COMICS FEST

EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT COMICS SHOULD BE HERE ON SATURDAY!

RIP Bil Keane

I know that we all love to make fun of it, but Family Circus was the stuff Sunday morning was made of for many of us. I always had a secret soft spot for it and I'm not sure why it never occurred to me before now that it may very well be because it resembled my own family in many ways: too many kids, an adorable mother, constant havoc. It was too precious by half which made it perfect fodder for critics and people who love to ape the nuclear family. In fact, when searching on-line for a panel to accompany this entry, I found just as many parodies as there were originals. But as sentimental as it is and as overly cutesy as it can be, it was genuine, heartfelt, sweet, and beautifully rendered. And it remains, rightly so, one of the great American funnies. RIP Bil Keane, the creator of all those circles, the father of all those children.

"There was something about the life on the other side of that circle that looked pretty good. For kids like me there was a map and a compass hidden in Family Circus. The parents in that comic strip really loved their children. Their home was stable. It put that image in my head and I kept it.
I’d always heard that great art will cause people to burst into tears but the only time it ever happened to me was when I was introduced to Bil Keane’s son, Jeff. As soon as I shook his hand I just started bawling my face off because I realized I had climbed through the circle." - Lynda Barry, New York Times Magazine

Continuum.

Long time, no blog.

I have been up to my ears in various non-comics projects and adventures for the past few months. Some to my delight and some to my chagrin. However, when I did make comics I was happy to have them featured on GUrl.com an amazing on-line magazine for teens. One explores the drawbacks of being liked for your looks, and another on the innies and outties of belly button piercing.

The next big thing on my plate now is preparing for APE which is rapidly approaching. For those attending please drop by to visit me and the venerable Dunja Jankovic at table 556. All plans are in flux so all I know is that I will have lots of comics to share, a mess of unnecessary, but amusing underwear, and that I am really excited to see old friends and meet new ones.

I know a lot of people have written about it, and I cannot imagine what I could say that has not been said so well by the people who knew and loved him best, but I feel I must mention the sad passing of Dylan Williams. I'm not sure how to express how important it was to me that someone like him thought my work was worth paying attention to, or how much I admired what he did for comics and for people who love comics. All I can say is that his death is a great loss and it is deeply felt.

♥

Sketchbook Monday on a Sunday

Here is something I drew today. Isn't it a little gross?

Sketchbook Monday on a Tuesday

Keep on keepin' on. Gotta stop posting sketches of lady profiles.

More MoCCA follow up and Time Out New York

Hello!

First off, pick up a time out this week and grab a peek at the photo finish. I love it when the photo is black and white. The finished product always looks so nice in print. The link to the website is empty for some reason so I am posting it here:


In other news I got into Columbia! Well I didn't, but The Deformitory did. My humble thesis is now part of the graphic novel collection at Columbia University in the Butler Library. Here is an article about the collection by Karen Green who started it back in 2005. Getting to meet her was one of the highlights of MoCCA for me.

Want some photographic evidence that people are reading The Lettuce Girl Pt. 2? Well, look no further! Here the lovely Helena looks through my latest comic. Beautiful women everywhere agree: It is legible, if not edible.


Photo Credit: © 2011 Laura Broomhall

MoCCA Review & Etsy Update

Well, another year, another MoCCA. And this one was quite a knock out. It went by so fast my head was spinning. There was a great crowd and great exhibitors and just a lot of fantastic energy and comics love all weekend long. I ♥ the MoCCA Comic Festival in a major way. I saw my favorite people, met some new great people, and scored some sweet books.



There I am signing a copy of my latest comic "The Lettuce Girl Pt. II". For those of you who couldn't make it to the show, but want (need/desire/can't live without) a copy, you can now order it on-line at my Etsy shop HERE. I also have onesies and underwear up for sale. Cute, cheap, adored by all.



As always after a big show like this I spend some time disoriented and sort of empty feeling after it is all done. For the past four months I feel as if every cell in my body has been primed towards this one goal: write, draw and bind "The Lettuce Girl" and now that it's done I barely know what to do with myself. And then I remember, oh wait here comes the other part of self-publishing: the distribution, the reprinting, the e-mailing and general administrative hooplah. Good thing I kind of like this part too. Also I may be attending APE out in California this fall which would make October my new deadline for the third installment. Can I get a what what?

MoCCA is Now!

Come out to the Armory this weekend for MoCCA Fest! It's the best comic book convention of the year, and I will be there with the wonderful Anna Raff at table I-13. Drop by and check out my latest comic, the second installment of "The Lettuce Girl" (pictured below) and all the other fun stuff we'll have. I am so to see everyone's new and amazing work. See you there!



MoCCA Fest 2011!
A Fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art-MoCCA
Saturday April 9th and Sunday April 10th 11am-6pm

At the Lexington Avenue Armory
68 Lexington Ave (Between 25th &26th Streets)
New York City

Hazel and The Ula

Sketchbook Monday on a Friday.

I'm just dedicated to getting out a lot of old imagery. This is from an old sketchbook, January circa 2009, with a rapidograph.

Update!

I have finished inking my comic....sort of. Technically all the pages are inked, but now I have to go through the slightly harrowing process of revising the work which requires a lot more inking, re-inking, and copious amount of designer white gauche. So I put it all on the wall where I can see it more clearly. Even within the making of this book there has been a very steep learning curve and I frown upon the early pages, the ones made before I relearned how to become wholly comfortable with my nib pen again. Revising those pages is particularly painful. Hopefully this process can be finished in the next couple days. I'm ready for the whole process to move on to scanning. Then printing, binding, and sharing.

If I can be almost embarrassingly honest, I will admit that it is times like this when I think to myself, "I'm not a liar. This is not just a bunch of talk. I actually make comics. I actually do what I say I do." And then after momentary self-satisfaction, I let the flood gates of self hatred open wide so I can get started on some real art.

Also I am in full fledged MoCCA mode. As should you be. So don't forget:

MoCCA Festival 2011!!
April 9-10, 2011
at the 69th Regiment Armory
68 Lexington Avenue New York City



Check out the new poster! And all other pertinent up-to-date information can be found HERE!

Sketchbook Monday + TONY

It's not Monday, yet, but who cares? Here's a sketchbook drawing I liked. I drew it last January with my rapidograph. Also I had a Photo Finish in last week's Time Out New York. You can see the entire piece here and my art work (sans photo) is below.



I am almost done inking my comic. I am practically giddy with the idea that in a matter of weeks I will be holding my book, bound and printed, in my hands.

Update etc.

These are some photos of what I have been up to in the past weeks. Measuring and tearing paper and a lot (a lot) of drawing and inking. After about a year of talking about it I have actually written, penciled, and am now inking the second installment of The Lettuce Girl. There is still so much work to do, but I can say with growing confidence that it will be done on schedule, i.e. on time for MoCCA. Actually I am hurtling forward at an almost dizzying pace. It helps I don't do much else except go to work and then come home to ink ink ink. My hands are at that stage where they are embedded so deeply with ink that no amount of washing does any good. Maybe I will post a gross picture of that too.
I have a couple other sub-projects in the works which will hopefully not be too neglected in the next month or so. So keep checking in for more updates, pictures, and pictures of pictures!
xo.

Sketchbook Monday

Yeah, I know that it's not Monday. In fact, it's Tuesday. In fact, it's late on Tuesday. Whatever. My life keeps getting high-jacked.
But here's my sketch. And click HERE is a link to my latest Time Out piece.

Sketchbook Monday

There are some artists who are really into sketchbooks and some who couldn't care less. I belong firmly in the first camp. I carry mine with me almost constantly and will spend hours on mindless doodling, which isn't really mindless at all is it? My best ideas have been unconscious scribblings done in classrooms and subway cars. My most beautiful gestures are always the ones I unselfconsciously render on a whim. When I am done with a sketchbook it is a wonderfully compact object in and of itself, which not only contains the architecture of my ideas, but a visual representation of my head-space during the time the book was kept.

I also find few things as pleasurable as pouring over someone else's sketchbooks, and inevitably, no matter how much I love a painter, I always love their drawings more. There's always something amazing about the stuff that's not supposed to count as much.
Yesterday I was cleaning out my closet and I found my sketchbook collection. I have saved dozens of books of my drawings since college and it's really awesome comparing the difference between them. While perusing my own books I realized that since I love it when other people post their sketchbook pages I should probably do the same.

And so every Monday, from this week forward, I will be posting a sketchbook page. I will try and keep it current, but today's will be one I liked the look of yesterday while I was cleaning up.


Date: Summer 2009