Diary Comic: Getting a Car

Every week we have to do a diary comic for our drawing teacher, Steve Bissette. The main point is just to do a page of comics with no strings attached. Experimentation and speed. Early on Steve gave us a photocopied grid of six panels drawn sloppily in thick marker so we wouldn’t worry too much about layout. Personally, I slave over my layout compositions so this has been a real boon. The comic above was drawn inside one of those grid copies, and you will most likely see more on this blog in the future. Two hours from idea to final product. As the projects start to get longer and more complex, that’s become my favorite part of doing diary comics.

John Porcellino Visits CCS

I’m not exactly sure what gets me about this comic. It’s the inside back-cover page of King-Cat #69. It might be that I had Squmpkin soup yesterday and that reminds me of Skweezil, or just that this simple repetition is the perfect build-up to the last panel, but I want to burst into joyful tears every time I read this.

The author, John Porcellino, has been self-publishing the zine King-Cat: Comics and Stories for 20 years. He described the ideal King-Cat as being like an album of music — part of a larger body of work but complete on its own. Porcellino’s work is an amazing visual poetry. His simple lines are endlessly expressive and are able to evoke groundswells of emotion. It’s not for nothing that Chris Ware has a quote on the matter: “John Porcellino’s comics distill, in just a few lines and words, the feeling of simply being alive.”

Porcellino came to speak to CCS today for a visiting artist seminar. His talk was fun, interesting, and surprisingly emotional. His new book, Map of My Heart, is taken from King Cat from 1997 to 2002 during an especially difficult period in Porcellino’s life. After years battling with various medical conditions and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Porcellino is back on the road and touring with his work. This is a great thing. Though he’s already done with the East Coast, go see him speak (midway down the page) if he’s coming to your town or just try and pick up a King-Cat somewhere.

Comics Update

Though I haven’t written about them in a while, comics remains a very big part of my life. Here are some bullet points about concerning comics, myself, and the intersection of both.

• I’m almost through with a new mini comic called “The Black Squirrels of Washington, D.C.” which is in black and white and fits on both sides of an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper. This is the first time I’m actively designing a comic in InDesign and actually spending a good ammount on time on the drawings (the image above is an example). I’ll give it away free and make it available here.
• While I haven’t yet read this, one of my favorite illustrators, Jillian Tamaki, has a new graphic novel called SKIM that she did with her cousin, Mariko Tamaki. It has been reaping awards, but in an almost textbook example of comics not being understood, it is often called a children’s book. Worse yet, the book recieved a Governor’s General Literary Award in Canada, but only Mariko, the writer, was awarded. Check out this star-studed open letter of protest.
• Publications about comics are notoriously lame. Either you’re very high brow like the Comics Journal, or rediculously low brow like Wizard, but never in the middle. Now there’s Comics Foundry, which I’m proud to report is really good. It is interesting, funny, and has great puns. Keep your eyes peeled for that one.
• Jesse Reklaw is another great comics artist worth watching. His weekly syndicated comic, Slow Wave, illustrates his readers’ dreams, and his unbelievably quickly updated comics diary is really interesting and amusing.
• Recently I went to the Small Press Expo, or SPX, in Bethesda, where I met a lot of people I’d heard of, including the artists mentioned above. I also bought a lot of minis and saw great panels on topics like collaboration and indie publishing. Alt comix rulz!
• Several major comics opportunities loom on the horizon for me, not least amongst them the Center for Cartoon Studies, of which I’ve written about previously. I’m going there this weekend for their portfolio day and to decide if I will apply for next fall. Wish me luck; more updates to come.

A Few Selected Crafty Bastards

OK, so I’m working my way forwards through cool things that have happened recently. So Crafty Bastards is a twice annual fair for people who make things. Last year, I was blown away by the diversity and creativity. This year, I still thought it was cool, but realized that the whole fun of it is probably walking around and looking at everything. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of really great merchandise, but with people more strapped for cash than ever, I wonder how many freaky little stuffed creatures, New-Yorker-cover journals, and $30 t-shirts were actually purchased at the festival a few weekends ago. Still, certain things stood out to me. Above are Owly Shaddow Puppets, and below, a pun I could not resist—8th Street’s Soap Kitchen’s Spruce Springstein.

Postcard #1: Marvin Gaye

One of the authors of a blog I read regularly recently mentioned that he keeps up a postcard regimine. Coincidentally, a friend of mine frequently sends my house postcards/messages/collages.  I really like the idea of sending people random postcards, and I think I’ll start doing it weekly. The first one is above. Not only is it a brief and welcome distraction from routine, my family has inherited a (miniscule) wealth of old stamps that have no real value but are still really cool.

I mean, that’s pretty great design. Check out some others. So if you recieve a postcard from me, feel free to respond! I want to correspond with pretty much everyone. Leave addresses in comments if you want, or email me your address.

Buckminster Fuller at the Whitney

Buckminster Fuller was an inventor, a visionary, and above all an eccentric. Fuller invented many fantastic things and most of them were totally impossible, but also awesome and patentable. His triumph was the geodesic dome, of which “Spaceship Earth” (a term Fuller coined) at Epcot is based on. I recently went to see a comprehensive exhibit on ol’ Bucky at the Whitney in Manhattan.

As a choice of subject for a modern and contemporary American art museum, Fuller is perfect. Fuller came from a wealthy New England family but never finished college. Instead, he began prolifically inventing in what he called “4D” and later “Dymaxion.” Fuller came up with some crazy shit, but some things like the Dymaxion Map (pictured folded together above) seem genius to me.

The exhibit gushes on Fuller’s tremendous innovation, but a concurrent New Yorker article by Elizabeth Kolbert is more quick to criticize. It seems that while Fuller’s inspiration is immeasurable, his track record is not that impressive. Geodesic domes have even been known to leak. However, I have a hard time caring. Fuller is a fountain of sci-fi inspiration and was known to have a pop culture knack. Placed at the beginning of the exhibit is a chart Fuller made of his own accomplishments. He charts them against major political events as well as popular dances throughout the twentieth century. Dude knew what was up.

Photo courtesy of flickr user super-structure.