How'do & nostalgia

How'do folks... Here's todays page, also the first I've done this week... been awful busy getting stuff together, rather then creating new draws...

Yesterday I spent about 10 hours going thru boxes and bags, kept under the stairs, boxes full of sketchbooks and papers, all my remaining childhood toys, and a great many memories... In the end I wound up taking about 12 bags full of paperstuffs t' the recycling bins on the side of the park behind my house... the last two bags were filled to bursting with what constituted my degree.... all assessments and  dissertation, essays, research, lecture notes, scribblin's and timetables etc... 

I felt a sense of relief. 

All these things we only look at when we throw away, briefly stirring a huge weight of emotion for the past... oh sweet nostalgia! It struck me hard when I came across a term timetable (I think t'was from my second year) upon which was a scribbled caricature of the head of the course, drawn as she spoke, and a scrawled dialogue I had with a gal' named Zeynep, who was sitting beside me.

But.... I didn't forget these things... and memory can be triggered in so many more ways then a piece o' paper that connects me directly to that moment. Photographs do the same, an immediate line from the present to a moment... but it seems t' me that meandering reminisces that come unexpectedly might count for so much more.

Gah, caught me wafflin' away....Im reading Norwegian Wood right now. which might explain somewhat, or not. Anyhow thats enough for now... heres some links for ye...

Dig the next chapeter's of Joseph Remnant & Noah Von Scivers tales HERE

I think this might well be my favorite episode of This American Life, 24 Hours spent recording peoples lives and tales at the Golden Apple in Chicago. Well worth a listen... catch it HERE

And I I'll leave you with Nico - "THESE DAY'S"

Also urgent update!!! the Ink Panther's are back on the air!!!

these two are truly the guys to listen to while inking!

GO LISTEN NOW!!!

Sunday morning doodle- John Fante

Coloured digitally, drawn slightly smaller then you see before you.

Not all that sure about what Im'na do with all these portraits of authors, guess I'll put em in a zine once I have a few more, maybe just a petite 12 page thing...

Anyway... I know I mention it fairly regularly... But i can't recommend the webcomic Forming enough! It truly is one of the greatest and most ambitious comics out there... Buy the first volume from NOBROW because its a beautiful book, lovingly put together, and mr moynihan deserves t' be paid for all his hard work! But also read the story as it progresses HERE

And t' leave ye.. heres the grand Calvin Johnson... give it time and listen t' the end, T'is a great piece!- "I'M DOWN"

A Tale Cowboy Love

Makes me wonder if I need to re-think my image? Am I just the guy who draws Lov'n Cowboys? And also... who search's innocently for "cowboy love"? Dang...

anyhow... Loving Noah Van Sciver's drawings et al, I thought he'd just got lazy or something, as he hadn't posted on the ol word-press for a few months... but nope, he just jumped over t' tumblr... He's pretty prolific and the guy makes very funny COMICS

Anyhow, I'll post something or other tomorrow, just wanted t' share the tale of cowboy love...

lets out with some Beat Happening yo! - "youth"

Concrete Blonde

Great scott! Just realising I havent posted in a good few days... and after alla me promising too!

So heres page 13, one half of a double page spread (are pages 12 and 13 too early in to use the double page?!) heh. so... yup, tis all going well... just a bit of annoyance with the ol' scanner, meaning I'm not getting quite the same quality o' scan for each of the pages, but thats just summut to work through... doesnt matter tooo much, just gonna be a case of rescanning all the pages at the same time... ho humm.

Anyhow,  not got too much news this week, caught Django Unchained on monday, and yup... I liked it... not quite as strong as Inglourious Basterds, but a fun Southern (Western) to be taken at face value (as in, a Tarantinoesque face value). I agree with folks that t'was a wee predictable, but then revenge westerns pretty much always are... And if a film belongs to as obvious a genre as a western... well, how many surprises does one really expect. Blah de blah...Anyhow Christopher Waltz pretty much makes the film!

Oh boy oh boy, I love the cartoonist Jason's works... you should too... After a few years of digging his work Abe finally got round t' searching out his web presence... HERE

 But for now, I'll take my leave... heres a shot o' pure 80's tat... but dang great if one happens t' be in the right mood... Concrete Blonde - "I Want You"

Scribblin's and updatings

Right, so as promised... Heres a petite update... 

I just put the finishing touches to page nine (which you see here), still enjoying the drawing process et al, still a'working hard at it... I dunno, something just seemed to click this week, in my drawings and attitude toward work... I just jumped headfirst into it all on sunday, and seven days later Im actually kinda pleased with the output... 

Three pages done fo my collaboration with me amigo Chris, nine pages on the story above, I fleshed out the plan for Nervous in a Cape Issue 7, scribbled two portraits of me favorite authors, and as ever continued with my daily drawn diary. Phew. 

A gosh darn productive week if I say so myself... maybe this whole "taking it seriously" thing's starting t' pay off... heh... All in all I'm on a wee high, though that might be on account o having just bought me tickets t' visit tho ol U.S.A in April! whoop!

Dylan Horrocks is a pretty awesome cartoonist, and the interviews I've heard him give on various podcasts seem t' affirm him as a pretty hip cat... he speaks eloquently and openly about comics etc, blah de blah... instead of listening t abe waffle, just go check out his serialized introspection on the writers introspection The Magic Pen 

Oh boy, Abe was so lucky to get t' see Mulata Astatke in November, for free no less...courtesy of everybody's favorite double bassist, and a lovely fellow indeed... Anyhow, for now Im'na leave you with "TEZETA"

peace out yo!

Sunday Morning Doodle, Soseki

Allo, just another wee sunday morning drawing o' one of abe's favorite authors... hmm just something Im'na try for a few weeks.  (just so's you know, twas drawn a bit smaller then the image you see before ye)

This time t'is Natsume Soseki... If you dig the writing of Fitzgerald or Murakami then rest assured Soseki is the writer for you... I started with the collection of his serialized story "I am a cat", a brilliant study of middle aged, middle class intellectual life in a19th/early 20th century Japanese household, from the perspective of a wonderfully entitled and ego-centric cat...

My favorite work of his is the coming of age tale 'Sanshiro' which I read at just the right time  (I was around 21, which as I recall was the same age as the protagonist) and It left a lasting impression... All of Soseki's novels have an undercurrent of the vaugue melancholic nature of a reserved existence, but Sanshiro is also full of comedy and catches the romantic aspirations of young men perfectly. I Identified. heh..

Sanshiro sits alongside 'This side of paradise' (Fitzgerald's first novel), and 'Ask the dust' (by John Fante) as Abes favorite coming of age tales. And I do like a good coming of age tale.

anyhow... nuff waffling for now... I ll post later with an update on how the comic redraw's a comin'.

let's out with some Leonard Cohen yo!  "so long marianne"

Keepin' drawin, keepin postin!

Another page, again words t' be added later (tho' they have been jotted down at least!)

Just finished page four, and I'm pretty happy with the way t'is looking, hope to get another page and a half down tonight... Now that I'm blogging regularly not so much t' say (not that there was ever much, eh,) 

Anyhow

Really been digging CHULAHOMA, the Black Keys album o' the Junior Kimbrough songbook this week... really great "Blue Rock"!

Joseph Lambert is an Incredible Cartoonist, Read so many great things about his book "Annie Sullivan & The trials of Helen Keller" but havnt seen it in any o' the comic shops on this side of t' pond Boo! Gonna have t' buy online if it doesnt appear soon! In the meantime, HERE'S some o his comics online... Particularly liking 'the double'. it's a keeper! 

Alla' the Colours!

Onwards and upwards, drawn last night, coloured this morning. Mix of digital colouring for flatness, then colored on top with watercolour and markers. Word's'll be added later, something faux poetic, very pretentious et al...

Jillian Tamaki's SMMA just gets better and better!

Gotta love "Cant You See" by the Marshall Tucker Band

I'mna be trying t post regularly a few times a week, as the work goes.

caio!

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD SCRIBBLE

 Sometimes I get sick of the look on peoples faces when they see my loosely scribbled comics and assume that I cant "draw"

Well, it's not photorealism or anything (and quickly coloured on photoshop), but... y'know... I just draw in pen without pre drawings or underdrawings... If i make mistakes (and there are many here!) I just have to go with them. 

Otherwise I'd just take a photo. 

My drawing style is just that. A style... I want to tell stories in pictures. not just draw portraits. folks should accept that, and read the comics as stories, cause Alex Ross I a'int!

Anyhow. rant over. heh... dig Ali Farka Toure. this is abe's most favorite piece by the bluesman "N'jarou"

Oh, and fo' all the ol webcomics needs, by many awesome talents check oot studygroupcomics

Right on folks.

Re Redraw. So Sorry!

OK... I get it. I should stop redrawing. But I just couldn't help feeling unhappy with the last ones... I was trying too hard t' ape Anders Nilsons enviable grace in drawing... But I really have to find my own voice. It's coming, slowly but surely... still a whisper, but getting louder...

Anyhow, so with these drawings I got back to old style basics.. drawn with an ink pen, and brush, then coloured with photoshop... though this is just as a colour guide... If This style is t'be the one, Abe'd like to colour by hand. either watercolour or marker pens... ho humm.

Oh boy, its crazy... I visit the Cinema where i worked for over five years, having left in Late October... and now...I know virtually no one there!

A tentative list of all the fine folk who've escaped since I did...

Sami, Kathy, David, Xoey, Lara, Kelly, Johanna, Rosie, Agnes, Luke... By t' end of this month two more are set to go.... Life moves on, people move one with and without us... But it's strange to be treated as a customer at a place I know so well, by people I dont know at all... 

Still, lots of the little hidden bits and pieces of graffiti Abe put up remain... Anyhow... I'm waffling!

Gotta love Tom Gauld's tumblr... this fellow is great, read him in the guardian review section for quite some time, and loved his graphic novel Goliath.

Probably put this up before.. But then they are me favorite band after all... and this is a great video... Beat Happening "Black Candy"

Je t'aime!

Redraws. um.

Back on the redrawing front for the longer story... shucks... it took getting to page 78 before Abe realised just why it wasn't working... But t'is all good. Thats just gonna count as the first draft. There are many petite plot alterations and rephrasing's to be made; one biggie... the solo astronaught is no longer solo (at least not at the beginning), Dialogue instead of monologue. 

There's a really nice article comparing Aidan Koch's comics with Sergio Toppi's over at the comics journal

Ther's a few interviews with Dylan Horrocks around...a truly interested and interesting fellow...Listened t this last night over at INKSTUDS.

And lend your ear to Softcell's version o' a Supreme's Classic - "WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO"

Until the near future!

Keep on a' drawing, Mr Waits

Okay.. so I know I always say I'm not gonna put up much from the poetry comic I'm a'working on with my finnish amigo Chris  but... gosh darn! I'm really happy with how it's looking, and  I want t' share that... ho humm, so here's part of a panel abe just finished colouring. I think it's gonna be a real swinging lil book when we're done with it, and Im highly enjoying the process... using someone else's words free's up abe's wee mind to just... well, draw.

 And also... here's a little strip I made yesterday morn, just a quick, fun thing... who knows, maybe I'll shove a load o' gag strips into the next issue o' Nervous in a cape (which may be slightly delayed! ha, working on a few projects is fun... but means the outcome's'll all be slightly later then planned)

anyhow... Joe Decie's comics just get prettier and prettier, that fellow can draw!

Abe was Interning last year alongside the ever wonderful Merlin Evens... not only is she a grand drawer, but a grand person also! check out her new years post over HERE

also dig a lil' teen tale from Box Brown HERE

And to out our petite post... Tom Wait's Eggs & Sausage 

Back to the scribblin' I go yo!

The Greatest

Annnndddd.... Here's the final cover for 'The Climb". I worked real hard this week on the story, and just finished it all a few mins ago! phew.

This is a 12 page comic for abe and Shamisa's lil publishing concern... we've gotten two great Comic drawers t' make us petite stories, and we should be launching early feb with the first four books! There'll be more info shortly, once we send off the comics t' the printers, we'll launch the site and shop et al! Then y'all can buy buy buy! 

heh.

It feels so good t' have a focus, and to see a project coming together... we first discussed setting up a wee micropress in September, and it's been on the slow burn for a while.... But its gonna happen soon! la dee dah! I also got three more pages drawn on the poetry project mentioned in the last post...  so...whoop!

It's only been possible t' get so much drawing done, cause abe's good ol ma set up this flipping awesome workspace for him in the living room (after tiring of me taking up the kitchen table with scribblin's!)

Isn't it the greatest!

In conclusion... dont got a job, dont got a room, dont got a gal, but done got me a studio space yo! 

So I'm a winner. Right?!!

So... American elf ended after 14 years. sob. Ive been reading it for about 5 years when I picked up a copy o' the sketchbook diaries during my second year at uni... You should buy the books... but read it all Here

Lot's of great films coming out soon! I'm a'looking forward t' Django Unchained and new Terrance Malik... but also to No which was entirely shot on videotape, and looks to be both stylistic & have substance t' the story. so um... thats good.

Lastly... Pascal Pinon (an Icelandic Indie Folk pair o' teen siblings. and kinda talented, well, better then Jedwood anyway, eh) have released a new album but I prefer their rough unedited stuff like THIS

Peace out yo!

Oh, And heres t' a grand new year!

Annnndddd.... Here's the final cover for 'The Climb". I worked real hard this week on the story, and just finished it all a few mins ago! phew.

It feels so good t' have a focus, and to see a project coming together.. la dee dah! also got three more pages drawn on the poetry project mentioned in last post... whoop!

It's only been possible t' get so much work done, cause abe's good ol ma set up this flipping awesome workspace for him in the living room (after tiring of me taking up the kitchen table with scribblin's!)