Richly colored

The left is the finished “rendered” page. The right is just “flat” color.

KICKSTARTER UPDATE #52

How are you, friends? Really funny bumping into you on the space station Deep Space Nine. Me? Oh I’m just dropping in to see my homie Quark. His exotic alien drinks are way better than La Croix back on earth. Oh you’re headed to Cardassia Prime, eh? Tell Kanye I said “hello”…Yeah. I hear that whole planet is sick of Kardashian jokes. Man, that dude is crazy though. It’s weird how mental illness can play out as being an asshole. Like is anyone actually an asshole or will we find out in the future that the truth of life is suffering and that we all suffer in some way and that we all deserve some kindness. Fucking hell we’re in the goddamn future now. QUARK?! Have the four noble truths of buddhism be found to be scientific fact here in community theater future? Hmm. I don’t think he can hear me.

Me? How am I? Oh man. Like I’m okay. We’re all a little batty, right? I’ve been really productive with this comic. You’re gonna slap me when I say this but I think I’m almost done? OUCH!! Bruh. The ear? If I were Quark you would of killed me. (Yeah, I deserve it). I’m mostly rendering now. (see above) The hard work is done. I’m not going to promise any dates but I really feel close to done. I’m happy with the work but feel like I’m completing this at the worst time. “Want to read my emo white man story featuring a well meaning cop???” Perfect timing.

Working from home has me on a good work rhythm. I gave in and set up a proper work space. Not commuting is huge. Other than being so isolated, it’s been helpful for me in a lot of ways. My son is hanging in. He’s a tough little guy. What a hard run for this generation. Like I’m sure the Secretary of Education wasn’t amazing when I was a kid but he wasn’t trying to kill us.

Look, man. Don’t tell Quark but I don’t think Star Trek is gonna be cool in the near future. Making “alien races” stand in for earth nationalities and races is….problematic. Oh man! The Holodeck! In a recent episode Bashir is in the Holodeck and is clearly having sex with Hologram people. Can holograms consent? Like fucking a sentient robot like the sex fiend Data who can consent is definitely ok. But these Holograms don’t have any agency but also they’re programed light. Also: I need to take more walks outside.

I found an old photo of my friend Raph who was murdered a year ago. He’s sitting in a pumpkin patch eating an apple cinnamon donut with my then three year old son. Raph was the master of embracing a zen moment like that. His face was mashed up that day from a fight or a fall. He had rode into town on his motorcycle. He was always recently fired and leaving town. He drew like a renaissance master. We were at some autumn fair. It’s moment we don’t have with a man who isn’t here. Man, everything feels far.

I like this little book I made for y’all. I think this momentum is going to carry into the next project. I think we all need little worlds to remind us of the past and envision the future. We are all doing a lot fo reflecting and seeing the moment. I hope this finds you well. Thanks for your support and, as always, refund are still available.

Falling into a pit of fire like The Mountain and The Hound in Game of Thrones

I am trying to just move my pen these days. This is a sketchbook thing I did to warm up a little. Wait. How are you? I like that new dystopian mask and that we can talk here like regular humans, ten feet apart. What a hellscape. Wait. This is our imagination. Nice to run into you at this fine coffee shop full of beautiful people, orcs and wizards. Normally they hang at haunted taverns but here we all are together at a hipster vegan coffee shop. That orc over there? Used to date my friend Tina. Weird dude. Hey you look good. I like this new glitter sparkle princess thing you have going on. It matches your beard nicely. The crown is siiiiiick.

Me? I’m aight. I had a solid week at work and colored some pages of MONUMENT. I am so goddamn close to done. I’m at the stage of the work where I hate it and me and want us both to die falling into a pit of fire like The Mountain and Hound in Game of Thrones. I do little side drawings like the above and I feel guilty. I wrestle a lot with “permission”. Do I have permission to draw for fun? Not because of the Kickstarter and being hopelessly behind schedule (well, a little) but am I good enough? Am I allowed? I always say the greatest asset an artist can have is bravado. I’ll take irrational compulsion, I suppose. Still waiting on bravado.

A decent week for me. I managed to lose only like 35-42% of my time to despair. I was useful at my job. Dadded shit up like a boss and hacked out 4 colored pages of MONUMENT #2. I’m not really able to consume narrative art these days. I’m waiting for some comics to arrive from my local comic book shop. I’ve tried re-reading some but it I haven’t been able to really lose myself. I can’t sit through any tv shows other than Tiger King (which I have no idea what THAT says about me as a person). I’m literally putting shows to watch in my calendar this week like they’re actual fucking things. “Watch Bojack Horseman” Gonna check that fucker off the ole To Do List! What a weird time.

Thanks for your support. It means so much to me. Hope you’re okay in all this mess.

Issue 2 of MONUMENT is due out this summer. You can buy Issue 1 of MONUMENT on Comixology.

The sea in the desert.

A. 1000 hours to pencil. 1 hour to ink. More on this below.

B. There were two parts of the gathering I went to over the weekend. First was in a desolate near post-apocalyptic town (population 200, yes just two zeros) in the desert. The second was a gloriously poolside party. You can see a bit my trip here. It was like a wedding but it also was not one. My friend announced a few years ago that she likely wouldn’t get married and if she hadn’t by 40 she wanted a gathering of people near and dear to her. Some of the older white heteronormative folks gathered were a little bemused and confused. I arrived single as well. The world is strange as a single person. Folks assume you’re alone and dateless all the time which I am not. I am not a commitment-phobe or a Peter Pan. Like, I was married for 10 years and monogamous for 13 years. I got the resume, son. Job free moments aside, I like my life. At events like these, full of white hetero-people it does make me feel like I’m wearing a human suit. Fortunately at this party was one of the Host’s best friends: Preston (names and details changed to protect the innocent). We all should have many many Preston in our lives.

On the night before, I arrived late. Later than me was Preston. He arrived in LA and drove into the night with no cell service. He was out of minutes so he had a printed map like it was 1996. A dot matrix mapquest print-out and taste for adventure. Preston had returned to his home state to tune up his life a bit after a few years of partying. Drugs, co-dependancy and some legal trouble funneled him to his dad’s guest room the past few months. He had found some drugs and stayed up most of the night swimming naked in the pool. He opted to stay home and swim while the group went to Bombay Beach a way station for elite weirdos. Preston waved as we left out the front door to the van he sashayed through the glass sliding doors wearing a massive sun hat, bug-like seventies sunnies, a sheer flowing bath robe and a tiny Speedo bathing suit. There’s an annual Burning Man type art festival there. When it’s not there’s still contemporary art littering the landscape near the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is a damn near poisonous body water made by American hubris. A failed oasis with living ghosts populating this tow of trailers. The Host genuinely loved this place after researching a paper for her master thesis and wanted to share it with us. We were respectful but it still felt uneasy. Our wealth and gawking was a lot.

The party was a tuxedoed affair. Preston wore some kind of black martial arts outfit he found at a thrift store that day. His face sparkled with makeup, dark hard curved lines shaped his eyes. Everyone seemed straight from a perfectly curated social media feed, Preston playing the quirky friend. There were a lot of quiet weirdos at this party. Polyamorous, artists, kinky, queer…but with a group of old rich hetero babyboomers everyone was mostly on their best behavior. The drugs were done in the bathroom like gentlemen. I’m sober so my oddness grew progressively with the crowds substances. It was hardly rowdy. Most of us dipping our feet in the hot tub, though some jumped in. Preston was wearing a jock strap and a sailor’s hat. A massive bruise was clear on his ass. We talked a bit about his court case and mandated up coming sobriety. “As of next Wednesday I have to be done.” he told me holding three drinks. All of which were his. Weirdness is an armor in some ways. A secret shame in others. The rich people couldn’t imagine living in Bombay Beach while a few of us whispered about how it seemed like a dream.

A. 1000 hours to pencil. 1 hour to ink. Ok, dull house keeping stuff. I’m crushing the inking of the pages and thoroughly enjoying it. Sooooo fast once you’re done pencilling. You can see A LOT of updates on my Instagram account. Please follow me on Twitter and Instagram and like some posts for you buddy, Mark. It helps a lot. I have a bunch of second round day job interviews this week. The whole Bay is on fucking fire. My area is cool but this climate change nightmare is terrifying. Like, I’ll be okay but, fuck, it’s going to get rough for a lot of people. Overall….I think I’m kind of ok? Weird. Like, if I get a job I think I’d be reasonably happy and making this comic is part of that. Thanks for supporting me. For reals. Hugs to y’all.

C. Refunds, as always, are still available.

Kickstarter Update #40

I really like drawing these big wild turkeys.

This is the last page of MONUMENT #2 meaning all of it is pencilled. Big deal here in the lab. I’d call it 70% done and December as a complete date seems realistic. Next up I will letter the book (put all of the speech bubbles and what not) then inking it, then coloring, then I’m done.

A bit of programming news: I’m putting my content on my site going forward. I’ll ping out a link via Kickstarter’s email going forward.

I don’t have anything funny to say this week.