This one came from a conversation I had with a friend from work.
I originally had an extra panel between panels 2 and 3, but I realized after I finished inking it didn’t really work. I kept the square format for ease of reading it online, and having it be three across or three down seemed even weirder.
And FYI: I’m moving next week, so there might not be a gag.
Here’s the second one promised this week:
I know I’m kind of blowing my suicide-gag-wad this week, but these are the ones that came to me, so I just went with it. No one should be worried. [okay, Mom?]
In case you didn’t see them up on Colleen’s flickr [where this image is from] or on Save Apathea this last week, the AR copies of Americus have arrived!
Notice the hardcover! It looks so awesome!
Unfortunately, I live on the West coast and my copies have to be mailed, which no matter how quickly they get here it will be FAR TOO LONG.
And in other related Americus news, we had a nice little write up on io9.com, which basically increased our readership by like 200%.
Sorry I didn’t have one up last week. I was in California seeing my family. I’m going to try to get another one done before the week is over to make up for it.
Here’s your weekly dose of yuk-yuk from me:
I’m out of town next week, but I promise I’ll have two the following week!
It took me forever to get around to doing it, but I whooped up this drawing for the Hunt sisters’ Art for Japan charity auction today.
I’ll let you know when it goes up for auction.
If you’re interested, read behind the cut to see the process of how I came up with this image!
…Well, not really.
The LA Times presented Powell’s Books the Book Innovator Award in 2010. Someone sent me this video the newspaper did for the award, which is kind of boring, but they do a pan & scan of the illustration I did for the map of the store! The awesome part is that the scanning swings by 1.] Jen & I, 2.] Petey & Alice, 3.] the dude with a penis shaped head, and 4.] Jason. Totally rad!
Good thing they gave Powell’s that award last year, because this year they had to lay off 30 people because they couldn’t innovate or adopt to the new landscape of ebooks. Zing!
[Seriously. I kid… Kind of…]
As a way to keep my drawing muscles warmed up, and to try to keep my creativity on it’s toes, I’m going to take on the drawing challenge of having to draw a gag a week. To make sure I keep my nose to the grindstone and don’t slack, I’ve granted Meg Hunt the power to give me shit and to call me *bitch* or *bitch-ass* as she sees fit. This might not seem like a big deal, but I’d like to point out that even though anyone can call me a bitch, this will be an official, Jonathan sanctioned calling of *bitch* or *bitch-ass* which totally makes all the difference.
Besides all of this *bitch* talk, it will also make sure I’m posting at least once a week.
Here’s for this week:
Later!
My first Blazers fan art! There, I’ve come out! I’m a fan!
But seriously, I’m bummed. First off, he was an Asian brother. Secondly, he was the GM during my first full season as a basketball fan and I’m sentimental. I know he wasn’t quite the schmoozer that KP was, but he still seemed to get the job done. Anyhow, the good side for him, I guess, is that he’s under contract for another three years, so he’ll still be getting paid a shit-ton of money and not do anything.
Anyhow – Goodbye, Rich Cho. We barely knew ye!
Also, at first I was happy with this caricature, but now that I’ve been looking at it for awhile, I think my brain just used my caricature of Barak Obama and gave him braces.
So drawing production has been down the last couple of weeks. Part of that is laziness, part of that is having an existential crisis. I’ve been working on other odds and ends, but don’t really have a whole lot to share because it’s conceptual stuff or it’s boring stuff like rewriting my CV and applying for teaching work.
Anyhow, something I’ve been meaning to do lately is get some stuff together for a self-promotion push. On the top of that list were making a business card and then making a promo postcard. Today and I say down and busted out the former! Yay!
Of course, part of thinking about this self-promotion stuff is asking yourself hard questions like ‘What kind of art do I want to be doing? Where does my work fit?’ etc, etc. I’m still trying to figure that out.
My studio mate and amazing illustrator, Meg Hunt, reminded me that you can’t worry too much about that stuff – you just need to do the work and you can sort that stuff out later.
Anyhow, I have a lot more to write about the matter, but I have gotta’ head out.
In other news:
• Blah Blah Blah! – I totally caved and joined Twitter. Still don’t know how to use the thing, but maybe I’ll sit down soon and figure it out. Anyhow, if you want to follow me I’m @oneofthejohns. [Didn’t see that coming, did you?]
• WSD art auction results – The auction wrapped up a couple of weeks ago, but I just sent the art & the cash monies to the WSd this week, so I kind of consider it ending right around now. Anyhow, the total result I was able to muster up was $245, which ended up being about $350 worth for the school to spend at Powell’s.
But that’s not all! The Columbian, the local newspaper in Vancouver, WA where the Washington school for the deaf is located, ran a small article on the auction, and a local woman donated $500 for the library in memory of her sister.
So all in all, we were able to raise $850 for the school. All for graphic novels! Yay!
I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone that donated art and that bid on art. I know that with times being the way they are, and with all the other things people could be donatig their time and money towards, it really means a lot.
• Speaking of Auctions… – I totally spaced and didn’t mention this earlier, but Meg is had been running and auction to benefit Japan. I’m sure a lot of you already know, but for those that don’t, you check out details at the blog she set up. Half the auctions are over, but there’s still lots more to come. Be there!