J. Marshall Freeman

Music History: Have Your Say!

2006-08-10T14:31:46Z

Hi, non-anonymous list:

I am writing the next few pages of the Release Party and I've arrived at a point I've been looking forward to. Otis gets a crash course in music between 1940 and the present courtesy of a music store and the Skizlik.

So, I am going to do three pages of music collage containing what I think are the necessary ingredients for him to understand contemporary popular music. Let's open this up for discussion, shall we?

The first point is that he would need to understand world events that give the music context, but the scope of the pages does not allow for that, though how can I really avoid it? Let's stick with musical milestones. I'm more interested in pivotal figures or works than I am in whether they went No. 1 or not. Here's an initial list. Argue and/or fill in the blanks.

Bebop and Parker
R&B arising from blues
the mainstreaming of folk
beat scene and coffee houses
protest music
The folk poets: Dylan, Joni
The British Invasion
60s culture: ascendency of youth culture, war protest, civil rights movement, hippies and drug culture.
psychedelia
San Francisco and the Dead
New York and the Velvet Underground
Funk and soul and disco culture
Prog rock
Eno, Bowie,
British Punk: Pistols, Clash
American Punk: Ramones, Dolls, Television
Post-Punk: Blondie, Talking Heads
Rap from the underground
Corporate radio: the death of innovation, the hegemony of global capital
World Music and the promise of global culture
The computer, the Internet, DIY
Hip-Hop as a world phenomenon
The death of the album, the levelling of the playing field and the new intimacy of player and audience.

Well, that's a start off the top of my head. Ideas?

(cross-posted to jmfreeman

Scissors!

2006-07-18T18:19:36Z

Damn, I have been wrestling page 51 to the ground. It's a beast. In the end, I can't fuck with it anymore and it's not perfect... but it will do. Why are some pages so tricky?

I am personally keeping whiteout manufacturers in business.

Posting tomorrow!

Back on the Air!

2006-06-21T15:53:38Z

Chapter 2 of the Release Party has begun thanks to the wonderful efforts of snowmit who has been helping with code and otherwise encouraging me as have others including appelle. The homepage is completely redesigned, so I'm sending you there rather than directly to the update. There are still some alignment problems on the comics page, but we'll fix those this week. I also need two more weeks to get songs and other comics as well as my links page.

You can now sign up for either weekly or monthly email reminders. Please do it! The system isn't automated yet, but it will be soon. This needn't concern you. SIGN UP! SIGN UP!

I'm starting to think I might publish the book in more than one volume. Perhaps I will print volume 1 following the completion of Chapter 2. Perhaps...

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'm so happy to be drawing again!

Ink! Code! Write!

2006-06-13T15:05:38Z

Chapter 2 of the Release Party will launch on June 21, 2006. I am drawing, drawing, drawing and getting the website updated with the incredible help of snowmit. He and appelle have been putting the screws to me to keep the comic going and to promote it better. At the Scott Pilgrim, Dinosaur Comics release, Appelle grabbed my fliers and put them somewhere where they would be picked up by strangers. Tough love!

Also thanks to redknot for giving out my flyers at MOCCA!

jmfreeman @ 2006-05-04T12:59:00

2006-05-04T17:00:20Z

I'm not dead. The Release Party isn't dead. I couldn't draw with my arm out of commission for a while.

Chapter 2 will begin on June 13!

Keep it inky!

Late

2006-03-30T15:46:49Z

Sorry I'm late this week.

While away in New York, I drew the four panels separately and now I have to make them work together which is proving tougher than I thought. My arm is sore, I'm short on sleep and I need to do this on a day I'm not working. So, Friday.

It will be the last update of Chapter 1. Huzzah.

I will then take a brief hiatus to get ahead on Chapter 2. Updates will resume in May.

Excuses, Excuses

2006-02-08T21:12:15Z

Weight of the World

2006-01-29T00:03:42Z

Dylan Horrock's new comic "Atlas" from Drawn and Quarterly is a beautiful, beautiful work. The second issue tops the first, especially in the weight and power of the drawing but there is a sense of loving sorrow to the whole tale. And the backup story by Kochalka in issue one is truly touching.

The whole is suffused with love for comics, a feeling I shared today as I went through boxes of old comics and started moving all my graphic novels up to the new bedroom where my new drawing table is.

Update

2006-01-25T23:19:41Z

It's two new pages of The Release Party. Further experiments in perspective! This time I have explicit punk sex to distract you from any drawing mistakes.

Hatching Plots

2006-01-18T16:20:23Z

There is a Release Party update live on the Internets!

Uh-oh, I did a lot of hatching on this page, something I love to do but had decided to eschew in favour of grey toning in Photoshop. But, my excuse went, this is a narrative flashback, the first of its kind in the book! But I don't know if I'll be able to stop now. I love hatching. love it love it love it.

But can I change styles like this dozens of pages into the gn? Or am I doomed to spend another hatch-free year of drawing? Help me, Milt Caniff! What should I do?

Marketing Lesson

2006-01-16T13:55:21Z

There were 1776 views of my Batgirl image since last week's meme craze. If I had had a direct link to the Release Party in that entry, I probably could have pulled in some viewers.

Lesson: event = eyeballs = potential readers.

Don't miss easy marketing opportunities!

Meme? Me! Me!

2006-01-13T21:15:35Z

I drew a Batgirl just like everyone else here!

Because you can't stop Batgirl!

If you're new here, please check out my online graphic novel, The Release Party.

Update

2006-01-11T23:03:32Z

Please check out today's page! or start from the beginning.

I will try to avoid a repeat of this week which saw me working into the night on the page after work Monday and Tuesday. I must finish by Sunday or I'm gonna burn out!

I am writing the script through to the end of Chapter 1 which is in sight! Just four or five scenelets. What's that? A million pages? Give or take...

First Update of 2006

2006-01-04T15:34:29Z

Happy New Year, comic hounds.

I've posted the first update to The Release Party for 2006. I'm not sure why this page (broken into three for easy web viewing!) was so agonizing to draw but I mustn't get bogged down. I'm aiming for two pages a week this year and more if I want to publish the tpb by Spring 2007.

You can also read The Release Party from the beginning.

My frustration with the perspective in the second panel led me to buy this book which I cannot recommend strongly enough if drawing perspective is getting you down.

I have to find time to redesign my homepage as I am not updating any music and it's embarrassing to leave the same song there month after month in a place of prominence. Whatever; as long as I keep drawing.

Happy inky new year!

Slow Art

2005-12-21T21:18:55Z

Crossposted to altcomix:

I've been reading the book In Praise of Slow by Carl Honoré and it gave me some new insights on comics as I rode the bus yesterday. At times I wonder why I am drawing a graphic novel as it is such a labour-intensive way of telling a story. But reading the book, I once again began honouring the slow craft and the special wisdom of creating a world and the lives therein one brushstroke at a time.

I looked up from the book as the bus travelled the wintry streets and my eyes scanned from one patron to another, doing a quick-sketch in my head, trying to visualize the spine, the density, see where the weight fell and how each posture told a story about where that person was at that moment.

Each human is a universe of his or her own tiny brushstrokes -- moments laid down one by one on life's page, telling a story that will continue until it must stop.

I understand better now my decision to make this book as much by hand as possible. In fact, I regret now that I'm even using a computer for toning. I want the silence where only the scratch, scratch, scratch of pencil and pen shyly announce that I am making my mark on the universe.

The latest installment of The Release Party can be found here. You can also start the story from the beginning.

Next week, I will take a holiday break and posts will resume on January 3, 2006. Happy New Year.

Two Weeks of Updates

2005-12-14T21:15:14Z

I have to remember to post here! I never forget to post Release Party on Wednesdays but I forget to holler in the streets about it.

For last week's update, go here.

For today's update, go here.

To read the story from the beginning, go here.

I haven't posted a new piece of music since like August. I'll get on that this weekend. My friend Tim Rutter in Edmonton wants me to post the recording we did of Bowie's Crack'd Actor like 9 years ago when we were making music together. He's never heard the finished thing, so I'll get that up.

Thanks to the wonderful mofic for pimping The Release Party in her journal. She writes wonderful X-Men movie fanfic and I am indebted to her for many hours of enjoyable reading plus the enduring images of a sexy and touching Cyclops/Wolverine pairing.

Shy

2005-11-30T17:41:38Z

I seem to have been too shy to tell you last week that I'd posted new pages. I have again today. If you want to start from last week's week update, go here. If you want to start from this week, go here. If you want to start from the beginning, go here.

Thank you for reading. I'm having fun.

It's Jed's Mother!

2005-11-16T15:53:00Z

Family communication, I love it.

I absolutely love her outfit. Are you proud of me 'Tasha?

I forgot to draw the polka dots last week on one panel and it took forever to figure out what was wrong.

Speaking of outfits, the white thing Jed is wearing over his turtleneck is based on a knit Central American thing I used to own. Unfortunately, the whole effect of his outfit looks like Kung Fu pyjamas. Oh well, he'll be changing in about ten pages.

shoop goes the ink

2005-11-14T15:08:50Z

I'm achieving a new fluency in my inking, especially in my ability to render different textures. I will continue to focus on spotting blacks, something I can do with more bravery still.

For non comic artists out there, spotting blacks means finding areas of a drawing that can be rendered in solid black -- whether this clothing and hair or shadows. It's especially exciting when you can suggest form in shadow. It makes a page crackle with energy if done right. Of course, it helps if you are drawing Hellboy and have a good reason to make vast, sinister shadows. It also helps if you are as skillful as Mike Mignola, Hellboy's artist.

Current comics I'm reading: Osamu Tezuka's Buddha, Paul Pope's 100%, Ted McKeever's Superman's Metropolis, Mikey Carey, et al's Lucifer vol. 7, Ultimate Spiderman vol. 3.

jmfreeman @ 2005-11-09T22:31:00

2005-11-10T03:38:48Z

The mystery of the tape, solved on page 25! So much for suspense. But there are more wrinkles to come, so have your steam irons handy.

I am days away from setting up my new drawing board in my new room. Happiness like none I have known will ensue, no doubt. As I said to someone on line today (she's famous! I won't name drop!), I need to have the page I'm working on actually out and on a drawing board if I'm to get any work done. I use the ten minutes before dinner, the 30 minutes at bedtime and slowly chip away at things. That's how I'll get two pages a week done in 2006.

Lots of ideas for the next project... Anyone want to collaborate? You must be relentless. I have the stories, you have time and no desire for money. God love the comic book artist.

One thing I intend on the next project is to use the computer even less. The toning on the Release Party takes too much time and frankly, I'd rather be hatching! The decision to make the flashback pages pure black and white is only partly aesthetic -- it also means a lot less clicking in Photoshop! I aspire to a Jaime-Hernandez level of black and white perfection, but I'm not there yet. In the meantime, high contrast flashbacks! For you and your loved ones!

Update November 2, 2005

2005-11-02T17:13:35Z

I've just updated the Release Party. I've also decided not to say that I really hate my art on this page... oh, shit.

Um, okay. It's not that it's bad, but I think I was finding my way with a new brush and there are things about it that bug me. But who knows? Maybe you'll say it's the best page so far so I shouldn't influence you.

Luckily I love the art on the next few pages so I guess I'm not sliding downhill into hackdom. *whew*

Lookout!!!

2005-10-26T15:49:02Z

Three new screens up (representing one page but I'm BUILDING EXCITEMENT here!)

My search for a smaller drawing table ended happily at IKEA this weekend and I look forward to using it when I have a room to put it in a few weeks from now.

That means I will be selling my full-sized drafting table, if anyone wants to buy it. I want $50 for it. It's approximately 3' X 4' and in very good condition.

Mylar bag and backing board included.

I have not put up a new piece of music in about three months. Sorry. Life is chaotic and getting pages done is by far the most important goal at this juncture.

If you're looking for more online comicky goodness, Carla Speed MacNeil has moved her brilliant Finder comic from the comic book store to the web. She will now serialize online instead of in pamphlets (what we are calling traditional 20 page, stapled comic books these days) and then collect the stories in trades. Read all her old work and then check out her new work here.

Screeeeecch!!

2005-10-20T00:15:25Z

Page 22 is up today and this link will take you there. Unfortunately, I got it online after work as the Internet wasn't patched in the morning. But I haven't missed a Wednesday since the comic premiered in July. Hooray.

I've been thinking I might be able to bring this epic in at 150 pages instead of the 220 I originally thought. I will have to wait and see as I can't really plan out page per page that far ahead.

I would love to finish chapter 1 by the New Year, but until the renovations are finished (we have walls now) I haven't got an infrastructure conducive to productivity. Still, I'm keeping up with my page a week. In 2006, I will get it up to two.

Inky Arts October 2005

2005-10-11T16:03:54Z

My Zebra pen and I are now friends. I told the owner of my local art/office supplies store that he should get some. He is aware of them, but leary because their product line is small. "What colours do they come in?" he asked me. I answered, "I don't know. I ONLY EVER USE BLACK."

Because, hey, I'm a cartoonist.

I just finished inking pages 25 and 26 and I really like them a lot; I hope you do, too, when they're up in a few weeks.

I have fallen in love with Seth Fisher. I first discovered his work on Vertigo Pop's Tokyo book. He is continuing with things Japanese over at Marvel now drawing a hilarious Fantastic Four and Iron Man mini-series called Big in Japan. In addition, I picked up the TPB of a surreal Green Lantern series he did in 2001 called Will World.

His work reminds me of Frank Quitely, Geoff Darrow and Moebius at his most giddy. These artists are all important to me now, which is kind of funny considering the style I'm drawing in which is lot more blocky and, oh yeah, not in bright pop colours. Still, when I start working on my fashion adventure comic, my style may owe more to these crazy, fine-line detail guys.

If you're in Toronto in the next while and you're a Paul Pope fan, look at the you-wanna-cry-it's-so-beautiful Batman page hanging over the downstairs cash at the Beguiling. I've heard it's been sold, so hurry. IT'S CRAZY HUGE! It's got to be three times published size. This at the same time as people (most recently Sam Hiti) keep telling me to draw smaller because it's faster.

Also picked up James Kochalka and Craig Thompson's lovely little "Conversation" mini-comic and I want to weep with the tenderness and love of it all. *le sigh*

Cheers.

Holy Brainfart!

2005-09-21T20:09:10Z

I'm so upside down with renovations, getting sick, etc. I forgot it was Wednesday and I haven't uploaded pages today!!

They're all ready to go, folks, sorry! As soon as I get home from work, I'll do it in two seconds.

Sheesh.