Alexis Time

Alexis de Tocqueville's Tenfold Emanation by Miles

Collage concept art for the State of Jefferson project I'm working on with Evan Carroll and Warren Hedges.

Arms & Ether Figures! Collect Them All!

Who doesn't need a 3D Herodotus? Now to finish the dang Arms & Ether strip I started last week. Embarrassing. No. Need to sleep a bit before first day of class. . . shucks.

Gods! Finally! Herodotus Toy First Draft!

Here's the Herodotus toy. I'm going to print out the beta tonight. As I said, I'll make high res versions for the web site after they've "gone gold."
I think this Papercraft stuff is that "supplementary dimension of folding" that Deleuze and Guattari were talking about.
For folks in the class, it took me 1 hour 20 minutes to cut this thing out. Crank up Pandora, or get some friends and sit around and gossip while you do it. T'is fun.

Herodotus Papercraft & Ware vs. Clowes Depress-Off

Well, here's Arms & Ether's Herodotus. . . as a paper toy design. Still haven't put it into an actual template yet. Tomorrow, I suppose. Also, who's the more depressed comic artist Ware or Clowes?

Punk-assed Perspective Procrastination

Miles Inada, Portrait d'un Punkass de Perspective, c 1763

Because I'm not Piranesi or Jack Kirby, perspective can get me down--especially when I'm not in proper fighting trim. It's called being a perspective punk-ass. So, I'm still not done with the latest Arms and Ether. I have to draw a. . . table. . . and . . . a computer. . . impossible! Weak. Fail. Etc.
Oh, and I also don't want to pay the @#$%ing bills which I've been putting off. !@#$%

Saw Derf on a documentary about Jeffery Dahmer with whom Derf went to Jr. High and High School. Crazy. I'm going to check out the comic he did on his experience with Dahmer, My Friend Dahmer. You should probably check it out too.

Papercraft Realized--Molo to the Fore

Here's 3D Molo--off the page and . . . into your hearts? No, no. I'm sure that's not it.

Papercraft First Stab

My first attempt at this Papercraft bidnit. We'll be using this as an assignment in our Digital Media Foundations class this fall. The above is a lo-res version, I'll make a high-res available when I refine the design. Here's a link to the blank template at cubeecraft. And here's a link to 8-Bit Ghost's post on Papercraft.

Dan Clowes

panels excerpted from Dan Clowes, The Happy Fisherman

Read Dan Clowes' stuff again last night. I'd kind of forgotten how good he is. Jeez. Depressing for me, but good for you. Pick up anything of his you can get your hands on. The more the merrier. "The Happy Fisherman" (see image above) changed me forever and is available in the Twentieth Century Eightball collection. He's just pure quality.

On a stupid note, here he is doing a commercial for Apple that is actually pretty damn funny if you are condemned to making comics.

Bad Ratio

Okay, drew on Arms & Ether for 8 minutes, then spent 21 minutes scanning and writing followed by a one hour break to take coffee to my lady and play Freecell. Work to GoofOff ratio = 29/60 or about 1:2. Well, you have to start someplace.

And let's not get into the "work" vs. hard-core work distinction.

On the up side, though, feel a new project coming on. . .

Through The Leaden Atmosphere

It's slow, painful going getting back to makin' stuff. Ugh. I'm very quick to give up, no clear focus, and my concentration is way, way down. Boo hoo. Whinge. I've put in a grand total of 36 minutes (over the last 2 days) on the latest Arms and Ether. Yes!

Yay For Squire

Shouldn't we all be Mods?



and here are the lyrics if you get obsessed with this song as I did. Damn, those guys were really freaking good. Just bought l'album. How had I not heard of them? They even did a cover of September Gurls. Weird.

Squire
WALKING DOWN THE KINGS ROAD

Walking down the King's Road with some friends of mine
The streets are crowded, its a sign of the times
Walking down the King's Road with some friends of mine
The shops are busy, they've got Saturday on their mind

Well I was just thinking how it used to be...
I'm gonna take a look at Carnaby Street!

Well I was walking down the King's Road
Just about to turn around
Well I was walking down the King's Road
Just about to turn around

In The Chelsea Drugstore with some friends of mine
Saw Mr. Jimmy still standing in line
In The Chelsea Drugstore with some friends of mine
Mini skirts, dolly birds and Radio Caroline

Well I was just thinking how it used to be...
I'm gonna take a look at Carnaby Street!

Well I was walking down The King's Road
Just about to turn around

BTW, Chords are: A G for the verses and D E for the chorus-y bits

Pinball, Comics, Deleuze, Hedges

This olden 6 Million Dollar Man pinball playfield I bought offa' e-bay arrived today. I wonder how long I'll be able to enjoy it before someone makes a crappy remake of the show. Time to draw an Arms and Ether and work my way out of my summer funk and estivation.



As part of the end of summer, I've been reading through Jessica Abel and Matt Madden's Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, which I'll use as an optional text for the comics class this fall. The book is well written and smartly organized with many practical steps and suggestions. Abel & Madden are strong but not hopelessly intimidating comic draftsmen (do you hear me, Zombie Winsor McKay?) So, it's a nice book--lots of information in one place. Hats off, you two.

Until, I get something going, check out Warren's post on the Sokal hoax, if you dare.

Sad Sack, Misreading, and The Anxiety of Influence

After reading Derf's swell Punk Rock and Trailer Parks (here's a link to my post, and another link to a nice interview), I started thinking about why I was drawn to his work. I mentioned the Don Martin vibe, but the more I thought, the more I found myself thinking about the Sad Sack work of Fred Rhoads and George Baker. Derf's work definitely has a 'Sack vibe, and so I got to thinking about how much I loved those Sad Sack comics in the 70's. I haven's seen any since then, as they don't seem to have gotten the glamorous retro love as of yet. I will posit Sad Sack as an eery harbinger of Arms and Ether. Weird military types, and lots of beat-downs. Compare the above strip by Fred Rhoads with my 21st century effort. (I know, Rhoads kicks my ass.)
Anyhow, hooray, and here's a link to a blog that gets into some of the deeper nuances of Sad Sack. Okay, back to work.

Dig Some Derf

Just finished Derf's Punk Rock and Trailer Parks which I thoroughly enjoyed. Here's Derf's website: derfcity.com. (Hey, kinda like Inadaville!). Thoroughly dig his Don Martin-inspired visual style. The writing is also top notch as is his musical taste. And finally. . . OHIO. Check out his weekly strip, The City.

Football: The Song

God, I cannot get this out of my head. Damn you, Matt Lucas (Arsenal fan, btw). Apparently, I have an endless hunger for literal songs about sports. "Another time, a player got fouled, and everybody booed very loud."



A few more Matt Lucas turns as George Dawes, the drumming baby.

Pop Muzak

I want music to lift me up into shimmering veils of electric Godhead so that I feel like a cross between Liberace and Thor. Some of my friends go in for a dark, heavy gothic trance, but not me. I'm already inclined to dank, moronic funks, so I don't really need that tendency reinforced by my music. So, when Third Eye Blind's hatefully popular Semi-Charmed Kind of Life came up on Pandora while Sam and I were listening, I had that, "Oh, hell yeah, turn it up" reaction. I then taught it to him on the guitar (3 chords!), and when we went to get the lyrics I had that, "Oh yeah, the song is entirely about getting all kinds of @#$%ed up on crystal meth and having all kinds of spectacular, explicitly described sex," reaction. So I did the, "yeah, I'm not really sure what that means. . . hmmm" and then we went back to "Swing Swing" by the All American Rejects. I know, I know, but Sam listens to Husker Du and the Ramones as well as 4th-generation bubble gum punk. I've always believed you can like The Beatles and The Monkees.

For kids music the way it actually should be done, check dis ultra-hip early 70's Sesame Street Roosevelt Franklin. I had this album as a young 'un, and darned if it didn't give me soul.



"A-B, you know I got that together." RF, y'all's just a stone-cold bad-ass.

Got to get with it