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)