Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, are one strange, fascinating story in two volumes. I hope that Jo Walton decides to re-read it when she comes to it in her Revisiting the Hugo Awards Nominees blog series on the Tor website (Hyperion won a Hugo and The Fall of Hyperion was nominated).
Spanish cover of Hyperion by Dan Simmons, via Virao del Casco’s flickr.
Secret Prison, a free comics newsprint anthology out of Philly, needs your help to continue in 2011. In 2010, they funded their three issues with three separate Kickstarters. For 2011, however, they’ve decided to try to raise all of the funds with one Kickstarter. They’re over halfway to their goal and they have until 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, April 3rd to raise the rest. Check it out here.
If you pledge, you can get old issues of Secret Prison (I had something in #2) or subscribe to all their publications for 2011 (I’ll be in #4 and I plan to submit to the rest). You can also get rad art, like this:
Bart by Pat Aulisio, two-color screenprint cover variant poster.
or this:
2 Bad 2 Be Dad by Ian Harker, two-color screenprint cover variant poster.
I’m also offering up a 9×12″ black and white drawing for anyone who wants to throw down a James Joyce.
Man, SXSW was crazy – 25th anniversary and the biggest year yet! I only went to a couple of shows. The highlights of my South By this year were What’s Tappening, Chica Vas, and Harsh Realm II at Monofonus.
Anyway last week I mentioned how I got three volumes of 2001 Nights by Yukinobu Hoshino. Now I’m going to post the my favorite examples of tone sheet usage and show you what they inspired me to make.
I love the gas giant (is it a processed photograph?) and the circles of light from the propulsion of the ship on the right in this page:
A page from the chapter “Night 6: Discovery” in 2001 Nights by Yukinobu Hoshino.
The gradient tone sheets on this spaceship blow my mind:
A page from the chapter “Night 7: Lucifer Rising” in 2001 Nights by Yukinobu Hoshino.
Click here for more pages from 2001 Nights and my tone sheet experiment
My family recently made our roughly annual pilgrimage to Riverside, California to visit relatives. Whenever we’re there, we always stop by Renaissance Books, a used book store with a huge sf section (you can buy stuff from them online here). The owner used to live in Austin and ran a used book store/head shop here. This trip I found out that his shop used to be down the street from where Glade and I live. It was called Anarchadillo: Slow Burning Books and Papers. Gotta love that. I tired to find a photo but I was unable to. If anyone has one, I’d love to see it.
Here are some gems I picked up:
Paul Lehr cover of The World of Null-A by A. E. van Vogt.
Lehr also did this cover of Solaris. They had a couple other books with Paul Lehr covers and they were all dope. As far as the novel goes, I love this story and most van Vogt in general. His stuff is pure superheroics. Similar in tone to Fletcher Hanks sometimes, at its most manic and exciting. Definitely obsessed with power and authority.
Starshine by Theodore Sturgeon, cover artist unknown.
I haven’t read any Sturgeon but Aldiss made him sound like a great author in his must-read history of sf, Trillion Year Spree.
Impossible Possibilities by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, translated from the German, cover artist unknown.
I really wish this was an sf novel. I’m not sure what it is – futurism? weird pseudoscience? I probably won’t end up reading it.
I also got some awesome comics:
I know that I keep talking about this Glade and Mark comic, and it’s coming, I swear y’all, but other things just keep coming up that are time sensitive, like STAPLE! and now SXSW. Also, I have some other comics that I haven’t posted here that are even older, so I may post those first. We’ll see. So, please ignore my empty promises and I’ll stop making them.
Anyway, for the sixth year in a row, the Awthum Empire, producers of fringe, DIY and avant garde culture in Austin and beyond, is putting on their one-day music festival, Awthum Fetht. And, just like last year, I drew a flyer for it:
Also, if you’re a band interested in a flyer or other artwork, please feel free to contact me.
Hey yawl, the Gold County Paper Mill and Glademade had a blast at STAPLE! last weekend, thanks to everyone who hung out and bought stuff!
Zoom out shot of the table (I was able to get everything in the image except for the second Glademade card rack). Glade’s face is like “why are you d00dz hiding?”
We met a ton of kewl people and got to hang out with kewl people we’ve met at past STAPLE!s (that plural spelling of STAPLE! is straight from the style guide, I swear).
Now everyone is showing their faces. From left to right: Michael Miles, David Fullen, Glade Hensel.
Some highlights:
I hope to see you all again (and more people!) at STAPLE! 2012. Also, if you’re wondering, I’ll start posting the eight-page Glade and Mark comic on Friday. Click here for additional photos and GCPM-centric commentary
Hey y’all, David Fullen, Michael Miles and myself of the Gold County Paper Mill will be tabling at STAPLE! this weekend alongside Glade Hensel’s Glademade for the third year in a row.
This year, for the first time ever, STAPLE! will be two days, March 5th and 6th! The event is at Marchesa Hall and Theater from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and noon to 6pm on Sunday. It costs ten dollars for one day and $15 for both days.
The GCPM and Glademade will be sharing Table 76, which is in the Annex. If you’re standing with your back to the entrance, the Annex is the room to the back and the left. We’ll be selling a lot of stuff, both old and new. Here’s what we’ll have in alphabetical order:
A process shot from Michael Miles. He’s working to get Slime Studies finished in time for STAPLE!
Also, there are pre- and post-parties for STAPLE! The pre-party is 7-11pm tonight at Austin Books and Comics. There are an after-parties Saturday and Sunday at Club Deville from 8pm to whenever. We might be at some of these – if you see us feel free to say wuzzup.
Hey y’all I know I said that I’d start posting a comic today, but I decided to postpone that until next week because there are some things I want to talk about this week, namely my wedding and STAPLE!
Our wedding/reception was a lot of fun. There are a couple of details that I was involved in so I thought I’d post those here.
We had a unity volcano instead of a unity candle. Glade and I made it and then I painted it, here’s an action shot:
Picture by my uncle. Sorry it’s a bit blurry. Notice the froghead on my best man.
The eruption wasn’t quite as high as we were hoping but oh well. The officiant (my good buddy Will Sellari, pictured holding microphone) included some lines from King Crimson in the ceremony. Also, one of my friends told me that they felt a strong gust right before the procession and knew that the wind wizards were giving their blessing. So, all in all, it was a pretty proggy wedding.
It was also pretty froggy. All of the dudes in the wedding party and the dads had these frogheads that Glade made. Here they are all lined up in a row (without their hats):
Also, I drew the ceremony program:
The front and back covers for the ceremony program.
I made the comic that I’m starting to post next week for the ceremony program. Yes, we had the idea before we heard about Adrian Tomine’s latest book.
STAPLE! is this upcoming weekend here in Austin. For the third year in a row, the Gold County Paper Mill will have a table. I’ll post about what we’re bringing in detail on Friday.
