Back from Egypt! To a small beautiful town in Vermont full of hills and friendly faces, patches of mud and twenty degree weather, where my thesis awaited me with open arms and lots of questions.
Here is just a small sampling of sketches from Egypt. I had grandiose dreams of keeping a comic chronicle of all events and happenings, but when traveling with 45 other people and seeing several sights per day, it just doesn’t happen. Other plans are in the works– I’ll write more about that soon!
More sketches from Egypt! Our guides Moustafa and Amgad were simply fantastic. Here’s a glimpse of their classroom.
The Comics Journal writer Rich Kreiner reviewed my two caterpillar stories, 25 Cents and Spots, on his Minis Monday blog a couple weeks back. Woo hoo! Thank you Rich, for the kind words! The next caterpillar tale is in the works!
The review can be found here: http://www.tcj.com/minicomics/minis-monday-geraniums-and-bacon-spots-and-25-cents
After a day or two of recovery, on January 25th, I sat down at my desk to begin composing a “long drawing” about Egypt, in the tradition of a 25 foot drawing that I did while living in Rome. I had anticipated that the project would be a few feet long and take about a week’s time, and I would then recommence the projects I had left in December when I went home to Christmas break. But Egypt had other ideas, and I immediately discovered that a long drawing was all wrong. ‘Longer!’ a voice demanded. ‘Panels!’ It said. ‘No!’ I cried, ‘I have to do a thesis project! I’m already behind! GO AWAY!’
But the voice just didn’t listen to me. ‘You have to draw it out! Think of what you saw, what you learned, what you thought about…’
Now, about three weeks later, I find myself closing in on finishing the thumbnailing for a graphic novel. Am I crazy? Probably. Yes. Most definitely. But tackling this isn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I am leaning on our 4,200 photos and all of my notes and sketches to draw out the things I remember, impressions and thoughts, wisps of conversations and my experience in a new culture.
This is my first test drawing, seeing if I could steal some style from Baudoin of L’Association (“Steal from the best!!” Thanks Alec!) and approach this story in a whole new way. It’s just the beginning, a little scratch at what I want to do with it. How do you capture thoughts on paper? Sear a reader’s soul with ink? How do you convey the experience of the spirit on the desert edge of the world? I don’t know. But I am determined to finish a first draft of this story by February 23rd, one month after we returned, so that I can put it away for a time, that it may resurface with clarity later.
But I am filled with renewed hope in what the arts can do.
I’ve been thinking a lot about color lately. Every time the sun comes out and shines down on our little corner of New England, the snow melts just enough to slip into the street and reflect bright blue patches of sky among streaks of white salt on black asphalt. The warm yellows and cheery reds of brick buildings throw themselves at every window pane, and all of a sudden Main Street is alive and vibrant in spite of the season. I would rip off my coat and boots and dive into the color if only it weren’t so damn cold.
Last week Joe Quinones and Maris Wicks visited the Center for Cartoon Studies and gave a wonderful presentation of their work and current projects, and between their pages of comics and Alec Longstreth’s recent crash course in color theory, I am inspired to get back into figuring out what it is to use color well. This week while sitting in our local coffee shop I couldn’t help but notice a conversation in front of me, and, in my best SNEAK-ATTACK drawing style, Wacom tablet and computer already in front of me, I tried out a little color study:
And then right before I left I did another quick one, trying different colors:
And now I’m completely addicted. Expect to see more of these over the coming weeks.
A regular local. Iced coffee and a muffin for $4.04 every day.
