Had to eliminate the option of purchasing hi-res PDF downloads of THE SOLAR GRID, because the cost of storage/bandwidth was far surpassing the revenue made from downloads. Not too happy about this, because I've always felt that the option to acquire hi-res files had to be there. But, this is a necessary consequence of basic economics.

Especially with various income streams disappearing for the foreseeable future, will have to look at ways to cut as many costs as possible (which I s'pose is what one shouldda been doing anyyywaaay.).

#work

Well well well, would you look what I just found in my story journal?!

It may be time to revisit this very loose idea and flesh it out into a jolly little short.

#journal #work #story

There is a panel—a single panel—in THE SOLAR GRID that has been the source of great agony for me. Since starting the book to this very day, I've only ever had to redraw a panel a handful of times. I'm usually good from the first go, but this panel here... it's been killing me. And if I show it to you now, there's no way you would possibly think a panel this simple could have possibly been reached by a jagged road of pain and suffering.

You see what I mean?

I shit you not, that panel there I'd left blank for the longest time, and would go off and do other pages and scenes, then come back to it, try my hand at it, kind of hate it, go off and do other pages and scenes and things, come back to it, try my hand at it again, fail again, repeat.

The reason being: well I hadn't adequately thought about which bits I really needed to focus on. I knew that I needed to depict the exchange of bags. That was the primary “action” taking place in the panel, but I also wanted to depict some more information. Chiefly, the logos on the back of those trench-coats, and also... the trench-coats themselves. The outfits worn by those two figures needed to be seen in clear juxtaposition to the less stylish, more downtrodden attire worn by the figure on the left (Falak). For the longest time, I was convinced we needed to see Falak from the rear just like the two other guys, to emphasize that—unlike them—his outfit featured no logo, and instead just the word “Earth” haphazardly scrawled on the back of his suit. However, any attempt at depicting him from behind made the the transaction of bags seem less obvious. Which was our primary reason for having this panel at all, remember?

Can't let the secondary purpose get in the way of the primary purpose. Especially given that we already see Falak's backside a couple chapters prior.

Those who will notice will. Those who won't will not, and that's okay; it won't disrupt the narrative. It's just a little detail that makes it better, but what will certainly disrupt the narrative is if they can't tell that there's an exchange of bags taking place.

At the end of the day, each line we put onto the page is an additional piece of information that is relayed to the reader, and it's important to be conscientious about what information we are putting out, especially with such a very finite amount of space to depict information to begin with.

I also wanted to depict that this transaction was taking place in a bar. Now, when you look at the resulting panel, you get that they're in a bar. But, it doesn't really capture the “baryness” of a bar, does it? There's no hustle and bustle, there's no backdrop with a bajillion types of liquour, no bartenders working their magic even, and for the longest time I was greedy about wanting to fit aaaaaalll that in. And in my attempts to do just that, I just failed really miserably.

Here's one very bad example:

This one is such a mess because the hierarchy of relevant information is so jacked up, that neither the primary, secondary, or tertiary purposes at all make it through. We can hardly tell that there's a transaction of bags, we can't really get a good look at the outfits or logos, and yes, we can see they're sat at a bar (that's probably the one thing we really get out of the panel in this case), but it's so zoomed out that its hard to tell what the point of focus ought to be. Is it the teardrop-shaped chandelier things? The hardly eligible signage? The pull-down liquor bottles?

The panel I ended up with does the job of communicating that we're at a bar adequately enough, especially when you take into consideration the context within which the panel exists:

It's sometimes easy to forget that a comix panel doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists in the context of not just the single page, but actually within the context of the double-page spread. And in this particular case, we can clearly get a sense of the bar and it's rowdy atmosphere without needing to jam it all in that one particular panel.

The page is the unit, not the panel.

Sometimes I just need to remind myself.

Another thing the struggle around this panel brought to the forefront for me was the importance of visual “cyphers”. I'll get to that in a future #ComixEngine.

#TheSolarGrid #ComixEngine #MakingComix #Work

There's this Japan segment in Chapter 5 of THE SOLAR GRID that I've been studying a bunch of Manga for. I'm not looking to emulate Manga superficially, not interested in the cliches of what manga style is thought to be (i.e. big eyes and speed-lines), but rather I'm looking to get into its essence. At the end of the day, it's still gonna be very much a Ganzeer comic, but Ganzeer after having soaked up some good Japanese sequential storytelling.

(Regarding that particular edition of Paul Pope's THE ONE TRICK RIP OFF pictured above; it includes a few shorts he did when he worked for Kodansha in Japan, hence it's inclusion in my manga study.)

Some of the rules I've extracted that I'm looking to apply: 1. Ample blank space on page edges, except for the occasional panel or two that extend into the bleeds. 2. Tighter vertical gutters. 3. 3-7 panels per page max. 4. Simple lines, minimal shadows. 5. Various zipatone, patterns, and textures. 6. Very detailed backgrounds and inanimate objects. 7. Simple, animated faces. 8. Big hand-lettered sound effects, even for subtle sounds. 9. Key dramatic moments: realistic rendering. 10. Action: Tilt gutters, show speed in lineart.

#ComixEngine #TheSolarGrid #Work

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

I was supposed to me in Miami this week for all the art things, but a change of plan was in order to make time to finish up 3 large canvases I have lined up for a buyer. There's no real “hurry” to wrap these pieces up, except that I have a bunch of other travel plans scheduled for later in the month as well as next month, on top of having to deal with moving (again). Which basically means if I don't finish these guys this very week, it might be two whole months before I can get around to them again.

Alas, Miami Art Week had to give, and it was time to buckle down and burn through these canvases. They're big, 122 x 269 cms each (that's 48 x 106 inches to the isolationists). There isn't a whole lotta work left on them, but just enough to garner a week's worth of undivided attention.

Sneak peek:

The process of creating these particular pieces was a bit unique in that it involved a degree of “audience participation”. The impetus for the paintings was to adorn the lobby of the Loeb Drama Theater in Cambridge (MA) during their run of A.R.T's WE LIVE IN CAIRO musical, 3 canvases that evoked the sense of turbulence, upheaval, and rebellion during the tumultuous first years of the Egyptian “revolution” (roughly 2011-2014). To do this I actively drew inspiration from the look and feel of some Cairo's most exciting walls during that time. I also incorporated a few nods to some of the fictional stuff in the musical, essentially merging the fiction with the non-fiction. Also, in the spirit of those very Cairo walls there were the source of inspiration, we had paint markers set up next to the paintings alongside a note that encouraged theater-goers to tag and write whatever they wanted on them. This lasted throughout the play's run, and as such accumulated quite a lot of tags from the audience.

This was back in May, after which the canvases were exhibited at the Harvard Art Lab (where the initial painting phase took place) for their official opening in October, and then finally sent back to me in Houston for final additions and touch ups, before heading out to the aforementioned buyer. Like I said, a bit of a unique process, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I love discovering all the little additions added by the audience; things like the little stick figure scrawled on the side with the text “don't stand on the side”. Or “It's Capitalism that's the problem”, or “be careful what you wish for”, or “we need an uprising in the U.S”.

The audience's participation really adds so much richness to the pieces that I can honestly just sit there and stare at them for hours on end.

I have to admit, it's going to be quite sad parting with these guys. If I could I'd just hold onto them for good, but my ceiling isn't even high enough to properly display them, and that would not be fair to the paintings, not one bit.

#work