L. S. Asekoff, “The Gate of Horn.”  15 Sep, 2008 The New Yorker.  58-59.  This is a really amazing poem, but I wondered if those two specific lines were a quote or reference to another poem.  I Googled them and found no answer, but I did find this interesting little blog, which also quoted the poem.

Amanuensis –noun. A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

For my birthday, Clave also created this card for me.  Not really a jam, but hilarious nonetheless!

The handmade presents usually are the best presents, aren’t they?

Carolyn Main and I also recently finished our contribution to The Bridge Project.  Carolyn went all out and added tones to the whole thing, which not only made our story look great but also gave the art a very unified feel.  The book should be out soon; I’ll post more details as they develop!

25.  Over and Over Again (Lost and Found) by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (15 Plays)
24.  Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event (15 Plays)
23.  No Surprises by Radiohead (16 Plays)
22.  Electric Feel by MGMT (16 Plays)
21.  Dracula’s Lament by Jason Segel (16 Plays)
20.  Feel Alright (Album Version) by Steve Earle (16 Plays)
19.  Pork and Beans by Weezer (17 Plays)
18.  Pale Blue Eyes by R.E.M. (17 Plays)
17.  Wandering Star by Portishead (17 Plays)
16.  Toxic by Yael Naim (17 Plays)
15.  Good Woman by Cat Power (18 Plays)
14.  Come Around by M.I.A. featuring Timbaland (18 Plays)
13.  Paper Planes by M.I.A. (18 Plays)
12.  White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane (18 Plays)
11.  Details of the War by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (19 Plays)
10.  Honky Tonk Women by The Rolling Stones (20 Plays)
9.  All Lifestyles by The Beastie Boys (20 Plays)
8.  Troublemaker by Weezer (24 Plays)
7.  No Surprises by Rockabye Baby! (24 Plays)
6.  A-Punk by Vampire Weekend (25 Plays)
5.  Reckoner by Radiohead (30 Plays)
4.  Police on My Back by The Clash (38 Plays)
3.  Cellphone’s Dead by Beck (38 Plays)
2.  Seneca Falls by The Distillers (45 Plays)
1.  Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away (74 Plays)

I’m having a little birthday party this weekend and used evite’s “Pirate Theme” for the invitations.  Which reminded me of a photo I posed for way back in 1998, when I was still only 19.

Arrrgh.

Extra Bonus Trivia: My girlfriend Audrey and I like to be disgustingly cute by adding a “y” sound to the beginning of words, as in “byud” instead of “blood” or “that comic is syo cyute.” After reading the “Life in Hell” strip discussed above, “I fyi away beardface” became a favorite catchphrase with endless permutations, such as “I fyi away blondeface” as a farewell from me to Audrey (because she’s blonde).

Rancid, “Indestructible,” from the album of the same name. This is how I feel about comics.

Amanuensis –noun. A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

These days I’m not giving Clave as many specific lessons; instead we’re having fun creating jam comics based on suggestions from Jessica Abel and Matt Madden in their great book Drawing Words & Writing Pictures! In our last meeting Clave and I created an “Icons” jam comic, in which “Word / thought balloons can only contain images or icons, no words.” We used the eponymous character from Clave’s soon-to-be-released mini-comic The Intern and his mentor-from-hell:

Clave liked it so much he created a final color version he’s considering for use as the cover of his soon-to-be-released mini-comic The Intern (on sale soon!):

Tonight Clave and I created a “Panorama” jam, in which “The backgrounds on the entire page must depict a continuous landscape, while the comic still tells a story.” To make things easier I made the relative flatness of outer space our background, the Death Star at its center. The comic can be seen in all its rough, unedited glory here; unfortunately, its size and layout make it hard to read, so I rearranged the panels in a very unpanoramic way to be viewed here in the blogg:

Finally, while I drew my panels for the Panorama jam Clave took it upon himself to edit a photo of me with my new niece, Carrissa. Not really a jam comic, but still fun:

I never heard back from him, so I’ve always feared he seethed at seeing his characters shown in such a shameless shilling. But here I am, posting it on my blogg anyway. Sorry Greg!

One major project I’m working on is a story for Matt Leunig’s new anthology The Bridge Project, which teams an artist from San Francisco with an artist from Portland to “create a ‘bridge’ in which [artists from] both [comics communities] can work together,” as Matt puts it on the book’s web site. I’ve been talking to Matt about contributing for a while now but haven’t said anything publicly for fear things wouldn’t work out. And with good reason: my first partner went AWOL and my second partner had to drop out due to time constraints. However, Matt finally teamed me up with the very talented Carolyn Main, noticing a tendency toward inappropriate potty humor in both our work (check out Carolyn’s blog; her willingness to cross the line for the funny puts me to shame!). We’re finishing up the rough draft of our contribution; a sample page can be seen below. Hopefully we’ll have everything done in time for Matt!

All joking aside, I feel very honored to be a part of The Bridge Project. I’m a huge fan of Matt’s psychedelic poster art, and I’m not just saying that because he’s the book’s editor. And besides Carolyn Main’s great work, the book will also feature the graffiti-influenced, grammatically-impaired styling of my friend Noir Amador, plus a couple of celebrities: Shannon Wheeler, creator of the famous “Too Much Coffee Man,” and Graham Annable, one of my favorite cartoonists. So keep checking this space for updates!

If only all problems could be so pleasant.

A larger version can be seen here.