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.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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.
###
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.
###
Thursday, October 19, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
What I did over my summer vacation.
“What I did over my summer vacation.” A theme by James E. Lyle
Rather than to again excuse my long absence from this blog, I thought that I’d do well to just ignore that and write this entry as an omnibus of my summer’s activities. This won’t be easy, a lot has gone on. What with many projects to illustrate, family matters to attend to, and touring with Gypsy Bandwagon--things got busy.
Let me just whiffle over to get my datebook, which I’ll use as reference, and be back in a minute.
The summer began, innocuously enough, with me raking rocks out of my front yard. Last winter, my brother did a lot of work in both my front and back yards to get his new warehouse constructed. I won’t go into details on that, but let’s just say that there are a lot of rocks churned up around here when you drive heavy equipment through a yard. Since said rocks can and will wreck a lawn mower, I felt obliged (after first wrecking my lawnmower) to get a cultivating rake and move the rocks out of the way.
This worked great, and I was getting a lot of exercise every morning until I over-raked and got a huge blister, without being aware, then bursting that same blister and bleeding all of the rake. Not fun. So my raking tapered off somewhat after that. I did manage to get my front lawn into some semblance of shape, and can effectively mow it without any more damage to the lawn mower. That was the point, and so I’m not worried about that anymore.
Gypsy Bandwagon played at Black Mountain, the first Saturday in June. That was fun. I played with a stripped down drum set up: just a djembe and a snare. When it was all done Lance said he missed my tambourine most, and so I made a note to bring the tambo along on all future gigs.
I did a lot of posing for the new comic book I’ve been working on. The book is called “Adam Among the Gods”, and I’m still inking on it now. The process I call “posing” is rather simple in a way. There’s a program for the computer called Poser (I’m using version 4) that I use instead of hiring models to get figures in the right positions. Poser has several advantages over using models: 1) I don’t have to pay models, 2)I don’t have to deal with all the headaches of having models around (not slamming models per se, I’m just commenting on interpersonal relationships in general), 3) If I don’t like the angle of a particular shot I can move the camera around…even days later, 4) I can actually build models to my own specifications! This came in real handy with the main character who is very different from the standard human archetype. But I monkeyed with the “normal” characters as well. You’ll see it when it’s done.
There was a podcast that mentioned me during the first couple of weeks of June. I got mentioned in the Collected Comics Library podcast on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. In fact I got mentioned a couple of times. Comes from being pals with the guy who does the show.
Gypsy Bandwagon played the second weekend of June as well. This time with the full set up at Furman University. No, we didn’t get the main stage. We were playing under a tent in the “children’s area” of the Greater Greenville (S.C.) Highlands Games. That went pretty well, except for the fact that it was 90 degrees, plus. We also had to park way out and have our equipment driven in on a golf cart. But everyone was very nice, and even the organizers of the event were swell to us, letting us take part in the catered lunch that they were having (even though they didn’t have to).
I did a number of commissions early in the summer. I got to draw the women of the Fantastic Four, a “fake” Avengers cover for the Heroes Convention auction, and another “fake” cover for LIFE magazine featuring both Silk Spectres from Watchmen! So I had fun.
I also began drawing a lot of stuff for my buddy, Joel. I’ve been doing designs with him for years, but this summer it really took off. I did designs for Caribbean Soul, Tommy Bahama, and Margaritaville! Those are still in the works, but the best part was that Joel actually came up to the mountains with his family, and the two of us worked in the studio together for the first time in years. It had been too long.
Karin and I did get out a few times. We went to Lake Lure and spent the day there. Floated around in the water all afternoon, and then took the boat ride out on the lake proper. Nice day alone with my sweetie.
Gypsy Bandwagon played the third Saturday of June at Rhone Mountain’s Rhododendron Festival. That was fun too. We followed a brass band that had about 30 members, and were followed by a hillbilly band who were a hoot.
At that time of the summer it looked like I was going to be drawing CD cover for a heavy metal band out of NYC. But the deal fell through. Too bad. I was looking forward to doing the project.
Then my Mom went in the hospital. She hadn’t been feeling great (and still isn’t well), but apparently one of the prescriptions she’s been on caused her potassium levels to drop off to a dangerously low level. She was bleeding internally, and ended up in ICU. We were all very scared. But it turned out all right. She spent only a day in ICU, was moved to the regular unit the next day and sent home the third. But a scary moment or two there.
Heroes Convention came as usual. I always say that that show is like Christmas for me. I mean that it has the sort of excitement that Christmas had for me when I was a kid. You never know what will happen exactly, and I always have fun. My “agent”, Aaron Bushy came up from Auburn with his wife, and some friends, and we were all supposed to go out to dinner at Steak’n’Shake on Saturday. Unfortunately the auction went really long on Saturday night, and we had to leave before it was over. Karin and I went to Steak’n’Shake anyway, but it was around 10pm when we got there! Yikes!
The WNC group of the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonist Society met in July at James Cassara’s house. We had a potluck dinner and looked at James’ extensive collection of comic artwork.
I got to submit some ideas for a future T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series that’s in the works. I’m probably not a liberty to talk about it much, but since there’s constantly someone working on a new TA project I’m probably safe to mention that I’m still in there swinging with ideas.
Mid-July I got a call from Weekly Reader. They wanted me to do a cover and a two page spread for their second grade magazine, “Edition2”. So what could I say? Yes!!
Went to the movies two nights in a row in July. Once to see “Superman Returns”. The next night, my oldest brother and his family came up from Florida, and my nephew wanted us to see “Pirates of the Caribbean 2”. So we went out again. Had fun at both movies, but wasn’t blown away by either.
Gypsy Bandwagon played the second Saturday of July downtown Asheville, NC. The event was the 2nd Annual Wings ‘n’ Strings Festival. We got to play to a pretty big crowd, were on the main stage. And I left my gig bag with my sticks, tambo, some costume, and all my notes somewhere downtown.
I didn’t discover it was missing until the middle of the next week. But there was another problem to deal with by then, we had no water.
This began a couple of weeks of dealing with our water problems. We were expecting Karin’s brother and his family to visit us in August, and between all the jobs I was working on and the gigs with GB there didn’t seem too much time to be dealing with plumbing. But my Dad, my nephew John, and I managed to fix the water…at least temporarily. It still needs a more permanent solution, but it’s worked since late July.
Gypsy Bandwagon played in Augusta, Georgia on the third Saturday of July. I’d had to replace nearly all of my small instruments and equipment the previous week. Karin and I had been to Augusta only once before, for the 2004 Southeast Chapter meeting of the National Cartoonist Society. As it turns out, the Stillwater Taproom, where Gypsy Bandwagon was playing this night was next door to Nacho Mamas, the very place we’d had lunch during the SECNCS meeting two years earlier.
We played until 1:30 am Sunday, and then found out we had a flat tire. We tried to repair the tire using a can of “run flat”, but that only worked partially. We limped down the street to a BP that was open all night, and managed to put on the spare by 3am. We drove back home on the “donut”. Slept all day Sunday.
Karin’s brother, Per, was having car problems too. We expected them on the 24th, but they were stuck in Shelbyville (say it like Grandpa Simpson, “Shelbyville?”) Indiana with car problems. That’s okay, Dad, John and I were still working on the water. The 25th we were still working on the water, and Per, Donna, Christin, Cassandra, and Alex were stuck in Sevierville, TN with more car problems. On the 26th we had the water running, just in time as the Guldbeck clan managed to make it to our house that evening.
Karin took her family out for fun the next day, while I worked on the art for Weekly Reader, and my scanner began to act up. Friday found me desperately trying to fix the scanner problem, finally realizing that I needed to reinstall my copy of Photoshop and the scanner software. I managed to avoid pulling out all my hair in the process.
While Per and Donna went for a little alone time in Florida, we watched the twins and Alex. We took them out on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday and Sunday, and then to Biltmore House on Tuesday (followed by a meeting of the WNC group).
How I managed to juggle work, the kids, and all the various repair jobs that needed doing, I have no idea. The car went back in the garage again during all of this. By Friday I had completed the job for Weekly Reader, uploaded it and still managed to spend some time with the family.
Karin’s brother and sister-in-law came back up to NC on Saturday, we took them to Church on Sunday, and then went to practice with Lance and Carissa for Gypsy Bandwagon. The kids watched Napoleon Dynamite in the living room while GB played an audience of two. Frankly, I think it was one of our best performances yet. I used only the djembe, but still managed to do a good job. Lance played several of the pieces on his new 12 string Rikenbacker, and that sounded cool. So I hope we’ll be doing more along those lines in the future.
Monday Per, Donna and Alex left for Sevierville, TN in the rental car they’d had to resort to. Karin and I were going to visit her Dad in Glen Ellyn, IL anyway, so we volunteered to take the twins with us and drop them off “on the way” in Fort Wayne, IN. We left Tuesday at 7:30 am, and actually caught up with their folks in Kentucky. We had lunch together at, you guessed it, Steak’n’Shake. We dropped the girls with their older sister, Amanda (who didn’t get to come to NC because she was working) and took off for Chicagoland. We made Glen Ellyn by 11:15 cst. A pretty good time, I think.
Next day Karin sprained her ankle while working in the garden. She had gone to Glen Ellyn with the intention of helping out her Step-Mom, and now she was laid up with a bad limp. We visited the doctor the next day and he told her to stay off it for two weeks…the length of our stay.
In spite of this we managed to make the “Masters of American Comics” show at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The idea with the show (which, I believe, is still touring) was to select 15 of the most influential Comics Artists in America during the 20th Century and put originals on display. While I agreed with most of the choices, I felt that a couple were unwarranted, and there were two glaring omissions; Alex Raymond and Hal Foster. How these two got left out is beyond me. Perhaps the organizers felt that it would have made that period of creators too heavy. But, I’m sorry, how many comics creators have I heard say, “that guy was the reason I got into comics in the first place”, when speaking of Raymond or Foster? In spite of any inherent flaws, I’m glad that we went to see the show. Milwaukee has a fantastic art museum, absolutely beautiful.
I got to cart Karin around all day in a wheelchair her Dad loaned us. People were most sympathetic, you could see it in their eyes. Karin felt pretty sheepish, knowing it was only a sprained ankle.
Our eighteenth anniversary was the next week. After much searching I had found nothing. I face this problem almost every year, and it leads to much anxiety. So on Saturday I took Karin shopping with me. Finally, after visiting much of suburban Illinois, I got the right idea and went searching for a Hello Kitty guitar.
We’d seen the Hello Kitty electric guitar earlier this year, but had no money to buy it. Turns out that it’s a hard find. Even the Guitar Center chain had only one in stock, and that was in Tennessee! We went back to Karin’s folk’s house a bit dejected, but I did manage to get online and buy one from Musician’s Friend later that evening. It arrived here in NC by the time we got home from our trip.
We didn’t actually go out on our anniversary. We stayed with Karin’s folks and her Aunt and Uncle and had a nice cake that my mother-in-law made. But the next night (Monday) we went out to The Italian Village, that famous Chicago landmark, and had a nice dinner then did a little sight seeing.
The next day we went out to IKEA. I love IKEA. It’s so weird and somehow still hip. I’ve been wanting a Stolmen system for my office for some time now, and that’s what Karin got for me as an anniversary gift. Cool, huh?
We came home the day after that…a long drive and we sort of missed having the kids with us. Karin had a rough trip home, she wasn’t feeling well. It might have been something she ate, but it wasn’t Steak’n’Shake that did it. I was fine!
When we got home we hit the ground running. The next day I was mailing off pages from “Adam among the Gods” to my publisher-editor-webmaster, Gary. I began setting up my Stolmen system, and Karin was messing with her new guitar.
I spent a lot of time in the attic over the next few days. The Stolmen system has poles that have to be attached to the ceiling and floor, since my ceiling is acoustical tile, it took a little doing to make the poles stable without destroying the tiles. I did manage, but it was very hot here in August.
We played a benefit for two men with terminal illnesses on Saturday after returning home, and then the next Monday we headed off to Augusta, Georgia to help with the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonist Society’s visit to the VA hospital there. It was a 4 hour drive, and we sort of missed the orientation period, but caught up with our chapter President and V.P. after lunch. It was fun. I ended up doing around 20 charicatures of patients, nurses, and others.
Since then I’ve been working on all the various art projects that have built up over the summer. I’ve been inking on “Adam”, doing more designs for t-shirts, doing illustrations of historical and contemporary figures for a school date book, working on pitches for Thunder Agents, etc. All the things that make my world go around.
I’ve also been rearranging my office space. Which is beginning to look pretty good. Since my old instructor from community college wants to bring his latest art class over to see me sometime soon, it would be nice if I can get it in order. He always tells me not to fix it up, but this time I’m trying to beat him to the punch. Maybe it will be neat for once. It’s not that important, but it would be nice.
And that’s what I’ve been doing all summer.
Oh yeah, and Gypsy Bandwagon played for Cornerstone Fellowship Church’s annual fish-fry on September 10th.
Rather than to again excuse my long absence from this blog, I thought that I’d do well to just ignore that and write this entry as an omnibus of my summer’s activities. This won’t be easy, a lot has gone on. What with many projects to illustrate, family matters to attend to, and touring with Gypsy Bandwagon--things got busy.
Let me just whiffle over to get my datebook, which I’ll use as reference, and be back in a minute.
The summer began, innocuously enough, with me raking rocks out of my front yard. Last winter, my brother did a lot of work in both my front and back yards to get his new warehouse constructed. I won’t go into details on that, but let’s just say that there are a lot of rocks churned up around here when you drive heavy equipment through a yard. Since said rocks can and will wreck a lawn mower, I felt obliged (after first wrecking my lawnmower) to get a cultivating rake and move the rocks out of the way.
This worked great, and I was getting a lot of exercise every morning until I over-raked and got a huge blister, without being aware, then bursting that same blister and bleeding all of the rake. Not fun. So my raking tapered off somewhat after that. I did manage to get my front lawn into some semblance of shape, and can effectively mow it without any more damage to the lawn mower. That was the point, and so I’m not worried about that anymore.
Gypsy Bandwagon played at Black Mountain, the first Saturday in June. That was fun. I played with a stripped down drum set up: just a djembe and a snare. When it was all done Lance said he missed my tambourine most, and so I made a note to bring the tambo along on all future gigs.
I did a lot of posing for the new comic book I’ve been working on. The book is called “Adam Among the Gods”, and I’m still inking on it now. The process I call “posing” is rather simple in a way. There’s a program for the computer called Poser (I’m using version 4) that I use instead of hiring models to get figures in the right positions. Poser has several advantages over using models: 1) I don’t have to pay models, 2)I don’t have to deal with all the headaches of having models around (not slamming models per se, I’m just commenting on interpersonal relationships in general), 3) If I don’t like the angle of a particular shot I can move the camera around…even days later, 4) I can actually build models to my own specifications! This came in real handy with the main character who is very different from the standard human archetype. But I monkeyed with the “normal” characters as well. You’ll see it when it’s done.
There was a podcast that mentioned me during the first couple of weeks of June. I got mentioned in the Collected Comics Library podcast on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. In fact I got mentioned a couple of times. Comes from being pals with the guy who does the show.
Gypsy Bandwagon played the second weekend of June as well. This time with the full set up at Furman University. No, we didn’t get the main stage. We were playing under a tent in the “children’s area” of the Greater Greenville (S.C.) Highlands Games. That went pretty well, except for the fact that it was 90 degrees, plus. We also had to park way out and have our equipment driven in on a golf cart. But everyone was very nice, and even the organizers of the event were swell to us, letting us take part in the catered lunch that they were having (even though they didn’t have to).
I did a number of commissions early in the summer. I got to draw the women of the Fantastic Four, a “fake” Avengers cover for the Heroes Convention auction, and another “fake” cover for LIFE magazine featuring both Silk Spectres from Watchmen! So I had fun.
I also began drawing a lot of stuff for my buddy, Joel. I’ve been doing designs with him for years, but this summer it really took off. I did designs for Caribbean Soul, Tommy Bahama, and Margaritaville! Those are still in the works, but the best part was that Joel actually came up to the mountains with his family, and the two of us worked in the studio together for the first time in years. It had been too long.
Karin and I did get out a few times. We went to Lake Lure and spent the day there. Floated around in the water all afternoon, and then took the boat ride out on the lake proper. Nice day alone with my sweetie.
Gypsy Bandwagon played the third Saturday of June at Rhone Mountain’s Rhododendron Festival. That was fun too. We followed a brass band that had about 30 members, and were followed by a hillbilly band who were a hoot.
At that time of the summer it looked like I was going to be drawing CD cover for a heavy metal band out of NYC. But the deal fell through. Too bad. I was looking forward to doing the project.
Then my Mom went in the hospital. She hadn’t been feeling great (and still isn’t well), but apparently one of the prescriptions she’s been on caused her potassium levels to drop off to a dangerously low level. She was bleeding internally, and ended up in ICU. We were all very scared. But it turned out all right. She spent only a day in ICU, was moved to the regular unit the next day and sent home the third. But a scary moment or two there.
Heroes Convention came as usual. I always say that that show is like Christmas for me. I mean that it has the sort of excitement that Christmas had for me when I was a kid. You never know what will happen exactly, and I always have fun. My “agent”, Aaron Bushy came up from Auburn with his wife, and some friends, and we were all supposed to go out to dinner at Steak’n’Shake on Saturday. Unfortunately the auction went really long on Saturday night, and we had to leave before it was over. Karin and I went to Steak’n’Shake anyway, but it was around 10pm when we got there! Yikes!
The WNC group of the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonist Society met in July at James Cassara’s house. We had a potluck dinner and looked at James’ extensive collection of comic artwork.
I got to submit some ideas for a future T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series that’s in the works. I’m probably not a liberty to talk about it much, but since there’s constantly someone working on a new TA project I’m probably safe to mention that I’m still in there swinging with ideas.
Mid-July I got a call from Weekly Reader. They wanted me to do a cover and a two page spread for their second grade magazine, “Edition2”. So what could I say? Yes!!
Went to the movies two nights in a row in July. Once to see “Superman Returns”. The next night, my oldest brother and his family came up from Florida, and my nephew wanted us to see “Pirates of the Caribbean 2”. So we went out again. Had fun at both movies, but wasn’t blown away by either.
Gypsy Bandwagon played the second Saturday of July downtown Asheville, NC. The event was the 2nd Annual Wings ‘n’ Strings Festival. We got to play to a pretty big crowd, were on the main stage. And I left my gig bag with my sticks, tambo, some costume, and all my notes somewhere downtown.
I didn’t discover it was missing until the middle of the next week. But there was another problem to deal with by then, we had no water.
This began a couple of weeks of dealing with our water problems. We were expecting Karin’s brother and his family to visit us in August, and between all the jobs I was working on and the gigs with GB there didn’t seem too much time to be dealing with plumbing. But my Dad, my nephew John, and I managed to fix the water…at least temporarily. It still needs a more permanent solution, but it’s worked since late July.
Gypsy Bandwagon played in Augusta, Georgia on the third Saturday of July. I’d had to replace nearly all of my small instruments and equipment the previous week. Karin and I had been to Augusta only once before, for the 2004 Southeast Chapter meeting of the National Cartoonist Society. As it turns out, the Stillwater Taproom, where Gypsy Bandwagon was playing this night was next door to Nacho Mamas, the very place we’d had lunch during the SECNCS meeting two years earlier.
We played until 1:30 am Sunday, and then found out we had a flat tire. We tried to repair the tire using a can of “run flat”, but that only worked partially. We limped down the street to a BP that was open all night, and managed to put on the spare by 3am. We drove back home on the “donut”. Slept all day Sunday.
Karin’s brother, Per, was having car problems too. We expected them on the 24th, but they were stuck in Shelbyville (say it like Grandpa Simpson, “Shelbyville?”) Indiana with car problems. That’s okay, Dad, John and I were still working on the water. The 25th we were still working on the water, and Per, Donna, Christin, Cassandra, and Alex were stuck in Sevierville, TN with more car problems. On the 26th we had the water running, just in time as the Guldbeck clan managed to make it to our house that evening.
Karin took her family out for fun the next day, while I worked on the art for Weekly Reader, and my scanner began to act up. Friday found me desperately trying to fix the scanner problem, finally realizing that I needed to reinstall my copy of Photoshop and the scanner software. I managed to avoid pulling out all my hair in the process.
While Per and Donna went for a little alone time in Florida, we watched the twins and Alex. We took them out on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday and Sunday, and then to Biltmore House on Tuesday (followed by a meeting of the WNC group).
How I managed to juggle work, the kids, and all the various repair jobs that needed doing, I have no idea. The car went back in the garage again during all of this. By Friday I had completed the job for Weekly Reader, uploaded it and still managed to spend some time with the family.
Karin’s brother and sister-in-law came back up to NC on Saturday, we took them to Church on Sunday, and then went to practice with Lance and Carissa for Gypsy Bandwagon. The kids watched Napoleon Dynamite in the living room while GB played an audience of two. Frankly, I think it was one of our best performances yet. I used only the djembe, but still managed to do a good job. Lance played several of the pieces on his new 12 string Rikenbacker, and that sounded cool. So I hope we’ll be doing more along those lines in the future.
Monday Per, Donna and Alex left for Sevierville, TN in the rental car they’d had to resort to. Karin and I were going to visit her Dad in Glen Ellyn, IL anyway, so we volunteered to take the twins with us and drop them off “on the way” in Fort Wayne, IN. We left Tuesday at 7:30 am, and actually caught up with their folks in Kentucky. We had lunch together at, you guessed it, Steak’n’Shake. We dropped the girls with their older sister, Amanda (who didn’t get to come to NC because she was working) and took off for Chicagoland. We made Glen Ellyn by 11:15 cst. A pretty good time, I think.
Next day Karin sprained her ankle while working in the garden. She had gone to Glen Ellyn with the intention of helping out her Step-Mom, and now she was laid up with a bad limp. We visited the doctor the next day and he told her to stay off it for two weeks…the length of our stay.
In spite of this we managed to make the “Masters of American Comics” show at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The idea with the show (which, I believe, is still touring) was to select 15 of the most influential Comics Artists in America during the 20th Century and put originals on display. While I agreed with most of the choices, I felt that a couple were unwarranted, and there were two glaring omissions; Alex Raymond and Hal Foster. How these two got left out is beyond me. Perhaps the organizers felt that it would have made that period of creators too heavy. But, I’m sorry, how many comics creators have I heard say, “that guy was the reason I got into comics in the first place”, when speaking of Raymond or Foster? In spite of any inherent flaws, I’m glad that we went to see the show. Milwaukee has a fantastic art museum, absolutely beautiful.
I got to cart Karin around all day in a wheelchair her Dad loaned us. People were most sympathetic, you could see it in their eyes. Karin felt pretty sheepish, knowing it was only a sprained ankle.
Our eighteenth anniversary was the next week. After much searching I had found nothing. I face this problem almost every year, and it leads to much anxiety. So on Saturday I took Karin shopping with me. Finally, after visiting much of suburban Illinois, I got the right idea and went searching for a Hello Kitty guitar.
We’d seen the Hello Kitty electric guitar earlier this year, but had no money to buy it. Turns out that it’s a hard find. Even the Guitar Center chain had only one in stock, and that was in Tennessee! We went back to Karin’s folk’s house a bit dejected, but I did manage to get online and buy one from Musician’s Friend later that evening. It arrived here in NC by the time we got home from our trip.
We didn’t actually go out on our anniversary. We stayed with Karin’s folks and her Aunt and Uncle and had a nice cake that my mother-in-law made. But the next night (Monday) we went out to The Italian Village, that famous Chicago landmark, and had a nice dinner then did a little sight seeing.
The next day we went out to IKEA. I love IKEA. It’s so weird and somehow still hip. I’ve been wanting a Stolmen system for my office for some time now, and that’s what Karin got for me as an anniversary gift. Cool, huh?
We came home the day after that…a long drive and we sort of missed having the kids with us. Karin had a rough trip home, she wasn’t feeling well. It might have been something she ate, but it wasn’t Steak’n’Shake that did it. I was fine!
When we got home we hit the ground running. The next day I was mailing off pages from “Adam among the Gods” to my publisher-editor-webmaster, Gary. I began setting up my Stolmen system, and Karin was messing with her new guitar.
I spent a lot of time in the attic over the next few days. The Stolmen system has poles that have to be attached to the ceiling and floor, since my ceiling is acoustical tile, it took a little doing to make the poles stable without destroying the tiles. I did manage, but it was very hot here in August.
We played a benefit for two men with terminal illnesses on Saturday after returning home, and then the next Monday we headed off to Augusta, Georgia to help with the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonist Society’s visit to the VA hospital there. It was a 4 hour drive, and we sort of missed the orientation period, but caught up with our chapter President and V.P. after lunch. It was fun. I ended up doing around 20 charicatures of patients, nurses, and others.
Since then I’ve been working on all the various art projects that have built up over the summer. I’ve been inking on “Adam”, doing more designs for t-shirts, doing illustrations of historical and contemporary figures for a school date book, working on pitches for Thunder Agents, etc. All the things that make my world go around.
I’ve also been rearranging my office space. Which is beginning to look pretty good. Since my old instructor from community college wants to bring his latest art class over to see me sometime soon, it would be nice if I can get it in order. He always tells me not to fix it up, but this time I’m trying to beat him to the punch. Maybe it will be neat for once. It’s not that important, but it would be nice.
And that’s what I’ve been doing all summer.
Oh yeah, and Gypsy Bandwagon played for Cornerstone Fellowship Church’s annual fish-fry on September 10th.
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