G A N Z E E R . T O D A Y

Hectic times.

Playing catch-up with my accounting in preparation for tax-related paperwork which is absolutely no fun. I'm going to make it a point to get better and more efficient at this sort of thing over the next two years (which shouldn't be too hard given that I did go to business school and all).

It'll take me a few days to wrap up, alongside the assorted house things I need to do (few things to sand and paint, shelves to put up, etc.).

But even with all the non-artistic busyness, I have managed to get a handful of art things done...

That's one of two illustrations for an op-ed for Middle East Eye, which they retitled: The Fate of Egypt is with the People. That along with a number of other edits throughout the piece were all sound choices for journalistic purposes, but I might share my original unedited piece sometime down the line.

Here's the second illustration I did:

It was the first time for me to play around with water-color in many many years, and I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. This may be something I do more of in the near future. Maybe maybe combine it with digital in an intentionally juxtaposing way.

I also did a couple of posters for a friend's short films, and the cover art for one of Ramy Essam's forthcoming singles. Although I went in with a pretty solid idea in mind, it was the first time where I needed to do different takes of the same idea before settling on the one. I can't show it just yet, but I'm pretty excited by the results. The DNA of which will dictate the look for several other singles as well as the cover art for the album.

Ah, and WE ARE ALL THINGS now exists in the world.

In personal news, I've gotten into the habit of exercising regularly as well as adopting a keto diet. First week—as most anyone who's tried it will tell you—was rough as fuck, but since then I've never felt better in my life. I cook my own meals every day, and with the aid of an assortment of cookbooks, I have to boast: I've become quite the chef 😁 (I've gotten into the habit of sharing meals on my Instagram stories, btw.).

I've moved twice in the past 7ish months? With one of those moves being across states. Those who have dealt with moving before know that it results in quite a bit of upheaval. And it looks like there may very well be more turbulence in my near future.

But, I do have a feeling (hope) that it'll all be for the better. 🤞

(Also btw, I forgot to report that Ramy Essam and I were on NPR/Pri-The World with Marco Werman back in January.)

#journal

#status

Today is a glorious day.

It's not that I've slept till noon, it's that I've lazied around till noon. I can't even remember when I last lazied around till noon. Sometime in my 20's maybe?

It is exactly 12:41 pm right now and I am just about having breakfast; Fuul Medammes, that is... Fava Beans prepared Egyptian style. I cooked up a humongous batch about a week ago (not even halfway through), and its such a great thing to have around, to quickly get a meal in.

One of the great things about Fuul Medammes is that it's very easy to avoid getting bored of, because its flavor profile can drastically change depending on how you spice it. And you spice it only before eating, post-cookage. You essentially just simmer a big batch of beans, sans spice, and have that around, and every time you decide to whip up a bowl, you can spice it quite differently from the next bowl.

Perhaps one day I oughtta make a little zine on all the possible variations of Fuul Medammes, from the most simple to the utmost elaborate.

Before breakfast, armed with my cup of coffee, I put in a large Amazon Fresh order. Two weeks worth of groceries to be precise. It should arrive within the next couple of hours, during which I'll be getting some laundry done, dishes, and some tidying up here and there.

Upon arrival of my groceries, I shall draft a menu of meals for the next couple of weeks, to save my brain juice from being depleted on thinking about food or any other chores for a while.

Because this week, I work 💪

#journal #houston

It wasn't my plan to disappear for a month.

In fact, my plan entailed the exact opposite: fully chronicling the tour with Ramy Essam (which ended up being more of an eye opening experience than I ever could have imagined), followed by the detailed chronicling of getting the newly acquired house (and studio) in order. The latter is something I thought wouldn't need more than two weeks at most.

I've been back in Houston since January 27th, and I shit you not all I've been doing since has been attempting to get the newly acquired house (and studio) in order, and I am still so not there yet.

One more week, I think. One more week and then everything should at least be in just about enough order that I can maintain a level of equilibrium that would allow for getting actual work done and back into a steady stream of online updates (not to mention reading, exercise, socializing, and y'know... life).

By the by, I'll be in New York again next month. March 26th to be precise, for the official launch (and signing) of WE ARE ALL THINGS at Printed Matter (231 11th Avenue, New York, NY 10001) together with Elliott Colla in a discussion moderated by none other than Molly Crabapple.

The book (or chapbook rather) is available for pre-order right now, by the way, directly from our admirably print-obsessed publishers Radix Media.

The great Seth Tobocman had this to say about it: “We Are All Things is the perfect collaboration between an artist and a writer. Words and pictures combine to show us what cannot be seen and to tell us what must remain unspoken. A tiny room in a contemporary Arab city becomes the gateway to an infinite horizon. The universal experience of desire and loss. A small, but stunning, work of art.”

#journal #houston #nyc #work #publication

I realize it's a little ridiculous to wait till the day of an event before announcing it, but I have a very good explanation!

#VanLife

I've been touring with Ramy Essam and band along the East Coast with very little time left in the day for internetting. My bad, but hey if you just so happen to come across this now and there's still enough time to pop in, come through. We only just arrived in New York last night, and I only just about woke up this very second. I'll be painting live for 5 hours straight, and y'know, it's not a bad idea to get a good dose of shut-eye before pulling that sorta thing.

Ah, and the painting will be followed by a panel discussion!

If you'd like to RSVP, hit this link (while noting that you don't have to RSVP if you'd like to show up, but some folks are more organized than others. ¯_(ツ)_/¯)

#journal #work #nyc #BeyondResistance #WeAre

Writing this from DC where I begin touring with Ramy Essam and his band along the American East Coast. Which sounds a lot more extensive than the four cities it entails (DC, Philly, Pittsburgh, and New York). Here's the poster I designed for it:

I only arrived just last night in time for the first of Ramy's performances, and I've already been asked more than once what my involvement with the tour will be, and well... I'm not quite sure, nor is Ramy quite frankly. But prior to the tour, we had been talking about a lot of visual stuff. Tour posters and merch aside, we've been discussing album art for some of his upcoming releases as well as potential approaches for the making of music videos, and even a bit of fashion. This was all over the phone; What's App calls keeping us connected across continents, me in the States and Ramy in Sweden. He figured his being stateside for tour was probably a good opportunity for us to hang on a day-to-day basis and have the opportunity to discuss and brainstorm things in detail, and I had to agree. On top of that, I'd actually never seen Ramy perform before, not even during the tumultuous times of Tahrir Square some nine years ago—where Ramy first started performing. We were both aware of one another's activities but our paths only ever crossed several years later in New York City, after having both been forced into exile.

I'm not sure enough people—“Western observers” especially—realize the tremendous role played by Ramy, not just back then and not just in Egypt, but even today and from a significant distance no less. Here's one of his songs effectively utilized as a “weapon” on the rebellious front lines of Beirut just last night.

All this to say, it's kind of a no-brainer that Ramy and I would collab. Aside from my tagging along giving us the opportunity to talk lots of shop, I'm also utilizing it to draw inspiration for some of the visual stuff. I'm not sure how that will transpire exactly, but for now I'm enjoying getting a first hand look not just at the performances themselves, but all the lead-up stuff backstage as well as the wind-down that follows.

I'm also enjoying taking the occasional photograph.

It should be noted that last night's concert took place at the Kennedy Center, which is practically the United States most official performance venue in existence. To have Ramy and his band rock out at the Kennedy Center's foyer (non-ticketed, unavoidable to anyone walking to and from any other performance taking place in the building), shaking the walls and columns with Arabic rebel music is pretty fucking badass. Love that they opened with “Age of the Pimp.”

Seated with Ramy in that last picture is TIMEP's very awesome Mai El-Sadany, who is clearly peering right through the man.

More soon.

#journal #travel #BeyondResistance #WashingtonDC #RamyEssam

In 2004, Hunter S. Thompson had this to say about Houston:

Houston is a cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It's a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West.

Which is to say; Houston is my kinda town.

(Well, to a degree. More pedestrian areas would be nice, and maybe lose the drivers who aggressively harass cyclists.)

I've only “lived” here for 6 months now, but take away the time it took to unbox shit and move in as well as all my travel elsewhere, then I've only actually lived here for 4-5 months. But I'm embracing it. In fact, the wife and I are due to close on a little townhouse in just a week's time.

Which means a week's worth of packing everything up to move again, followed by however many weeks it'll take to unpack and settle back in. Not looking forward to that part, but I am looking forward to finally living in a place I can call my own, a place where I don't have to worry about hammering a nail in the wall or unleashing buckets of paint if I felt so inclined. I'm ready to nest a little, rebuild my library and record collection and feel secure in where I live, and just get to work without having to worry about the forthcoming wind of displacement.

Granted of course the swamp this city is built on doesn't flood and sweep us all out to sea. 🙃

#journal #houston

Back in Houston from Puerto Vallarta where I got to see humpback whales for the first time.

The thrill of being put into perspective, of realizing how small and insignificant we are, will never ever get old. I've experienced it only a handful of times in my life; one memorable time was in Baharia Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert, where the vastness of desert extends as far as the eye can see. Fish and seashell fossils are clearly visible throughout the various rock formations and there's the occasional “whale” carcass littering the sea of sand (it was all underwater some 7 million years ago)

And now this, within proximity to Mexico's West Coast, realizing that you and the boat you're on—along with all the other boats at sea—are just a bunch of croutons floating atop a big soup of whale and other sea life.

Because the habitat of humpback whales? Well it's kind of the entire Pacific Ocean, all of it. They migrate when seasons change (which climate change will no doubt really fuck up), and clearly things like borders and territorial waters and all the artificial constructs we puny humans have set up mean absolutely nothing to them.

One way for whale-watchers to spot humpback whales is to look for their “foot prints”. Essentially, big blotches on the surface of the ocean that have a smooth mirror-like look about them (pictured above), a kind of imprint left by the whale on the surface just by how its body affects the currents underneath, even at a distance. Seeing these things form and disappear is weird and alien-like, because on first sight it looks like some weird glitch in the laws of physics.

One of the things I didn't expect was how graceful these magnificent beings would be. They swim so eleganty, synchronize their movements and even their breathing—which unlike us, is very deliberate. They breath with absolute awareness apparently, wherein active decision-making is involved with every breath they take.

At one point there was a school of dolphins swimming alongside a group of whales, and just seeing these two different species—very different in size and mannerisms—getting along together and cohabiting the seas together was such a beautiful sight.

We also spotted a big grumpy sea-turtle, and several Mobula Rays (I think) leaping through the ocean surface into the air joyfully flapping their wing-like fins before diving back in. Seeing these things for the first time is like discovering whole new worlds. I failed to take pictures of... well, most things, because at a certain point I realized I was witnessing everything through my viewfinder, keeping me from truly experiencing it in the real. So I just put my camera down, turned it off, and decided to take it all in. Nothing in the way between me and the experience.

Which is exactly how I'd like to live my 2020's; more appreciation for the beauty of the world, for the miracle of being alive, for the air we take into our lungs for sustenance without thinking twice about it; the same air we share with the birds and trees and rats and cows and whales and all form of life on this incredible planet we all share.

Here's to a decade of being kind, loving, grateful, and mindful. Happy new year.

#Travel #PuertoVallarta #Mexico

A 90-page publication, 3 times a year.

That's what I seem to be honing in on right now. It would include: – 52 pages of comix: * 36 constituting one act of a single feature * 12 constituting a self-contained backup story (which I think works better than four 3-page self contained comix as suggested in Comix Engine 1) * 4 pages for story breaks, etc. – 48 pages of prose: * 16 constituting one short story * 16 constituting four 4-page micro stories * 14 constituting four 4-page essays – 2 pages of art: * perhaps a double-page spread of something that falls more in line with contemporary art than the heavily illustrated representation stuff often seen in comicbooks?

I'm starting to wonder though whether that much prose would be seen as a plus or minus? Is it better to include something other than prose in those 48 pages?

As far as the comix component is concerned, there's no way to go above the 52 pages, at least not at my current drawing pace.

Funding-wise, I've discussed in Comix Engine 1 how a minimum of $68,000 U.S. in the bank would be wise before even attempting to put pen to paper.

My initial estimate for retail price was $10, but it now looks like going below $15 would be difficult. And I'm not entiiiiirely sure 15 bucks for a 90-page black and white publication is something potential readers would be interested in (help?).

My dilapidated mathematics tell me I'd need a minimum of 3,800 regular readers for this to be a sustainable endeavor. Which in principle isn't an outrageous goal, but is considered rather ambitious in the current climate of independent comicbook publishing.

Allow me to clarify: The latest TANK GIRL (published by Titan) sold about 3,856 units. Todd McFarlane's SPAWN sold a meager 2,996 units! Even Marvel's GHOST RIDER has fallen well below 2000 units (as has their CAPTAIN MARVEL). Titan, McFarlane, and Marvel are all heavyweights who have way better resources and distribution pull than I'll ever manage. So, the numbers just aren't looking very optimistic.

(But then again, Michel Fiffe's COPRA moved 4,594 units!)

#ComixEngine

Part of the need to express oneself through a variety of media has to do with a terrible strain of creative restlessness. Even within the very same medium, I can get a little restless, and that is perhaps not-so-secretly why I wrote/designed THE SOLAR GRID to incorporate numerous illustration styles, whereby different points in the timeline are given a different visual treatment.

Another reason is to test out the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. One very important “strength” to take into consideration when making comix is speed.

I conducted a little survey on my Kickstarter backers about their favorite TSG style, and much to my surprise… two of my fastest styles came out on top!

Style on the left-hand side (which we’ll nickname… the Templesink), gets its speed from its looseness and heavy reliance on atmospheric “suggestion” for backgrounds and environment. Although it utilizes a wide variety of media in its execution (nib+ink, pencils, black and white ink washes, geso, blowdryer, all on brown-tinted kraft paper), it still allows for speedy implementation due to its nonchalance for accuracy or lack thereof. Also, you’d be surprised how much time not having to draw in proper gutters will save you. I remember at some point in the book, I knocked out about 4 pages a day done in just this style.

You might say the style on the right-hand side (which we shall nickname the Eurofrank) is the polar opposite of the Templesink. It utilizes one single tool instead of several—namely a 0.1 mm Staedtler Pigment Marker—thereby eliminating any variation in line weight. It features no shading whatsoever, and thus allows for a complete disregard for light and shadow. It does mean that you have to put in the line-art for every little thing quite clearly (none of the murky suggestiveness of the Templesink), but the need for only one single drawing tool on top of the unconcern for shadow work make this approach a major time-saver as well.

This is good to know when considering what style to employ for future comix projects; projects that—unlike THE SOLAR GRID—won’t necessarily require stylistic variation within the same yarn. I think it’s safe to say that the Templesink proooobably works best for comix intended to be in black and white, while the Eurofrank is kind of more suited for color.

#ComixEngine