Project: Romantic

Well, I don't know about you folks, but I had a great SPX. Saw a lot of swell folks, and picked up a lot of swell funny books. It seems I've now been on the scene long enough that people will give me free stuff at shows, which is good, and just, and appropriate. The only thing I've had a chance to read, however, has been AdHouse's much anticipated Project: Romantic.

This book is just chock-full of beautiful drawings and great stories. There are a few stories I could have passed on, but such is the fate of all anthologies, I suppose. And for every "Fart of Love," there are four or five stories I really enjoyed, like JW Cotter's Kingdom Animalia Illustrated, or Doug Frazier's Romance.

I'm very pleased with the way the color my stories printed. And the "to evil" panel was printed on the cover of the Washington Post's Weekend section!

I'm a fancy gallery artist!

Hey Kids! Comics! a freestanding interactive readymade sculpture
metal, paint, ink, and paper
2006

Photos by M. Travis
Spinner Rack Wrangling by C. Matz

Remember, comics are wholesome.

Dirk Daring's Death-Defying Desert Deeds, pt. 7

I'd kind of written myself into a corner when I came to the end of this strip, because, by all rights, Dirk should be very, very dead from exposure. But then, in a flash of poppycock, their dire situation resolved itself in an almost plausible tale of resourcefulness. If Dirk grew a particularily thick beard, and wrapped himself in a parachute, and huddled tightly to a warm-blooded koala, and never moved from his place in front of the guano-fire, the maybe he'd survive a week.

But, you know, not really.

The! Best! of! America! part more!

Wanna free copy of Houghton-Mifflin's The Best American Comics 2006 featuring The Amazing Life of Onion Jack? This book not only contains many fine comics, it is presented with fine, sturdy hardback covers (truly, the rich Corinthian leather of covers {if you ignore the books actually bound in rich Corinthian leather}), and the cover is stamped with GOLD! Yes, that's right - glorious, sparkling GOLD! So you know it's valuable!

All you need is the Internet (sorry, those of you who are receiving this blog on your dental fillings are out of luck). Email the fine folks at Comic Book Galaxy before Halloween, and you'll be entered into the drawing.

Free is good!

The! Best! of! MEMPHIS! Yipee-Kie-Yie-Yah!

Like a one-two punch from the golden fists of ego-inflation: two blasts of external validation within a single week!

The Memphis Flyer is the local alternative weekly newspaper, and they just ran their annual "Best of..." issue, and, well, they were kind enough to include me. Of course, they also said that the best place for singles to hook up was church. So, you know, grain of salt.

By the way, I think "graphic fabulist" is a much better description of what I do than "graphic novelist." Although I'm still pretty happy with straight-up vanilla "cartoonist."

Dirk Daring's Death-Defying Desert Deeds, pt. 6

Okay, just to recap standard textbook editorial poilicy: shotguns, drunken Senators, and predatory fallout shelter salesmen are a big NO.

Brutal penguin savagings? Oh, YES. Yes, please. Please, more. More now!

The! Best! of! AMERICA! Yee-Haw!

I should have mentioned this earlier, but it's been hectic lately. Houghton-Mifflin's The Best American Comics 2006 is out in stores, and I'm pleased to be included. Houghton-Mifflin seems to be giving this book the full promotional push, so it should be pretty easy to find. I went to a Barnes & Noble, and they had it sprinkled all over the place, including the coveted end-of-aisle spots. Nice!

I've only had a chance to read about a quarter of the book so far, but I've liked what I've seen. I'm not sure that the word "Best" is precisely accurate, but Some Danged Good American Comics probably wouldn't sell as well. By the way, the "America" in the title refers to North America, which, for their purposes, includes Greenland. Maybe this is just a gap in my backwoods-hillbilly education, but I had no idea that Greenland was part of North America. Not that it matters. There are no Greenlander comics in this collection.

Dirk Daring's Death-Defying Desert Deeds, pt. 5

The landscapes on this page were fun to draw.

Added onto the sidebar are some new student blogs. Please drop on by and check 'em out. Make comments. Send donations. Michele Duckworth actually graduated last semester, but I'm keeping her on the list, because she's got a residency over at MCA's graduate studios.

Dirk Daring's Death-Defying Desert Deeds, pt. 4

My main artistic goal with this story was to draw a man wearing a koala bear as a hat. I pretty much wrote the whole story around that. It wasn't quite the satisfying payoff I'd hoped.