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!)

Climbing on up

Howdy folks, hope life's treating y'all as well as it does abe! The last few weeks have had a few ups and downs, but the overall direction is upwards bound...(for a more in-depth look at my mundane and mild existence check out abes daily comics blog).

So, above are two versions of a cover, to be made for.... well... Abe and his belgian amiga Shamisa are in the process of setting up a petite micro-press publisher! There will be more info in the near future... but t'is most assuredly an exciting time... We shall focus on putting out a few small (12 pagers in b&W) comics, and just see how it goes... working on a wordpress for it, and setting up an online shop etc. But I've blathered on enough... expect more details in Jan!

So the cover will be in B&W but for now, just thought I'd put up two versions of it, on the left digitally coloured, and the right is hand coloured. For this piece I'm probably gonna stick with t' digital version, but shall have t' see!

anyway...

Not gonna put up any pages, but heres a panel from the piece Im working on with my Finnish friend Chris, as mentioned last time... Poetry interpreted! Going well, but Im having so much fun with this piece that I havent drawn for my longer story for a week and a half! Yikes... but interpreting and drawing someone else's words is a liberating (and confining) experience after years of focusing on my own stories et al (and going nowhere fast! ah ha!)

Anyhow

Been listening t' this album by Iron & Wine of late. (nice third track)

And, Think I posted this before, but remains one o' my favorite webcomics about angsty teen life, love et al! supermutantmagicacademy

And Lastly... The grand Bill Hicks telling it like it is .

Peace out!