Audiobooks

Please listen. This actually took way less time to make than I thought, so if you like it, let me know in the comments. Thanks.

Scorched Earth

Finally! This project took about one month to research and report (March) and another to work out and draw (April). I’m proud to present Scorched Earth, a 24-page black and white journalistic comic by yours-truly. This is the lengthiest attempt I’ve made at journalism in comics, and I’m really happy with how it turned out! It’s a non-fiction story about a particular plot of land in my town, White River Junction, VT. It starts slow, but as the title suggests, there is some action involved. I’ll be shipping these puppies for $3 or selling them in person for the unbelievably reasonable price of $2. Just email me at josh.p.kramer[at]gmail.com. I’m gonna try something new here and just give a three page preview. You can decide if reading the rest is worth the price of a peppermint whoop-de-do.

A Comics Project Announcement!

And that’s the announcement! Also, my essay on Jeff Smith’s RASL is now posted on the school’s library blog. I had a lot of fun with it and even my proof readers seemed to enjoy it. If you’re coming here from that, welcome! Take a look around. Next week I’ll be in the Twin Cities and then DC, so maybe I’ll see you.

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.

In Defense of References and Casanova Quinn

To me, one of the greatest pleasures in reading a book, watching a movie/television show, or listening to a song is realizing that there is a hidden allusion. Often, this is no more than a reference to another work, but it can even be a larger thematic or stylistic reference. You know what I mean. This is what makes “Family Guy” funny, (well, as funny as it can be) “Ulysses” daunting, and Quentin Tarantino, well, a director. So imagine my sheer delight when I saw this picture in a comics review over on Pretty Fakes:

Squint if you can’t see it: someone is saying “Be ready and be brave,” a line from the Mountain Goats’ “Magpie,” from inside a robot! And there are crows (Magpies and crows are both in the corvidae family) circling outside! Why “Casanova” might possibly be the best comic ever, a paper I wrote in high school, and the reason I’m linking a lot of punctuation after the jump.

Political Drama (of the Mythical Order)

So I came back from Florence last night, and all my pictures are up, but my thoughts are far too disorganized to write about it at this moment. And right now, with the Texas and Ohio primaries tomorrow, there’s something I want to address in case after tomorrow there is only one Democratic candidate left, and this is no longer valid.

Anyways, look above or click here if that isn’t working, and see the coolest political website banner I have seen. It’s in animated gif form, and the dialogue is from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series that ran through the first half of the 1990s. I have mixed feelings about Gaiman as an author. Though he penned the Beowolf screenplay, Sandman is really amazing and has ignited the imaginations of tens of thousands of goth kids (and others, like myself). So I was pleased to see this passage, taken from very early in the series, and used in favor of the candidate that I have enjoyed watching since his speech at the DNC convention in 2004. Also, I think it’s funny to see Hillary call herself the “anti-life.” And while I’m not sure how widely circulated this banner has become — it might be a geek thing only — it certainly made it back to Neil Gaiman quickly. Forgive me, it’s not often that comics and politics intersect. More below the jump.