PS116

Today I went to PS116 and spoke to groups of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders about how to make comics! *Whew*, it was definitely exhausting but so much fun. One of the groups got to make their own comics as well, which was pretty cool. Hands down my favorite part of the day was when a girl raised her hand and (without me having mentioned anything about the business of comics) asked, “So what’s an agent do? Does an agent work between you and the printer?” I laughed really loudly and asked, “How do you know about agents?” Her reply was, get this, “I plan on being a writer when I grow up, I need to know these things!” I was literally almost rolling on the floor, she was great. Then, in the simplest and most succinct way I could, I explained the roles of authors, agents, publishers, printers, and distributors. During this, all the other kids were squirming, she was the only one really paying attention. I will say this, if she decides to keep writing, I certainly wouldn’t get in her way.

It was a lot of fun, and props to Amy and Mary for setting the thing up! They seemed really happy with how the whole thing went. And I loved hanging out with the kids.

Some of you know that I’ve been working on a children’s comic for my next project. I’m almost done with it, enough is finished that we’re entering the lettering process, which makes me really happy. Here’s one of my favorite panels:

More will definitely be on it’s way as I get closer to finished. Hope all is well with you!

 

Coconut Milk Ice-Cream

A little while ago I had a huge craving for ice-cream. The thing is, I’m slightly lactose intolerant. Luckily, I’d been hearing about this coconut-milk based ice-cream that Purely Decadent now makes. I walk by the grocery store on the way home, but it’s closed. So I stop into my local bodega. Unfortunately, the bodega’s only got regular ice-cream. I buy a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Macadamia Nut thinking I’ll just eat a little bit. I end up watching a lot of Benson on Hulu and eat the whole pint. The rest of the night my stomach is aching and my head is pounding. The next morning I wake up still with an achey head.

A couple days later, I swing the grocery store. I pick up a pint of the Chocolate flavored coconut-milk based ice-cream and eat it in front of some Family Guy. I don’t know what’s wrong with me these days, but once again I eat the whole pint. But MAN, was it good. There was a slight coconut taste, but it was really slight (and I didn’t mind because I like coconut). Mostly it tasted like a semi-dark chocolate ice-cream. Really wonderfully creamy, just like ice-cream rather than sorbet. And is creamier than most Soy based ice-creams I’ve had and certainly better than the Rice Milk based ice-creams. The best part is, no nasty head or stomach aches. Anyone with a hankerin’ for ice-cream but is lactose intolerant, I highly recommend this option. I hope it becomes more popular in the next few years.

I’m visiting San Francisco right now. I picked up a pint of Mango sorbet. It’s been lasting me a few days. Just now I realized that sorbet usually lasts me a couple days. I don’t know why I feel compelled to eat a whole container of ice-cream all at once. I guess it must be the texture. Anyway, again, give the coconut stuff a try, it’s a wonderful ice-cream alternative.

 

SPX ‘09

My concentration’s been shot lately and I figured I’d take some time out to write a con wrap-up. So SPX went by really quickly this year, it was kinda nuts. I think the best part was simply the comraderie of the roadtrip. I was picked up around 6am, riding with Charlie and Phil, Neil Swaab, and GB Tran. It was an amazing ride, and despite it being early, we got caught up in fun conversation right away. Charlie recorded some of the conversation and posted it on ISR episode 162.

We arrived at the convention as it was opening and I set up with AdHouse Books. It was a wonderful table, with Lamar Abrams, Josh Cotter, and Chris Pitzer. It would have been nice if Jamie Tanner were there, I feel like I haven’t sat around with him for a bit. But what can you do? Oh, for those interested in Jamie’s work, he’s starting a new project. Check out his Kickstarter site. I’m wicked excited about this whole venture. I’ve tabled a good bit with Lamar at this point and he’s a good dude, I really love his company. I was also incredibly happy to see Josh Cotter again. For those who aren’t familiar, Josh is the writer/artist of my favorite comic book, Skyscrapers Of The Midwest. He just came out with a new book, Driven By Lemons. The copies at SPX sold pretty quickly, I’m wicked excited about this one. Also on the table was James Jean’s Process Recess 3, and coming out very soon from AdHouse will be Afrodisiac from Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca.

Adam Umak of Half Hour Wasted stopped by the table to pick up the Legion of Doom commission I did for him. He really liked it, which made me super happy. And we recorded a mini-interview. Josh Cotter is the second interview.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone likes what I’m doing at all, but then every once in a while there’s a weekend like this and I feel so amazed to be with such good company. I didn’t do too much shopping this year. I’m moving soon and didn’t want to load up on even more books before having to move them. But it was great seeing friends again. For dinner, I met up with Monica Gallagher and Dennis, her legion of Tims, Charlie, Phil, GB, Neil, and Ken Wong. It was a great dinner, but mostly because I was cracking up the whole time at random things Neil had been saying. Neil’s Mr. Wiggles cartoon is pretty great, but really, this dude was nonstop cracking me up every time I hung out with him.

We stopped by the bar for a bit but didn’t stay too long. I spent the night at Monica’s place (that girl is always such a wonderful host). Boston crème donuts for breakfast, and a great car ride with Monica, and back to SPX for day 2. I tabled a good amount of the day but at some point just left and hung out outside. It was pretty freezing in the convention center, and it was so sunny outside.

Soon enough, another SPX came and went. And we hit the road again. Unfortunately, there were people I wish I was able to hang out with more, Chris Schweizer, Dustin Harbin, and Josh Cotter (who was on the far side of the table from me so I barely spoke to him, oh well, next time). But damn, the roadtrip back was just as wonderful as the way there. Honestly, it’s been a pretty crazy and rough year, and it’s really good to have fun experiences like this. I guess SPX is fastly becoming one of my favorite conventions. I think that might be the last con I’ll be doing for a while. But hopefully there will be other events here and there, I’ll keep posting on this here ol’ blog. All the best.

 

6×6 Gallery and H2Awesome

My good friends Patrick and Julie from Charmingwall are starting a new gallery project. It’s called the 6×6 Gallery, where all the pieces are 6 inches by 6 inches. It’s gonna open on Friday, Oct 2nd, from 6 – 8pm. It looks like an amazing gallery with so many different artists, it’s sure to be a fun event. I’ll definitely be there. Here is a pic of my contribution:

I saw a bunch of the other paintings, there are so many wonderful pieces. Katie says there’ll be a small puppet show as well, which is sure to be lots of fun. If you decide to come, say “Hello.”

Also, as if that weren’t enough, afterwards I’ll be celebrating my friend Charlie’s birthday. Charlie is the co-host of the IndieSpinnerRack podcast. He also has a small band called H2Awesome. They’ll be playing at Arlene’s Grocery at 10.

 

Busta Rhymes

When I was growing up, Busta Rhymes was one of my favorite hip-hop artists. Earlier this summer, he came out with a new album–Back On My B.S. The single, If You Don’t Know, has already become my favorite song to come out in a long time. In my excitement, I drew a pic of Busta from the video. It took me a while to add color to it.

Also, here’s the video. And damn, it’s good.

 

SPX and Comic Book Club

Man, this year is going by in the blink of an eye; I feel like I don’t have time to prep for anything. Anyway, this upcoming weekend, Sept 26th and 27th, is the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. I’ll be down there with AdHouse Books.

I’m riding down with a wonderful carload of peeps–Charlie and Phil from IndieSpinnerRack, Mr. Wiggles creator Neil Swaab, and one of my favorite comics artists ever GB Tran. Here’s a small pic from GB, and no, this isn’t indicative of his usual comics work.

Also, just finished a commission for Adam Umak of the Half Hour Wasted podcast. It’s the Legion of Doom from the Challenge of the Superfriends cartoon. I managed to squeeze in Superman, Wonder Woman and Robin. It was a fun project.

Also, in early October, I’m gonna be a guest on Comic Book Club Live. It’s a fun show where they often get comics creators and comedians to talk about their projects. It’s hosted by Justin, Alex and Pete–a small crew of improvisers and comic book fans. They also have a vidcast called The Stack, which is a lot of fun. They gave me a short shout-out some time ago when JH was on its 3rd issue.

The show’s happening on October 6th, 8pm at the People’s Improv Theatre. Tickets are only $5. It should be a lot of fun.

So if you’re in Bethesda or NYC for these events, feel free to stop by and say “Hello!” Okay, lots of work today. Coolio.

 

Where The Wild Things Are

So I skipped out on Terminator: Rise of the Machines, as well as GI Joe. Except for Star Trek (which I thoroughly enjoyed), I haven’t been up on the big movies this year. I will say though, I am psyched about the Where The Wild Things Are movie. Directed by Spike Jones and written by Spike Jones and Dave Eggers, the movie looks absolutely beautiful.

I couldn’t sleep the other night and ended up with this drawing.

Hope to see you at the movies!

 

Awesome 2: Awesomer and Fart Party 2 Release Party, NYC Fringe Variety Power Hour

IndieSpinnerRack’s second comics anthology Awesome 2: Awesomer debuted at MoCCA this year but, as Charlie’s a flake sometimes, it took a while to get a small celebration together. A couple weekends ago, Rocketship in Brooklyn held a release party for the book as well as Julia Wertz’s Fart Party.

My good friend Jesse Post, who’s an amazing writer, and I collaborated on a small story for the anthology. We’d been attempting to collaborate on something for years and somehow it never worked out. It felt good to finally be able to do so, here’s a page from our short comic:

The night was a damn lot of fun. Of course the ever-awesome Charlie and Phil were there. I got to talk a good deal with Action Philosopher’s Ryan Dunlavey and Fred Van Lente, and FirstSecond’s lovely Gina Gagliano. Also, a cool small surprise, the gracious and supportive Tim Leong from Comic Foundry (a great comics magazine that went defunct a bit ago, but not because of sales) stopped by.

I spent a good deal of time talking to Abby, who ended up being a good friend of Robert and Georgene Goodin. The Goodins are amazing creators who’ve put out some of my favorite comics and illustrations. Check out Binibus Barnibus or The Suicidal Dog, as well as their sketchbooks and t-shirts. The Goodins are Los Angeles based, I miss those kids a lot.

Afterwards, Charlie, Abby and I went over to the Fringe Festival’s Variety Power Hour where we got to see snippets from a handful of the Fringe shows. The Power Hour was at the building in Soho that FringeNYC operates from. The show was done in the basement, which looked like a converted wine cellar—it was pretty amazing, like the small parts of Manhattan I would love to see more of.

The show was haphazardly fun, and the drinking was nonstop. The event was sponsored by some kind of gin, which I’ve forgotten by now. But the amazing thing was the Stirrings Tonic Water. I mean, I’ll take whatever tonic water with my gin, but this stuff really stood out, not to quaniney and with a slight citrus taste, really crisp. I know, I sound like an ad, and I’m sure it’s one of those expensive tonic waters that I’d normally not buy, but just noting for those into mixers that it was pretty outstanding. Anyway, sorry for that digression.

Eventually, everyone left the Variety Power Hour. Charlie, Abby and I toured the Fringe building, which was incredibly beautiful. Then we just hung out and drank gin & tonics until 5 or so. And eventually, I took the late night subway home. It was a good night of hanging out with the ISR kids.

And honestly, I’d been wondering how Charlie had been doing since he disappeared from NYC. It’s odd, hanging out with someone in a celebratory atmosphere after not seeing him for a long time. As fun as it was, there’s always a part of me that wants to sit down over a quiet coffee and catch up first. And after all comes out, after unloading all that nutty, doubtful, self-deprecating garbage in your head, THEN you get balls to the wall ass drunk.

 

A Couple Sketches

Here’s a couple drawings from the sketchbook…

 

JH Brooklyn Release Party

Wahoo! Last Saturday was a good time as Bergen Street Comics hosted the Johnny Hiro Brooklyn Release Party. I’d wanted to plan a release party, but my head had been frazzled as of late. At some point, Tom and Amy Adams offered to host the release, and it seemed like a good idea, just to take the responsibility off of me.

I was still feeling a bit out of sorts that day. But decided to treat myself to a sushi dinner, which made me feel much better. After dinner, I went into Bergen Street Comics and I instantly felt better. There was hip-hop, balloons, and plenty of sake and Hitachino white ale (my favorite Japanese beer). And soon enough, some very good people had showed up, good friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

I got to talk a while to John Davis at Bookazine, which was really nice. He introduced me to Stephanie from the Word bookstore in Williamsburg. Gina Gagliano from First Second Books dropped by. Thomas Turnbull, Jesse Post (my editor), and my good friend Opus came. There were a good amount of cartoonists there such as Neil Swaab who does the horrendously wonderful Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles. Phil from the IndieSpinnerRack podcast. Dean Haspiel was there, though unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. Grr, next time. One of my bosses and Mammel Magazine contributor Tom Forget stayed for a good deal of the party. And GB Tran who is probably working on what will become my new favorite comic. Amy Adams and I shared a shot of sake–she told me later that that was the point in which she started getting really drunk, I’m happy I got to be the enabler.

Afterwards, we went to a little dive bar across the street and hung out there for an hour or so. At the end of the night, I drunkenly walked home and fell asleep instantly. I met up with Jesse in the morning for breakfast, we did a drink tally. It turns out I drank 10 alcoholic beverages that night, Jesse had 12. It’s rare that I drink this much, but hey, how often to I come out with a book?

Anyway, thanks to all that came out and celebrated. I had a great time, and yes, my head is feeling a little less frazzled these days (albeit a bit more throbbish now). And a huge thanks to Tom and Amy Adams.