Sinew and Bones

NEW NEW blog

2012-01-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

please redirect yourself here. Thank you!

New comic about a dirty duck, Ed Gentleman, on a new blog

2011-01-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

You can read the full comic on my new blog. All updates and new work will be there from here on out (not to mention my twitter and sometimes on my tumblr). Old posts will remain up here. Thanks for reading, happy new year, and I hope to see ya there!
xo and all my best,

ed

New print for SPX: A Xenomorph and a queer duck on a date

2010-09-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

Brad told me to draw this while we were eating dim sum in Chinatown with our friend Kirsten. He also appears as the bartender, as he was studying antiquated drink recipes (mostly with eggs) at the time. The Xenomorph is, of course, the alien from that movie, y'know, Star Wars.

This will be available as a 11x11" print on fancypants Classic Crest paper at SPX this weekend at the North Bethesda Hotel & Convention Center. I'll be at the Grimalkin Press table with Dave O'Shell. Also enjoy seeing a bajillion other talented cartoonists: Corinne Mucha, Richard Thompson, Kate Beaton, Kevin Huizenga, Tom Kaczynski, JAIME HERNANDEZ, Gabrielle Bell, John Porcellino. A laundry list, if you have amazing laundry.

Thanks to Allegra for the last-minute edits on the cartoon.

Instuds doodle + SPX news

2010-09-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

This is a doodle of Robin McConnell, host of the great comics interview show Inkstuds, which runs on Canadian radio and as a podcast. I was listening to the show and drew his "Dirtybird" mascot version of himself, originally designed by Robin Bougie.

I drew it as a break from a new color print I'm making for SPX - BECAUSE I'M GOING TO SPX! I'll see you at Grimalkin Press's table, and that's literally all I know. Stop by and say hello! You may regret many things in life but you won't regret that. That's the ECM promise.

New comic: "Mommy's Secret Helper" + Minneapolis Indie Expo - panel talk & more fun

2010-08-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

Click for full version:To appear (in slightly different forms) in Grimalkin Press's anthology HIVE 5 and as an insert on purple paper in the new edition of Decorum.

Also: How do you like this format for reading comics online?

MIXI will be appearing at the first annual Minneapolis Indie Expo at The Soap Factory at 518 Southeast 2nd Street on Saturday, August 21 from 9AM-5PM - free to all. I will be speaking on the panel "Paranormal Activity in Comics" at 11AM with Tim Sievert, Sarah Becan, and Will Duff from a show called Ghostbustin' 911.
All weekend's FREE programming busts with fun, including a 6-8 Friday night signing at Big Brain Comics (1027 Washington Ave. S.) with hometown heroes Zak Sally and Will Dinski, and Chicago's Aaron Renier; after, the MIX kick-off party continues at the 501 Club (501 Washington Ave. S.) with perennial accordian & musical saw favorites Dreamland Faces, my sometime collaborator Reynold Kissling's Robots from the Future, and a group I've heard good things about called The Great Confinement. The next day there will be an actual comics event which should be good. Renier, Kevin Cannon, and minicomics godfather John P. all give talks.

2D Cloud will appear with the fourth and final issue of their anthology Good Minnesotan, in which me, Renny Kissling, Maddie Queripel, and other buds appear.

MIX is co-organized by buddy and former MPLS Zinefest organizer Sarah Morean and St. Paul Craftstravaganza organizer Andy Krueger. Having tabled at Zinefest, I expect a lot of fun, and I believe there will be coffee and treats for sale by The Donut Collective.

I hope you can stop by at MIX and say hello. I'm real happy to be stomping by my old stomping grounds, and I look forward to seeing you.
Best,

Ed

Warning: Land Shark

2010-07-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

The Land Shark is a little 4x5" print made by "Li'l Ric" Schuster and myself for the Good Minnesotan #4 (in which we both appear) Kickstarter fundraiser. Click the link below for info.

My inks/tweaks.

Ric's original drawing. I saw this in his sketchbook at Springcon in Minneapolis, and asked if I could ink it. I believe he drew it for his young cousins.

In other news, expect a new 4-page comic by this time next week.

Scrabble for Dad-le

2010-06-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

My dad's furiously passionate interests can be listed on one hand: Scrabble, biking, sailboats, antique watches, and grilling.

Poppa Moorman blogs about biking and trips at Mike's Random Travels.

A collection of vintage people's parents photo fun.

...A burning question remains. Who ARE parents?

ALSO.
Happy engagement to my good friend and often-convention tablemate Sean Lynch, and his special lady and our blessing at cons Mako Homura.
Sean posted on Facebook their engagement last night, and I assumed it would be the typical coupla months thing... imagine my surprise when I got a Facebook invitation for the wedding (happening in all of three weeks) this morning.
Sean has been a constant source of encouragement and inspiration since I met him, and Mako can brighten any day. I wish them the best.

PLUS. Happy birthday, Vincent van Gogh.

Skull suite, revised for GMN4 plus early drafts

2010-06-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

Skulls are referenced from studies by van Gogh. As I noted before, this is part of 2D Cloud's Good Minnesotan #4, being fundraised via Kickstarter.

Help out with printing, get cool stuff - including a brand new color promo print from me. See it here soon.

This second draft was meant to be the final. I asked co-editor Raighne at Stumptown if I could have a window of time to redo it. It had gained polish but lost spontaneity. As time went by, I also realized it lacked knowledge, dimensionality, and fun.
From this post.

Original doodle, drawn sitting in bed. I was unemployed at the time and made a rule for myself that I would draw every day before I even got out of bed, because I was sick of getting to the end of the day and feeling drained, realizing I hadn't drawn.
From this post.

Creepy birthday, GMN4 Kickstarter fundraiser

2010-06-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

WEIRDO BURFDAYA few weeks ago my friend John celebrated his 30th birthday, and his gal pal Lucy asked a couple folks to contribute to a birthday sketchbook. Seeing as it's the last thing I've completed and I haven't posted in awhile, I figured I'd put it up.
John is going to Carnegie Mellon to study how computers talk to each other (I always forget the specific major), so I figured I'd show his upcoming birthday, when man and machine have formed a perfect symbiotic union.
At the time I was concerned about its creep factor, but now I think I could have gone further with it.
If you recognize the quote, you are a dork.

STEP UP TO THE PLATE, GET NEAT SHIT

2D Cloud's Good Minnesotan is the first anthology I appeared in and is raising funds for its fourth and final issue (they are moving onto other formats/things), a neat little package of separate minis housed in an art box. It attempts a comic version of an itty-bitty Criterion set in comic form. Click the link above to pledge, which gets you books, buttons, and Nick Breutzman's beautiful oversized newsprint comic You Can't Be Here.
I contribute a little skull suite picture. More info to come.

Springcon '10 + good-bye to Arise!

2010-05-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

I'll be attending the Twin Cities's Springcon (formerly Fallcon) this weekend, May 15-16 (10-5 both days), at the MN State Fairgrounds. I'll be tabling with my friend "Little 'Ric" Schuster, or perhaps "Tall Sean" Lynch... I signed up last-minute so I'm not sure. You can recognize me by the above self-portrait. I'll have Decorum, the Muppet-themed Stitching Together, and Ghost Comics for sale.

While I'm in Minneapolis, I'll be saying congratulations to my friends graduating from my old school, MCAD, as well as saying good-bye to the radical bookstore Arise!. Arise! was the second store to ever stock my books and has been a great support to me, including hosting the Ghost Comics release party. All of Arise!'s stuff (including their furniture and shelving) is heavily discounted this week, ending with a bonfire goodbye at dusk on Saturday. However, a new progressive bookstore, Boneshaker Books, is coming to the area this summer.

MSP love is all around.

Thanks to John P. for reminding me of this by posting on facebook.

My cousin Dave once told me that when it was going around that some of the guys in Hüsker Dü were gay, "'Everyone said, 'It's totally the guy with the moustache!'"

ghost me + superstar sister pt. 2

2010-05-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

second selfA couple of months ago while drawing the roughs for my bizcard image on tracing paper, I moved the paper aside. I noticed a trace of the pencils transferred directly onto my drawing board.
A ghost image of me drawing, imposed right on the desk surface. Like newspaper comics pressed onto Silly Putty.

superstar sister
On the left is my sister in classical drag for Die Fledermaus at her school. She is truly my own flesh and blood. Only a binder and packer would have made the illusion complete, but I won't hold that against her. I hope to actually see one of her shows someday. That's the bummer about the live arts. You can't hold it, it's gone.

Stumped '10

2010-04-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

Photo by Joshin Yamada

This is what the future looks like. Except it's in the past. Last weekend, at the Stumptown Comics Fest in stupidly beautiful Portland, Oregon. On the left is my wonderful tablemate, Sean Lynch. He and his brother Ian made the 30-hour drive from Minnesota. It was sad to catch them for only a short time, but Ian had a wheelchair basketball tournament to start practicing for (he's literally a world-class player).

Thanks to everyone who came to our table. I had a pleasure talking to each of you. Thanks for the support to those of you who picked up books. And thanks to the publishers and artists who were all generous with their time. Thanks to Ivy for the great glitter/glue/folds snake card and sparkly snap bracelet. Thanks for trades and gifts goes to Rose Thor, Carla Speed McNeill (holy shit, Finder), Aidan Koch, Dylan Williams, and others.

Thanks to Will Dinski for the con advice awhile back.

Thanks to the judges of the Annual Stumptown Awards for the nomination of designer Jenny Tondera and Ghost Comics for Best Publication Design. Not to mention Cosmic Monkey Comics for their free booze at the awards party. I thought they were going to pour that giant beer into a cup so they could split it amongst people. Nope! Portland.

Most of all, thanks to our hosts, the Stumps of Beaverton: Alison and her parents Mike and Sherrie. They gave us rides, home-brewed beer, and mountains of delicious food when we needed it most.

I recommend Vegetarian House in PDX's Chinatown: delicious faux meat and noodles cooked by our friend Diana Chao's dad.

It was good to see my friend from high school Marina, who I hadn't seen in eight years. Same with meeting her beagle, Arthur; her husband of last week, Ryan; and her friend Chelsea.

The northwest: Walking by the river with Marina and Chelsea, talking about sex, love, betrayal, and writing. The sunset trails long shadows from the lush trees. Trains chug on the other side of the road. This part of the world tempted me like a cartoon Tex Avery-drawn wolf lifted off the ground by a trail of perfume. But I'm that Beatles song: "If I Needed Someone."

More Stumptown debuts, Jeeeeyzus, thanks, and the Marx brothers sing

2010-04-21T09:45:00.001-07:00

Decorum, a Stumptown debut mini of my humor work.
I just realized the subtitle is misleading, as I redrew and cleaned up all the doodles. Oops. It's $3.

Faces/Spaces, a zine of life drawings, comes FREE with a purchase at Sean & I's table.

Sean's selling some new comics and drawings of animals and Star Wars characters. Here's his Boba Fett.Thanks to Alison Stump and her parents for letting Sean and I stay at her place this weekend in Portland.

From Decorum.

MANY THANKS to Kirsten and Sadaf, who helped me assemble minis last night.

ALSO: INEXCUSABLY LATE THANKS to my assistant inkers on Dark Cloud Comin': Neville McKinnie, Renny Kissling, and David Lundin. They all saved my ass from the fire. I wish I had given them more room to add texture and dimension to the pages.

Renny's previewing a new story up on his site called "Pale Blue Dot," about a cute little alien in trouble.

Here's Neville's drawing of him and his brother as kids, from his blog. Neville also helped out with assembling minis during my senior project, so double thanks.

YES.

The Marx brothers trade off on "Everyone Says I Love You" from Horse Feathers. Just get past the lame, serious first verse by Zeppo.
Like the Muppets and Mel Brooks movies, the Marx brothers provide me with the illusion that things are right with the world.

Muppet comics, redux

2010-04-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Color is approximate.

Cover ( to redux of The Love Song of Kermit the Frog. Contains "...The Life and Death of Jim Henson", "Halved..." (seen in the post below), and some more stuff including one new story.

The retitling marks the beginning of the end of my wordy Morrissey-style titles.

Debuting at Stumptown in Portland this weekend. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello.

Leg man up + feelings blah blah blah

2010-04-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

From the upcoming Stumptown debut Decorum.

Redux of a strip in The Love Song of Kermit the Frog, repackaged for with one new story as Stitching Together for a Stumptown debut.

New promo image + Stumping the Town with Sean Lynch and debuts of Faces/Spaces, others

2010-04-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

New promo image for my business card and website.

I'll be appearing at the Stumptown Comics Fest in reportedly beautiful Portland, Oregon on April 24-25. I'll be debuting my new zine of gross shit Decorum, a revised version of the Kermit book entitled Stitching Together, a version of Chris Ware: Paper Musician with a variant cover...

And a collaborative zine Faces/Spaces with and designed by my friend and tablemate Sean Lynch. Here's one spread and one single page from F/S.

Looking forward to Stumptown for:
-Sunshine
-Friends
-Fabled food, beer, coffee
-Annual cartoonists' karaoke
-Punky queer DIY-ville
-A town so into cartooning that its mayor, Sam Adams, declared April "official comic book month"

Skulls for GM4, art school arguments, "I Can't Get Started"

2010-03-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is my contribution to Good Minnesotan #4: One Last Taste, named so because the anthology is folding. Raighne and Meghan of 2D Cloud are moving on to other projects. GM was one of the first anthologies I appeared in and I appreciate its bringing my developing voice to people's ears.
You'll recognize the drawing as a redux of a doodle from a couple posts down. Maybe I killed it in tightening it up. I dunno yet.

Art school arguments

My friend Alison wrote an post at her career-oriented blog The Cafe Creative called "What is College Worth?" More specifically, it asks, "What is art school worth?" - we attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. My friend Anna responded and I wrote my two cents-- two giant, hulking cents. From Ed "When do you not go on a spiel?" Moorman. It became a tirade about work ethic in general. I'm not proud of my tendency to stand on any soapbox I can find, but I'm sure you can find a few good points in a morass of conceit.

By Gershwin / Duke

Frank Sinatra, arr. by Gordon Jenkins, from No One Cares, 1957

Billie Holiday with Lester Young and Teddy Wilson

Bunny Berrigan, 1937

This is different but I like it too

cowboy

2010-02-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

old doodle, pardner.

Dead things, the El train, and Christmas eve.

2010-02-10T15:00:00.001-08:00

Renny knows what I'm talkin about.
Think I might throw another layer on this one and do a brush 'n nib version.

Jesse, Caroline, and her little dog, too.

My grad speech + ghastly screenprint + NOLA sketch + oops hourly comics + kooky doodles

2010-02-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

My commencement speech at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, May '09

MCAD Commencement Speech '09 from Ed Choy Moorman on Vimeo.

I posted this before, but this version is higher quality and complete. The youtube version cut off the end.

Little heavy on the Woody Allen. Tinge of Shatner.
But it was my first shot at doing something like this and I'm happy with how it went.
Immediate regret hit me upon leaving the stage that I hadn't thanked more, more enthusiastically, or more specifically. People there had been good to me. Leo, Sally, McGee, Schulz, Akagawa, Beatty, Garrett. Serious props to Margie McGee for the direction on this speech.

Submission for Test Everything: "It is a Pleasure to Meet You"
My submission to the screenprinted zine Test Everything (still open til 2/22). Restrictions: 2 layers, one black, one teal; including the phrase "It is a pleasure to meet you."

New Orleans' 7th Ward
I recently went on a whirlwind road trip to New Orleans with one old friend and two new ones, stopping in Memphis (just in time for Elvis's 75th), Leland (birthplace of Jim Henson), Jackson (for a Jim Henson exhibit at the Missippi Museum of Art), Vicksburg, Natchez, and one night in Rantoul, IL due to a blizzard. (We remade part of The Shining in a Days Inn.) I now love the South. This is one drawing from the trip, from the house our friend generously let us stay at.

Just in time for that uh, game that, uh, I guess was important.
Who dat?

Pictures from to probably follow.

Hourly Comics '10: A Failed Experiment
The "fuggit" in the title refers not to quitting, but why not, I'll do it.
I did this wrong. I spent almost all of every hour thinking up and drawing the panels. I made the same mistake that I did my first time doing the 24-hr comic challenge: not thinking about the restrictions. Next year, if I'm around to do it, I will limit myself to 5-10 minutes per hour of drawing.
It started out being fun, but I ended up feeling like I was taking the SATs all day... I'm pretty sure I made myself sick by tiring myself out. As enormously wussy as that sounds.

Stumptown + kooky drawerings
Looks like I will be attending Stumptown '10 with Mr. Sean Lynch. Fingers crossed. I miss that tall guy. Here's a picture that my pal/his gal pal Mako drew in my sketchbook when I stopped in MPLS 'round Christmas:
Isn't that great? The curly haired profile near the bottom left may look familiar. Her bear inspired this:
Which Brad thought looked like "a real-life Domo-Kun."

Next:
Many doodles from the past few months. I got a scanner, so I've rejoined the world of the living.

Studio upgrade (no drawings) + my sister the superstar

2010-01-31T17:27:00.000-08:00

I upgraded my studio. With a little help from my friends. And my landlord, who fixed the window. Now I'm not outside when I'm inside.
Note the Charlie Brown Christmas tree from Kirsten. CBC is just about my favorite thing in the world and I watch it at least once a month.
Above the desk is Chuck Jones, smiling at me from his desk.

The Wall of Happiness.
Clockwise, L-R: R.E.M. Murmur poster; "Sweet Deals" print by Renny; drawing by Lego Lockstadt (below); What It Is poster signed by Lynda Barry; (below Lego) "Comics Issue" illo by Aaron Renier torn from Nick Mag; (below that) New Yorker "Cartoon Issue" lettering, courtesy Chris Ware; (R) bookplate signed by Mario, Beto, and Xaime Hernandez; sketchbook fragments courtesy Ivan Brunetti; Jin & Jan promo postcard courtesy Hellen Jo.
On desk: robot dinosaur doodle courtesy Gary Panter; Carl Jung action figure courtesy my mom at Christmas; calendar courtesy Richard Krauss (apparently you can make your own for free, too).
Yes, I'm bragging.

Outside my window... America!

This is a purely bragging post. My sister Julie was the lead in Sweeney Todd at her school this weekend.
Proud a you, brah. Even when you chop people up into pies.

...Especially then.

TOMORROW (or the day after): Sketchbook drawings and hourly comics.

Sketches just after moving.

2010-01-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

Old guy at the library... October?

After Matisse bronze. I don't remember when any of these are from.

A long time ago.

Scanner at work is broken and I'm about to scan some new ones soon, and then after that, buy a scanner.
Until then, these are notes on things to come.

NEXT: Some of those things.

Thom

2009-12-31T13:49:00.001-08:00

Thom here was nice enough to pose for me - and by "pose," I mean "read Red Eye" - on the bus the other day. We ended up getting off at the same stop and he asked to see it. That's always embarrassing for me, cuz I don't like people to know that I'm drawing them, in case they they feel invaded. Oops. Not the case, thankfully. Touched up later at work (I sure didn't use the brush pen on the bus).

The smaller lines come courtesy of my new fave sketching tool, the Uni-Ball Vision Micro pen. Pricey and non-refillable, but amazing. Fluid, responsive. Meant for writing, but you can vary the line weight. Nice.

In other news, switching positions at my gallery job - moving to the same job at the sister gallery. Full time and benefits. Which I need. To live. My luck's gonna run out sometime.

Happy new year.
best,

Ed

BOOK COVERS FOREVER

2009-12-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

School assignment, third or fourth grade; and an in-progress rough for current project.

Also, my parents keep my high school art up on their walls.
Obviously it's young, but it's funny to see how much looser and more playful it was than a lot of my freshman to junior year work. There really is a freezing up that happens when you first learn the backbones of working. Keep pushing through them to get out the other side.

have a (pick 2):
merry xmas, kwazy kwanzaa, happy channukah, tip-top tet, dag nasty new year's.

BBP entire publishing history

2009-12-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

Looking at my brand spanking new copy of Ganges #3 (thank you, Quimby's holiday sale), I noticed in the back indicia: "KH.18," noting that this is the 18th Kevin Huizenga book. It reminded me of when I was a kid and I looked at nine inch nails and in the liner notes Reznor wrote "halo twelve," listing each NIN release.
(Apparently Trent is selling the farm so there ain't no halos no more... not that I've cared about their new releases since tenth grade... I do regret just a tinge never seeing them though.)
It made me curious - what number am I on? So, in sweet, stupid irony, instead of actually working and adding to this list, I made a list. I'm counting everything Bare Bones Press has made, so everything I've self-released, including anthologies. It excludes any work-for-hire or anthology submissions. I guess I'll have to change the format when books of mine are released by other people (Harlequin Romance, I'm waiting by the phone). This goes back to 2006. I don't even remember the names of some of these.

The Ultimate Self-Wankjob List
AKA Bare Bones Press publishing history to date

brain-mouth-heart-penis
8 portraits
The Murmuring of the Sea
Dreading Spring
Mayflies & Slide Guitars
Yo, I’m Ed!
Dogs
For Kermit before he wrote “Being Green”
Comic Strip ‘Til Nude
Voices in the Dark (anthology)
Blue Blue Blues starring Sonic
The Love Song of Kermit the Frog (collects 8 and a page from 5)
Chris Ware: Paper Musician
Dark Cloud Comin’
Egon Schiele death mask poster
Ghost Comics (anthology)

The titles of some of these make me cringe, some I barely remember (I'm not old, but I will be soon), and I still regret not doing half the run of Mayflies that I did. 250 really woulda been just right... but you live and learn, and then get Luvz... or Lugz, depending.

If you don't "get" what the BBP skull is telling me, maybe you haven't lived.

Azn Sensations: Reflections on 3 comics that make me plotz

2009-12-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

These comics blow my fucking mind. I just realized they are all by Asian, or in the case of Seth Fisher, Asian-influenced creators.

Pluto by Naoki Urasawa with Takashi Nagasaki
The book is billed as being by "Urasawa/Tezuka", which is misleading. Pluto is a story by cartoonist Urasawa with co-plotter Nagasaki based on the Astro Boy story "The Greatest Robot on Earth" by a guy you may have heard of, Osamu Tezuka. Sean got me a big double set of Astro Boy and this Pluto book in Japan, but... I couldn't read the thing. I fell in love with the art, and the great beak noses on all the characters, so when I found out that it had been translated, I resolved to eventually get ahold of it. I read and loved a library copy of book 1 of Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, but even though that was mostly about a bunch of schoolboys and this is a futuristic noir story about robots, Pluto comes off as more human and subtle. Urasawa masters the nuances of body language, as well as drawing every. little. fucking. thing in the environments. The perfecty-perfect nature of the buildings and technology makes me wonder what work is being done by his assistants, like Tezuka and Hergé before him. This book has ratcheted Urasawa to being one of my favorite cartoonists.
I just picked up vol. 1 of the much-loved (and Sean's girlfriend Mako's favorite... full circle) Tezuka story Black Jack, so reading the new take on the "God of Manga"'s work is influencing me to go back, too.

Jin & Jam #1 by Hellen Jo I just received this in the mail today, along with ish #9 of the long-running Papercutter anthology, as a trade I requested from Hellen. I had been somewhat aware of her work for awhile, but her entry in the Johnny Ryan-edited (!! and no, it doesn't reflect his disgustingly hilarious personal work) Vice Magazine mini Where the Wild Things Are book stopped my eye. I am crazy about her vision of clothes, people's bodies, and colors. Her watercolor work particularly knocks me out. So I was at first disappointed when I learned that her solo comic Jin & Jam is black & white, but upon devouring it, I have no such reservations. It's a thrill ride of acutely observed high school bitchiness, laziness, and fights. Jo says in this interview that "My comics are... influenced by the Asian girlfights I saw in school... they’d grab a hold of whatever (hair, skin, clothes, face) and scratch and pull and generally beat the crap out of each other. I was terrified but also completely entranced by the spectacle."
An exhilarating giddiness for the form drives Jo's drawing and storytelling. There are a few beats that are visually confusing for a moment, but it's such a fun ride that you barely notice. Jo smacks down each image and line with supreme confidence and joy. The characters act and speak with intense regard for the supreme importance of their petty bullshit. I love it.

This wraparound cover image doesn't convey the appeal very well, but I couldn't find any good scans of interiors on the net.

Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan by Zeb Wells and Seth Fisher with Chris Chuckray and Joe Caramagna
On winter break from school one year, I looked in the NJ comic shop Steve's Comic Relief, looking with a faint hope for something special in my hometown comic store... and it's no Big Brain, Forbidden Planet, or Quimby's, let me tell you. They also don't sell any creator comics on consignment which is almost enough for me to selfishly take my business elsewhere... I'd rather support places that support me.
I saw a candle light in a dim room. I picked up issues #1 and #4 of FF/Iron Man: Big in Japan, which floated off the shelf with visions of intricately imagined monsters, formal playfulness, and balls-to-the-wall fun... Fun is supposed to drive superhero comics, but since Kirby and Ditko left the sandbox the genre's pickins have been getting slimmer with each decade. Enter writer Zeb Wells and artist Seth Fisher, who was living in Japan at the time. When I showed the comics to my friends Brad and Toby in my sophomore year of college, when I slept on the futon in my cluttered living room/bedroom like a bum, they went gaga for it too and we looked Fisher up.
Google told us that Fisher had died by falling off a roof in Osaka on January 30 of that year (2006). Toby later made this little comic portrait of Fisher in response to a bio comic assignment from Terry Beatty at MCAD.
I just recently picked up the trade paperback collection and was finally able to read the story in full. It is a wonderful web of ideas bouncing back and forth from Wells and Fisher. Best of all, Marvel included an appendix of Fisher's cover sketches and story notes on the pages. The notes illuminate the process of how ideas shaped from Wells's word processor to Fisher's pencil and back. I found this especially valuable since I am working on a collaboration with Renny, and the notes made clear how well Wells wrote to Fisher's strengths, and how Fisher improved upon his ideas in his visual translation. Hopefully we can follow their shining examples. It's a real shame for comics fans that Fisher died at only 34. His work was growing stronger, more playful, more wonderfully observed with each project. Given many more years of working time, he could have established himself as an artist with a Mazzuchelli-like ability to change the way readers think about comics and their possibilities. As it stands, only a few volumes of his work are available. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

Seth Fisher, 1972-2006

Sinatra experiment, Other Cartoonists, Tumblr

2009-11-25T14:20:00.002-08:00

I THINK IT'S GONNA BE OK

My religion. An experiment. Original file is 12x12", size of an LP cover.
(For the record, I checked, this is the font used on the cover of the Queen News of the World LP.)

I sang "New York, New York" yesterday as I walked down Rush on Black Friday, on break from my job. Shoppers swarmed Gold Coast. I looked up, and what did I see?

Image from Wikipedia

THINGS BY OTHER CARTOONISTS
CHRIS WARE
As I reported recently, I attended the Ware/Barry/Feiffer/Groening lecture here in Chicago at the UIC Forum recently. After Jules Feiffer's solo talk beforehand, I got a chance to meet Chris Ware and finally give him a copy of my Chris Ware: Paper Musician zine. PM talks about Ware's work in an essay-format comic. He was very gracious. Then two days ago, I receive a letter from someone in Oak Park. "I don't know anyone in Oak Park," I say...
I open up to find a letter and this. Chris's lettering from The New Yorker. I was surprised to see how much white-out he uses, and how thick of a paper stock.
Thanks Chris!

FROM THE IVAN BRUNETTI ARCHIVES

When Brad and I saw Ivan at his signing at Third Coast Comics by Loyola, he was handing out these little packets of his randomly chopped-up sketchbook pages. A neat way to purge.
Thanks Ivan!

I first met Ivan years ago at the Off-Kilter Comics show he curated, which included work by
ZAK SALLY
(how's that for a transition?)

Congrats to Zak and Anne on Isaac's new little sister, Flossie Sally.
That Flossie happens to have a particularly awesome birthday, shared by... someone.
I'm glad cartoonists are spawning and breeding what will hopefully become a new super-race.

Zak has a new book of uncollected stuff out. It's called Like a Dog. It's good. Real good.
I wanted to use a picture instead of a grabbed scan because as I talk about below, there's a lot of care taken with the production. Then I did this and I'm not sorry.

Zak explores his journey with cartooning in the varied, often experimental material chosen, the order it's presented in, and in the copious notes at the end.

The book presents the material with a reverence to the physical objects they were before being scanned, dropped into Photoshop and then InDesign, plunked down on a large-format printer in Asia, shipped to Seattle, then ending up in a bookstore and your hand.
The first two issues of Recidivist include front and back covers, endpapers, indicia, even a little diagram explaining how the flaps would look in the original zine format. This sounds like overkill to describe it, but like Einstein said, "God is in the details, especially with book production."

Rob Clough posted a well-written review on his High-Low blog. Rob will soon be joining The Comics Journal's new blogging team, which can only mean good things for people that like comics criticism (AKA nerds).

TUMBLR
DO YOU HAVE A TUMBLR YET? If so, leave a comment and tell me what it is. If not, you should probably start one.
Why do I like it so much? Like Twitter (which I don't like as much) it provides restrictions. There's a limited amount of things you can do with it, and it provides a perfect vehicle to collect cool stuff on the internet. It's the easiest way I've found to keep and share a reference file.

AND WHY NOT
Another favorite birthday present. Thanks, mom.

Music filtering in at my job at 900 N. Michigan (Bloomingdale's mall)

2009-11-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Normal rotation
Muzak Coldplay (twice a day: "Yellow" and "Viva la Vida")
Reportedly from one of my bosses, muzak Metallica, from "the black album"

Christmas rotation
Wussy girl version of "With or Without You"
What sounds like Ian Curtis singing "Winter Wonderland"
Wussy fake country version of "Winter Wonderland." I've got a hint for you: if I hear a slide guitar, I know it's not cold.
Reportedly from the same boss, Chipmunks Christmas songs
Tranced-out "Auld Lang Syne"

Old sinful doodles and a new pure birthday present

2009-11-23T20:24:00.000-08:00

Drawn in response to something Renny said. I don't remember what.

Birthday present from Kirsten - she commissioned her little brother Grant to make me this Astro Boy. The REAL Astro Boy. Not some CG fraud.

Barry, Ware, Groening, and Feiffer. In one room.

2009-11-17T15:43:00.001-08:00

On November 7 I saw a conversation between the Traveling Wilburys of comics: Lynda Barry, Jules Feiffer, Matt Groening, and Chris Ware. The panel was moderated by Chicago Reader columnist Michael Miner, whom Lynda introduced as the guy you called when .

The panel, presented by the Chicago Humanities Festival, was titled The Not-So-Funny Situation of Alternative Comix, but getting these four in a room resulted in a surefire riot.

The reports so far have focused on the discussion of the downfall of alternative weeklies. It was a main topic of conversation, yes, and rightly so: each of the cartoonists got their start in alt-weeklies, and now all have quit or been dropped except for Groening, who claims that he loses money by doing his strip.

Groening said he recently called Lynda for help with a punchline for a strip, and Lynda said, “I got it!” Matt said, “What? What is it?” “Quit.”

But I feel like that ignores a central idea discussed: the love, joy, and drive to create.

What follows is by a selection of what was said, rather than a complete transcription. I wrote down what interested me most. I should note that a lot of the humor got lost in my translation.

The reason there is less transcribed from Lynda is that she largely repeated herself not only from What It Is and previous talks of hers I’ve heard recorded, but her appearance with Matt Groening at the UIC Forum two nights previous.

Some commentary by myself and others will follow these quotes and summaries. It's are presented in loose chronological order. Please pardon their incompleteness; I believe audio of the entire talk should be posted by the CHF soon.

JULES FEIFFER:

“Along the way you need to take rejection and endless contempt… You depend on luck and you depend on change. And lightning may hit, as it has hit for all of us… There’s no logic to what happened to any of us. If you try to think about it logically, you’ll go crazy. Which may help."

Feiffer said he didn’t make any money on the first eight years of his Village Voice strips.

“If this is the work,” he said, “the last thing you need to worry about is being ‘realistic.’”

”I learned from writers as much as I did cartoonists.” Feiffer also mentioned the influence of comedian Mort Sahl.

LYNDA BARRY:

“Hate’s been given a bad name… If you hated somebody, how would you murder them? I’m an axe-in-the-head kind of person. If there was somebody you hated, you all know how you'd do it, right?”

"People asked me why I moved to Chicago [years ago]. I tell them, Chicago is a place where parking is free and plentiful, and average-looking people are considered beautiful."

CHRIS WARE:

“Whenever I hear about a school shooting, I think, ‘There’s one less cartoonist…’ [People laugh] I shouldn’t have said that.”

MATT GROENING:

“There’s a disengagement you have with type-set words. You can’t take [hand lettering] at great lengths, but in small doses, it can be so personal.”

Ware reveals that he got $25 for his weekly strip, and notes that illustrators got $100. He half-joked that somehow for being a cartoonist, he was docked $75.

Matt said, “My secret was, I always insisted that I got paid as an illustrator.”

Feiffer on his wordless series of dancer drawings:

“I didn’t think I was doing dancers, I was dancing... I applied washes, and color, and made a mess of it.”

“The point was not just to do good drawings, but to keep pushing the ante and trying things, and to have a wonderful time doing it!”

CW:

“Cartoonists work in sort of a glacial time frame compared to normal people. I’ve been working on [the bee story] for seven years, but I feel like I just started working on it.”

“I draw the figures using a brush and I do the backgrounds with a pen. I want the backgrounds and the figures to appear slightly different because that’s the way I see the world.”

“I took a weekly strip just to have a deadline.”

Chris talked about how encouraging Lynda Barry was in formative years of his development, and even showed a postcard that she had sent him. (I was happy to see that Lynda's return address had been on Garfield Ave. S. in Minneapolis, and it came to Chris in Chicago. From my old adoptive hometown to my new one.)

JF:

“With the comics and the play [Little Murders], I had a message. And I wanted to make it entertaining. I didn’t want to make it a polemic. I didn’t have a message in [the dancer] drawings. The message is, ‘Whoopee!’ The message is, ‘I got away with it.’”

“You’ve got to give yourself permission. They tell you the rules are the important part, not the play, not the inspiration. And they’re out to kill you. You’ve got to not get killed.”

MG: “Well, you have to pay the rent, right? You’ve got to pay the rent, and then you’ve got the free time [to work in]…

“You may not expect to be the next Charles Schulz, but you can expect to be the next… Allen Ginsberg. Poets don’t expect to make a lot of money, but they do expect to have an audience.”

CW: “The most important thing to do is to make your art and not care about anything else.”

In response to a question about developing style: “Just see things the way you see them. And if it looks wrong, you’re probably on the right path.”

Ghost Comics contributor Lucy Knisley touches on the talk in an episode of her always-charming autobio comic, below.

The biggest writeup so far is by Todd Allen, which I found via The Beat.

My response to the reports and the talk:

The artists' view on technology may be nearing Luddite status, but who cares? Each of them are older, established artists. As Lewis Trondheim pointed out in “At Loose Ends”, aging increases calcification.

Evolution occurs out of necessity, and they don’t need to change. They have their audience already.

Yes, they could be suppler. They would benefit from it with a wider audience. But I think in their cases, their publishers may be doing a lot of that work. For example, The New Yorker posting Chris Ware’s "Unmasked" Halloween story on-line for free was great.

The necessity of changing media falls on the younger generation of cartoonists. We're the ones who can't ignore it. We won't survive without adapting. They will.

I particularly wished that something might bring Jules Feiffer to a new generation. Feiffer is fairly well known, but he is not widely read among younger comics fans. His lively, funny approach to the themes of alienation, sexual frustration, and neurosis deserves a new crop of readers. He is in many ways the cartoonist equivalent to Woody Allen, which makes sense given their similar backgrounds and the shared influence of Mort Sahl.
I don’t know what could do it. I’m thinking in terms of Roy Orbison’s late period career jumpstart thanks to Blue Velvet. Maybe a new movie based on his work could do it. Filmmaker friends and Hollywood types, I'm looking at you.

All this versus my positive reaction to the talk may prove my selective hearing.

Todd Allen says, “…You have 3 out of 4 of alt weekly comics’ biggest stars of their respective periods saying you can’t make a living at it and two of them questioning whether you should try.”

Still, I heard nothing but encouragement.

p.s. Sorry about the type and formatting fluctuation - something is going on with my blogger that I can't figure out.

Oh, and while we're on it, you know how you always really, really wanted to see Chris Ware interviewed by Fallout Boy's Pete Wentz on German MTV? Well, Christmas came early this year, babies.

Chris said it was a "pretty fun" when I asked him about it.

The Princess and the Frog

2009-11-14T00:41:00.000-08:00

Okay. Look at this trailer.

This thing has been defacing Chicago buses and trains ever since the CGI Astro Boy thankfully left us.

Thoughts:
1) Doesn't this trailer imply that Disney knows - and they know that you know - their CGI pictures (save Meet the Robinsons) were unambiguously piles of rat shit?
2) Why are all the movies referenced from the 90's?
2) Why the fuck is this "Shrek-except-she's-tiny"?
3) How come the logotype is CG bullcrap?

Fuck this shit. Randy Newman can't save it. I wish he could.

Eleven eleven oh nine

2009-11-11T21:34:00.000-08:00

Will & Barb birthday from Ed Choy Moorman on Vimeo.

11/11, happy birthday to Will Dinski and Barb Schulz. Thanks for some info on how to make it from my co-worker Jessi. And thanks to Jenny for reminding me about animated GIFs.

Lil shout out to Allegra L., Diana C., Kelly B., Brad P. in use of the word 'jeah'

Last week was amazing, with seeing Ivan Brunetti, Chris Ware, Lynda Barry, Matt Groening, and Jules Feiffer. Plus I finally met Chris Ware which was a dream.
Halfway through my first full week of work. I take the Purple Line express to downtown, which only goes from Howard to downtown during rush hours. Long train ride into the city to go to work... I feel like my dad. Funny. Hi dad.

Razorcake's Gary Hornberger reviews DCC and Kermit. Gary gave me my first review ever two or three years ago. I assume these are in the print version as the old one was, I guess I didn't get it cuz they have my old address.

Source material, Ft. Lauderdale, Halloween, new job

2009-11-02T18:32:00.000-08:00

SOURCE MATERIAL
The Christmas card I made for my uncle Joe Choy is a collaboration for sure. Even funnier than the final product is Joe's prompt for me to draw from, reproduced below:

My true pitiful bathetic holiday card has the following elements:

Me in a "wife beater" or more perversely "italian dinner jacket t-shirt (filthy with stains of course) in my equally filthy and torn boxer shorts, sitting on some box or broken chair eating "house brand" or generic tuna fish (not albacore) out of a can. The plastic fast food type fork should be have missing assymetical tynes. I'm watching a portable black and white TV (and this is where technology and time f's things up) with aluminum foil 'rabbit ears' fashioned into a jury-rigged antenna. The TV should itself be tilted a la a scene of one of Batman's arch nemesis criminal's hideout. The TV should have "It's a Wonderful Life" scene on it I. My best guess would
be with Jimmy Stewart at the end or Donna Reed and Stewart. The TV should be propped on a cluttered giant Con Ed spool. The room should be an imagined disaster cartoon-ish ghetto.

The caption should read simply "Happy Holidays"
I'm trying to think of something funnier.

After I sent him a sketch with letters, he said:

I like the 'retro' font for happy holidays - it should have a syrupy feel contrasting the recessionary horror of an exaggerated life

And then, in an instruction to zoom out, make him smaller to see more of the hovel, as you see in the final product, he said:

im thinking of a cornucopia of recessionary items -

I think he should write more.

I scanned a whole bunch of sketchbook drawings from the past months when I finally got to a scanner the other day. I'll try to post them in related batches.

FT. LAUDERDALE

Flag-draped coffin (he was a Purple Heart-awarded WWII vet) - notes for Nils on back of page

Cousins on the rocks on the beach overlooking the pier.

More Nils notes, palm trees, bignose guy a la early Harkham, Trondheim's bird-self

Last month my grandfather died (Moorman, my dad's dad, "Grandpa Mo" as we called him in my house), and my cousin Stephanie and I flew from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale to attend the funeral and be with our family. He lived in Coral Gables, a suburb of Miami, most of the time - and that's where my dad and his brothers and sisters grew up - but he lived part-time in Ft. Lauderdale, as well as North Carolina. Coincidentally, my main stable of friends here in Chicago are mostly from Ft. Lauderdale, and I spent the evening with them the night before I flew out, as I had planned to before I got the call from my mom the day before.

It was of course very hard, but it was comforting to remember that it is something that everyone in the world goes through. I was a pallbearer at the ceremony. My dad delivered a beautiful eulogy at the funeral (along with a crowd-pleaser eulogy from my cousin David - one of the many pleasant tall men I know), which I will never forget. You can read it here at the blog made in his honor.

I realized that my grandpa, Robert Moorman, looked like Cool Hand Luke when he was younger... and then looked like Luke's friend Dragline when he got older!! Insane!!!

My grandpa and I didn't always agree about everything, but he was a real good man and I miss him.
And he was real funny. When I went to my cousin David's wedding in Nashville, it was the first time I'd seen my dad's side of the family in some years. Upon seeing me, my grandpa threw up his arms and said, "Kill the fatted calf! The prodigal son has returned!"

TUMBLR
I still love tumblr!! I love it like crazy!! It's so much fun! I post to mine every day. Check it out, make one of your own, then tell me where I can find it.

HALLOWEEN

My first Halloween in Chicago was a lot of fun, though I miss Abby's come-in-character parties. I was a robot (the name on the plate comes with a nod to Tom K.) with buttons on a control panel that you could push to make me do things. My friend & roommate Kirsten went as an old Jewish lady. Our bus rides there and back are sure to be the most entertaining we'll ever take.

NEW JOB
I have, thanks to an interview today and starting tomorrow morning, a new part-time job as a Gallery Assistant at Atlas Galleries in downtown Chicago. This of course means I'll have to learn how to dress myself. It should be worth it.
They sell original - I mean original, signed, for real - prints by Rembrandt (!!), Chagall, Mirò (!!!), Degas (!!), and others.
Thanks to Kelly, Julia, and Will for the job advice. It's been a fun two months of unemployment, but it'll be good to have a routine again. Best of all, I can finally draw without guilt! I can finally let myself draw comics again! (I haven't been doing so because I knew that if I started on a big drawing project, I would get wrapped up in it and not look for a job.)

Taking the Brown line (the "Chicago Epcot ride" as I call it) home, listening to Robin McConnell interview Gary Panter on Inkstuds on my iPod, watching the evening sun set over the trees losing leaves, seeing little blips of people's windows as I pass by... It was a real good moment. Good to breathe a sigh of relief. My first real job after college. I thought it was gonna take a lot longer.

And now that I have a job, it's time to go to sleep at a reasonable hour for the first time in a long time.

I'm back, with tidings of great joy

2009-10-29T02:14:00.000-07:00

UNCLE JOE'S CHRISTMAS CARD

Front

Inside

Back

My uncle Joe Choy commissioned me to make a Christmas card for and starring him. He wrote the brief in excruciating detail so I consider this a collaboration. Very few of the ideas are mine. I'm glad I finally got myself to a scanner because of this - all the way across the street. I don't know what was stopping me, besides the fact that it costs money.

This was the first really involved drawing I've done in awhile and it was good to work on. It was also good to listen to Sarah Vowell read The Partly Cloudy Patriot (my favorite Vowell book yet) and begin to listen to Alfred Molina read Bob Spitz's Beatles biography.

The next drawing project will be re-doing my business card.

Since I was already paying for it, I took the opportunity to scan a bunch of sketches from over the past months. I'll be posting them a few at a time here.

I'll also post my Halloween costume as soon as I make it.

The Fantastic Four, collaboration, and mailtime

2009-10-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

I saw Guy Davis speak at SAIC awhile ago and went to a signing of his, and have since been interested in reading this book. (An added bonus of the SAIC talk was that I ran into my old friend Cassandra Davis, who was teching the event.) I finally picked up a copy and it's really interesting. The collaboration is a big part of this.

Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules (vol. 1, but who knows if or when the next two proposed volumes will come out) is written, designed, and with layouts by James Sturm; pencils/inks by Guy Davis; colors by Michael Vràna; '50's-style panels of the fake Vapor Girl comic by master stylist R. Sikoryak; and covers by teen idol cartoonist Craig Thompson.

Sturm writes an interesting story. The 'what-if' book posits that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby based the FF off of real people that they knew. What we get is a 1950's melodrama about scientist Reed Richards, his girlfriend Susan Sturm, Sue's teenage brother Johnny, and Reed's college friend, boxing trainer Ben Grimm. It plays with the tensions and preconceptions of the era, in a Rebel Without a Cause kind of way.

It even adds fake notes and research about the "true story" that Marvel "covered up" at the end. I confess that by the end of the book I believed it was real. I'm never been known by my friends to be real quick on the uptake.

Artists that do really neat stuff on their own that make something even more special together is a common story: Lennon/McCartney, Miller/Mazzuchelli. Not that this book is that good, but the principle of each artist lending a particular strength runs through here.

Seams are shown sometimes, to great effect. Sikoryak's Vapor Girl panels are thrown in as Johnny Sturm reads them (sometimes as "reading material"). The images are interspersed in the "real world" to depict the anxious, insular, comic-obsessed world of Johnny's friend, Rich "Dickboy" Mannelman.

Panels from the original Lee/Kirby FF comics are interspersed as well, sometimes as design elements, sometimes in the beginnings of chapters to parallel the action of their "real life" counterparts. A running theme is the anxieties, fears, and desires underpinning 60's Marvel superhero comics and how their teenage readers identified.

Since his lecture, I wanted to see Guy Davis work with a really strong writer. I love B.P.R.D., but I began to feel that Davis was a little better than the material he was working with. Michael Vràna adds beautiful pastel colors that complement Davis's linework and fit ideas about the time period. Sort of like the use of colors in Todd Haynes's wonderful movie Far From Heaven.

Davis said in his lecture that Sturm presented him with a "mini-comic" version of the layouts Davis told Marvel that they should be publishing those, but Marvel insisted that Davis draw it in his style. I would love to see those layouts. The different choices that artists make when interpreting the same story is very interesting to me. I've been thinking about copping this working method for a story I'm working on.

I've been thinking about the nature of collaboration for a long time now. I'm involved in a couple and I'm looking to do more. I saw a Randy Newman interview where he was asked about why he's made only three solo albums in the past thirty years. Randy said that film music is easier because it's a job. Writing, to him, started to feel really lonely.

It sometimes did for me too. Working with other people, on writing, art, or whatever, helps with an added perspective... Like a lot of people, I have confidence and editing problems with my writing. To be able to talk it out with a collaborator who has ideas about where a story can go (Renny Kissling, on Nils) has been invaluable.

Since I've been doing so much on the writing side though, I'm itching to get back to drawing comics. So I'm trying to find someone to write a comic for me to draw, to take the pressure off of coming up with the story, and also so I can learn from someone else's way of going about storytelling.

Life here continues to be unnerving and weird a lot of times, but it's also full of a lot of exciting possibilities. I guess I wouldn't have it another way.

Also:
Looking around the web for images, I came across another one of Marvel's indie creator experiments: The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man by Peter Bagge. I've never read this Steve Ditko/Ayn Rand parody, but I'm sure it's a riot.

In other news, Christmas came early this year. Just when I was getting sure that the above package was lost in the mail, I received it and the below goodies as well.

The first package were some expensive and hard-to-find art supplies that are cheaper at MCAD's Art Cellar in Minneapolis, sent to me by Abby with a package decorated by Abby and Liz Elton (of KF). Liz drew the anime version of Abby up top, which I'm really fond of.

The second and third packages were two huge envelopes stuffed with Nickelodeon Magazines, thanks to cartoonist and illustrator Dave Roman. Dave worked for Nick and put an open call out to find homes for his surplus of back issues. A little known secret about Nick Mag is that they publish a ton of comics by awesome cartoonists: Johnny Ryan, James Kochalka, Zak Sally, and many others. Dude even fronted the postage. I'm sure I'll work through them and them get them to someone of the appropriate age. I read the mag regularly as a kid so it was especially nice to see all these new ones.

Many many thanks to Abby and Dave Roman for the mail!

I promise that new drawings are coming soon... soon as I can scan them. My Christmas card commission for my uncle is nearly done. It's a riot.

EDIT: Moments after I posted this, I found John K. posting on his blog about the joys of collaboration, too.

French people love good things

2009-10-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

In the grand tradition of Europeans appreciating American pop culture more than Americans do, a French curator named Laurent Parson is doing a show called Handle With Care that features many Minneapolis cartoonists! I'd tell you where and when, but I don't speak French. Watch the video about it. In it, you can see works by most of the MPLS comics crew, including Renny Kissling, Tom K, Zak Sally and stuff from his La Mano imprint, Will Dinski, King Mini, Brett von Schlosser (? I think?), and non-MPLS cat John Porcellino.

Speaking of John P, dude has a new King-Cat collection out from D&Q called Map of My Heart. I love D&Q's books - their design and production values are second to none. So I'm lookin forward to it. Along with Zak Sally's upcoming early stuff collection, Like a Dog.
He's touring the thing (and, bless 'im, hocking copies of Ghost Comics for me while he's at it), all dates at his site, a couple below:

Fri. Oct. 16, 2009; 7PM - Chicago IL
Quimby's
1854 W. North Ave., Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 342-0910
www.quimbys.com
w/ Patrick Porter (acoustic music)

Sat. Oct. 24, 2009; 5-7 PM - Minneapolis MN
Big Brain Comics (w/ Reception following at West Bank Social Club?)
1027 Washington Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 338-4390
www.bigbraincomics.com
w/ Patrick Porter (acoustic music), and Zak Sally

Colors by Dave Stewart

And Chicago comics fans! That SAME DAY, a little earlier, the great GUY DAVIS will be signing at Graham Crackers in the Loop. And on THURSDAY he will be giving a talk at the SAIC ballroom at 2. More info at his site.

Busy and good week ahead!

Started a tumblr. Why not? It's fun.

My shiny new Chicago life

2009-10-03T15:50:00.000-07:00

Switching it up from all work and very little personal stuff, I thought it would be fun to show people who know me my shiny new Chicago life (so if you don't know me, get out while you can, this will probably be boring). Especially since I can't blog my drawings 'cause I don't have a scanner yet... hence my not posting lately.

Like a koi who needs to be moved to a bigger pond to grow, I became too comfortable in Minneapolis after four good years there. I got proof one day when I walked around Uptown and saw nine people I knew. I moved to Chicago in mid-August. I rented a Penske truck that was well over twice as large as I needed it to be, as continuing proof of my inability to grasp simple things like knowing how much I own. Oh, well.

My friend Brad helped me move, accompanied me on my nervewracking first time driving a large vehicle, and stayed with us for a week in Chicago.
At one point on the 7-hour+ drive, Brad remarked that I was far to the right. "Oh?" I said, and corrected it. I also blissfully ignored the "TRUCKS LEFT LANE ONLY" signs. Brad rode shotgun and was shifting through his Spanish flash cards when, BAM! We both jerked up to see that the right-hand mirror had smacked into a road pylon and fallen off. We laughed for an hour and quickly came up with a solution of how we would merge right when we needed to (it being a 16-foot truck, the side mirror is the rear view mirror). Brad rolled down the window, leaned out like a dog, and gave me the okay. It felt like an action movie. Maybe a lame one, but it was still a blast. And thanks to fifty-one dollars in insurance, I didn't pay a dime in damages.

I ended up in the West Rogers Park / West Ridge area. There are 80-120 neighborhoods and Chicago and no one is sure of their borders or even how many there are. One thing is sure: I am north, north, north, about eight blocks from the Chicago/Evanston border. (The one real downside to the place is it's a little bumblefucky.)

We lucked into the apartment because my friend and roommate Kirsten was friends with the previous tenants, so she knew and loved the apartment already. The previous tenant, her friend Lewis, had lived there with his dad for 18 years, and they were moving out in August... exactly when I wanted to move in. We pay less than $300 a month each, which is unheard of anywhere I've lived, let alone in Chicago, the most expensive city in the midwest. I've not yet tested it, but theoretically I will only have to work part time to support myself. That would leave the rest of my time open for writing, drawing, and reading.

I live in the upper floor of a duplex built in the 20's. The landlord is below us. We have a subletter, Amy the actress, who will be here until Julia the Russian funny-dessert-loving English major graduates from Columbia in May.
It smells like Chinese food out here because China Ling (inferior, unfortunately, to #1 divey Chinese spot, China Hut on Clark, a 7-minute bike ride away).

An old-timey hallway (it smelled funny until Amy cleaned it -- I never think to do these things) leads you to...

Our living room. Big windows, and best of all...

Built in bookshelves!! Coming upon them fresh and empty, I salivated, then immediately filled them. I took sick pleasure in organizing them with a system of my own devising. (By the way, that's not my Apples to Apples game or wooden mannequin.) The fireplace is for show.
Art spotlight:

Someone free shelf'd a stack of old Mediascene magazines from the 70's at MCAD this summer. I gave away most of them to my friend Max before the move, but I kept this cover: with Ralph McQuarrie art, the cover boasts "Star Wars: First News of the Sequel."
Zak Sally's signed Sammy the Mouse screenprint, co-printed by Aesthetic Apparatus. Zak's new collection of old stuff, Like a Dog, is out real soon and it should be real good (I've read a lot of it before, and it is).

Above the mantle, an '07 piece of mine that I've never posted on-line.

We got the junked couch from an antique auction house a couple blocks away. As Kirsten, Brad (who helped me move and stayed for a week) and I lugged it across four-lane Western Ave., a red pickup truck stopped beside us. A man with an indeterminate accent named Elvis offered to help us out. Brad climbed in the passenger door and Kirsten and I got in the back of the truck. With the wind blowing through my hair, I realized how fast a moderately-paced car ride is. Brad was sure Elvis was drunk. It was 3 PM. Chicago. There's a liquor store about three blocks down, but last week a new one sprung up, so now I barely have to cross the street.

Above, right to left, Anna's little girls screenprint, the Crumb soundtrack cover, and a painting I made in '07.

Our kitchen is a mostly empty room that looks like a gallery. Our table (also junked and free, courtesy Kirsten's parents - as well as all our chairs) sits far too high to eat on unless you want to feel like a four-year-old.
Art spotlight:

My second most prized piece, Mega Man shoots Dick Cheney in a digital print on canvas from Philly's Punk Rock Flea Market, a gift from my friend Anton.

Two paintings by Anna that border this piece of brilliance:

A drawing I bought from a homeless artist in the Union Square subway in NYC last summer.
After the kitchen, is...

The bedroom! Hey hey. I would say that this is where the magic happens, but really the magic happens at Ash's Magic Shop on Western by the Brown line. I do stuff in here too though.

On the other side is my music (which I realized, Cohen listeners, is in fact a "Tower of Song").
Art spotlight:

Johnny Cash letterpress poster from Nashville's Hatch Show Print, courtesy of my mom.

Little screenprint by local cartoonist Lilli Carré. A postcard of Dali smooching Warhol, also courtesy of my mom.
Through my bedroom is...

My studio. A seperate room for a studio was, besides sanity and cheapness, the #1 thing I wanted in a living situation. Without room to draw, my life is total black-hole depression chaos. You'll notice the tracing paper on the drafting table, a new staple of my working method! Working in a ton of layers is new and exciting to me. It keeps the image feeling fresh.
R.E.M. Murmur poster and a photo of Chuck Jones smiling from his drawing desk float above mine.
Art spotlight:

"Sweet Deals" print from Renny Kissling (you can buy your own for $5 from his webstore); signed What It Is Lynda Barry poster; Nicole Georges queer animals calendar, gift from Abby.

#1 most prized piece of art, my Gary Panter original from my SVA pre-college days. As a grubby high schooler just being introduced to art comics, I did not know what I was receiving (besides a cool drawing by a great teacher) when he was making sketches for students on the second to last day of comic class. I'm glad I didn't ask him to sign it to me, because I asked for a ninja dinosaur and my friend Harry asked for a robot dinosaur, we liked each others' better and traded.

Out behind the studio we see...

The backyard, with a decrepit, locked garage.

To our right is a little yellow house whose lights are never on. An old lady lives there who is practically a phantom. Once I watched her exit and get her mail, but because she was behind those tall bushes, I couldn't see her face. We theorize that she's a witch. A little brown bunny sits near the bushes.

And here's what I look like in the studio. Renny's drawing of our Nils character (which I am currently at work writing and revising the script for) is behind, as is a funny pink lamp from Target.

What else? I am soon starting a part-time, short-term (but well-paid) job tutoring at a public school under the program Brain Hurricane. I am looking for permanent part-time work, and have applied to a shelter, a Dunkin' Donuts, and others. I am living off savings and enjoying my temporary unemployment. I spend most of my time reading (ChiPubLib is a gift from heaven), writing, drawing, exploring free things in the city, and partying with my friends in West Town. Some hard stuff has happened lately but not anything that everybody doesn't go through. It has been sometimes overwhelming and lonely to move here but my continuing massive dumb luck seems to have no sign of running out, as I have basically everything that I ever wanted.

Speaking of luck, at the Country Music Festival in Grant Park today I was able to catch, for free, a set by Alejandro Escovedo. I had never really listened to his music and wasn't blown away by what I heard on his myspace page beforehand, but carried by the wind of many music critics who I had read calling him one of the great living songwriters, I went. I'm glad I did. They were right! By the third song everyone in the audience were made to be believers. Above is my favorite song from the set, which he said is about "Sid and Nancy... You've probably all seen the movie."

Speaking of the movie (which I mostly hated), this rules:

I hope to be getting ahold of a scanner soon, then you don't know what you're in for. Signing off.

"The Click" preview

2009-07-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is a preview of a collaboration between myself and photographer Hillary Berg. It is web-formatted scroll and an unwitting collaboration on her part -- she has given me the okay to use her photos and that's all. I feel like I may have written / designed myself into a corner so I need to write myself out of it. I'm going to put it away for awhile and take a crack at it with fresh eyes but I wanted to show people a bit of it.

Zinefest photos, Independent Variables show, new Zak Sally solo album, site redesign

2009-07-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

ZINEFEST PHOTOSZinefest was pretty fun. Thanks to everyone who came. Sarah Jordet came and took pictures of everyone, so here is some of them.

Tablemate and friend Abby Mullen.

Hark! Press: Jillian Schroeder, Taylor Motari, Gordon Byrd. They are also the band Teenage Moods.
Toby Jones and Madeline Queripel: comic booking (and filmmaking) dream team. They make Better Zits, among other things.

Lacey Prpic Hedtke, from Bla Bla Blacksheep, & Joy Zuccarello

Mome contributor and Gap model Tom K. There were big blown-up drawings by him all the gallery as decoration, which was neat.

Will Dinksi. His comic Beautiful, Cool & Irreplaceable made me feel ill, in a good way.

Zinefest organizer and Dr. Mario champ Sarah Morean by a vending machine which dispenses her little zines.

Monica Anderson reads from her brutally honest Endless Escalators zines.

Here are photos from the Independent Variables show at MCBA which I am a part of. Haven't actually seen it.

NEW SOLO ZAK SALLY ALBUMIt's called Fear of Song and it's awesome. I'm listening to it now as I have been for two days now. Listen to it streaming and read about it from the horse's mouth on the La Mano site.
The release party was a blast, especially Zak's Wipers covers band, though I had trouble hearing people for awhile after.

WEBSITE REDUX

I completed a major update (which was also a minor redesign) of my website. The main differences are combining sections, a hackjob on others, expanding/improving the store and deleting some comics to read and adding others (in particular Dark Cloud Comin' and my personal favorite, "Dear Dave", from Ghost Comics and Side B). Please let me know if you have any critiques or problems with how it runs.

Design experiment, Processing foxes, Zak Sally release party, life drawing

2009-07-21T13:43:00.001-07:00

RAGTIME NIGHTENGALE
An experiment in progress. Drawn from a hipster clothing store's catalogue. You know the one. It's the one where you go in the store and you feel like an asshole immediately.

ZAK SALLY / LA MANO RECORD RELEASE PARTY
Full press release here at Sup Pop's site
Anyway, TOMORROW, Wed. July 22 at Eclipse Records in St. Paul at 5:30 PM, that's what you need to know.
Below I am just copying and pasting the official La Mano blog post, because there's so much info.
Madeline Queripel (cartoonist and current La Mano intern) and I (La Mano intern alumni) will be manning the table at the event, and both of us will have stuff to sell along with Aesthetic Apparatus and many other local arteestes.

big things are happening; expect a big site update and new la mano product (!!) tomorrow, but in the meantime, COME TO THIS:
("official""press" release follows)

all right; this is "Steve", the official La Mano "publicist".
here is the deal: Zak Sally (musician [Low, Dirty Three, Kid Dakota, etc], cartoonist [Recidivist, Sammy the Mouse, the forthcoming "Like A Dog" hardcover collection due this fall from Fantagraphics], and publisher [La Mano 21]) somehow ended up making a record; wrote, sang and played every damn thing on it, recorded it with his old pal Ben Durrant (Andrew Bird, Dosh, Shearwater) at Crazy Beast Studios.

it's called "Fear Of Song" (as in: "Zak Sally's Fear Of Song", get it?). 9 songs 37 minutes, and will be released on CD in a signed and limited edition, with all the packaging and such done BY HAND on the La Mano press. very pretty.
his old pals at the venerable Sub Pop records also did a 7" from that record, featuring the single "Why We Hide", and an exclusive track "When I Said I Missed You I Just Meant My Aim Was Off (The Quiet Life)". see, look here:

http://www.subpop.com/releases/zak_sally/singles/why_we_hide

there is also probably going to be a video for that first thing by Phil Harder (Foo Fighters, and, uh...Prince).
release date for the single is JULY 21, release for the CD is JULY 22.

to this end we are setting up a HUGE, AMAZING RECORD RELEASE SHOW/ LA MANO BENEFIT, etc etc see above i'm not typing it all again.
it'll be hosted by the good folks at Eclipse records (and therefore is ALL AGES and CHEAP) right on University ave in St. Paul.
starting at 5:30-ish, you will se performances by these local luminaries:
JIM AND THE FRENCH VANILLA (Jim from the blind shake's solo venture)
PAUL METZGER (solo treated guitar unbelievableness)
SKOAL KODIAK (sorry everyone else, but the best damn band to come out of minneapolis in a decade solid)
T.O.G.P.T.F.F.S.O.T.W.O.T.E.R.A.T.S.Y.O.A (Three Old Guys Play The First Five Songs Off The Wipers' Over The Edge Record And The Song Youth Of America, featuring Zak Sally, Dale Flattum [Milk Cult, Steel Pole Bath Tub], and double duty from Freddy Votel [Cows, Skoal Kodiak, a million other bands]
and the SEAWHORES.

and besides that, there will be tables selling ZINES, POSTERS, BOOKS and whatever by a bunch of your favorite local arteests.
like i said; ALL AGES.
and CHEAP? how does SIX BUCKS SOUND?
good? yeah, well see the aforementioned mention of a "benefit" and what that means in this case is that that $6 you just spent gets you SIX BUCKS OFF OF ANY LA MANO BOOK OR POSTER (and aside from all that, the first hundred or so people in the door will almost certainly get some free thing from the La Mano archives, not sure what exactly yet, but...).

oh who am i kidding there is no La Mano publicist. you knew that.
if you are getting this it means you are either a) a friend of Sally or La Mano, b) someone i've talked to about this thing but haven't yet said hey dammit you want to come sell stuff at this thing (if so, email me and say so posthaste) c) a writer or dj or press person or most likely
d) some combination of those things.
this thing is just a couple weeks off (and this email should've gone out a month ago), so spread the word, come down, whatever.
you got questions?
zak@lamano21.com

ok all. see you down there.
--zak.

Don't you see why I wanted you to be able to read all that?

PROCESSING FOXESThis is the final product for a submission to the 10,000 Foxes project by UK (apparently Marcel Dzama-influenced) illustrator Elena Iezzi (what a name!). The idea is that there are 10,000 urban foxes living in London (near Brighton where she studies and my friend Jenny Tondera did for a semester) and Elena is collecting 10,000 drawings of foxes.
Because there is a more linear path than usual with this one, I thought it would be nice to show some process, as I don't very often.

I did not intend to do multiples at first. I started off drawing some foxes from photos on the internet. I figured they were a good start but overall pretty dead.
Because the other ones were so tight, I had the inclination to do a much looser one, with Quentin Blake's drawings of foxes in mind, as well as process of his that I gleamed from the great Comic Tools blog.
This led me to the top image. It got a little out of hand structurally but led to the idea below.
I then took that one and traced it with a lightbox to make the refined final image you see at the top -- which could still use some work but I was ready to "put the octopus to bed," as Anne Lamott writes.

Title taken from Sean Lynch's Processing Elephants book.

LIFE DRAWING BREAK
God bless the MCAD Drawing Co-op. Dialogue below is what the model said.

At Hidden Beach with Abby and Kelly.

SRSLY
The Pentel Pocket brushpen is changing my life. Holy geez. I'll talk more about it in another post.

Enough bloggin for now. I'm gonna go drink a beer with Brad, Max and Zach.

There may be a strange collaboration between myself and photographer Hillary Berg surfacing in the near future. You heard it here first. Good night, Vietnam.

Eurotrip, the movie

2009-07-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Copies from the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.

I missed the Kafka Museum and made this drawing instead.
Tiny view from the window at the museum.

Zine Supreme submission

2009-07-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

My contribution to Sean Lynch's Zine Supreme anthology (hence the 'title page') for the Twin Cities Zinefest. Zine Supreme will be a 90+ page book showcasing many local zinesters, including Raighne and Meghan Hogan, Molly Mullen, Sean Tall Lynch, and many more. The idea is going off of Sean's preferred aesthetic of loose, sketchy work... He writes that "There is no exact theme to Zine Supreme, however, stream of consciousness is pretty close." Best of all, Sean is going to use the profits to throw a housewarming party at his new place in Northeast! A party hosted by Sean and Mako is the best payment I could possibly ask for.

Twin Cities Zinefest!
July 11-12!
This weekend!
11-5 on Saturday, 11-4 on Sunday! Free!
Come! I'll be exhibiting with Abby Mullen!
Exclamation points!!

Zinefest + afterparty, Ex Lovers illo, music

2009-07-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

Be sure to attend the Twin Cities Zinefest on at Stevens Square Center for the Arts, 1905 3rd Ave S., Minneapolis. Admission is free. Here is the schedule:

Saturday, July 11th
11am-5pm

1pm : open mic zine reading (by attendees and exhibitors)
3pm : MPLS Zines (documentary by Monica Anderson)
4pm : Presentation Night (Minneapolis’ own living zine)

Sunday, July 12th
11am-4pm

12pm : Starting a Distribution Co-op with Likeminded Publications (workshop with Microcosm’s Joe Biel - limit 20 participants)
2pm : If It Ain’t Cheap, It Ain’t Punk: 15 Years of Plan-it X Records (documentary by Joe Biel)

I will be sharing a table with Abby Mullen.

Also on SATURDAY is the Zinefest afterparty at Arise! Bookstore at 2441 Lyndale Ave. S at 6 PM. The show is FREE and features Teenage Moods, Bla Bla Blacksheep, Gerald Prokop and Zombie Season. I am a big fan of Teenage Moods and Bla Bla so I highly recommend this show!

This is an illo for the debut album by Minneapolis pro-union bluegrass band the Ex Lovers. I am told that the image will be made into a foldout poster. Songs about the union and love... reminds me of Billy Bragg. Which isn't what they sound like really, but reminding me of Billy Bragg is always a good thing, no matter how it happens.

Reynold Kissling's Kingwood Himself is up on Top Shelf 2.0. Reynold and I are working on graphic novel, Nils, that we are in the process of pitching to publishers. Renny's drawings, my words, concept by the both of us. I am finishing up the script for what should be a 80-page or so book (it's hard for me to tell because I'm not breaking it down into comic pages).

As far as the Go Negativ #2 release party, my attempts to attend were squashed by a flattened bike tire on the way there, after leaving Rainbow so Andrew could get money, and I bought corn and bananas. I hope to see the zine soon! "How Do You Fill the Void?" is one of my favorite pieces of mine and I'm looking forward to seeing it in print.

"Coney Island Baby" by Lou Reed, with someone throwing archive footage behind there...

I just bought this record. It's GREAT! It's Neil Young Live at Massey Hall 1971.

And I can't talk about music for too long without coming around to R.E.M.... live "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" from '85. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new reissue of this record, Reckoning, in the mail.

Minneapolis fireworks at the Stone Arch Bridge were again wonderful -- the final Minneapolis summer is rollin along... I have to say, it was the most freewheeling day I can remember having. A lot of chance meetings and good luck. It was a good send-off, MPLS, and I'll miss you...
Someone is playing Chet Baker, I can hear through my window.

Go Negativ release party tonight

2009-07-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

"New collection of locally created fiction, non-fiction, poetry, cartoon, painting, drawing, intaglio, photography and digital art

Issue #2 from the Twin Cities literary/arts zine that brought you such hard-hitting cultural commentary as "Jack Van Impe Battles A Satanic Tower of Upside Down Hamburgers" and "An Idiot Writes a Letter to the freecreditreport.com Commercial" is headed your way, primed to spread a new wave of creative sardonism, merry muckraking and general ill willery over our fair mini-tropolis.

Featuring original works by: Ann Schrempp, Brian Borlaug, Bryce Beverlin II, Christopher Matthew Jensen, Dan Kolbo, Dana Raidt, Danny Sigelman, David Hansen, Ed Choy Moorman, Joe Price, Josh Iwaszko, Nikki Miller, Paul Fonfara, Summer Binkley and TD Mischke

Zine release party details:

Friday, July 3^rd, 10pm

7^th Street Entry

Performers:

Magic Castles

Dark Dark Dark

Hurray for the Riff Raff (New Orleans)

Paul Metzger

$7 admission (all proceeds donated to Fremont Community Clinics: http://www.fremonthealth.org/)"

New Egon Schiele poster

2009-06-28T21:23:00.001-07:00

Egon Schiele's death mask, 1918, after Gustinos Ambrosi.

New poster for Zinefest. 12.5x12.5", $5, on watercolor paper, signed and numbered.

So a for awhile I've been saying that I was gonna make a zine about my experiences in museums in Vienna. That seed grew into this thing. I made the drawing in the Leopold Museum, and I made the design on my porch in Minneapolis.
Shout out to Alex R. my travel buddy on the trip (Prague too), and Jenny who recommended this and the Albertina. (The Belvedere Museum was my other favorite.)

The final Minneapolis summer is well under way. Come mid-August I make my way to the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. I will miss all the friends I've made here and I look forward to a new chapter in the little book.

The medium is the Thai massage.

2009-06-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

My Schulz-inspired parody of the Experimental Jetset-created Beatles shirt (shown below). My version dedicated to Brad, Abby, and Maddie.

You know it. The design which has been re-interpreted by many since its inception.
Experimental Jetset, Amsterdam-based designer team, visited MCAD after their lecture at the Walker Art Center and I was lucky enough to chance upon their critique of a student "sandwich board" project. I love the above shirt and for some reason had the idea to bring Peanuts into it -- go figure -- I think I was listening to the Vince Guaraldi Trio's Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack for the billionth time.

Since U Been Gone

2009-06-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

MoCCA Fest

I'm laughing and saying, "Someone kill me now."

I am pictured here in the middle standing by Meghan Hogan of 2D Cloud and tall Sean Lynch during the MoCCA Fest in NYC. Co-tablemates Raighne Hogan and Nic Breutzman not pictured, nor is trusty table-assist Mako Homura. Photo stolen from Shawn Hoke. I couldn't resist the rhyme in the above title.

Speaking of Breutzman and Hogans, if I were in Minneapolis this weekend, I'd go to this. Yearbooks is really something, a fucked-up tense, paranoid vision of high school. I don't get the European spelling of 'colour' but everything else I do.

Buy Ghost Comics!
Ghost Comics is now available at several Minneapolis stores, including Arise! and Big Brain Comics. You can buy it on-line from Magers & Quinn.

Review Round-Up Round 2
Dark Cloud Comin' reviewed at The Comics Reporter. Tom Spurgeon says, "I would suggest paying attention to what Ed Choy Moorman does over the next few years."
And review at High-Low. Rob Clough says, "There are a number of striking images in this comic... Moorman is bursting with ideas, and each successive comic of his I read is better than the last."

I'll be interviewed by the Inkstuds radio show sometime soon... I really recommend this podcast, and am thrilled and confused that this is going to happen, as I have been listening to the eps in which Robin McConnell interviews Jaime Hernandez, Mariko Tamaki, and Ivan Brunetti. Listening to Mariko's interview was especially good to hear as I am working on some comic projects as a writer only, and Skim (drawn by Jillian Tamaki) is a blinding beacon of comic book brilliance. I think graphic novels or indie comics from teams as opposed to just solo creators is making a slow resurgence. Eddie Campbell and Dan Best made a wonderful book called The Amazing Remarkable Monseur Leotard that was also an inspiration to me showing a great team effort.

Europe

I recently visited Vienna and Prague as a mini version of the classic post-college European trip. I stayed with family friends the Reichmeirs and my friend Alex Roche came along for the ride, as I joined her in Prague during her own, longer Eurotrip.

Pictured above is the statue of Jan Hus in Prague's old town square. I was crazy about this thing for probably obvious reasons. Every Czech statue looks pensive, tense, some of them ready to cry. Statues in Vienna are all flexing their muscles in righteous victory or crushing their enemies.

I didn't see the Kafka Museum or anything relating to him, unfortunately. He was a favorite in high school. I strained my foot walking up big cobblestone hills, which hurt my mobility a bit for the rest of the trip.

I was lucky enough to see an Egon Schiele retrospective at the Leopold Museum. Schiele is pictured above, 60 years too early for post-punk.

Schiele is my second favorite painter, after Ben Shahn. Klimt is third, and a number of his works are available to see at the Belvedere in Vienna (including The Kiss, which it turns out has gold and silver plating). Other museums seen and recommended: Momuk (modern, was lucky to see the animations of Maria Lassnig and the Cy Twombly retrospective that gave me a new view of his work) and the Secession (only thing to see then was Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, but it is worth the insanely expensive entrance fee).

Here is Schiele's The Family from 1918, one of his last paintings before he died. It is from Schiele's "Late Classic" period, where everything got calmer and steadier. More subtle. Schiele's wife Edith died of the Spanish flu while pregnant, and Egon died three days later. I couldn't get away from this painting at the Belvedere.

A zine of my drawings and notes from museums there will follow soon.

We also were lucky to see the opera Faust and the Tchaikovsky ballet of Anna Karenina at the Vienna Opera House.

Twitter
You'll see on the left that I just started using this Twitter thing. Kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Zinefest
I will be at the Twin Cities Zinefest on July 11 & 12 at Stevens Square Center for the Arts. I plan to be premiering 2 new zines:
Egon Schiele Draws Butt Hair: A Tiny Travelogue
Friendship Bracelet with Abby Mullen

Review round-up, MoCCA, Mazzuchelli, Byrne in Brooklyn

2009-06-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

Kevin Bramer reviews Dark Cloud Comin' at Optical Sloth.

Henry Chamberlain reviews Ghost Comics at Newsarama.

Rick Bradford reviewed The Love Song of Kermit the Frog awhile back on Po opsheet.

There's so much I want to write about and so little time. I go to Vienna and Prague for 10 days tomorrow. I'll try to write more after my trip.

MoCCA was stressful and great. Highlights were seeing this guy for the first time since I was 17, saying hello to Ghost Comics contributors Corinne Mucha and Lucy Knisley, seeing Seth in his daily costume, tabling and hanging with my friends, and perhaps best of all, David Mazzuchelli's show at the MoCCA Museum (see the show! Up til August 23!) along with meeting the man and getting ahold of the best book of the year (yes, I know it's June), Asterios Polyp.

The capper to a crazy weekend was a day with Sean and Mako selling Sean & I's comics to Forbidden Planet (which was particularly a pleasure because FP's buyer ) and Jim Hanley's Universe, and Mako meeting a ukelele player and getting an impromptu lesson in a park. I also introduced the one Midwesterner and the one Japanese to the New York treat of Mr. Softee.
And then, a friend alerted me to a free David Byrne show in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. See a review here. I wasn't even in the actual show area (due to a crowd of thousands more than could be fit), but in an outside area in front of a screen and speakers. Amazingly, this seemed as good as being there. It must be the magic of the man and his backup performers. Being in the front row in front of a screen somehow had as much good vibes and dancing folks as any great show I've been to (and more space). And I smelled more weed smoke than I've EVER SMELLED IN MY LIFE. Apparently Brooklynites like to party. Thanks David Byrne, and thanks Brooklyn.

See you in New York!

2009-06-03T21:42:00.001-07:00

At the MoCCA Fest, in the 69th Regiment Armory Building. Apparently, the same Armory where people shat themselves in anger or joy over Nude Descending a Staircase.

Info for the Fest and the Mazzuchelli opening here. I'll be tabling with Raighne and Meghan Hogan of 2D Cloud, Nic Breutzman, and tall Sean Lynch. Please come and say hello! I will be there with Ghost Comics, Dark Cloud Comin', The Love Song of Kermit the Frog, Chris Ware: Paper Musician, and Blue Blue Blues starring Sonic.

The David Mazzuchelli show will feature art from his NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL Asterios Polyp. And the show will include his Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One pages, AKA the best superhero comics ever made, and yes I will stand by that. (Though if cornered, I would probably switch my wording from 'best' to 'my favorite'.)

And that same night there will be a great show / signing at Giant Robot, the opening for the Panelists show paired with a release party for Austin English's Windy Corner #3 (which is a wonderful magazine) featuring Lilli Carré and others.

That's all one day (except MoCCA is both Saturday and Sunday), Saturday. And I got invited to gay dancing (and I've been told that my friend's friend "knows people," whatever that means), as well as another party. DAMN. Gon be more tired than when my friend Anton and I spent a long summer's day at Coney Island at a free show seeing Modest Mouse and other bands that mostly sucked, packed in a mass of sweltering fleshy bodies.

I'll leave us with that.

"The Last Drop"

2009-06-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

Submission for Philly's Always Comix anthology, the "How We Met" issue. I have previously appeared in the "Evil" and the "Activity" issues.

You may recognize this as a reworked version of an old story. That story was a bit of a rush job and I was glad to be able to put a little more finish to it here.

See you at MoCCA, I hope.

Kissling's Kingwood, Nils, Up and Wendy and Lucy

2009-05-30T00:17:00.001-07:00

Renny Kissling's Kingwood Himself is running on Top Shelf 2.0 in 3 parts! Read it here.

Renny and I are working on a graphic novel called Nils. He's drawing, I'm writing, but we both came up with the characters and story. Renny drew and designed this promo image.

The minicomic version of my senior project, Dark Cloud Comin', is now available for purchase at $3. Read it in 3 posts below.

Yesterday was a crazy but great movie day.

I watched Wendy and Lucy by Kelly Reichart, who also made Old Joy. This movie pulls no punches. It's wonderful. I also really like this poster design.

Renny, Kat, David, and I all saw the midnight premiere of the new Pixar movie Up. If you saw Wall-E, then you know Pixar is starting to reach their real potential and doing something truly special, even more so than what they were doing before. Up is one of both the funniest and most heart-wrenching movies I've ever seen. Many of the situations are truly outlandish and it feels like it shouldn't be working, but it's completely convincing and wonderful. How can you not love a movie about a cute little old man floating his house on baloons? The movie is totally charming. And totally honest.

MCAD commencement speech, Ghost Comics release, MoCCA

2009-05-25T23:22:00.000-07:00

My last words at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

My big finish got cut off though, unfortunately. Thanks to my dad for taping it (and everything else, for that matter) and as always to my editor and life coach Margie McGee.
And while I'm at it, big ups to MCAD and its comic department: Barb Schulz, Terry Beatty, Zak Sally.

Watching this, I feel like the pronunciation of my "s"'s are super prominent. Maybe it's the recording. That sounds good. That's what I'll tell myself (until I'm told otherwise).

I am told that the Ghost Comics book release party at Arise! went well. I am sure these people are not lying to me. There would be nothing in it for them to do so. I was too busy hunching over and compulsively eating / smoking / drinking coffee to notice anything positive happening. Though the music and getting my book signed by the artists were nice. Pictures to follow.

I will be biking around tomorrow to get Ghost Comics to the local vendors (Big Brain, Extreme Noise, etc) with a stopover in downtown in the search for pants that fit me. (I have stumpy legs).

Next up on the itinerary: MoCCA comics fest in NYC. June 6-7. 2D Cloud, AKA Raighne and Meghan Hogan AKA Hogan's Heroes AKA the Good Minnesotans have been kind enough to share their table, along with the talented creator of Yearbooks Nic Breutzman.

GHOST COMICS EVENT + Dark Cloud Comin', pt. 3 of 3

2009-05-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Don't forget!

Ghost Comics Book Release Party
Sat. May 23, 4 PM
(Signing / event begins)
5 PM bands start
8:30 PM movie screening (bring a blanket!)
Arise! Bookstore backyard
2441 Lyndale Ave. S., MPLS MN
All Ages & FREE!

The Xeric Award-winning Ghost Comics: A Benefit Anthology for RS Eden will be unveiled.

Artist signing 4-5 PM, bands at 5, movie at 8:30 (bring a blanket!)

All proceeds from Ghost Comics benefit local substance abuse treatment facility RS Eden.

Featuring music by:
Bla Bla Blacksheep
me you like i
the Ex-Lovers
Teenage Moods
Heating Up Dirt
Coax from Chuckanut
Mako Homura

+ Set from DJ That during the signing

______

And, here it is, the conclusion of Dark Cloud Comin':

Dark Cloud Comin pt. 2 of 3

2009-05-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

I am a college graduate. I delivered the commencement speech, as a harried, neurotic character holding an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

Behind me is Vince Leo, VP, and Kevin Kling, storyteller and main speaker (he was amazing). My performance was influenced by Woody Allen with Laurie Anderson's timing. I recently relistened to the audiobook of Steve Martin's autobiography of his life until he ended his standup career, Born Standing Up, and I'm sure that helped a lot. Performance in character is something I'd love to do more of in the future, and thinking about integrating the ideas with my comic work.

The final part of Dark Cloud Comin' will be posted next week.

Possible 2010 project: Medium-length (32 pages) biography of Warhol Factory personality Candy Darling (seen here with Warhol in a rare shot as a brunette).

Don't forget about the Ghost Comics release party at Arise! next week, May 23 at 4PM!

I should direct you to my friend Reynold Kissling's blog, because we are working on a book called Nils and it will rock and roll you.

Unrelatedly awesome: my friend Monica's short film, Like in Space.

LIKE IN SPACE from Monica Hall on Vimeo.

Dark Cloud Comin pt. 1 of 3

2009-05-10T02:46:00.000-07:00

You may notice that these pages look different from the original versions of these first 6 pages of Dark Cloud Comin'. I inked the first six pages with heavy brush linework on vellum instead of the thin nib linework on Bristol you see here, before switching to a clean Hergé / Chester Brown-like style as per Zak Sally’s recommendation.

I am not running the story all at once, but breaking it up into 3 parts instead.

Check out the MCAD Commencement Exhibition, 3 floors of MCAD's main builing until May 17. May 16 at 5 PM is the graduation reception (with includes, I think, a thousand cupcakes?).

Plans are official. I am going to Vienna this summer, and meeting up with Alex Roche there. We will be staying with family friends the Reichmeyers, and I am very excited to see Helene, Carolina, Ernst, and Margit. Before that happens, I will show Alex Star Wars, because she's never seen it. (By the way - new Jim Jarmusch movie next week! New Woody Allen with Larry David this June! New Pixar movie before that!)

After I saw Boys Don't Cry for Phil Anderson's World Film class, I've loved this song. Kelly and I are going to continue the class during the summer unofficially (when we live together - I am taking Tuesday's sublet), mixed in with every Woody Allen movie in the MCAD library.

Here's the trailer for said Woody Allen movie.

New Byrne and Eno. Has been on loop.

Ghost Comics release party

2009-04-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

Flyer / postcard by the lovely and talented Jillian Schroeder of MPLS zine collaborative Hark! Press, who is a a contributor to Ghost Comics and will be playing in the band Teenage Moods.

I will be graduating from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in a few short weeks. The 20-page Dark Cloud Comin', my senior project, will be available for reading soon after. And the previous pages posted don't give a good indication of what's to come... I'm re-inking it in a different style, as suggested by Zak Sally.

My friend Casey Mosman referred to approaching graduation as "zero hour." Of course I was reminded of "Rocket Man." There have been many wonderful versions of this song by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, including My Morning Jacket and the inimitable William Shatner. One of the best is by the little English dancer Kate Bush. Watch her doing her best Marilyn imitation with the uke (think of "Running Wild" from Some Like It Hot).

I feel a little like this right now! Planned locations I will be in this summer: New York, New Jersey, Philly, Minneapolis, Vienna, New Orleans, Georgia, Chicago.

MCAD Mini-Con, Tom K & Zak Sally MOME talk, and Morrissey

2009-04-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

Poster by Anna Bongiovanni (the bricks are cuz I took a photo of it on the wall.)

Image of last year's con by Terry Beatty

Some of what I'll have for sale this year.

Tomorrow, Thursday April 9 from 11 AM - 6:30 PM in the main gallery at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design will be the 4th Annual MCAD Mini-Con! If you are in the Twin Cities area I hope you can drop by.

At 6:15 there will be a gallery talk from local cartoonists Tom Kaczynski and Zak Sally about the MOME show. If you have never listened to these gentlemen speak, it is a treat to do so.

By the way, big ups to Mr. Neville McKinnie for the assistance on assembling minis. Neville has, I guess, become my unofficial intern. I barely know how this happened, but I'm beyond pleased.

Here's a blurry photo of us meeting Ivan Brunetti (that's me on the right and Abby behind me), who is now my senior project mentor. I am very thankful to be having his advice at my disposal.

And on Monday night, I went with my friend Bart King to grab my bag which I left at the 19 Bar and a drink, and then we went to see the man, Morrissey, at the State Theater. I was able to wrangle my way up to a choice spot without the security seeing that I did not have a ticket for being there (they were ruthless, and so am I when it comes to shows). At the end of the show, stage-rushers captured the attention of most of the security (this means rabid Moz fans who run onto the stage to try to embrace him), and I ran up to the very front and was able to touch the hand of the man! A high school dream come true.

All things considered, I must be a lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky man.

Dark Cloud Comin' preview + NYC signing + biz card in-progress

2009-04-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

A preview of the 24-page story Dark Cloud Comin'. AKA my senior project AKA my life 'til MoCCA.

Speaking of which, I won't be tabling at MoCCA, but I hope I'm not speaking too soon in saying that I am signing at a queer cartoonists' event (prolly on the same weekend) at Jim Hanley's Universe in NYC. JHU is directly across from the Empire State Building, and I have fond memories of it from my pre-college program experience at SVA, when I was first learning about art comics past Clowes and Ware. (Copies of Yeast Hoist: Does Music Make You Cry? by Ron Regé, Jr. and Big Questions by Anders Nilsen were thrust at me by my friend Andi in my 8x10' "fattening pen" dorm room. I was so amazed that comics like that could be real!)

And here's something I rarely post on here: PROCESS of any kind. Here is an in-progress business card. Front on the left, flip on the right. Notes are welcome and appreciated (that goes for everything else ever too.)

And - hell, why not - R.E.M. does "Green Grow the Rushes" (from Fables of the Reconstruction) in '85. Somethin' about this song. Michael looks particularly handsome in this one, too.

And see you soon, this city:As a sort of post-graduation thing. Meeting up with this girl, and staying with my good family friends the Reichmeyers. See you soon, Helene, Carolina, Ernst and Margit!

And thanks to Mr. Sean Lynch and Ms. Mako Hamura for a wonderful afternoon in St. Paul today!

I am the luckiest fuckin duck.

My sister the superstar

2009-03-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

"Don't cry for me, New Jersey..."

Pictures from my sister Julie Moorman as the lead in Evita at Amherst College, where she goes to school. This past year she was also Sally Bowles in Cabaret (aka Liza's part) and she had a role in an experimental opera about Lincoln's assassination, Our American Cousin. My parents, my cousin Caroline, and my aunt are driving up from New Jersey right now to see her in the play. As with the past two, I wish I could go! The Midwest is pretty far from the East Coast, as the temperature and cultural climate reminds me (I jokingly call it the ol' "Scandinavian Distance").

This was shot there!

If I didn't mention it before, I will be moving to Chicago in August to live with my friend Kirsten. The town's above-ground trains, garrulous nature, and wonderful stores (especially Quimby's) were among its selling points. There is a great comics scene there, including Ghost Comics contributors Lucy Knisley and Corinne Mucha, both of whom I look forward to living in the proximity of.

Anyway, best of luck tonight, Julie! And don't cry for me, Minneapolis... I'll visit sometimes.

Always Comix, Side B, & Ghost Comics release info

2009-03-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

Philly and surrounding areas:

"Please join us in celebrating the release of our 5th volume of Always Comix, The Evil Issue.

8pm Saturday, March 28th
Padlock Gallery
1409 Ellsworth St.
Philadelphia, PA 19146

Come and be the first to get our most impressively Evil issue! 100+ pages of pure, unsweetened evil from the likes of Joey Alison Sayers, Erin Griffin, Matt Wiegle, Chris Johnson, Brian Michael Weaver, Joe Decie, Ed Moorman, Colin Tedford, and millions of thousands of others!"

Back issues will be available for sale, and snacks will be available for your enjoyment."

My story involves the Blue Meanie, my superhero and villain characters the Snow Owl and the Gay Panic, and a special guest.

The thing is co-run by my buddy Sarah Louise Wahrhaftig AKA Sally Bloodbath. Come and party with comic books if you're in the area. (I'm not.)

Everywhere:
Side B is now ready for pre-order. If you want to, click here for a PDF which has all that info. You can bring this to your local comic shop and git that sucka. Ryan Kelly, Lucy Knisley, Jeffrey Brown, and others co-star.

Minneapolis and surrounding areas:

And now an extremely unofficial bit about the release of my own Ghost Comics. It is slated for a mid-May release. Nothing is confirmed, so all of the following info is with a "probably". Release party in the Arise! Bookstore backyard, at 24th & Lyndale in Uptown Minneapolis. This space will allow bands to play, with a tentative lineup of Lambs of God, Bla Bla Blacksheep, Me You Like I, and others. Signings with the local artists and whichever out-of-state artists can show up. May 23.

GHOST COMICS f'reals + giant comics history book

2009-03-18T10:48:00.001-07:00

After much work by Messrs. Micah Lidberg (type), Allegra Lockstadt (illo), and Jenny Tondera (design), here we have the final cover for the Xeric-winning Ghost Comics. What I thought a year and a half ago was going to be a zine is almost done. It is slated for a May 2009 release.

In other comics news, I just made a giant purchase of an accidentally secret tome. And by 'giant' I mean it's 668 pages, but it's $20. It is reportedly the best history of newspaper comics available anywhere. Read about it here, found via the latest Comics Journal. The only place I found it was independent sellers on Amazon.com.

I've talked a lot about how great Beto Hernandez's Palomar stories are, and I'm now going back to Jaime and Locas for the first time since high school, really. I would like to state officially that R.E.M. is now my favorite band and Love and Rockets is my favorite comic.

On the subject of me.

2009-03-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

For a self-portrait competition at MCAD. Thanks to Jesse Swanson for the idea of compiling them. If you can't read the type (it's larger in print), it says "32 egomaniacal cartoon self-images."

Brownie points to whoever catches the reference in the title of the post. (Maddie or Caroline, I'm counting on you.)

MOMEntum / Made at MCAD / New Spirits openings March 6

2009-03-04T04:23:00.000-08:00

"When: March 6 - April 19, 2009
Where: MCAD Gallery: Concourse Gallery
Reception: Friday, March 6, 6-8 p.m.
Gallery Talk with Tom Kaczynski and Zak Sally: Thursday, April 9, 6:30 p.m.

The Made at MCAD/MOMENTUM opening reception on March 6 will feature live music by hip-hop duo Elliot Looney and DJ Danny Sigelman, snacks and refreshments, and much more. No tickets required--fans of all ages are welcome to join in the fun, connect with other comic heads, and check out exciting new work.

Also on March 6 is a 1PM lecture with Mome editor Eric Reynolds."

Elliot Looney's a good rapper.
Also:

"Jane Simon, Curator of Exhibitions at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, is the juror for this annual juried exhibition." I'm in it, as are a bunch of my friends.

And then just down the hall there is the opening for New Spirits in Comics, an exhibit of upper-level comic work at MCAD. I'm in that too.

Everything happens on Friday, March 6 at 6PM. At 9 there is an after-party for the MOME show at Grumpy's Bar downtown. Don't think I can go, though all signs say I should.

Anyway, the Made at MCAD show is usually pretty strong and I've had the great pleasure of watching the MOME show go up. It has been an inspiration to see all this great work in person. My first month of school, I ordered the very first MOME book. Now they're up to vol. 14 (with cover and a highly-recommended story by Lilli Carré), and I'm graduating.
My still-untitled 20-page senior project story is coming in May, as is Ghost Comics. After that will be the long-mentioned Friendship Bracelet split zine with Abby. Then the Twin Cities Zinefest, then I move to Chicago.

In other news, my dad is too cute.

Bachelor Auction + new Morrissey

2009-02-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

MCAD cats: the 3rd-annual BACHELOR AUCTION is tomorrow, Saturday, at 7PM in the Student Center. It supports the printing of Comic Heads' (also annual) student anthology. I will be among the bachelors available. A lucky bidder will win a double date with Spencer Ruskin and his date, an evening of Jasmine Deli and fancy bum wine if desired.

Portrait of ladykiller Morrissey used above as he is famous for his bachelor-dom, and to celebrate his new album, Years of Refusal. Moz is still playing the same role, so it probably won't sway his detractors, but I think it's pretty damn sweet. I'd say it's his best record since '94. AND I'm seeing him at the State Theater with Tuesday in April! It's the first time he's been to Minneapolis since 1991. I saw him live twice in high school, and it's always a massive treat. I wonder what it'll be like now that I've grown to be who he's talking to in "Rubber Ring."

BAM!

Final Ghosts contributors list/info

2009-02-22T03:40:00.000-08:00

This is not the ghost book I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Xeric-winning Ghost Comics: A Benefit Anthology for RS Eden. And didn't the movie Casper teach us that ghosts can't eat? Maybe it wasn't a movie, maybe it was BASIC LOGIC that taught me that. Whatever, ghosts can eat and vampires can sparkle in the sunlight.

Who's in GHOST COMICS:
Monica Anderson, Tuesday Bassen, Jeffrey Brown, Kevin Cannon, Allison Cole, Warren Craghead III, Will Dinski, Will Hayes, Hob, John Hankiewicz, David Heatley, Toby Jones, Reynold Kissling, Aidan Koch, Lucy Knisley, Micah Lidberg, Mike Lowery, Sean Lynch, Jessica McLeod, Ed Choy Moorman, Sarah Morean, Corinne Mucha, Abby Mullen, Madeline Queripel, Evan Palmer, John Porcellino, Zak Sally, Jillian Schroeder, Mark Scott, Eileen Shaughnessy, Jenny Tondera, Sarah Louise Wahrhaftig, Maris Wicks, and Jessica Williams.

176 pages.

Book and cover design by Jenny Tondera, cover illustration by Allegra Lockstadt, title hand-lettering by Micah Lidberg (you haven't seen it yet, it's awesome though), edited by Ed Choy Moorman (AKA me) with assistant editor Abby Mullen.

Out for sure by June 2009, maybe before. If you're good. Premiering at MoCCA '09.

Other news:
-Leonard Cohen will be embarking on his first US tour in 15 years.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/149298-live-report-leonard-cohen-new-york-ny-02-19-09
Though if you see this and you buy tickets to the MPLS show before me and cock-block me from seeing Leonard Cohen, I'll take them from you like your third grade bully took your milk money. (In fact, I AM your third grade bully, and MAN UP already... wuss.)

-If you're a MCAD person, on Friday Feb. 27 at 7PM my school's comic club, Comic Heads, which I ran last year (what a bitter year for everyone else), is hosting our annual Bachelor Auction to raise money to print the annual anthology. I will be a bachelor. Feel free to bid on an evening with me and my double-dating partner, Spencer Ruskin.

-The Walker Art Center's Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair went really well. Sold a few books, met some people, and saw some friends. And in the back of Abby's car was a signed Tim Sale comic (thanks to her sister, Molly Mullen) that I didn't know (or forgot) I had coming! Molly and I have never lived near each other so we don't talk too often, but that was a little reminder of her thoughtful friendship and constant encouragement. Thanks, Molly.

-New zine, The Love Song of Kermit the Frog, is completed. More info soon.

-My senior project is underway... 20-page comic.

Side B + Native American Indian names

2009-02-05T23:14:00.001-08:00

Click to see info for the forthcoming Side B anthology from Poseur Ink. I'm very excited for this book. Jeffrey Brown and Lucy Knisley (who also did the cover) are among the contributors.

I'm working on my senior project story, and looking though The Melting Pot of Baby Names for names for the characters. North American Indian tribes' names are my favorites. 'Tumu' from the Miwok tribe means 'deer thinking about going to eat wild onions.' A lot of different cultures have names that emphasize special qualities of the child, as you might expect. But only Native American cultures have names like 'Jolon,' whcih means 'Valley of the dead oaks.'

"Hi, I'm Valley Of The Dead Oaks. I think you know my sister, To Touch?"
"Yes, it's nice to finally meet you! I'm Bear Growling At Passerby. Would you like to join me and my wife, The Unknown, for dinner?"

For real!

"Dear Dave," preview + Walker Feb. 21 + Ghosts news + fam

2009-02-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

This is a preview for my new story for the upcoming Side B: A Musical Anthology from San Diego-based Poseur Ink. (I was asked by the editor, Rachel Dukes, to not show the story in its entirety until awhile after publishing.) "Dear Dave," will also appear in Ghost Comics.

Brandish new and featured in the comic is the real-life Julian David Hunt. My dad sent this to a few of us with the subject title "Captain Adorable." I think my mom made the teddy bear. You can hear Julian's poppa Len's music here.

I will appear at the Walker Art Center's Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair on February 21 from 11 AM-4PM. This event is FREE; paying admission to the galleries is not required to attend. Buds Sean Lynch, Abby Mullen, Sarah Morean, and Raighne + Meghan Hogan (recently married!) of 2D Cloud/Good Minnesotan will also be there. The event is in conjunction with the Walker's Text/Messages: Books by Artists exhibition.

I received a Ghost Comics contribution today from the supernaturally talented Portlander Aidan Koch. Above is her cover art for the band Nurses. Aidan made a comic in pencil called "WAVE" and it's fucking terrifying. It reminds me of the scene with the medium in Rashomon.

I am pleased to announce that Micah Lidberg (Kansas City) will be doing the cover type for the Ghost Comics cover, over Allegra Lockstadt's illustration (and the whole thing unified with Jenny Tondera's design). The above image is called "Wait!" and is based off a sketchbook project in collaboration with Scott Grover.

Other newly-signed on contributors will include Corinne Mucha, Mark Scott, Renny Kissling, Kevin Cannon, and Zak Sally. I'm swimming in other people's talent and work. As an editor/publisher, I'm beyond spoiled and lucky. I'm in comics heaven.

Guaranteed cheer-up: De Monsters, short clips of animated monsters interacting with real people. I think it's from Belgium. Thanks as always to the Drawn! blog for the heads up on sweet stuff.

edsdeadbody.com rises like a dang Phoenix

2009-01-12T01:22:00.000-08:00

My site redesign is complete! Now with all my comics to read.
No link to update, but a refresh button to hit. If you know what I mean. Awww yeah.

Check back in a few weeks for a full redesign of this momma. (Susan's a family friend and I'm doing her site over break.)

I'm back in MN on Friday, but I leave for Chicago immediately after to visit my friend Kirsten. Then I'm back on the 20th.

It's still a little nutty how much I've made for myself to do, but this is a big weight off.

a gay post + Catholic saints

2009-01-07T23:25:00.000-08:00

Recurrent commercials on late night Logo

1. Guys Gone Wild
2. Trojan Vibrating Touch
3. Pet Zoom Nail Groom
4. 5-hour Energy
5. Ab Rocket
6. Heat Surge

These are what advertisers think gay people want to buy. Think about it.

It doesn't sound like it, but Heat Surge is actually the funniest one. That's because the spokesman, shown above, is somehow obsessed with the Amish and all they stand for. He says the word 'Amish' eleven times in less than two minutes.

By the way, not only is Milk a great, inspiring movie, but you get to see Harry Osbourne's butt! I'd buy that for a dollar.

Are you still wondering if Katholicism is krazy? Check out this wonderful list of all the patron saints on Catholicism.com. Did you know St. Cassian of Imola is the patron saint of stenographers?
St. Teresa of Avila shows up in the latest draft of a comic called Nils that I'm writing with my friend Renny Kissling. (We ideated the story together, though I'm mostly writing and he's mostly drawing.) Her story is fascinating.

Here's a picture of Nils, stolen from Renny's LiveJournal. In this scene we see teenage Nils in his grandparents' attic in Tennessee, looking at family photos he's never seen and listening to R.E.M. on his Walkman. It's 1994.

And this blog wouldn't be much if I went for too long without mentioning Gilbert Hernandez. He's one of the great storytellers of our time and if you haven't read his "Palomar" stories yet, I don't know whether to feel bad for you because your life isn't as good as it could be, or feel excited for you because you can experience them for the first time.
I'll feel both.

Please enjoy one of the stranger tokens from his imagination, a trailer for an odd B-movie-like show co-starring his wife, The Naked Cosmos.

Xeric grant, books, two comics, and a movie.

2008-12-17T21:21:00.001-08:00

I got a letter in the mail on Monday. Yesterday I left for New Jersey.
The letter said that Ghost Comics: A Benefit for RS Eden (edited by me, designed by Jenny Tondera, and cover illo by Allegra Lockstadt) has won the Xeric grant. This means we get the funds to put it out! We will probably go through 1984 Printing.

Here is the wraparound mock-up cover. Spine is in the middle.
Did you know that the Xeric Foundation was founded by Peter Laird, co-creator (with Kevin Eastman) of the Ninja Turtles? The first issue of TMNT was self-published, and the Xeric's what he did with his Turtle money. Makes me feel better about spending many hours of my life doing this.

Right now my dad is listening to Pink Floyd downstairs in the kitchen and cooking for his business meeting tomorrow.

Here's my new comic. It's NOT FOR KIDS. SERIOUSLY.

Here's a cover for a book I made as a mock-up for Zak Sally's Comic Publishing class at MCAD. It's work by Jillian Schroeder, co-founder of Minneapolis zine collective Hark! Press. I edited and designed it.

And here's the wraparound, spine in middle.

The physical version of this book has rounded corners, which I'm thinking of doing with Ghost Comics. Will have to consult my designer.

Here's another comic. It's older and not a lot of people saw it at the time. Fell through the cracks. I'm pretty into it.

And finally, a movie I was in recently. My friend Toby Jones made it. I play a leper businessman, the Head of the Leprosy Council to be specific. It's called Janitor Quest 2000. Enjoy...?

Janitor Quest 2000 from Toby Jones on Vimeo.

Here's a link to 20 Questions with Cartoonists run by Austin English, a standup dude who makes nuttywonderful comics drawn in crayons (I think). The most recent entry is with Zak Sally, whose viewpoint and words I've been benefiting from all semester and before, so put that in your cap and read it, after you take it out of your cap of course.

And just for the hell of it, a cool 24-hour comic by a friend of mine, (Dead Bird) by Caitlin Warner.

Oh, and don't forget about how Love and Rockets is the best comic ever if you still haven't read it. Or if you've read Jaime but not Gilbert Hernandez... Do it. It's for your own good.

OKAY SERIOUSLY ONE LAST THING.
The wonderful Music? For Screaming!!! by the voice of the March Hare, Jerry Colonna.

I'm back in NJ, which means Philly, NYC, work by my own clock, and hijinks!

Black and white morals.

2008-12-11T06:50:00.000-08:00

Big recommends:

Steve Martin's autobiography, Born Standing Up

Bob Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. (I listened to audiobooks of both while inking.)

And more than anything else,

PALOMAR from Love and Rockets by Gilbert Hernandez. (The name comes from the fictional Central American town where the stories are set.)

If you don't know about it, L&R is a comic series started in the early 80's by Los Bros Hernandez, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez.

They have two seperate storylines. As with many readers, I've always dug Jaime, but had taken awhile to really start reading and digging into Gilbert.

As I did... I was rewarded beyond my wildest dreams.

It's the best thing I've ever read.

Every chapter leaves me twisting and contorted, making guttural noises in agony and ecstasy.

As soon as I ended volume one, I immediately missed the Palomar residents like I miss old friends.

If you read Palomar, your life will be better than before you read it.

p.s. This song rules.

Don't read these comics.

2008-12-05T11:26:00.001-08:00

Are you listening to me? I'm not trying to be cute here. Don't read these comics.

These are for Zak Sally's Comic Publishing class at MCAD. We all had to make a diary comic strip a week for ten weeks. After the first three weeks, I started getting lazy and I started scanning pieces of my actual diary. (Which I'm not writing in lately - go figure.)
Anyway, I never intended them for viewing and I figured they would be graded and never seen. Now we have to put them on the internet and some students will be making a mock-up of a Perfect Bound book of everyone's diary strips.

In related news, my mock-up is When To Be a Boy?, a collection of drawings, collages, and comics by my friend, local zinester, and Hark! Press co-founder Jillian Schroeder. I don't know if it will get produced necessarily, but it's fun to do.

Sonic vs. the Void

2008-10-19T06:55:00.001-07:00

Dedicated to Toby: my original inspiration for looser drawing, braver writing, and drawing things I like again.

This will be made as a 24-page minicomic, available for 50 cents.

Jim Henson, 1936-1990

2008-10-19T00:49:00.000-07:00

I don't think it will be in a zine as promised; I blieve it will show up in an anthology instead.

I am planning the series I may stick with for life (as with Optic Nerve and Eightball); it is a comic, like Mayflies, that is short or serialized stories; fiction, nonfiction, and autobiography; starting as a zine but hopefully getting picked up eventually; I am planning full-color covers featuring mixed media. You can look for Contract/Expand #1 sometime next year.

p.s. People have been curious about this "Choy" that's popped up in my name all of a sudden. Well, Choy is my mother's maiden name, it's Chinese, and Ed Choy Moorman is my new pen name.

I leave you with this. It's remarkably similar to Pema Chödrön's words. Thanks to Monica for bringing him (and his 1969 appeal to the Senate for a large grant to public broadcsting) up tonight.

Fallcon

2008-10-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

If you're in the Twin Cities area, check out FALLCON on October 4 & 5 at the Grandstand (State Fairgrounds) in St. Paul. Bare Bones Press (AKA me) will represent! Expect Mayflies for $3 (I gotta get that thing outta my basement, I'm gonna move someday!), a mini called Chris Ware: Paper Musician, and Voices in the Dark (zine anthology of comics about sex).

I'll be tabling with Sean Lynch and Tuesday Bassen. You'll be able to buy a bad drawing of yourself as an animal for $1.

A mini about Jim Henson is forthcoming. So is a collaborative zine with Abby.

New anthology comics: "Polaroids" in Good Minnesotan #3. (You can get #2 at the Poopsheet Shop. GM will be at Fallcon as well.) I will also be in Lucky Creature Attacks #3 (story: "Dear Lynda Barry") and Candy or Medicine Volume 5 (November '08, story: "Zenka, from a Craigslist 'Missed Connection'").

The Xeric people and publishers will soon be seeing our benefit anthology Ghost Comics. It's a benefit for RS Eden, a substance abuse treatment facility in MPLS. With Jeffrey Brown, Allison Cole, Warren Craghead, Hob, John Hankiewicz, David Heatley, Lucy Knisley, Mike Lowery, Jessica McLeod, Jessica Williams, and many others. Design by Jenny, cover by Allegra.

There is a cute little interview on my MCAD's blog with me. There is a photo of my pencils, which you would never see otherwise.

How Do You Fill the Void?

2008-09-15T18:54:00.001-07:00

You may recognize some friends in this one.

In order of appearance: Conor O'Brien (from the Sleaze), Ben Ross (new roommate), Will Hayes, Ben Innes, David Lundin, Abby Mullen, Kelly Filreis, Will again, Lauren Posterick, Brad Pearson, Tuesday Bassen, Anna Bongiovanni (other new roommate).

"Polaroids" for Good Minnesotan #3

2008-09-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

This is it! This is what I've been killing myself over for awhile now. (The main thing, anyway.)
As usual, it converged in one giant sleepless night. At least it wasn't a lonely one. Thanks for David, Jane, and Abby for the company.

Abby also appears in Good Minnesotan #3, and her comic is all about tiny houses! Unplanned overlap.

Highly suggested:
Yoshihiro Tatsumi.
Tatsumi's comics contain unforgettable images. A man fucks a dog. A children's book author becomes a pornographer. A son abandons his elderly mother who has become a burden. Tatsumi is empathetic in the truest sense, staying with characters when they are most full of craving, desperation, fear, and anger.

Only a few years of his early work have been published in English so far (1969-71 at the moment - The Push Man and Other Stories, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and Good-Bye by Drawn & Quarterly), and I'm very excited to be seeing this stuff. Tatsumi was at the forefront of a small group of Japanese underground cartoonists, nicknamed Gekiga manga, which was a movement unrelated to American undergrounds.
Adrian Tomine is designing and editing these new D&Q volumes, and his restrained design sense fits Tatsumi's human horrors perfectly.

I just listened to an interview with Tomine, and amazingly, he says that he doesn't think of himself as a strong designer, nor does he like that part of the process! It is always reassuring to me to be confronted with artists who are so oblivious to their own strengths that it's funny.

I mean it

2008-09-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

If it weren't for the Pema's teachings, I would collapse in a heap, weeping. All my deadlines are converging at once. Thanks to her (and other cartoonists like Kochalka, Crumb, and Lynda Barry) I am helped to remember that I am not alone.