Recreating Szaza's lost moly

There was a pleasant surprise over on my internet friend, Samantha Zaza’s blog the other day. She posted a new entry in a moly_x book for a group we were in together, Group #64 which had flickered out of existence before ever really taking off back in 2009.

Szaza’s own moly for that group had been lost in transit somewhere between Australia and Mexico. It was a real shame because she had made a really beautiful first entry in what was intended to become a “narrative corpse” comic. So, I decided to recreate her book as best as I could. Here's a step by step guide.

#1: I bought a new Japanese accordion-fold moleskine and printed out copies of Z’s original artwork (it took a few tries to get it to the proper scale) on 2 sheets of regular printer paper.


#2: Cropping the paper down to the dimensions of the book I used a 6B pencil to cover the backside of the first few images (I only did a couple images at a time in order to minimize smudging).


#3: Taping the artwork in place I proceeded to trace the image. This transferred the graphite from the back of the page to the book.


#4: Removing the artwork we can see the faint image that has been transferred. I then darkened this up with a 2H pencil.

#5: Here I repeated the procedure for #3 and #4 until the entire image was transferred.


Now to see if I can talk Szaza into restarting this languishing group! I think I’ll do an entry and send it back to her to let her re-paint her entry.

You can check out the original over on Samantha’s flickrstream.

Comic Convention Sketches

In honor of this weekend's Toronto Comics Art Festival I thought I would post my convention sketches from the various shows I've attended in the past, including last year's TCAF show.

In the sketchbook that I bring to the shows I try to draw an opening spread to set a theme for the sketches. The first one, from the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival (MoCCA) in 2002 was, obviously, Rock and Roll. The second from the Small Press Expo (SPX) 2003 was a bit more open...robots, outer space, or cowboys...or any combination of the three! This resulted in lots of fun, creative drawings. Check them all out here.

Abstract Comics

A fascinating new book was released recently called Abstract Comics. After absorbing the book and the contributors blog I did this small experiment.

Hopefully this is the start of something.

The International Moleskine Exchange

So, I've gotten involved in another mail art project, called the International Moleskine Exchange (or Moly_X, for short). This is my entry in Shante's Moleskine for Moly-X-portraitparty2, inspired by yet another collaborative art project, Rama Hughes' The Portrait Party.

Moly_X is a pretty amazing project. Definately check out the Flickr group to see what we've got going on. I've started a new group recently, moly_x_64 (The Sequential One) that's just getting off the ground, so check out our group's progress there as well.

The Stack

I've got a monster stack of books that I'm slowly working my way through. What is the What by Dave Eggers and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel were Christmas gifts from my Mom (although I already had Fun Home, so I exchanged it for the new paperback edition of Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory). My Dad gave me a $50 Borders Gift Card, so I put that towards Berlin: City of Stones by Jason Lutes and The ACME Novelty Date Book by Chris Ware. I also ordered MeatHaüs 8: Headgames and MeatHaus 6 on a whim. Those are anthologies of comics by a collective started in New York by graduates of the School of Visual Arts and include work from Becky Cloonan, Farel Dalrymple, Tomer Hanuka, James Jean, and many others. Chris McD even included a quick sketch on my packing slip. Groovy!

Everything here comes with my highest possible reccomendation. Eggers is a genius, so is Ware. Bechdel's Fun Home was the breakout graphic novel of 2006, topping TIME's annual Top Ten Book list. Berlin, by the time it is completed will be one of the most significant works of historical fiction ever produced in comics, and the MeatHaus books are just great fun!

Wandering in Ithaca

I did some wandering around Ithaca, NY Friday evening. Some highlights included speaking with the artist Neil Berger at the Ink Shop Printmaking Center, the State of the Art Gallery, several used-book stores, a fairly decent comics shop (where I picked up Gilbert Hernandez's New Tales of Old Palomar, among others), and having coffee and drawing at Autumn Leaves, a cafe upstairs from a used-bookstore.

Got into a pretty heavy discussion of the events of 9/11 with Neil and William, a couple of regulars. I did a quick sketch of William while we were talking. Neil gave me a copy of Painful Deceptions: An Analysis of the September 11 Attack. It looks interesting but I havn't got around to watching it yet.

All Over Coffee

This is stunning! Found the link to this on Cully's Blog and I'm completely floored. Incredible!

Scott McCloud @ R.I.T.!

Whoa! Just saw that Scott McCloud is going to be at R.I.T. on Monday Sept. 18th promoting his new book, Making Comics. Very exciting!

If you don't know McCloud, you should. He's probably the most important writer examing comics as an art form. His two previous books, Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics are seminal works not just in the comics field but are also studied in Graphic Design and Semiotics programs around the country (possibly the world). Soooooo glad I didn't miss this announcement.

Convention Sketches

If you havn't noticed yet, I'm a huge fan of comics...although I lean more towards independant books rather than the mainstream superhero stuff that most of the populace would immediately call "comics". Anyways, I've attended a couple of small-press conventions MOCCA in New York City and the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. The most amazing thing about conventions like these is that many people will carry a sketchbook that the artists will usually be more than happy to do a quick drawing in. (Usually for free! only occasionally asking that you buy a book or comic.) My book for these show starts with one of my own drawings and at the last two shows I went to my sketches set the theme. The first one, from MOCCA in 2002 was, obviously, Rock and Roll. The second from SPX 2003 was a bit more open...robots, outer space, or cowboys...or any combination of the three! This resulted in lots of fun, creative drawings. I'm not sure if I should put the artists' sketches up without their permission, so for now here are my two drawings.

Craig Thompson's "Carnet du Voyage"

I've be reading Craig Thompson's Carnet du Voyage over the last few days. It is both a humbling and inspiring experience. To see page after page of masterful sketches and realise that Thompson is churning these beautiful illustrations out on-the-spot and in extremely challenging conditions blows my mind. It simultaneously makes me want to stop everything and draw for the rest of my life and also to throw out every pen and scrap of paper I have. Anyone who enjoys, illustration, travel, beauty, trees, architecture, etc. should run out and get a copy of this wonderful book. (Then treat yourself to his other books, Blankets and Goodbye, Chunky Rice.)

Surgery!

So, my girlfriend, Nicole, went in for a minor knee surgery today (is there such a thing as MINOR knee surgery?) and I did a couple sketches. One of her right before they wheeled her into surgery and one of all the books I got for my birthday (July 24th - you can still send gifts!).

By the way, Nicole is home and doing just fine.