Very close to completing PROJECT OLDBOOK. It wasn't at all mapped out going in. All I had was a very general overarching concept, developing imagery as I went along, consistently surprised by the results as they came about. Despite images at the tail end of the book looking significantly different to the ones at the start, it all works I think, owing primarily to the vessel itself, the actual “old book”, bringing it all together.
Case in point. Rear-page:
Early front-end page:
34 pages left on PROJECT OLDBOOK, after which I'm sure I'll come out the other end completely transformed. Can already feel my brain getting rewired.
“It is to Cubism that the next serious innovators are bound to return.” – John Berger, THE SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PICASSO
I feel this, in a sense, is very spot on. Not so much Cubism's aesthetic, as much as its intent.
Came across this Arabic comix magazine on my shelf and realized I have yet to post about it, and it is certainly worthy of a post, not just because I happen to be featured in it but because its format/approach isn't one I think I've come across before.
Featuring critical essays, extensive interviews and complete short comix, the inaugural issue of [+] Magazine is a hefty 154-page package, jumpstarted by editor extraordinaire Jad Khoury. Each issue has an over-arching theme (though I'm not sure if any issues have been produced since its inaugural Nov. 2022 issue), this one being “Arab Revolts and Comix Strips”. Under the umbrella of this theme are 5 critical essays and 5 complete short comix, and one graphic novel excerpt, each accompanied by an in-depth interview with its creator.
Here are a few photos from my interview:
And here's a link to my featured comix, a crop of which made the cover.
PROJECT OLDBOOK trudging along, around the midway point now. Really need to move faster though.
Very early on in the project, the idea of something AI-based was suggested. But no, I ended up going in the absolute polar opposite direction with the most tactile and labor intensive thing imaginable for some reason.
Masochistic tendencies probably.
Drew and designed this cover back in 2019, but it wasn't published until late 2022, and I only got my comp copy this year because Walter (Chaw) was so adamant about getting it signed by Walter Hill for me. I'm glad he did, it's a delightful and humbling inscription which I'm keeping private. A fluke at the publishing house seems to have resulted in the absence of my credit though. Oh well. More pix of the book here.
Still recovering from toddler germs, may need another full day to recover. Can't write or draw for shit, so I figured working on [very belatedly] populating the website with projects from the past couple years is a mindless enough task for me to muster. Also getting the new newsletter platform in order. Getting all systems up to speed for optimum operation. There will be quite a bit of that over the next month or so after which I'm hoping for smooth, seamless sailing.
Decision: Will only assign any given day to working on a single project. Shifting gears between several messes with my head too much.
Quite enjoying the degree of experimentation that Project OLDBOOK (pictured) is affording me right now, and it seems to have come at a right time as it is starting to inform how I might handle a particular scene in the next TSG I've been thinking about.
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.
