I have mixed feelings about the show this year. I’d hoped to have Dream Life ready for a sophomore presentation, but fell short of the mark on the deadline.

It was close but I’m just getting too old to kill myself anymore and I really don’t want to present something compromised for the quality of the art.  Additionally really the backers from the Indiegogo drive should get it first so had to adjust my plans for the book. It looks great, just want to make sure it’s right.

On the up side I have less stuff to carry and I do have a book new to the show. 40 copies of Revolver One, along with some prints, and 100 free Monster of Montreal bookmarks. Featuring the cover art for the upcoming Revolver Two.

I’ll be sitting at table 111 at TCAF this coming weekend, it’s a good spot! Thanks Christopher Butcher or whoever did the seating! Right between @drwecka & @joshneufeld.  Hopefully new friends!

I’ve set it up so I can live blog for the floor maybe, stay tuned. Follow my Instagram feed to catch the sights. And I tweet more often now thanks to a phone upgrade.

 
Tweets about “#TCAF”

 

99 cents!

less than buck now gets you my critically acclaimed 1st issue of RevolveЯ Quarterly on ComiXology submit! Regular issue prices will be higher on new issues, but this first one is now going cheap, in hopes of getting you hooked.

Had a chance to see the comixology edition myself, the guided reading has been really well done, cool to see! There are some challenging layouts in this book. But it reads really well on my LG nexus phone.

This is the start of something big i hope, been holdups with the next two issues but they will be coming soon, and with vol 4, Dream Life book two, and Dracula Son of the Dragon start in serialization too! And Dream Life itself will be there as well. Excited…

So I hope you get this one and check it out, and please rate it! Makes a world of difference when it comes to people finding the book.

Fantastic work by Nathan Fox.
Pledge $40 [us] to our kickstarter
and you’ll be able to get this hot diptych
as a silkscreen pair of two colour 11×17 prints!

Dracula: Son of the Dragon

Part historical fiction, part horror fantasy, a comic book chronicling Vlad the Impaler’s transformation into the vampire Dracula.

An original comics series by Mark Sable (Graveyard of Empires) & Salgood Sam (Sea of Red, Therefore Repent! Dream Life).

UPDATE: WE MADE IT! Thanks to all our backers and everyone who helped make it happen! News and updates coming soon, in the meantime follow us on facebook for the latest.

One of the fun aspects of it for me will be designing the hand made limited editions of the books, working with a couple of local artisan binders, Soundless Soliloquy and No Bar Code Press.

So far the broad strokes of the packaging are roughed out. Dimensions page count and cover materials. But I still have a lot of the details to handle.

I also have to come up with the packaging of Dream Life backers of my indiegogo campaign will get to very soon. That one is a trade paperback but I want to make it something visually fun and special. Pretty much have it done in my head but there are always things that come up in execution.

All this came to mind when some friends posted the following set of playful book designs on FB.

More about packaging than binding mind you, they are each a kind of absurdist literal take on the stories they wrap. The oldest is a very rare asbestos bound first edition of Stephen King’s Firestarter. Published by Phantasia Press in 1980 it originally sold for $300 each. 25 of 26 copies exist, with one ironically being lost in a fire. Recently one went on the market for $18,000! It’s quite handsome, and probably safe but still i’d probably keep it bagged just to be sure.

Equally playful and clever is this upcoming edition of 1984 from penguin, with a cover design by David Pearson. The title and author’s name are redacted with black foil!

You can still make them out, so the cover is practical as well. Making it function in a commercial context and I suspect will lead browsers even take closer notice in the effort to make out what it says. Not just being an illustration of the subject the story it contains, as a curiosity I think it’s the kind of functional design that scares the money often, but like a whisper entices you to lean in closer for a better look. Congratulations to David for being able to get that one through. It’s the kind of design that you would probably not want on a new book trying to make a mark. But for a classic like 1984, having this version is worth the bragging points probably of getting a new copy.

And the perfect book end to the asbestos bound King book, is this copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, with striking paper along its spine and its own match! Kind of asking for it but all the same, witty. From what I can tell this one is just a concept design done by Elizabeth Perez for The Austin Creative Department. But I bet it would sell as a limited run collector’s edition if they took it to market.

All three are fun incarnations of the same kind of design principles. The sort I had planned to apply to the next book. Dracula: son of the dragon.

Thanks to Zack Smith, Vinnie Bartilucci & Hans Curtis for posting these on FB and making me aware of them.

Being a simple sole I was pleased to get a thoughtful review from a recent customer who bought the digital Revolver from me.

Rachel Fenton was kind enough to leave a few stars on Good reads as well as posting her thoughts. 

So I’m most faltered and glad to read this paragraph. Making sure the books hold together well as a whole is a priority for me so glad to hear it reads that way.

Though muted and limited in palette, the art demonstrates a level of skill many comic artists can only aspire to. Perspectives are juxtaposed Escher-like adding to the alter-reality quality of each individual story as well as the collection generally. Revolver One feels like a cohesive whole. 

Thank you very kindly. It’s funny also to me to realize that at 42 now, when I drew those I was thinking about men my current age often.

“The fictions unfold surreally. “Each day he awakes to another dream-like day,” reveals the narrator of “Pin City”. But these are not dreams of optimism; there is little joy to be found either in the text or the art work. What these stories do offer, however, is a looking glass to contemporary North American society where predominantly men above a certain age are caught up in a kind of hinterland between what they imagine life should offer and what the reality of their existence is.”

Yep that’s a pretty strong theme in that collection. I’d like to think that it can be read even more broadly. Not just about men. But that’s certainly true about most of them. I always saw Helpless as being more about the narrators life but the elderly man in that story is quite central. Misplaced was also co authored with the same writer and we reveled in making the child gender ambiguous and watching to see how the bias falls out. But regardless of that aspect universally I’d agree expectations and anxieties and displacement are the crux of those stories, one of the things I wanted to try to talk about. Nice to see it coming out on the other end. I’m still surprised as the first time the lack of Joy is such a strong impression. She’s not the first to note that. But then I suppose this might be a question of perspective? Hmm, wonder what that says about mine eh? Well we’ll have to make sure there’s some fun stuff in future issues, just not to be totally depressing! I think Misplaced and Wildthings are pretty upbeat though. But check this bit out…

Nice.

 I have a authors profile on good reads here, if you add me there i’ll send you a discount code for my digital books!

I’ll be running a pre-order sale once the last page is inked, in March is the plan. Might try other things too. But don’t want to leave it till then and I am getting kind of broke right now. So lets sell some art and books why don’t we!? Yes lets. Studio is too crowded anyway.

To sweeten the deal, for the next 30 days [ends march 15th] i’m going to offer a free sketch with orders of 40$ or more, something comparable to this one I did at TCAF. Mailed to you either with your art if you buy art, or separately if what you order does not come directly from my home.

Ok, what’s for sale? I’ve added and will continue to add more Art to my store for sale directly from my site, here. 

So far it’s mostly old work for hire stuff, with more to come. Will also be putting up pages from more recent books to. If the sticker price is a bit high for you i’m offering to re-ink some by hand, a smaller 9×12 rendering for a lower price too.

And I’m totally open to doing original commissions, from your basic convention sketch to things more involved. So those of you paying attention, if you commission a 50$ conventions sketch from me? you’ll get two! Or I should say a second smaller one too! Deal eh?

I’ve also got an eBay auction going right now, to sell off a 22 page lot of camera ready art from my unpublished ’95 Ghostrider 2099 story with Warren Ellis, “Horrorshow”. This is not the original art I did, but stats of the pages with the lettering pasted on them. The only real physical copy of the full story in existence. Individually not worth much I think but as a set I thought of value to a collector? Hope so anyway. Check it out and consider bidding here. The cover art from that [seen top left of this post] is on sale in my store here too by the way.

And last for this post, please consider buying my books! I sell high quality digital copies directly from my site here. You can get my critically acclaimed Revolver One for $2.50 as a CBR or PDF, with no DRM.

Also i’m still offer a 30% discount if you order 3 or more copies. Revolver is not yet in a lot of stores, you can get it at a few, and order it from Amazon. But bulk ordering from me is the cheapest way [free shipping, and 30% off] and it’s a very direct way to support and help promote my work. Convince two friends or more to pitch in and order the book! Make it four friends and you’ll spend enough to get a free sketch too!

FYI Revolver Two is running late but soon to be launched.

And last but hardly least, I’ve also just added a new color extended digital edition of my best selling 2007 graphic novel with Jim Munroe, Therefore Repent! Unlike any past digital version we released, this one has the pages tinted in the same kind of dark blue as the printed books. I’ve also added some new back mater consisting of 18 pages of rough layout art, design sketches, notes, and two new sections of script that was cut. You won’t find this extended digital version anywhere else for now. Just here! Price is $3.50, available In CBR or PDF, with no DRM.

Cheers, hope you see something that you like and help me get Dream Life published by buying some of my past art or books.
best – max

Recently been reading Warren Girard Ellis’ ramblings again, that last post a couple of days ago, making listing to this back logged episode of tmsidk the second or third time mention of the ‘slow web’ or something like it has come up for me in the last week, when Tell Me Something I Don’t Know interviewed Jeffrey Inscho.

Hah, that would be just my luck, as i’m finally getting half a hang of promoting myself publishing ventures at something approaching the pace it seems to take to get anyone to take your seriously online or noticed in the torrents of updates, the game would go and change from under my feet.

Being buddhistly inclined I liked a lot of what he had to say about applying mindfulness to your work in the digital sphere. I do try to do just that as much as my mind will allow. Also think I spotted some impracticalities too. Share Jim’s concern about the narrowing of focus and echo chamber effect [something he mentioned in passing in the interview].

We will see. Agree enthusiastically with the sentiment of it, as a card carrying member of the old slow action movement I’d far rather quality of interactions trump update cycles.

Over time I do think they count more. But when you’re still one of many, and growing numbers of creators trying to raise awareness of our work, and have as eclectic a reader base it seems I have, I’m not sure how much liberty I have to choose to overly narrow band broadcast. I feel like on the edges of your media domain you need to have fairly fast moving streams to match the pace of the rest of the web, to draw in readers to your core presentation. I don’t post on the blog here rapidly. No way I could keep up with a even once daily rate that Warren thinks of as a lower gear, while maintaining a good level of quality of content, and keep on top of my artwork. Beyond the usual challenges of content creation being dyslexic makes the process of writing and proofing laborious.

But Facebook, my pages, and twitter, G+ to a degree too, I can post small bits of thought or just promote other people’s stuff – something I agree with Dean Haspiel about being a important and valuable role to play, not just as being a community builder but also being someone anyone cares to pay attention too as well. Rather than someone who only talks about themselves?

I suspect some aspects of the slow web Warren and Jeffrey talk about is in part the privileged cruising gear of those who’ve established themselves. For those that describes It makes a lot of sense to economize your efforts.

At this point I follow the feed-back, post more where I find I get responses and less where I don’t.

Never was all in for twitter, it’s always been a semi-automated branch of my blogs. Don’t have a phone attached to my hip so it was never practical for me and too much of a distraction from the drawing table.

For the moment I get far more attention to my work on Facebook than anywhere else. My computer is seldom far from me so when I brake to pace around, grab a coffee, or set up a show to half watch, I often check in and poke around, like or share something, post a bit of work i’m in the midst of.

I tried promoting a couple of posts on Facebook recently connected with RevolveЯ. They got a lot more views but I remain unconvinced if it helped all that much. I did notice that you have to watch it with that, need to look closely at how the options are laid out for you when you set up a promoted post. Seems like a default was to keep promoting and charging after the budget I had set was spent. Not sure what to make of that but I was not pleased to find I was getting charged again without first being asked. As is too often the case it feels like communicating is not FBs strong suit. Incidentally it’s been amusing to watch as twice as many people who’ve added me as a contact in the past 6 months, did so in the last week on Flickr post instagram TOS fiasco. All good, welcome to all. I was never on instagram so works for me.

Speaking of attention…

Having a hard time getting some key comics news sites to pick up my press for RevolveЯ. Others have, but a few of the key players are being tough nuts to crack. Another round of press needs to be done, hoping I can get more traction in the new year. Wondering if I rubbed some the wrong way along the line or something? For sure not really being part of the convention circuit has not helped. Last show I did was TCAF, and that just as a civilian. Ran into one former editor I once worked with who now blogs, it was kind of awkward, as is to happen at these hectic things, but has not replied to an email since?

Be nice to go to more shows and have more fluid relations with the comics diaspora at large, have a chance to build solid friendships in person. But my lack of funds aside, when am I supposed to make time for that and still draw my books, and do all the other shit we have to do ourselves these days eh? Would love to, but we have to have a successful book first. For that we need the book we have to get coverage so people know it’s there to order or buy. A dog and tail game.

Best is if the word gets out more virally, and becomes something the diaspora can’t ignore. If you’re reading this, do us a favor and check out the book if you have not already, mention it to a few someones, share it blog it and if you’d like to review it contact me about that, be glad to oblige. I have lots of visitors and followers these days but outside a core group not enough sharing what they find to get that fantastic fractal spreading pattern going yet. Needs more cowbell!

On the other hand and not to seem to only gripe, I have had some nice windfalls!

Most recently I managed to get invited onto the CBC show to do some local color run after this great doc, Graphic Chicken Soup for the Graphic Soul, by David Gutnick. Thanks to David and Maria Turner, my boss at carte blache both for putting my name in for that. I’m on with an old acquaintance, Simon Bossé, in a piece called Growing up graphic. Our parents get all the blame.

Making it a more entertaining experience than planned I got nailed by the flu about 6 hours before the interview, vomiting all over the place very suddenly and sending my poor Ange into a cleaning frenzy. Managed to clear out the pipes and get it together to do it all over the phone, thanks to some nice editing, I even sound totally coherent.

Growing up graphic: CINQ A SIX | Dec 22, 2012 | 10:36 © CBC 2012

—–

So that’s me for the year probably. Couple more retailers on board and some new distribution channels about to come online for RevolveЯ. I’m running behind on RevolveЯ Two right now due to last minute editorial decisions on my part, and the feeling like the slow moving soft launch is progressing well, but has not reached the sweet spot for the next Minimum Effective Dose. The next book dropping and it’s associated press releases, to help crank the series forward. Taking the time to color a story and add another to make it all that much cooler, less ignorable, and put it out in January instead of this month as I had planned originally.

Keep your eyes open for a kickstarter project from me and Mark Sable too in the new year.
As work on Dream Life book one gets done i’ll be jumping directly onto a story we have planned.

Happy Holiday and a grand old new year all!

So as you know if you frequent the site, i’m self publishing RevolveЯ. Including distributing directly to any retailers that will do business with me. Contact me if you own or buy for a comics specialty store, book shop, group, club, or library about getting wholesale discounts ranging from 30% to 50%.

Strange Adventures, three locations.
Dartmouth, Halifax & Fredericton!

The Beguiling
Toronto

4 Colour 8 Bit Comics & Games
Kingston

Mission: Comics and Art
San Francisco

photos sourced from the Internets, if anyone object just let me know and i’ll take your’s down.

They are a discount re-seller of amazon’s. To be honest i get the least from sales from this site. I make more if you get my book digitally. But at $7.39 CDN I want to get my comics in your hands so hey, this totally will save you some money.

Even with shipping these comics are cheaper than the $15 suggested cover price. Costing it out with standard shipping to Canada I got a price under 14 bucks. For americans it’ll be cheaper still. Go for it with my blessings, go for it hard.

Full service production and broadcasting of hand drawn videos.

As of a few months ago I’ve started to do some freelance work for a local marketing guy, drawing on camera to provide visuals for “viral videos” for his clients. On the right you can see one of our first.

Most of the work for him is of a more corporate nature, not a bad little side gig to bring in a few bucks.

If you’re a business looking for a full service marketing agent to help bring in more business you can reach him at convernet.com.

He seems good at his job and very dedicated, so i’d recommend him even if I didn’t get work out of it now and then.

In the course of developing the aspect of his services that I contribute to, i’ve had a lot of fun branching out into a kind of low-fi animated presentation. Along with diving back into video editing and other kinds of basic animation I’ve discovered I really like this kind of work and see a lot of interesting potential in it for fun and as a freelancer.

I ended up building my own lighting set up in my studio at home to do the doodle video shoots and will be applying it to promoting my own art in the near future for sure. Beyond the work for convernet, i’m also really interested in taking on freelance clients for doodle clips myself. Collaborating with you on scripts to tell your story via sites like Vimeo and YouTube in broadcast quality HD.

I’m especially interested in arts and culture oriented work. Theater and Dance. Music Videos would be awesome. Science and Educational videos like the amazing RSA Animate clips. Fundraiser pitch clips, Small Business Promotion & other applications. I can also offer a variety of drawing styles from cartoon to illustrative, live action and audio work as well.

I didn’t do the editing or animation for it, but I would love to develop more shorts like the one I did for the ARC Ensemble that was aired on BRAVO, “Honor Bound”.

I’ll have a reel available soon but for the moment here’s a short clip i generated for local theater to show them what I can do. If you like what you see feel free to contact me for rates and quotes.

I always find exhibiting a challenge, it’s fun but it’s also disruptive to my work routine so keeping up a proper apperance schedule and also getting the work done tend to compete. At least with Expozine it was right in town.

The great part of going to shows is seeing everyone. The vast majority of my friends are other artists and publishers, but mostly I only see them at events. This year’s Expozine was sluggish for sales, for me but a few others i talked to said it seemed to be to them too. I moved a good number of prints but not that many books.

Here’s a few photos from the event, a pan around the room before the doors opened on day one, and one of me with Michel Rabagliati & Nina Bunjevac, at the Conundrum table where i was slumming day one.

I picked up a few cool things. My Life as a Foot by my neighbour Richard Suicide is something i’ve been wanting for a while and it was on sale at the Conundrum table so i snapped up one myself just before they sold out. The book is a collection of translated short stories that were published in a variety of places in french. As far as i’m aware it’s his only English language book so far.

Kirsten McCrea presented a new little chap book of her work called DAN-D-NOSER published by Paper Pusher. Need to read it cover to cover properly but in the back the about explains that a DAN-D-NOSER is a taxidermy tool, and the book is a playful rift on masculinity exploring the overlap between dandys and taxidermy? Should be interesting. Also always like talking with JP King, the very enthusiastic pusher behind Paper Pusher. Will have to think of a project to propose to him some time.

We’ve talked online a little but finally met in person the man behind Taddle Creek finally as well, Conan Tobias. I just got a proper subscription for the magazine and picked up a couple back issues from him at the show. Would be fun to do something for the magazine one of these days. Also talked with the folks at Matrix a bit, likewise another publication i’d like to participate in at some point. And spotted a new publication i’m going to take a closser look at and submit something probably, Circéa Publishing. They had a very sexy over-sized first issue on display for the show.

And last I got a copy of Little men in little boxes and other comics by Jai Granofsky, a book collecting work from his time at The Center for Cartoon Studies.

Would have liked to pick up a lot more but my own lack of sales pretty much meant I was limited. Probably could have traded for more but didn’t think to do that till late on day two.

OK, so it’s back to work for me. Have some illustration to do for videos, and lots of penciling left of Dream Life. Here’s a few of the last 10 I got done, have 32 more to do in the next week and a bit to meet the schedule goal for this month.

Decided to cover some books by friends that I had just read for awards or had been picking through over the summer. I don’t apologize for being biased.

‘Tale of Sand‘, ‘Suddenly Something Happened‘, & ‘Traumstadtdenken‘.

Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand.

Multi-award winning Art and Adaptation by Royal Academy heavyweight Ramón Pérez.
Award winning packaging by Eric Skillman.
Archaia

Ramón’s a friend, and it’s been inspiring to watch him become deservedly highly sought after. It may be laying it on a little thick calling this book one for the ages, but I just did. I will have no choice but to cop to being bias. But I’m confident you will agree.

A year or so ago it was while loitering around the Toronto studio he shares with the rest of the Academy gang that I first saw pages from this rather brazenly epic realization of a reputedly esoteric rich early script, by one of my all time heroes. The Muppet Man. Mr Fraggle. When he said what the spreads he was inking were for, I think I cursed under my breath for an extended period.

You could already see this was a gorgeous project. Leaning over Ramón’s shoulder when he’s working tends to be routinely rewarding, but all the more so in this case.

Reading the book myself this summer finally was an almost-unadulterated pleasure. I was initially thrown by the strange lettering phenomenon associated with old Melrose Mernly [his friends call him Sven]. But after it reoccurred a couple of times I got it, and recognized it for the bit of fun inventive surrealism it is, an echo of Henson’s own penchant for psychedelic audio phenomenon.

This book is filled with playful formalistic inventions that for me put it on par with Asterios Polyp and the like. I think many are fairly novel, but despite and often because of it, all still a fabulously smoothly reading, rolling, kinetic comic.

A race meant to take 10 minutes to Eagle Mountain takes a wrong turn into a maylay of chaos.

The large wordless sections can be pored over, but I encourage you to read it all at least once, in only the time it takes to get the story point and move on.

The ease at which you can register what has been drawn narrative wise is remarkable. Storytelling as sharp as you will find here, for a story so surreal is an impressive accomplishment. Ramon makes it look easy. I also happen to know it was completed in an impressively short time, too.

This is a jealousy inducing book. His discipline is always impressive, and it’s on full display here. What it brings to a quite recognizably worthy bit of the Henson legacy is worth every cent and minute.

You must read.

Suddenly Something Happened

by Jimmy Beaulieu.
Translated by Kerryann Cochrane
Conundrum Press

Jimmy Beaulieu is the founder of Quebec publishing house Mécanique Générale, and an autobiographical cartoonist with a penchant for romantic angst. This was how I first encountered him.

I think it was at a Comic Jam hosted by Rupert Bottenberg, or a BD festival perhaps. He’s an extremely likable geeky guy who loves pop music, pop art and sexy ladies unabashedly. A fastidious editor and designer and easy maker of many friends.

He and a group of said friends were publishing great inventive self-published B&W comics when I first moved to Montreal. Several were even wordless so I could enjoy them without issue. I really loved checking out their latest stuff, and was always frustrated by my hopelessly poor language skills when it came to reading Jimmy’s auto bio work.

BDANG is a sub imprint of Conundrum Press, a small but prolific Canadian publishing house. Under it publisher and author Andy Brown is translating and publishing several French books

In 2010 one of them was the collection and translation of two of Jimmy’s extended works, Quelques Pelures and Le Moral des Troupes [winner of the 2005 Prix de l'Espoir Québécois], They document his life between the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Additional pages were added to the collection, and Jimmy played with parts of the text of the second part to try to round out the story and smooth out his sophomore spots.

I’ve read it in fits, it’s got scope! Coming in at an impressive 250 pages of comics. It’s hard to read in a sitting, but perfect I think for browsing through on transit or keeping by the throne.

Jimmy adopted early an easy, fast, light-handed style of art, well-suited to a personal journal comic. It evolves visibly over the body of work, going from pleasantly naive to deceptively skillful. He often apologizes for his drawing, but I find it enjoyably expressive and his girls are adorable! Being so often the subject of his attention, this pays off for an appreciative reader. He captures people’s pantomime well. The tones and textures lend themselves to a gauzy soft focused nostalgic story about the coming of age of a shy cartoonist from Quebec City who slowly falls in love with Montreal, and moons over hot cupid-like young mothers and full-figured redheads.

There are many small gems, like one of the short, newer epilogues to act one. An entry titled ‘rocket man’ where Jim shares an internal monologue about waiting for his employer at a book fair in Autumn of 2000. Withdrawing from caffeine and suffering a night of poor sleep, on a day he marks as his 2977th of celibacy! Oh dear. He talks about the city landscape while imagining Mecha Kaiju destroying a Montreal industrial park, then that the underwear models on the billboards are there to distract him from the urban destruction. It’s subtle in execution and quite poignant.

I think one great target audience for this collection would be young adult and romance readers looking for sprawling, ranting, romantic, sometimes silly stories of transplantation. Finding love in lots of the wrong places, but finally one right. Feeling inadequate. Facing death for the first time. Raging over pop culture and ranting about popular culture. And being in love with the making of comics. I also know for a fact at least one American comics editor has confessed to having used this book to seduce a girlfriend.

Jimmy has matured a lot since this early work. You’ll find a lovely recent example of his work in Carré Rouge, a romantic fictional story set around the recent protests in Montreal, published in multiple languages online.

But this early material is still quite charming.

Traumstadtdenken – Comix + Images

By Rupert Bottenberg
Editions Trip

Traumstadtdenken

Rupert and I first met at a comics jam in Montreal in the ‘90s when i worked at Marvel and was chafing at constraints. Another cartoonist friend and I were talking during a NY convention, and he gave me a zine of Rupert’s, saying I should meet him. This is also when I first heard about Comic Jams, spectacular incarnations of which Rupert hosted in a svengali fashion at the time.

You may have noticed a trend in my book selections? Yes, well, it’s what I’ve been reading of late. Catching up on the work of many friends.

The title Traumstadtdenken is a German neologism, meaning “Dream-City-Thinking.” A reference to a painting by Paul Klee, “Traumstadt,” that had a significant impact on Rupert.

The book is a collection of comix, drawings and odds ’n’ ends spanning 10 years stitched together with bits of connective symbolically narrative sequences. My one complaint is that the packaging of the book seems to have been been poorly proofed, with the margin’s feeling too close cropped on some pages for my comfort.

It’s informative to know he also paints highly designed abstract art, collects and fabricates pop art sculptures and toys, and recently has been globe-hopping as a founding member of the breakout art collective EN MASSE which i’ve had the honor of being a guest member of.

Whatever he is drawing on–in a comic, on a wall or canvas–his rendering is always superbly skilled and highly graphically attractive. This book is filled with perfect cartoony chiaroscuro pages that often invite you to project your own meaning or interpretations. Rupert has always been a fan of wordless art that can be read by anyone. Several sequences here are examples of that. He provides rich symbolic visuals that suggest lots of ideas, and are just really fun to look at. There is no attempt to present an over-arching story here, page numbers are consciously dropped. There are times where narrative is very strong, a story can be found with ease. Is even clearly intended. But where words appear, it’s usually to cloud the issue and add new silly twists to things.

When I first saw his work I fell in love with his lines. We’ve shared an appreciation for improvisational doodling and abstraction. I hope more people can discover his work as I have. This collection is an excellent place to start.

You should also check out his webcomic with author Claude Lalumière, Lost Myths.

I publish my own comics Quarterly in Revolver.
$15 for print ~ $2 digital

I don’t get asked to do it as often as i like,
so i’m going to talk about book design a bit now and then…

Don’t get me wrong,
I like both of these.
But still…

Was going to post about Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis on my personal Facebook profile this morning, a fascinating and scary recently diagnosed illness. But then noticed this looking up details and thought it a good opportunity to mention something i’ve observed before.

This is a great example of a lack of innovation in book design, and as a designer the value adopting habits to help both your work, and the items you are designing stand out.

So you have two titles, of very similar wording, in this case about two very different things.

One was just released November 13, 2012. One published in 2010. It seems to me a basic best practice would be to research the tittle, and see if something like it exists already, and not repeat any design notes if one does, if you can help it. Make sure one book is distinct from the other with a similar tittle? So, no red band with B&W images for Susannah should have been a no brainer…ahem. Sorry.

I suspect that didn’t happen here. Not identical of course, but so close. A bit too close branding wise and so easy to avoid with a simple google search on the part of whomever was putting the packaging together for Susannah Cahalan’s book.

Given the older book also owns the URL one would likely look up for promoting Susannah’s new book, it’s hard to imagine you would not have seen this coming either, as a publisher or author or someone on the decision making chain. So I have to wonder if it was a case of just not caring. Or maybe they did, and decided to try to get a lift from people looking for a popular self help book? I don’t know but it gives me an excuse to mention; you get a commission to do a cover? Search the title and subject and be aware of what has gone before.

Something to think about the next time you’re asked to work on a job.   

Ok, with that, i did just listen to Susannah talk about her ordeal, and it’s fascinating stuff, possibly the origins of many cases believed to have been possession in the past. Listen to her talk about it here and try not to get paranoid the next time your hand feels numb.

Just because a thing has not been explained, does not mean it never will be. As a skeptic that was one of the things I came away thinking about after listening to this. A newly named disease humans have probably suffered from since there were humans, and before most likely. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. In the past too many were probably diagnosed as mad, or possessed. 80+% of known cases have been women, and before 2002 no one new about it at all.

Links

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness & Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements

http://www.brainsonfirebook.com/ - http://www.susannahcahalan.com/

And last, I like design so much,
I publish my own comic to get an excuse to do it.
Ok, maybe an exaggeration, might be the comics i’m more hyped about.
But it is one of the perks of putting out my own books…

A personal anthology project.

[ See sub site for the book here to keep up on developments regarding the series. ] 

Revolver One edition 3.0

$15.00 + shipping

52+ pgs 8×10 Color – Comes with digital copy.

Revolver One the Digital Edition

 $2.50!

52 pages 120 dpi PDF or CBR
Full Color – 46.4 MB  DRM free!:

One - already out official Launch at Expozine their 10th anniversary show btw.
Two - Late December. collects short stories published in Popgun and elsewhere.
Three - May, TCAF, alongside Dream Life book one. Collects shorts published in Comic Book Tattoo and elsewhere.
Two and Three are done save for some of the packaging.
Four - Early July. First instalment of Dream Life book 2, and Dracula:
Son of the Dragon with Mark Sable.
Five and Six don’t have release months slated yet, don’t want to get too ahead of myself. Will include more of Dream Life and Dracula, and the return of Bliss [Pin City] - the sci-fi story. And possibly The Rise and fall of it all.

A new full size edition of RevolveЯ Two will be launched in December. There was a mini version released for a time but i’ve pulled it to add a new cover and a few things, & size it up to roughly standard comic dimensions. RevolveЯ Three will be launched along with Dream Life in May at TCAF 2012.

In Praise of RevolveЯ 

“Best First Issue!”
CBG’s Year end round table: The Best of 2004

Best” Emerging Talent”
Salgood Sam nominated for the 2005 Doug Wright Award

& Short listed for the 2005 Prix Expozine

4.5/5 : “RevolveЯ 1 is a compact package … packed with 52 pages of stories, sketches and a thoughtful text piece that closes out the issue. I was intrigued from the cover alone, a black and gold image of a cityscape that wraps around to the back cover, where someone is seen drowning in the immensity of it all.”

“Douglas’s drawings of buildings are magnificent things, and thankfully much on display throughout the issue, although not to the detriment of the storytelling. The cartoonist clearly has spent a lot of time in a city environment and has been hugely successful in translating what the weight of all that architecture feels like when pressing down on the people below — heavy, imposing, all-dominating and yet strangely liberating in its majesty. The two-page spread that occupies pages 8-9, of a character entering a diner on the first floor of a large building, is the most impressive drawing in the issue, and one of the most well-realized images I’ve seen in a comic this year.”

Alan David Doane @ comicbookgalaxy.com

“Throughout this issue, you can feel Max Douglas’s joy in experimenting with line, tone and page design, in a way that is simpatico with other big names of the small press like Tomer Hanuka or Farel Dalrymple. This is the kind of comics I unashamedly love, dense work by a creator following his vision and sharing the journey with his readers. The paper stock, cover design and overall production values show Douglas cares deeply about his work and how it is presented, and it’s work worth caring about. RevolveЯ 1 is one of the best titles to debut this year, and it could very well change how you think about comics.”

John Martz from his blog robotjohnny.com

“All the mini stories are told from the perspective of lonely characters reflecting on their place in the world. … Max is clearly someone who is passionate about what he does, and is one of those people who tries to blur the lines between comics and literature … The artwork is wonderful and has a lively loose feel to it that makes it easy to miss how well planned and creative the layout of the panels are. RevolveЯ is a refreshing change of pace from the usual batch of men in tights and frogs with boners.”

” … the layouts in RevolveЯ are consistently thrilling, playing with the frames, the gutter, the entire page. They pull the reader on swoops that S down a page, or simulate the vertigo of a big city by distending the horizon or dangling skyscrapers from above. Here is a pro exalting in his craft.”

Guy Leshinski in a Eye magazine review [a now defunct Toronto free weekly]

Sequential tectonic shift: RevolveЯ by salgood sam

“Salgood’s drifting vision has an incredible sense of space and freedom. Your eye moves across the page continuously, an angel floating through worlds. Usually the dynamic movement of the images themselves direct your vision, like little signposts that bounce you around the worlds Sam has created. The narratives sometimes unmoor themselves from everyday reality, moving into poetic or existentialist territory, but never loses its grounding in very concrete images. RevolveЯ plays with how we perceive things, and where we anchor ourselves. This is reflected in the way panels bleed into other panels, if there are panels at all. It suggests that sometimes the dream world or the worlds we create in our narratives appear realer than our actual lives, that the membrane between the world we live and the worlds we see ourselves living in is very thin.”

First impressions by Sherwin Tjia

Revolver One edition 3.0

$15.00 + shipping

52+ pgs 8×10 Color – Comes with digital copy.

Revolver One the Digital Edition

$2.50!

52 pages 120 dpi PDF or CBR
Full Color – 46.4 MB  DRM free!:

I’m just 30 pages shy of completing Dream Life | a late coming of age.

Hi, my name is Max Douglas, I’m a cartoonist, working under the pen name Salgood Sam, and with your help I’d like to get the first half of the longest story I’ve ever tried to tell completed in time for TCAF 2013.

I’m very close already, over 115 pages are done, just a mere thirty left to complete the first three chapters. I hope with this campaign I can dedicate the rest of this year to making those thirty pages my primary focus.

This story is a labour of love. A work of fiction with fantastic and adventure elements. It borrows from my own life–as close to autobiography as I’ve dared in many ways. The cast is an amalgam of people I’ve known and myself, played off archetypes. The situations and conflicts borrow from my own experiences and stories I’ve been close to.

I’ve worked both commercially and independently for others most of the 20+ years that I’ve been a cartoonist. I’ve been lucky to often make my living doing that but there are always trade-offs and limits to the work.

With Dream Life I’m trying to do all the things i’ve always wanted to, tell a story that I’d want to read–without compromise or conditions.

Been swamped trying to get in some new work.
Thought i’d post a round of catch up!

Ok, well to start, PRESS! Not sure if the timing helped or hurt,
but weekend of SDCC I had an interview with Chris Arrant posted on Robot6!

It’s pretty good I think?

If you’re looking to introduce someone to my work it’s almost perfect, though I wish the art linked to the sites more. A good little talk about past a future plans.

Also I’ve uploaded
a new 8 page sequence to Dream Life!
Over due I know! Sorry about that.
This brings the story to 113 pages.

One of the dark nightmare pages i’ve made available as a print as well along with a few other new items expanding on my line on Society6. Only been set with them a short time this summer, and sold 6 prints so far. Not sure what to measure it against but not bad for a start. Could be better?

Also a few prints of my father’s work has sold too. Need to get back to scanning his negatives, something i’ve been bumping down the priority list as I look for more work. But really should put some more prints up from the stuff I already have scanned.

Being kind of broke i’m pondering whether to go ahead and publish the new edition of Revolver i’ve gotten as far as the digital proof on CreateSpace. It would be best to have a print proof but things are too tight right now.

Also thinking, is this is the right time to start an indiegogo campaign for Dream Life? Need to make a clip if i’m going to do it.

I almost thought i’d landed a YA adventure series!

Doing illustrations for the chapter heads and some graphics.

Sadly the job fell through though. Really sucks, would have taken care of me for work for a nice long stretch. Here’s bellow is a slide show of the two illustrations I did for them, and some of the concept sketches too. Going to add the final art to my portfolio under line, and I’ll think start a YA sections too soon… Won’t say what the book or publisher was, as they decided to go in a “younger direction”. But they were best sellers. Wonder though what they had in mind. I tested these out on some YA readers I know, my girlfriends many nieces and nephews. They seemed to dig them! Ah well. Hope something else like it comes up again.

Bit more than at the pharmacy but totally unique!
Buy a set and write your friends the most interesting letters inside.
All are also available as art prints and more.
If you have a special request, contact me.
I’m available to make custom stationary for invites,
Weddings, Birthdays? Bar or Bat Mitzvah? Valentines!

There were a few kinks but it’s all good now. It’s sweet.
Tablet users should look for and check out the full-screen option! It’s in the menu.

Used it to curate smaller illustration and design sets,
and added some old monsters I drew for a game.
Also created a proper abbreviated comic art samples page, for clients who don’t want
to wade through the full individual book sets.

Rich Johnston noticed on Bleeding cool that I had this GR2099 story up
at the same time so i’ve been getting a lot of hits from 2099 fans.

So let me point out a few of the other new, old pages of mine I posted.
Along with the unpublished Ghost Rider 2099 stories, “Horrorshow” & “Daddy Dearest“,
there’s an unpublished Ravage 2099 story up, sorry lost the script and the name.
A 10 page Spiderman 2099 story
called “Behind the Eight Ball“, published in Unlimited 2099.
A short Morbius The Living Vampire story
called “Drainage System”
that i’ve had on Flickr
for a while.

And I also have put up my previously unpublished art
from Raven Chronicles 13: Leader of the Pack!
Written by Scott K. Andrews.
My co creator on ”Daddy Dearest“.

And last I’ve put up a set of three of the pages
I did for my first tryout for a job at one of the big two,
sample pages on Sandman for Karen Burger.