David Heatley at Drawger.com

"Do You Belong In New York?"

2009-06-11T23:32:25+00:00

Full page illustration for Time Out New York's "Do You Belong in New York?" quiz issue. Art director was Adam Fulrath and he was a joy to work with as always. It's sort of a "Where's Waldo?" type thing, but you're supposed to spot annoying city behaviors (things only real NYC residents would know). Major inspiration was drawn from this insane piece of beautiful art by eboy.

(Not) My Home Birth

2009-05-12T14:44:06+00:00

This was a fun project. Illustrating Christen Clifford's home birth story. She's a writer and performer who lives in the same neighborhood as me. My wife and I helped edit her essay into comics format and then I illustrated it. The piece ran on Friday just before Mother's Day. Check it out. We've gotten a lot of nice responses so far, but the biggest compliment was having Christen use a panel from the strip as her Facebook profile pic. We may be doing more of these in the future. Keep your eyes peeled...

Back story from the SMITH mag website:

If you want to publish a story about motherhood the week before Mother’s Day and not be a hideous cliché, it better be good. It better be vivid and real and personal and unique. Something like a totally raw comic strip about home birth, complete with shit and placenta, hatred and love, Facebook, The Daily Show, and hot naked photos of the majorly pregnant author. We thought you’d like that.

Christen Clifford is a fearless writer who has appeared on SMITH before as well as on stage and in many other publications. Her intensely confessional works are so intimate and honest they elicit more me-toos than TMIs. She met cartoonist David Heatley on the playground, as creative New York parents are wont to do, and read his graphic memoir in bed the day after baby Vera was [home]born. Christen immediately saw the story of her daughter’s birth in David’s child-like, evocative style. Now, quite fortunately, we can, too.

God

2009-04-20T21:32:46+00:00

I don't believe in an anthropormphic God. I think more of an inner-dwelling divinity, something like a vibrational frequency in the strings that make up all molecules. I subscribe to the idea that whenever there's love between people, God's there. Same goes for people gathered to pray, meditate or worship. And God as an empowering presence that heals people's pain and trauma, gives clarity, direction and order to people's lives. Eternal, perfect, always available, certainly not subject to human-like whims or tantrums. Still, it's fun to draw pictures of God as a robed figure on a cloud. Mine has a lightbulb head and is gender neutral. I first drew God this way on the spine of my book (My Brain...). I like this character and might find more uses for it. I think it would make a great vinyl toy. But it might need to star in some adventures first.

I think I first drew a depiction of "God" in the dream comic which ends "Portrait of My Dad." My dad had a dream where he "experienced" God this way, as a beam of light flowing through a church window, filling his chest and vibrating so hard it felt like his heart would burst. He said he went into an ecstatic trance. When he first told me about the dream, I had nothing but skepticism and even contempt for the story. In my smug way, I probably thought he'd had indigestion. By the time I drew this strip in 2004 or so, I'd had my own spiritual re-awakening and was trying my best to illustrate his dream respectfully. I'm proud of the fact that he took a big 11x17 print of this page around with him and showed all his friends and co-workers what I'd done. To this day there's plenty about what my dad believes that is hard to take seriously (guardian angels, prayers affecting the weather, heaven as a resort spa), but I think I'm finally humble enough to just smile and say "you might be right" instead of trying to fight him out of his belief system.

I also recently drew God as a tribal black man with a long white beard in my strip for Kramers Ergot 7 ("The Hated Thing"). That strip is overtly about race and stereotypes and is supposed to be offensive, though hopefully not in an unconscious, unconsidered way. I don't believe that God is beholden to any particular race of people, though if you subscribe to the "made in His image" thing and combine it with life originating in Africa, there's a compelling case for a Christian God being black. Take that, evangelical crackers!

But this is all just fun. If I know anything, it's that God is a big mystery. If I think I even remotely understand God, I'm deluding myself. Maybe God is everything I don't know. It's impossible to wrap something as limited as my human consciousness around an unfathomable force that animates, orders and dynamically responds to the entire world and universe. If you believe in that sort of thing, that is.

Week in Review Cover

2009-04-14T14:48:25+00:00

Highlight of my week was working on this cover for the Week in Review. Aviva was great to work with as always. I came up with something more sparse than usual and I like it. Feels like a direction I might be moving in. It's funny to be using what I'm surrounded by (in this case, my daughter's magnetic dress-up dolls) to illustrate heady national economic topics. In context here:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/weekinreview/index.html

Action Painters!

2009-04-09T18:49:00+00:00

Just finished this CD art for the first full album from Brooklyn-based "Action Painters." Their drummer Amit is an old friend of mine from High School, who makes several appearances in my book. Tom Haslow, the lead singer and guitarist plays guitar and bass on three of my songs. It was nice to do an old fashioned trade– art for music. Glad Tom went for the simple black and white line drawing approach. Very rock and roll. The album is great. "Supermarket" is particularly catchy. And they're fantastic live. Think they're playing tonight at Cake Shop in fact. Check em out!

Nickelodeon Entertainment issue

2009-04-07T17:31:52+00:00

Did this job for the excellent Caitlin Keegan over at Nick magazine. This is the masthead for the "Entertainment issue" T.O.C. 'Twas fun googling Broadway marquees, Vegas signage, Times Sq glitz, etc.

Secret Lives T.O.N.Y.

2009-03-04T02:16:32+00:00

Did a comic strip for Time Out New York this week. This was a really fun assignment. They wanted me to do a "How To" kind of comic strip along the theme of secret lives led by New Yorkers. I initially pitched something called "How to Have a Spiritual Awakening," which showed how you can "wake up" by secretly binging on either food, sex, money or drugs. It was deemed a little preachy. Billie helped me with a re-write which was a bit lighter and gossipier (qualities that don't come naturally to me, but which I'll need to learn if I want to make it in, say, Hollywood some day). It was a true collaboration and I enjoyed the back and forth a lot.

Favorite one is "How to Cheat on Your wife," which reads:
1) Notice that your parents have way too much or way too little sex.
2) Discover father's massive pornography collection, circa 1970s Times Square.
3) Visit first prostitute in Jackson Heights, Queens at age 16.
4) Discover "happy ending" massage parlors in Time Out New York's 'Secret Lives' package online. Become frequent customer.
5) Get married to a woman who suspects nothing.
6) Realize wife is no fool and can check the bank balance.
7) Write confessional tell-all / Self-help book to "save" other adulterers. Cheat on wife again with Borders clerk.

NYC Zeitgeist

2009-02-24T18:04:16+00:00

These are 2 llustrations for an article in Time Out New York about greed / competition in NYC. It ran last week.

Got me thinking today. I'm grateful that instead of caving in to the fear all around me, my mantra has been "these are INTERESTING times we're living through." Very curious about how all of this will shake out. I'm also grateful to have spent the last 5 years doing some "character building," trying to live my life based on principles that would make my grandfather proud. Things like:

• don't spend more money than I have

• live within my means but don't let those means become an identity

• follow what brings me the most joy in life

• find a balance where work time recharges me for the times I'm with my family and family time recharges me so I'm ready to get back to work

• don't compare myself to anyone's exterior

• be open to doing work that is humble to support my family and contribute my gifts to the world

And of course:

• have the most women surrounding me when I win my next rooftop MC battle

Draw me a little something for my video, will ya?

2009-02-03T15:38:02+00:00

Hey Drawgies,

I know things are slow for me at the moment and was thinking other people might have a little down time too. I'm doing a music video for my new song "Suburban White Girls," directed by my brilliant friend Morgan K. Nichols. We're going to do a mostly animated video largely drawn by me. But I was thinking it would be very cool to have friends and colleagues collaborate with me by contributing background characters and buildings.

There is no budget, but all participants will be credited and mentioned wherever this gets posted or screened. I'll also mail you a little drawing as trade. It will probably be in proportion to the complexity of the art you send me.

If you're interested in drawing me a little suburban white girl or a thug or your version of a certain hip hop album cover or any number of other little details, let me know. I'll assign you a drawing. I also need a few suburban buildings, birds, and insects so those are possibilities too.

The process will be hassle free. If you want to give me something, I'll use it one way or another. No back and forth.

Who's down?

Holla back: davidmheatley@gmail.com

FREE song: "Suburban White Girls"

2009-01-24T01:41:36+00:00

Download a FREE mp3 of my new song "Suburban White Girls."

Produced and recorded by Peter Wade for WonderSound records. Featuring DJ Big Wiz on scratches, Tom Haslow on guitar and Rachel Robinson as the voices of the teenage girls who taunted me mercilessly in 7th grade.*
While you're there, you might want to sign up for the "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down" mailing list. My label will be sending out periodic announcements related to my music projects. Probably a few times a year. Stay informed. And feel free to pass around this info to anyone who wants a free song.
Thanks!
David
NOTE: No teenage girls were harmed in the making of this flyer.
*They're all forgiven, besides I was kind of a jerk in 7th grade too.

Cartoons and Drawings show tomorrow night!

2009-01-21T14:46:56+00:00

I've got a slew of original art for sale at Espresso 77 in Jackson Heights (my neighborhood). There are several pieces that ran in The New York Times, including the two comic strips done with my wife ("The Creche" and "Godless & Penniless...". You can download a price list of available pieces here.

Email the cafe (info@espresso77.com) if you want to reserve something.

The opening is tomorrow night. Come by and say hello. 7 pm - 9 pm

Espresso 77 is at 35-57 77th St. between 35th ave and 37th ave in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Directions are here.

Happy MLK Jr. Day / Inauguration Eve!

2009-01-19T14:32:11+00:00

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." - MLK Jr.

Art Review comic

2009-01-08T21:14:42+00:00

I did a 2-page strip for this month's issue of Art Review called "Comics History." All the things I count as part of my "comics education," including: drawing picture books when I was 5, drawing dirty pictures with a babysitter (who was not asked back), falling in love with Spider Man at age 10, drawing caricatures of all the popular kids who stopped speaking to me when I was 13, pot-inspired doodling in High School and then some things I learned in school like filmmaking, bookmaking, woodworking, design, creative writing and finally illustration assignments. I'll even begrudgingly admit that working as an art director on crappy direct mail assignments helped my comics in some way.

I Like Being the Background Character Sometimes

2008-12-17T16:59:59+00:00

My brilliant wife Rebecca Gopoian had the idea of turning our fights about money this month into a Times Op-Ed comic strip. She wrote a really thoughtful piece called "Godless and Penniless: A Christmas Story." I kept egging her on: "get bitchier, make fun of me some more." I did some minor editing, but it's her piece and I'm feeling very proud of her. It's a tremendous gift to have someone you love depict you in all your imperfections. I think she revealed herself too. After detailing my life for 128 dense pages in my own autobiography, it's such a relief to be a secondary character in my wife's narrative. It gives me compassion for her and bursts the bubble of my sometimes seductive and overpowering ego.

Then again, maybe I'm feeling so gracious because my book was reviewed this Sunday in the NY Times Book Review. I wish this wasn't the case, but I'm usually able to feel generous only if I feel pretty taken care of first. And annoyingly enough, it's up to me to make sure I feel cared for. Ask for what I need, feed myself healthy food, get to bed on time and all that. So how did I spend the day that the Book Review arrived at our house? I woke up at 6:00 AM as usual to my daughter's chipmunk voice at my bedside. I had read the review a week earlier so knew it was a good one on the whole, but was pleasantly surprised at the huge illustration from my book on the printed page. I glowed with pride for about a half hour. Then I got myself and my son ready to go to our art class at the Noguchi Museum in Queens. We made holiday stencils prints together. We came home. He crashed out for his nap. I got my copy of the incredible Kramer's Ergot in the mail and read that for a few hours (more on that later). I cooked some potatoes for the holiday party we were going to that evening. Rebecca and Maya got home and we packed up again and drove to Manhattan for an interfaith Christmas and Hanukkah ceremony (heavy on the Christmas). I loved singing the terribly clunky Anglican carols of my youth. Rebecca patiently looked on with a smirk. The kids ran around on the stage afterwards, hiding behind curtains like I used to do with my brothers. I felt some more glow. Finally, we got their PJs on and brushed their teeth in the bathroom. Got them in the car and they fell asleep. When pulled up to our building, we did a Double Transfer™ from the car to their beds. Watched some "30 Rock" on the DVR, read some more of Tolstoy's biography and then crashed out in the bed. The next day my wife had to point out to me: "Some people wait their whole lives to have their book reviewed in the NY Times." That's true. It didn't feel like that big a deal. I think it's been the way I've coped with potential disappointment. "Better not get my hopes up too much that this will change anything." I think it's finally sunk in, many days later. It has changed me. My little baby made it all the way to the Book Review. It's out of my hands now and doing its work out there in the world. I wish it well. (Big old glow.)

2 Holiday images

2008-12-05T20:43:12+00:00

Been a little while since I posted. I've been in book tour land. I don't usually like to upload unpublished work, but these 2 don't have a home for the holidays. The first is a cover I did for an upcoming issue of Granta with a fathers theme. That's me holding my son Sam with the various men in our family on both sides, going back to cave times if you follow on the upper right-hand side. The second one is a recent NYer sketch that I feel captures the mood in my household (and maybe yours?). My kids couldn't care less about getting the latest plastic monstrosity. They just want some time to sit all together and play with blocks.

All things

2008-09-29T20:49:09+00:00

My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, my 128-page overstuffed graphic memoir from Pantheon is in stores today! You can buy it online at Powell's or amazon. UK buyers can get it on amazon.uk. While you're clicking around, be sure to read the comic strip I did for amazon called "My Upside Down Brain."

Please also make sure to check out my newly designed website!

If that all wasn't exciting enough, I've recorded a 5-song mini-LP soundtrack to the book with grammy-winning producer Peter Wade. You can hear the first single and watch the music video on myspace or youtube. The full mini-LP will be on iTunes and amazon later this month.

And finally, I'll be "performing" my book with slides, video and live music next week at my Book Release Party! It's at the Slipper Room. 167 Orchard St. New York, NY 7:00-10:00 pm It's free. For anyone in NYC that can't make it, I'll be at Barnes and Noble in coversation with Art Spiegelman on Monday, Oct. 20. 97 Warren St. New York, NY 7:00-9:00 pm (also free)

Full list of tour dates here.

Granta - New Nature Writing

2008-07-31T13:37:24+00:00

I've got a 10-page comic strip in the new issue of Granta! After spending 5 years detailing the minute fluctuations of my own psyche, I'm starting to look out and engage more with the world at large. So this strip tackles our monolithic food industry. In general I'm not a fan of overtly political art. I'm much more interested in personal, individual psychology-driven stories. But this is a subject I feel strongly about.

I've had stomach trouble all my life. A few years ago I started getting a serious intolerance to soy, wheat and sugar. In the last few months I've added dairy to that list. It can be pretty alienating at parties or at restaurants to be so limited in what I eat, but lately I've come to believe that it's less important how something tastes than how it makes me feel after I've eaten it. I only arrived at this through intolerable stomach pain, fitful sleep, medical intervention (almost had surgery), etc. Pain is my best teacher.

And my life is completely different now because of this simple change. I don't feel heavy, depressed or intoxicated after every meal. And I sleep through the night.

Anyway, the idea for this story came to me during my morning meditation. I imagined what it would look like to draw all the steps involved in engineering (there's no better term for it) a classic burger and fries combo at a diner or fast food restaurant.

After I'd thought of the strip and made some notes on it, my agent told me that Granta was looking to feature more cartoonists and they were wondering if I had any ideas that related to people feeling disconnected from nature. Perfect! My idea had a home. I had to squeeze in the story while finishing my book for Pantheon. As the deadline got closer I realized I'd never be able to do it on my own, so I was forced to hire my friend, a brilliant cartoonist named Dave Kiersh, to color the strip for me. I'm so pleased with how it came out. And I realize that I don't miss all that agonizing detailed work. Hiring an intern might be the wave of the future!

The issue should be on stands soon.

I watched a few hours of horrifying slaughterhouse footage on YouTube for this section. Made me a vegetarian for 2 weeks. Unfortunately since I can't digest soy or dairy very well, it's not really a viable option for me. So I'm trying my best to only eat humanely slaughtered meat these days.

Children With Globe

2008-06-23T17:03:58+00:00

I got asked to be part of a show in Edinburgh where artists were asked to reinterpret images from Carl Sagan's Golden Record, as launched into space in 1977 with the Voyager missions. There were originally 116 images describing life on earth encoded into a gold phonograph record. I have to admit I'd never heard of this project. In my defense, I was 3 when this was taking place (my daughter's age now, come to think of it). It's a pretty great idea though. And a great idea for a gallery show.

I chose "Children with Globe." Original photograph is below. My interpretation was done in pastels and ink on bristol collaged onto cardboard (inked and then scratched).

I agreed to contribute to the show months ago, but didn't get around to making the image until last month. The timing turned out to be perfect. I was asked by my nephew in New Jersey to come speak to his second grade class and talk about my job as a cartoonist. It was a total joy. Watching the kids draw stories about swimming, or staying in bed with fever, or turning into "supercat" and scaling a building was really inspiring. On father's day my nephew showed up to my in-laws' house with 22 thank you cards from his classmates, all drawn very carefully with markers, some detailed with little comic strips. One strip read "He's here. I'm happy. He leaves. I'm sad." A lot of them wrote "You have a lot of talent." One kid wrote "You're great at doing comics. I'm great too!" Adorable. I need more of this in my life, I think.

PS - The blonde girl in the drawing is loosely based on my daughter, the brown haired boy is my son. Can't avoid the autobio.

Spotlight at MoCCA

2008-06-03T14:01:04+00:00

I'll be giving an hour presentation on my comics and illustration work from the last 10 years as part of MOCCA this weekend. I'll also be signing free promotional samplers from my upcoming book My Brain is Hanging Upside Down.

My talk follows right after Chip Kidd's discussion of BatManga, his upcoming Pantheon book. So come on down for both!

Here's all the pertinent info:

SUNDAY, JUNE 8
2:30 PM (Chip's talk is at 1:20)
MoCCA Gallery, 594 Broadway (Suite 401), just below Houston.

My Brain is Hanging Upside Down

2008-05-19T16:16:24+00:00

"My Brain is Hanging Upside Down," my 128-page full-color graphic memoir is now finished and is off to the printer. It comes out from Pantheon this fall. I'll be posting about upcoming events soon, but wanted to post today about the process of working on it. The book has taken me about 5 and half years to complete.

I started out drawing comic strips about my dreams in a self-published pamphlet called Deadpan in 2002. Once that started reaching stores and I started getting some responses and feedback, I decided I wanted to explore other parts of my story. At film school, I had done "portrait films," which were kind of cubist in nature. I would project 4 quadrants of the same person, shot from different angles, but doing the same activity. I got to thinking about trying to do a "portrait comic strip." Something I hadn't really seen. Ron Rege, Dan Clowes and Chris Ware were starting to do these multiple-strips-on-a-page comics, emulating a newspaper funnies section, but with narratives that connected to one another. I thought I would focus my pages around a single person. The various vignettes would add up to a portrait. I drew "Portrait of my Dad" for McSweeney's #13.

Next I wanted to try a good old fashion autobiographical diary strip, in the tradition of Aline Kominsky, Joe Matt, and Julie Doucet. I liked Jeffrey Brown's first book "Clumsy" a lot and was definitely inspired by his doodly line quality. But I felt like I could probably pack my entire sex history into one comic strip and leave it at that. I didn't want to be a cartoonist who was endlessly telling the same story about longing or heartbreak. I also thought it would be compelling to start at the very beginning and include all my early childhood sexual experiences, since it's all one big continuum. I drew my Sex History in about 6 months. And then I took 6 more months to painstakingly paint every panel with gouache. I think it elevated the strip beyond slapdash diary and closer to something an obsessive outsider artist might do. Sammy Harkham published the strip in Kramer's Ergot 5.

In 2004, I got a Xeric grant to self-publish Deadpan #2, which consisted of "Sex History," "Portrait of My Dad," and some dream comics. Even though most of the work had already appeared elsewhere, I wanted to see how the 3 sections spoke to each other, hoping it would comprise a kind of self-portrait. I think it worked okay, but realized I had a lot more I wanted to say to fully round it out.

I met Michael Homler, an editor from St. Martin's Press at a party in 2005 and he asked if I was working on any book-length comics. I immediately thought that I could expand what I'd done in Deadpan to fill a softcover collection. I pitched him a book called "I'm Open, " suggesting a few supplemental strips to round out the contents of Deadpan 1 and 2. I worked on this book for the next 2 years. But by the end of 2006, I realized that the book had changed completely. It became obvious that the scope of what I now had in mind didn't fit the original vision of the book I'd pitched to Michael. We parted ways amicably in 2006, and I'll always be grateful to him for his initial enthusiasm and support for my work.

I took some time to refocus the book and titled it "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down," after a lyric from my favorite Ramones song. By 2007, with the book solidly structured and mapped out, I signed a contract with Pantheon. I was able to quit my long-standing day job that June.

The year of work on the book since then has been astounding. I've had every emotional experience possible. Rage so strong I needed to twist towels, scream, punch pillows (while my wife and kids were out for the day). A torrent of tears and grief. Unprecedented joy and a sense of my spiritual purpose on the planet. Most days have been simpler than that. Sitting in my chair and penciling, inking, or coloring. Day after day. Watching the pages slowly fill up with ink, then color. Watching the layout pages grow, then rearrange themselves until they landed in the correct order.

Here we are, almost June of 2008 and the book is done. Every last image and piece of text hand-drawn. I'm proud of this thing. It's a tome. It's an illuminated manuscript of my life. It's my statement to the world, broken into 5 chapters: Sex, Race, Mom, Dad, Kin. I've told it all. And now I'm spent.

I can't post too many images from the interior for obvious reasons, but I thought I'd post a visual tour through the process of finding my book's cover. That process alone spanned 2 years and generated countless sketches. I was looking at a lot of Tadanori Yokoo posters, trying to get a similar riot of graphic styles, clashing and coalescing. The images are roughly in chronological order and most are embarrassing. But I believe in leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. Hope this is helpful to someone out there.

I'm satisfied with what it turned out to be and so grateful to be finished. Thanks for looking. Stay tuned for more!

New Yorker Money Issue

2008-03-24T18:29:41+00:00

I have a "sketchbook" page in this week's New Yorker. It's the first time I made it onto the "contributors" page. Got a nice plug from my upcoming book "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down." Much more about that soon... Here's some detailed views. There's a lot of hidden narratives for the adventurous reader.

Jackson Heights Map!

2008-03-05T20:05:39+00:00

A real estate developer in my neighb saw my "Queens is the New Brooklyn" piece on drawger and commissioned me to draw a cartoon map brochure for my neighborhood, Jackson Heights. It was one of the best jobs I've ever gotten. A total blast to research, organize, design and draw. I started by posting to our local message board asking people for their favorite things about the neighborhood. Of course I had my own list of things I love and the piece is largely autobiographical (like everything I do). I did strive for a balanced portrait of JH, which includes Indians, Pakistanis, Italians, Irish, Peruvians, Mexicans, Columbians, Koreans, Phillipinos, etc. etc. etc. Hard to get all that into a 2-sided piece of 11 x 17 paper, but I did my best! It basically took me all of February.

There's 5,000 of these babies floating around the NYC area. I'm dropping a stack off at my favorite local cafe. Otherwise you might have to be resourceful to get your hands on one. By the way, my client Dan Robinson was ideal. How often do you get the feedback, "Can you make it a little more whimsical?"

Exhibitor Mag

2008-01-22T16:39:58+00:00

Did this one for Exhibitor magazine this month. About some company who had a lot of success at a trade show by making their booth seem exclusive with large dark purple walls and a live jazz combo. They also gave away t-shirts and TVs and Starbucks coffee. Not a theme I feel terribly sympathetic to, but I managed to have some fun drawing all the characters at the event. I googled the word "people" in google's image search. The very first result was a page showing the staff of an entire astronomy department at the University of Florida. Perfect!

This was what the whole image looked like, with the line snaking across the page.

The jazz band, also based on a trio I found on google. It seemed like the right casting - these middle aged guys with cool haircuts. Probably playing some smoothed out stuff, but still swinging. I snuck my wife into the audience on the lower left there.

More of the folks on line. I drew myself in a dorky striped yellow shirt. Kind of my worst nightmare of who I'd become if I was stuck in a corporate job. My fashion sense would wither away. I'd stop getting regular haircuts (actually, even now that's kind of hard to maintain). I'd be complacent, bored and depressed, probably shrugging like this to strangers very often.

I was having fun imagining how these folks would be passing the time on line. So I had this tanned outgoing alpha male guy hitting on this cute indie rockerish chick. She's timid, but still into the attention she's getting. The older guy is saying something about the woman's shoes or something. He has a fatherly air, but she misunderstands it as creepy flirting and is having none of it.

And the stragglers at the end. I liked this guy telling the rest about the free coffee. I feel some affection for him. But I have to wonder, who gets this excited about some free coffee? Who goes to these events? Aren't they usually the people who slack off at work and jump at the chance to go to a free trade show for the day? Are they really the kinds of people you want to be generating lists for and marketing to? I don't profess to know. Just wondering...

New Yorker Cartoon Issue

2008-01-03T16:22:13+00:00

I was commissioned by the New Yorker to do a 2-page strip for the 2007 Cartoon Issue. They wanted something about Queens being the new Brooklyn. So I came up with this. I really loved working on it and was looking forward to putting my neighborhood (Jackson Heights) on the national map. But... they yanked it at the last minute. I still got paid, so I didn't mind so much, plus they gave me the rights to print it someplace else. Any magazines out there want to run it? Here's a more readable version.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo Creche

2007-12-23T15:52:28+00:00

Two pieces in the NY Times today. One is in the Book Review. It's an illustration for that book which was supposedly written by Anthony Flew (a notorious British atheist and scholar), but was highly influenced and maybe ghost written by Roy Abraham Varghese, an oddball new age-y Christian from Texas (who believes in, among other things that some UFO sightings are actually evidence of visitations by the Virgin Mary). I love the subject and really poured myself into this one.

The other piece is a comic strip written by my wife, Rebecca Gopoian and "cartooned" by me (illustrated implies I dutifully added pictures to her text, but cartooned means I wrote with the pictures). It's about her experience of my wanting a creche in our home around Christmas time. As someone whose output consists mostly of drawing myself talking and thinking at various ages and in various locations, it was really refreshing to have my wife be the main character and put myself in the background. We both found it interesting how squeamish the editors were about including anything remotely cheeky in referring to Jesus. There were a few tweaks to appease the fundamentalists, but ultimately the piece survived intact. We're definitely planning on doing more of these, so stay tuned in 2008. Here's a readable version of the strip, up for the next week.

Holiday card

2007-12-19T16:02:30+00:00

Hello, my drawgies...

Here's our holiday card, just finished today. I'll be posting some new things in the next couple of days. But in the mean time I hope everyone has a relaxing, peaceful and joy-filled holiday.

Favorite cartoon images of all time #2 (Clowes)

2007-11-27T16:28:18+00:00

Dan Clowes is my favorite writer in comics. He's also one of my all-time favorite cartoonists. A lot of his art isn't beautiful in a stand-alone kind of way. In fact until Eightball Number 15 or 16, a lot of it is really garish and jarring and Mad magazine-ish. But even when his cartooning was at its most abrasive, the writing was better than anything else out there. And even the "ugly" cartooning was still great cartooning, meaning there's rarely anything extraneous that doesn't belong in a page by Clowes. In my own work I've been mostly interested in the storytelling which I spend at least 3 times as long on as I do the art. But recently I've been interested in finding pages of comics that function as self-containted works of art, the way paintings do. This is the first page of a 3-page strip from Eightball #8. It's based on a dream and was a big inspiration for me to start doing my own dream comics. I like the blankness of the character, the creepy Q-tip like object he discovers (which later turns out to come from the breasts of a squirrel), and the way Dan draws all the foliage. It's all so stiff like it was made from sheet metal. Gives the whole page a nice tension.

The original Ghost World hardcover is another of my favorites. I only wish it wrapped all the way around the book because the back cover is a little silly. Some things I love about it which keeps me staring at it all these years after I bought it. Beautiful, precise, painted line work. Gorgeous color choices and a strange and powerful eye-grabbing composition. The folk art-like details, which Dan might consider "mistakes," but for me make the picture warm, endearing, earnest and a little obsessive. I like that the blue flowers have unnatural hard lines which make them look like cut paper. I like the awkward yellow cloud between the girls's heads. All of the architectural detail in the top and bottom. The absolute emptiness of both scenes' physical spaces. The one giant insect in the background. The hatching shadow pattern on Enid's sweater which gives it a strange texture. Her banana-like left ear with no visible opening. The light spots on her glasses. Both of their flat red lips.You can really feel Clowes' adoration and love of these two girls and his trying to get it "just right."

Ice Haven is a perfectly executed book object in my opinion. The story is among the best ever written in comics, probably in prose too. Every page design is thoughtful and attractive and so is the book design itself. The title lettering of the front and back are just one example of how well thought-out this project was – how every page was an opportunity to expand on the themes and motifs of the narrative.

I think the prettiest stand-alone image of his is this Comics Journal cover he did in 2001. Line work, color, dialogue, even the tinted color of the page to make it look like weathered newsprint. All perfectly balanced. I find work like this very soothing and comforting. All the lettering is done by hand (as is standard with Clowes) and I was told that he painted this whole thing somehow. I was sure it was flat computer color, but I was mistaken. The funny thing about it is that it's basically a strip about how he hates the comics journal and doesn't want to be interviewed. He just wants to be left alone. It's fitting that he's alone in every single panel, talking to himself mostly.

Finally this stunning cover to Eightball #19. Has to be one of the greatest comic book covers ever. It's very much inspired by Crumb's "Weirdo" covers and Harvery Kurtzman's covers for "Humbug " before that. But it's closer to being a work of art for me than any of those other covers (maybe with the exception of Weirdo #1). The central image is so dramatic. Like a biblical painting about the main characters. David Boring looking off into the distance (day dreaming), while Wanda looks right at the viewer with a sphinx-like blank stare. There's natural disasters happening in the background with no other people in sight and the border surrounding the characters is a sea of microbes. Also the lighting on their bodies gives the impression that there's more fire or lighting happening in front of them (where the reader is standing). It tells a great deal of the story in a single image, something only the best book covers (and Renaissance paintings) achieve.

Favorite cartoon images of all time #1 (Panter)

2007-11-21T14:56:52+00:00

This is an unpublished painted comic page by Gary Panter, printed in Todd Hignite's "In the Studio" book. I find it thrilling: the loose painting, the iconic cartoon that is still readable even beneath the texture, the sun setting from panel to panel (seemingly contradicting the amount of time it should realistically have taken to deliver this speech), the writing itself, the way Henry's head morphs and distorts subtly throughout, the cars, the Pee Wee's playhouse patterns on everything. And maybe most of all: the way everything is painted without black outlines and the only black on the page is isolated in the thought and speech balloons. It's a really rich piece which was never published when it was drawn in 1992. I love that and hate it. I love that Gary just had so many other fish to fry artstically, so many more ideas, images, sketchbooks to fill, strips to conceive, that this masterpiece could just slip through the cracks. I also love that Dan Nadel (Picture Box) is doing a giant-sized double book of the better part of Gary's output from the last 30-odd years. Gary is just about the greatest for me and I'm so glad he's finally getting the deluxe treatment.

Espionage

2007-11-13T15:22:12+00:00

Job I just did for Exhibitor magazine. The AD was a real joy to work with. The topic was spying on other people's presentations at trade shows. Not something near and dear to my heart. But I tried to just keep it light and focus on drawing the weird spy characters. Title lettering and 4 spots, these were my 2 favorites of the 4.

Nozone comic

2007-11-06T15:48:22+00:00

Comic strip for the upcoming Nozone. Instead of doing a forecast, I did an anti-forecast, since I don't really like thinking about the future. I try my best to live in the present. I was afraid Nicholas would think it's not political or angry or edgy enough, but he seems to like it just fine. It's funny how that happens. I get an assignment sometimes and feel like I need to distort my style or message to fit a particular platform, when the reason they called is because they want what *I* do. It's sometimes easy to forget.

Been a while since I blogged over here. I've been busy, just haven't had anything I could share. I'm working on my book mostly, though I just got a few assignments in. I should have some new images to share next week. Fingers crossed on a big assignment that's still a little speculative. If it runs, that'll be really good for me.

Stay tuned for less cryptic blogging in the near future...

Time Out New York

2007-09-26T00:21:20+00:00

This is running in today's Time Out New York. A page about all the animals, parasites, microbes, pests, etc. in and around NYC buildings. Gave me the creeps googling all those things for reference... But it was a super fun job to draw. My first time working with them and a real pleasure throughout the whole process.

Time correction

2007-09-20T11:06:12+00:00

Anyone wanting to listen to the radio show, it's at 5 PM eastern time, not 11 am. My bad.

On the Radio

2007-09-19T17:44:42+00:00

I'm going to be on the radio tomorrow on a Canadian college station called CITR. It's a show called "Ink Studs," which is a little embarassing unless you know it's a funny tongue-in-cheek comic strip by Dan Clowes. The show is on at 5 PM Eastern time. To listen to it live, click on the CITR link and click the button for the live stream. Otherwise, it'll be archived on the ink studs site a week or so from now. I have no idea what we'll be talking about, but I promise to be honest and forthcoming. Also, the host told me they'd be playing some of my music on the show, which is a thrill for me, since I'm something of a "Sunday songwriter," wishing for more musical recognition.

Along these lines, I was interviewed about a year ago on another college radio station in Kansas called KJHK. The show was called "The Panel" and the host was a nice guy named Ian Hrabe. Here's that show if you're interested in listening. I don't remember much of what I said, but it was a fun conversation.

Who knew there were so many comics-themed college radio shows? (Even if there's only 2?)

Times Week In Review

2007-09-16T23:51:02+00:00

Just did a job for the NYT Week in Review. Here's the full process from thumbnail to finish. They wanted a grayscale version for the paper, but color for the web. This one was really a lot of fun for me.

It's up ***here*** for the next week. Just scroll down to the section that says "The Week."

Original art site

2007-09-11T14:07:35+00:00

I sell original comics and illustration art on this website. There's a whole bunch of new stuff up, including things done for The NY Times over the last few years. I think there's 40 cartoonists total who sell things there. Worth checking out for holiday shopping this year!

BTW - I did this drawing when I was in 3rd grade. Kind of a sad little guy. It was the "author photo" at the back of one of the many "books" I drew throughout my childhood. Amazing how I'm still basically doing the same thing as I did back then–drawing picture books essentially to please myself and find a way to connect with other people.

SPX badges

2007-09-06T14:38:15+00:00

I got asked to design the badges for this years Small Press Expo in Maryland. It's a big one for the alt. comix crowd. I had a lot of fun really blowing out these designs in various cartoon styles.

Here's a larger image.

Summer is for sketchbooks

2007-07-03T16:18:03+00:00

I'm going away next month and look forward to 10 days in New England with no projects, no deadlines, no "house style" to worry about. Just my sketchbook to play in. I feel like I learned how to draw in my sketchbooks over the last 10 years. More than in any classroom. Looking back over 8 or 9 books, I can remember exactly where I was when I drew certain things. What I was reading at the time, what was inspiring me, who I was hoping to become. I've been meaning to share a bunch of these drawings for a while and finally got a little time this morning to scan a big batch. Check out the sketchbook gallery to see everything.

My wife and I used to live in California and sometimes get nostalgic about all that free time we had to sit and daydream in cafes. I'd doodle and she'd write poetry. So romantic! Now we have 2 kids and all that that entails. Once in a while we can sneak away to a cafe here in Queens and get a taste of that old freedom. And next month when we're on vacation.

Hand-lettering

2007-06-28T12:18:58+00:00

I love hand-lettering and have done quite a bit of it at this point, in my comics and in some commercial assignments. I just updated my galleries and started a new one for hand-lettering samples. I think of myself as somewhat naive in my approach to lettering. I never studied it formally, but while working at Ogilvy, I spent a year in the "typography studio." It no longer exists, but during that time I got to become friends with a fine gentleman named Robert Wakeman, who taught me most of what I know. He is a true genius when it comes to typography and has been working with type since the days of hot metal. Take a look at his beautiful samples and you'll see what I'm talking about. His "Type Director's Wall" is a wonderful resource.

Comics Comics

2007-06-26T11:22:01+00:00

Hey everybody,

Have you heard of Comics Comics? It's a great little periodical published by my friend Dan Nadel and it's all about... comics! All across the board in terms of genre – superhero and alt. lit comix alike. There's some really passionate writing by Dan and his cohorts. Tim Hodler in particular is terrific. Issue #3 features a conversation between me and fellow cartoonist Lauren Weinsten,
who you must have all heard of by now right? She's the bee's knees.

It was fun. We drove down to Philly to be part of their 215 Literary festival. The turn out was downright pathetic, but it didn't matter. I was among friends and wound up having a great back-and-forth with good ol' Lauren. We did this "jam" drawing which is published in the CC#3 as well. We emailed it back and forth to each other. I was pretty thrilled with how it came together since I've never really done this sort of thing before. She and I talked about maybe doing some more jams down the road because of how easy and fun it was.

Best American Comics 2007

2007-06-19T14:38:12+00:00

I'm doing the cover for this year's Best American Comics, edited by Chris Ware. It's been a great project all around. Chris gave me carte blanche to do whatever I wanted, so I did this crazy 2 sided sprawling dustjacket and a full-color case wrap. I'm not posting large files because I don't want to step on anyone's toes at Houghton Mifflin, but the book will be out in October.

Quit My Job

2007-06-18T16:19:38+00:00

I've paid up my drawger dues. I'm back among the living. I hope to be posting regularly. Most importantly I quit my job at Ogilvy a week ago. Now I've got time to pursue my comics, illustration work, and (fingers crossed) gallery show. This is my year to plant seeds. "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down" (my 120 page 'graphic memoir') is slated for Fall '08 and I'm hoping to find a gallery to represent me and host the opening by then. I'm looking now. Of course any pointers from you lovely folks are appreciated! This is a drawing I did to show what I have in mind for the space.

Enlarged image is here.

I write music too

2007-03-15T03:15:08+00:00

I just started a myspace page for my music. It's got 2 new songs I just recorded. I used to be a musician before I was a cartoonist. I think I recorded about 100 songs on my 4 track in a 5 year period from High School through my first go-around at college. Then it trailed off and I got serious about images. I love making comics, but there's always been an element of hiding for me. Holing up and creating and then publishing is like a 1-way street. Making music is a lot more vulnerable for me. But I feel emboldened to share it.

Have a listen.

Some context

2007-02-22T19:56:23+00:00

Wow! Thanks, everyone. You sure know how to make a guy feel welcome. I got more comments in a day than I did in a year on blogger. Thought I'd add some context for appreciating my inaugural blog image. I did a story called "My Sexual History" for a book called Kramer's Ergot #5 and for my comic book Deadpan (still available from Fantagraphics) a few years back. It's basically what it sounds like: an unflinching catalog of every sexual experience from Kindergarten up til the present. It has made me infamous. I'm planning to add a page epilogue when I reprint in my book "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down" coming out in 2008. I've got a little more to say on the subject.

Anyway, here's how I drew the strip. I did an elaborate thumbnail so I could get a sense of where all the action was taking place in each panel (no pun intended). Then I redrew the whole page in rapidograph pen – no pencilling. I wanted it to have a rough, quick, diaristic quality. Then I made a blue line from the line art and painted that, adding some color pencil tones for shading. Then finally I sandwiched the two Photoshop files in InDesign. My process isn't anywhere near as elaborate anymore. The strip took me close to a year to draw! I'm doing a strip now called "Black History," a page of which I'm showing here too. It's using the same conceit as this strip. i.e. Can I really understand my relationship with women by showing only the moments when I was having sexual contact with them (the answer, hopefully, no). Can I make a sweeping statement about black people, by segregating them all into one comic strip? Again, I hope not.

I'm here!

2007-02-20T21:37:01+00:00

I'm migrating my blog over to drawger! Got a bunch of images up, mostly illustration. I'm undecided about sharing comics stuff in progress. Though I'll probably put more stuff than what's currently up there. Hope to get to know you folks.