Thanks For Reminding Me of Who I Am...

For a while I had stopped drawing and writing all together it wasn't until late 2004 that I returned to the art I so desperately missed.
Let me back up and tell you about my exciting forays into comics. I began making my own comics when I was probably either five or six years old. I would draw comic books about Pac-Man, He-Man, Batman, and Optimus Prime. From there I became interested in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Mania. In fact, in third grade I was doing comissions for my schoolmates at an astounding fifty cents a turtle! From there I was introduced to The New Mutants, which snowballed into a love for all that was related to X-Men, with the exception of Wolverine, whom I still dislike. After a long while digging on the X-Men, I became interested in the Peanuts gang, since Charles Schultz is from my home state and my father had subscribed to the StarTribune - the only Twin Cities paper able to publish the strip.
Over time my interest in drawing comics began to wane. The last comic that I produced before my hiatus was a twenty page comic entitled Happy and Joyous Day, which I co-created by my good friend Matt Nguyen. This comic was a part of my final project at The Art Institutes International of Minnesota. Following school, I ended up getting a job and moving to Madison, Wisconsin. After moving, I stopped creating comics, but I still had influences. I was enthralled with the work of University of Maryland graduates Frank Cho, creator of the syndicated strip Liberty Meadows, and Aaron McGruder, creator of the syndicated strip The Boondocks. I also at the time became a big fan of Michael Jantze, creator of the formerly syndicated The Norm comic strip. At one point I contacted Michael Jantze on how to break into the syndicates, he gave me some great resources, which I haven't used, partially due to the various censors that are required by the syndicates. The censorship of syndicated strips was something, to my understanding, that both Frank Cho and Aaron McGruder have dealt with at times.
I moved to Phoenix in December of 2004, directly following my graduation from the University of Minnesota. While in Phoenix I began messing around with creating comics again. At one point, I had decided that I wanted to publish my comics in newspapers, but then again realized that I wanted more freedom in creating art and therefore stopped pursuing work through the syndicates.
During my time in Phoenix, I collaborated with a woman by the name of Liz Young on her Master's Thesis project. The project combined dance, music, theatre, and comic art into a twenty to twenty-five minute piece that was well received by the entire audience. Following one of the night's performances, I was asked to take part of a question and answer session, which I wasn't prepared for in the least. I had people asking me questions such as, "what was your inspiration for ___," and "what type of method did you use for ___." I felt out of my element. I was asked if I wanted to continue collaborating in this field and at the time I had said "no." However, after later consideration I decided I was open to collaborating again with dancers. Thus, Liz and myself may collaborate on another project sometime in the future. However, it was this project that brought me back up to speed on drawing, writing, and creating again.
The last artist that I have to thank on my continued road is Hope Larson. Although I do not have a personal relationship with her, other than one e-correspondence and a brief conversation at a lecture at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and although my style of art is nothing like her's whatsoever. Her life intrigues me. She is an ever-changing transplant that is married to a fellow artist. Her story is somewhat similar to my travels throughout the midwest and southwestern United States and being married to an artist, my wife is a dancer. Unlike myself, Hope and her husband, Bryan Lee O'Malley are both established artists in the comic business and I am living back in my home state, while she is living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After her lecture and learning that she started publishing her comics on the internet, I wrote her a correspondence thanking her and then proceeded with this website that you see today.
Of course, this self-fulfilling intellectual masturbation generally does nothing for the reader of such a blog, but it's good for anyone who cares to know where exactly I my thought process lies.
In summation, my thanks goes out to Bob Kane and Bill Finger (creators of Batman), Toru Iwatani (creator of Pac-Man), Ray Wagner (the president of Mattel, the company that created He-Man), Takara and Hasbro toys (for creating and distributing Transformers), Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Chris Claremont (original writer of New Mutants and longtime writer of X-Men), Charles Schultz, Frank Cho, Aaron McGruder, Michael Jantze, Liz Young, and Hope Larson for helping me develop any talent that I have today and not letting me forget who I am and what I want to do.

My Local

Borrowing the title from a great limited series comic book, Local, I wanted to do a post about two points of interest. The first point of interest, is being able to somehow mention Local (the comic book), while simultaneously praise the writer Brian Wood and artist Ryan Kelly on their tremendous work. Secondly, I wanted to come up with a clever way of incorporating my own local, which is done at the end of every issue by various people from all over the world, whom send in pictures and descriptions about places that hold resonance to them. Well, I tried to figure out for myself where my single local is and I just couldn't do it. Seriously, I cannot come up with one single location, because I have so many different locals that I can't just call upon one in particular.
The character of Local, Megan, began her journey in Portland, Oregon and thus far has travelled throughout the United States and Canada. Although I can assume what the character is feeling based on her actions, like most modern art, I take away from the piece what I get from the piece. What "I get" is that the character, much like myself, is not satisfied with her station in life and is looking to somehow rectify that. She travels from city to city to find something that keeps her grounded. Unlike the character in this series, I have something that keeps me grounded - that being my wife. However, I am not satisfied with my station in life and until I am, I will continue to search for that place. My search has not and will not be limited to what many generalize as a "local scope." Instead, I have broadened my locality by moving to different places throughout the country - although not nearly as many places as the character of Megan.
In all fairness, whoever reads this, do yourself a favor and begin reading this book. You can still find copies at your local comic book shop, or khepri.com. Once the twelve issues are complete, you can buy the inevitable graphic novel. Wood (The Couriers, Demo, and DMZ) and Kelly (Lucifer, Books of Magic, Giant Robot Warriors) have done some amazing work in the past and will continue to do so in the future, but currently, this collaboration cannot be limited to the word great - it is truly whatever is better than great times infinity.

Cripes! Almost a month!

It's almost been a month since I last updated this blog. Well, I have some decent news, as of yesterday I am officially able to drive again! I had a nocturnal break-through epileptic seizure about a month ago and was told by my neurologist to not drive until my newly prescribed medication was up to its full dosage. As of yesterday I was up to my full dosage and now do not have to rely on others for menial tasks such as picking up groceries. Also, I feel a little bit better about paying my car payment now, since the car wasn't really being used.
Anyhow, I am going to try and figure out how to post some of my comic strips on this thing soon enough. When that happens, that is if anyone reads this, I hope I don't get sued.

The creation of a New Deal: The fallout of a meltdown.

I would like to begin by apologizing to all those who will be negatively affected by the decisions that I have made in the preceding week, or confused by the following statements. I will explain the apology in more detail after you have walked with me through my innermost logic. Don't worry; I'm not going to inflict any tragedies upon myself, or upon any others. However, I have come to a moment of clarity in my life in which I have realized that I am unhappy. My current unhappiness has many different components, some of which I cannot change, but my most hindering component of unhappiness I have some control over and I intend on changing it to the best of my ability. In summation, I have decided that I am going to strive to create, which is an action that has defined me since I was a child.

Since I have been able to hold a pencil and scrawl on a pad of paper I have created. I believe that it is the intention of humanity to be drawn towards creation - it is what we do whether by our monuments to capitalism or by the miracle of reproduction. I also believe that humanity, as self-involved as we all are, would like nothing more than to create an ideal. Perhaps this is why I am unhappy. Maybe the reason I am unhappy is because I have created an ideal for myself that I cannot achieve. Paradoxically, maybe through creating an ideal I have created. Therefore, I should be happy, but alas, I am not. This paradox had baffled me and to go forward I needed to understand why by creating an ideal I was not satisfied. In an effort to understand what will make me happy I needed to define what ideal I had created. My ideal is not to merely create, but to be able to create and to sustain a work/life balance that is modest and allows for my family and myself to live comfortably. With this ideal in mind, I should be happy with anything that I create as long as I am able to be comfortable. In fact, one could argue that I had created this ideal with a sustainable work/life balance, while living in Phoenix. I had a decent job, which was for the most part non-stressful. I lived in a climate that was at times unbearable, but with that being said there is not a perfect climate anywhere - save for maybe San Diego, California. In addition, I lived seizure-free - and yes for those keeping score, these recurring seizures have had an affect on my psyche and my usual resolute stability. In fact, I have begun to question whether or not my ability to obtain financial gains within the minor amount of time I have during my major earning years will be able to support myself and my family in the years to come - especially concerning health issues. However, and I apologize for veering off track - remember you are walking through my thoughts and they are muddled - I did not obtain this ideal in Phoenix. I was still unhappy, because I was not creating what I wanted to create.

Thus, I am left at my decision. I need to be able to create what I want - as selfish as it sounds. I need to be able to sustain my health - and through capitalism, it must be by financial gain. Most importantly, I need to be able to reach my ideal in a healthy manner. Given these three decisions and my ideal situation I need to regain my usual resolute stability and buckle down. I need to take life for what it is worth. I cannot search for any creative solution or deeper meaning. Instead I need to allow my creativity to guide my projects, I need my stability to be able to sustain my health, and I need a definite guide by which to complete my creations in order to meet my ideal.

To be able to create what I want in my specified medium, my wife and I had decided the other day what steps I must take to do so:

1. Define my project.
2. Define my timetable.
3. Make people aware of my project.
4. Finish my project.
5. Produce my project.
6. Make contacts for my project.
7. Make contacts for future projects.
8. Obtain the title of "creator".

Now for the continuation of the aforementioned apology.

In order to arrive at my ideal I will need to become even more reclusive and resolute in finishing my projects and therefore will have less time for trivial matters. Instead of watching the Twins game EVERY NIGHT, I will draw, write, brainstorm, and research. Mind you, I will leave time for associating with my friends and family. However, I will have a definite timetable that I need to adhere to and in an effort to make myself happy, I need to be able to have everybody supporting me. Christ, this sounds like a plea for help, but it isn't. I am merely asking everyone to bear with me over the next however long it takes me to reach my ideal.

Of course, there is always the speculation that I may not reach my ideal. However, at the very least, I can try. If I don't try to strive for what has defined me since I was young, then life doesn't seem to make much sense.