Last month, I went to Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon.
I made the image above on the plane, using the iPhone applications classictoy, photofactory, diptic, camerabag, and instagram.
All the rest of the photos in this post are by Tim unless otherwise noted.

[photo by Merrick Monroe]

My dearest comrades & collaborators, John C. Worsley, Myrrh Larsen, and Tim Riot!

These are some of my favorite dudes on the planet. All three of them are responsible for making me make the best art that I possibly can, in ways that are progressive and collaborative. I am so effing grateful that they’re all a part of my life, and that they’re around to inspire and challenge me.

On that note, this year it was more apparent than ever that all of us are sort of becoming a collective.
We are all doing things having to do with music and comics, and I suspect that next year we will have a lot of really awesome music/comics things to show you.

If you’re a person who makes both comics and music– please holler at us! We want to hear from you!

This year, the fest moved to the convention center. The lighting was very futuristic, as you can see.

The table was a nice mix of new and old stuff this year. John and I were still hawking copies of All Over the Map, along with copies of the new split mini he made with Myrrh, The Edge Of The World. John also had another new book out called Never Let Go.

When I arrived in Portland, John and Myrrh were a flurry of activity trying to get their books printed and ready for the show.
I had already decided to not stress myself out trying to make a new mini, but the boys were all making stuff & I suddenly found myself wanting to make stuff too!

I had come prepared with prints of some photos I’d recently shot and shared with Instagram.
It was at this point that I had an idea, and I knew it would continue to nag me until I made it a real thing.

I decided to take a bunch of photos that I’d shot with my phone, as part of my everyday life, and do some really quick drawings of them.
I had a plethora of stuff to choose from, thanks to my addiction to instagram!

Since I had a really limited amount of time to make this, I used in-phone processing applications on my photos to cut down on my drawing time as much as possible.
Afterwards, I exported them, and went to town drawing on them with John’s wacom.

The result was Instabook! a little tiny mini made in less that 24 hours.
I sold out on the first day and had to do a second print run.

I think that I’m going to do more instagram based books and later compile them into a longer, colored work.
Keep an eye out for more on this soon!

The Art battle and afterparty this year were both held at the Jupiter Hotel, which we had the pleasure of staying at for one night.

I spent the majority of this particular evening a few sheets to the wind– hanging with Molly Crabapple, Erika Moen, and Nubby Twiglet.

I totally love this Red Riding Hood mural they have out front. Red is my homegirl, y’know.

As always I had a super fun time! Looking forward to next year!

p.s. I also did a podcast with Tim and Neil about the fest for Destroy All Podcasts– listen here!

Today and tomorrow, I will be exhibiting at Stumptown Comics Fest alongside my talented comrades, John C. Worsley, Myrrh Larsen, and Tim Riot. We will be rocking out at table F-9, so please stop by and say hi!

I will have copies of All Over the Map, as well as a brand new mini based on my Instagram photos, called Instabook!
If you follow me on Instagram and go to the fest, you can get one for free!

Hope to see you there!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of my most ambitious project to date!

I have joined forces with Mr John C. Worsley to create a multimedia project of epic proportions.

This started in the spring, when John was about to embark on a road trip from Oregon to Massachusetts.
After discussing his plans, I discovered I had previously taken a trip along nearly the exact route he was planning– just in the opposite direction.

The Comic

We decided to make a comic about the concept of the cross country road trip, based on my previous experience, and the one he was about to have.

We came up with a format, which allowed for the book to be read in either direction.
We each wrote a loose story, and printed them in opposite directions on the same page– using the road itself as the dividing line between our stories.

The Album

As we began working on the comic– John had begun working on an album about the experience.
Initially it was his plan to do this separately from our comic project– but seeing as we are both musicians, I suggested that perhaps I should write my own album.

This was where things really got interesting.

We decided it would be really excellent if I were to write all my songs in the same key and time signature as John’s, in the hopes that we’d be able to play them at the same time and have them sound good.
John’s songs were largely electronic and instrumental, so we knew it would be possible for me to write things with words that would compliment what he had already done.

John began writing out all the parameters of all his songs for me– key, time signature, length, bpm, etc.
I vowed to not listen to any of his material until I was finished composing my own.

The Process

John finished his album and released it.

I spent considerably more time on my half– seeing as I was also having to write words that would work with the content of the comic.
I can vouch that my half of the project ended up being about every road trip I have ever been on, and then some.

Since he was finished, John listened to me while I worked.
He would occasionally say things like “This isn’t working– you’re going to have to scrap it.”

While I was less than thrilled by those sort of developments, I was determined to make a good record that would work with John’s half– without compromising the integrity of the project and listening to his work.

The Result

Months later, I finally finished.
I heard the songs playing in sync for the first time.
The results were better than I ever could have expected.

Here is the first track, combined with John’s last track:

We decided we needed a nice way to show people exactly what we did.

As such, we built a player for the music that crossfades the music between John’s half, my half, or both.

It is flash, and it won’t work on your iThings. Sorry about that.

We made a bandcamp page, where you can buy the combined album, either half on it’s own, or all three with the pdf of the book.
If you buy the deluxe package of all 3, please wait patiently, as it takes bandcamp a long time to shell out 36 tracks and a pdf.

Of course, you can stream the whole thing for free– either through our player, or on bandcamp.

I’d love to hear any comments you have on any aspect of this project.

Thanks for listening!

Hey guys! Girl Comics #3 is out now, in which I had the immense pleasure of lettering for Ann Nocenti and Molly Crabapple!

This is a Typhoid Mary story, and as such, one of the characters had several personalities, and needed letter styles for each one.
Needless to say this was one of the hardest, and also most rewarding pieces that I’ve ever lettered.

A million thanks to Marvel, Ann, and Molly for having me!
It was an honor to work with such talented ladies!!

Speaking of comics, I’m leaving for San Diego Comic Con tomorrow night!!
Leave a note if you are going and want to meet up!

I am at table 34! Come say hi! Buy my new mini!
Also, I have an awesome big surprise on the horizon that you will see either at the fest, or on here shortly thereafter.

<3!

Please check out the rest of the pieces in the project over at SmithMag.
There are lots of other amazing renditions of Mr. Pekar for you to feast your eyes on, and I’m quite sure you’ll be glad you did.

The comic I worked on with Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt for Marvel is now out!
I contributed coloring and lettering to their fabulous art and writing.

So go pick up a copy of Strange Tales #1 won’t you?

I went to SDCC. I still haven’t quite recovered-almost a month later.
So many friends of mine-from so many different geographical locations, and so many different times in my life– were in attendance. The amount of things and places and people I managed to see and do is nothing short of dizzying, so I’ll do my best to summarize.

The anthology I was in last year, Comic Book Tattoo, won an Eisner award for Best Anthology!
How cool is that?
I’m really honored to have been in this book at all, and it’s extra exciting to have the book be recognized in such a big way.

I did a bunch of podcasts for Collection DX and Kotobukiya while I was there.

You can listen to them here:

Tim Curry’s Over the Top
Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor
Pryde of the X-men
Goodbye to SDCC

I spent a bunch of days in a red wig, doing whirlwind hangouts with more friends than I could shake a stick at. Much love to my ever-present entourage of SF/Portland/LA dudefriendhotelmates. Shoutouts to the CBLDF crew, Heartbreak Comics, Dr. Sketchy’s, & 5Lights! I love all of you fiercely!!!

[ Heartbreak Nick, Gerard Way & I]

[Photo by Lou Noble]

Lastly, some videos by Mr. John C Worsley, of myself, Myrrh Larsen, and Jeremy K.

Page 13 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing/Modeling by her, Illustration/layout by me.

Page 12 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!

Writing/Modeling by her,
Illustration/layout by me.

Sorry I’ve been a bit lax on posting these! We’re halfway done!

We’re almost at the halfway point!

Page 11 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing/Modeling by her, Illustration/layout by me.

Behold:

Free live streaming by Ustream

& here is the aforementioned page:

Words by MaryBee
Layout by Me

Pages 8 & 9 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing/photo by her, layout/design by me.

Thanks to Lesley Denford for doing a little write up on this project!
You can read it here.

Double page for you! Yay!

Pages 6 & 7 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing by her, illustration/layout by me. (based on a photo by Matt Inai.)

Page 5 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing by her, illustration/layout by me.

[Click for bigger!]

Page 4 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing by her, illustration/layout by me (after a photo, of her, by Alan Davis).

Got all that? ha.

Page 3 of my 24 hour comic with writer, Mary Bee.

We holed up at the Comics Outpost for a full day of drawing, along with fellow 24hour participants Doctor Popular & Mike Hales.

What is 24 hour comic day?

put simply: 24 pages in 24 hours.
Here’s my second page (the first is the title page, and I’ll be posting that last):

It was a departure for me. I’ve been pushing the amount of textures and collage stuff in my work for a little while,
partly influenced by the non-digital work I’ve been doing (which deserves a post one of these days)
& I did a few sketchbook/collage things digitally recently that people responded well to.…
So for the challenge, I decided to really embrace that collage aesthetic and let go of illustration a little if the page or time limits called for it.

I’ll be posting this comic a page or 2 at a time over the next couple weeks.

I am both satisfied and shocked that I made it through all 24 hours, and left with 24 pages in hand.

Extra thanks to my writer, Mary Bee! I couldn’t have done it without you!

Click for bigger on Flickr!

I want to hand letter it when I get the chance, but this will do in a pinch.

If you’re a publisher & you think you might be interested in this… drop me a note.

Here’s a panel from a new project I’m working on with Erik Amaya.

I kind of hate the text, but I suspect I’ll be hand lettering it in the next revision.
Until tomorrow!