‘Bout time I posted something you hafta look away from, isn’t it?

In conversation with Joe Lambert, I realized I may have been unconsciously inspired by his Too Far story [bottom-left page in the preview]. It’s in his new(ish) I Will Bite You! book, and also in a digest-sized anthology he put together with One Percent Press.

We’re just barreling through the summer, aren’t we? I can’t remember the last summer I’ve been so busy. I’m passing up $75-an-hour work for comes-out-to-minimum-wage work because I love it. I’m thinking big thoughts about the future, and saying goodbye to close friends on an almost weekly basis. Still, Caitlin and I are wallowing in rivers, pounding cold ones by the grill, going to movies, and just plain having a gay old time. It could be much worse, friends.

From Steve Zimmer's Passive-Agressive Avenger. I'd show more, but I don't wanna spoil a future video.

Drawn-Out Storytelling was a great time. Thanks are due especially to Nisse Greenberg, Paul Swartz, Lena Chandhok & Mike O’Malley [who provided music and doesn't seem to have a webby] for making it happen. The efforts of all the storytellers, musicians and fellow cartoonists involved, as well as the support of The Brick Theater and Kickstarter donors, made for some rollicking and entertaining shows.  And it wouldn’t have been nearly so enjoyable without the enthusiastic crowds night after night. Thank you too much for coming out!

For me, it was a thrill to be able to invite friends and family to an event at which they would actually have fun. I feel like I’m always inviting folks to come out and pay 15 bucks just to get into the door of some strange and out-of-the-way building so they can look at some Xeroxed comics they don’t care about, and maybe some graphic novels they could just get at the store. But not this time! This time I could boldly extend my welcome to all comers, feeling secure that they had an actual, engaging and satisfying diversion! Oh, theater, such is your allure. Thanks to all you scads of friends and family for helping the house sell out, and for being such a generous audience.

Here’s one I’ve been sitting on for a while. For, like a year. This was when my ex-roommate, my ex-ex!-EX!-rooommate Todd was updating a blog every once in a while. Which was before Dan McCool and I (he hatching ideas from his six heads like Scylla, and I sucking wayfaring cartoonists into a depthless cavity of deadlines and despair as Charybdis) pulled him into the spiraling vortex of Farmy Acres. Now Todd McArthur’s after-work creative time is mine! ALL MINE!*

As I was saying, Todd drew that on the subway in his Moleskine. I said I’d love to see it in color, he said, “So why don’tcha color it?? Neener-nyaaa-nya!!” So I did. I limited myself to the colors (if not the style) of classic comics. This is something I keep doing to myself.

The image is apropos, readers, it’s apropos. And yes, I’ve been looking for an excuse to write “apropos.” Isn’t it so weird that it ends with an “s”? It’s apropos because this is the summer of collaboration. Right now I’m in the process of assisting the acclaimed Joe Lambert as a colorist on an up-coming book. I’m also on a top secret mission with the Nymphonomena crew, as well as some…other stuff…which we’ll get to. Because, I’m trying to get my blog posts back down to a reasonable length. I figure they will as I get back into the habit of writing em.

Speaking of which, the Party Time I alluded to when last we spoke, well, it ended pretty quick. I’ve been running back and forth between Vermont and New York, working long days, fretting, taking meetings, all of it. Real life started again. Just like that! Again I’m starting to see what things I can live without. I want to simplify. I wanna get rid of some stuff. I’m having my lump looked at before I turn 26 and rejoin the legions of uninsured Americans.

Look forward to more regular updates this summer, precious reader. There is much to talk about, and I’ve scanned a buncha sketchbook pages, too.

*As it was once before, in a dream…
–Punctilious Pat

Remember when I promised that I’d be posting a side-by-side-by-side comparison of three different cover printing techniques? Well, here it is. And I’m gonna talk about it. At length. I know you’re very excited for it. But first I want to note that Oak & Linden issue #3 is now available at the PB dot C shop. It features the second chapter of Petrified Girlfriend, and those little imps Hicough & Belch. I’ve also posted chapter one in it’s entirety to keep you up-to-date. I plan to continue posting the previous chapter as each new one comes out, so chapter two will be online in the fall, when I print chapter three. Make sense? Exciting? Legions of fans??

My plan for the Petrified Girlfriend book, which I’ll someday make in the hopefully not-so-distant future, is to print in two Pantone colors on a nice, creamy paper. I thought I’d try to hone the two-color process by first giving it a whirl on the cover of O&L 3, since it features the second chapter of Petrified. I’ve colored this way a few times before, including on Lawrence the Projectorhead. I’m still trying to figure out a way to make it easier. So far, I’ve been working in the Channels in Photoshop, which means I have to fill each color in two parts, individually on the red Channel and on the green Channel. It’s laborious and it’s time intensive. Does anybody know a better way?

First I printed the cover with a silkscreen. I’ve done screenprints that involve halftone screens before, with good results, but I was really disappointed with how my screens turned out. Part of the problem had to do with burning them on a less-than-ideal light table. I kept bumping up the size of my dots to try to make it easier, and still kept shooting out a pretty rough and ragged image. Lots of people who also screenprint were into this cover, I think basically because they understood the work that went into it, but I gotta admit I hated it. I also didn’t think I did a good job mixing the colors I was looking for. It was tough to create the lightness of the green ink without adding too much white, and still allowing it to be transparent to create nice mixes with the red. I also was disappointed in the paper I bought, which was a little too thin and a bit too yellow. The worst part, though, was the feeling of the cover when I’d read the book. With that much coverage, the acrylic ink feels all chalky and gross on the fingernails.

If you read this far, then bless you. You are a true friend or mother. It’s almost over. So, I made some laser prints (or color copies for the layman). I don’t like the shininess or the plasticky feel that these things make. Plus the colors came out a little dull and dark after they got run through the four-color process. So I said to hell with it. I’ll get it done for real. I’m gonna print with Pantones. I’ll pay an offset printer and I’ll get it done. The thing about offset printing, though, is you gotta make 500 or so prints to make it cost effective. So now I have 500 covers. I honestly don’t expect to sell or trade more than 200 copies of the comic, ever. What I’m saying is, now I have 300 posters. Anybody want one? Also I owe my girlfriend a fairly large chunk of change for covering the printing.

I turned in my CCS thesis material this Monday, the morning after news of that video game-worthy event in Pakistan broke during a Mets/Phillies game that the Metropolitans won in the 14th. On this very same same Monday I paid off the rest of my tuition (that wasn’t covered by loans), which turned out to be less than I expected, sooooo this week started on a good groove. I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures of the thesis book yet, but I promise to post some later this month.

Now that I hit the major deadline, I’m coming back, bit by bit, to the little pleasures I didn’t allow myself in the past three or four months. One was Mario Galaxy 2, another was The Sopranos, I turned on my Google Chat again, checked out some old comics from the Schulz Library (and bought a new one, too), I look forward to reading The New Yorker again, and I keep coming across new time suckers I forgot I used to do all the time. And NOWwww, I’m blogging! I really do have fun writing these, and I hope I’m not the only one being entertained.

There have been a million developments since I went into seclusion. For one, Hicough & Belch the imps are on Top Shelf 2.0, in living color! For another, I found out that hiccough is spelled with two “c”s. What else? Thanks to Brett Warnock at Top Shelf, James Kochalka at American Elf and Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter for linking to the Cartoonist Laureate post! Thanks, too, for new folks that I’ve met at MoCCA Fest and elsewhere for visiting here; I’m sorry if it has looked like a barren wasteblog. There was also some exciting news yesterday, when Rob Clough at The Comics Journal named Nymphonomena one of the Top 25 Mini Comics of 2010 (it’s at #14)! Lots of my Cartoon Studies cohorts are listed as well, and it’s a true honor to be named alongside folks like Kevin Huizenga, Jim Rugg and Damien Jay.

I know that may have been a lot of self-congratulating to swallow, so I thank you all for being such considerate lovers and readers. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve got a backlog of doodles, outta-left-field opinions, and new comics to show you, as well as some exciting summer projects coming, many of which are collaborative. This’ll be a pleasant contrast to the past few months of solitary activity and trying (and often failing) to not distract myself with social engagement. I’ll be happy if I/we can pull off only half of our fun activities.

Yes, it’s another Buchwald sketch. I did it a while ago, and I’m still pining to get going on a Big Buchwald Project that’s looking farther and farther off. This drawing also demonstrates some loose, free, quickness that I seem to have lost for now. Yeah, I know that back leg is a little weird, but I still prefer it to what I’ve been up to lately.

I just keep thinking how much I wanna simplify things when I get to that Next Big Project. Time to Speed Things Up and Get Things Done. None of us is making a career out of comics, so why kill ourselves over it? Oy. I should stop now. Jeeeeeeee-zooey, we haven’t had one o’ these posts in a while, have we??

Oh, shit! Bet you didn’t think I’d hitcha with the Greenday!! Well guess what?? Today I finished the second chapter of Petrified Girlfriend! Yes, yes, I know I “finished” it back in the spring, but take a look at what I’m talking about. Here are a few sample panels that my cohorts at the Center for Cartoon Studies (the poor saps) got at the beginning of May.

And now, here’s what you, the faceless masses (my reason for living!), will get to smudge between your grubby little fingers come this Autumn.

That’s all for now! I’ve got other things to do! Away with you all, I’m a very busy, very…very powerful, and very important man!!

I’ve got some doodles from the last semester up at the CCS Visiting Faculty blog! Also representing are my buddies Melissa Mendes and David Yoder. What a semester jam-packed with Livin Legendz!! Here’s a lidl preview–some drawings of Kim Deitch that I didn’t submit to the blog. Instead I horded them to share with you, my Dear Sweet Pals.

And his hands. He has the longest, cartooniest, expressive-est figners I’ve ever seen. Special bonus: they’re actually square at the end! Like a Kirby hand!!

To see my crowning Deitchievement, check out that Visiting Faculty, aight? And by the way, I keep forgetting to mention that Oak & Linden issue # 2 is now available at the shoppe. Keep your inner consciousness alert for #3, dropping in the fall.

Hi friends. This past weekend I flew down to Charlotte with my buddy Joe to attend the Heroes Con (he beat me to the blog punch). My lovey dovey Caitlin’s parents live in Charlotte, and this was a great excuse for us to visit them. They were welcoming and giving as always, and I feel ridiculously lucky to have them as “in-laws.” They gave me a bed and rides to and fro (including today at four in the morning) and a bag lunch for every day of the convention.

I was representing CCS along with my classmates and pals Ben, Paul, Lena, Monty and Jesse. Although there were a few kerfluffles with the existence of our name badges or our table on day one of the three-day comicsplosion, the event was still fun and productive. Heroes is a big convention, and tilts toward mainstream superhero fare. It’s really refreshing for one of those events in that it’s not at all about pushing whatever new commodity the big conglomerates are hoping nerds will get feverish over, or that the entertainment news will scoop. It’s about comic books and the people who make comic books, and it’s for the people who read comic books. There are no Star Trek actors signing autographs and no big promotional launches of video games (with one exception).

And, thanks to the force of will that is Dustin Harbin, it also includes an Indie Island overflowing with the type of literary/comedic comics that I read and make. It was great to see graphic novelly indie snobs and rippling pectoral devotee fanboys join in the middle of this convention hall-sized venn diagram. Plus I got to meet some great artists, talk to some enthusiastic comics readers, scour through longboxes for forgotten, musty comics nobody cares about, and goof around with not only my tablemates, but also Joe, Gabby and Alec, all of whom I love very dearly. No homo.

This being a mainstream convention, there was a lot of drawing famous characters going around. I couldn’t resist. It’s Goofy acting like the Tex Avery Wolf.

Sorry my posts have been a bit sporadically lately. There have not only been a whole buncha deadlines, but also there’s been a crazy string of unseasonably warm weather in the V-T (talkin 70s–even 80º!!). I’m also sorry to say they’re gonna keep on bein sporadic until May! I’ll try to keep bringing you something new once a week, at least. I just don’t wanna let nobody down. This might be bad timing, but I’m also starting in on this newfangled thing, the “twittle,” the “tweedle?” Whata you call it? Anyhow, enough of that. Tweet and Retweet went out in a boat, Tweet fell off, who was–http://twitter.com/paddymacjr, OK????

Well, there is plenty of news. Big news! All of it related to this first item: I’ll be at table G4 at MoCCA Fest next weekend, so if you’re in the New York area, please stop on by. It’s Saturday and Sunday at the “Fightin 69th” Regiment Armory on Lexington Ave between 25th and 26th. I’ll be debuting Oak & Linden issue #2 there, which’ll be available at the shop after I get back. And! my work will also be appearing in a few anthologies:

1. Caboose, a tabloid-size extravaganza all about White River Jct, VT, distributed for free
2. Tag Team Comics, “a round robin cartooning adventure” that blends factory-style job separation with jam comic togetherness (a full description awaits you at the other end of the link)
3. San Papel–Westerns! And perfect bound! I drew the cover, remember?

Mayhap this will pique your interest until next weekend. It’s the new Oak & Linden cover some time in its second trimester. I’ll post the finished baby juuuuust before the actual Fest, so I hope your breath is bated!