Sometimes I feel like not having a real job is too much work.

The reason for my absence from the blog is, not surprisingly, my work on both Flight 4 and Amulet. I spent nearly a week painting version after version of the cover for Flight 4, and I'm about to go back and do another one. Hopefully, it'll be the last. On top of that, the amount of work that needs to get done on Amulet is paralyzing when I think about it. Best not to, I suppose.

On the other hand, I had a great time last weekend when my friends visited from Portland and the Bay Area, and we all hung out with illustration master Tadahiro Uesugi, who is so nice it hurt us to see him go back to Japan. Here he is with the great Enrico Casarosa.

The night of the show brought out some of the nicest and most talented people you're bound to ever see in one place. It was a wonderful experience to chat and hang out with everybody.

The workshop demo was pretty eye-opening and inspiring. What everyone in the room learned was that Tadahiro Uesugi is just simply damn good. He uses some very basic photoshop techniques, and draws with a calm, assured hand.

The 3 Trees and 3 Flowers exhibit is currently showing at Nucleus, and the work by all of the artists is stunning. Be sure to check it out when you have a chance.

Okay, it's back to work for me. I'll try to post as often as I can...

This Saturday at 7pm, Nucleus will be putting on a spectacular art show, featuring some very talented Japanese illustrators, including the incomparable Tadahiro Uesugi. I have seen the pieces for the show, and they are stunning. Whenever I see a new work by Uesugi, I can feel my neck get a little tight and my breathing starts feeling constricted like I'm in a really gentle Darth Vader force choke. He's THAT good. He's also holding a photoshop workshop this weekend for the lucky few that got tickets. Friends are even flying in from Portland and the Bay Area to see the show.

The Comics Sprint...

For those that have been emailing me recently, I apologize for all the short replies or lack thereof. My brain is in turbo comics mode and I can think of very few things outside of Amulet or it might explode, Scanners-style.

One of the things I'm realizing is that I scrap a LOT of pages. Next time, I'll need to figure all this into my schedule. I'm drawing at about a 1.8 to 1 ratio, which means that by the end of this 190-page story, I'll have drawn over 300 pages, and that's not including the thumbnails that were scrapped. Despite the enormous amount of work still ahead of me, I can see the end of the tunnel on this one and man does it feel good.

First off, you should come and attend the Monster House book signing today (Monday) at Gallery Nucleus with my friends Chris, Khang, and Simeon. The event begins at 6pm and ends at 10pm. (link)

Amy and I just returned from Portland, where we attended the Stumptown Comics Fest. Man, I miss everyone. The most heartbreaking thing about being a part of the "comics family" is in having to spend only a couple of days with a bunch of people you really love, running on such a small amount of energy, and then having to see them go away for months or even years at a time. Thankfully, I get to "see" them online, but I still am yearning for the day we can all be working on our comics together in one place.

I didn't take many pictures this time around. Fortunately, other people were on top of it and made sure the event was well documented. Amy and I also brought home a box of goodies to read. Amongst the treasure trove, I picked up The Squirrel Mother Stories by Megan Kelso, Bumperboy and the Loud, Loud Mountain by Debbie Huey, How to Be Happy by Shannon Wheeler, The Secret Voice by Zack Soto, several volumes of Concrete by Paul Chadwick, a slew of fantastic mini-comics by all sorts of cool artists, and the Papercutter anthologies. They all look to be fantastic reads, and I can't wait to dive into them.

Of all the comics we've read so far, I was completely blown away by the work of Matthew Bernier. Now, I already knew Matthew from exchanging emails and having already invited him to be a contributor to Flight based on his online work, but I wasn't prepared for the experience of reading Out of Water, his self-published mini. In just 24 pages (including the cover), Matthew created a piece of work that is both epic in scope and a powerhouse in emotional weight. This is comicsmaking at its very best. I always talk about how comics' greatest strength is in its ability to compress ideas and information, and here is a shining example of what I mean. It's a light read with very little text, but it's full of so much thought and emotion, I can't help but feel the tremendous amount of energy pushing behind every tiny aspect of the comic. It's very rare for me to have this kind of emotional response reading comics (it had me holding back tears after reading it twice), and it's these types of books that really make me reassess my own process of making them. I love when that happens. Matthew's bound to be one of the greats and both Amy and I felt as if we were reading something historic while going through his comics. Keep an eye on his work. He's got a lot to say.

Amy and I just got back from the wedding reception of a couple of our favorite people, Reagan Lodge and Annie Rush. Congrats, you two! I think it was the first time I actually got weepy at a wedding ceremony.

And now...work...

Amulet production continues at full tilt. I've been reading and rereading the material that's done and it looks like I'll need to add a handful of pages in several spots to smooth out the reading experience. I also started developing my own font (based on my hand lettering) because the act of inking the text has been hurting my hand quite a bit, and I was getting frustrated with both the inconsistent quality of my earlier lettering and the painstaking process of making text corrections. So, I'm finally giving in to the digital font. Hopefully, I can make it look natural. Does anyone out there know much about randomization of the letters in a font? Basically, I'm looking for a way to create a font that alternates between two or three different versions of the same character for repeating characters. Does that make sense?

Okay, time for bed now. I also flipped my nocturnal schedule so I'm getting up at 7:30 in the morning and doing most of my work before lunch. Man, I really love mornings.

I just got back from seeing The Prestige, and I felt compelled to post about it because it asks some very interesting questions about storytelling.

Shortly after the credits rolled, I felt the film was good, but not great (though the production of it was fantastic). I felt the characters were cold, distant, and only momentarily relatable, but the construction of the film tells me that it knows I should feel this way, and used it against me in the very end. The film raises some great questions about the act of film-watching itself, much like Memento, the Nolan Brothers' other mindbending exercise. Is the film itself a brilliant trick, or is it a clever disguise for weak character development? Will I enjoy the film more when watching it a second time, because its emotional context will be more clear to me after knowing how it ends? This moviegoing experience reminded me a lot of my first viewing of David Fincher's Seven. Despite enjoying it, I was a bit underwhelmed. It wasn't until I watched the film a second and third time that I really appreciated the mechanics of the sad little world that was created, and I have a feeling I'll look at this film the same way. All in all, I do recommend it. As a piece of entertainment, I give it a "B", but as a self-reflexive exercise pushing to make us ask questions about the relationship and distinctions between the magic trick and the magic show, I give it a glowing "A" grade, whether intended or not.  I recommend it especially to storytellers, because there is a lot to chew on here about the mechanics of what to hide or show, and how these decisions affect the narrative.  Pretty interesting stuff.

R&D = Research and Distractions...

Recent things I've read include Uzumaki by Junji Ito, an outstanding horror comic. My friend Alan brought the three volumes of the story into the studio the other day and as soon as I began reading, I was hooked. Reminiscent of David Lynch's films, Uzumaki has an incredibly strong sense of dread and foreboding that I haven't seen much anywhere else. Within the realm of the horror genre, Ito skillfully weaves together some very strong stories about obsession, feelings of displacement, and man's struggles against nature. It's also genuinely scary. The second volume is fairly weak, but the first and third have stayed with me long after reading them. Highly recommended (for older readers).

Speaking of man's struggles with nature, I'm also re-reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Since it's difficult to find strong, literary graphic novels to inspire me (since so few have actually been made) I often turn to short novels, like this classic, or The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, because the brevity and immediacy with which these tales are told lend well to inspiration for graphic novel storytelling. Short stories and films are also good sources for efficiently told, and economic narratives. It makes me wonder if the growing success of graphic novels is indicative of people's shrinking attention spans. Hmm.

I finally finished reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud (I read much of the material two or three times over), and the book left me breathless. It reminded me of Scott’s presentation of the book’s contents at Comic-Con 2005 that had everyone standing, cheering and clapping until their hands hurt. In fact, on many occasions throughout the book, I felt like standing, clapping, and yelling “good one, Scott!” It’s quite simply the best book created on the subject of making comics, period.

As I was reading Making Comics, I felt like Scott was actually right there guiding me through the pages, and I was amazed at how well he covered nearly every facet of what we do as cartoonists, at times to a ridiculously detailed degree. And despite the lengths he goes to in order to analyze the craft, it all remains perfectly relevant and on point. I was often nodding my head in agreement, laughing at many parts thinking “how true”, and thought about how if I were still teaching a class I would have half of my curriculum right here in this book. It is a gift for teachers as much as it is for artists, and for the curious outsiders, it is the perfect welcoming committee for when they enter the world of creating sequential art.

Most of all, I enjoyed watching Scott make his journey across the landscape of comics’ creation, all the while inadvertently turning the medium into a subject worthy of academia, and I didn’t want the adventure to end. What most people will say about the book is that it is an amazingly well-researched and well-executed document on the craft of making comics, and it is that, but what might get glossed over is that it is also one of the best graphic novels ever made. The story of Scott himself exploring the medium of comics and sending it such great, big valentine kisses in the form of this book and its two predecessors in the Comics Trilogy make for some of the most compelling and focused works of literature in the world of comics and graphic novels. Not since Watchmen have I seen a graphic novel carry such density with aplomb, though Scott would probably shake his head at the comparison. :)

Making Comics is the best graphic novel of 2006, and the generosity with which it is written is a rare thing in any medium. We are all very, very fortunate to have a Scott McCloud. The world is a much better place because of him.

Another fantastic graphic novel that I finished reading this week is American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang. It was just recently announced that the book has been nominated for a National Book Award! (link) Anyway, I have a pretty glowing review to write about that one too, so that's coming soon.

These days, I often find myself kicking my own butt for being much too lazy and slow, thinking about how much work I need to get done on Amulet, only to look down in front of me and see that I'm still doing a ridiculous amount of work besides. Sigh. I need to treat myself a little more like a human being and not the machine that I am. I mean, am not.

I finished my 16-page Flight 4 story in record time, but it still put a huge dent in my Amulet production schedule. However, working on this may have been what I needed to get my wheels greased again. Too much work on the same thing can make the brain start feeling like it's scooping the bitter rinds of a melon. A brain melon.

My 10 Year Reunion...

Over the weekend, Amy and I drove down to Irvine for my 10 Year High School Reunion. My little sister is just entering that same high school this year, and seeing her face when I tell her about the reunion, realizing she's looking 14 years into her future, reminds me that I'm truly becoming an old man.

The reunion itself was surprisingly pleasant, as it seems I wasn't quite the complete loner that I remembered myself to be. I had even gone to school with many of the other graduates beginning in the third grade, so I had lots to talk about. One guy even remembered punching me in the stomach on the elementary school playground and apologized while cracking up about it. I had completely forgotten it happened, so I laughed with him.

At the beginning of the evening, many folks looked like caricatures of themselves, the way a cartoonist would draw a person with ten years on them. Most people were a bit rounder, but a few looked almost exactly as I remembered them, only with slightly aged skin, mostly around the eyes. When the event began, people quietly moved back into their familiar cliques and seated themselves accordingly. I was at the table with the newspaper, yearbook, band geek, and art nerd kids, just like in the old days. Some old newspapers with my dick and fart joke comics were embarrassingly strewn about a nearby table.

As we all talked, I noticed that everyone had a much more relaxed attitude than they did in school. They had less optimism and energy, but were also a little more mature. As the night wore on, it was interesting to watch people's faces morph back to the way I remembered them in school (I wasn't drinking), and everyone was a kid again. I had a great time, and got to speak with some people I'm glad I caught up with. When I received the invite months ago, I really hesitated at first, but in the end I'm happy I decided to go.

For those of you that were actually there (and any of you friends that weren't), please drop me a line some time...

Tomorrow evening (Saturday), Gallery Nucleus will be hosting the release party for Bliss Express, a new art book from Guu Media that features some very talented illustrators, including fellow Flight artist Bengal. The festivities begin at 7 pm. Some of the artists will be flying in from their respective countries to attend the show. Along with the new book for sale, they will have plenty of original art, prints, and free refreshments. (Link)

Okay, after mulling it over, I decided to put Copper on hiatus until I finished Amulet and Flight 4. The last thing I want to do is to rush a Copper strip. Be sure to sign up for the mailing list at the right of this blog to receive an email about the next Copper update when it gets posted. Otherwise, you can hang out with me here while I chat between drawing sessions.

Reading break...

I'm currently reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud, and it's really good. It covers a lot of bases that I take for granted as a creator and does a great job of explaining them to new creators the way only Scott McCloud knows how. I'll post a full review later, but for now, I give it an enormous thumbs up. Another book I read recently is Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon. Although it suffers a little from the lack of compressed storytelling, I enjoyed it, and being a single, self-contained piece written and drawn for the graphic novel format, it's a nice step into the void of the new medium. Beautiful cover too.

The Pace...

Nearly every waking hour is being devoted to completing Amulet, Flight 4, or wrapping up Flight 1 and 2 for Ballantine. The work is looking great, though. I can't wait to share it with the readers.