Yesterday my sister and I took the time to redesign our studio space, and this is what we now have (at the moment):
At least now I don’t have my back to the door, AND I can use the natural light to my advantage!
Things have been pretty busy around here. I’ll be sharing more updates on my projects here on the site over the coming week.
Also, keep your eye on my Tumblr: I’m announcing a new project soon for Women’s History Month (yes I know it’s already the 9th of the month. It took a while).
I first read this graphic novel back in high school. It was actually one of the first books I read that made me go, “That’s it! I wanna’ make comics!” But then I moved out of town and I’ve been searching for another copy of this book for YEARS.
Lo and behold, I found a copy at a shop here in Phoenix and I snatched it, and I have loved it over and over again ever since.
If you’ve never heard of this book, I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s a Vertigo title that came out around 2007, and the top selling titles at that period were Watchmen, Naruto, and Batman: The Killing Joke.
At least Cairo was voted among the top graphic novels for teens by both the American Library Association AND the School Library Journal (according to Wikipedia).
The story is written by G. Willow Wilson – yes, the same lady who is now writing the new Ms. Marvel comic series. She also won a 2013 World Fantasy Award for her book Alif the Unseen. So you know just based on these accolades that Cairo will be good.
The story is illustrated by M.K. Perker., who in 2001 became the first Turkish artist accepted into the Society of Illustrators based in New York. Plus he’s done a million things in his native Turkey. He’s a great artist.
Ok, enough fun facts for right now – let’s dip into the story.
Cairo follows three different plot lines that eventually merge into one in the middle of the story, and it takes place in modern-day Cairo, Egypt (but it’s safe to assume it happens before the Arab Spring uprisings, as there are mentions of government censorship).
The first plot follows Ashraf, a drug trafficker who hawks off a hookah only to find out his boss, Nar, REALLY wants that hookah back. The second plot line follows Shaheed, a Lebanese-American kid who bough Ashraf’s hookah, and discovers that it is the house of a Jinn named Shams. Shams enlists Shaheed to help him find a box that Nar stole from him. The third plot line follows a reporter friend of Ashraf’s, Ali, and an American girl named Kate, who are both held hostage by Nar’s henchmen until Ashraf gets Nar the hookah.
Stir in some supernatural elements, including the fact that Sham’s box contains the word EAST in a sacred language, a river that runs under a river, and devils and jinns with memorable names like, “Evil-Under-His-Armpit.” And then you have yourself a fun, thrilling, and sometimes disturbing book about the intersection of choice and fate.
Everything that happens in the book braids itself beautifully into a great story. Without getting too much into what happens, it’s paced very well and had me engrossed in its pages.
So I can’t talk too much about the story without revealing spoilers, so I’m going to talk about the art for a bit.
It’s fantastic to look at (the cross-hatching style is done very well in this book), and it does unique things with page layouts and panels. Look at this page, for example, when Shams is guiding Shaheed in how to obtain this magic sword.
That kind of experimentation is great to see.
There are a few other instances of panels being used in unorthodox ways, and some pages are guided just by the flow of the speech balloons. In fact, this graphic novel would be a great candidate for study under Will Eisner’s and Scott McCloud’s comics principles.
But if you’re reading purely for enjoyment, read this book. It’s a great adventure thriller and it delivers well.
If you’re reading to study the art of comics or even how to write them, read this book. The techniques are a great introduction to more complex ideas than what’s typically seen in comics. (Chris Ware, I’m looking at you).
I hope you found this review helpful. I’m aware that the book has been out for a while (it deserves to be revisited), but in the future I’ll be reviewing more recent comics. I hope you’ll stick around!
So you might have noticed I haven’t been posting vlogs for the past two weeks.
Part of this is: the footage I’ve got doesn’t interest me, and if it doesn’t interest me, you would probably like it even less so. The other part is: nothing of value is really being talked about, and I want to change that.
I was thinking of vlogging more about comics and art books, but I want to know what you think. What should I do with the vlog series?
Talk about comics? Answer questions from readers of Validation and Johnson & Sir? Show how I make comics? Or something else entirely?
On the topic of making things, this weekend I spent some energy getting a caricatures portfolio together. Here are some of them I got finished:
I haven’t drawn caricatures in about a year, so they’re not the best ones I’ve ever made. I’m also hoping to beat my personal record of drawing a black and white caricature in under 1 minute 30 seconds. The only way to do that is PRACTICE.
“Why are you making caricatures?” You’re asking, no doubt.
Because 1) I miss doing them, and 2) I want to get more gigs drawing caricatures at parties and conventions so I’m not so reliant on one stream of money coming in.
There’s nothing wrong with making comics for a living.
As a matter of fact, I’m psyched and so ridiculously lucky to be able to make money drawing comics.
Like Validation, which is still going strong. We even picked a winner of our Facebook giveaway and I gave stickers and a signed print! And you still like what we do, which is just icing on the absolutely delicious cake of luck.
While I’m on the topic of comics, The Legend of Jamie Roberts is going pretty well! The plan got pushed back a bit more, though: I’ll begin making pages in March, but launch won’t happen until late March or the beginning of April.
The Legend of Jamie Roberts is being pushed again (not by much, though) because I still need to finish up the scripts. I’m halfway through the story, if not more. And I want to make sure that I know where the story is going before I start making pages.
That, and I’m redesigning their costumes.
Even though the sketch is black and white, the plan is to make the comic in color. I’ll be sharing colored sketches more as I work on the story.
That’s all for now, so back to the drawing board for me!
P.S. Have you heard of Patreon? It’s a voluntary subscription service to support creators. I’m thinking of getting an account on there. What do you think?
Today I knuckled down and started a four-page anthology submission. I even shared it on Facebook and Twitter, but I’ll share it here, too. Sorry for the crap quality, but I took the picture with my phone:
It’s called The Story of Queen Padmini and it’s based on true events, detailed in my favorite book at the moment, Women Warriors: A History.
Speaking of Women Warriors, I’m planning on making a new series of illustrations. Keep your eye on my Tumblr for updates, because that’s where the series will make their first appearance!
On the vlogging front, you might have noticed there was no update this week. Sorry!
My mind has been on getting new gigs lately, to add to what I have going at the moment. I’ll be opening up for commissions within the next few days, so keep checking in.
And speaking of gigs and commissions, I drew caricatures for three years. I think I might get back into that for a bit…
As much as I love making comics, I also really miss interacting with customers when drawing caricatures. That was always the fun part of any day.
Anyway, I’ll be updating this blog a lot more often now. I’m aiming to update every day, so keep checking back for news and sketches (and other awesome things!).
See that comic page up top? That’s the first (yet unfinished) page of Charlie & Clow.
So in a previous blog post here, I said that I would be having a Kickstarter campaign for this comic. Well, it’s not happening, at least not for a few months.
Why did I cancel it?
Well the biggest reason is that I don’t have all the comic pages finished. It’s hard to fund a book when it isn’t even finished yet.
I do want to keep this comic black and white because I feel it fits the tone of the story (not to mention black and white pages are just faster and more fun to make).
“What’s the story about?” you might ask (as you should).
Charlie & Clow is about a young lady named Charlie who runs into some supernatural trouble and reluctantly teams up with a man named Clow to fight it.
Anything more than that and it would be spoilers.
However, expect some monster designs soon!
Speaking of monsters and non-human people, I added some new work to the “Commissioned Work” page that you should look at. It was the most fun and challenging character design assignment I’ve gotten thus far.
Ok, I gotta’ get back to work. I’ll see you next time.
P.S. I’m trying a new idea where I update this blog everyday. Is it ambitious? Yes.
