The Comics Alternative + David Wasting Paper

A quick couple of additions to the blog roll and Cartoon Resources menu: Derek Royals and Andy Kunka's The Comics Alternative: "Two Guys With PhD's Talking About Comics" (also on Facebook here): and David Paccia's David Wasting Paper (Facebook link here). Just as much as discovering new books at the Comic Shop I love finding previously unknown online resources like these!

"Marketing"

   Here's a supplemental breakdown of the process behind the sample panel drawn for a recent Digital Beards vodcast on cartooning (direct video link here).
   Posted below is the initial scrap note that was taped inside the trusty sketchbook of the comment caught in passing, plus a scan from the sketchbook of the initial doodle, then also the digital/print version (which ran in last weekend's "Sundays" issue of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner), and then lastly the final color wash of the original pen & ink piece. Due to time constraints and given the nature of the ink I was using - not to mention I forgot my heat gun back at the studio - I couldn't go all the way on-site with this piece (erasing + washing). So here's the final steps in the process.

   Based on some recent interactions with "marketing" personnel, I was duly inspired to incorporate this little kernel nugget of wisdom: true to my artistic instinct the comment was shoveled into the mental mulch-pile know as a sketchbook, to compost alongside numerous other choice phrases and mingle with doodled musings.
*"Where do you get your ideas?" = Take notes! As is often the case, a fruiting body arose from the spore, and spawned some more ideas in turn... it never ends...

   The print version is still somewhat of a voyeuristic thrill, even after all these years. I always look forward to seeing how the image looks on newsprint, and how the gradients, linework and spot blacks translate using a different reproduction process. Aesthetically it's more "real" - as in warmer and richer than the straight digital version. The published dimensions vary about as much as the original size, pretty much contingent on the available real-estate for that particular issue. Whereas several syndicated strips could fit within this one, the prior week's panel was a quarter of this one's size. Humbled just to be in print regardless - and it's always the size of the smile that really counts.

   One can easily see the meticulous and exhaustive editing that is undertaken even with such a deceptively simple panel. This complex deconstruction is known as "pole vaulting over a mouse moose turd," a thoroughly appropriate metaphor given the nature of this particular piece. And again, my hope is that there's some instructional, if not simple entertainment value behind observing the various incarnations of a sample panel, and comparing/contrasting the evolution along the way as different factors are incorporated. And above & beyond all that, heck, it's just fun to do.

“We have to create culture, don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.” ― Terence McKenna

Comics Podcasts: Digital Beards "How To Cartoon"

Photo Chris Malmberg

     Continuing with the awesome opportunity in exploring the possibilities of podcasting (see earlier post here), the wonderful folks at UAF's eLearning and Distant Ed produced another outstanding session with yers truly. This time it's an hour-long demo on the entire process behind creating a sample panel, from concept to doodle to pencil to ink, plus a bunch of bonus pieces on related points of interest interwoven with an extended narration on craft + technique.
     This is infinitely better than my humble home-grown experiment attempting to do a tutorial with the Smokey the Polar Bear piece. Extra-special thanks go out again to Chris Malmberg for all his time & effort for this project!

This was a great opportunity to promote the Cartoon & Comic Art course, and by extension, UAF Summer Sessions and the UAF Art Department. While some faculty understandably might be resistant to publicly disseminating ("giving it away for free") their proprietary lessons in such a way, as a long-standing blogger of virtually every aspect of teaching, my tendency these days is to think that not only are such territorial pissings misguided, any technophobic trepidations are no different than experiencing all the other temporary fears every artist works through during the creative process (ex: the aforementioned "putting it on display," whether it's a wall or the web).
     That's not unlike the sensation of being aware for the first time of an actual audience that reads the cartoons in the newspaper, or the apprehension at a first exhibition, signing, or classroom presentation. I was reminded of this at being a little bit nervous sitting under bright lights with a microphone and rolling camera: it's a slightly different scenario to step up into the "performing arts" arena, and can be a challenge for many a visual artist whose usual MO is to create sequestered away in the comfort and privacy of a studio.

      I looked at this as a singular opportunity to push right up against the envelope where technological advances in distance education rubs right up against the final frontier in teaching art. In the studio course it's hands-on all the way, excepting the occasional lecture. That said there is an unprecedented opportunity here to expand the reach and the role of a traditional art teacher with such things as podcasts that go above & beyond the simple posting of samples of work on-line.
     This might be of interest to any Art Department faculty or an artist who gives lessons from their own, independent studio. Though ostensibly the benefit of taking a studio course is to work in-person with an instructor on the manual aspects of craft that don’t really translate well into distance learning, this is a great chance to experiment with developing an enticing tutorial to attract prospective students. Additionally it can give an incoming or enrolled student background information in a medium and/or information on a particular technique beforehand, so as to free up valuable time in the classroom studio. Maybe a lecture on an aspect of art history, sample carving of a mask, relief-print, slab and coil vessel, painting, drawing etc. – there are some interesting and creative options to explore. Most university or even libraries will have the technological resources in-house, with trained staff eager to assist in realizing whatever one could envision.

Check out the flagship tutorial vodcast here with this direct link to Digital Beards #11, and here's a link to the YouTube video.

Diffee's "Idea Factory" + Cartoon Podcasts

Via Procartoonists.org comes a couple great, informative videos - added to the YouTube cartooning channel - featuring the New Yorker’s Matt Diffee. One is from the interview “Forbes SXSW: New Yorker Cartoonist's Low-Tech World“ and the second (direct link here) is “Matt Diffee on How to Be an Idea Factory." Includes the best. answer. ever to the #1 question asked of cartoonists: "We think of 'em."

Among Diffee’s pieces of advice for aspiring creative people is this aphorism: “Be like a mother sea turtle.” By that he means lay a hundred conceptual eggs in the sand, then swim off and don’t fret over what becomes of them. Most of them will never hatch; most of the hatchlings will get eaten by predators. That’s not your problem. Your task is just to keep laying eggs.” - Forbes

Also another avenue has opened with The Beat now putting out "More to Come" podcasts via Publisher's Weekly (link here).

And I'll have some really spiffy news this upcoming weekend related to podcasting comics - stay 'tooned!

Comics Podcasts: Digital Beards "The Craft of Comics"

I'm very pleased to have been invited to participate in our own local epicenter of ed-tech with Digital Beards, part of UAF's eLearning and Distance Education, who has a budding series of comics-related podcasts. Looking forward to hearing more of the endless stream of toon-talk edited into something coherent and concise - and hopefully educational if not entertaining. More projects are in the works, which I'll be posting updates as they are produced. In the meantime here's the first excerpted conversation with Instructional Designer Chris Malmberg, who was extremely patient in humoring my obsessive and extended monologues. But if it's one thing I've learned teaching a class on comics is that I can talk about 'em for hours, day in, day out, week after week... and that's in-between drawing.

Been really getting into using podcasts in the classroom: kept these running in the studio background for the Cartoon & Comic Art course which, seeing as how there's no visuals, is a helluva lot less distracting to students than, say, non-stop Adventure Time. "To The Best of Our Knowledge" has some insightful interview with many creators, and is a great way to eavesdrop on really interesting conversations. Via Boing Boing, which brought to my attention this episode (link here) featuring Peter Bagge + Evan Dorken.

Also Recommend If You Like has one with Fart Party creator Julia Wertz, which joins the growing roster with others like Word Balloon, Inkstuds and The Beat.