This past Friday my particular corner of the comix internet blew up over this Comics Journal post where Dan Nadel heavily criticizes Kickstarter in general and the Secret Prison #7 Kickstarter in particular. I’ve been riveted to the ensuing shitstorm in comments threads, blog posts, and my Twitter feed. I feel compelled to post my thoughts here.
July 31st, 2012
July 27th, 2012
Birthday
My birthday was this past Sunday! I’m inching closer to the big three-oh. I’m actually looking forward to putting my twenties behind me – I’ve always wanted to be a cranky old man.
Face paint by Melinda Tracy Boyce; photo by Aaron Whitaker.
Glade got me this awesome customized messenger bag:
She did the Jim Woodring embroidery based on Sublime Stitching designs (I think the site is sold out).
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July 24th, 2012
Vortex #3 Cover Preview
I’ve started Vortex #3. Here’s a possible cover:
I’ve been looking at classic Jim Starlin mind trips for inspiration. Like Page 52 from the collection The Life and Death of Captain Marvel:
This page is from #28 of Captain Marvel. I got this scan from this blog post.
Here’s that Starlin page with Frank Santoro’s golden section diagram:
Look at how all of the lines converge in those two light blue/white panels in the center. And that center diamond perfectly frames the skull! Frank’s made me a believer!
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July 20th, 2012
July 17th, 2012
“The Miizzzard ATTACKS the Munchies” Preview Panel
This past weekend I finished my contribution to the food-and-eating themed comics anthology Digestate, edited by JT Yost. My comic is a four-paged story called “The Miizzzard ATTACKS the Munchies.” Here’s a preview panel:
I may have gone overboard with patterns for my comic but I think it’s a fun one. Yost has put together a truly impressive collection of cartoonists for this book, check out his blog for a full list and sample images. Digestate debuts at this year’s SPX.
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July 13th, 2012
New Character Design for Frog
Happy Friday the 13th y’all!
For my comic for the food and eating comics anthology Digestate, edited by JT Yost, I worked on a new design for my recurring frog character, check it out:
Frog has appeared as the Miizzzard’s psychopomp in my unfinished minicomic series Hyperbox, as the manifestation of a shamanic curse in Froghead Hangover, and was the star of the comic I drew in college for The Daily Texan. This is what Frog used to look like:
I also like to throw random frogheads into my drawings and paintings. Digestate debuts at SPX 2012.
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July 10th, 2012
Comics on Sale at Domy Austin; Reviews
Hey ya’ll, I just dropped off the Josh Burggraf-edited psychedelic sf anthology Future Shock at Domy Books here in Austin. Check out the cover:
Future Shock is 44 full-color pages of freak out sf short stories by the main man JB, Anuj Shrestha, Pat Aulisio, myself, and Victor Kerlow, drawing comics solo and collabo. I’m really excited by what Josh has done with this, but don’t take my word for it, check some words of praise from Tim Callahan in a post-MoCCA review roundup on Comic Book Resources. The anthology is $7. I also restocked Vortex #1 and #2.
In other news, comics by both me and Burggraf got reviewed by Rob Clough on High-Low in a roundup of “odd genre minis”. Clough has this to say about Vortex #2: “Working big and using so many decorative patterns gives this issue a psychedelic feel, yet one that’s grounded in rock-solid and simple layouts.”
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July 6th, 2012
Vortex #2 for Sale at Floating World and a Review
I just sent a stack of Vortex #2 to my buddy Ryan Dirks in Portland. He took some over to Floating World Comics in Portland, so if any of y’all are there, y’all can now pick up both issues of Vortex there.
Dirks holding up a stack of V#2.
Dirks also posted some kind words about my comics: “I love how he uses space and rocks all the different tones. Everything has a melty, trippy, dreamlike quality to it, very unique.”
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July 3rd, 2012
Thoughts on Not Getting the Xeric Grant
Back in February I announced that I was applying for the final round of the Xeric grant. A couple of weeks ago I got a letter informing me that I wasn’t selected. I’m not going to let the rejection slow me down. Putting my work out there for review, for sale, or for awards means that it might get rejected. Anyone who wants to be a creative professional needs to have a thick skin.
The Xeric website.
I applied to self-publish a comic that’s already posted on my website, Moon Queen. I wanted the funds to do a two-color offset print production of that comic. Because I was drafting a plan with potential buckets of cash, I thought about and researched a publishing, marketing, and distribution plan that’s way more ambitious than anything I’ve done with my comics so far. Formulating that plan means the Xeric helped me out before I even mailed in my application. Not getting the Xeric doesn’t mean I can’t implement some (or all) of these ideas in future self-publishing projects, I’ll just need to save my own pennies. But I’m not sure at this point if Moon Queen will exist in print. We’ll see.
The cover for Moon Queen, click to read it.
Applying to the Xeric was something I’d been wanting to do since I first started reading about self-publishing comics in high school. I’m glad I finally got my shit together and did it. It’s a bummer that there are no future rounds of Xeric funding. I think the opportunity that the Xeric gave people isn’t quite replaced by self-publishing on the web, which requires a different skill set than self-publishing in print, and Kickstarter, which is only successful if a cartoonist has an existing audience. Fortunately the Sequential Arts Workshop, a new comics school in Florida, recently announced that they’re stepping in to fill the void left by the Xeric with micro-grants for self-publishing. The first deadline is August 15th, 2012, go apply!