Today is the day an event is going to occur

I'm going to be at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest in Williamsburg this weekend! In fact, today! In about three hours! I'll be at the Partyka table, #19, right next to Sparkplug Books. Look out as well for the excellent Sally Bloodbath, who'll be at table #31 with Kate Beaton.

Also, Shawn Cheng and I drew a two-page story for the new issue of Smoke Signal. It's called "Man vs. Ants." Here's a bit of it:

...and now I am going to try to make enough breakfast to sustain me and Sally until 9pm. Come say hi to us at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 275, N. 8th st. Sandwiches appreciated.

I and "The Orphan Baiter" got nominated for a thing

The nominations for the Ignatz Awards came out this week, and as it turns out my story from Papercutter #13 earned me a nomination as a "Promising New Talent:"
It seems like if I were halfway responsible about my work I'd have reached the "promising talent" level while I was still in my twenties, but you know what? Let's just assume that my best years are still ahead of me and I'll redouble my efforts and try not to die. I do come from a long-lived family. Anyways, thanks to my editor, Greg Means of Tugboat Press, for believing in me and getting this thing out there.

You can vote for me or any other of the nominees you like at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD on September 11-12. Just attend, fill out a ballot and drop it in a cardboard box. The process is more similar to giving people valentines in grade school than it is to an election, but who among us fell in love with comics because they imagined that a small-press festival associated with the art would one day provide a perfect laboratory for field-testing innovative new democratic processes?

Paping rules, Paping is cool, and we've got Paping in our school

So you know who's great? This guy:
John Mejias, pal, founder of Paping, member of Partyka and swell fellow has a few things going on around NYC right now, neither of which I have pictures of because I'm in West Chester PA right now, so I'll just tell you about them:

First, there's a Paping Retrospective art show hanging on the ground floor of Cake Shop on Ludlow St. in Manhattan right now. It has most of the contents of Paping's two silkscreen issues up on the walls; they're out of print now, I think, so if you want to see them now's a great chance. You'll can't see my stories "Think With Your Fists" and "Pink Meteor" anywhere else, for example. Also, there's a ton of John's prints for shows, posters for old runnings of the Paping Soap Box Derby, and the linocuts for the Paping Puppet show, as well as stuff from a lot of Paping's contributors and friends.

Secondly, John's assembled the new window display for Desert Island, the comic book store in Williamsburg. If you want to shop for comics at an establishment with a quality window display, I can't think of a better place than that.

Oh, yeah, and thirdly, dude's got a new job or two and is gonna be back teaching art! Keep it up, man, I'm glad you'll be able to afford burritos again.

Summer Doldrums

Oh, hi, I was asleep at the wheel of most of my internet-stuff for the past couple months; sorry. Anyways, I've got a bunch of new stuff at Partyka. July's drawings consist of a bunch of discarded sketchbook ideas for the Bound and Gagged show Tom Neely is putting together for Secret Headquarters in LA. I'm down to the wire on the actual things I decided to do for the show, but hopefully I'll have them in the mail soon, and Tom will still want them. At any rate, here's "Sidekick," one of the many things which will go no further than here:...And then for August there's the usual odds and sods. Here's "Man Vs. Ant."
Thanks for reading; hope you're having an excellent summer night.

Anonymous Skeleton

New daily drawing up from yesterday at Partyka: "Anonymous Skeleton."
Also, here's "Wrecked Steamboat" from the 26th, from my Huck Finn illustrations:

Scared Cowboy

I have a new daily drawing up at Partyka. Here's "Scared Cowboy:"
Also, Mr. Shawn Cheng has made a dramatic recovery from the food coma he was in (it takes him three months to digest a hamburger), and has caught up with his daily drawings! Here's "Batman vs. Bird:"
Now I'm going to bike over to the studio, work on inking my Lord of the Flies illustrations, and think about whether I should buy a Cintiq drawing tablet. Opinions welcome; will be met with chin-scratching and a squint that indicates I am digesting your input.

Priest and Pa's Visit

New daily drawings up at Partyka. Here's "Priest..."

...and here's "Pa's Visit," from the Huck Finn illustrations I did for Sparknotes.

Papercutter #13

The 13th issue of Papercutter, the excellent Greg Means-edited anthology comic, is now out! I did the cover for it and have a 19-page story inside, and I feel as honored as a person can feel about things. Here's what the issue looks like:
Also in the issue are stories by Tim Root and Jonas Madden-Connor, who I am super-happy to be sharing the issue with. It should be arriving at your finer comic-book stores soon, and Quimby's has it available online here: http://www.quimbys.com/product_info.php?products_id=23650

Spoiler Alert: Story contains the line "Out, of my way, horse!," which Greg does not advise using on anyone who has not yet read the issue.

We're Back (New Daily Drawings)

Partyka were asleep at the switch for all of May, sorry sorry, but we are now back! I've got some regular-type daily drawings up, like for example "Bro Ices Bro:"
...as well as a special feature showing some of the illustrations I've been making for Sparknotes, which is what's keeping me in sandwiches these days. Here's "Queen Mab:"
Thanks for your patience; we will try to keep our "shizz" "together" in the future, to avoid any "bummers" we might cause by not having pictures of linocut people or bird people or colorful Renaissance people to show you on a regular basis.

Blood Meridian drawings at Locust Projects

If you're in Miami, five drawings I made in response to passages from Blood Meridian are on display at Locust Projects in Miami, as part of "How to Read a Book," a group show curated by Michael Wilson.
They'll be there until June 19. Drop by if you're in the neighborhood!

Ronald Quincy Troll/MK Reed

New daily drawing up on Partyka: Ronald Quincy Troll.

Also, our guest this month is my studiomate, MK Reed! She's going to be touring New England and Canada later this month, doing readings with Liz Baillie, Ken Dahl and Sally Bloodbath. If you're near anywhere they'll be, drop by and say hello. Look for the purple van, and follow them at www.punchbuggytour.com!

Oh, and here's MK's "Paisley Skull:"

Thanks, MK!

D&D and the picaresque

Among the many things Mr. Zak S. does well is Dungeon-Mastering. I played a few games with him when he was in New York last summer, the first time I'd played non-computer D&D since high school. It was excellent: look, we set on fire a minotaur that obviously outclassed our characters, and it fled, shrieking, from its chamber. Electric Wizard was playing. Or maybe Bolt Thrower. It ruled.

Anyway, since October Zak's been blogging at Playing D&D With Porn Stars, recounting his ongoing game in LA and ruminating over game mechanics and design, among other stuff. It's my new favorite blog, rewarding on so many levels that it is totally interrupting the work I am supposed to be getting done right now (sorry).

(goblin, by Zak)

-Here he is on how D&D campaigns, as they unfold, parallel the picaresque, and on how picaresques function in general.

-Here's the sad story of Charles the Pig.

-And here's some things folks have drawn during his games, including a picture of my guy, the late Horst Von Chasm: (toad, poison)

(sorry I only rolled you 1 hit point, Horst)

Hoi Polloi

New daily drawing up at Partyka: Hoi Polloi.

Bees Attack the Battleship

New daily drawing at Partyka: "Bees Attack the Battleship 1:"

Glare Brothers/Natalie Collette Wood

New daily drawings up at Partyka. Here's "The Glare Brothers:"

Also, Partyka's guest this month is Natalie Collette Wood, checking in with a selection of her sculptures made from recycled thingnesses and whatnots. Here's "PVC Love Beast:"

Good to have you with us, Natalie!

Hourly Comics Day

I did hourly comics for today/yesterday, February 1. Because it was Hourly Comics Day. Featured besides me: Liz Baillie, Sally Bloodbath, MK Reed and the broccoli juice left behind by my roommate Melissa. Liz and Sally were also doing hourlies today, so I'll link to theirs once they go up.

Is there a holiday after Hourly Comics Day, like Boxing Day? There should be. Maybe it'll work just like hourly comics day, but instead of doing a comic every hour, you just get drunk or eat a poundcake every hour or something.

New Daily Drawings/Peter Maddalena

New drawings up on the Partyka site: pencils from a thing that I've been working on all month. Hopefully, soon, I'll be done and the full glory of its thingness will be revealed.

Also, this month's Partyka guest is Peter Maddalena, Paping contributor and carver of woodcuts. Here's his "Face #35:"
Hi, Peter!

Moving In

...and now I'm in Brooklyn. Below you'll see my room in Bed-Stuy as of last night, its population of boxes safeguarded by the mighty Fort Bedtime:
I set up my workspace at Punchbuggy this afternoon; here's a video tour of the space that my excellent studiomate Liz Baillie made a short while back:

...getting ready to draw like it's my job. Because it is my job, at least for a while, and I am way luckier than I deserve to be.