We've all been there ☝️, haven't we?
THE SOLAR GRID #5 is now 87% complete. Exclusive preview will go out to press, reviewers, and fellow makers later this month. Anybody who wants to be added to the list can totally just let me know.
Good morning + onward.
Just arrived. Thanks to the anonymous person who sent it. Been on my list for quite some time, but have never gotten around to picking it up. Guess the time was never right. Now that I'm a new father though, I imagine the timing couldn't be more perfect.
Thanks again to the kind individual who sent it. 🙏
So late, but getting closer! Currently lettering, which is kept enjoyable by making the dialogue up as I go. I obviously had some idea what was being said in the drawing phase of these pages, but not in any detail and I kept it very loosely floating around in the back of my head without committing any of it to paper.
I didn't always work like this. Chapters one and two of THE SOLAR GRID I wrote full scripts for. But then I realized that only really makes sense if you're writing for someone else to draw (and letter and edit, etc.). It's not really necessary if you're doing the drawing yourself, might as well save on that scripting time. Also, from the standpoint of the craft of comix, unlike film where you can't really change the dialogue after a shoot (minor exceptions include scenes where you can't see an actor's lips), in comix you totally can! So why not save dialogue till last anyway? Seems odd to ignore a facet that is so specific to this medium.
Easier for makers who work all aspects of their comix though.
Of course, I cheat a little, because I've got the best assistant in town:
The year is 949 After the Flood, and life on Mars isn't all it's cracked up to be.
From the 5th chapter in the award-winning graphic novel THE SOLAR GRID, coming soon to TheSolarGrid.net
I used to color at a rate of about 2 pages a day, but now I'm lucky if I wrap up a single page every 2-3 days.
Look at this madness though:
Not gonna lie, quite proud of how it's turning out, and truth be told that's a pretty rare feeling for me.
Is it bad if I find myself devising ways to use a rubber band to keep pacifier from falling out of child's mouth?
Whenever it seems like he's just about falling asleep, the thing falls out of his mouth and he bursts out in agony. And he's been at it all night. Of course any opportunity at my own sleep has long been obliterated and the day as it were (9:00am now) must begin. It would be nice not to have to spend it all replacing fallen pacifier every five minutes.
This has got to be what inspired the myth of Sisyphus.
We have successfully kept small new human alive for two weeks now! Not at all possible without the generosity of awesome friends who have kept us fueled with restaurant deliveries and assorted groceries.
It's a joy (and a bit of a mindfuck) to see Moony change and grow by day. Range of facial expressions have now expanded to include surprise, inquisition, superstition, and deep contemplation.
He almost slept through an entire night a couple nights ago, but then last night he wasn't really having it, despite the airtight swaddle and white noise machine and pacifier. A bit of a nocturnal this fella, no problem sleeping through the day (all this is besides the 2-3 hour feeding call). Me, I can't really get a proper daytime snooze no matter how hard I try.
We've taken to early evening walks around the neighborhood. Not more than half an hour, but it's better than nothing. I wear the child in one of those frontpack things, and he's generally content with being bundled and rocked, despite the sweltering heat (it is Houston).
Here's one of the many stray cats we encounter, who—it is agreed by all—totally owns the street:
A few years ago I created a multimedia installation (acrylic on wood + animation on screens) titled HANDS UP (VOL. 2), which toured a number of European cities as part of an exhibition titled MAGIC CITY: THE ART OF THE STREET. Since the last leg of the tour though, the installation's been sitting in a Berlin warehouse accruing costs. Time has finally come to clear out said warehouse. Happy to offer it for a reduced price to any institutions willing to receive it. Otherwise... I may just have to have it destroyed (alas, it is how things go sometimes ツ).
I managed to do two things today: pack outgoing mail orders and brush my teeth.
One day, I shall shave.
The wife and I have started to reincorporate a little television into our lives. We finished OMNISCIENT (on Netflix) which was fantastic up until the somewhat unconvincing reveal in the final episode. Still absolutely worth a watch for its speculative ideas surrounding surveillance capitalism. Started BRAVE NEW WORLD (on Peacock), and after only two episodes I AM SO THERE FOR IT!!
Bedside reading is strictly comix these days, oscillating between BLACK HAMMER, PUERTO RICO WAR, BORDERLINE, DYLAN DOG, and AGE OF DARKNESS. It's been too long since I've read any prose (which is not at all good for the articulating muscles in my head) but given the extremely limited availability of waking hours, only possible reading to do is the fast, breezy kind (will happily accept recommendations).
Conversations are mostly with the wife in reference to baby, or directly with the baby in the form of coo's and their derivatives. Otherwise, there's Restricted.Academy, the online forum (yes, I am an old) which has been quite the godsend what with life in quarantine and all.
Seven more pages of colors on TSG #5 to go, some more minor than others. Afterwards, I letter 💪
It's been a blur of a week, but today marks my first attempt to resume work on THE SOLAR GRID since birth of child.
I've been asked on more than one occasion whether or not TSG is suitable for kids to which I always respond “definitely not!“, much to their disappointment. I never understood why, but now I get it. When I'm finally finally finished with the book, I'd like to come up with something that centers around my main characters, Mehret and Kameen, that might work for kids. Or at the very least my kid. Not today obviously (he can hardly make out my face yet), but... I dunno, maybe 5-10 years from now?
Should be enough time.