a beat poet, all broke, hands in his lines, smiles for a spell and shoots the breeze. pang. later is arrested and tried.

But thats just how it goes at times, gotta wear that crooked grin at an angle, make it horizontal...

...and all that other rambling nonsense.  A common occurrence when I don't post regularly.

I've been busy working of late, and arriving home later, tired and more into jamming with a movie or book then scribbling away.. but thats got to change, so its going to.  anyhow, above's a little nothing I drew last week. but I think it works for whatever reason.

In a week or so I'll be departing this dear old land of albion.. etsoy yendo a barcelona,  donde voy a construir una nueva vida junta con un persona muy especial, una chica de exterior espacio.. en este momento no tengo muchas palabras, pero intento a aprender mas y mas.. y alguna vez, quizas dibujo mis comics en espanol... vamos a ver ... 

Anyhow, so yup.. my language is not the best, but what the heck, I got drawing en mi corazon, and two bucks in my bolsillo, y musica in my ears. Ive packed most of my stuff away, but left my books out,  cause I have too many of them anyway, but its given me a nice time to reread them... I find I love turning these pages over and again... reading Blankets by Craig Thompson after maybe seven years... shit, thats a hell of a book, deservedly still in print. Reading it again was a little like revisiting a very particular time and space, coated in amber.

"I was as still, as still as a river can be"

Rococo Zephyr - Bill Callahan

in which a young(ish) fellow journeys across the galaxy in search of new language.

Amongst other pages.

Barcelona in the autumn.

comics, drawn and undrawn. I feel my hands are become clumsier and clumsier, nothing consistant, only those ol' heartbeats. Life drawing classes are a little too pricy for my coin purse at the moment, but thats the plan

And in January I'll begin to continue. Life et al.

I read some kind reviews of my comic Swear Jar, thankfully focusing more on the sentiments I attempt to impart then on my third rate draughtsmanship. I finished the next issue of nervous in a cape back in june but once again my financial restraints et al... anyhow its in astounding digital form over here

pep and vim 

New Order - Age Of Consent

and three nice films for your consideration

The forbidden room

Sunset Song

Gueros

Last week was a good time to be a rainbow hunter, remember your helmet, cap.

So this is a true story, about a person from outer space.

well they landed here on earth, stayed for a spell, and cast a few.

But then one day left for jupiter... and oh boy there was all of a sudden (                )    

a space.

..but heck, on jupiter they have email, so writing happened from time to time, to time.

..these days they live on the moon, so I figured I'd head out on my ol rocket ship, with my sketchbook in my bag and my beard shaven off, and say "hi, hows tricks?", and take a few months to try learn some kind of lunar language,  which I'd always figured I should learn anyhow.

So tomorrow I'll fly, and maybe not be posting for a little while, no scanners on the moon at the moment.

Yo LA Tengo's new album has some swell songs... 

Yo La Tengo - "Deeper Into Movies"

plus It reminded me how much I love

                    Today is the Day

and on that fair note, so long mary, anne.

Right so, heres the thing.

and the thing is

here.

over here, 

oh, you missed it? too bad... It'll come around again, from time t' time.. some things always do.

This is a beautiful album, 

Charles Mingus - East Coasting

and heck.. if I could play like this man, I wouldn't need this damn blog.

be brave like captain america, and take my hand. A homestead in the 1950's, when I woke I had a cloud on my mind. yup.

lil a6 sketchbook pages. photoshop colours et al.

I only really wanted to post to link to Scott Carrier's podcasts. His contributions to This American life have always been the greatest, and here he has his own thing. go, listen, subscribe et al-

HOME OF THE BRAVE

and we out like that.

or not. I just read Jason's new book If You Steal.. Its a good one, a fine collection of playful shorts, fun and sad and most everything in between. Oh boy, he has the whole four panel timing thing down pat.

and we out.

Peace in, hop out.. lost until you find the twine laid out at your feet. go minotaur go!

Pencil and ink wash on paper. This kind of drawing is just fun, fast... and you end up with a real finished product. Vague ideas, but I love drawing most of all, I can turn a nice phrase on occasion, but my eyes get heavy if I'm typing for too long.. 

still, perhaps at some point I should just write a complete script and then y'know.. do the draws. or just keep on with the short short stuff, and automatic writing et al. heck.. all just different ways to get t' that darn mountain, anyway, even once you've reached it I guess one'll still need hiking boots.

oh, sweet Theramin... 

Clara Rockmore - Nocturne In C# Minor

Just heard this fellow for the first time.. 

CASS McCOMBS- I CANNOT LIE

This was an interesting film, very powerful, and pretty claustrophobically shot and acted. the kind of film you'd hesitate to recommend because its probably a genuine masterpiece and therefore not an "easy" film by any measure. thank fuck I live in the future.

HARD TO BE A GOD- TRAILER

on lying down in the grass: "I used to be tall, now I'm long"

I found some old discarded pages from 2014, and they seemed not so bad after all... I put a bunch up on  Tumblr

A great documentary transcends the specific interests of the viewer... and this is a great documentary by the late Albert Maysles, a killer soundtrack, beautiful eccentric lady and heartwarming relationship with her husband.

IRIS

a song to fit most any occasion?

The Cure - Close To Me (Studio Demo)

HIP HOP & FOX TROT

page.

Thanks to the cartoonist Jason's blog  I discovered Tia Blake, an American in France in the 1970's.. Apparently she passed away earlier this year... She released one album only, but what an album.. cest magnifique... This is my favourite piece:

               Tia Blake - Hangman

This was a nice film... BEST OF ENEMIES

THIS IS NOT A RANT, (CAPS LOCKED)

I owe a little post. and a page.

This isnt a rant, I just thought some things...

Thoughts on comics... Is it possible to tell the stories I want to without "learning to draw" or just, y'know having to draw (and practice draw'n) the kind o stuff I just detest drawing,  (Interiors, I'm talking t' you..) 

It might be a case of having to pencil in, or draft, or thumbnail... none of which I use, they bore me out of my mind.. I just sit down and draw in ink... and the wastepaper bin seems to need empty'n an awful lot. Which is a coincidence or something.

Looking through my comics, at folks like Anders Nilson and Sammy Harkham, Philippe Dupuy and Dash Shaw.. and just being consistently blown away by their work, old and new... with the art, seems like the trick is to boil things down without simplifying..  but who's to say eh....  Your style will find you at your drawing board or something.. and'll never look right to your own eyes anyhow.. Chris Ware's as full of distaste for his own work as the rest of us (see the acme novelty datebook).. But methinks its all just a young mans way of seeing the whole thing..

Comics can be the greatest pleasure to work on, as long as you just don't care about them going any further then your own hands.. thats where all those damn neuroses start.

Anyway, as I said topside, this isnt a rant, comics don't bother me so much at the moment..  theres sun and pretty skies and I think I might have flown one time.

This man is beautiful 

as is 

Lou Reed Legendary Hearts

AND WE OUT LIKE THAT.

A brief up date on the down low

A few years ago I could draw all night, through the next day, and into the distance... these days I nod off around 11.30pm... I guess I'm an old man.. Apparently I age a little every day, but I think it happens once a week, I'll age seven days or so. 

I figured I hadn't posted in a little while, so  heres the low down

down

here

l

l

l

l

V

Recently I've been rereading all James Kochalka's American elf strip (in physical, bookish form... it works better on mass when one isn't looking at a screen).. Fuck I love these comics... they meant a lot to me, and now peppered with nostalgia for the "me" I was when I read them, and a weird nostalgia for someone else's life... because diary comics do that, when you read everyday... Its a powerful connection.. 

Im enjoying this Melissa Mendes Comic, though "enjoy" isn't quite the right word

I found an amazing album on monday at the bookstore, heres my favourite piece..

Art Tatum - The Man I Love

solid and unrewarding, like a chunk o' fools gold

So, I found a bunch of abandoned drawings last week, and remembered I'd coloured one of them... this is a page from a story I got bored with or ran out of ideas for or something... I think I only made it to page 7 or so... 

Its funny, in many ways this may well be some o' the most "solid" cartooning I've ever done, but its also the most stilted, and ultimately was quite a dull unfufilling drawing experience. I prefer to work stream o' conscious like... without predrawings or penciling (unless its a pencil comic) Shit, apparently "real comics" are like this to draw...damn... 

Anyhow its just not much of a fun way to spend the spare hours in my day. I want to draw comics, but its not my job, so it has to have some joy to it, because I'm not young enough to be all "ambitious"... any energy I have wont carry things very far if theres no good feeling there.. 

Things like the sketchbook comics I put up last week, I had so much pleasure, just letting my mind and hand wander across the page,  and yeah, the lines are a messed (and poorly drawn) in places and the words sure are a tad corny, but damn... it was a pleasure...ho hummn,

so, theres a rambling saturday morning post. 

Tom Waits - You Can Never Hold Back Spring

Things I drew yesterday at work, instead of.

Sketchbook comics over on the ol Tumblr

Swear Jar

Attention dear readers (all five of you).

The good folks over at Avery Hill Publishing have kindly put together a petite collection of my scribblings et al...40 pages of neurotic comics from the big ol' 2014, and in full colour no less!  

Its going on sale officially as of the 6th o' June over at the CECAF and then elsewhere... But it can also be ordered from Avery Hill online, ...Whilst there you should check their forthcoming books, because theres a swell bunch of talent in that list.

p e sososasaas oa

I drew some Pessoa a few minutes ago, because I found a book of his whilst trying to get my shit together literally and metaphorically. 

I have too many books.  too many things...  I just wrote a three paragraph rant, but I got shy, so you''ll just have to imagine.

Go see this film.... it's nice

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

and this one...it's timely

   Timbuktu

and this song just 

hits home..

Smog - Say Valley Maker

I put something on the internet, just like the rest of this goddamn world does, now Im off to read poetry in the sun.

In the end printers were making me blue, plus its not really anything deserving of physical immediacy... blah blha bsla. You can see it over HERE

I don't want t' dance, but I'll gladly sit here in the corner and read my book.

So, I done got all 52 pages of Nervous in a Cape 9 finished, on top is the title page for one of the stories. I'm just looking at various printers now, trying to find the right thing... I'd quite like to follow the trend in small press comics at the moment  and get it risographed.. as it'll have an "actual print" kinda feel (plus I just love that smell!).. anyway, its all in b&w so shouldn't be too expensive. I hope.. 

The second thing's is part of a three page comic about my time in New York two years ago.. I found an old sketchbook.. Kinda lame autobio, but what the heck.. I put it all up on my TUMBLR, OVER HERE.

Anyhow, two musical gifts...Early Jeffery Lewis, telling things like they are.

jeffrey lewis - So Long (i'm gonna go draw alone in my shack)

Holy shit, these guys are rad! Rad! RAD!

Los Saicos - Wild Teen-Punk From Peru 1965 (Full Album)

Home from home, and other tree houses I spend my days in

So, this is something that I'm working on. The next wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy overdue issue of my petite offering to the world.  I figure It'll be done in a month or so, but who's t' say...  I'm always promising that I'll get to work, and then never moving anywhere near the right direction. But heck, its fun to dream anyhow.

trying to think of a subtitle for this one... maybe 'astronautically challenged' ll do.. Its gonna be mostly the tale of an astronaut, I'm reworking that ol 28 pager i put up a few weeks back on tumblr so it'll look more like this:

also gonna have some of my daily strips in... with added texture. But still, alas, yawnworthy.

Anyway, the real reason I'm even posting right now is because a few days ago I went to see this film. which I had damn high hopes for. which exceeded all those presuppositions I'd dwelled upon. in short the film was pretty damn perfect. go watch it, really. 

So its four hours (with an interval) and 99 percent black and white. and German.. yeah, its arthouse. Go watch. In content t'is just the stuff of life, with a splash of magic thrown in..  funny, sad and poignent,  this film made my flipping week.  I haven't seen the heimat television show (of which this is a prequel) but if I can find the thing (1980's german tv..?!). Edgar Reitz's life project is well worth the time methinks. heck, Werner Herzog even pops up near the end (as he's so wont to do these days..)

HOME FROM HOME - CHRONICLE OF A VISION 

Nothing doing. Nothing done.

page, drawn maybe in december?

man is the man-

John Fahey - Sunflower River Blues (1967 Version)

some stuff you don't need to know, (yawns incl gratis)

Playing with proper cartooning, drawing with ink. It can be nice at times.

Reading 'leaves of grass' by Walt Whitman.. I have some yawns, and then he'll bursts out with lines t' make the heart swell, but they're few and far...  Im still digging Frank O'haras 'meditations in an emergency', over and again. Fernando Pessoa travels with me in my bag most days.

JAUJA, a pretty (and pretty intense) film, I thought it was a damn fine piece.

I didn't like Noah Baumbach's latest (while we're young) so much, but it was at least entertaining.. nice piece from the soundtrack here:

"We Used To Dance" By James Murphy

I have this map. Its a damn bad map, leading to over there. Left foot first.

And sometimes you just set off without a clue, and six pages in realise its all too clumsy. sketchbook stuff.

I just felt I maybe owed a post or something. A few weeks ago I went to berlin with my bud JJ a swell city, full of girls laughing at us... When I was younger I really enjoyed drawing cities, but these days I just walk and look, so no sketchbook pages from there Im 'fraid.. anyhow here I  am  fighting a great white emptiness ( I didn't win)..

blah blah blah.

At work I was introduced to this Portuguese music man. Its pretty and melancholy. 

      noiserv - Bullets on Parade

L' astronaute returns, stays for brunch, and then leaves for a prettier face

I put up a little astronaut comic on my tumblr. OVER HERE.

pretty dull stuff as always. Sorry about that.

I listened to this amazing album whilst colouring this morn, because I couldn't see no darn eclipses from london town.

Ant Trip Ceremony - 24 Hours 1968[FUll Album ]

Ho Hummns part deux

Sketchbook works,

I've drawn a heck of a lot, but my books full of pretty personal anxieties et al, nothing really of interest, these pages are the two least embarrassing, so up they go.

Like a poor man's anders nilsen 

I was introduced to this band recently. Nice.

Future Islands - Inch of Dust

Ho Hummns part 1

So, I put some draws up on MY TUMBLR, more whining I'm afraid, but at some points I guess you just gotta accept except your natural voice, eh?

Its been the longest time since I posted anything here, and life's moved up and left and backward and everywhere in between since then.. I guess Im still half a real person, trying to figure out this o'l world... thats enough rambling narcissism for now instead Ill leave you to:

Tarheel Slim & Little Ann - It's Too Late