Exit and Joan conclusion

Pages 13-16 of exit.





The previously shown page 5 of Joan.

Exit part 4+

Isn't assembling RTA furniture a blast?

Exit pages 10, 11 and 12.




Joan page 4.

Exit part 3+

Exit pages 7, 8 and 9.




Joan page 3.

Exit part 2 +

Exit pages 4, 5 and 6.



Joan page 2.

Exit part 1 +

Thanks to those who have already given me feedback on the mini, those who will give me feedback and even those individuals who at the very least took the time to read it. It was good clean fun and I know there will be more to come.

Exit is a narrative that was an attempt to visually remind myself of what's important and let go some of old mindsets. I would have preferred to have done it in color as I'm more comfortable with it but budget required black and white. Making the mini may have brought a fair amount of shortcomings out into the light of day but I still am proud of a few passages here and there and plan on more. Below the first three pages.




After talking with a few folks about the black and white color issue, I was surprised to discover that quite a few had not seen or would like to see again the Cohen "Joan of Arc" panel breakdown. I thought after two years I had pushed that under every nose that I know by now but I promised to put up the full deal here as a contrast to the Exit pages. Discuss...

First, the cover.

Very belated SPX overview

I have to say that SPX was without question the comic con that I felt most at home at out of all I have attended. Granted, I have only attended a handful of them but, regardless, it was great. I got to say hello to publishing luminaries like Chris Staros (Top Shelf) and Chris Pitzer (AdHouse) and tell them how great their output is as well as meet in person many talents I admired then and some that I admire after meeting. I also was surprised to see Bob Schreck there and took advantage to thank him for pointing me that way. I blew too much cash on all the great items that I found but tried to play it smart by only purchasing rarities and minis I wouldn't be able to get anywhere else.

Among the greats of these were the J. Chris Campbell (a small publishing luminary himself)"Fat Pack" of minis, a mini sketchbook pair by Jamie Tanner and (even though I have not read his acclaimed Johnny Hiro) a really clever mini of portrait progressions of Michael Jackson over the years by Fred Chao. I did break my rule to buy Jeff Lemire's Essex County vol. 2: Ghost Stories because I loved the first volume, Tales from the Farm, so much (and the second volume is quite good as well), Rutu Modan's Exit Wounds because I enjoyed her panel discussion and she was doing great sketches in the books and Joey Weiser's The Ride Home because I had someone recommend it to me.

My wife usually enjoys the cons to a fair degree but really dug this one. She used to purchase comics but had stopped. However, she came home with an appreciation of Jamie Tanner's near obsessive sense of cross hatching as well as her first two graphic novels, Nick Abadzis' Laika and Matt Kindt's Super Spy. Abadzis was also on the panel with Rutu and impressed us both. I've read Laika and it is very good. To Matt Kindt's credit, Lisa was sold almost completely based on his art alone. He merely had to summarize his book to her and it was sold. Still waiting on Lisa to finish that one so I can read it myself.

Nearly all of these talented folk may be found to the right in the list as well (I'm still working on a few of them). I urge you to check them out.

Images on their way soon...

ARRRRGGG! I knew I was going to forget someone. I also have to give a thanks to the highly talented Nate Powell who gave me a couple of names of books to look into regarding ASD (and, of course, his collection, Sounds of Your Name, was well worth buying even though I already own some of the material). I'll be emailing you for those titles again very soon, Nate.

Oh... you tease!

It's off to SPX tomorrow (or I suppose today). I hope to say hello to all the immense talent that will be there and hopefully have a really good time. After all the anxiety of creating and assembling my first mini comic, I have to say that it was a pretty nifty experience. Despite the fact that there are a good many places where I see room for improvement in the piece, it was a good learning experience and I see how it could become addictive. As a tease for the posts to come here is the wrap around cover for the book.
I hope to garner some wise words from those attending that I get up the courage to present this beast to. Wish me luck!

Getting it all out...

I'm in the throws of trying to make sure this promo looks the way I want it to so I figured I would go ahead and drop a post to appease my nagging sense of neglect for this thing (it is less than a month old after all).

Below is an image that started life in early 2006.It was based on a dream I had when I was a kid and was an attempt to combine that dream with current themes running through my pieces. When my mother was over she saw it and made the association of the boy sketch in the image (which was in my head based on my son to a great extent) and the wolves as being a reference to my son's battle with ASD. It was a very fresh wound for me since he had just been diagnosed and the same notions about the image had slowly been bubbling up to my own mental surface. I had to step away from the image for a bit. I finished it to this degree this year. I'm still not completely convinced that I'm happy with the piece but I do like that the image speaks about a few different things to me now. Thanks Mom.

With any luck, I'll be able to convince the folks I admire and will see at SPX to visit this blog and give the occasional feedback. If I do, they may be mighty dismayed by the good lump of images that follow. The conclusion of my Crayola marker symphony, Herry Poops. When SPX is said and done I'll have the comic to post so I figured that I would get this serialized piece out of the way for that one. I hope whoever views it enjoys it for what it is. This post is for you, Mr. Trussell.



And one of the end pages.