Art for a recent poster I drew for the David Lynch series at the Trylon.
Just signin’ some Beta Testing The Apocalypse. Get your own signed copy (with a free Skyway Sleepless!) here.
Ho ho ho! I recently released a new mini-comic: Skyway Sleepless. It originally appeared in Twin Cities Noir. You can buy it on the Uncivilized Books site… OR if you’ve always wanted a signed copy of Beta Testing The Apocalypse but couldn’t get one, I’m offering them now for a limited time here. All copies will come with a free copy of Skyway Sleepless! Order now!
I’ll be manning the Uncivilized Books table (table i8) at SPX all weekend! I’ll be there with Kevin Huizenga, Dan Zettwoch, Zak Sally & Peter Wartman. Stop by to say hi!
Meanwhile, look what I got in the mail!
The French version of Beta Testing the Apocalypse is a reality! The book is in stores in France now!
The French book is a bit larger than the Fantagraphics version.
It wouldn’t be French without French flaps! I had to extend the cover drawing by more than 50%! More on that in a future post!
The table of contents.
French title card.
Sample pages in French. Thanks to Dalton Webb for creating a great font from my hand writing!
The French edition has an afterword written by novelist & journalist Christophe Tison. I’ll have a translation of it in a future post.
The back cover! I’ll have copies in both languages at SPX. See you there!
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be a guest at the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 22nd. I’ll be on the The Real: Comics Nonfiction panel. Here’s a description:
3:00 P.M. The Real: Comics Nonfiction. Three artists represent the diverse spectrum of topics taken on by nonfiction comics-Ed Piskor’sHip-Hop Family Tree offers an encyclopedic comics history of the formative years of hip hop; Lucy Knisley’sRelish: My Life in the Kitchen is a loving memoir of growing up gourmet and Tom Kaczynski‘s Trans-Terra: Towards a Cartoon Philosophy is a mutant memoir that melds comics, politics, and philosophy. Moderated by ProfessorJonathan W. Gray, John Jay College. Featuring screen projection. [ at BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY AUDITORIUM (128 Pierrepont Street) ]
Check out the rest of the comics programming. It’s looking great!
I’ll also be running the Uncivilized Books table all day. Stop by and say hello!
Unused & unfinished page from ‘Music For Neanderthals’ (collected in Beta Testing the Apocalypse).
This is how final front/back cover (pictured, click to see full-size) to Beta Testing the Apocalypse came to be (see parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of this series).
It was one of the most complicated drawings I’d drawn. It was done! Or was it… ?
More soon!
So, I’m continuing the cover process for the Beta Testing the Apocalypse cover. Previous parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. In the last post, I was showing the evolution of the color. This time I’m focusing on the type design.
This was the first iteration. I wanted to typographically mirror the ‘beta testing’ concept by having some kind of wireframe version of the type present… it was a little too much.
I still wanted they type to be somehow active… but not quite as hyperactive as here.
This is pretty close to what I settled on. The drawing had so much going on in it, that I decided the type needed to be more subtle and clean… so the two elements won’t compete with each other.
The next task was color. I started out by blocking out areas that were closer to the viewer… more in focus.
I ended up subdividing the line art into three ‘layers’ apparent below. Initially I wanted a limited 2-3 color palette… but it quickly became obvious that the detail demanded something else…
I eventually settled on this general color palette… but it still needed more.
This is how the final color scheme ended up.
Beta Testing the Apocalypse
Structures 1-11
Trans Terra
Twin Cities Noir