Back to basics comic meme

Draw a ten panel comic about what you were doing ten years ago. Put pen straight to paper – no pencil, no computer, no planning, no starting again if you make a mistake. Simply draw, scan, publish. Tag some people who you’d like to see do the meme too. Oh and if you want to do it even if you haven’t been tagged you are most welcome!

So, here’s me 10 years ago:

(Click for larger/legible version)

If you’re listening, I tag John, Adam, Elio, and Meg to do their version. And don’t feel the need to wait to be tagged (I wasn’t after all.) Anyone else going to bring it?

The Onion AV Club has just reviewed one of my favorite new comic strips, Cul de Sac, by Richard Thompson. I’ve been watching the strip for a couple months now, and crossing my fingers and holding my breath, dreading the moment it jumps the track and turns into another boring gag machine. But so far, it has stayed on its strange and funny track, deftly illustrating the absurdity of the childhood imagination. Thompson’s drawings are scratchy and energetic, and the subtlety of his characters’ expressions give a truth and realism to the strip.

While I have been wary of trusting a new strip like this, Richard Thompson has a history of strong cartooning. His bi-weekly columnar strip, Richard’s Poor Almanack (viewable in the Washington Post, where registration is free but required), has been going for years, and draws on a sense of humor similar to Cul De Sac, except in the Almanack, Thompson is free to comment on more political or “grown-up” themes. His wit is consistent throughout. See more silliness on his great blog as well.

Another great new strip I’ve been reading comes from another version of suburbia, this time populated by robots. Perhaps not as strange or subtle as Cul de Sac, We the Robots is a beautifully-designed strip made by a veteran illustrator and animator, Chris Harding. Like the Onion AV Club reviewer above, I always like to read comics that are drawn well, and this one has the added benefit of (IMHO– you can judge for yourself) a good sense of humor.

It’s great to finally see some new strips that are going against the flow. I have a set of over 30 strips that I read online everyday, and I have my favorites. I’ll save that list for another post…

Come with me on a voyage through time. It is now one week ago: October 12th, 2007. You are getting ready to go out, and you happen to live in Seattle. You think, “Hey, I want to see some awesome, fun plush art tonight!” I am here to help you find what you seek: the 2007 Plush You! show at Schmancy (and its neighbors) is the third year it has been organized by the intrepid Kristen Rask. This year, the show is buoyed by the release of the book based on last year’s show, Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff. It open(s/ed) October 12th and runs through the beginning of next month. Get out and see it!

My contribution this year is from a time long ago, when man and mammoth roamed the earth together. Otto and Orville are a mammoth rancher who do some experimenting to create… MammothMammoth! This year, the tags I made for the beasties were actually a micro-comic, just 8 pages long.

In other past news, traveling further into the past all the way to an October 8th release, I contributed to the 4th round of SpeakerDogs, organized by Ben the Illustrator. Download, cut out, and create your very own Piggy Back Beast!

And don’t forget to go all the way back to Labor Day weekend, and enjoy the collection of chickens, goats, and walking beef from the 2007 Minnesota State Fair. Sadly, no photos of the fried cheese curds. Mmmm, squeaky!

Okay, show’s over! Return to the present. LIVE IN THE NOW!

While looking for the Really Rosie opening on You Tube (after reading about it on Michael Sporn’s animation blog), I found this wonderfully animated version of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. My only complaint is the narration by composer Peter Schiekele, who goes a bit over the top.

Last year during an art history course I was taking I discovered that In the Night Kitchen is a kind of tribute to the amazing illustration and comics of Winsor McKay, most specifically his Little Nemo in Slumberland comics that ran full-page in the Sunday New York Herald from 1905-1911. (McKay was an animator in his own right, pioneering in the medium with his performances on-stage with his animated Gertie the Dinosaur.) As talent borrows and genius steals, Sendak lifted the bed right out of Little Nemo’s bedroom and put it under Mickey at the beginning and end of his story. It’s fun to see the story come to life.

BONUS: Animated Where the Wild Things Are! This seems to be done by the same team who made the In the Night Kitchen animation, but this one works a lot better, imho.

P.S. There is much to update you about, not the least of which is that I am now living in St. Paul, MN, and teaching a class at MCAD while I keep up with various freelance projects and art shows. When the pace slows, I’ll let you know more, dear readers.

Just as I stumbled onto Tintin this evening, my introduction to him was similarly accidental. One of the people who happened to live in my dorm my first year in college was from rural Indiana, and he often wandered toward a bit of a fantasy world that was inspired by the things he read and the movies he watched. He had even given himself a new name when he got to college, perhaps inspired by Hergé who was born Georges Remi. He was the first person I had met who was really into comics and manga and Miyazaki, and his passion for those things was fundamentally influential to me and the career path I am now pursuing.

Anyway, much like I am stunned when a bookstore employee hasn’t heard of the Caldecott Medal, this guy couldn’t believe that I– an art major interested in children’s books– didn’t know about Tintin. Of course, the reason I was an art major and interested in children’s books had a lot to do with his passion for both subjects, but instead of recognizing his influence, I dismissed him as a bit of a zealot.

It wasn’t until several years after we had graduated that I first read any Tintin books, and then it was because I was waiting in a bookstore to meet up with someone. At the time I was still heavliy into children’s books, but not yet looking at comics very seriously. As I was waiting, I was done looking at the new children’s books, so I wandered the store and ended up by the graphic novel section. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but the encounter with my college friend had implanted the name “Tintin” in my head, and there on the shelf was a whole row of these stories. When I pulled one down and flipped through it, I was immediately astounded by the detailed artwork.

Hergé is known for his skilled combining of detailed, hyper-realistic backgrounds with these wonderfully caricatured characters. But my criteria when looking at children’s books (and now comics) is that is okay to be seduced by the art, but I won’t buy it if the story isn’t compelling. To shorten this lengthening story, I walked out of that store with three volumes of Tintin stories.

It’s funny to me when I think about the sequences of events that lead me from one point in my life to another. Even more interesting to me are the triggers that get me to think about those paths. As much as I have grumbled this past year (not here, I guess) about my graduate school experience, I am getting a lot of mileage out of the introspection it has imposed. Don’t be surprised to see more coming out of both the experiences I am recalling, and also the meta-experiences of how I came to recall these events. It’s all fodder for the paintbrushes.

School is winding down, and I am on to thinking about summer plans. So far I have a show at the end of June to plan for and work towards, I am working on pulling together the Lions, Tigers, Bears, Etc. show at Wootini for July, and I will be attending a week-long workshop regarding the life of a university professor in May. Otherwise, I am looking for freelance work in web programming or illustration and design, so let me know what you got.

Needless to say, grad school has been all-consuming, so this summer I should feel a little more available to the world. I’m really excited about the artwork I am planning on pursuing, so that should help me keep things rolling through my solo show this fall and beyond.

Speaking of inspiring art work, I just got back from Minneapolis where I saw two amazing shows. At the Juxtapoz anniversary show, up at OX-OP and Soo Vac, I got to see a lot of my favorite artists’ work in-person for the first time, including people who I have invited to the Lions, Tigers, Bears, Etc. show. This is going to be good! I also went to see the Kiki Smith show at the Walker Art Center. Just amazing! It was great to see another artist working across so many mediums and still stitching a central idea thread through all the works. Something to aspire to, for sure.

Anyway, there is much to catch up on, in life and here on this site. Expect to see new work up in the coming weeks, and possibly even a new look for the Bunch of Monkeys Workshop…

The Circus Punks show was really incredible. There were something like 227 punks by 100+ artists, and they filled the little space that is Toy Tokyo Showroom in New York to the gills. I went to the VIP opening on Thursday, September 29, as well as the public opening on the 30th. The VIP opening, which I expected to be more exclusive and quiet, was an absolute zoo. People everywhere. The line curled around the corner as people waited their turn to get it. Local street (and otherwise) artist, ewok, slipped in faster by virtue of his name, cutting ahead of Andrew Bell, a few people ahead of me, and the rest of us who didn’t have the balls to speak up. “Hey, I’m an artist in the show, too!” My name doesn’t make that work yet… Soon, though?

When I got inside, I was very excited to find my two Punks front-and-center on the table just across from the door when you walked in. Not only were they prominently displayed, they sat two shelves below Tim Biskup’s and Gary Baseman’s Punks. Also in close proximity were Seen and Tara McPherson.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any nametags, so I am sure I missed meeting some very cool people for lack of knowing who was an artist and who was just checking things out. I chatted briefly with Andrew Bell again, who I met previously at his Take That Back show at Wootini. I introduced myself to Tara McPherson, who looks just like her paintings. And I met the owner of OX-OP in Minneapolis, who happens to know and like my friends Michael and Dan of Aesthetic Apparatus. I also talked with Tim Biskup for a little bit while he was drawing something for the Toy Tokyo folks, but he was pretty distracted.

Anyway, all told, the show was all right, but it was easier to see the work on the second night, since almost nobody was there. I talked with the Circus Punk guys for a while, and it was great to put faces with names. Jim Koch was super-nice and we chatted for a while. He also lamented the lack of nametags the first night.

The real bonus of the trip was my host, Mike Krol, who interned at Planet last summer. He is a senior at SVA, and was feeling burned out that weekend, so he just became my personal tour guide. We walked and subwayed all over town, going to museums, galleries, toy stores, and comic shops. I admit it, I was geeking out. I also finally found something for John Martz to use as payment for his toyware fonts. Such a good idea!

Unfortunately, my Punks haven’t sold yet, but they are still up on the Toy Tokyo site for a while longer.

Well, I think that covers the Circus Punks show. But that was a month and a half ago! More updates to come. Soon.

• Your plans will be rewarding.
I’ve been saving these for a long time now. I think I got them all in a two-month period about a year ago, when I first started plowing ahead with my plans to apply to graduate school. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I was actually interested in going to school, but I was sure that I wanted to give full-time art-making a shot at some point. I began an aggressive savings plan and I started making as much art as I could in the hopes of having more than enough work to put into a portfolio. This collection of well-wishing fortunes feel like the universe’s endorsement of that plan.

• You are soon going to change your present line of work.
Right now, more than any other time so far, feels like the balance is finally tipping more towards the right side of my brain than the left. I’ve been doing web programming for the past 7 years. I love the problem-solving, and the immediacy of results when I make a change to a page or an application. It is so satisfying to spend a relatively short amount of time pushing buttons and getting something that shines and glows and computes in return. It is tactile and rewarding in a way I never expected it to be.

But my body and my being was missing something. It is tempting to say that I missed being creative, but that is simply not true. Designing a complex relational database or putting together a smooth JavaScript photo gallery requires a creative eye, in addition to the logical, coding side of things. Rather it was the more specific pen on paper. The act of moving my whole arm rather than just my fingertips. I started doodling on my notes three years ago, and it has just snowballed from there.

• Your original ideas will get you well-deserved recognition.
Today we received the July issue of Communication Arts at work: the Illustration Annual. My Altar Boy poster is in the first few pages. It is amazing to me how much positive response I have gotten since I just started putting my work “out there.”

• Nothing gets in the way of your vision of yourself in the future.
In the past week, I finished working on a pair of Circus Punks for a show in New York at the end of September. It was so much fun to make those things I could hardly contain myself at each step along the way. Also this week at work, we kicked off a very exciting project. I am on the team for this particular project not because of my programming skills, but because of my storytelling experience and my love for children’s books. And I am now working on three critters for another art show that will go up in August in Seattle. I get to spend almost my entire day drawing, writing stories, and stitching wool felt together. Seventh heaven. And I might get to make a career out of this? Insane!

• A book is in your future.
And just today I had yet another hare-brained idea for a book. Again, I don’t know if it is a comic book or a children’s book that is lurking in my brain, but it’s there. Ideas I have many of; it is the follow-through I chicken out on– but not this time: I won’t allow it. (And a more specific response to this fortune: I’ve preordered my copy of Harry Potter book 6.)

• You have much skill in expressing yourself to be effective.
I have no idea what that means.

In real life, coming soon to the UW campus is the New Yorker College Tour. Included is a talk by Roz Chast, Matthew Diffee, and the cartoon editor, Robert Mankoff. A new friend I met through my mother-in-law may come down to take advantage of the opportunity to show her portfolio in-person. I’ll be spending at least part of the weekend preparing to show something as well, though Julia definitely has more experience at this.

Speaking of New York(er) I’ve just added a few images to my portfolio from some work I did for a band out of New York. The Honorary Title is currently on tour, and they are selling two shirts and four 1″ buttons I designed. This is actually the first paid work I’ve done for someone who found me via this website!

And to keep the roll going, I am going to be designing a disc for the Madison Ultimate Spring League, and maybe for summer league, too. I did one of these when I was in college, and it is fun to have an opportunity to work on a round “canvas” again. This also means that I get to play some Ultimate in the foreseeable future! It’s a good thing, too, ‘cuz I been squirrelly.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a little something about a poster I did last year. My Altar Boy poster is in the 2005 HOW International Design Annual. It’s in the poster section of course, and it received a Merit Award. My friend and coworker, Dave Taylor, received an Outstanding Award for his 2004 Wisconsin Film Festival posters, and the FISH catalog he worked on for Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes is in the latest Communication Arts. There is also a bit about the American Players Theater Book of Lore in CA. It’s a good month for Planeteers.

I know I’ve been quiet for a while, but I have an excuse: I’m busy. Hah, you thought it was going to be more interesting than that. Well, it sort of is, but mostly just to me. I’ll post again soon and explain.

In the meantime, I continue to experiment. I am loving this new brush pen my little brother got me for Christmas, and I used it on six drawings yesterday. I am a little scared to use it up, because the packaging is all in Chinese or Japanese, and I can’t read one character on there. I don’t have any idea how I’d replace it (unless Teddy gives me some clues, or perhaps birthday presents *hint-hint*).

Over the weekend I tried to spend some time thinking about the past year, and some of the trajectories I have launched. By extension, of course, that means I was thinking about the coming year, and what goals I might set for myself. I have learned that, in general, saying things out loud makes them more likely to happen; but by way of caveat: saying things “out loud” on this weblog does not always have the same effect. Be that as it may, here is my biggest goal for the year:

I plan to have a book submitted to a publisher before the end of 2005.

Those who have known me long enough know that I made children’s picture books when I was an undergraduate at Carleton. Two of those were of publishable length, but looking back at that work, there is a significant amount of polish missing from both of those projects. The writing especially needs work. At this point, with the progress I’ve made with my drawings in the last year, I am not as worried about improving the art as much as I once was. The biggest challenge I face with the art is deciding on a style and medium, but my theory is that the tone of the story I write will influence the art, and vice-versa. I figure I can relax and let the two evolve together.

And finally, the monkey-wrench in the mix: I really like drawing comics. I don’t know if I am any good at it yet, but I am really enjoying experimenting. I am so used to drawing with pencils that it feels like a palatable baby-step to use ink instead of graphite for a while. Using ink has made me much more confident about my lines, and the richness of the black ink is really exciting, especially compared to the gray of the pencil marks. Perhaps the book I make this year (if it is only one) will be a comic book. Who knows?

Welcome, 2005!

These are really clever and really well done. I love how the Schmoo has vestigial arm bones.

Link via kottke.org

Anyway, I never ask about the cancer or the treatment or anything because I don’t need to know, and, honestly, I don’t want to know. Same thing with a coworker whose mother just pased away after losing a battle with cancer. Things appear normal from the outside, if perhaps a bit more stressed, but while I know there is more going on, I don’t want the details. It’s too much.

This story, told in what is becoming one of my favorite mediums, is a very powerful, succinct story of one family’s battle with their mother’s cancer. I’ve never read Harvey Pekar’s Our Cancer Year, but I expect it is a similar, more detailed story. Mom’s Cancer gives a taste of what is involved in a battle with cancer, and it is bitter. The story is powerful, and it is absolutely worth reading.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned Jim Woodring here before, but I know I link to him on the site. I came across this link to an animated version of a Frank comic that Mr. Woodring did, and I think I just pooped my pants. This is so cool, and it did two things for me: 1) it stayed true to Woodring’s original comic, his style, and his weirdness (which I mean in a good way); and 2) it made the story flow even better than the statically rendered book form.

Some of Woodring’s amazing drawing skill is lost in the translation to the 3-D digital format, and I have to say that Real is my least favorite web video fomat, but damn, that’s awesome.