Do NOT read this Blog!!

I've gotten my sitemeter count for the past two weeks and it's been zero both times. Usually it runs around 14 a week--at least that's been the average for the past year or so.

I can't say that I blame people for not having interest in reading this blog, seeing as I've lost interest in writing it. Not completely, I am, obviously, writing it even now--but for the most part it seems like the day of the blog has passed for me.

This is darn shame though, considering that I've got several new projects pending and I'd really like to talk about them. I'm developing a coffee table edition book for next Christmas season along with my wife (who'll be creating an accompanying CD) and a couple of friends that I hope will be along in other capacities.

At the same time I'm re-developing The PLUS for a new web-comic along with a couple of those friends. Hoping that will be a fun and profitable departure for all concerned. I've got several stories already in the thumbnail stage, and ideas keep coming. That's good.

And I'm also working on another comics project with a different writer of some note. But I don't want to say too much about it until it's a little further along.

I don't know. Perhaps when all these bits of "creative jello" are a little more congealed then I'll talk about it more, and all of the blog fans will come back. But for now it seems a little melancholy to consider this blog unread for two weeks running.

If you do read this Blog again, I hope it will prove uplifting to know that in spite of my lack of participation in said blog recently, I do have enthusiasm heading into this new year. Not the slop that they're trying to sell in the mainstream media (think how many unsold "Barack Obama" collectable photo albums are still sitting on the shelves at the grocery stores across America). I have "Hope" but it's not coming from politicians or media manipulation, but from God and all the good things he's given me.

Here I come a politic-ing so fair to be seen…

This morning my wife, Karin, was reading in Judges and found the name "Barack" means "thunder bolt".

"How delightful!" I mused as I was getting in the bath, "thunder bolts are Brief, Noisy, and Cause a lot of Damage."

Karin called my Dad on the phone and told him what I'd just said. Dad said, "Put it on the news and let it go around the world!" (Probably the most positive affirmation I've gotten from Dad in a month or so).

Now, this isn't to say that I'm going to be down on Mr. Obama. He's in a tough position. Everyone who has ever been President of the United States will always be next in line to be "worst President EVER". And by the time he leaves office, he too will have been (at least in some people's minds) the worst ever. Even George Washington faced this (it's true).

When one is elected President they are actually being elected official scape goat. Not a job I'd want.

And Mr. Obama is already facing criticism from both sides about nearly everything he's been doing during his transition. Some of it has even come from me.

But, as a gesture, I'd like to extend a Merry Christmas to the President Elect. And I'd also like to ask him (if he reads this) to tell his staff to quit emailing me (see last post).

Voters against Spam!

When I began this blog, I intentionally stayed away from the topic of politics, and while I don't intend that this blog should become the typical "I'm right and you're wrong" political mish-mash--I'm going to tell anyone reading this a couple of things.

One: Early in the summer I was asked if I would care to send both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama a note about what I thought were important issues they should address in their respective campaigns. Being a Christian in more than just name, I felt that it was my duty to do so, in hopes that either or both might take these things to heart.

A week or so later I began receiving e-mails from Mr. Obama's campaign asking for contributions. I got no confirmation that he'd even read any of what I'd written to him either by personal e-mail nor by his public statements about what he stands for.

I began by simply discarding the e-mails as they came. A minor annoyance as they came perhaps one or two a week. Then they went to daily. Then twice daily! I began pressing "report spam".

But apparently AOL will not honor "report spam" on politicians (at least not liberal politicians).

So after months of this abuse of my inbox, I decided to actually look at one of Mr. Obama's e-mails. Nothing of a great shock therein, his usual vague statements about "change".

Well, I've got "change" from Nancy Pelosi, Mr. Obama! I used to get dollars, now all I get is change. I don't need any more of that kind of change.

Anyway, I found an "unsubscribe" button in the e-mail and went there to unsubscribe. Bearing in mind that I had never "subscribed" to begin with. But when I went to submit my "unsubscribe" there was a video of Mr. Obama that had to be downloaded before it would allow me to submit.

I'm on dial up.

I've tried this approach several times and each time the result is the same. Today I attempted to respond to "info@barackobama.com" and got an automatic reply that said they didn't read letters sent to that address, that I must respond through the website comment page.

So I went there.

Same jazz. A video is downloading and my comment won't go through until it's done.

Does Mr. Obama's campaign think that I'll change my mind if I sit through another one of his vague speeches? "Oh, my! What was I thinking? No, please fill up my inbox with your semi-daily comments about nothing! I can see it all so clearly now!"

During all of this, Mr. McCain's campaign has not cluttered my inbox with letters.

I did get a very nice letter from Elizabeth Dole the other day, asking nicely if I'd mind if she sent me an occasional update on her campaign. "Why, thank you for asking, Mrs. Dole, I think I would like a note or two from you, since I actually plan on supporting your re-election campaign."

Two: This is all pretty silly stuff though, as I figure the race is over already. When Sarah Palin stepped up on the platform, that was it.

Everyone is talking about the lady. Everyone on both sides is talking about her.

Good for her.

I hope when she's President she'll do something about inbox spam.

"Orphan Works" not addressing important issues!

Steve Haynie, treasurer for the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Societty, just sent this link on the "Orphan Works" legislation that is being discussed in Congress. You'll recall that this was a hot topic in 2006 that got dropped when that Congressional session ended, but it's back.

http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat031308.html

You may want to look at this testimony from a representative of the Copyright office at length. It's about 20 minutes worth of read (and like most "legalese" may cause mild headache and dizzyness in those of us not accustomed to its use).

While I have to respect that the Copyright office has done some to address concerns about throwing the doors open to copyright abuse that were inherent in the 2006 version of this legislation, the couple of bones they seem to be offering to the "other visual artists" (I have to say I sort of resent being listed as a sub-category of Photographers) don't appear to truly address the issues.

First of all they have allowed for owners of works that are not truly "orphaned" that are "mistakenly" used by another party to be "reasonably compensated". The rate of reasonable compensation appears to be set at $200. While this might be true compensation of some works at this time the Copyright office seems unaware that visual artists usually price their work by applying any number of criteria for the use.

Additionally, this "improvement" has a loophole that you might miss if you don't read carefully. If the "mistaken user" (I didn't notice a lot of use of the term "infringer" in this testimony) removes the offending work from use "quickly" he or she is not liable for that resonable compensation. In other words if some advertiser lifts your work, runs it during the Superbowl, you find out about it and they never run that commercial again, they don't owe you a red cent. At least that's how I read this.

There seems to be a rather Pollyanna-esque view on the part of the Copyright office that nearly all of the people clamoring to use "Orphaned Works" are museums and libraries. I'm not sure, but I suspect that most of us "other visual artists" would not mind if museums and libraries used our works even if we clearly hold copyright…unless it's uncompensated print sales, and things like that. This view ignores the fact that in the past twenty years that advertising agencies have resorted more and more to clip-art rather than hiring illustrators for unique creations. While this has offered them a greater profit margin, it's been rough on those of us trying to sell those illustrations. However, some of us have managed to get our work used in spite of this mentality, while others have adapted and packaged works for use as licensed clip-art.

This legislation seems to open the door to abuse by almost anyone in the advertising field. Offering them the opportunity to A) use any work they happen to see in their own local market hoping that the actual copyright owner will never be aware that their work has been infringed upon, B) that if caught they can hopefully argue that they were unaware that the work was NOT in public domain, and if all other remedies fail they can C) pay a minimal rate arbitrarily established by the Copyright office and not reflecting any of the criteria normally used to negotiate compensation.

In other words, this legislation says to would be art buyers: "Big sale on art today! All pieces just $200 (if you get caught)".

I am also particularly upset by a missing part of what should be inherent in Copyright protection; the right to associate my work with movements, products, or persons that I wish to be associated with. This is the cardinal rule I look at when negotiating any contract. I have never been simply a "gun for hire". I debate long and hard with myself before agreeing to work on any project, no matter what kind of compensation I am offered. By my reading, this legislation in no way addresses that right.

Actual news and some thoughts

I have three (count 'em THREE) comics coming out in 2008 and the year's just begun.

First off, Transfuzion Publications

http://www.transfuzion.biz/

Is releasing "Saint Germaine: Tales of an Immortal" which is already in the January Previews catalog and will hopefully be in a number of regular book stores as well. This TPB collection of the Saint Germaine series (originally published by Caliber) features a good 40 pages of my art, in a story about Casanova.

Second, Azzurn Publishing

http://www.comicartistsdirect.com/index.html (look for the ads center page)

Is releasing "Adam Among the Gods". This book is all my pencils and inks, done in collaboration with my webmaster, Gary Scott Beatty, who also happens to be owner and publisher of Aazurn Publishing. I hope a lot of people will be buying Aazurn books, because then Gary will be able to pay me to do more! Look for Adam in the February Previews.

Third, (an outgrowth of the first event)

Negative Burn

http://www.desperado.lightcubed.com/BOOKS/NegativeBurn.htm

Will be featuring a never before seen Saint Germaine story in the May issue of that anthology. If I understand it correctly it will be a Caliber reunion story. What happened is Gary Reed (not to be confused with any other Garys that I work with) got in touch with Joe Pruett after we worked out the deal for the ST.G TPB. Gary realized that we had another ST.G story that had never been published. Well, what we had was 18 out of 24 pages. Gary talked me into doing the last 6 pages and I just finished that up Friday. I scanned all the pages on Monday and they'll be lettered (in all likelyhood by Nate Pride who did a bang up job on my work at Caliber) and solicited in March.

The interesting thing is that I actually drew the bulk of the story back in 1998, after doing the bulk of the Casanova issue mentioned above. Someone else was supposed to do the framing art, but for one reason or another couldn't complete that assignment. So Gary had me draw some additional pages to "Casanova's Lament" and that was ST.G issue #9. I was set to draw the additional pages of the "new" story when Caliber went out of business. Now ten years later I found myself trying to draw in my old style.

To make things even more interesting, the story is about reuniting people after a long time apart. So life does imitate art!

Look for this "Caliber Reunion" soon.

I hope everyone reading this buys 200 copies of all of these soon to be released books. That would make a huge contribution to paying off some of my bills. Think about it. ;)

More Sunday School (for those who care to read)

This is the Sunday School lesson I taught on Sunday March 11, 2007. I know it's been a while since then, but if you read my last post, I decided to run these here (after the fact) because I've been spending a lot of time doing them and as a consequence have had little time to write a blog. Hopefully they'll be helpful to someone.

James chapter 1: 19-27

• “Mirrors”

James 1: 19 “…my dear brothers…”

As in last week’s lesson, I was tempted to pass over this statement--as if it were a mere pleasantry. James here identifies with all believers in an exceedingly intimate way.

The ironic thing is that I was tempted to pass over that phrase, in spite of the fact that James immediately follows it with “Take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak…”

But I wanted to get to the part where I got to speak! Is that human or what?

So let’s go back again.

Last time we discussed James’ radical statement about being a slave of God, slave to Jesus. Here he calls his readers (us) “dear brothers”. Isn’t this like saying, “I’m a slave--you be slaves too” ?

Q: How do we act as slaves?

A: By being “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry”.

Remember that I said last week that James is sort of self-outlining. He achieves this outline by anticipating his reader’s questions and following up quickly with answers to those unspoken objections.

Q: So why should we be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry?

A: “For man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires”. (vs. 20)

Now if I were listing sins in the order of most grave to least down to most minor I don’t think that

• Not listening
• Speaking too quickly
and
• Anger

would top my list--that is, prior to reading this closely. I do all three of these constantly--and practically consider them virtues at times, not vices. But James lists these three, (perhaps summed up in the term “impatience”) first.

Let’s back up again:

What did James speak of in the previous section? Remember that this letter wasn’t written to be read over several weeks time, it’s all one short letter to Christians, and meant to be taken in close context.

James just told us about Persevering with Joy. Summed up in one word: “Patience”.

vs. 21 “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you.”

This is both a practical statement AND a high theological concept.

IF we discard moral filth and humble ourselves we are going to be less frustrated by our selfish desires (remember them?) and consequently NOT be easily angered, NOT be quick to speak, and have the Patience to listen to both God and man.

We need to listen to God--we all know this--and I’ll submit that this is the primary meaning of “listening” that James is speaking of here. But sometimes I wonder if I don’t have a harder time listening to men than God. Which probably means I wasn’t really listening to God in the first place.

Guess what? James anticipates this in…

vs. 22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

The word here obviously indicates the word of God (the written word, since James says, “Do what IT says”, not , “what HE says”. This should silence any talk of “ongoing scriptural revelation”).

vs. 23 “Anyone who listens to the word and does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

I look in the mirror in the morning and I see a man with hair sticking up--I’ve got glop in my eyes, dried drool on my cheek, maybe one of those breath right strips on my nose, I don’t know where my glasses are some days…Karin says it’s cute--but I don’t want to go out in public like that. I want to be prepared if I meet anyone.

I’m pretty sure that this is what James is talking about. We’re disheveled, and we look into the mirror to see what we look like so that we can begin to put things right for the day. And notice that this is a daily thing.

Just so, a Christian looks into the word to get a good look at himself and begin the day’s work of putting things right.

vs. 25 “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in whatever he does.”

We need to look at our “reflection” in the Perfect Law.

Let me digress for a minute. In James’ time, mirrors were highly polished pieces of brass, hardly a perfect reflection. The fact is, even now mirrors are less than great. We think they’re pretty swell, but you’ll notice that there’s some distortion caused by the glass interfering with the silver backing. In fact mirrors used for artistic purposes or photography have the silver on the facing side, otherwise you’ll get a double image.

But James re-affirms the scripture as “The Perfect Law”.
Q: How Perfect is the Law?

A: It can give freedom.

We tend, as humans, to think of law as being restriction. But God’s law isn’t about restricting us, it’s about freeing us to be what we were meant to be.

Let’s give this a context. The speed limit on the bypass is now 60 m.p.h.. Sometimes I am in a rush--okay, MOST of the time I am in a rush, and that speed limit seems like a restriction. But suppose I carelessly exceed that “limit”, get in an accident, and wind up in the hospital or the grave. The “restriction” had the power to keep me out of the hospital or grave, making me free to continue living my life.

God’s law is like that, only much higher. What seems like a restriction here and now opens to a freedom I probably can’t anticipate--especially if I am, what?

• Not Listening
• Busy Talking
and
• Getting Angry about the “injustice of it all”

vs. 26 “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless”.

Have you ever noticed how people with a bunch of bumper stickers aren’t usually too pleasant to be around? The couldn’t sum up their complaint in just one sticker, so they add another and another, until the whole back of their car is one big quilt of vinyl? Do you ever seek out a conversation with these people? Or do you see their car in the parking lot at Ingles or Bi-Lo and think, “be on the lookout for that guy!”

Q: Why do we do avoid the opinionated bumper sticker guy?

A: Because he hasn’t “gotten it off his chest”.

He doesn’t feel better-- he’s in the grocery store somewhere waiting to pounce on the cashier, or the stock boy, or the manager, or you and me!

Of course there’s two problems with this observation:

As soon as I began writing down the “bumper sticker analogy” I thought about my own car. “How many bumper stickers have I got?” I asked myself. “Five, but that’s not so many,” was my answer, “and mine aren’t all opinionated like that other guys!”

So my bumper stickers express no opinion at all? Of course they do!

Let’s see, I’ve got one for Denmark, that’s where Karin’s family comes from. I liked visiting there, although it had it’s problems. That sticker says to the world, “I’ve traveled outside the U.S., so don’t think I’m too provincial.” I’ve got two Route 66 stickers. Those say, “I’m a bit of a traditionalist, and don’t mind driving my car anywhere I want to go.” I’ve got an Apple Computer sticker that says, “I like a computer that doesn’t require programming skills on my part.” And I’ve got a Ron Jon Surf shop sticker that says, “I wish I could surf, or want you to think I can.”

If you count my antenna topper (that would be number six),that says, “I like fast food, and I’ll even eat hot dogs.”

So I guess I’m a loud mouth too.

The second problem (a function of the first) is that I can’t be doing any listening if I don’t even want to meet the guy who I think has “a chip on his shoulder”, and all those bumper stickers.

Remember that James told us to be quick to listen. I think that I need to learn to listen to both God and men.

vs. 27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

I should define the word “religion” here. This refers to outward acts of religious devotion. The sad fact is that it’s very easy to appear religious--particularly in the eyes of the world. Dress up, go to church on Sunday, drop something in the plate…if you’re rich or a politician you can throw a fund raiser.

But James tells us we should “look after widows and orphans in their distress”, and then keep ourselves “from being polluted by the world.”

Remember before, James told us to “get rid of all moral filth”, why?

So we can:

• Not be angry
• Not speaking quickly
and so we can be
• Listening

How are we to know about the distress of the widow and orphan if we’re trying to fill ourselves with our selfish desires--failing to do so (which is inevitable), getting angry (as a result of our failure), ranting about how unfair it all is, and not listening?

James seems to be re-affirming the statement Christ made in Matt. 6:3

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

As humans we want to do our sinning in secret and our religious acts in a big way. But Christianity says, “keep your religious acts to yourself, and confess your sinfulness openly.”

It’s an upside down thing, this faith of ours. Seems to me this mirror we’re looking into is like a fun house mirror--except it’s showing us that we’re the ones that are actually inverted.

While I was making my notes on this, a young boy was in the same hallway talking to his mother, “I want my toys--I want to go home to my toys.” His mother replied, “I want a good boy, who’s going to have a birthday in three days.” “Yeah, but I want my toys!”

This fellow was tired after a long day, and his mother was being exceedingly patient with him (his baby sister was asleep on her shoulder). “We’re going to go home tomorrow and then you can have your toys, AND then you’re going to have a big birthday party too.”

God treats us with great patience. We’re too busy talking to hear him saying, “we’re going home soon, and then it will be better than you can imagine.” “Yeah, but I want this thing right now.” God replies, “I don’t think you should have that thing right now, it’s not the right time.” “Yeah, but I want it anyway.” And so it goes.

My Sunday School lessons

Anyone who's been paying attention to this blog since around March will notice that I haven't been posting as often as all that. (Not that I posted that much to start with). The main reason being that I've been teaching Adult Sunday School at my church (Covenant Presbyterian Church, Waynesville, NC) since Sunday March 4 of this year. Not satisfied with a traditional "quarterly" I opted to write my own notes for the class, thereby guaranteeing that I'd have a lot more work to do each week.

For months now I have been considering simply posting some of the lesson notes that I have written. For various reasons I have put this off, but now I'm going to do it. Today's post will begin my class notes from the epistle of James. If anyone cares to read these notes, fine. I hope you get a great deal of information from them.

I don't offer them lightly, but I'm also hoping that this doesn't open a can of worms in which everyone wanting to discuss comparative religion begins posting comments and e-mailing me day and night.

I'm not going to pretend that these notes are all encompassing. I'm writing simply from a Christian perspective, and even within Christian circles there are often disagreements on some of the finer points.

I also realize that I am departing somewhat from the stated purpose of this blog, wherein I proposed to ramble about my life as an artist and musician. Then again, since this Sunday School class has become something very important to my life, and as it affects my creative output as well, it is relevant to my "day job".

With that said, here are the notes:

Sunday March 4, 2007

James chapter 1: 1-18

•James 1:1 “A Strong First Impression”

I was tempted to say the meat of this first passage was in verses 2-18 but then was caught short by my own familiarity with this sort of salutation. It occurred to me that I was jumping ahead.

James is making a radical statement here:

“James, a servant of God…”

Familiarity has dulled our response to these words. Here a man is claiming to be a slave of God Himself! It is unlikely that many Hebrews living at this time would have thought in these terms; i.e. “I am proud of my slavery!”

Recall that the Pharisees claimed they were “slaves to no one”(John 8:33), in spite of the occupation of Palestine by Rome. So for any Hebrew to announce proudly his slavery would be a radical idea at the time.

If that’s not outrageous enough, he equates God and Jesus Christ (recall that you can’t be a slave to two masters, so this statement can only be taken as affirming the Deity of Christ).

This statement to a Jew during this time would be analogous to a British citizen coming to the US now and calling us “colonists”. It would rub us the wrong way. We might laugh it off, but we’d want to make sure that this Briton would know that we were no mere colony of the United Kingdom by the time we parted, right?

Historical context: The Nation of Israel had existed in various forms for nearly 1500 years at this point. The remnant of Israel had returned from Babylon 400 years before-and in spite of occupation by Alexander’s army and then the Romans, the Jews still considered themselves a free nation.

So James makes two outrageous claims here. (1)He’s a slave to God, and (2) God and Jesus are one in the same. I’m not sure of the construction in Greek but I suspect that these are actually reversed: “God and Jesus are the same, and I am a slave to God.”

Considering the political climate of the time James had signed his own death warrant with this salutation. He had offended both the Jewish rulers and the Roman government with this statement.

•Who is this James?

Probably NOT the Apostle James. Apostle died in A.D. 44, or about 11 years after Christ’s resurrection. The James here is writing to the “tribes scattered among the nations”, a reference to the first persecution (Acts 8:1).

The other two James mentioned in the NT did not have the standing in the early Church or the authority that seems apparent from this letter. In other words, they’d have likely identified themselves more clearly in the salutation.

Most likely this James was the eldest of the brothers of Jesus. He doesn’t actually say this, but the evidence is pretty good. (Seven qualifications found in NIV intro to James).
So if we assume that this is that same brother, what do we know about him from the Gospels?
(Matthew 13:55) He is listed first among Jesus’ brothers. So if he wasn’t the second son he was the most prominent.
(John 7:2-5) He and his brothers doubted Jesus initially. Typical of brothers, and reminds me of how Joseph’s brothers treated him.
(Jude 1)You’ll recall that Jude was a younger brother of Jesus, and in his epistle identifies himself as “brother of James”.

•James 1: 2-7 “Happy Trials”

vs.2 “Consider it pure joy…” How often do we do this? I know I don’t. When I face “trials of many kinds” I pout, grumble, mope, complain, rant, etc. But James says I should consider it a joy--PURE JOY! Delight in it.

But James is a practical man and doesn’t simply leave us with an empty platitude. He goes on to tell us why.

vs.3 “Because…” Very important word, “because”. He gives us the reason for the trials: To develop perseverance. But what good is perseverance?

vs.4 James really anticipates these questions well! What good is perseverance? It’s making us, “finished, mature, complete, not lacking anything.”

We all know what it’s like to be younger than we are now. And we should have some idea by now that wisdom is a result of experience, and time is required for us to have experienced things: When we were infants we didn’t know not to touch a hot stove. By the time we reached 5 we only touched one by accident, and then thought it was the end of the world. Now as adults we avoid hot stoves when we can and cope with a burn if one happens.

This is a simple material example of perseverance growing wisdom, and James wastes no time in connecting wisdom to perseverance:

vs. 5 “If any of you lack wisdom…”

This is often pointed to as one of God’s sure promises in the Bible. “…he should ask God…and it will be given to him.” But people often say that’s all you have to do, ask and BOOM! You’ve got it. But why then does James go on?

vs.6 cautions us “…when he asks, he must believe and not doubt…”

What is meant here by “believe”? Is it scrunching up our faces trying to force ourselves to believe something that defies our senses? Is it like clapping our hands in hopes of making Tinkerbell get well?

Of course not--People who truly believe in something don’t go around saying “I believe, I believe, I believe” in some sort of self-hypnotic mantra.

How do believing people behave?

They’re quietly confident--they can face any trial that comes their way with Joy and Perseverance!

vs. 9-11 James goes on to give us some specific examples.

Notice particularly the voice of belief in vs. 11 “…for the sun rises with scorching heat…” James speaks with complete confidence that as certain as the sun rises and flowers wilt, so our destinies are sure.

vs. 12 James sums up the principle. The result of blessing with the crown of life has resulted not from one instance of faithfulness, but a lifetime of smaller cycles of Trial-Perseverance-Blessing arriving at this ultimate blessing.

vs.13 “Tempted” here is the same root word in Greek as the word for “Trial” in vs.2-3. The distinction is that “Trials” are defined as external difficulties (like getting burned by a hot stove) and “Temptations” are our inner moral struggles, as in vs. 13-15.

“…no one should say God is tempting me…” Why? I actually hear this sort of thing a lot, from the unsaved and the Christian too.

First off we should recognize that God is Holy. Temptation doesn’t work on God because it has nothing to offer to God, no way to appeal to Him. (We attempt to drag God down to our level when we think that He could be tempted). God doesn’t hunger or thirst, he doesn’t need a house, or a bigger car. He has all the power, knows everything, etc. God doesn’t have these sorts of desires. (Admittedly, Jesus did face temptation in the desert, but this was his Human nature, not his God nature).

But we have desires aplenty. And they affect us.

vs. 14 “…each one is tempted when his selfish desires drag him away…”

Selfish desires drag us away -- away from what? The confidence that God has provided, and is providing, and will provide what we actually need.

That’s why James tells us in

vs. 16-17 “…every good and perfect gift is from above”. Everything else comes from selfish desires.

And finally James shows us the ultimate perfect gift:

vs. 18 “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth…”

Would I be digressing here into Calvinism to point out that I often tell friends that to be “born again” is nothing that we ourselves do? We had little or nothing to do with our first birth, how can we have anything to do with our second?

We have to look at all these words through fresh eyes.

We could look at life in the darkest of terms. Every single one of us is going to face difficulties in the near future, if we aren’t facing them right now; but as Christians we know that beyond those problems we have “the crown of life” waiting.

Can't imagine what's keeping that artwork from showing.

Maybe now it will display? Hmmm?

Things we do for art, again.

Artwork by James E. Lyle (Based on a publicity photo, presumably copyright by Ms. Eden, but used here only to demonstrate the technical ability of the artist).

Why do I do the things that I do? Good question…darned good question. Wish I had a good answer, but I don’t.

Above you will see (at least if the image hosting worked out as it has mostly in the past) a picture of Barbara Eden, rendered by me in “bing salad” colors. If you don’t know what a bing salad is, then you simply need to get down to the south sometime and experience one. (Hint: It’s not named after Bing Crosby).

Anyway, I did this piece last week. I had some other stuff I should have been working on, but I didn’t get to it.

I told myself that I was doing this piece for money. And that is, at least in part, true. I’m hoping it will sell on eBay at as high a price as the Lynda Carter piece did at Heroes Convention back in June. Barring that I hope that it will at least impress someone enough to convince them to commission a similar piece.

But there are some differences:

First off, Barbara Eden is not known for playing a comic book character. True, there have been “I Dream of Jeannie” comic books, but they were spin-offs of the TV show, not the other way around.

Secondly, this piece has no “hook” aside from the weird color interpretation. The Lynda Carter piece, besides showing her in the Wonder Woman costume she’s known for, had also the pop-art addition of a Che beret. That seemed to sell a lot of people on the piece. Whether they saw the intended satire or not I cannot say. But it seemed to work.

Third, the bidding at Heroes Convention was for charity and there were a lot of high spirits involved therein. I was pleased to know that my piece there went for $1700, but was also embarrassed a bit by all the adulation.

So it would be easy to say that I simply did the piece hoping to cash in, personally, by doing so. But I’ve got no guarantees that anyone will even care. I’ve had auctions crash and burn more often than I’d like to admit.

I will admit that when they crash and burn, I often accompany them emotionally.

Every time I put a piece up for auction on eBay I get the same feeling that I did in elementary school when I got up to bat in softball. I was usually picked last and calls of “easy out” still ring in my ears (Charlie Brown and I were obviously separated at birth).

So why do I do it? Why put myself through all that, again and again?

Because of the occasion of adulation. I may be embarrassed by it, but I also love it. In fact I very often would prefer to impress someone with my art than make a lot of money. Fortunately for my finances I’ve been doing both a lot more lately.

But I’ve also been experiencing a lot more clients walking away. I suppose it’s part of the percentages. That is; if I’m doing more work, making more money at it, then it stands to reason that I’ll have a larger number of clients that will walk away not completely satisfied.

The last client to drop out, did so a couple of weeks ago and it brought me down. It was affecting my work, and so I tried a couple of pieces. I thought I’d take another stab at a 60s Black Widow (before her hair turned red), and posed out a couple of figures that I thought worked. But I got halfway through both and was completely disappointed with the results.
I even tried to use Barbara Eden as the face for that Black Widow piece. I figured it was a natural.

But it stunk.

Okay, so I had all this research on Barbara Eden and an itch to draw her face. This is the result.

So far my wife, Karin, is impressed…and also my student Cierra. They both liked the art, so I figure I’ve got a chance. I sent the scan to my agent on Friday, but I’d forgotten that he was away at Dragon*Con this weekend, so I haven’t heard what he thinks yet. We’ll see.

After taking a couple of days away from the studio, I have to admit that it looks better than I thought it did originally (and I liked it before). So maybe it will sell.

When Steve Martin got the Mark Twain Award for American Comedy he said, “this award is our nation’s highest award for comedy…next to money.” (I laughed and laughed).

Putting a piece of art on eBay is sort of like that. I want people’s approval and adulation (this is a character flaw, I admit), but if that approval results in them giving me their money then I feel exonerated. If it ends in them giving me a lot of money then even better.

Not that life is about money, or adulation. But my experience says that being an artist means needing a certain amount of both.

The trick is not needing so much of either to get by. That I have to work on.

Gypsy Bandwagon Update!

Time to update on the Gypsy Bandwagon show!

As you may have read (if you didn’t check the last entry, below) my preparations for a GB show often seem to start off rather…leisurely. But things have picked up since then.

On Tuesday I practiced drums for around two hours. Then I restrung one of my mallets, that will be needed when we play “Theme from Gypsy Bandwagon” and “Full Rigged Ship” tomorrow night. Can’t risk an equipment failure.

I did other stuff, but that was art related and office related. Hardly relevant to the GB show.

On Wednesday I got the “official” play list from Lance via e-mail, and made my own based on it. My personal play list has to contain more than just the song name, because I am constantly switching instruments during the show. Most folks must figure, “well he plays drums, how hard is that?” But with GB there is always a tweak here and there. I don’t just play the trap set.

I’ve got the Djembe too, which was added to the set up when I joined the band. ( I’d never set eyes on one previously ). So I have to know if I’m playing the Djembe alone, or with the trap bass, or tambourine, or hi hat ( by foot pedal ). I have to know if I’m using light or heavy sticks, mallets, rain stick, jingle ring, etc. So my notes have to be pretty copious in that way.

Not to mention that the sets and arrangements are always changing. I’m not complaining, but Lance and Carissa keep Karin and me on our toes. I’m always being asked to back off here or there, or bring more energy to this part of a song. A lot of times this happens only in rehearsal, but more than once we’ve done it mid-show! So my playlist has to have everything as neatly notated as possible so that if a change does come midway I can adapt.

Anyway the set list took some time. Then I had to practice for an hour or so.

Then Karin had to go practice in Cashiers, NC for a performance on Sunday morning. While this isn’t directly related to GB, it is an issue, since we’ll be playing from 8-10 pm on Saturday at Purple Onion, then leaving out as quickly as possible so that we can drop all our equipment at the studio and get some sleep before getting up at 5:30 am Sunday to load Karin’s harp and hit the road for Cashiers. So the drive out there Wednesday evening was a “dry run” for that.

Thursday I came in to the studio and ( again ) beside my art duties I wrote down a new song I’d been working on for GB to perform at some future date.

Last evening was our first rehearsal proper for the show. Lance and Carissa showed up here at the studio around 6:40 pm and we worked on material, new and old, until around 9:30. I did get a chance to play my new song for them, and it looks like we might do it! Lance complemented it for being “melody-driven”. Not bad for a drummer.

Today I have to pack up all my drums as well as Karin’s equipment ( Bass, Mandolin, Fiddle, and all assorted accessories ) and get them ready to go to Lance and Carissa’s so that we can practice all the songs we didn’t do last night ( and any that didn’t come off last night ). Once we’re done with the second rehearsal I have to break down the drums again and pack the car for the show tomorrow.

We’re supposed to pick up our friend Courtney on the way there. I don’t know if Courtney counts as a “groupie” per se, but we’re picking her up and Lance and Carissa are driving her back home after the gig. It’s been a while since any of us has seen her, so it will be nice.

( I’m pretty sure that Lance is working on some groupie jokes even as I write this…so look out, Courtney! )

We thought we’d get a break on Monday. Only Karin got a last minute gig for Lake Junaluska Monday night. So it looks like we’re going on to Tuesday before the “tour” is over. We may not be a big name band, but between gigging and roadie-ing I’m devoting a lot of time to music.

This has nothing to do with GB, but my studio is crawling with tiny ants. I should probably do something about that.

I exercise in a most unusual way.

I exercise in a most unusual way.

Most reading that will not get the reference, so why did I use it? Just me being obscure.

The reference is to a song by “Wall of Voodoo”, an 80s band, famous for the tune “Mexican Radio”.

Speaking of obscure bands, Gypsy Bandwagon has a gig this Saturday night at The Purple Onion in Saluda, NC. And I’m getting ready for that gig.

Which brings me back to exercising in a most unusual way. I don’t have a clue how other bands get ready for a gig. I’m sure, like GB, they get together for at least a few rehearsals before the gig proper. But what the individual members do to prepare mentally is possibly, even probably, much different than what I do.

What I’ve done, at least enough to call it a routine, is pull out a bunch of “inspirational” videos by other bands. I’m a pretty visual sort of guy (recall that I’m an illustrator in my other identity), so this makes sense to me.

So on Friday and Saturday nights I reviewed “U2: Rattle and Hum”. Sunday at lunch Karin and I watched “The Partridge Family” pilot (all inspiration is not equal). Last night I looked at a batch of 80s videos from MTV (how much hair did we have back then?). As the week continues I’ll doubtless watch various other films and videos that may or may not include; “Oh, brother where art thou?”, “The Monkees”, “Newsboys: Down Under the Bigtop”, “That thing you do!”, etc.

I’m pretty eclectic.

Saturday night I also came over to the studio (where Karin was, working on her MySpace page) and plugged in the electric guitar (with effects) and jammed along with old records of Cheap Trick, 'Til Tuesday, The Clash, Thompson Twins, and (you guessed it) Wall of Voodoo. Those old 45s still sound pretty good to me.

Today I’ve been inking some more on the pirate novel illustrations. I’m very far behind on that project, so it’s a good thing I’ve gotten some more done. (Hi Tim!)

While I’ve been inking I put on GB’s album “Stole My Mule” and harmonized to the tracks where I was supposed to.

So far I’ve hardly touched the drum set. You have to work up to these things.

I just recalled that I did drum briefly on Saturday when I came into the studio to do something that was going to take a couple of minutes. I guess I sat down and drummed to “Voices Carry” while waiting for something to upload, download, or scan. I don’t recall what.

But other than that, I’ve not drummed in weeks. Not consciously anyway.

I do it unconsciously all the time. I suppose that’s how one becomes a drummer. Anytime a song is in the air, I find myself either drumming along or thinking of how it would be improved if done another way. I beat on the steering wheel in the car. I raise a cloud of dust from the floor mats doing bass beats. I have worn a spot of carpet away at my drawing table doing beats with my feet.

One reason I haven’t actually sat down to drum yet (it is, in fact, why I’m not drumming now) is that Karin’s got a student next door playing harp. She’s had students all day, and I hate to be bashing away at some piece and throwing them off their rhythm. So I have to wait until the students go away to get my proper practice in.

Of course today that will be impossible. Karin’s got students until 7pm, and seeing as it’s our 19th Anniversary today, I’m hoping to sweep her away to a fabulous (low-to-mid-priced) dinner and maybe a movie (we’d do more, but we’ve been in a budget crunch since mid-July).

Perhaps I can pull the Djembe over into a corner and do some hand work, now that I think of it.

Anyway, the point is, I do things to inspire me to do well as drummer for GB. The things that inspire me are usually listening to and watching bands that are stylistically pretty far away from the GB sound.

For the record, I do not listen to a bunch of gypsy music or celtic music. Playing it with Lance, Carissa, and Karin is a lot of fun, but it’s not my listening style. I’m sorry if that disappoints any GB fans. (There’s what? At least one of you looking at this, right?)

Of course I did just listen to “Stole My Mule” (the whole thing, start to finish), so that counts, doesn’t it?

So, now I’m going to take the next step and look at the artwork on the cover, and reread the liner notes!

If you're going to swipe, swipe big!

Artwork by James E. Lyle. Batman and all related characters copyright © and trademark DC Comics, Inc.

“If you’re going to swipe, swipe big!” That’s what I told my buddy Aaron when I showed him the pencils for this piece. In comics they don’t come any bigger than Frank Frazetta, and I have been dying to do a swipe of one or more of his Famous Funnies covers for the last 5 years, ever since I saw some of them reproduced in a auction catalog.

But it wasn’t until Jim Amash and I were talking at Heroes Convention ‘07 that I really thought I could pull it off. Then later that day I bought a set of EC Picto-Fiction reprints that contain a previously unpublished story with Frank Frazetta art. The story was “Came the Dawn” from Shock Illustrated #4, and it showed a lot about Frazetta’s process that I hadn’t previously known, and I got real inspired.

One of the scariest images in my childhood was the cover to an issue of Batman that I’ve never owned. In fact, I’m not even sure what issue it actually is. I saw an advertisement for it in a copy of Detective Comics I bought second hand at a school rummage sale when I was in elementary school. (Even then the book was coverless, dog-eared, and around 10 years old. I thought I’d found a golden age copy for a steal of a price at 10¢. Turned out to be a 1963 book done just before the “new look” came to Batman). The image was of Batman transformed into a monster hanging from the top of an Empire State type building fighting against airplanes in King Kong style. As a second grader I was pretty timid and this image haunted me. But even then I didn’t like the style it was drawn in.

When I saw Frank Frazetta’s cover to Famous Funnies #213, over 30 years later, I got that same creepy feeling. And I suppose that’s what finally clicked to create this image. Batman transformed into a monster, but drawn realistically.

I’m inking the image as I write this. Frankly, I’m so excited by the work that I had to take a break before my hands started shaking and I ruined the piece. It will be my masterpiece, I’ve no doubt.

This piece will be super clean as my commissions have been since I did my tenure with Buzz Setzer mentoring me about eBay sales. “Art collectors hate white out!” he always tells me, and so I don’t use it anymore. I have also learned that art collectors prefer no paste up when they can get it. So I’ve learned to reproduce logos by hand. Not too hard since I did that for two years when I worked full time in a tee-shirt factory art department (before computers were in common use).

Before I forget, I chose this logo simply because it’s my second favorite Batman logo of all time. First favorite goes to the late 60s logo used during the Infantino to Brown/Giella period of Batman. This logo I like to refer to as the “transitional” logo. There was a period there where the logo on Batman just couldn’t seem to make up it’s mind. Somewhere in the 210s to 220s this logo appeared. On the cover of 223 the lettering appeared “naked” (with no bat around it) and then for a while, in the 230s the word “Batman” got squashed up into the upper three-quarters of the logo to make room for “and Robin” down below (apparently Robin’s departure from Wayne Manor was actually hurting sales and the logo change assured readers that the “teen wonder” was actually in this issue). There was even one issue of Batman with a Neal Adams cover and a much older cover logo that hadn’t been used since the 40s! But with issue 241 the new “pointy eared” logo made its appearance and was used almost constantly from that point on until the 400s (only losing its place on the cover of 366 because Walt Simonson did such a great job of building the word “Batman” into the artwork that it didn’t need a logo).

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the “pointy eared” Batman logo when it first came out. It just suffered from overexposure. So my second favorite Bat logo got relegated to covers of “The Brave and The Bold” in reduced format next to who ever was guest starring in that issue.

When I was working at that tee-shirt factory, we got the license to do some Batman night shirts, and being the resident Batman nut they gave me the opportunity to pitch some designs. This logo was in the official Batman movie style-book and I told them that this would be a big hit with all the comics fans, particularly if we used a cool color scheme. This idea was rejected, along with most of my other pitches on that project. So using it here may be part of my outrage at them for not using it then.

So the next question has got to be, “why Batgirl, and why not the TV Batgirl since you’ve had so much success with that?” Why Batgirl? Because I couldn’t think of a more effective Batman character to have threatened by this monstrous Batman. Why not the TV Batgirl? Well that’s because of the cover to Detective Comics #371, “Batgirl’s Costume Cut-Ups!” A story in which we fans learned that Batgirl’s costume is subject to runs. There’s simply something goofy about that, and I wanted to incorporate that into this image. Yvonne Craig’s costume may be a lot of things, but it was pretty obviously run-proof. Not so the comic book Batgirl.

Or did you mean, “why THAT Batgirl”, instead of the new one? I don’t like the new one. Sorry. And while I like Oracle okay, I’d rather have Barbara out there doing the Batgirl thing. I’ve got a chip on my shoulder about it too. It always bugged me that the writers and editors made Barbara Gordon a boring character and then blamed her for being that way. She started out interesting. She was a librarian who put on a Bat costume and looked really great in it. That was interesting. And the costume was interesting. Black and sleek with hints of yellow and blue.

Then they decided to make it gray, and make Barbara a congresswoman. Booorrriing.

Which is not to say that I thought “The Killing Joke” was bad. But it was more of the same for Barb. She even looked old in that book. Older than Batman. “Ho-hum, life sure is dull after you’ve been a congresswoman, guess I’ll read another book.”

When you make the day job more interesting than the nighttime adventures what do you expect the readers to think? The Clark Kent paradigm works. He’s a wimp when he’s Clark, and he’s interesting when he’s Superman. Barbara was powerless and boring as a librarian, but powerful and attractive as Batgirl. That was the point.

Makes me wonder what the point is of having her cowering at the feet of this monster-Batman. Hmmm. That’s going to take a while to figure out. I run the risk of being in the position of Spinal Tap trying to defend themselves over “Smell the Glove”. But she’s still on her feet! She’s got a look of concern on her face, not total abject fear. We all know that if this were the comic that she’d find the antidote and change Bruce back before the tale was over.

Another reason comes to mind. Back when I was first trying to become a comics artist., (around 1980) I drew a sample cover based on an idea from my sister-in-law. The idea being that Batman has so played the “creature of the night” angle that a little kid who didn’t know who Batman was would be scared of the Dark Knight. I thought this was pretty good stuff and showed the cover to Rich Buckler who was a guest at a show. He said the drawing was okay, but there was a “sort of taboo in comics of showing little kids being threatened”. So I never showed the art to any editors. But Batgirl is no kid. She knows Batman, and so this is a call back to that idea too. The idea that Batman can be scary at times, can I make him even scarier?

So what’s with the tattered cape? That goes way back too. When I was a kid I was a big Batman fan (what? You’d guessed already?) Even as a preschooler I saw Batman in everything. I thought the Traveler’s Insurance billboard in my hometown was somehow related to Batman, because I didn’t get that umbrellas weren’t scalloped to resemble Batman’s cape. Scallops have been a big part of my design sense ever since. I still love umbrellas as a design motif; black, satin, scalloped. The say, “Batman” (or “Penguin”, which relates to Batman, so it’s the same thing).

A lot of other designers have seen this potential in scallops. The designers of the Fokker Triplane for example. The designer of “Birdie” from Airboy obviously got this. In fact it seems pretty obvious that the Penguin was just an attempt to get more scallops into Batman comics.

When John Byrne took over Superman in the 80s he made Superman’s cape tearable. I got what this was about immediately. If you can’t scallop a cape (like Batman’s already is) then you tear a cape. The design possibilities become myriad at that point. So when I did T.H.U.N.D.E.R. at Solson I made sure that NoMan’s cape was tattered.

With this image, I wanted to make Batman more and more scary. So I added the tatters. Tatters are, simply stated, very complex scallops. At least that’s how I draw them.

Now, why did I do the complicated Wally Wood styled background? Well, for one that was in the Frazetta piece. But there’s more to it than that. I always feel like the Batcave should be more complex than is usually shown. It should have myriad passages like no other secret base in the whole of comic-dom. The agents of AIM should see the Batcave and drool. Modok should see it and think, “I gotta get me one of THOSE!”

So I figure this is an unused corner of the Batcave.

Why the water on the floor? I can’t explain why, but I keep thinking of the line from Thomas Dolby’s song “Weightless” and the line, “she went to the basement; fruit juice everywhere!”
Well, actually the line is, “she bent to the basin, fruit juice everywhere.” But when I first heard it the line was the former. So I’ve always thought of the line meaning a basement full of fruit juice. If I color the piece that liquid will probably look like orange or possibly cranberry juice. The trick will be to keep it from looking like some bodily fluid in the process.

Speaking of bodily fluids, what’s up with the Batarang dripping grue? I have no idea, other than it’s just supposed to be creepier than if it was just a Batarang alone. It’s not Batgirl’s blood, there’s not a scratch on her. Other than the runs in her outfit (which is, admittedly, a difficult proposition) she’s intact.

Funny how that word “creepy” keeps coming up. I have considered that this is sort of like a “what if?” proposition. That is, “what if Jim Warren had somehow gotten the rights to do an issue of Creepy Magazine featuring Batman?” This might have been the cover. Frazetta would have drawn the most amazing Batman covers ever. But he never did. So I get to. Okay, nobody assigned the work but me alone, but I’m still having fun with it.

Now, getting back to the whole thing of swiping from a Frazetta piece. My wife even asked me, “can you do that?” My response was that Howard Chaykin did a number of covers to American Flagg! that were direct swipes from Harvey Kurtzman covers. So I guess I can.

Actually there’s a long tradition of swiping poses in fine art. One of the most obvious would probably be “The sleeping Venus” by Giorgione in 1509, the pose swiped by Titian in 1538 for “The Venus of Urbino”, and much later (1863) appropriated by Manet for “Olympia”. So I defend my choice of appropriating this pose.

Summing up; What’s the point of it all? The point of it all is to have fun. If I can’t own a Frank Frazetta piece I can make an approximation of it. That’s one of the great things about being an artist, anything I can visualize I can, in essence, make my own by simply drawing it. Sometimes this is a curse. In situations like this it’s a real treat.

Hope everyone enjoys it. I’ll be working on the inks and enjoying them.

Deadlines

Why Deadlines are our friends.

The name “deadline” seems pretty intimidating. It always has to me, anyway. Ever since I first encountered the concept sometime in my early teens as I was grasping the various concepts associated with my chosen field of drawing stuff.

So it doesn’t surprise me that we have expressions like “the dreaded deadline doom” in our society. But I’ve come to realize just what a boon deadlines can be.

I just finished one up, in fact. Yep. I just finished another series of illustrations for Weekly Reader Corporation (the little darlin’s just keep coming back for more, and I couldn’t be happier about it). Burned a disk, packed it up and sent it out via UPS to the WR folks in Stamford, CT. (I won’t tell you who, what, or how much…sorry, some things are still private).

But I will tell you this, I got the job about 22 days ago, and have been on the work pretty much since then. I was glad to get the work, as I had just gotten back from MegaCon in Orlando…which did not go as well as I had hoped it would.

So I went from discouraged to full out elated in about two seconds when WR got in touch.

But, unlike some other clients, WR is a breeze to work with. (I should mention that this has been my experience at WR throughout my time doing freelance there. I’ve worked with three awesome art directors so far, and hope to do more there in the future). I think it helps having a tight deadline.

This one was extremely tight. Four illustrations in 22 days may not seem like much to some, but recall that these each had to be presented to the publication every step of the way: I had to turn in thumbnails, get those approved by art director and creative director (and probably editor too); go to pencil roughs, get those approved; do the inks, get the okay; then do all the colors, and make sure those were good.

There was not a lot of time for rethinking things along the way. Every step had to be pretty much on the mark, every time. So I’m proud of what I’ve done. And I’ve even managed to keep several other freelance projects going at the same time.

Hopefully, this will mean that I can pay my taxes on time.

I’d like to publicly acknowledge my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ for making it all possible, and keeping me healthy during the drawing phase (because I couldn’t afford to be out sick or the whole thing would have fallen apart). I’d also like to thank my wife for doing her part to keep the food coming, and getting me to our chiropractor and massage therapist a couple of times during it all.

I was talking about deadlines.

In this case the deadline was my friend (although at around 11 this morning it was looking pretty evil when my CD burner was acting up). If the deadline hadn’t have been tight I might have been asked to make major changes in my art.

Not that WR has ever done this to me! (I like working at WR and don’t want to mess that deal up, that’s why I keep coming back to this point).

I hate making changes over and over. That is extremely frustrating. I’ve had clients who want to micromanage and they drive me nuts.

Almost as bad is the client who has an artificial deadline that is much too tight, and then when you do as good a job as you can during the time given…and that job sort of stinks because you did it too fast…then the client sits on the job for another six weeks! If I’d had a week more to fix that job it could have been great. But the artificial deadline messed it all up.

But I still like deadlines. They give me the right to say, “that’s good enough, I can go on to the next thing!”

For instance, I’ve been writing my own notes for a Sunday School class I’m teaching. I write my notes on Sunday evenings, visit with my minister on Monday for lunch and run those notes by him, then type the notes up during the week, usually finishing up on Saturday sometime. Nice and neat.

My minister, on the other hand, (who is very candid about his process, so probably won’t mind me saying this here) gets up around 4 a.m. on Sunday to get his notes together for his 11 am sermon.

It’s not that he procrastinates at all. He’s been working on that sermon all week. I see him on Monday and he’s working on it even then. He is so conscientious about it that he just has to do that extra work every time.

I told him yesterday, if it comes down to that for me, I’d better start using a lesson quarterly.

But I’ve been doing the deadline thing for so long now that it’s begun to be easier for me. I get to the target date and I can let go. That’s good.

That’s not to say that I’m not a little nervous right now waiting to hear if the overnight package got to Stamford okay. But the creative thing is done. For good or ill, the art is “in the can”.

Now I can get to work on other stuff.

5 Possible Reasons they killed Captain America

Before getting to work today, I thought I’d procrastinate a while.

It’s the professional thing to do (as I was noticing while reading the latest issue of “The Cartoon!st”, the official publication of the National Cartoonists Society).

Anyway, rather than read all the exploits of my fellow cartoonists, or do all the work I have to do (several illustrations for READ! magazine, a CD cover for a metal band out of San Francisco, and a bunch of illustrations for Kaso Comics) I thought I’d comment on the “Death of Captain America.”

Needless to say, I am pretty cynical about this move on Marvel Comic’s part. You wouldn’t catch DC doing this sort of stuff with Superman! Oh, wait, they already did…

Anyway, I thought I’d list off five possible reasons that Marvel chose to kill off one of comic’s most beloved characters.

5) Is Joe Simon’s lawsuit for the return of the rights to Cap settled? I never saw the end of the thing in the comics press, (since that was about the time I got really ticked off about the whole process of trying to be a full time comics artist and decided to actually make a living as an illustrator). If Joe’s still got a case pending, then I can see the wheels turning at Marvel. “We own the TRADEMARK on the name. Joe created a particular character, which he may or may not own the COPYRIGHT on. So we kill off Steve Rogers, wait a while, and then come out with the ‘New-Improved Captain America’ !” (possibly a more PC version, see below).

4) Marvel simply didn’t know what to do with Cap any more. He’s a non-PC character in the hands of more or less PC editors and publishers. You can’t make a character like Steve Rogers “politically correct” without scrapping the entire continuity of the past. Joe Simon was quoted on the news show I saw (on a Fox station BTW) as saying that he isn’t happy, and that America really needs a character like Cap right now. I agree. But a compassionate conservative like Cap just doesn’t fly with the Marvel editorial slant, and so he’s got to go.

3) They were concerned that DC’s “52” was, in fact, outselling Marvel’s “Civil War”. (To be honest I have hardly touched either series myself. Both appeared too grim to even consider, and so I’ve only paid a little attention to either. I have to say that the art has been nice, what I’ve seen of it, on both maxi series). Also, it should be noted that “52” is a weekly series, while “Civil War” has been a regular monthly; so any talk of “outselling” on DC’s part is primarily a numbers game, although if we’re just talking in the sense of moving tons of paper around, then DC has won this hand.

2) They thought it would get the attention of the news media (it did) and help them sell a bunch of comics.

1) They thought it would sell a bunch of comics.

There you have it. A brief, cynical, analysis of the latest event in big-time American comics publishing. I’m not buying a copy myself. I can imagine that even now the comic shops are posting “Sold out of the Death of Captain America” signs on their doors.

I’m not saying that it isn’t an interesting story idea. What I am saying is something my wife mentioned just last night; “why is every storyline lately about death?” I’ll go further than that, “why is every storyline lately about VIOLENT death?” We need more life in comics. We need more life in the media in general. Sad state of affairs.

I dream of working without interruptions…

I dream of Jeannie is a property of Screen Gems Productions. Artwork by James E. Lyle

The image above has almost nothing to do with what I was going to talk about today. But since I get more people looking at stuff when I include artwork, this is what you get.

The piece above was done around Christmas of this past year, for my friend and patron, Tim Chandler. He was going to give it to a friend as a present. So I happily took his money and turned out a pretty decent piece, if I do say so myself.

Now, as to what I was going to talk about.

There's a great paradox in being a freelance. You'd think I'd be constantly drawing. But then I have to do a great deal of self-promotion. During the times that I have a lot to draw, I have little time for self-promo, and then I get done with whatever assignment I've been working on, and have to get back onto finding jobs.

Preferably I'd spend my days drawing. The fact is that I'm sitting here with a piece on my drawing table that needs inking, and I'll get to that in a few minutes. But right now I'm blogging. I function that seems contrary to that ideal of actually drawing.

However I have to eat. A function neccessary to my continued breathing. Which is required if I want to keep on drawing.

So the idea of me simply sitting at my drawing board all day drawing, is unrealistic at best.

The piece that I'm currently working on is for a lady in California who wants her boyfriend drawn on a comic book cover as a surprise. Since I'm giving little detail here, I'm sure I won't spoil the surprise.

After that I'm supposed to be doing a number of mini-portraits of famous people for the "Character Counts" School Agenda people (Alliance Publishing). You may have seen the "Character Counts" banner in front of a school in your district. I was shocked and pleased the first time I saw one. It's kind of nice to see something that I've worked on actually having an impact somewhere.

But in between jobs I have to make sure that I'll have more work in the future. So earlier this week I ordered a copy of "The Artist's and Graphic Designer's Market 2007" (got a good deal on Amazon.com, of course). I wrote an art director who had just informed me that a piece we'd worked on together WASN'T going to see print after all (it's not her fault, and we're hoping to work together on something else soon). I just wrote my buddy, Butch Guice, hoping he might have a contact or two for me…

This sort of thing goes on and on. It's becoming second nature to me. It's sort of like digging around in dumpsters for scraps (not to cast aspersions on any of the people mentioned above). But what truly amazes me about it, is I took so long to develop this skill.

They call it "networking". Pretty funny name for it if you consider the above analogy. And I have adapted slowly to the idea. I see young artists every day that seem to know more about networking than actually drawing, and I envy them! Then again, if I'd known better how to get work back in my 20s I might neve have worked as hard at learning to draw.

I'm sure I've still got a long way to go in both respects, but at least I'm out there trying.

Now I have to stop doing the self-promo networking thing and get back to drawing.

The lady's a Tiger!

image © copyright James E. Lyle

My buddy, Matt, e-mailed me today and reminded me of the fact that I hadn't posted much artwork here lately. Not in so many words mind you. He was talking about other stuff (like maybe even some paying gigs for me as an artist). But he did remind me. So, being as he's the guy who got me started with this whole blogging thing I thought I'd better upload an image to ImageShack® and see if I could actually still do this sort of thing. We'll see. I'm pretty rusty.

After some fiddling, an image is up! Hooray!

Okay, now about the image. Several years ago on Halloween, my wife, Karin (the famous one in our family, but not the punk guitarist of note) was teaching late. I was bored and decided to design a costume I thought she'd like. This is the result. It was done in color pencil on a sheet of tracing paper, then affixed to a sheet of illo board and scratched with an x-acto knife to make the whisker effects.

I'm still proud of the results after all this time and actually still send this out as a portfolio sample from time to time. In fact, I'm doing that today, between everything else.

There's been a lot of "else" lately. Which explains why I haven't been blogging. Which brings us full circle.

Now I have to go check an e-mail from Matt. Go figure.

I wondered why my head was spinning!

Okay, I've made a point not to let this blog become a political thing. There's just too much of that sort of thing going on, and frankly I'd rather not become part of it. I have my opinions and I vote my conscience. However I can not be quiet about the latest outrage from the "New" Congress.

Sorry guys you blew it.

Perhaps one can debate stem cell funding.

Perhaps talk radio annoys some.

Perhaps some would like to enact "hate crimes" legislation.

But to introduce language into the Lobbying reform bill that would strip citizens of their right to petition the federal government…no, you aren't getting off that easy.

Sure, the language WAS stripped out of the house bill before the bill passed (and lobbying reform is a good idea in my book), but that the language was even introduced is an insult to everyone who claims to be a Democrat! In fact it's an insult to everyone who claims to be an American.

I am insensed (can you tell?) that we have elected officials in congress who swore to uphold the constitution, who apparently haven't the foggiest idea of what that document declares.

Embarrassing isn't it?

I understand that the Senate version of the bill may re-instate the offending language.

You might want to reconsider your vote from November.

I expect I'll be slammed with protests about this post. But I'm still right.

Rough Draft of what I'm sending out to papers

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
LOCAL ARTIST ACCEPTED INTO NATIONAL CARTOONIST SOCIETY

October 24, 2007 Waynesville, NC

Local Illustrator, James E. Lyle, has been accepted into the National Cartoonist Society. Lyle received notice of his acceptance at his studio in Haywood County this past Friday evening.

James Lyle (known to friends as “Doodle”) has worked to attain membership in this exclusive group since the age of fourteen, when he discovered the existence of the NCS while studying at the Haywood County Library. “I found a book called ‘How to Draw and Sell Cartoons’ by Dave Breger. That book contained, among other things, an extensive article on the NCS. I knew then I wanted to be a part of it.” It has taken him twenty-nine years to achieve his goal, but he’s glad to have finally done so.

The National Cartoonist Society is a national black-tie organization dedicated to advancing the profession of cartooning. Founded by noted cartoonist, Rube Goldberg, the group uses its skills to assist governmental, charitable, and educational institutions and to stimulate interest in the art of cartooning.

In addition to the National organization, smaller chapters of the NCS serve various regions. The Southeast Chapter of the NCS presently serves the southern states (not including Florida, which has its own chapter). Locally the Southeast Chapter is represented by the Western North Carolina group, which meets at 7pm on the first Tuesday of each month at Frank’s Roman Pizza in Asheville, NC. Interested parties are encouraged to participate.
###

What do you mean by "Country" ?

That Ain’t Country…an explanation of Gypsy Bandwagon’s sound (from my particular point of view).

Gypsy Bandwagon played the French Broad Brewery last night. The crowd was small but appreciative, and grew as the evening went on. I performed my composition, “Stateline”, and it was well received (it did help that the audience was about 50% friends and family members).

The show went well overall. The folks at FBB were nice and gave us a lot of support. We have good hope of playing there on a Friday or Saturday evening sometime in the future. So stay tuned for that!

However, there seems to be a bit of a misconception that Gypsy Bandwagon is a “Country” band. I’ve met with this misconception before, but feel that this would be a good time to address that idea.

First off I have to admit that much of my elementary school years were spent listening to County music. That was the music that my Dad listened to when he got an 8-Track tape player installed in the family car (this would have been in the early 70s).

Also, I have to admit that some of my rejection of Country music was due to simple teen rebellion.

As a child I listened with fascination to just about everything that was played within my hearing. So in spite of my anger against Country as I went into high school, I still had a level of respect for Folk music, and Western music, even as my tastes turned more toward Pop, and New Wave.

You may have noted that I separate the terms “Country” and “Western”, much like the barmaid in The Blues Brothers. I have to admit I continue to roar with laughter at that line, but there’s more than a small element of truth to the statement.

To my mind “Country” music is rife with a level of sentimentality that I find hard to take. There are great scenes of affection that make me uncomfortable, and those scenes are usually coupled with an intense negativity. Add to that the vocal and instrumental stylings known (at least locally) as “swoop and scoop” and I just don’t care much for the genre.

That’s not to say that there are not performers within the genre who I hold in regard. I have always appreciated almost any performer who can make fun of themselves or their milieu, and so I can still enjoy performances by Ray Stevens, Dolly Parton, Roy Clark, etc.

But these are the exceptions.

I think it’s important to point out that within ANY discipline, style, or genre there is a lot of garbage. Plain and simple. Even with many performers and bands there are a good number of songs that should simply never have been recorded. I’m afraid that too often we fail to acknowledge that fact, and happily make the generalization, “Oh, I like such-and-such.”

I have to confess that recently, for the sake of convenience, I have been using the short- hand statement, “I like Punk music.” The fact is, I like very little Punk proper. I enjoy a lot of New Wave bands that got lumped in with the Punk crowd, but since the average 20 something doesn’t even know what New Wave means, I feel compelled to use the other term interchangeably (at least until the conversation gets going).

But I was talking about Country music and why it isn’t the same as Folk or Western. People fail to make the distinction (just as I noted above, relative to Punk and New Wave) between the distinctions that make the genres unique.

I find this particularly annoying in some who would not fail to make a distinction between say, Beer and Ale, Marvel Comics and DC Comics, Toyota and Chevy, etc.

Even during the height of my New Wave period I was still drawn toward bands that had a certain “western” flare. Wall of Voodoo, Lone Justice, and The Talking Heads; all had references to the Southwestern U.S., and I ate this up. They were playing on my childhood love for cowboy heroes. And doing it all without the cornball accents!

Sorry if that last statement was harsh. But that’s just the way I see it.

Some of my buddies never made the distinction, and as such hassled me (as friends do) that I was listening to Country and Western. “NO!” I’d cry, and try to make the difference clear. But, sadly, I wasn’t as articulate back then.

I should also point out that even as Folk music isn’t Country (they may be related a few generations back, but they are not the same), so also are Bluegrass, Swing, Cajun, and Celtic NOT Country.

I’ll accept that Country may be made up of a lot of pieces and parts of those styles, but it takes more than a mess of vegetables and some rice to make Chinese food.

So, while Gypsy Bandwagon may play around Country, I don’t think we play Country at all. If I thought that we did I might be forced to do something drastic.

This is also not to say that other members of the group might not see it differently. Lance I know has a great knowledge of Country music, but I submit that his writing style is more Western than anything, and I can respect that.

Carissa usually talks about being a big Led Zepplin fan (ironically my favorite L.Z. song has to be “Hot Dog”, that band’s parody of Country music), but her training is primarily classical.

My wife, Karin, is also classically trained but enjoys mostly Pop Rock. Even she and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on the subject of bands. We usually enjoy most of the same songs by an act, but differ on how “good” overall that act may be.

And if Gypsy Bandwagon should find itself signed to a Country label, I’m sure I’d adapt. (“You want to pay me good money for this? Okay.”) But for the time being I’m playing “International-Western-Folk-Punk”, and that’s the way it is.

Creating Comic Characters

I wrote this a couple of years back, but since I've been so busy actually DRAWING Comics lately, I figured this would be a good post for today. It's my way of celebrating my 43rd Birthday! Giving anyone who wants to read it, a little insight into my creative process.

I've given this article out to a number of students and it may be posted on the ComicArtitsDirect.com website. Frankly, I don't recall. But if you haven't read it, perhaps it will inspire something in you. If not at least I posted something.

Creating Comics Characters;
a short study in Brainstorming
©2004 James E. Lyle

1. The basis of character.

"So, how do you come up with or create comic/cartoon characters?"

I was asked this very penetrating question recently by a young cartoonist. I had to stop and think. "How do I come up with characters”? It's been so long that I've been doing this sort of thing that I had to take a moment to remember what it was like not to know. In fact I couldn't recall not creating characters, I've been dreaming them up since I could talk.

And that's when it hit me. We all create characters all the time. "Dreaming them up" is exactly the model that you should follow. Anyone who dreams, or daydreams, is creating characters all the time. You have doubtless created characters all your life. You speak to someone you've never met on the phone, or write a pen-pal, or have an exchange in an online chat-room. Immediately you begin forming a mental picture of that person. And what happens if you actually meet that person? "You're not exactly like I pictured you," is as likely a response in that situation as any. Why? Because the person you made up in your head doesn't match reality.

However, in the case of creating a fictional character you won't have this problem. Your character can be anything you want it to be!

But how to make your character the sort that will strike a chord with other people? That's the real trick isn't it?

What I suggest is that you use the same approach that you would if you were asked to write a paragraph for school: Brainstorming.

You may not be familiar with this term, and so I should probably explain it. Simply put, you sit down with a pad of paper and write down all of the things you think would be interesting in a character. You might want to do this with a friend. Just write down everything you can. Set a time limit of maybe 15 minutes, or you might be there for quite a while! Write down good qualities, and bad qualities, don't judge them…just throw them out there. You might find that you want to draw some ideas if you're a visual sort. Go ahead! The idea is just to get some ideas on paper so you can play with them.

Once you have your ideas out, then you can judge them. "Is this too much like Superman?" "Am I relying too heavily on ideas from DragonBall?" That sort of question will help you narrow your focus. You might find that you want your character to be MORE like Superman or you want to use DragonBall as your launching point. But you need to decide. Sift through your ideas and find the things that really intrigue you.

You may want your characters to be more grounded in reality, or perhaps you're more interested in the fantastic. Whichever interests you, try to create a good reason for the character to do and be what you think he should be. This is called "Motivation." Batman didn't just decide to put on a bat-suit and fight crime, his parents were killed in front of him before he took that step. Peter Parker's Uncle died before Peter ever thought of using his powers to help other people.

I'm pretty sure you know the way it works if you've come as far as asking, "how can I do that too?"

You can think of all sorts of gadgets and inventions that your character might have need of. Go ahead and draw them up. Use an encyclopedia to see if they're possible scientifically, or at least try to base them on an existing theory…it will give your character more believability. You might also think of clothes that your character could wear. Maybe you saw a great looking coat in a catalog that would be just the thing for your character. Gather all such materials in one place so you can keep them handy. This is called "gathering reference materials."

By this time you'll probably have had some ideas about characters for your main character to interact with. Who wants a hero who simply sits around all day talking to himself? You'll probably think of friends for your character, or enemies (sometimes you learn more about a hero from the villains he meets than the friends he keeps). You may think of characters that simply annoy your main character without actually being his enemies.

Like I said earlier, you may want to draw a lot during this process. That's great! Comics is a visual medium, so getting your character to look right is as important as getting it to sound right. But don't worry about getting every single detail down in the very first drawing. If you have a neat idea for a glove, then draw that. But keep all your ideas in one place so you can put them together later.

Again, look at real things. Looking at a real pair of gloves closely will show you how they really fit on a person. Don't be tempted to take the short-cut and say, "well it sort of looks like a glove," when simply looking at an actual glove will make your final drawing so much better.

I can't overstate the importance of using reference. It will make your characters more believable, and often looking at reference will give you more ideas down the line. While you're looking for a picture of that special glove you might see a suit of armor, a treadmill, or a salt shaker that will give you a new idea to incorporate in your character or the universe that your character inhabits. (I know a cartoonist who once designed an exoskeletal-suit based on an antiperspirant container!)

Once you've got an idea don't judge it as bad simply because it came from you. Certainly there are bad ideas, and you shouldn't be tempted to hurt or demean anyone with your work…but what I'm referring to is the sort of thinking that says, "that's my idea, but it's dumb. It's just like some other idea I saw earlier, and I don't want anyone to think I stole my idea from someone else." All ideas come from some earlier idea, don't beat yourself up thinking yours is no good.

Keep at it. Continue creating characters until you come up with something that really excites you. If it excites you, chances are it will excite others as well.

This may not happen overnight. It's a long process. When I was thirteen I created a character that has continued to intrigue me ever since. Every so often I pull this character out of the back of my head and play with it, adjusting it little by little. Very few people have even seen this character, but whenever I'm stuck for something to draw he's always there. Each time I practice with this character I learn a little more about how to write and draw a character. My fellow artists who have seen this character have often commented about how my work with him seems to have a life of its own. I'm so familiar with that character that it's perfectly natural for me to say, " I wonder what he'd do in this situation that I'm in right now?"

Strive for that sort of familiarity with your character and you'll be on your way.

2. Stylization of the character.

Having gathered all your reference you need to assemble your ideas into a solid form. And you will want to stylize your character in a way that best suits your, and his personality.

The great thing is we live in a time where all sorts of other cartoonist's stylizations are readily available. There are countless collections of cartoon books, that were once very expensive or very difficult to find, being published today. Many of these are available at your public library. The internet is a great source as well. You could search for weeks to find a stylization that you might want to emulate. However, you probably have a good idea of some of the styles that you find interesting…at least if you've been doing this for any time at all.

So make a decision. What's it going to be? Anime / Manga style? (Or more specifically, Shonen style). Bigfoot style? Superhero style? European style? You don't have to limit yourself to any one for the rest of your life, but for the purpose of creating a striking character you probably want to decide on one approach from the outset. Don't worry if it doesn't strike your fancy in a few months or a year. You can always change it later. But for now, deciding on a style will make things easier.

Now I'm assuming a bit here that your character will be somewhat humanoid. Even in comic strips like B.C. the Ants, Clams, Apterix, Turtles, and Dinosaurs take on more or less human characteristics. This process is called Anthropomorphism, and it refers to applying human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects. They aren't people, but we treat them as if they were. Just so, for the sake of clarity in our comic drawings we'll treat all characters with some human traits.

The human form is very malleable. What I mean by this is that no two humans look exactly alike! Even identical twins have some variations in form between the two of them. When we look at different individuals the form of their bodies and faces will be very different from one person to the next. One person may have a very long face and a stocky body. Another may have large protruding ears. Another may have noticeably smaller lips. All these variations are what goes into making each of us unique.

You may also have noticed that different people have differing expressions. A whole family may share some of these characteristic movements of their faces and bodies. Observe these variations closely (just don't make the person you're observing nervous). Learn to be flexible in your drawing of these characteristics. Just as the human form is very malleable, so should your approach to drawing it be.

Creating good characters visually, requires an ability to be flexible when drawing the human form, balanced with your ability to stay consistent. Consistency is a function of practice and repetition--
if you don't like to draw the same thing twice this sort of discipline may take a while to get used to.

When you create a new comics character, you should spend some time and get to know it. To do this you will need to draw your new character from a number of angles, this is called doing a "turn around" or a "turn". You will also need to draw your character with a number of facial expressions, called "head shots". Animators do this all the time, and may go through a number of attempts before a final version of any character is approved. The final versions of the various sketches, turns and head shots are collected into "model sheets". These are usually used by animation studios, or publishers who wish to have several artists working on the same characters, but they can be handy for even those of us who do all the work ourselves.

If you're like me you have more than one character you want to work with. And it may happen that you won't work with any one of them for months at a time. Having a model sheet around will help you remember what your character looks like when you come back to it.

I’ve included some turns and head shots from my studio’s Giant City concept. These are included to give you some idea of what both types of model sheets might look like. They are by no means comprehensive, but hopefully you can use them as a jumping off point to develop your own ideas.