Interview with me at The Panoptikon

There's a brief interview with me at a blog called The Panoptikon, which comes out of an art school in the United Arab Emirates. The questions revolve around teaching as much as comics. Read more...

A sketchbook comic

I'm going blog-mad, suddenly I have tons of stuff to post! Here's some actual art, a comic I've been working on in a sketchbook, in moments of spare time (click for a larger image):
The comic was drawing in a small format, 5" x 6" sketchbook, one panel at a time. I then scanned them and laid them out as a page. The story and art is constrained according to an assignment I give at the end of my "ink drawing" class at SVA. I wanted to try it out myself and make sure I thought it was worthwhile (I do). As assigned, the comic must be one page, inked, and incorporate the following elements into a coherent narrative of some sort:

-Three different settings: interior, urban, nature
-Two human characters
-One Animal

The theme of the comic must be: “an exchange”

For my own version I added a combinatorial constraint whereby each character is featured once on their own (son, polar bear, father) then in three pairs (son/bear, father/son, father/bear).

I had a notion--from a dream in fact--of a miserable alcoholic father rotting in some arctic outpost along with a weak-willed son so I decided to make them my starting point and add the polar bear as my animal. (It was that or a penguin... (In fact, penguins have figured more than a few times in my students' takes on this assignment)). I sort of fudged the "urban" setting, allowing myself the polar outpost in the first panel, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the result. It reads like a condensed version of a longer narrative, a short story or possibly even a graphic novel, although I doubt I will pursue it any further.

If anyone wants to do a comic based on this assignment--or to assign it in a class--please feel free to. I would love to see the results. Read more...

Two upcoming exhibits

I will have original pages in two upcoming exhibits and I will also be making appearances at both shows.

"Exercises in Style" pages in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

"The Language of Comics", the exhibition of pages from 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style and Jessica's La Perdida originally put together by the Richard Brush Gallery at St. Lawrence University, is moving to the Sordoni Gallery at Wilkes University.

Opens Oct. 22, continues through Dec. 9

Sordoni Art Gallery
Stark Learning Center
150 South River St.
Wilkes University
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Open daily from noon to 4:30 p.m. 408-4325.

Reception Nov. 3 from 5 to 7 p.m., preceded by my "Exercises in Style" slide lecture at 4:30 p.m. in Room 166, Stark Learning Center.



Odds Off (remember that one?) pages at the Norman Rockwell Museum

A new group exhibition of art from "graphic novels" is going up at the Norman Rockwell Museum, and will feature pages from Odds Off and La Perdida. I expect this new show will generate some buzz when word gets out... Lauren Weinstein is working on a postcard invitation which should be making the rounds soon.

LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel
November 10, 2007 through May 26, 2008

Norman Rockwell Museum
9 Glendale Road, Route 183
P.O. Box 308
Stockbridge, MA 01262
413.298.4100

Weekdays 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Weekends and holidays 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

I will be doing an afternoon comics workshop at the museum April 5 of next year. More details when the time comes... Read more...

I'm writing comics reviews for Bookforum

Somehow it hasn't occurred to me to mention on my blog that I have gotten back to writing occasional reviews of comics for the excellent Bookforum magazine. My latest review is of Paul Karasik's collection of Fletcher Hanks comics, I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! I'm aiming to write something more or less every quarterly issue, and I will try to be a better self-promoter in the future and announce them here, especially as the reviews are available to read for free on the website.

Here's a link to my review of Rutu Modan's Exit Wounds.
I also reviewed Jason's The Left Bank Gang but the link is either broken or cancelled... Read more...

My first MC gig, with Rutu Modan

This coming Sunday, October 21, I'll be interviewing Rutu Modan at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. She'll show a short slide show about her latest graphic novel Exit Wounds, then she and I will talk a bit about her history as a cartoonist as well as her ideas about comics as an art form. Followed by the usual Q&A, so come prepared!


The Jewish Community Center
334 Amsterdam Avenue @ 76th Street in Manhattan
Sun, Oct 21
6:00 PM
$5.00 - Member
$8.00 - Non-Member Read more...