One of the surest ways to infuse my life with misery is to sit me in front of a computer screen for multiple hours on end. Unfortunately for me, this past week has been mostly that, and the next week will likely entail more of the same. Some days I find myself clocking in something like 12 hours straight at the computer. Needless to say, this is not the life of the artist one aspired to as a child, but it is exactly what the job necessitates (at least for me I guess) in this evidently despicable century of human existence. Most of these hours don't actually involve doing much in the way of anything creative.
– TSG Exhibition: The ask included proposing objects that can be pulled from the world of THE SOLAR GRID; objects that could potentially be fabricated and displayed within an exhibition setting. This meant going through the entire now complete graphic novel with a particular eye for the speculative objects that could ostensibly work, making note of them, and putting them all into a presentable proposal-ready PDF.
– The Podcast Series: Going over the video recordings of the episodes (wherein I interview Egyptian artists), each one an hour long, and identifying the moments in which the guest talks about a particular project. Make a list of all mentioned projects, email it to the guest so they can send back relevant imagery of said projects. Once received, email them to the video editor along with time-stamps that indicate where the images ought to be spliced in.
-TSG Archive: Two things have necessitated going through my very unorganized history of TSG process documentation. And y'know, TSG took 10 years to complete, so that's a hell of a lot of unorganized history to go through. Which is how I stumbled upon this:
Giving a keynote presentation about THE SOLAR GRID at the Science Fiction Research Association conference held in Oslo circa 2022. Photo credit: lost (I'm so sorry!)
Of course, the above-mentioned projects haven't been the only reason behind recent computer-centric activities. There's also the usual stuff: email, accounting, flight bookings, etc.
My one piece of advice to young artists from here on out with be: Just know that it'll involve something like 70% admin, 20% actual creative work, and 10% putting out fires and/or wanting to die.
#journal #work #tsg
Excited to announce that my long time Emmy-award-winning friend Yasmin Elayat and I have received a generous grant from AFAC to adapt THE SOLAR GRID into a videogame:
THE SOLAR GRID: VIDEO GAME is a narrative adventure set in a post-collapse Earth powered by solar satellites. Players unearth speculative objects revealing buried histories of climate collapse. Knowledge is power. Will the players restore balance or fuel the forces of exploitation?
This is a two-year project that will see a playable demo based on THE SOLAR GRID developed, before we can tap into additional funding sources to take the project further.
#work #tsg
Above: Not a fictional character, not from TV or film, but a real live person. Cédric Villani (actual last name), French mathematician and politician, spotted in Standart's Enki Bilal documentary. Love me an eccentric. Also of note: North American graphic novelists are rarely if ever seen conversing with mathematicians/politicians. This, I suppose, is part of what separates the French from Americans.
Below: The road back to Cairo from Suez. The construction goes on forever. Cairo, already an insane megalopolis, continues to balloon.
Finished the final touches on the design for the box that will collect the serialized editions of THE SOLAR GRID. My co-publishers at Radix Co-Op tell me it'll debut at the NY Art Book Fair in September. Cover reveal when I get the green light.
Gearing up for THE SOLAR GRID panel at Petrocultures 2026 in Dresden, which will take place on August 27 from 11:00am-1:00pm. I am told that it'll be held in a conference room with a capacity of up to 400 people.
Today:
– Finishing a small illustration for a new Houston-based micro press.
– Conference call for a potential podcast graphic.
– Early prep work for a potential TSG-related exhibition.
– Getting my brand new kitchen faucet replaced. Already.
– Podcast episode review for edits.
#journal
Fantastic documentary on Enki Bilal from Standart.
Finally got around to reading Ahmed Khaled Tawfik's 2008 novel UTOPIA (in its original Arabic), which is just brilliant and in 2026 eerily close to reality.
Started watching SILO which I am enjoying enough, though I can't stand Rebecca Ferguson.
#radar
Popped up on my radar; A couple reader reviews of DEEP DREAM: SCIENCE FICTION EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF ART (Twelve Tomorrows series) for which I wrote the story UNAUTHORIZED (OR, THE LIBERATED COLLECTORS COMMUNE):
— A Deep Look by Dave Hook
— Un blog de ciencia ficción en busca de un nombre
Readers seem to be enjoying it. Though Locus didin't seem to care much for my story apparently.
Ah well, can't win 'em all. I'm just happy to have had a story appear in the same volume with the great Bruce Sterling; a small yet precious feather in my imaginary hat.
#work #prose #fiction
They have advertising screens above urinals now?
A man cannot even pee in peace in this cursed hellscape of a timeline. The state of advertising in this batshit city is really getting out of hand.
#journal #cairo #egypt
-Istanbul first week of July.
-Dresden last week of August.
-Maybe maybe New York City sometime in the Fall.
In addition to having done Houston earlier this year, this is admittedly more travel than I'd like. I'd rather just hole up in the studio and work without disruption.
#travel
Based exclusively on downloads, it looks like THE SOLAR GRID has readers in Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, the United Kingdom, in addition of course to the United States.
The story, I think, is just asking to travel into other languages.
The latest newsletter went out a couple days ago. RESTRICTED FREQUENCY #234: Shortform.
#journal #RF #TSG
— Occult rituals in the Epstein files.
— “Just hang in there.” – Suzanne Vega for The Creative Independent.
— “An indie horror with internet origins has beaten the legacy franchise “Star Wars” at the box office this weekend.” – NBC news on the unexpected success of BACKROOMS and OBSESSION.
Migraine day today; No productivity for me.
#radar
