Emerald City Comiccon 2011

by on March 7, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Posted In: Test

Well another Emerald City ComicCon is done and I had a great time. I met several creator’s, albeit briefly who’s work i have been admiring for some time including, Spike, Danielle Corsetto and Cory Bing. I sold some books… not enough to call it a success but I passed out a lot of business cards so all was good. This year will be the last time I do the Cartoonists Northwest Booth, for a while I thought being in the booth would be better, I had gotten a little fed up with Artist’s alley two years ago and decided being with my group in a more central location would be better for me. Of course last year the booth turned out to be a high traffic spot…. the way a 7-11 on Aurora is a high traffic spot, and the artist alley area turned around and stopped being the ghetto iit had been for the first few years.

I probably should have learned my lesson then and there and gone back but frequently these things leave me so burnt out it felt better to go with the flow and continue with the status quo. So this year the booth was a little better bu it was a little too close to the media section so while it had good traffic it was the kind of traffic that doesn’t stop to look at your display or your merchandise.

Still it was fun. While I didn’t sell as much as I’d like I passed out a lot of promotional cards and got a chance to walk around a little bit. As always the people watching is always the best part of this thing with the most popular costumes being Dr. Horrible and Deadpool. There were a few hectic moments of course, most notably  my having to go back home Sunday morning because I forgot my cashbox and then on the way back downtown the bus I was on got a flat tire. But other than that, all went well.

With any luck I’ll recover by the end of the week.

└ Tags: , ,
Comments Off on Emerald City Comiccon 2011

Well This Is it.

by on March 4, 2011 at 9:12 am
Posted In: Test

The Emerald City ComicCon officially start’s today. I’m psyched and ready and the new book and the new promotional postcards look good. (always something I worry enough when you cut production down to the wire and in the end have to just make your order and pray you proofread your order enough times)

I spent most of my afternoon yesterday moving my gear helping my colleagues at the Cartoonists Northwest table set up and do all of the last minute errands that need doing, like getting petty cash from the bank and printing out mailing lists.

And now, after a good night’s sleep,  I’m putting all of the last minute items together and then off to the races. Wish me luck and I look forward to seeing everyone at booth #1005.

└ Tags: ,
Comments Off on Well This Is it.

Friday Museum Sketches

by on March 4, 2011 at 8:32 am
Posted In: Art

Today’s sketch is another one from the RISD Museum‘s main gallery. Jacques-Luc Barbier-Walbonne, Portrait of Antoine-Georges-Francois deChabaud-Latour and Family. 1806
This one is fun. Not only is it a beautifully crafted piece, that took me an hour to get right, but it’s an example what I like to think of as literalism in portraits. What I mean is that either the artist meant to put an editorial comment into the painting, or it was something he missed, engrossed in every tiny detail, or it’s just the case of our future eyes misunderstanding what a creator from a couple of centuries past was going for… My point is that the painting tells us something that the artist probably hadn’t intended.
This is why I like this piece. Clearly Mr. Barbier-Walbonne created what he was commissioned to do, paint the portrait of a successful plantation owner who was the proud paterfamilias to his family. But when I look at this painting my eyes continue to be drawn back to the children… Who are clearly bored out of their minds.

└ Tags: , , , , ,
Comments Off on Friday Museum Sketches

Proof I’ve Been Reading Too Much Biased Journalism.

by on March 1, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Posted In: Test

I’m a big fan of both the Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Because of this I have a bad habit of looking for news articles about especially good bits. Most of the time they’re just showing the clip but occasionally they provide interesting comments.

So anyway, I was doing this after the Daily Show’s latest bit on Wisconson today and the first headline I saw was;” Jon Stewart’s hysterical defense of teachers.” My immediate response was, “Hey! Whatever you think about the demonstrations, Stewart’s response wasn’t hysterical! It was done in his usual sarcastic deadpan!”

Then I actually read the article and then, slightly embarrassed I said “Oh yeah. Hysterical also means really funny. That makes sense since Jon Stewart is, you know, a comedian.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland – Message for Teachers
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook
└ Tags: , , ,
Comments Off on Proof I’ve Been Reading Too Much Biased Journalism.

Tuesday Rhapsodies

by on March 1, 2011 at 9:03 am
Posted In: Test

Something new I’m trying.  As you probably know, the title of the strip, Rhapsodies, is referring to Rhapsody: “a musical composition of irregular form having an improvisatory character.” I like that definition. It was a definition I could turn into a metaphor, a metaphor that I could use as the entire concept behind the strip.

The word, Rhapsody has several other definitions, all useful but for the time being I’ll stick to the musical definition.

When I first envisioned the concept. I didn’t have the grand concept behind the title. I chose Rhapsodies for two reasons. Reason number one was that at the time Paul was the main character, Paul was a musician so I wanted a musical title. The other reason was before I started doing it as a comic strip, I was imagining Rhapsodies as my vision of what a sitcom should be. Because of the musical theme, I imagined the credits being done to Rhapsody in Blue with a montage of clips of the setting. (In hindsight I confess I was going through a Woody Allen phase and I’d seen Manhattan one too many times) Essentially Rhapsodies was a name of convenience to label your strip with. Like “Peanuts”or “Zits”, actual relivance didn’t matter.

But as time progressed, I liked the way you could turn the musical definition of Rhapsody into a metaphor that embraced the entire strip, even the parts that had nothing to do with the music.

Getting back to the music, though I thought I would start to share some other Rhapsodies. Everything from the classics to the cutting edge. Some obvious, others pieces that were never considered rhapsodies but fit the definition perfectly.

Since I mentioned it already I thought I’d start with one of the greatest works in American music, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

The clip I’m using is the one from Disney’s Fantasia 2000. Compared to the original, I didn’t care for the 2000 sequel. From a technical perspective the animation and graphics were cutting edge, but otherwise I found it lacking, a prime example of form over content.

The Gershwin segment was the exception. I’ve always been a fan of Al Hirschfeld and this was a loving tribute to him. But also I liked how the story, along with Hirschfeld’s characters created a portrait of New York as seen from magazines like the New Yorker at the time.

So without further Ado George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

└ Tags: , , , , ,
Comments Off on Tuesday Rhapsodies