‘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.

I prefer the Donald Duck mode of dress. Wear a black shirt that stands out against colorful backgrounds, and just let your bush cover your vitals. Call it a Modesty Bush.

Meanwhile! This weekend (and also the following Wednesday), maybe you should check out the Drawn-Out Storytelling shows at The Comic Book Theater Festival at the Brick in Williamsburg (meaning Brooklyn, not Colonial). Some friends and I will be drawing live illustrations to accompany live storytelling, along with a band of instruments you’ve never heard of. For a few, there will be slideshows of prepared drawings, but there’s still live drawing every night. Please come by if you’re in the area. The show dates are:

Friday | June 24 | 8:45
Sunday | June 25 | 8:00
Wednesday | June 29 | 8:45

It’s $15 for a show, but just $5 for any following performance after your first. Still, if it’s outta your price range, I’ll understand. I’d still like to see you while I’m in town. More information about the show is here.

I’ve been exercising again. Off and on. Also drinking outside in the long summer twilight. On and on. The two activities have more-or-less evened out to the same belly girth that I’ve been sporting since winter. Also been very busy with projects that pay money, and, to a degree, with some that don’t. It’s good to be busy. It’s far less depressing than being bored. I have been feeling like I’ve been neglecting my more personal work, though. Still, the Summer of Collaborative Projects is definitely proving to be just that. Also I’ve seen some good movies, like Cave of Forgotten Dreams, 13 Assassins, Midnight in Paris, uh, Bridesmaids. And what more can I ask for?

Remember that guy? He’s been going through a lot of changes, lately. You’ll see.

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.

Oh, how I’ve missed you so. Yes, Twitter was exciting. She was so exuberant, and of the moment, and always wanted to get up to something fun. But all the non-stop partying, and wild e-sex had to end sometime. She could be very demanding, and it’s like I could never pay enough attention to her, you know? Maybe some day the three of us can be great friends, or even join each other in a ménage of understanding and mutual respect. Some day, maybe.

I’ve got so many things I want to show you! There are doodles in my sketchbook, comics and illustrations, and side-by-side comparisons of silkscreen-vs.-laser-vs.-offset printing! But they’ll all have to wait for another day. One fine morning in May, when the fruit trees are all in bloom, perhaps our love can once more blossom. Until then…

MOCCA FEST! MOCCA FEST! MOCCA FEST!

Friends, New Yorkers, countrymen, lend me your eyeballs! I’ll be at table M-11, along the back wall, with hot young cartoonists Beth Hetland, Ben Horak and Josh Kramer. I’ll have a new sampler of Farmy Acres strips and Oaks & Lindens numbers 1–3 (the last with it’s lovely new Pantone color cover), and I’ll be checking out fellow-CCSers’ material up and down the M and H rows. You might like to do the same.

MoCCA Fest is this Saturday & Sunday, April 9 & 10, at the Lexington Avenue Armory, 68 Lexington Ave (between 25th & 26th).

And! Guess what ELSE?!!

For those of you on the other coast, I’ll have some original art and some comics on display at Portland, OR’s Nisus Gallery. They’ll even be open for extended hours during the Stumptown Comics Fest the following weekend (April 16 & 17). The show is called Paneled, and it’ll be on exhibit through the 30th. Check it out at 328 NW Broadway #117 (at Flanders).

Whattaya know, but my alter ego has gone branding-crazy. His thirst for market saturation has taken him so far as to brazenly co-opt a national drinking holiday! Surely, this is a new low for marketing.

I know I said that I wouldn’t blog for a while, but it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and in certain ethnic circles, you get a pass from your Lentin Resolve on St. Patrick’s Day. I’ll probably blog once or twice more before Easter, too, concerning the MoCCA Fest. I’ll be there, April 9th & 10th at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Ave. It’s a good time to mention that location, history fans, because during the Civil War, the New York 69th were known as the Irish Brigade. Remember that, in case Alex Trebek ever asks you about it in the form of an answer. Anyhow, I’ll be there with Beth Hetland, Josh Kramer and Ben Horak. I challenge you to find a lovelier set of young cartoonists.

I’m not normally a fan of St. Patrick’s Day, even though it is my Feast Day. I’ve often felt that it’s too centered on perpetuating a stereotype of the Micks as all-day, fightin-mad, fall-down Drunks. Kiss Me, I’m Irish. Irish for the Day. Yaddayadda, all these beer-branded green T-shirts just so some bros can pregame on the commuter train and get hammered before 10:00 in the morning.

This year, though, for some reason I’m excited. I’m pulling out the Clancy Brothers tunes, and visions of blood pudding are dancing through my head. And so I’ve drawn you another faux-vintage little holiday web card. It’s just for you, The Whole Internet.