A FEW THINGS I LEARNED FROM DRAWING ONE PAGE OF TATSUMI

I recently drew page 181 from Yoshihiro Tatsumi's The Push Man and Other Stories.  I know a lot of cartoonists grow up doing this sort of thing, but I never really have, until recently.  It's kind of amazing the details and insights you can pick up from the practice.

Here's my version of the page:

And the original:

Things I learned:

-- At first glance, the page appears to be split into two equal panels, but actually the top panel is a few millimeters taller than the bottom, and the margin between them is drawn at a slightly sloping angle.

-- Look at all that "Tatsumi Crackle" in panel one!  (The round, ambiguous white shapes that serve only to modify the composition/relate visually to the expressionistic depiction of the moon/sun.)

-- Of course the telephone pole is leaning (as almost all of them do in real life), but this is something that only an astute observer would remember to draw.

-- Sometimes one point perspective is a very nice thing (panel two).  Compare this tighter, more realistic perspective to the wild perspective of panel one, where the buildings are claustrophobically falling in on the street.

-- Love the way the handlebars of the scooter are tilted to the side. (Of course I forgot to draw them this way...)

--  Haha-- that first guy from the left in panel one-- I barely had to alter things to draw him in my own style!

DYLAN

John P., Dylan Williams, and Tom Neely at TCAF, May 2011.  (Photo by Julia Wertz) 

I like this picture of Dylan because he's hiding, but if you look close, you can still see that happy glimmer in his eye.

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In the fog of my memory, I believe I met Dylan Williams for the first time at a café in Columbus, Ohio, after the original SPACE convention, in 2000.  The thing that struck me immediately upon meeting him, was that we could talk at length about both Metallica and Frank Sinatra.  Dylan was one of those people who I instantly fell in love with.  I'm a pretty retiring person, especially around people I don't know well, but sometimes I meet someone and there is an instant camaraderie, an instant kinship and comfort level, and such was the case with Dylan.  Right off the bat we could joke around, kid each other, and be ourselves in each other's presence.

As is common in the comics world, I saw Dylan irregularly, at comics shows around the country, but each time we met it was like we had never left each others' sight.  Perhaps that's how it was for many of Dylan's friends. He was one of the most genuine people I've ever met.  It was a joy to talk to him, to just be around him.

Dylan became one of my go-to guys when I needed to talk serious about comics, not just the art of it, but the business of it.  Dylan was an entrepreneur, he was straight up about it, but he came from a place where that didn't mean you had a license to fuck people over.  Dylan always tried to do the right thing, and he wasn't shy about saying out loud what he thought the right thing was.  Still, he never put someone else down for having different beliefs or approaches.  He knew what was right for him, and he stuck with it.

Dylan was sick on and off for a long time, but I never heard him complain about it.  Having been through my own serious illnesses, we could talk openly about this aspect of life.  Let me say, Dylan was an aware person.  He had his priorities in line, and he had an openhearted approach to this human existence.

The last time I talked to Dylan, about a week before his passing, he talked about how optimistic he was about the future, about the comics he wanted to put out, how he wished he could be at SF Zine Fest that weekend.  And he asked about my health, how I was doing, if I'd been feeling well lately.  He asked me this from his hospital bed.

We probably will never know the full impact Dylan had on the world, because he did a lot things for people, for all of us, that he never accepted credit for.  He was a real role model.  There is no one that I have more admiration for than Dylan Williams.  Thanks, man...  I truly love you.

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PS:  Portland's Floating World Comics is organizing an online auction raising funds to help offset the medical costs of Dylan's illness.  So far they've raised over $3000!  Please help if you can.  My contribution is shown below.  For information, or to bid on this piece, please click this link to go to the Divine Invasion site, and then click through that image to go directly to the eBay page.

Double-click to enlarge.

View the other contributions here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REPRODUKT!

The great German comics publisher Reprodukt is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an exhibition in Berlin.  They were the first group to agree to publish my work in book form (although B.ü.L.b. in Geneva managed to get their collection out a tad bit earlier...).

For the Reprodukt exhibition I drew this comic:

(Click twice to enlarge!)

And Jutta from Reprodukt just sent me this cool "homage" drawing by the great Ulf K.  Wow!

For more cartoonist contributions, please visit the Reprodukt blog.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM DRAWING ONE PAGE OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR

I recently sat down and drew page 11 from Fantastic Four #49 ("If This Be Doomsday," April 1966; written by Stan Lee, drawn by Jack Kirby).  This is the page where Alicia Masters shows the Silver Surfer what Beauty is.  If you haven't read these classic issues of the Fantastic Four, I encourage you to do so!  Especially this series, "The Galactus Trilogy," which ran from issues 48-50.  (And you might as well keep reading through issue 51 as well, "This Man, This Monster," which many critics consider the greatest superhero story of all time.)

Anyhow, as I was drawing this page, my mind was flooded with observations, thoughts and questions, which I reckoned I would share with you here today.  For reference, here's my version of the page:

(Click twice to enlarge.)

COMMENTS, THOUGHTS, AND LESSONS I LEARNED UPON DRAWING PAGE 11 OF FANTASTIC FOUR #49:

• So many words!

• At first glance, the page seems to be divided into a standard six-panel grid (with the bottom tier broken into 3 smaller panels), but actually each tier is of independent size.  The top row panels are slightly taller than they are wide, and taller than any of the other panels on the page.  Row 2 is more square-shaped than Row 1 (ie shorter), and Row 3 is even shorter still.  The Row 3 panels are divided into a vertically symmetrical pattern, with the two outside panels being slightly wider than the middle one.

• Silver Surfer uses the word "word" four times in seven panels.

• How many pages like this did Kirby crank out in a day?  Because I was exhausted after drawing just this one.

• In panel two, the ellipses after "sculptures" contains only two dots;  in panel six they save room by adding the exclamation mark onto the final dot in the ellipses.  Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I've used this trick in my own comics before!  Also, every line of dialogue on the page ends in an exclamation mark or a question mark.  Commas are used sparingly-- most of the text comes in short, staccato bursts.

• The Silver Surfer goes from Unquestioningly Destroying the Earth to Understanding Beauty in three short panels.  Maybe this is one reason why each one of these classic old comics issues provides the reader with such a fulfilling experience.  They are jam-packed.

Silver Surfer and Alicia Masters © Marvel Comics Group, Inc.

"TOP TEN COMICS" LIST

Recently the comics website Hooded Utilitarian invited me to contribute a list of Ten Comics for a wide-ranging poll.  The results can be found here.  The actual query was:

“What are the ten comics works you consider your favorites, the best, or the most significant?”

A tough question.  I didn't even try to list what I thought were the Best, because I think that's impossible, so my list ended up being a weird combination of all three.  Like many people polled, I stress that this list came basically off the top of my head, and would likely have been different at any other time.  Also: ten is too restrictive of a number.  Anyhow, I tried not to think about it too hard.

You can see my list here.  Some people added comments, and since I didn't at the time, I thought I would do so now.  My list is in no particular order.

Eightball #22 ("Ice Haven"), Daniel Clowes

I can't really attest to what I think are the "Ten Best Comics" because there are so many highly touted comics I've never sat down with.  But I can say that Eightball #22 is the best comic book I've ever read.

Gasoline Alley, Frank King

This is the most fascinating of the classic newspaper comics to me, because of the attention to detail, the little quirks and ephemera of life, that King has recorded in his strip.  (I can sit and stare for hours at a page, just digesting--  "...so that's what telephone stands looked like in the 20's...")  ... And for the fact that it presages so much of what we find in contemporary art comics--  quiet, somewhat deadpan observation; subtlety of characterization; the emphasis on the rhythms of day-to-day  life.  Plus lots of excitement and adventure.   Charming, warm, and funny.

Strange Growths, Jenny Zervakis

Jenny's scratchy, poetic observational stories about family life, nature, and people on the bus, are some of the most groundbreaking comics ever published that most readers have never seen. 

Krazy Kat, George Herriman

Another comic that probably could be construed as "Best" in many ways, the thing that turns me on about Krazy Kat is the artist's unflinching, career-long approach to creating beauty, suspense, humor, absurdity, and tenderness out of the most basic of narrative materials--  a stage, a love triangle.  Pure delight.

OMAC: One Man Army Corps, Jack Kirby, with Mike Royer

Whether you like it or not, Jack Kirby is one of the most important artists of the 20th Century.  OMAC is "Kirby Unleashed," a frenetic, absurd, confusing world of monumental ideas-- good, evil, justice, corruption, redemption.  Like many of Kirby's later works, OMAC was unceremoniously and abruptly cancelled mid-story, but in the case of OMAC, even the final, pasted-in panel works to drive home the sheer bewilderment at hand.

Ernie Pook’s Comeek, Lynda Barry

Personally, the one strip that, as a teenager, forced me to reassess comics as an artform.  The rollicking freedom of her early work is unmatched, and when she began mining deeper, more literary ground, she did so in a way that felt utterly natural and real.

The Monster Stories, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

First published at the nadir of the comic-book industry (the late 1950's) in titles like Tales to Astonish and Journey Into Mystery, these demented, beautiful, throw-away stories are my favorite comics of all time.  Purely outlandish, intriguingly repetitive escapism, the Monster Comics featured tales of giant robots, walking trees, huge anthropomorphic hills, intergalactic babies, you name it.  The maniacal delight of taking any preposterous idea and turning it into a 13 page story is evident, and infectious.

Dirty Plotte, Julie Doucet

Julie's work was a bombshell dropping on the comics scene.  Highly, crazily, personal, they combined the uncompromised confessionalism of the undergrounds with a luscious, cartoony loopiness that comic books had rarely seen before.  In other words, she created a new direction for "alt-comics," one that is still being explored to this day.

Caricature: Nine Stories, Daniel Clowes

When the stories collected in this book were first coming out, issue after issue, in Clowes' Eightball, you could feel the boundaries of what comics could do expanding with each new arrival. 

Extraits naturels de carnet, Laurent Lolmède

Even though I barely speak French, these are comics that I return to again and again.  Lolmède is that pure, ugly, inky, grotesque type of cartoonist that makes depicting the world in blotty, gorgeous lines look easy.  Looking at his work makes me want to draw comics.

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COMICS THAT I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T INCLUDE ON THIS LIST:  Life in Hell, Matt Groening; Dave Kiersh's Teen Angst stories; Love and Rockets, Los Bros Hernandez; ACME Novelty Library, Chris Ware; Hercules Among the North Americans, Mark Marek; Jeff Zenick's zines; Cecil and Jordan in New York, Gabrielle Bell; "Wild Kingdom," Kevin Huizenga; ask me again next week.

SUMMER 2011 TOUR DATES

Yes, this old man can't help it.  The Traveling Used Paper Salesman is going back out on the road again.  Here are the dates.  Come on out if you can!  And thanks, everyone...  Look for more dates in the fall, too!

- - -

Saturday August 13
ROSEMONT, IL

Wizard World Chicago

Yes, I'll be at this super-gigantic-comic-convention for one day only.  BUT I have serious doubts as to whether my ears will be able to handle the noise, so don't go there just to see me...  I might have to bail after 15 minutes, you never know.


JUST ADDED:
Tuesday August 30; 7 PM
CHICAGO IL
(Lula Café)
Anders Nilsen's BIG QUESTIONS Chicago Release Party!

I'll be on hand performing lite rock favorites for your listening and dancing pleasure.  Plus maybe Zak Sally and other special guests.


DATE HAS CHANGED:
Friday September 9; 4:30 - 7 PM
CHICAGO, IL

CartoonInk! Emerging Comics in Context
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Sullivan Galleries

I have work in this exhibit, .  The show itself runs through October 16, with a closing reception 10/14.  PLEASE NOTE:  I've decided to skip the opening, but WILL be present at the closing reception.  See you there!

Saturday September 10
CHICAGO, IL

Lakeview Arts Festival

I'll be tabling at the Chicago Zine Fest booth, along with other local zine publishers, on Saturday 9/10 from 12-6 PM, so come on down!  The fest runs through Sunday, but I'll only be there Saturday.

Saturday September 24
MINNEAPOLIS, MN

Twin Cities Zinefest

Friday Sept. 30 - Sat. Oct 1
NASHVILLE, TN
Handmade and Bound Festival


JUST ADDED:
Monday October 3; 7 PM
ST. LOUIS, MO
Subterranean Books

Slideshow and signing with the great Tim Lane!


JUST ADDED:
October 4-6
IOWA CITY, IA
Comics, Creativity and Culture:
Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives

With Phoebe Gloeckner, Jessica Abel, The Hernandez Brothers, James Sturm, and Joe Sacco, plus a host of comics scholars and educators!


Saturday Oct. 8 - Sunday Oct. 9

PITTSBURGH, PA

Pittsburgh Indie Expo

JULY WEED AND WILDFLOWER INVENTORY, Part Two

Beckman Mill Pond, Beloit, WI

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Ha, so you thought one overlong blogpost of flower pictures was too much?  GUESS AGAIN!

Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata)

Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis)

Queen Anne's Lace, about to blossom

Question Mark butterfly drinking along the shore of the Rock River.

Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis)

Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)

Unidentified spider on Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)

False Sunflower? (Heliopsis helianthoides)

Wild Garlic?

[Nope!  It's Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)]

Gray-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Honeybee havin' a good time on a Sunflower (Helianthus annuus).

Whoa.  Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Unknown Sage-like plant.

[Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)]

I said I would learn my thistles, but I have yet to do it.

The rare white-flowered Chicory (Cichorium intybus).

The even rarer pink Chicory!

Colored Sands Prairie, Durand, IL

On a sand bluff, overlooking the Sugar River, Illinois.

Meadow Salsify (Tragopogon pratensis)

Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata)

Unidentified species with spider.

Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)

Unidentified species.

[Cleland's Evening Primrose (Oenothera clelandii)]

Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)

See above regarding thistles, but this one's a beauty, eh?

[Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)]

Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta)

Pale Indian Plantain (Arnoglossum atriplicifolium)

Turns out this is a very rare species!  And it was just standing there a few feet from the parking lot!

Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium)

White Wild Indigo (Baptista alba)

Baptista alba leaves.

Good night everybody...

"Sometimes I sits and thinks...  and sometimes I just sits."

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All photos by Stephanie Dorman, taken at Big Hill Park, Beloit, WI; Beckman Mill County Park, Beloit, WI; Macktown Forest Preserve, Rockton, IL; Colored Sands Forest Preserve, Durand, IL; Sugar River Alder Forest Preserve, Shirland, IL; or Harper's Prairie, Beloit, WI.