Admiral Ackbar

For all you Star Wars nerds out there (and can we really call Star Wars fans nerds anymore? I would guess that at least 75% of humanity admits to liking SW at this point), here's a little drawing I did for cartoonist extraordinaire Jeffrey Brown as a thank you for being an upright, upstanding kinda dude.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you don't get it, you can rest easy that you are not, in fact, a Star Wars nerd. 

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.

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

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

Snakepit 2009 review on Comixtreme

Here's a not-too-bad review of Snakepit 2009 by Andrea Speed on the Comixtreme blog. Actually, saying he "comes from the Jeffrey Brown school" elevates it to a great review in my book!

Silverfish, disgusting silverfish

This guy, John Q. Adams, asked me to draw something for his collection of silverfish drawings a while ago. I finally got around to doing it, but not without a lesson in American paranoia. I got kicked out of THREE (3) grocery stores within seconds of snapping a photo to use as reference.

The first one took me by surprise. I explained what I was doing and offered to show my "credentials" as an illustrator. They weren't having it. Apparently they thought I was a terrorist or an undercover investigator. I asked permission at the second place, but was denied. There they thought I wanted to steal their food label designs (which I could've easily done by purchasing them if I'd been so inclined). Even a call to their PR representative didn't work. Then, out of desperation I asked a guy on the street unloading his groceries if I could snap a quick photo of him pushing his grocery cart to use as reference. He quickly refused, saying that he'd been "on the wrong end of identity abuse" (I didn't ask for his social security number, for chrissakes!). After unloading his groceries he offered to take a photo of me pushing his empty cart. I didn't end up needing any reference, but it sure was a wake up as to how paranoid we've all become. I find it interesting that grocery stores are allowed to film us with countless security cameras, but we aren't allowed to take a photo of an empty aisle of groceries.

Anyhow, you can see how hundreds of other artists interpreted this vile creature at John's on-line gallery by clicking here.

The silverfish, for those of you not in the know, are nasty little bugs that delight in ruining books, among other things. They enjoy polysaccharides such as Dextrin found in adhesives, paper, photos, sugar, hair, dandruff, cellulose, dead insects, leatherware and even exuvia (their own moulted exoskeleton).

I've got my own similar collection of drawings, but instead of focusing on putrid insects, mine are of the most adorable chihuahua currently living. Each year I commission an artist that Karen and I both like to do a drawing involving Pony (our chi). So far we've got drawings or paintings from Renee French, Jeffrey Brown, Graham Annable, Raina Telgemeier, Paul Hornschemeier, Burt Silverman (Karen's dad) and a few from yours truly. I don't have scans of them all, but here's a few for your enjoyment.

Cathy always knows just how I feel

It's been a hectic last few weeks.

I apologize for the fact that you have to look at Cathy and her diet soda over there, but most everything I'm working on is either in the sketch stage or is mind-numbingly boring self promotional type stuff.

"Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales" is currently being printed (I should get the books next week), so I'm compiling a list of magazines, blogs, newspapers, etc. to receive review copies. If you have any suggestions, pass 'em on. I've also been designing business cards & press releases to include in the press packets.

I don't know if any of you watched "Death on a Factory Farm", the documentary I suggested last week, but it was fantastic (in a disturbing kind of way). I wasn't previously aware that it was another film by Sarah Teale who was responsible for the equally disturbing "Dealing Dogs" doc. After watching "Dealing Dogs" I'd tried to get in touch with the undercover investigator. I was hoping to do a comic based on whatever information I could get from an interview with him.

I wasn't succesful finding him then, but the day after I watched this new film (which uses the same undercover investigator) my friend that works at the Humane Society in D.C. called me to see if I was still interested in contacting him. My buddy's buddy is buddies with the cruelty investigator, so he's going to pass my contact info. on to him. I hope he calls!

Interestingly, it does tie into one of my current projects. I've mentioned that I'm doing a comic adaptation of Gail Eisnitz's "Slaughterhouse". She is a chief cruelty investigator for the Humane Farming Association (HFA). HFA funded and organized the investigation documented in "Death on a Factory Farm". The circle is complete.

The deadline for the "Ducks On The Pond" book is coming up (March 31), so I'm trying to whip these contributors into shape. So far only Jeffrey Brown and myself have finished a piece, but I'm hoping all of the others who have promised something will deliver.

I'm almost finished sketching 3 new two-page comics about dreams I've had involving Snoop Doggy Dogg (I'm told he just goes by "Snoop Dogg" these days). I've also finished the cover for the Snoop comic, but I'm experimenting with hand-carved rubber stamp prints on it, so I'll post it later when I find one I like.

I Saw You...Comics Anthology

A long long time ago, I saw that Julia Wertz was looking for comic artists to interpret their favorite "Missed Connections" posting on Craig's List (if you haven't ever browsed them, I HIGHLY recommend it...both heartbreaking and hilarious). It's a great idea, so I immediately drew one up and sent it in.

Originally it was just going to be a xeroxed mini-comic, but it has since been expanded into a book published by Three Rivers Press (a division of Random House!). Tons of great artists signed on to the project, and now I'm sort of embarrassed by my submission. If I'd known what was to become of this, I surely would have spent more time and effort, but oh well.

It just came out, so buy it on Amazon here or at your local comic shop. I think some of us will be signing books at the release party at Desert Island in Brooklyn on Feb. 20th, so c'mon out. You can see a list of the contributors here (Aaron Renier, Adam Kidder, Gabrielle Bell, Jeffrey Brown, Laura Park, Julia Wertz, Peter Bagge, Sam Henderson, Tom Hart, etc., etc.!)

Birdcage Bottom Books is Born!

Winning the Xeric self-publishing award has got me scrambling to get this book published. In order to get distribution, you've got to be thinking (at least) four months in advance! Diamond is the biggest distribution company in comics, but if you're a small fish like me, you've got to convince them that you're worth distributing. They prefer established publishing companies that put out books constantly, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

So, as part of the ruse to appear that I'm not just one harried individual I've created a publishing company...Birdcage Bottom Books ("The best pages for your cages!"). That also meant quickly putting together a logo & website. It's not the best work I've ever done, but it'll have to do for now.

In addition, I've been reading any self-publishing guides I can get my hands on (thanks so much, Tompkins Square Library). In my research, I came across a former Xeric grant winner, Lars Martinson, who was nice enough to put a series of posts dealing with his self-publishing experiences on his website. He ended up using Top Shelf comics, an established alternative comic publisher, to sub-distribute his book. The good side is that Top Shelf knows what they're doing and Lars gets risidual advertisement through them. The bad side is that they take an additional cut of the already paltry sum the self-publisher ends up making off of his books (should they sell).

Top Shelf happens to be based in Marietta, GA which is where I grew up. We're going to visit my family in about two weeks, so I've set up a meeting with Chris Staros at Top Shelf to see if he might sub-distribute my book as well. He warned me that they've already got too much on their plates for 2009, but I figure it can't hurt to try.

In other publishing news, Jeffrey Brown was nice enough to give me a flattering quote for the back cover of my book (he's a Top Shelf artist, too!). Kevin Huizenga gave me some good advice and Chris Ware wrote me an unexpected letter apologizing for his policy of no longer giving out quotes. Honestly, it was just a treat to get ANY correspondence from my all-time favorite cartoonist, and it was as charming and self-depricating as you might expect. Julia Wertz also responded kindly to my call for advice/criticism/quotes, and she let me know that the anthology she's editing should be out any day (I've got a piece in it...Adam Kidder, too). I'm still waiting to hear from several others.

Jeffrey Brown + Gorilla Suit = Happy Hanukkah

Sorry for the forced sabbatical. The ol' computer was in the shop (broken disc drive one month after the warranty expired) for a while.

We decided to significantly pare down the Hanukkah/Xmas gift-giving extravaganza around here this year, so we decided on one big present each for Hanukka and one small one for Xmas.

Every year I try to get an artist both Karen and I like to do a portrait of Pony, so this year Jeffrey Brown was nice enough to do the honors. Like myself, he's a big fan of cats so he suggested including Lucy in one of the usual stand-offs between warring factions Ponysville and Lucillistan. I laugh every time I look at it, and hopefully Karen does, too.

Karen's gift to me was, I'm assuming, inspired by the tedium of seeing me drag out the same bear costume that I've been using since my friend Ben Snakepit (nee White) donated it to me in 1996 or so. Granted, I always switch up the theme (carrying a Torts law book = "Bearly Legal", Wearing moustache with halved baby doll attached = "Beart Reynolds & Dolly Partin'", etc.), but she's not as big a fan of puns as I am. So, now I have a whole new theme to work with, as well as being able to represent one of my favorite primates: The Gorilla. Behold:

Hopin' for help

I sent out a bunch of cards with this image and a written plea out to some of my favorite comic artists in hopes of getting feedback/criticism on the comic collection I've submitted for the Xeric grant. So far I've sent it to Chris Ware, Jordan Crane, James Kochalka, Jeffrey Brown, Julia Wertz, Graham Annable. I'm planning on also soliciting Paul Hornschemeier, Raina Telgemeier, Jeremy Tinder, Kevin Huizenga, Seth and Renee French.

I already feel star-struck.