5 Question Interview about Digestate

Aaron Long of Comicosity.com was kind enough to conduct a short interview with me regarding the Digestate anthology and the Kickstarter campaign I'm using to fund the printing. Check it out for a little behind-the-scenes DVD extra type stuff. Sorry no blooper reel.

http://www.comicosity.com/interview-j-t-yost-discusses-new-food-based-anthology-digestate/

Jess Ruliffson's Kickstarter reward sample!

Hey, have you heard of this Kickstarter campaign I'm running to fund the Digestate food & eating themed comic anthology?? You haven't? Oh, you'd better check it out.

Anyhow, one of the rewards you can get is a custom drawing of a chicken (or cow) by contributor Jess Ruliffson. She just sent me a sample, so here it is:

Bawk! Bawk!

Updated DIGESTATE contributor list!

Click to enlarge, y'all!

Please don't forget to make this book a reality by donating to our Kickstarter campaign. In essence you're pre-ordering a copy plus options for lots of great handmade stuff from the contributing artists.

Shout-out: Anuj Shrestha

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

ANUJ SHRESTHA!

Anuj Shrestha was born in Kathmandu, Nepal and grew up in Irvine, Anchorage and Denver. He is influenced by Los Bros. Hernandez, Katsuhiro Otomo and Manuel Ocampo. His illustration work has appeared in The New York Times, Playboy and Financial Times Magazine, UK. His comics have appeared in various anthologies, including Rabid Rabbit, Supertalk and Secret Identities. His comic “American Cat” was listed in the Best American Comics 2010 anthology. He lives in Forest Hills, Queens with his dog and two pet iguanas.

http://www.anujink.com
http://www.anujsketches.blogspot.com

An excerpt from the second part of a horror-noir series exploring themes of power, nature and fear, 2012.

Editor's note: I'm not sure what it means in Freudian terms, but Anuj draws a LOT of people with heads transforming into flowers. Honestly, it doesn't matter what it means to me, as long as he keeps at it. I could stare at one of those elegantly rendered flower heads for hours. In fact, I may be doing that soon once I scrape up the cash for the oversized print I was eyeing at MoCCA.

Three panels from "Another One Down", appeared in Rabid Rabbit #13

Another flower-headed guy

DIGESTATE Kickstarter campaign is aLIVE!

Alright, folks.
This is do or die for me. I've been working my butt off (along with over 50 contributing artists) to put together a huge collection of food & eating themed comics called "DIGESTATE". I can't afford to publish it without a little help, so I've put together a Kickstarter campaign to fund the base cost of printing.    It'll cost a lot more than what I'm asking, but I don't want to get greedy since Kickstarter is all or nothing!

Anyhow, please check out the campaign here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/birdcagebottombooks/digestate-a-food-and-eating-themed-comic-anthology

There's a video and sample pages, along with a contributor list. Actually, here's the contributor list, just to pique your interest:

• Darryl Ayo
• Josh Bayer
• Jonathan Baylis
• Marc Bell
• Marek Bennett
• Berkeley Breathed
• Neil Brideau
• Box Brown
• Jeffrey Brown
• Josh Burggraf
• C. M. Butzer
• Kevin Cannon
• William Cardini 
• Cha
• Sungyoon Choi
• J.T. Dockery
• Nate Doyle
• Renee French
• Nicole J. Georges
• Ayun Halliday
• Danny Hellman
• Sam Henderson
• Adam Hines
• Paul Hoppe
• K. Thor Jensen
• Victor Kerlow
• John Kerschbaum
• Keith Knight
• James Kochalka
• Hawk Krall
• Minty Lewis
• Jonas Madden-Connor
• Aaron Mew
• Pranas T. Naujokaitis
• Hazel Reed Newlevant
• L. Nichols
• Al Ortiz
• Tod C. Parkhill
• Dan Piraro
• Liz Prince
• Brian Ralph
• Alex Robinson
• Jungyeon Roh
• Jess Ruliffson
• Anuj Shrestha
• Ben Snakepit
• Aron Nels Steinke
• Jeremy Tinder
• James Turek
• Noah Van Sciver
• Sophia Wiedeman
• J.T. Yost
• Jeff Zwirek

Shout-out: Danny Hellman

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

DANNY HELLMAN!

Danny Hellman has been making art for publication since 1988, and has worked for a wide variety of clients, including TIME,  THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, The WASHINGTON POST, The VILLAGE VOICE, NEW YORK PRESS, GUITAR WORLD, REVOLVER, The ONION, SCREW, and countless others. Hellman lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and daughter.

www.dannyhellman.com

http://dannyhellman.tumblr.com/

Editor's note: Man, Danny Hellman is one prolific dude, especially considering how meticulous his drawings are. There were just too many amazing illustrations to whittle it down to three or four, so here's a whole mess of them. I highly recommend visiting his websites for many many many more. 

I've always been impressed with Hellman's illustrations that seemed to blanket every alternative newspaper I picked up when I first moved to NYC in 2001. I finally met him by recognizing him (from self-portrait drawings and portrait drawings from other artists) outside of a pizza place across from the King Con comics festival in Brooklyn a couple of years ago. Rather than saying hi and walking away to eat his pizza in peace, he was nice enough to shoot the shit for a surprisingly long time. 

Anyhow, I'm glad he's contributing to Digestate, and I'm blown away by his generosity. He's contributing multiple copies of his three gorgeous silk-screen prints as well as copies of the Typhon, Vol.1 full-color anthology that he edited. Great stuff!

"Ronald McDonald" illustration for The Onion A.V. Club's "INVENTORY" book, 2009

Cover for "Screw Magazine" #1425, 1996

"The Ramones" illustration for The Onion A.V. Club's "INVENTORY" book, 2009

"Ronald Reagan in Hell" for Screw Magazine, 2004

"Dead Poker Dogs" for The Village Voice, 2008

"Four Lincolns" from Chicago Magazine, 2005

"Lincoln Pardon" from New York Press, 2001

Snoop!

Guys! I just had to share something funny that just happened that has nothing to do with the upcoming DIGESTATE food & eating themed comic anthology we're publishing in September.

What was I saying? Oh yeah...so, this guy buys one of my Snoop shirts and asks if he can pick it up to save on paying shipping. While picking it up he tells me that he's going to wear it to meet Snoop Dogg himself at a friend's wedding in L.A.! Also worth mentioning: written into the contract for Snoop to perform at this dude's wedding is that he must smoke a (redacted) with the wedding party! Nuts!

Snoop shirt

I hastily grabbed another shirt and my two Snoop comics for the guy to give to The Doggfather. I don't expect anything to come of it, but I couldn't pass up the chance to get them into his mitts.

Tales of Good Ol' Snoop Doggy Dogg comic

It's Dream Time, Snoop Doggy Dogg comic

Since this is a Snoop themed entry, here's a comic I drew in about an hour for Benn Ray of Atomic Books' "Mutant Funnies" mini comic (they were given away on Free Comic Book Day). Not exactly LOL material, but hey, I haven't had a full night's sleep in over two years.

Click to make bigger, duh.

Sample Pages from DIGESTATE comic anthology!

Hey y'all,

The comics for our upcoming anthology are starting to roll in, and I'm getting more and more excited. I can't contain it any more, so please share in our elation by taking a gander at some sample pages...

Cha

Jeffrey Brown

Alex Robinson

Box Brown

Josh Burggraf

Noah Van Sciver

Victor Kerlow

Shout-out: Neil Brideau

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

NEIL BRIDEAU!

Raised and Educated in the smaller cities of Western and Central New York State, Neil Brideau surrounds his life with minicomics.  He writes and draws stories of friendship, usually disguised as tales of supernatural calamities befalling children, his latest is the ongoing minicomic series The Plot.  

Cover of "The Plot #1" mini-comic

Sample page from "The Plot" mini comic

During the day, Neil works at Quimby's Bookstore, a premier retail store specializing in zines and minicomics.  Neil is also a founding organizer of the Chicago Zine Festand the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo.

His webcomic Sock-Monster was collected by Short Pants Press in the now out-of-print book, In Anticipation of Hugs, and his kids' minicomics What is This? and Write Now! were first distributed by UncleEnvelope.  Neil has been vegan for nine years, and lives in Chicago, where he plays in the band James P.B. Duffy, and roots for the flat-track roller derby team, the Chicago Outfit.

Sample from "Sock-Monster" webcomic

Check out more of his artwork here:

http://www.neilbrideau.com

Editor's note: I've only just met Neil in person at MoCCA last month, but he seems like an affable fellow/chap. He works at quite possibly my favorite comic shop, Quimby's. I've never actually been there, but they consistently order comics from me, always pay on time and their logo was designed by Chris Ware. What more could you want? 

Shout-out: Jess Ruliffson

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

JESS RULIFFSON!

Jess Ruliffson is a Brooklyn-based comics artist hailing from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. She is currently working on a comic book based on interviews with veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. To see more of her work visit her blog (http://callingthedog.blogspot.com) and website (www.jessruliffson.com).

Page from "Love Letter" in Rabid Rabbit #14 

Editor's note: I met Jess at MoCCA a few years ago through Victor Kerlow. Besides being an incredibly nice person, she's profoundly talented. I'm so jealous of her brushwork. It reminds me of Craig Thompson in its seeming looseness through total control (if that makes sense). She's also very gregarious (another quality I'm jealous of!) which will undoubtedly allow her to get great material for her upcoming comic based on interviews with war veterans. 

Sample page from Status Quo Ante Bellum

"Doorways"

Sample page from "Tattoo Story" in Status Quo Ante Bellum #2

Shout-out: J.T. Dockery

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

J.T. DOCKERY

J.T. Dockery, a native Kentuckian, currently resides in White River Junction, Vermont.  He is the cartoonist behind the art book meets graphic novel, In Tongues Illustrated, as well as collaborating on the work-in-progress, Spud Crazy, with infamous music journalist and novelist, Nick Tosches.  As a musician, he is most well known for his band the Smacks! and performing on the final studio album ("Night Life") of Hasil Adkins.  His work has been exhibited in many art shows internationally and has appeared in various anthologies of comics.  He is currently working on several projects, including the forthcoming three volume series, "J.T. Dockery's Despair."

http://jtdockery.com

http://covertlyandbysnatches.tumblr.com/ 

From "In Tongues Illustrated"

Also, here's an interview of Dockery (focused on his "In Tongues Illustrated" book) by Bob Levin for The Comics Journal:

Sketchbook drawing

Editor's note: Although I've yet to meet J.T. Dockery, I'm fairly certain we'd get along well. Besides being ashamed enough of our given names as to use initials, we seem to have a shared taste in music. Judging from photos found on the World Wide Web while searching for an artist photo, he likes Bill Monroe (enough to visit his grave, anyhow), Tom Waits (my all-time favorite/desert island pick) and played with Hasil Adkins (says so right up there in the bio blurb!). 

Shout-out: Box Brown

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR: 

BOX BROWN!

Box Brown is a cartoonist, illustrator and comic publisher from Philadelphia.  His comics have been featured in Mad Magazine and his illustrations have been on Wired.com.  His web and print comic "Everything Dies" was named a notable comic of 2011 in the Best American Comics Anthology and was honored with two Ignatz Awards.  His comics publishing outfit, Retrofit launched in 2011.  He's currently working on a comic biography of pro wrestler Andre the Giant.  

 boxbrown.com, retrofitcomics.com

Page from "Best Friends 4 Ever"

Editor's Note: I think Box won a Xeric grant in the same cycle as Sophia Wiedeman and me, because I remember meeting him around the same time as her. I always look forward to seeing what new minis he'll have at the various comic conventions at which we both have tables. The man is incredibly prolific. I consider it an accomplishment if I have a new comic at each convention, but Box seems to always have at least two or more new ones! 


I love his work for the same reasons I love James Kochalka's work: he is able to pare his drawings down to the essentials without losing any emotional impact. Clean, simple and easy to read. 


Oh, and I should mention how much I love his Retrofit Comics outfit. By subscribing you'll have a new "floppy" comic sent to you about once every month. It seems that most everyone has switched over to putting out graphic novels, so it's refreshing to have this neglected format embraced once again. 

Page from "Everything Dies" series

Page from "Ghosts & Aliens" ("Everything Dies" series)

Dolla Dolla Billz at MoCCA 2012

Fairly accurate in representing our respective profits. Note the self-destructing t-shirt display. 

Another MoCCA fest under my belt (no wonder my pants no longer fit). As always, it was a privilege and a pleasure to share a table with Mr. Victor Kerlow, and to be flanked by my Rabid Rabbit peeps Josh Burggraf, Sungyoon Choi & Eric Watkins.

I tried to keep my spending to a minimum, but I did pick up a few comics: Josh Bayer's amazing anthology "Suspect Device", Rich Tommaso's "Pete & Miriam" and Box Brown's "The Survivalist" among others. Also got my contributor copies of Rabid Rabbit #14, which is unsurprisingly fantastic.

Anyhow, gotta get back to work!