The epic that is THE SOLAR GRID—the project I've been working on for the better part of the past 9 years—is now 91% complete.
Entering into hyperfocus mode to push through the remaining 9%.
I'm hardly ever on social media, but this reel about Chinese filmmaker Gao Xiaosong's time in an Israeli Kibbutz is too funny.
Moved my most-read blog post, THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM, to the main dot com, and also populated a few of the sections with some work I hadn't yet uploaded. More of that over the next few days.
Penciled one page of TSG and will attempt another right after I break for some excercise.
THE SOLAR GRID #1 is completely sold out. Issues #2-8 are still in stock. I'm sure the time will come when I look upon these single-chapter editions as the strange time capsules that they are.
Started THE PLAGUE by Albert Camus. This being my third Camus, it's now very evident that Camus' writing appeals to me. Adequately sparse, just the right words in exactly the right places in a way that evokes more than what is being said. Something I don't find entirely true of most contemporary authors who lean towards the extra telegrammatic. The buildup of eerie over the first 30 pages in THE PLAGUE is really perfectly paced.
It is hard to believe that this chapter may very well be the last time I draw her for a very long time if not forever.
My plan for the day turned out to be a little too ambitious after all, but TSG pages are coming along smoothly.
Today's background listening included:
Bret Easton Ellis interviews Paul Schrader — Really great. I particularly love the few Pauline Kael anecdotes Schrader shares. Kael is grossly overrated in my opinion, and I say this having enjoyed a number of her books. She did good to bring actual critical criticism to the field, but neither her taste nor how she expressed it really jive with me.
TRACKMARKS by Hamed Sinno — Sinno, who is one of the most talented and creative people I know, was on a train in London when it got held up because a man on the tracks in what was apparently a suicide attempt. Folks on the train started to get irritated, and that irritation soon ballooned into rage, directed squarely at the distressed man who messed up their schedules. Hamed was wise enough to record this vocalized rage and weave it into a powerful song together with lyrics drawn entirely from advertising slogans seen on the London Underground. 👌
I'm doing something a little different with the final chapter of THE SOLAR GRID in that I'm adopting something of an assembly line approach to working it, despite my being the only person actually working on it (This is potentially somewhat ironic given the Luddite segments featured in the previous two).
I've basically divided the chapter into three chunks of 12 pages, tackling one chunk at a time. I've done all the panel layouts for the first chunk, now onto filling them with actual characters and scenes, first in pencils, then in inks.
What this means is that each chunk, or pile rather, gets three passes before moving on to the next: first pass for laying out panels (based entirely on the thumbnails), second pass for doing the actual drawings in pencil, third pass for inking everything up. Dividing the work up this way makes it seem more manageable somehow, less daunting.
I quite like looking at the pages at this stage, with just the empty panels laid out. Pages stripped to the musicality of their compositions.
Final TSG thumbs clock in at 36 pages and there ain't no other way about it. There are four pages worth that maybe aren't wholly relevant to the plot, but they provide good narrative flow, add much richness to the story, and induce it with “real-world info”, or non-fiction if you like, which I think is part and parcel of the function of any good work of fiction. Cutting those 4 pages would reduce my workload by maybe 12 days, a gain that is not at all worth all the richness that would be lost.
36 pages means I've got a rough estimate of about 108 days of work ahead of me before bringing THE SOLAR GRID to a close. Some pages I might be able to dash off quicker than I anticipate, others employ techniques I have yet to fully utilize for comix and as such are a bit more difficult to accurately assign production time, but 3 days per page seems to me like a reasonable enough average.
Will take the long weekend to get my ducks in order; meal prep, organize tools, and ready the workspace. It's the meal prepping though that'll take up the bulk of the next few days. I find that I work best when I don't have to think about food or anything else aside from the work at hand. Especially essential when you're in it for the long haul.
Made it past the 20-page mark on latest TSG thumbs and still plenty of story to tell. It is evident that capping this chapter at 20 is impossible if I want to do it any justice, and do it justice I must. Will try to see if I can close it at 30.
Mind turned to mush, I find this stage of comix-making to be the most mentally-draining. It isn't the most labor-intensive, but it requires the most figuring out.
Sent off a lot of hi-res scans to the folks overseeing the Italy exhibition which includes much never-before seen process stuff. Pretty sure it wasn't what they expected, pretty sure they think I'm demented.
Knowing that very soon the work at hand will involve long stretches at the drawing table, I'm taking advantage of the ease of mobility of the scripting/thumbnail stage of TSG's grand finale by taking my work to bars and cafe-like places. An added, albeit unnecessary expense, but important for my sanity.
Still haven't solved how to fit the thing into 20ish pages, but I'm hoping I'll get there soon enough.
I'm grateful for all my readers, but especially grateful to international readers. The high price point of each print issue of THE SOLAR GRID is not at all lost on me (an unfortunate consequence of the considerably limited print run we can muster), a price point that is even compounded when you factor international shipping into the equation. And I feel more grateful to those who, after making an initial order of the first couple issues, end up coming back for more.
I'm generally aware that sales of a thing aren't always an indication that you're doing something right. So many things often factor into why a thing sells well; market penetration, aggressive advertising, or straight up name recognition, or in most cases all three. But in our very small, very humble, very independent effort, sales are a very good indication, especially when direct to the reader and especially when the reader feels they must let you know how much they appreciate what you're doing.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.
Forthcoming in September, a comix exhibition in Italy:
”'Their gazes,' writes co-curator Alessio Trabacchini, 'render a multifaceted world, sometimes in dense ink marks, sometimes among fibers of ancient textiles, sometimes in the bright colors of the digital age. Reality and imagination intertwine with memories of troubled pasts and visions of dystopian futures, dreams of broken freedom, nightmares and desires.'”
Curators Alessio Trabacchini and Luce Lacquaniti handpicked a few comix-makers who hail from the Arabic-speaking Mediterranean to represent in this travelling exhibition.
”'This exhibition,' adds Luce Lacquaniti translator from Arabic and co-curator, 'Gives an account of the latest developments, brings together young women artists who, in many cases, are coming to Italy for the first time. Their stories cross more than one border, artistic and geographic, and take their cues from both the Tunisian, Egyptian and Lebanese coasts, and from overseas through artists of the Arab diaspora in the U.S., to land in Jesi, the birthplace of Frederick II, the protagonist of the exchange between the two shores of the Mediterranean to rewrite and redraw together a history of multiple, free and reciprocal crossings.'”
Humbled to be among the list of incredible artists; Deena Mohamed, Tracy Chahwan, Twins Cartoon, and Issam Smiri. No plans to be making a physical appearance in Italy, except potentially in December. Deets forthcoming on that front.
Full press release is here.