to draw more until I can find me a suitable replacement. I don't know when I'll get the chance to - soon I hope.

So, some filler then...

I've got a few other projects in the works right now, as well as normal sketchbooky type stuff to post. This'll fuel my obsessive desire to update this page. A Boy and His Squirrel will be back as soon as I buy a new pen.

Sorry about the rough going, but I'd rather have something I like to post, rather than just something.

ehh... such is the life of a sketch blog...