sock-monster #593

http://www.sock-monster.com

I'm really hoping this'll be the start of extended regular updates for everyone's favorite favorite shapeless monster.  I'm definitely in a strong current of productivity, I'm finishing up a new minicomic today, and probably uploading a new website design for from the well (so look at its ugly predecessor while you can), and have already started drawing my next minicomic (which will probably only be available at shows and maybe Quimby's), and planning another.  Kevin will be back in Chicago soon, possibly with a final script for Alpha City Comics #3.

  If plans go according to themselves, I should also be exhibiting at three shows in as many months starting in August.

back to life!

It feels like I've been running on hyper-drive lately, and have missed a few important posts.

Alpha City Comics Issue Two has been published!  It's big, blue, and AWESOME!  I'll be posting it for sale soon on both Etsy and from the well.  I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I hope you enjoy it too.  Kevin and I will be launching a website soon, that will publish Alpha City pages twice a week.

Windy City Comicon was this past weekend.  It was lots of fun. I got to meet a number of really neat people, both from behind my table and in front of others'.

There are a ton of amazing comics events happening in Chicago in the upcoming couple of months, take a look on the right side of the screen.  If you live in Chicago, go to these events.  If you don't live in Chicago, move here!

As you can see below this post, I've started drawing Sock-Monster comics again.  They'll be coming out fairly regularly now, as I write new print comics.  I'll try my hardest to not let print comics obstruct Sock-Monster's schedule.

why is ed mad?

 Why is Ed mad?

Is it because this woman is talking on her phone while ordering an espresso?  Is it because she is using poor grammar?  Is it because Ed's store, Century Repair and Supplies is not a coffee shop?  OR IS IT BECAUSE I MISSED MY DEADLINE TO FINISH DRAWING ALPHA CITY COMICS ISSUE TWO?!

Consider that my official "kicking myself in the butt" moment.  I missed the deadline by three days, but I set the deadline with a buffer, to guarantee the comic would be ready for the Windy City Comicon on Saturday (the drawing is done, everything's been printed, all I have to do now is bind the books).  Really, anything is better than last year, when I was still drawing the cover of issue one hours before the comicon.

in other news:

(or "you can't have varying degrees of flawlessness") 

In anticipation of the Windy City Comicon, the good folks at the Onion's AV Club decided to highlight  the "most flawless" and "most troubling" comics from a few of the con's exhibiting publishers.  Short Pants Press was honored with a mention. Sarah Becan's Ignatz nominated Ouija Interviews was listed their "most flawless," and my Sock-Monster collection, In Anticipation of Hugs was listed as their "most troubling."  It's probably my favorite Sock-Monster review to date.  I promise I'll be drawing more "grayish hellscapes" soon.

posting when i should be drawing

I just wanna post real quick about the upcoming WINDY CITY COMICON, so
when mid September comes around, nobody's all like "WHAT?! Nobody told me about this?!" Consider yourself warned. The Windy City Comicon is Windy City Comicoming!

This show will be super awesome! I'll be there with all my books, so will Short Pants Press (towing behind them, at least Sarah Becan, Grant Reynolds and Bernie McGovern). Jeff Lemire, Jeffrey Brown, Art Baltazar, Matt Kindt, Andy Jewett, and Nate Powell will all be there! Plus a ton of people whose reputation I really should know better, but don't. Check out the guest list. Also, I'll be smuggling Kevin in my back pack, so you can meet the dude who writes Alpha City Comics, as we unveil issue two!

Not to single him out, but Nate Powell needs a little spot lighting. This'll be his first year at Windy City, and he should get a big Chicago welcome. His work is AMAZING! His latest graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf), won (and rightly so) the 2008 Ignatz for outstanding debut, and the 2009 Eisner for best graphic album. It blows my mind! Well, the book blew my mind when I read it, and it totally blows my mind that it's damn near IMPOSSIBLE to find it in Chicago right now! Luckily, Windy City has hooked you up, because with admission to the show, you have the opportunity to buy the book, as well as meet the dude. And meeting Nate Powell is an opportunity all on its own, because this guy is one of the nicest guys ever. He's super friendly and nice, and has some really funny arm gestures what's not to like?

Windy City was a great success last year, there were tons of folks, and everyone had a good time. The ticket price has increased from $5 to $10, BUT! You're getting 30 more creators to meet than you would have last year, plus, the program is expanding from a half-sheet of paper, to a FULL COLOR COMIC BOOK! Each creator got a page to do whatever they want with. I drew a brand new comic, and you can only get it in that program!

This'll also be the first show that I'll be selling What is This? my children's minicomic. I'll also have buttons and stickers and free comics for you. That's all I gotta say. go to the friggin show.

i just read a great book

So today, I finished lettering Alpha City Comics Issue Two! It's a time consuming endeavor, especially when you use a brush, and have a different font for every main character. It can also be a little painful on the fingers when you have a grip like mine on a brush. But I'm pretty excited that I can now ink the actual drawings.

Though I'm even more excited that I finished reading THIS:Johnny Hiro by Fred Chao, published by AdHouse Books. It's a trade paperback collection of minis Fred put out, as well as some unreleased work connected to the Johnny Hiro (half asian, all hero) world. This was my first contact with Johnny Hiro, and I've gotta say,

THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC!

I haven't laughed out loud as much as I did from this book in a while. It's humor was so smart! The comic timing was right on, and it looked like Fred had a lot of fun drawing it. The book really dances upon the line between comic book realism, and the impossible world of comics, as well as that between absurd comedy and heartfelt drama. One story seemed to drag a little, but maybe that's because Johnny wasn't being chased by samurais for once. Otherwise, every page of this book f'ing rocked my socks off. Luckily I was reading it at home. Definietly the most enjoyable read for me in a long while. Go read this book!

that's all.

pencils down

Tonight I finished primary penciling on Alpha City Comics Issue Two. There are tons of spaces left in the pages that need more detail, but those will be filled in as I ink, which I will start doing tomorrow morning. I'm very excited about this book, the pages are screaming for ink, or maybe it's my brush that's dying to make marks over my pencil lines. Regardless, I'm really excited to get started.

I feel like Kevin and I are learning to make comics together. He and I discussed changes to the scripts as he wrote them, and I sought responses from him over character and style designs. One day I drew a panel with perspective that I'm pretty proud of:Then I drew a whole page that just made my brain hurt:The perspective is off, the and the characters are small and, I think, awkward in their anatomy. Kevin's script calls for a second page of panels from the same point of view, so I decided to nip it in the bud. I caught Kevin on Gmail, and asked him for help. After a brief conversation, I went back to the drawing board (literally), and produced this:


So that's team work for ya.

i have books

I wasn't sure how to follow up my previous post, as it was so serious. It seemed like anything I could possibly write would seem shallow compared to it.

SO I'VE DECIDED TO SHAMELESSLY PROMOTE MY WARES!

I started an etsy account, it's a more public means of selling my books, over my website's store. I have my four comic books for sale, The Trugglemat, Spitting Pennies, What is This? and Alpha City Comics Issue One.

I've also changed how I am producing my books, i used to sew the interior pages together, and then use rice paste to glue the covers to the pages. Every time I would glue my books, I would get nervous, thinking my recipe was somehow wrong, and the books would fall apart. They never seemed to fall apart, so I kept on making my books that way. Then finally, at MoCCA this year, I put a BUNCH of copies of What is This? together, to give away, and show off. Sure enough, some of the covers started to fall off, and I was super embarrassed handing them out to people. One woman ran up to me at one point waving the book, telling me how much she liked it and as she opened the book...crack! I could hear the brittle dried glue breaking.

While I was in New York, I decided to stop using glue on my books. And as if the Universe wanted to make sure I meant what I said, it drove the point home: My favorite pastime on the way back from a convention is to sit on the Amtrak train, and read read read all the comics I got at the show. So, I sat down in my seat at Penn Station, and opened up my first read of my trip, Kazimir Strzepek's The Mourning Star, Vol. 1 (which, by the way, is AWESOME). As I read the book, the glue gave, and chunks of the book dropped one by one into my lap. I pulled out my needle and thread, and went to work sewing it back together, which took me until Albany.

So short story long, I'm sewing all of my books together now, and I think they look and feel better than ever. Alpha City Comics now has a shiny foil tape spine. And Spitting Pennies will eventually get a black tape spine, if I can find some good black tape. I'm also making a more conscious decision about what color thread I'm using for each book. I'm far more satisfied with the finished product.

KAPOW!

I spent the day yesterday drawing at my friend Ryan's temporary digs. I say temporary, because he got into town late June, and he's leaving Chicago for New York City tonight. Bon voyage, sir! Drawing with Ryan a couple times while he was in town made me remember how much I love being social while drawing. In college, I constantly had folks I could bounce off ideas with, or at least pass the hours of creating with. Alone in my room, I get antsy quickly, which often makes it difficult to get anything done. Alpha City #2's original release was supposed to be just after Stumptown in APRIL, the delay has primarily been my inability to sit still -or say no to other projects.

Speaking of other projects! I'm planning on entering Oni Press' Talent Search competition (by mail), and I've started formulating a script full of safe cracking and corsages for an anthology Jeff Zwirek is putting together for SPX.

drawing again!

Woo hoo! I'm drawing a fair amount of stuff these days. Above are some panels from a comic I drew for the Windy City Comicon, the program for which will be a full color comic book, with each guest getting a page to show off their skillz. When you come to the show (you are coming to the show, it was awesome last year), you will get to read the whole thing.

This weekend, I also drew the first installment of Bot Bakery Comics (see above sketch). Over two years ago, I heard about this crazy new vegan, gluten-free food company starting up, that was going to sell baked goods, packaged with comics about robots that made vegan baked goods. WHAT?! Who crawled into my brain and mapped out my dream job for me? I scammed my way into the start up before they even started producing food with promises of hard work and a competent drawing hand. Heh heh heh, SUCKERS! I'm love my job, and soon you'll be able to walk into select Chicago stores and buy delicious, organic, vegan, gluten-free baked goods with a cute comic by me hiding inside (the packaging, not the baked good).

And finally (both in this post, and for the anticipation felt by me and Kevin Sciretta for too long), I'm penciling issue two of Alpha City Comics! I'm having a lot of fun, and I hope you will too.

summer reading recap

Last night was the zine reading/fair at the Fun House, and it was AWESOME! All the readings were super super sweet, and I ended up going last, which made me really nervous. I enlarged copies of pages from What is This? and read it out loud with sound effects, and a funny voice for Lucy, the alien. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then I traded for a bunch of zines, and a couple of folks insisted on giving me money for my comics, so I made back about half of the printing costs, which was an added bonus I wasn't planning for.

I'll add it to my "I Just Wanna Draw Comics Fund" savings account I'm gonna try to reopen today.

I've got the day off from work, so I'm running some errands, and then heading down to Hyde Park to have a drawing date with Ryan Alexander-Tanner. I'm drawing my page for the Windy City Comicon program, which is a full-sized comic book, with each creator getting a page. I'm also working on Alpha City Comics #2, I'm 10% done with penciling the book.