The Lazarus Return

 
The Gregory Brothers  Published on Sep 9, 2013

October 10, 2013

It's 6:12am on a still sunless fall morning.  I'm reading articles about Alice Munro whose just won the Nobel Prize in literature.  I have a youtube video of Kanye West's Kimmel interview on pause.  It's been nearly a month since I was fired from my day job, and in another day I can request the sum of my retirement which I hope to use for a new path in life.

I've been  trying to make art all month.  I've been drawing, rifling through old notes & sketches, rustling up drawing tools & tablets of paper.  The weekend past was 24 hour comics day.  The month has been rededicated Inktober.  Alternative Press Expo and New York Comic Con are this weekend and already people are arriving. 

Since the crack of dawn I've been sorting files on my computer, making mental notes of things I had hoped to get to and what year or season or month I'd first acquired them.  It has suddenly become clear to me how important it is to write things, to get thoughts out, and to jog up the memory and excercise one's use of language.

I hope to be a creator.  I hope to have a way to provide for myself and my life while being a creator.

October 13, 2013

It's a beautiful, serene Sunday afternoon.  I'd been listening to Welcome to Nightvale until a brown out shut everything down for a few seconds.  I've been active this week and it's felt invigorating.  Last night I hung out with Ian and Vince.  We played a little D&D at the local game shop, before abandoning our campaign in search of food.  Had some excellent buffet, then wandered the local state college with aching bellies to find our friend at the bowling alley in the student center.  The night was abuzz with vulgar humor and our concerted efforts to stave off ennui.  I wish I had held onto my character sheet in which I had drawn my monk character, Tony Shalhoub, as well as a couple of masturbating giant spiders & cameos of the other players.

Today I've completed my laundry early and sketched Ian's character, Ugly.

The week began with the internet's pathos & rage over Copic-gate.  I got reintroduced to Little Thunder with her recent cinema comics. A couple of people reblogged Annette Marnat's work.  But Boulet stole the show with his child memoir comic here in English and French.  Kate Beaton was back in the news after posting this fun Black Canary comic, as well as announcing a Fat Pony project at NYCC. Victoria put me up on this beautiful memoir and ode to Sailor Jupiter and gender ambiguity and teenage confusion.  The government shutdown was still in effect.

I began the week with thoughts of sexism, feminism, Wonder Woman, and fiction that reflects lived struggle.  Erin & Jenny kept me company all week with so much comedy twitter.  I got Food Zine in the mail and read it all in one sitting!  I also read Wonder Woman War Killer, Batman Then & Now, and started Batman & Robin and Night Fisher.  I ate a lot of cheese this week and midway somewhere my daytime sleeping schedule reset, although I was getting up at like 2am.  The Last Halloween updated for the first time.

I felt a lot of self-loathing this week but my buddies kept me sane, especially Jenny & Erin who made up an imaginary band and included me in it.  So I fantasized about moving to Portland again.  Also we all hate leaf-blowers together.  America's Best Comics 2013 debuted with work from Kate Beaton and Faith Erin Hicks.

On Thursday I got away and visited with my friend Vince & we hung out late at a coffee shop mulling over story ideas until we were hilariously interrupted by some guy trying to sell $1 drawings.  Getting out on Saturday was another welcome social event and it's helped me get a little perspective on my situation.  I feel pretty confident about facing the coming week.

James Harvey's 24 hour comics Plantains and Rice.
James Harvey's Edinburgh 2013 diary comic.
Jared McCallum's SPX 2013 journal comic.
Ugly the Tengu | Wonder Woman fan art


latenight Published on Oct 8, 2013

Dog Ball Day Afternoon

Saturday April 20, 2013

It was an intense, difficult week for America.  On Monday, the Boston Marathon was rocked with two explosions that left 3 dead and many injured.  Through the week law enforcement and the FBI worked on identifying suspects and gathering information, and by the end of the week we were left with a suspect in custody in critical condition and one dead.  A fertilizer plant in West Texas suffered a devastating explosion that left at least 15 people dead and hundreds injured or lost.  In China the H7N9 continued to claim more lives.

Today I woke up slightly hungover.  I had to return Stardust Memory and Myspace DHP v5 today, so I swapped them out for What I Did by Jason, Fringe v1, R.E.D., The Losers, Seven Soldiers of Victory and two DVD's:  Gundam 0080: War In the Pocket and Dirty Pair.  I'd say that's a good haul.

I read another great Sam Alden comic, The Worm Troll.   I learned about David Gaddis & a few other great early web comics creators because of this article about Modern Tales.

Sunday April 21, 2013

Today I woke up at 9:30am.  To shut my alarm off and then sleep for another hour.  We went bowling for my roommate's nieces' belated birthday party and hit up the pizza parlor.  It was a fun day and I love his extended family.  He and his sister make a hilarious duo.  We ended the visit w/ a lazy watching of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  I played with a pitbull and a bunch of kids.  I was pretty happy.  I also bowled pretty well too.  At home I got into an impromptu fanart for Julie's Lost In The Vale comic.  I felt very vulnerable and self-critical about my art and lack of professional accomplishment.  It came out while catching a quick workout with Adam.  Tonight, as Monday rolls in, I can smell hotdogs roasting on a grill a few apartments upwind of me.  I'm going to dissect the week in a second as we head into the last week of April and near the last month of Spring.  Tonight I watched Little Witch Academia!

 Su on deviantart | Lynn V. Wang's Dog Snack Work | exhaustive resource for pixel art | JIA on cghub | Kevin Wada on tumblr | Val Kung on Artigraphy | Betty & Veronica by Brandon Graham and Emily Carroll |  Little Thunder spotlight on Meathaus | O Human Star |

On Monday (4/15) I was following developments on the Boston Marathon bombing.  I read a few of those pixel tutorials, and somehow ended up on 4chan.  Then found out about a newer Yoshitaka Amano book, Hero, and pined away for an Android mini-pc. By the wee early hours of Tuesday morning (4/16) I was perusing old bookmarks.  Wednesday (4/17) I spent a ridiculous amount of time and effort trying to set up a windows media center stream over our home network.  I failed.  I'm not sure what happened Thursday (4/18) but I know I didn't get much sleep nor much done.  On Friday 4/19) I was just happy to be done with the work week, so we went on a journey to get some Angry Orchard Cider, barely made it back, and then I drank like a mad man.

This week I kind of buckled under the pressure on completing the t-shirt design for the boy's birthday this next weekend.  It was a week of struggle and uncertainty. Thankfully I had friends to share a laugh with.

@sour_apple This is what I drew after your suggestion: twitter.com/pennyloafing/s…
— Pennnnny (@pennyloafing) April 21, 2013