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

Comix

And that is the last TSG script in the bag. The chapter is coming out at 48 pages, quite a lot, but certain scenes need to breathe and as much as I'd like to be done with the thing sooner rather than later—something a smaller page-count would certainly help achieve—I just can't find it in my heart to condense it much further. It's mad and beautiful and gloriously demented and I cannot wait to draw it all.

#work #comix #thesolargrid

Winds so strong I woke up to find the back door of the house blown wide open. Subzero temperatures expected next week, the annual freak weather incident apparently. Will have to bring all my plants inside, some quite large, and live like a crazy plant daddy for a while.

Scripting/thumbing what may be the most difficult 10 pages of comix I've ever had to conceive of, the last 10 in the very last chapter in THE SOLAR GRID.

I recall upon releasing the very first chapter way back when, and it was considered strange and eccentric. I think this last one will make the first one seem hella conventional (and maybe even boring?) by comparison. Shit gets weird, not because I want it to necessarily, it just kinda happened this way. Will try to wrap these up today, eager to get back to penciling pages.

A few years ago, I was so attracted to the idea of developing comix the same way one might've gone about making a French New Wave film; conceiving of the story as you're working on the actual pages. In essence, thinking of the making of the comix page itself as part and parcel of the writing process. Comix as writing, there's something quite sexy about that. But now I wonder if it might be better to actually write the whole thing out first. Not outline, but properly write the whole thing.

Not so sure about scripting it out though, that might be too boring and time-consuming of an endeavor. Perhaps write it all down in prose like one might go about any prose story. I'm sure there's an argument to be made that if it's a good prose story, it must be good in comix (with necessary adaptive measures employed). Although the opposite isn't necessarily true; can't imagine MAUS or SCOTT PILGRIM or anything by Chris Ware working strictly in prose. And that's a good thing, doing with comix what only comix can do. Which probably means that by going prose first, you're likely to come up with something that may not tap into the full potential of the comix medium.

But it would be the safer thing to do, having your entire story fully locked in before drawing anything.

#journal #work #comix

17 pages into script & thumbs for the very last installment of THE SOLAR GRID. Listening to the characters and letting them take control rather than force anything that really shouldn't happen.

Endings are the most sensitive part of any story, especially ones that've been 8+ years in the making.

#work #comix #thesolargrid

What a joy it is to see Deena Mohammed's SHUBEIK LUBEIK end up on so many TCJ contributor's Best-of-2023 Lists! So happy to see that book get the recognition it very much deserves.

#journal #comix

16 Celsius in Mexico City today, but I swear it feels more like 6. Even if the weather apps claim otherwise. It's the humidity, which just as it tends to make things warmer come summer, makes the world much colder in winter. It's the kinda cold that gets into your bones. Mexico City in December is evidently not for me.

But I did make a breakthrough in THE SOLAR GRID today, a singular plot point (albeit a rather drastic one) in the very last chapter that allows for the ending I've always wanted to come together more smoothly. So, all is well.

#travel #work #comix #CDMX #theSolarGrid

Very flattering and humbling in depth review of THE SOLAR GRID by Carson Grubaugh over at Living the Line on Youtube.

#comix #TheSolarGrid #resistdystopia #review

Been a few days on this double-page spread from the next THE SOLAR GRID, and the end is still not very close in sight.

I like where it's headed, but I can probably spend the next couple of weeks fussing over the details that can go in the background. I think instead I'll cast it aside for now move on with the remainder of the chapter and come back to it when all other pages are at the very least roughed out. I tend to leave a lot of drawing for the inking stage anyway.

#work #TheSolarGrid #comix

Just had my first “fuck, what was I thinking?” moment.

In preparation for drafting the last two chapters in THE SOLAR GRID, I've been re-reading all THE SOLAR GRIDs I've put out to date in an effort to find all the authorly breadcrumbs we tend to leave ourselves. Breadcrumbs that often come in handy when bringing the whole yarn to a close. But as early as chapter 2, I found that I may have done the unspeakable. It's really fucking bad. There is a point to it, but that point doesn't quite transpire till several chapters later, which is way too much to ask of a reader. It's the sort of thing that upon sight makes you want to toss the book at the nearest wall. As early as chapter 2 for crying out loud!

Only now, 8 years later, am I able to envision a far more graceful way of pulling it off, which I may just have to adjust for the collected edition. Shit.

I'm rather surprised no one has called me out on it yet. It's really fucking bad. Fml.

And then there are typos littered throughout the series. So many terrible typos. So many printed copies including said typos as well as my horrible Ch. 2 mishap. This will drive me mad, at least until the amended collected edition.

#ResistDystopia #comix #TheSolarGrid

Finally remerged back to life right before Labor Day weekend, otherwise known as another American excuse to grill meat and watch sports. Neither of which I did, but rather O got to tend to some lingering house issues (some of which involved power tools, so yeah, still very American).

Have also been working on multiple comix projects, one of which is pictured above; an Arabic edition of a short autobio thing called SELECTIVE MYOPIA which I did for The Nib many moons ago. Because it'll be running in B&W, I had to mess with various attempts at tones to replace the colors, which is what you're seeing in the print-tryouts above. Although the color palette in the original is very limited, it is utilized as an integral part of the storytelling. To get the same effect with halftones meant needing to be able to easily differentiate between the different tones while also making sure the tones aren't awfully distracting and are 100% print-friendly.

Been working on another comix gig in addition of course to THE SOLAR GRID (will it ever end?). And actually, there was yet another short comix thing I worked on a little while back. It's called MOUTHFAIL, currently being serialized on my substack.

Actually now that I think of it, this year really has been the year of comix for me. Usually my time is taken up by projects of a very different nature, and I have to literally carve out little nooks of time to do comix, but this year... it's been mostly comix so far. Not entirely, but mostly.

#journal #work #comix

Off to Oslo in a couple days which leaves me with the impossible task of attempting to ink 7 pages of comix in less than 48 hours. Get the entire batch of 14 pages scanned and ready for [digital] lettering on my flight (and maybe a little in my eventual hotel room) so I can send this project out and be done with it before prepping my keynote presentation, which luckily isn't until day 4 of the conference (June 30).

I've been riding the 1000mph wave for a good few months now and it looks like it is bound to continue for the remainder of the summer. It'd be nice to sit under a tree and watch the birds sometime.

#journal #work #comix