Shadow Art Fair

I'm going to have a table at the Shadow Art Fair in Ypsilanti, Michigan on December 5th. I'll be selling mini-comics (including the new issue of Nate the Nonconformist, which will premiere there) and buttons.

Rachel Auriemma designed the poster for it, which looks great.

Roxie! #1 and #2

Do you like vomit, neurotic managers, and bad hair metal? Me, too!! That's why you should check out my new(ish) mini-comic series, "ROXIE!" Each issue follows Roxie Rayge, a famous drunk rock musician, on her (and her bandmates') adventures in sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Mostly just the first two.

Roxie #1 ("Roxie Rayge Goes to Rehab") involves Roxie's descent after vomiting on national television, and her attempted comeback.

Roxie #2 (Roxie's New Bassist") introduces Roxie's newest band member, the snobby, classically-trained-yet-still-awful bassist, Princeton.

Roxie #1 sells for $3, and Roixie #2 sells for $2. Both comics are available at Jim Hanley's Universe in New York City (across from the Empire State Building) and Vault of Midnight Comics in Ann Arbor, MI. Roxie #1 is also available at Rocketship and Desert Island, both in Brooklyn.

On a possibly more age-appropriate note (but maybe not), I have an illustration in SMITH magazine's new book, I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous and Obscure. Here are my six words:

I've been back from Canada for a while, and just wanted to say I had an amazing time. Toronto is such a great place. I made some short hourly diary comics about the trip and convention, and have everything from the first day scanned and up already. Click on the preview comic below to read it. (WARNING: EXTREMELY ROUGH, I did these as fast as possible in order to catch up with my friends that I hardly ever get to see, and drew straight with ink, mostly on buses and trains)


I did a lot of trading in Canada with my new mini-comic, NATE THE NONCONFORMIST #2. It's hand-stitched, and the covers are screen printed made from recycled folders.

Right now I'm working on a kid-friendly mini-comic for the Kids Read Comics Convention this weekend. I'll put some pages up here soon.

It's Spring Break for me right now, and I have a ton of deadlines looming over me for the end of the month. I also promised a lot of people I would hang out with them; almost every day something new comes up. Anyway, I'm keeping on top of things using a slightly modified version of these schedules. I wanted to post this up here because I've found it INCREDIBLY helpful, and I've gotten more work done in these past three days than I have for a long time. I want other cartooning friends to know about this. Basically, I'm working on comic/illustration projects 5-6 hours a day, mostly in mornings and evenings. My sleep schedule is pretty different from some of my friends, I tend to wake up pretty early. So, I use this time to work, roughly based around one of the schedules, and usually get about four hours done each morning. If I get a phone call (this happens a lot), I let whoever's calling know I'll be free to hang out after, say, 2:00 or whenever I'm done with those four hours. It normally helps to work two hours, take an hour-long break, and work for two more hours. When I get back from whatever I'm doing, I work for another two or so hours. I was able to get through this for a couple days without standing up and stretching much, but yesterday my back suddenly started ACHING while I was out with a friend. So today, I started stretching for a minute or two every half hour, and it helped SO MUCH.

Anyway, hope some of this is helpful for any cartoonists. Wondering what your working schedules normally are, and if you have any personal advice.

I'll put a couple new pages up here soon.

Stickers!

They're here!! Kinda crappy photo, but whatever. Each Nate the Nonconformist vol. 2 will come with one of these.

My friend Kate gave me a survey...

1.Which artist(s) influences your work the most? Cartoonists, feel free to talk about writers and fine artists too!
Peter Bagge is probably the first name to come to mind. I was big into manga in middle school, but got tired of only reading stuff from Japan. It was around then that I started discovering indie/underground comix. I honestly had no idea where to start, and none of the new stuff I was reading spoke to me. Then one day, in the library, I pulled out a book called "The Bradleys". Oh, man. The moment I looked at the distorted pictures on the cover, it felt like the room was spinning and everything changed colors and Purple Haze was playing in the background. Amazing. Then, I picked up a pencil, and I drew completely differently from before. Peter Bagge's stuff also taught me that I can take comics seriously but still have a sense of humor about my own work.

Other cartoonists: Gilbert Shelton, R. Crumb, Johnny Ryan, J. R. Williams, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Ralph Steadman, Julia Wertz, Jeffrey Brown, Osamu Tezuka, Rumiko Takahashi, Mitsuru Adachi.

Musicians are also huge. Music is a big part of many of my comics, and I've taken music lessons for most of my life. The Beatles is at the top of my list. Besides that it's lots of British invasion, old school punk and hip-hop, and blues. Most of this is stuff I grew up with, though I'm always trying to discover new stuff.

Comedians like Tina Fey and Jerry Seinfeld are important. Better-written sitcom structures serve as a basis for my own stuff. I'm a big fan of art movements like DaDa as well. Totally slaps those "serious" artists in the face. Hahaha.

2.Why do you want to make comics, or are currently making comics? And at what point in your life did you come to this realization?
I've been drawing as long as I remember, writing as well, but I never actually put the two together until middle school (the time I started reading comics). Around sixth grade I also made little books with jokes about teachers and stuff, just to give my friends a laugh. Now I actually make money off this stuff... yikes.

At first I tried making these long, epic stories but I would always abandon them. I finally realized freshman year of high school that I need to start over somewhere, so I started making one-page political comics for a local hippy magazine. From there I moved on to multiple page stories, from there entire mini-comics.

3.What is your favourite thing about comics (storytelling, the accessibility of it, the sense of community among artists, etc.)?
I love the community of people my age, which I didn't discover until recently. Although art is big where I live, I hadn't met many other people who actually wanted to make comics for a living until I came to New York last Summer. I remember first meeting my friend Kate in person and having a conversation about pacing or something during an early class, and feeling amazed that I could seriously talk to people about this stuff.

I love storytelling in comics as well. You get to do stuff that writing or art alone could never do. I love drawing, I love writing, and for a long time I thought I could only do one or another... long story short, I was completely wrong.

It's Out!!

The new issue of Armistice is out, featuring an illustration I did for the back cover as well as a new one-page political comic. You can pick it up in downtown Ann Arbor, MI for free! While you're at it, grab a copy of Nate the Nonconformist because I restocked at Vault of Midnight Comix!! Yeah!

I am almost definitely going to the Toronto Comics Art Festival in May. I'm really looking forward to seeing some of my old cartooning friends. I'll also (probably) be doing a workshop for kids at the Kids Read Comics convention in Chelsea, MI (small town near Ann Arbor/Detroit where a friend of mine works) in June. I'm hoping to have my next mini-0comic done soon as well. The studio I normally silkscreen at is undergoing renovations, which you can look at here. Fun, fun.