Shaun Tan Talks

http://www.inframe.tv/videoproject.aspx?id=10

(Wouldn't let me post the coded video >.>)

Reminders

Fumetto Deadline is the 5th!
http://www.fumetto.ch/index.cfm?nav=1,3,239&DID=1&SID=1&NewsID=14

It says postmarks so you have to post it by then but I'm aiming for the 2nd or 3rd...er...if I manage to come up with anything...Viruses is proving bloody hard to be original about.

Also C'est Bon Kultur is accepting submissions for the next publications and the next deadline is January 1st!

http://www.cestbonkultur.com/

I'm gonna try and get something done for that...er...even though its 4 days away...curse you christmas!

Autobiography Research

I'm sure you're aware of my diary (if not here's a shameless plug, I've done a ton I'll scan or photograph tommorrow, Awkward Days ) I got a few books over christmas and I've been generally looking at other peoples work to inspire it.

Jeffrey Brown
Pretty well known for his comics, Jeffrey Brown focuses on the relationships in his life (from losing his virginity to being in a long distance relationship) in a very swift liney style. I got Unlikely (the virginity one) for christmas as well as Cat Getting Out of a Bag (a study of the quirks of cats that all cat owners can relate to). Both are amusing but one of the most noticable things about it is how he creates awkwardness and general tension in his strips, the sort of awkwardness of a new relationship etc.

James Kolchalka
I also got American Elf Volume 2 which kept me amused all christmas day...I love his strips and read about them when I was researching for my dissertation. The way he thinks reminds me of myself...though his strips are much better drawn...and colour...>.> maybe someday I'll be that good XP I'd recommend it anyway, he updates very regularly (as this proves) and can be found here http://www.americanelf.com/
Two things that particularly stand out about his work are, most diary comics are black and white (probably mostly for a time scale thing) and most are rather irregularly posted. He's been doing it ten years and hasn't missed a day (from what I can see) and also his colours make it stand out immensely. Hence why I love him and his stories!

Marc Ellerby

I met Marc Ellerby at Leeds Thought Bubble festival (he gave a talk on independent/alternative comics and had a stall) and then emailed him reguarding my dissertation and he is a lovely (if very busy) person. He does a similar thing to the other's (diary comics are generally pretty formulaic from what I've seen...what makes them good is the person writing them). He's pretty witty and his drawing whilst not quite as interesting as American Elf (I can't help it...i love those bright pictures!) lends itself well to the medium...He currently sells selected comics (called Ellerbisms) at conventions (£3.50 I think)... He recommended me doing it, since they consist of self printed covers (colour, on his A3 printer) with simple black and white copies inside which he makes up himself. I'm hoping to do a similar thing with mine in the coming year...Hopefully I can convince Chiu to sell them >.>! Marc Ellerby's Ellerbisms can be found here.

Adam Cadwell

I also met this guy at Thought Bubble (you really should go because you'd be surprised how many people even a social retard like myself manages to meet). I didn't really chat as much but I did buy one of his little comics (because they were £1) which was printed on really nice comics. Again pretty standard diary format, a strip done about the days on his life. Again black and white...and can be found here The Everyday

5min rough sketches
not finished but i thought of posting them before doing more sketches n move on doing more final n polished output.

the idea is to have nice pattern-ish pics that flow backwards to places i have been
more like visual diary (?)
any opinions on it?

Draw Every Day!

I've started my own blog-project thing called draw every day, here which is totally shamelessly stealing Jess's idea I mean INSPIRED by Jess's idea. IE a daily comic.

Please come and follow it!

First two posts:

Rulers & Guides

if you're not already using the inDesign rulers and guides to help you with your frames (if you use them) and you want to learn how, I can show you this Wednesday coming! There is an easy and accurate way to do this :)

Ink Soup second edition looks the business!

Second print edition of Ink Soup issue one looks so good that I plan to take this to Mario and ask for more support, financial and verbal - Katie's double page spread could almost double as a poster - I hope you are all busy working towards INK SOUP 2, as we may try and print with another paper, and try things like a smaller book within the larger one - always good fun exploring production, and giving Murray more headaches to boot. Finally, a very big thanks to Murray, for the great print production management!

Ink Soup Edition 2- feedback on sample print

Ok, so i'm back from my trip to Service Point, and alas its not overly optimistic:

For starters, they won't crop all the copies, as the machine they use to crop is an industrial cropper, which they used last time, but to get it as exact as we want they can't do as it will be too time consuming, which means we'll have to crop ourselves?

Second, The white line problem, the good news is we don't have the white line inside except over Katie's first spread and on the spine, the bad news is that there is no easy way to get rid of this problem, the reason it is happening is because of printing the pdf in single page format, which is the only way to print as a booklet on pdf as printing as spreads on pdf doesnt work, which incidentally would get rid of the white lines. Apologies to chiu at this point as going back to our old argument of pdf printing i now understand what you meant having to paginate manually as the only way to print in pdf spread form is to manually sort out the order.

I'll Show the sample tomorrow, but the compromise i considered is that personally the white line on the spine isnt heavily obvious, so ignoring that, because katies page which is affected is in the middle we can jus print that seperately as an A3 spread and then just slot it back in?

The good news is they did print on the other news print esque paper, and it does look very nice, bar printing it oddly (They got confused and first printed it as a booklet in A5, then when i explained i wanted it A4 they printed A4 sheets but didnt double print it...sigh) so will get opinions on whoever is around tomorrow on that as at least have work printed on it!

Sorry this is all so late and i'm writing this all now, but wanted to get my thoughts out asap while its still fresh- ohh another minor point they don't want any reference to service point as because i've not being paying full price they don't want it being well known- fair point!!

Its not disasterous, but annoying in terms of trying to get it looking more professional, ill wait to discuss tomorrow and then try and do all i can based on the decisions we make,

cheers,

murray

The Confessions of Robert Crumb

Watch The Confessions of Robert Crumb [Part 1] in How to Videos, Entertainment Videos, and Travel Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

a good friend let me have the whole movie, if you want it bring a memory stick!

ink soup pdf

Here's a PDF of the second edition - I still couldn't manage page numbers but may do tomorrow, after Murray brings the final sample back! Anyone who wants to modify their work needs to come and look, otherwise, I will do all the adjusting!

*** ink soup PDF ***

suggestions for improvement on back spread page welcome!

daily strip

I found jess's daily strips so inspirational that I thought I'd have a try

Covers to excite

I love these old horror comic covers! Was watching the movie Jess posted up the other day, and couldn't stop myself hunting these down:

http://www.qbstuff.com/Comics.html

Ink Soup Updates

ANTHOLOGY 1 second edition pending:

Debbie new sixth page - Done!

Katie Coulston - Done! with a double page spread!

Mr Dee - re-touched (by myself) and Done!

The Brothers - would you like to re-draw it Jess? Just an opportunity?

Johan - waiting for four pages - can you yousendit to me!

Milan You have spelling and grammatical mistakes which I would like you to change!

Murray - Done!

Ed - where are you, or rather where's that missing panel

Chiu - Done!


Lastly, I am looking forward to preparing ANTHOLOGY 2

and hoping that Roo & another ex MA student, Matt Broersma might have something which they could submit?
and the best of the rest for either of the two following themes:

Post Xmas Stress Disorder
&
Viruses
minimum 2 pages A4 portrait, maximum four pages portrait - please work larger on A3 if the work looks better reduced!

Thanks for your time and effort!