48 Minute Comic

This is late, but last week I was asked by the Willamette Week to collaborate with one of their writers and participate in a 48 minute comic as part of a promotion for the 48 Hour Film Festival that was in town. The premise of the festival is that filmmakers have 48 hours to create a film that includes certain elements that are randomly generated.

The 48 minute comic was pretty much the same premise, but I only had 48 minutes to complete the comic. The elements I had where 1.] Genre: Film de Femme, 2.] Character: Janine Lawless, 3.] Profession: Exterminator, 4.] Prop: Bowling Ball, and 5.] Quote: “You can’t get there from here.”

Here’s the final product:

The headed over to the WW office to work on the page and they recorded the whole process and time-lapsed it for their website. Check it out:

It’s pretty cool to see my process like this, even if it was for a page that was so rough and under such a time constraint. I might try to do it again for myself in the future.

Major Changes!

As you can see I’ve restructured the website a bit and have the main page of www.oneofthejohns.com go straight to my portfolio, while the blog is tucked away at here at blog.oneofthejohns.com. All the links to posts are now defunct, but the post titles themselves should still be the same, but you just need to get rid of the ‘www’ and change it to ‘blog’. Hopefully this won’t cause too many problems.

There are still some kinks I have to work out, but I’m hoping to get the site completely pieced together in the next month. Thanks for your patience.

Creating Comics Teen Workshop Recap

So last week I taught weeklong comics workshop for teens over at OCAC. I was a little nervous going in for a couple of reasons: First of all, we had to cover the same amount of material that I did in the class I taught in spring in the same amount of hours, but with a compressed schedule. And then second, they were high schoolers, and I was afraid they would eat me alive. These issues turned out to be minor details, and the class turned out really well and I was super-stoked for the work that was produced.

Anyhow, after the cut is a detailed recap of the week, along with a selection of work that the students produced.

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Wedding Announcement Card

Here’s a piece I did for a friend and their wedding announcement cards. A year or so ago, she got into a bad bike accident in Sweden, so I thought it would be fun to use that story for their card, [but make it end a little cuter]. Here’s what the front of the card will look like:

And here’s what’s on the back of the card:

Whew. Now I think I can get back to some other work!

 

Studio Away From Home

It’s kind of a lousy picture, but here’s what my makeshift workspace looks like at my Pa’s house while I stay down here to help him out. I’ve been down here a week, and I am only now able to get into a bit of a rhythm to draw. I think part of me was psyching myself out because I’m such a creature of habit and ritual, and in my head if I am not at my table in my studio with my supplies, I can’t draw. And then there’s just getting used our schedule and the other stuff I have to do around the house.

I have a lot of free time down here, and I’m hoping that I can utilize it and be productive. Fingers crossed.

Summer Comics Workshop for Teens at OCAC

With everything that’s been going on the last month, I’ve forgotten to mention that this July I’m teaching a week-long summer workshop for teens at OCAC. It will be a modified version of my Crafting Comics: Narrative and Technique that has been tweaked a little bit to accomodate the compressed schedule.

Class will be from July 9-13, 9:00am-4:00pm with an hour break for lunch in the middle.

Here’s the link to the OCAC website to sign up.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me, or leave a comment.

Spread the word!

Asian Heritage Month 2012

May is Asian Heritage Month! The Asian Reporter’s Heritage Month Special Issue is on stands now where you can find this little illustration I did for the special issue.

Like I might have bitched about in my post from last year for Asian Heritage Month, it’s hard doing these illustrations every year and trying to keep them fresh and avoiding cliches. But I think what I’m starting to realize is that there is no way to do an illustration like this without resorting to cliches and stereotypes. You just have to embrace it.

Free Comic Book Day 2012!

Tomorrow is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Head on down to you local comic book stores and pick up the freebies that they have to offer. If you’re around Portland, might I recommend picking up the publication that the always awesome Tugboat Press put out for the occassion, Runner Runner. Below is a one-page comic that I contributed:

And also amongst pretty amazing company: MK Reed, Jesse Reklaw, Aron Nels Steinke, Aaron Renier, Alec Longstreth, Galen Longstreth, and Drew Weing just to name a few.

Don’t delay! Go camp out in front of your local comic book store today!

 

Stumptown 2012

The Stumptown Comics Fest was last weekend, and to sum it up: I had a super-rad time. I was table-buddies again with the most awesome Breena Wiederhoeft and I think we could both safely say that Stumptown was much more our kind of show compared to Emerald City. We weren’t flanked by print sellers of Babylonian demigods or cheesecake pictures of super hero women, the crowd was more interested in comics and zines, and there was a lot more space and the room didn’t feel as crowded or claustrophobic.

The short recap: I got to talk to a lot of great people that I haven’t seen in a long time or got to meet for the first time, sales were good and people responded well to Americus [I sold all but one copy!] and I was even able to sell some of the original pages, Breena and I got to hang out and shoot some ideas around for a potential collaborative project, and I got another jolt of inspiration to keep chugging away at The Searchers.

I don’t want to throw a wall of text up on the front page of my site, but keep reading for expanded coverage of this cartoonists experience at STCF 2012…

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April Illustration Dump

Here’s two illustration pieces I have done the last month. This first one was for the Spokane Inlander.

The illustration accompanied an article where the writer was noticing several things about Spokane since moving there. I got to pick from a list of fifty or so things to put in the illustration. Since there was a time crunch, I sort of picked the ones that would be easiest to illustrate, but also ones that helped with some visual gags.

And here’s a piece I did this week for Reed Magazine.

It was actually pretty great to hear from Tom Humphrey again. He used to be the art director for the Willamette Week and got me started doing work for them. When he he left to work for Reed, he said he’d love to work with me again and would drop me a line again. It was great to hear from him and to know that my art and working with me left a good impression enough to remember that after a couple of years.

Also, you might notice a little Americus cameo I was able to squeeze into the illustration…

The only bummer about getting this work was that I didn’t really get to fit any time into working on new stuff for Stumptown. But you gotta pay da’ billz, right?