Phase One of Thanksmas Eve... Survived.

The only bright spot, professionally speaking, about the Thanksgiving weekend is the sale on art supplies. I mean, there is no way to get anything done when I’m all napping by the fire, drunk on perfect apple pie and driving from one event to another in an endless parade of small talk. But I could and did take advantage of the Black Friday savings to pick up paper. And oil paints… I know, I know, what am I going to do with those? Ugh. Maybe I shouldn’t even mention the lovely boards that my dad gave me so that I can make woodcuts. It’s funny, that I feel guilty about buying art supplies, like I just bought a baby or weapon-grade anthrax in a back alley. Of course, this guilt is completely self-generated. Whatever, moving on.

Check this out!


It’s a handmade drawing box, whipped up by my father, for me to carry around like some posturing artist. Screw iPads and crappy stuff that just plays movies and books to distract oneself all day long. Now I have a hella cool way to carry my paper and pencils without fear of crushed corners, dings or scratches. I just pick up my drawing box, toss it in a bag and I am off. You guys know how much I like simplicity. This is as basic as it gets. Well... maybe a bit classy with that charming Mucha design, but it also has a plexi glass sheet to use as a drawing board and interior folders for dividing papers… so I can have a folder of clean paper, a folder for drawings, etc. Or just separate papers by species as I am wont to do: sketch paper, inking paper, fancy paper, blah blitty blah blah blah. And, should I decide not to pack it to the gills with paper, I can even use it to carry and protect my Darth Vader pencil case too.


You have no idea how much I sort of wish that I could get it into my brain and my illustrator’s vision to work on such a small scale that this box is the only studio furniture that I require. It’s never going to happen, but I sort of get all dreamy-eyed when I think of a world in which I just sit wherever I find a place for my butt, plunk down, open this box and get to work. A world without limits. A world without desk issues. Ah… such a sweet dream.

Other than that, I’m just trying to figure out what to do next. Or just this week. Or just this afternoon. Usually, this leads to making a list that will get far too long and end up in the trash, but atleast I’ll know most of what I need to get done and have some idea of how long I can spend on each project. At present, I have three projects to pick from: stuff for MoCCA Fest (drawings, posters, bookmarks, etc.), my mystery project (which, as it is not going to be a web comic, I’m going to call, from this point on, a graphic novella) and coming up with an actual web comic.

I have a lot of ideas for MoCCA Fest, I just need to make them come into being. My trick, since selling little things at the festival is all about mass production, is to make photographs of drawings. It still feels like cheating, but given my access to a dark room and my skilz with photography, it’s cost effective and easy. Far easier and cheaper than sending images out to be printed. And really, it’s the same thing, a crappy reproduction of an original image, however, in my case, I’ll be hand printing the reproductions, which makes my stuff that much cooler. If I keep telling myself that, I don’t feel like this whole MoCCA Fest is a horrible mistake in the making. That said, I’m still looking for ideas of things to make that would appeal in the $5 to $10 range to people who, in all likelihood, are the same sort of people who make it a point to read this blog on a regular basis. Feel free to offer any idea that you think don’t suck or that I could conceivable do. Like, for instance, I have a fear of power tools, so making oak napkin holders or wooden bowls are terrible ideas.

Then there is the graphic novella. I’m on my fourth or fifth layout design. I think this one works. It has more room for images without being too large to actually finish in my lifetime. Plus, it allows for my text to stay in a little novella chunks rather than expanding it into an boring novel or condensing it into a shallow graphic novel. I mean really, it’s quite rare for a graphic novel to work on several levels at once. Not that graphic novelist can’t create great stuff, but I fear that the average graphic novel reader is used to the watered down crap created by the graphic novel market in its haste to make money and not art. But anyway, I’ve decided that 2012 is the year that I finish my graphic novella. Whether I find a home for it or get paid for it remains to be seen. As usual, I really don’t care about that. I just want to make this really cool story work and once it does, we’ll see what happens. I’m inching near the tipping point from which the whole thing will come together… though after many months of inking. Of course, I’ll keep you posted.

Which leaves me in need of a web comic. I have an idea. I have characters. What I don’t have, beyond a cohesive design but whatever, is the purpose of the web comic. I sort of need a clearly defined purpose for my work or I just fumble about making a whole lot of nothing. As I look at the bijillion web comics out there, I can only recognize two kinds: the “I really want to show you how clever I am” comics and the “this is a just an online soap opera for indie kids who live in world of pop cultural references and probably need to be ‘less connected’ and should go do something useful with their lives”. I think it’s obvious that neither of those appeal to me. In fact, the soap opera stuff makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit so that’s completely off the table. So, I’m left with only two options: make a clever comic or create something different. My issue with the clever comic is that I might not actually be clever in comic form and that I don’t really like being thought of as “clever”. That sort of “clever” always seems lazy or self indulgent. As for creating something different… hm. The greatest problem of that is coming up with something new (and of course I realize that I’m not going to invent a whole new form of communication but you know what I mean). Plus, new is not what people are looking for, which makes it very hard to find or just stumble upon. People are looking for clever comics and soap operas, so those are the most successful species. Or because people only make clever or soap opera comics, that's all people think to look for… or something. Weird stuff that doesn’t fit into those neat categories doesn’t attract the same number of readers and usually dies off. There are times when I wonder if I should put any effort into this nonsense.

At any rate, that’s what I’m thinking about as I sit here and stare at this little stack of canvases and handful of tubes of oil paint. And for those of you who are worried about it, I promise not to eat any of the paint or drink any linseed oil no matter how good it smells or how much I want to. I’m a big boy now.