Do Too List

Winter break started today and I spent most of it cleaning house and working in my 4-track studio. I am still recording the "best little record I ever made twice". I say this, because most of the material I am working on was on June Bug Mix Vol. 3. Immediately after putting that out I went up to Chicago and recorded it all again with my cousin Drew on drums. Drew and I were hoping to snag a few of his bandmates to help with things, but they were hard to get a hold of leaving me with the task of finishing the rest of the parts myself back in Champaign.

I am perfectly able to finish these other parts, but since I am working alone, it takes a loooong time. It doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist and 4-track is a less than forgiving medium. I sat down today after I did some work on Mr. Wolfman and wrote a list to assess the situation. I felt pretty good after I recorded the stuff on Mr. Wolfman, but as I wrote out the list and mixed things down to give Drew for a Christmas present, I got depressed. This record will never get finished! The one good thing I can say at this point is that I began writing the material about this time last year and all the songs have worn pretty well after repeated listened for a year. (Believe me you find out if a song is dumb when you're on the 45th take for the electric guitar part!)
Here's the list:
1. Name the record: Mr. Wolfman is an obvious choice. Its the catchiest song on the record, but is there some kind of Trademark thing with Universal pictures or can I pass it off as a literary allusion?
Maybe an anagram of Walter Boyd? "Two Bad Lyre"? "Badly Wrote"? Take suggestions from fans? (what fans?)
2. Mr. Wolfman: lacks-bass guitar
3. Monk for the Summer: fix-guitar, harmonica
lacks- el. guitar, bass
4. Tired Old Love Song: lacks- el. guitar, bass
5. Catcher in the Rye: fix- guitar
lacks-bass, el. guitar
6. You've Got To get Out of This Town: lacks- percussion
7. When We Come Home: fix-guitar
lacks- bass, el.guitar
8. Sweet Summer Wine: lacks-bass
9. All I Wanna Do: lacks-bass
10: Good Friday: get Javier over here to sing back up!

My wife calls "Badly Wrote" one of my "twenty projects", but its a big one. I have no motivation to do any of my "twenty projects", which is sad because AC Ink was all excited about my new comic I'm working on. (Beth even blogged about it! Now I have to produce a product!)

So here's the to do list of all my twenty projects:
1. Finish record in timely fashion!
2. Draw "a week in september" (common you have 1 of 16 pages done! Chop chop!)
3. Script and block out "tower of babel" comic
4. finish blocking out Graphic Poems piece and draw it
5. finish My Life in Records script and get cracking on it! You've finally go some readers. You can't abandon it now!
6. write comixpedia article.

My Life in Records Goes on Hiatus

My Life in Records will be going on hiatus until February 4, 2007. In the meantime, check back here for some “outtakes” such as the Fright Night material and sketches from the next book.

I have yet to decide whether or not I will return right away to the series. I have a lot of the next part of the series written and blocked out, but I would like to be more intentional about how I make this next body of work. I will, however, return with something.

I am writing a few other mini-series that are unrelated to My Life in Records and I will showcase them here if I do not return with My Life in Records right away. I’m really leaning towards that because there are a lot of stories that I’d really like to tell that I have not had the time to pursue because I have been working on My Life in Records.

Be sure to check my main site grantthomasonline.com frequently because I’ll still be blogging, recording songs and painting.

Advent

Fra Angelico. Altarpiece of the Annunciation. c. 1430-1432. Tempera on panel. 194 x 194. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. This is my favorite holiday. Maybe its because nobody really celebrates it and its my own secret celebration or maybe its just nostalgia because it comes before Christmas and it makes me think of that time of year, which for better or worse, is actually usually a time I enjoy being with my family. Perhaps I'm intrigued by trying to wrap my brain around the concept of Incarnation. Robert Webber describes Advent as both Israel’s longing for a Messiah and our own longing for a new breaking in of God’s spirit upon us. I’m interested in the lines of supernatural and natural getting blurred even though I’m so seldom aware when it happens. The Annunciation is often shown as a dove breaking the window of Mary’s house as the angel announces what is to come.

In the last several years I have become obsessed with Advent. In many ways I’ve always been superficially into Advent, whether it’s the anticipation of opening presents or getting out of school or opening the next little door on the cardboard advent calendars. But lately I’ve been thinking more about the real meanings of the season. Winter is a time of darkness and mystery for me anyway and now I have a new layer of mystery added on as I try to look for God breaking into my life like light slowly becoming brighter in a pitch black room.

I've made several pieces about Advent. The first one was a painting I began last year and now will reside over my living room shrine for Advent and Epiphany. It shows Isaiah writing his prophecies in the darkness with the Davidic rose climbing up to his lips to cleanse them. Jesus claims in Revelation [22:16] be “the root and the Offspring of David” and that’s another thing I like about Advent- its cyclical nature and its symmetry with the Hebrew Scriptures.

Last spring I wrote a chapter of My Life in Records about Advent. You can read it starting here and even buy a print version here. It’s a little more humorous take on Advent, but still has the theme of waiting for what has been promised.

Finally, this summer I decided to do another comic based on a poem I wrote about Advent. I started off strong and fully expected it to be done by today and then I would unveil it in honor of Advent. But after a few pages it just went flat and I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. After reading the first few pages of Veich’s Can’t Get No and putting it down in disgust, I’m glad I didn’t finish it.

Here are the first three pages of my noble failure. And I will leave you with the full text from the poem. I hope God breaks into your life this December.

Most birds fly right into the window pane and bounce back

Dazed or briefly unconscious

Unable to enter the space we dwell in

But this bird sailed in and shattered the glass without a sound

It dwelt in the womb of a woman and grew into our flesh

Only to be murdered like a pigeon in the street.

And now we’re all waiting for the train

that they just announced is coming shortly

Sure, we still go to work

eating and drinking.

Boys still asking men for their daughters to marry.

Yet the more astute do all these things

With one eye down the track

for the first glimpse of smoke

of the engine car.

Sitting then standing

Then sitting then pacing

then fiddling with the turnstile

Like a bride fiddling with her engagement ring

Once all the bridesmaids have gone ahead of her

And they’ve closed the doors to the chapel

And she’s just waiting for the music to change

for the string quartet

(fiddle-fiddle-viola-cello)

to finish playing

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire

Waiting for the music to change

Waiting ‘till they start playing

Here Comes the Bride

On that big golden trumpet

Then the ushers will fling wide the doors

Like pearly gates

And she’ll walk in trying not to rush

Though it seemed like its been an eternity

Since the bridesmaids went in before her

And all the guests will rise up

from their slumber in the pews

the ceremony will all be a whirlwind

All dancing and feasting

and I am his and he is mine

and before you know it they’ll be on that train

to their forever happily ever afterlife

advent

webcomics

My Life In Records incorporates Infinite Canvas

Both Derik and Gilead mentioned that the last several strips on My Life in Records were hard to follow due to the minute size that I rendered them in. Now you can read them in Infinite Canvas here.

My apologies to those who tried to read the strip this month and left in disgust due to the tiny images.

Cloud 9

Today's strip took for-ev-er to draw, but I had a lot of fun doing it. I've always admired Albrecht Durer and other Reformation-era wood cut artists. I based my clouds and dove on this woodcut from an unknown artist. It looks a lot like it could have been by Durer, but my sources seem unsure. (By the way, I'm finding lots of great images on Biblical Art on the WWW- including this on below. Its a great site with lots of images and wonderful search engine built right into it.)


durer
webcomics

Acme Cut See Shoe

click to enlarge

pluri-readability
oubapo
experimental comics
bookmaking

Lo-Fi "Infinite Canvas"

I found an alternative pattern for the traditional accordion book that creates a vehicle for telling several stories from the same images or text. I made a little wordless comic using this book.

According to the Oubapo America website this type of project can be categorized as pluri-readability (comic that can be read meaningfully in more than one way). It also may be considered coverage (requiring manipulation of the page to enable new reading)
Here it is unfolded. It has images on both sides and each page has an image on the top and bottom much like a playing card.

You can go through it linearly, like a traditional book.

Or you can fold the pages out to create thousands of different story combinations.


The drawings are pretty crude, since I was just playing around with it, and I'm not happy with all of the image choices I made, but I'll probably be posting the various readings of the book in the coming months.

It would be interesting to see a variation of 5 card Nancy with this format.

pluri-readability
oubapo
experimental comics
bookmaking

Buck the System! Vote Bull Moose in 2006!

Birdsworth now has Vote Bull Moose 2006 shirts available for purchase! Get 'em while the election's still hot! Show your disdain for America's current political situation by affirming a party that hasn't existed for almost a hundred years. Available in several colors with styles for both the gents and the femmes. Look at this fine shirt, also available in white and light blue

birdsworth
Bull Moose Party

New Graphic Poem up!

Its the first Monday of the month which means that I have a new piece up on Graphic Poems.

Its another Color Sonnet, but this one has a more painterly twist to it.

Enjoy!

webcomics
graphic poetry

Two Strips This Week

Did you notice there were two strips up this week? If you didn't, you'd better get over there and scroll down to the second one!
webcomics

Coming Soon: MSGeeWhiz T-shirts!

Spearmint Pork pictured above. As available in Olive Mint.

Inspired by the arificial sweetener storyline.

birdsworth
webcomics

And now for something slightly different

In the middle of August I sprained both my wrists and kept reinjuring them before they could really fully heal. So last week I had to wear these little braces on my hands and I was unable to draw during that time. This week I got my first cold of the season and spent most of the time watching "Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and reading Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" before dozing off at the late hour of 9 pm.

I've been working ahead on My Life in Records and the plan was to keep going but with slightly less intensity since school has started, but these two setbacks have slowed things way down. I'm only about a week ahead, so at some point, I'll probably have a missed update on the comic. (frown)

I'm pretty proud of this particular one that I put up this week. It is more of the style that I plan on using once I complete Book One which will be four chapters long.

I went home to gather reference material for this story and realized that I had remembered the name of the record incorrectly. Its actually "The Best of the Best for Kids" instead of "Kids Under Construction," for those of you who try to buy each album as I mention them in the strip. So far every one I've mentioned is out of print. Eventually I'll start talking about records that everyone's heard.


I saw that Bill Gaither is singing at the University of Illinois this fall. Maybe I can track him down and he can sign my record.

In other news, Gilead has written a nice review of my Color Sonnet and other graphic poetry.

webcomics
My Life in Records
graphic poetry
pynchon
Bill Gaither
Clint Eastwood

The Metamorphosis Comic

Sometimes I wish I was all smart and more well read and had read some of the ancient classic literature, like the Odessesy. We read a one page excerpt of the Ilyad and watched a really old film version of Oedipus in world lit sophemore year in high school. My senior year, we read Lysastrata in AP English. But other than that, my knowledge of classic literture is pretty spotty.

Derik Badman piqued my curiousity with his experimental webcomic, Maroon and his latest project, Things Change, looks pretty promising. He says its based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. I've never read it, but so far I've still been intrigued. Its a bit like my viewing of O Brother Where Art Thou without reading the Oddessy. He is using visual rhyming a lot in an early sequence about a relationship remembered from both points of view. Derik writes a lot about the formal side of comics compositions in his companion blog, Mad Ink Beard, and you can see him applying a lot of his theories to the comic.

But its not art for art's sake, or stylistic excercises, the story is being told well and though its pretty early in the run, I'm very interested in where it will be going.



webcomics
Ovid
experimentalcomics
Derik Badman

Pivotgram

Last night I was out for pizza with my wife and Matt from Webcomicker. He started telling me about a form of writing called Pivotgram in which the last letter of each word is the first letter of the next. Today I decided to make a pictureless comic based on this concept. It's an experiment with infinite canvas, too, so there's some scrolling involved, too. If you click around the site a little, there's few more of my graphic poems, but I'm not too incredibly excited about any certain project yet. They're mostly excerises at this point. View the poem here.

I had so much fun, I think I'll make one with pictures soon, too.



pictureless comics
experimentalcomics
webcomics
pivotgram

Chapter 3 starts today

Chapter 3 of My Life in Records starts today!

Graphic Poems and other experimental webcomics

Derik Badman over at Mad Ink Beard is doing some interesting things with experimental webcomics. He has been applying the principles of poetry to the comic format with some interesting results. So far he has come up with comics haiku and comics pantoum. I found this so interesting, that I'm trying to make my own comics sonnet and one in free verse that I'm releasing on November 26. (Can the more astute readers of this blog figure out why I picked that release date?)

I also started a Comixpedia wiki entry on what I am calling Graphic Poetry. We have the graphic novel to make longer narrative works in comics form, and we've probably always had graphic poems, too, but I am interested in seeing what cartoonists can do with this idea of visual rhyming and poetry applied to comics.

Be sure to check out Derik's other experiments, such as pictureless comics as well as his latest bi-weekly strip, Things Change.

And look forward to a few graphic poems from me. . .

webcomics

Piperka

I was introduced to webcomics by the Webcomicker, who is a guy I actually used to live with. Since he introduced me to them I've started my own comic and we've collaborated on a fixed art strip written by him.

But I have been hesitant to really dig into reading webcomics, mainly because once I find one that I'm sort of interested in, I get intimidated by the sheer volume of the archives that I'd have to read in order to get myself caught up with the story. This is compounded by the fact that I usually go for longer narratives rather than the traditional newspaper-style gag-a-day strips, so there's usually a great deal of plot to get caught up on once I actually stumble onto them.

Once again, Webcomicker has saved the day. He wrote about a site called Piperka where you can "subscribe" to comics and anytime you sign in, it tells you how many sites have updated and how many strips have been added to each site since your last login.

The best feature is that you can sign up for a comic with a big archive of strips and set the bookmark at the beginning. Then you can read through them at your leisure stopping and starting when you like and you can reset the bookmark for the strip you've just finished reading, thereby never losing your place! (Much like using a real bookmark in a real book. You know those things with several hundred pieces of paper bound together. The bookmark goes inbetween the pieces of paper so you can come back and read where you left off.)

So go over and discover some comics (like mine) that intimidated you in the past because of their vast archives.

Now if they could only set this up for television, so I can figure out what in the world Lost is all about.

webcomics

New Site design

If you looked on the site on Thursday, you got a glimpse of the new design I have for the website. I couldn't get all the kinks worked out, so I've put the old one back up. If you didn't catch it, you can see part of it at the test site. LOTS of bugs still to work out.

Prologue Redux

I've gone back and redrawn a few panels in the Prologue. I rescanned the panels that remained and fixed the contrast to make them more readable. You can see the difference pictured here.

No Strip this Wednesday

Wow! I finally got around to tweaking the blog part of My Life In Records!

Sorry, there's will be no strip this Wednesday. My dream of updating twice a week will not come to fruition at the present time. I'll have to be satisfied with updating on Fridays. I have a new look for Black Bunny. I was going to wait to experiment more with the look of the comic once the current chapter ended, but I just couldn't wait. I'm going to play around with the coloring and when I get it the way I like it, I'll probably go back and re-color the old stuff. I'm already redrawing some of the earlier, clunkier artwork.

In the meantime, the real reason why I'm not updating as frequently, is I am trying to make a more polished record of some demos I've made over the past several months. If you're curious as to what this sounds like, head over to my music site, www.grantthomasonline.com and have a listen. Or head over to Birdsworth to see the marriage of indie folk rock and webcomics!

Chapter 2