Shameless plug

Well, yes siree, sent of Nervous in a Cape issue 7 t' be printed... hoping it should arrive before the weekend! whoop! anyhow... here are the predictable, and predictably shameless, plugs!

Im'na be putting em out at the usual comic shops hopefully (if they'll take it!) otherwise, just yell!

Hmmn, HERES s a fun little project... poloroids of cartoonists! some o' the greats... and load's of them have scribbled ontop of em... pretty cool huh?!

hey, this is amazing.. heres Molly Drake (Nick Drakes ma), great similarities in their breathy singing... beautiful- "HAPPINESS"

haunting, melancholy... even in this song about happiness...  It puts me in mind of Sibyll Baier. 

Links galore!

Page no 11 of 13 so far.

Oh boy, what struck me most this week is how comics are so predominantly a self taught medium... Unless you live in like Vermont, Miami, Belgium or France...(though there are  a few online course) chances are we hav'ta learn  all by ourselves, but thanks to the internet, well It's really not as hard as all that to gather a reasonable curriculam (gah! well aware that Im sounding more then a wee bit pretentious, but Im'na continue anyway!)

There's a few sites with a great collection of podcast's of interviews and discussions with all kind's of comic artists... see INKSTUDS, and TCJ TALKIES... and while talking about the COMICS JOURNAL, its just ful o' reviews and articles on all aspects of the craft...

Then, well, one can just type in the name of pretty much any artist into google, and up pop thousands of scraps of info.. and maybe if your real lucky, a website with a blog (blogs are particularly insightful into an artists process, as they allow you t' track the progress of process of the artist see HERE for instance, humble beginnings to published alt' comics go getter)

Web comics are everywhere! you just need t' filter thru the "ahem" crap, because... well there are so so many... but there are some great sites acting as online publishers, and they all have a house preferences, so you know what your getting,,, Im a big fan o' STUDY GROUP and WHAT THINGS DO....

And, man! Its great to be able to keep track of all the little publishers online, most of em filled with news about the comics community  and the artists they work with et al, dig RETROFITS page...

anyhow, thats all the formal part of an education... the next thing is literally to make the work right?!! well thats where Im at now... and realising that no one can teach you 'how to draw'... we just got'ta draw and draw... occasional tips on things like composition are great, and theres no shortage of life drawing classes for technical craft...In London I'd reccomend the PRINCES DRAWING SCHOOL most of all! hav'nt been there for a few years, but used to go regularly, while I was at university... y'know cause they emphatically refuse to teach drawing at modern art schools. 

Comics are similar to film... but not the Talkies, the Movies, A visual medium for telling a story... and pacing is the most important part o' telling a story well...space (empty and otherwise) is time in the comics, and...  blah de blah! 

Boom, wore meself out with this sunday morn rant... too many o' those heavy ol links! heh

Been listening to the sound o' Darlin' (the short-lived first effort of three fellas who went on t' big things!) but HERES their EP, great, daft, punk 

Nervous apologies

IM SORRY.

Over the weekend I put together the issue of Nervous in a Cape, and I was really unhappy with quite a bit of it.. so, in the redraw process i am yet again...the issue with the main story (which I'd edited down to 16 pages or so) was that it had no flow, story sat uneasily by words by pictures... I just think maybe my stream of consciousness writing is better then my writing writing, y'know. I come up with nice phrases et al, but in terms of dialogue its so stilted and pretty rubbish... no, ti's better for me to work unscripted and fast paced... to learn as I go, and work through mistakes....

So the page above was one of five i drew between 9pm and 12am last  night... no means perfect, but at least it's flow'n, eh?

Oh.. but anyway... so I did get 32 pages all good to go over the weekend... I'll keep a few of em, like the cover, which i'm kinda chuffed with (drawn and coloured on sunday afternoon)...

It's replacing the tentative cover put up in november... crazy t' see how my style evolves in a short time... it's great tho,' all part of me five year plan for learning how to draw comics fo' real! I reckon I'm just about done with the first year... so onwards and upwards and stuffs!

The comics journal blog lead me towards this great site... read loads o' comics from the 1950's et al! HERE

Anyhow, yesterday at the bookshop, we put on this album by David Byrne... a recent work (think 2006?) the first track rocked my ears! Well rock's  not exactly the word for it but...

David Byrne - "Glass, Concrete & Stone"

keep on with the hop hipp'n yo!

Jessie Mae

I checked out performance anxiety... I dunno, maybe I can use it as the excuse for never "getting out there"... heh... just another page for the next issue of nervous in a cape.

I just love Guy Delisle's books, read Pyongyang a few years back, took me a while to get into it... but then was given Burma chronicles in november, rushed off n' bought Jerusalem immediately... both brilliant... explorations of a foreign culture from the perspective of the stay at home dad... rare, and pretty great... it means he doesn't get preachy or "go looking".... he just presents his daily (but not always so mundane) experiances living in these locations... great stuff... looking forward t' his new book coming out this year... check out his blog (most in french alas, but hey... cool anyhow!) HERE

OH BOY! Jessie May Hemphill, a blues playing electric guitar strumming pioneer! born in the 1920's but not really recorded t'ill the mid 70's, but hey, I'm just glad to hear her! Ignore the strange video, the song's where its at!     

-"IM SO GLAD" 

peace out yo!

hey princess

Allo folks, happy thursday. oh, and happy valentines day also, for those of you not in a romantic pairing, the couples don't need a special day anyway...

here's a page, drawn last night, coloured just now...kinda happy with how it's all looking, but, y'know onwards and upwards and stuffs. I was in the ever lovely Gosh! comics around noon, and bought a book out of sheer imagined awkwardness... as soon as i got inside, I realised that I hadn't bought anything from there since before xmas, but'd been dropping by once a week or so... ha, the neurosis of the insecure geek... anyhow, figured I owed them summut or other for all my days browsing...

And here my troubles began...how to choose, they have so many great books there, but in the end I picked up an old top shelf comic that I'd had my eyes on for a while... they've only had one copy in and I'd never seen it before so why the heck not, eh? Anhow, it's an enjoyable autobiographical coming of age tale... by Swedish cartoonist Mats Jonsson... titled 'Hey Princess'...weighing in at a hefty 479 pages  and comprised of many short(ish) tales, it's a fulfilling and funny read, capturing angst, youth and young angsty romance pretty well! buy in physical or digital form over at top shelf comics HERE

Dig cartoonist Ed Piskor's hip hop history lesson HERE

and for now, heres some Junior Kimbrough for ye- "all night long"... 

(pretty sure the place burnt down after his death) ce la vie.

time has told me

Drawn today, after a frustrating morning of failed starts and restarts...

I finished drawing one story, and started trying to word it all up on friday... but no joy... my mind fails me... simple storys like the one above, really an over glorified whine, seem what i do best, but hey... no one said drawing comics'd be easy (actually I dont recall anyone saying much about comics t' me at all!)

anyhow... cant believe it took me so long to stumble across THIS, an awesome online presence for some of my favorite cartoonists! whoop, great stuff up there...

And the comics journal put up an article by Eddie Campbell, another nice look at the comics/literature debate... endless... but a real nice piece of writing anyway... HERE IT IS

And, as tis a somewhat melancholic sunday here in london town... heres a lovely, but wistful tune by the tragic Nick Drake- "Time has told me"

t'ill the next time folks

PRE-BOOKED TICKETS

"How 'do folks. Are you collecting pre-booked tickets or..."

Oh, the joy of the concierge .. but I dont work no more. heh. well for a lil bit anyhow. Just driving on empty. What savings be for yo!

Anyway... just finished colouring this page  (number 24) about ten minutes ago... figured I'd put it up on the ol' blog. I dunno, might run this first chapter to 26 pages... the story's also gonna have a few lil background strips like this...

A mix o' styles and approaches in an attempt to give a rounded sense of place, if not of story.

Man, just stumbled across the blog of this great Argentinean comics artist PABLO HOLMBERG... He has a really cool looking book, published by Drawn & Quarterly...HERE'S the preview 

So.. thats about it for the moment... meanwhile take a listen to Mr Lennon's acoustic - "LOOK AT ME"

A Promised Update

So, as promised in the morning time... here's a wee update on the ol' comics front...

The page above is from the project I'm a working on with me amigo Finnish Chris... hit page 22 today.. and tho' I'm a lagging way behind me initial schedule t'is going well and stuff... boy oh boy, I've learnt a hell o' a lot about comics during the process of the drawing..

And the page below is friday's page from the main piece I'm drawing at the moment... the plan is t' serialise it in Nervous in a Cape (starting at issue 7) and possibly online... either a chapter at a time, or a few pages a week... hmmn... I like the idea of taking a few months and doing the chapter thing, because then you can edit it before putting it out... but then having to put stuff up regularly, forces one to work... and sometimes I do need forcing, as I have a tendancy to procrastinate etc... anyhow... so t'is coming... 

Abe's also working on a few other shorts... and of course theres the exciting micro publishing joint... just a matter of collecting  other folks works and sending off t' printers...maybe gonna be a late feb thing... 

I Just spent a few hours rejigging one o' my songs that a fella I know (and one of the hippest cat's in ol' london town) asked to use for summut or other, ho hmmm... re working an old recording was challenging but fun...Oh... you didn't know? Abe does really bad faux naive, antifolk music. really. two albums t' check out if you want a laugh HERE

Anyhow... for those who want t' hear something genuinely special here's Robbie Basho - "Blue Crystal Fire"

Also... forgot t' link a few weeks back when I mentioned how much I love Ander's Nilsen's comics... here's a pretty great one from his blog .

Peace out and stuff. um.

Sunday Morning Doodle, Edith Wharton

Allo folks, just another wee sunday morning draw... Edith Wharton, I read Ethan Frome a few years back and enjoyed it.... but it was the collection of her new york short stories that really grabbed me. I Think it was published by the new york review... anyhow, some great stuffs there for sure! While I'm kinda pleased with the drawing... It looks nothing like Wharton at all! heh.

Im'na post an update on the comics and stuff later on, but for now...

Yumi Sakagawa draws lovely ethereal, melancholic and sparse comics... check out some of the tales she does for the Rumpus HERE

And her tumblr HERE

Until later... dig some Skip James - "Crow Jane"