Sneak Peek and Pinstripes

Okay, so here's a sneak peek at a piece for an anthology I just finished. I'll post details here about the book, BAM 2, when I get them. Speaking of anthologies, I decided recently to undertake one myself. I live in Chicago and there is a rather large group of talented comics artists that live here. I wanted to put together an anthology that showcased those artists. Then is occurred to me that if the anthology was going to be all Chicago artists, that the theme of the book should be about Chicago as well. I decided to embrace the stereotype and have a theme about Gangster violence in the 20's and 30's. The book will be called Pinstriped Bloodbath and my plan is to have it ready for this years SPX. I'll be posting here with details about the book as they come about.

Also, I have a couple more of the Pop Culture Portraits that I still have to post, that I'm going to put up the next couple of days. Aside from comics, the guys and bindeldog.com and myself have finished another comedy video short. It's a sequel to Before and After, the sketch about two brothers who pose as the before and after photos in weight loss ads. This one is quite a bit longer than the first, but the Rocky spoofs, and Jay Gish as the stereotyped Frenchman, Pierre are can't miss material! You can check it out here.

On the road again...

Sticking to the format, I got a couple things to share. First off, a picture of the boy.

This was taken on Halloween, Van was a punk rocker, and this was after the other parts of his costume were shed. Also, as promised I have the video I put together for SPACE 2008. There's not much coverage of the show, but plenty of footage of two guys in car! ...at least it's short.

And finally here are the three shuffle songs from my ipod.

"I hate myself and I want to die" by Nirvana, from the boxed set.

"Little red light" by Fountains of Wayne

"That Great Love Sound" by the Raveonettes.

I love Nirvana, but some of their noisy jam stuff is just to much of a wank off for me. Once again Fountains of Wayne show up, already and only two times into this thing, anyway, great song about an answering machine. Then there's the Ravonettes, an extremely unique band, with a Phil Spector type song structure mixed with loud fuzzy guitars. Great stuff. Just in case anybody wanted to know, the music on the video is Driver 8 by R.E.M.

Your Pal, Jeff

3 Things!

Well, I kinda figured the most interesting way for me to update the blog, with any regularity is with a theme. So I'm gonna try and update once a week, with three different items. Firstly, because he's the cutest damn thing in the world, a picture of my son. Van is nearly 2 and I'll try to include only funny pictures, as I realize that other people's kids are only interesting to a point. Nextly, and because this is a blog for my comics, I'll post a piece of art from something I'm currently working on, or is something of interest. And lastly, I'll go to the old ipod mini and list three songs that come up on shuffle, as a means of getting to know me a little better, and what better way than ipod shuffle selection? It's the new, "What's your sign?" of our era. So here they are.

and here are the songs without editing for embarrassment.

"Special" by Garbage, from Version 2.0 I believe.

" '92 Subaru" by Fountains of Wayne, from Traffic and Weather

"Take on Me" by Ah-ha. No idea about an album.

So there you have it, Van loves to pick up books and pretend to read them. So this picture isn't posed in that sense, however, I believe I gave him the Angry Youth Comix, Comic after he picked up something else, for the sake of the picture. For those not in the know, Angry Youth Comix, is the deviant rantings of Johnny Ryan, and his comics are absolutely filthy, and completely inappropriate for a child under the age of 18. That's what makes the picture so humorous :) You can see Johnny's comics and all of his other cool shit here. http://www.johnnyr.com/

The art is a preview from Issue #3 of Burning Building Comix. It's in color cause it's going to appear on Topshelfcomix.com in their online comics section. They did this for Issue #1 already and you can see that here. http://www.topshelfcomix.com/comix.php?comic=burning&page=1 Top Shelf has published some of my favorite comics, including Blankets, Box Office Poison, Jeff Brown, James Kochalka, and I could go on and on.

And finally those are the songs. I LOVE Garbage, and am "rock star in love" with Shirley Manson, and the way she sings. Last I heard they might still be putting out a new record, after Shirley does a solo project. Maybe someday I'll do a mini-comic about my love for this band. Then there's Fountains of Wayne, who I also adore. They have a extremely catchy pop sound, that Van happens to be a huge fan of as well. Then there's, to me, the best 80's song of all time, Take on me, with perhaps the best music video of all time as well. No apologies for this song, I still love it, and haven't even been F'd out on it yet. http://youtube.com/watch?v=CUod3jGQt0U

Well, that will do it for now. I am working on some video from SPACE, but I have to get it transferred over still. Okay, thanks for reading.

Your Pal, Jeff

SPACE 2008

Well, another convention has come and gone. SPACE 2008! Had a good time and met some cool people. Columbus Ohio is a long way from Chicago, six hours, so it's a bit exhausting, but you find things to make it worth while. Like the Waffle House! Damn good stuff! We don't have these in Chicago and when I first saw them, I thought, Waffles? Big fucking deal, who cares that much about waffles? Well I'm an open minded man, always looking to expand my mind, least ways in that it involves food, so I finally went to one, and enjoyed myself some good fucking waffles! This particular trip however I went nuts and tried some chocolate chips on my waffle. That was a mistake. The chocolate chips completely overpowered the delicate beauty of the waffle house waffle! Another life lesson learned.

I've done several trips down to SPACE now, and have never been blown away by the crowds, but managed to do a little better each year. This year however seemed slower that last, but I did meet, and exchange goods with several fine people. See the posed photographs below.

I hooked up with all around good guy Steve Hamaker and had a laugh.


Steve is the talent behind the comic Fish and Chips, not to mention the colorist supreme of Bone!
Check out his technologically talented ass here. http://www.steve-hamaker.com/

Also meet Pat Lewis, creator of several fine minis, and the beautiful hard cover collection, The Claws Come Out, from IDW. http://www.lunchbreakcomics.com/



He was sitting next to fellow Pittsburgian, Ed Piskor, who managed to exchange a copy of his latest book, Wizzywig, with me on the sly.


If you haven't had the chance yet to check out Ed's work, he's doing some real interesting and original stuff.http://www.edpiskor.com/

I also purchased the wares of mini-comic luminaries Neil Fitzpatrick, and Justin Madson, Nice guys with beautiful tables, and solid sales techniques. http://www.neiljam.com/ http://www.justmadbooks.com/

Also had the chance to meet fellow Illinoisan John Hankiewicz, the final member of the Holy Consumption I finally got to share a handshake with. I bought John's book Asthma, of which I've only heard good things, and he was nice enough to throw in a mini called bald knob, with a very nicely done lithographed cover!

All of these guys were in the same row, or close to it, making it the most visited section of the floor for me. I was on the other side of the room.

Sunday was a little slow.

As per usual the guys in the tables next to me were very nice, and offered some fun conversation. SPACE does lack the presence of the bigger indie publishers, which tend to bring some excitement to the shows, but Bodega Dist. was there with Sparkplug books right next to them, with some really cool looking stuff. I was too broke to buy much of anything, but they did have a slew of top quality stuff available to the crowd.

Last but not least is a comic drawn by my brother Adam, who keeps me company at these conventions, and at times draws his own comics based on his experiences when he gets bored. Enjoy.

I did take some video of the trip, that I'm gonna have to post later in the week, and maybe I'll talk a little more about conventions in general. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the table and bought comics!

Your Pal, Jeff

Well here's my crack at the blog. It's titled the Worlds Worst Blog, because it probably won't be updated all that often or all that well. But who knows, it is an excellent way to quickly get some information out there. In that spirit I will be at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, or SPACE, this coming weekend selling my wares. A new printing of BlackStar #1 will be available as well as some original art (You can see those here, http://www.jeffscomics.com/blackstar.html and here, http://www.jeffscomics.com/originalart.html). In addition to just selling this weekend, I'll also be hosting a Panel on Sunday called Groupthink. It's a workshop method for developing story, you can see more information here, http://www.jeffscomics.com/groupthink.html.
Updating this blog with pics,video, and art might be slow, but that's the plan at the moment, so bear with me, I'll do my best to keep on top of things, and if anyone looks at this thing, I might be able to keep up with regular updates, or pretentious musings. Your Pal, Jeff