never mind

The gauntlet has been officially picked up, dusted off and placed back on the shelf. Ignore the color-off challenge, but I'll post my coloring job when it's finished.

Meanwhile here's another relic from Eric Talbot's file folders. Eric and I collaborated on this one. I penciled. Eric inked and toned. I think this was printed in some mini-comic about music, possibly an issue of Mary Fleener's Chicken Slacks.

©1978???

Lordy! Next year Spartacock will be THIRTY YEARS OLD!

Spartacock was created way back when I was a strapping lad of 22 and Benny - yes, THAT Benny - needed an illustration for an article about cockfighting. Is that correct, Benny, was it an article about cockfighting? I think it was an article about cockfighting.

If you've ever seen Spartacus, there's a scene at the end where Kirk Douglas as the gladiator Spartacus is hanging crucified after going up against the Man. His wife goes by with some other peasants who are fleeing the oppressive regime and she shows him his son, secretively, so the Man won't kill the kid for being the son of Spartacus. Something like that. Bissette can probably remember every single word of dialog, but my brain does not retain so much detail.

Hey, look at that sissy signature! Ha ha! What a fruity artisty signature! Thank God I finally just settled on the plain block printing.
***

Speaking of oppressive regimes, good ol' blogger is still frustrating people's attempts to post comments on jabberous. Sorry about that folks. I have no power to improve on that ridiculous situation. All I can do is welcome you to send comments directly to me. My address is lasagnalagna at yahoo dot com.

Here's one Sculptor Rick sent via yahoo:

I'd like to add my praise for Eeteed's comic. I enjoyed The Henbanes. It has a real charm. Thanks for sharing your comic.

Oh and about the google searching, watch out if you type in "cream pie". I found that out when I was doing some research for a Fairly Odd Parents piece. Of course the results are determined by the preference settings you set in Google.

meeting sketch

I get bored in meetings. Thank God for pencils and paper. Actually, this helps me focus and pay attention to what others are saying. If I'm not doodling I get so bored and frustrated I can't concentrate. You might want to try it, if you are lucky enough to work where some ogre supervisor does not "write you up" for drawing in meetings. It's cool where I work.

I bet I've explained all that on this blog before. Just call me Grandpa Simpson.

unknown comic

A few weeks ago I bought a copy of EVERYDAY MUTTS at a Borders book store in Bedford Massachusetts.

Last week a co-worker gave me the DVD of Avatar Season 1 Disc 1. I had never seen Avatar and knew nothing about it. She thinks it's great and wants me to see it.

So I watched the first 10 minutes of edisode 1 last Thursday morning. Then I stopped and ate breakfast. Then I picked up my copy of EVERYDAY MUTTS (which I had still not read yet) and started thumbing through it.

And the above comic fell out of my copy of EVERYDAY MUTTS that I bought at a Borders book store in Bedford Massachusetts!

I swear this is all 100% true.

Clearly we are missing page 4, and God knows how many more pages! Unknown comic, how does it end???

spreadin' the love!

Don't let my social anxieties fool you - I'm a real people person! Networking, hobnobbing, gladhanding, rainmaking, alla that stuff! I'm a Uniter! Not a Divider! I just love connections. Like this one! Benny and Howard re-connect after 30-something years! This really should have happened live on The View!

I'm also trying to connect eeTeeD with the universe, and will post my review of his comic later. I can't get to it right now. But here's a character drawing he sent me to go along with the review. I guess that means I'm supposed to use this ONLY, and not show any actual panels from the comic (?)



My favorite editor in the whole wide world is talking to his son's class at school about comics, and he asked me to send him examples of the scribbling that happens at the beginning of a comic. So I sent him these first few pages of Runaway Comic #3, and the sketch that eventually turned into the back cover of Runaway Comic #2 after Mark Landman and I beat the crap out of it.

Dooky 1

Here's page one of a 4-page comic I drew a million years ago. I still think it's pretty clever, for potty humor written and drawn by a rank amateur. You know, how Spooky goes “BOO!”, but Dooky goes “POO!”, and the little buttcrack in Dooky’s doiby and stuff. And the story actually has a neat twist surprise ending, as you’ll see in 3 days.

I recently sent this artwork to eeTeeD as a love offering. He has been quite supportive of certain things behind the scenes. It just seemed like something that would interest him as a devotee of old obscure Harvey artists. He wrote back with some questions that will now make a nice little interview about this historic document.

eeT: what inspired you to create this story?

me: I just wanted to try my hand at continuity. It is one of my first attempts at a “professional”-looking comic. If not THE first attempt. I’m not sure. I know I started a Pink Panther comic once, and was immediately surprised and frightened at how hard it was to keep the characters looking the same, staging the scenes, everything that looks so easy until you try it. I know the Pink Panther comic never made it past page 1. I also remember starting to illustrate a Harlan Ellison story in comic form. That also never made it past page 1. I think Dooky may be the first experiment like this that I ever actually finished.

was it ever published or submitted to any publications?

I sent it to Kitchen Sink to see if they’d print it in Bijou or any of their anthologies. Of course, Denis K wrote back and said no. And I probably sent it to a couple of other publishers.

i don’t see a lot of pencil lines on the art, were pencils made on separate paper?

Nah, look closer. It has pencils in it.

why the odd oversized dimensions?

Because I was too stupid to notice that the shape of the drawing pad was nowhere near the shape of a comic book.

what kind of paper did you use? it doesn’t seem to be bristol board.

It’s just some cheap drawing pad paper.

***

About cons: Jed almost nailed it in his comments here. I love people, but have social anxiety issues. And what I'll call breadwinner anxiety issues, for lack of a known phrase. Sure, I may be able to sell enough Gnatrat art to pay for my trip - but I doubt it. And even if I did break even, what have I gained? Sitting at a table at a con is hard work for me. I don't want to work hard for zero gain.

how I spent my saturday

GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS

I finally went through all the TMNT original art and got it organized. That's the good news - I can tell you exactly what is available, and the list is copied below.

The other good news is, you can still get it for $60 per page THIS WEEK ONLY - first week of April.

The bad news is, after going through all this art and seeing it all again - Benny's right! I'm crazy to sell some of this stuff for $60 per page! Even if it has been buried in a cabinet under a massive pile of junk for years!

SO, that's the deal. This week only, $60 per. After that, I'm going to try to put together a real online "store" with scans etc, and pricing per page.

BUT! Even THEN, you won't be able to beat my low LOW prices! Here at Crazy Pumpie's Discount Comic Art Barn, our prices are INSANE!!!

The following TMNT original art pages are SOLD.

All others are UNsold.

NO cover art is available, sorry.

TMNT 16 SOLD pages:
1, 6, 12, 14, 15, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 32
All other pages are UNsold, but please note:
I only have the BOTTOM TIER of page 28. The top 2/3 of that page is SOLD.

TMNT 22 SOLD pages:
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 26, 29, 33, 34, 35
All other pages are UNsold, but please note:
I only have the "ANYBODY HOME?" panel of page 27. The rest of that page is MIA.

TMNT 23 SOLD pages:
4, 20, 21, 22, 29
All other pages are UNsold, but please note:
Page 1 and page 2 are hand-lettered pages, with art from issue 16 photocopied and pasted on. No actual original drawings on page 1 and page 2.

All pages are approx 11" x 17", very clean art on heavy bristol. Some special effects are glued on photocopied material (I did not meticulously hand-draw all the spiraling TV test patterns and stuff like that!)

THANKS AGAIN to all who have inquired!

16 years ago

Here's an original that Voice of Reason just dug out of the pile. I told him he could pick out a piece for a free (and very very late) wedding gift, and he picked THIS! Go figure.

This is from my loosey-goosey markers-n-pencils period. It's almost JED-LIKE in its wavey-graveyness!

Speaking of original art - Here's your chance to own ORIGINAL ME AND MARC ARSENAULT ARTWORK for $9.99, AND donate to a friend in need. Well, actually, I never met the guy, but still, it's a good thing to do. Read about where the money goes if you click the link and look at the art. There's just one catch - it's a filthy disgusting porn gag. Starring ROSS PEROT, no less! If you are brave enough to own it, go get it.

There's also a link to a Lasagna Lagna mini at the bottom of the page. If you can snag it for a few books - well, I can honestly say I'd buy one if it was not by me and I did not already own it.
...

eeTeeD asked me to reveal the dirty laundry about my dealings with DC.

There ain't none. I have only worked with DC maybe 3 times in my life. On very small projects, a page here or there. No news there.
...

Well, I saw Children of Men after hearing how great it is from so many people. I hated it. Tedious confusing plot, huge logic gaps, mumbling dialogue, impossible coincidences, stupid attempts at humor - it was bloody awful.

It stank, and on top of that was the moronic two-dimensional politics of the thing.

What a mess!
...

art vs $$$

(a continuation from the last few posts & comments, mainly Jed's)

You'll go crazy(er) if you keep trying to make sense of it all. More on that in a minute, but first, I think I can make a LITTLE sense of the high page rate $ vs low original art $ conundrum. It's just pure economics. National magazines are fairly flush with money from advertisers, so they pay a nice page rate to get quality artwork. Comic book fans are typically NOT flush with money, so they pay what they can for artwork. In both cases, artist and buyer find a happy meeting place.

As for the stuff that will never make sense - even in THAT tiny little sanity zone that I just described, there is insanity. A couple of years ago I heard a story about DC having to pay Charles Burns $8,000 for a cover, even though he did something different than what they were expecting. DC has never paid ME $8,000 for a cover they did not like, and probably never will.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mark Landman does amazing gorgeous time-consuming work on Runaway Comic for the meager promise of a pro-rated portion of my profits, IF they ever materialize.

Some nut paid $2,500 for one page of The Biologic Show artwork. I'm selling old pages for $60. Other artists who are just as good as me or better can't sell a thing.

It will never seem "fair". But in fact, it is fair. Everybody is finding their happy meeting place.

Speaking of happy meeting places, here's a Gnatrat drawing that Gnatrat fan Angson bought from DC artist Cameron Stewart at last weekend's Paradise Comicon in Toronto. What do you suppose Angson paid for that thing? I probably would have done it for less, and I would have put the wings on his gnat logo! But Angson is happy, and I am happy he's happy! Thanks for sharing, Ang!

oh, THAT magic specialness

Now I get it. [In the comments from the last two days] Jed was talking about the magic specialness that is missing from the overall perception of comics art as Art, and the insanity of Mr. and Mrs. Public paying an outrageous fortune for a Dali sketch or a Warhol scribble, while an original page of FRANK art sells for far far less.

I can explain that the way I explain so many things in life:

People are stupid. It really is that simple. You can go and read all the analyses and theses and essays and columns by all of the learned scholars, but it really won't explain anything because there is no logical explanation. MY explanation is that people don't understand art but they do understand celebrity. I could go on and on and explain that further, but in the end it just does not make sense the way art is praised and rewarded by society. Usually. Some things I agree with. But you would probably disagree. For example, I think it is good that Little Miss Sunshine made it all the way to the Oscars. But most comics fans would probably rather see that horrid "Batman Begins" get more praise and glory.

In that respect, it's all a matter of taste. But in the overall Big Picture, trying to answer Jed's question is like trying to understand suicide bombers. It's crazy, plain and simple.

Yo, check this out. The new Slam Bang contains TWO classic Mark Martin comics from Nancy's Magazine, plus a beautiful full color back cover by Mark Martin, plus that little Fan-Atic Press logo I scribbled 80 years ago and they're STILL USING IT!!! Go see.

...

more on real vs digital vs sloppy etc

First, let's catch up on the recent comments...

Jed said...
On the subject of bargains:
(a bunch of delusional crackhead rambling, and then...)
Which is why I no longer give a shit about making beautiful unmarred originals when it comes to my commercial work. Their Magic Specialness doesn't even rate a quarter of what somebody paid to publish it once. That just seems sad to me. It's great that these pages will undoubtedly find their way into the hands of those who will appreciate them, but where is the magic specialness Mark? You know, the magic specialness that rates more than minimum wage for the time and effort it takes to make one of these things?

You lost me again, Jed. What true artist works for money? Unless you're outrageously successful like Thomas Kincaide, you're constantly juggling the fun of creating versus the duty of feeding and housing yourself and your loved ones.

The magic specialness is in the creating and the sharing.

Anonymous said...
I like art pages which look like they've been made from scratch. The pencils, the white outs, the overlays, the lettering (remember when you read the DIALOGUES on the actual art pages)

BonzoGal said...
I agree, Anonymush! All that stuff lets you know that somebody sweated over the art. I have a couple of Mark's originals and they're swell!

SRBissette said...
But are they sweaty?

I work on a salad bar, so the sneeze screen also deflects any sweat droplets that fall from my furrowed brow. I also wear animator's gloves and a full-body condom, after showering with pure Clorox bleach.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Voice of Reason recently. He sent a link to a news article declaring that "Scientists reveal the smell of male sweat is an aphrodisiac to women!!!" (paraphrasing) and I wrote back "How many times are they going to "REVEAL" that? They revealed that YEARS ago!" After a little more debate on whether or not this was "news", Mrs. VoR piped in and said that she, too, remembered hearing this years ago.

At this juncture, VoR and JR asked where I heard this, and I had the pleasure of saying "Why, on the Rush Limbaugh Show, of course!" thus totally smashing their long-held belief that there was nothing of any value or credibility to be learned from that show.

And it's all true. That's where I heard it. Years ago.

OK, back to "REAL" art vs "DIGITAL" art:

I LIKE BOTH!!!


Here's a screen shot of the new Teeny Weeny I am working on today. At the very bottom you can see a sketch of a panel background. That little scribble is the only "original art" that exists for this entire Teeny Weeny page. Tons of work goes into these things, and after it's all over I got nothing to sell, no tangible evidence of the creating. Where is the magic specialness???

1. In the handsome page rate those wonderful people at Nickelodeon pay me to print these things.

2. In the complete ownership of the character that I may collect into a collected volume someday, or who knows, maybe even turn into the next Hello Kitty.

3. It just looks cool! I love the clean "geometrical" look of TW comics, and it would take me months, if not years, to achieve that look on paper - if I could even achieve it at all. For all this talk about my super-neat originals, I am actually a VERY sloppy, unsteady artist.

How about you, eeTeeD? Have you ever tried that $2500 wacom superboard? I'd love to have it in my arsenal - but I gotta weight that against getting the house painted before it rots and stuff like that. If you have tried one - WHERE did you try it? Any advice on where to go in Massachusetts and test drive such a thing?

you want sloppy?

I gotcher sloppy right here!

Part 3 of What is Turning Into an Analysis of My Original Art, I Guess

I recently scanned several Gnatrat pages for an original art buyer - and sold 8! YAY! These are the pages that are NOT sold (so buy one!). But more importantly for this discussion, they were all scanned as color scans direct from the original art. So you can see the blue pencil, the white-out, the boo-boos and fixes. Not quite as PRISTINE as Jed may think.

This stuff was all done pre-Photoshop, so I was very very careful. Over the following years, I got sloppier and sloppier, knowing that I could "fix it in Photoshop" later. Some of my original art from the 90s / early 2000s is just garbage.

Recently, and especially with the new Monty Wart art, I have tried to make the original art more "sellable" since there ain't no money in comics. I figured I could finance my jones to be published by selling the original art. Imagine my surprise when Runaway Comic was released practically unnoticed, and a year later it's still practically unknown (I know, eeTeeD, I know - promote, promote, yadda yadda). And imagine the accompanying head-scratching that ensued when Gnatrat and TMNT art that has lain dormant for years started selling briskly again.

WTF? Coincidence? Cosmic Shift? Random Chaos?

OK, here are the links to the unsold pages:

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

These two pages are sold, but they're kinda fun so I'll link to them...

SOLD

SOLD TOO

...