Interviews, Reviews, Shows, and Comics!

Howdy folks!

Jack here, back from a loooooooooooooooooong hiatus spent, mostly, watching British television shows. Time very, very well spent, but alas, I suppose I should get back to creating instead of consuming.

Since last we talked, I've been to a couple more shows in Vancouver, the Alternative Press Expo, the Small Press Expo, and probably a few other ones I'm forgetting to mention. Burnout was high last year, and I'm happy to take on many less conventions this season. I just tabled at the Emerald City Comicon with longtime friend and collaborator Reid Psaltis. You can find me tabling again during the last weekend of April at the Stumptown Comics Fest with new collaborator Ragnar Guidote. We have been working on the pitch for our comic, Steambun Samurai, and we will have a teaser copy to debut at the show. Finally, we'll have the third installment of The Matter debuting at Stumptown, featuring two stories by yours truly—the third chapter of Brink, as well as the first of a three-part story by Reid and myself titled "Express Yourself." After Stumptown I've got two shows up in beautiful Vancouver, BC in the month of May—the Vancouver Comicon at Heritage Hall on the 13th, and the inaugural Vancouver Comics Arts Festival at The Roundhouse on the 26th-27th.

If you are unfamiliar with Reid's and my previous collaboration, you might want to check out the review we garnered at the MoCCA Fest. (Please do check it out, and tickle my fragile, fragile ego.)

"The Malaise Trap is an amazing character study (with a fantastic title…I love a clever title). So complete and well-considered is the narrative that I was convinced that I was reading an autobiographical account... For those of you who are interested in writing character-driven narratives, this is a great book to look at."

At that same show, Reid and I were picked out from the crowd as the rabid, insatiable Indiana Jones fans that we are, and were interviewed on the internet's #1 Indiana Jones podcast, the IndyCast. They begin covering MoCCA at about the 54-minute mark, and you can catch our interview at just before the hour mark. As Reid put it, "We don't sound as ridiculous as I remembered, which, I suppose, is a good thing." I think we both did an amazing job of bullshitting our Indy cred, but you be the judge.

Finally, a new comic! I've been quite busy with the Portland branch of the Occupy movement, and have decided to apply my talents to the cause by way of informational minicomics! What fun, and more fun to follow. The good Mr. Kenan Rubenstein, the de facto king of the Five-Page Folded Minicomic, can be credited with inspiration and perspiration with regards to getting it online. Oh, also, it was selected to be in an art show, which is a very neat thing for a writer person such as myself.

Alright gang, it's back to work! I'll be updating periodically until Stumptown comes around, with snippets of the stories you can expect to see there and many more incredible surprises along the way.

Vantastic

After this, I am blessedly done with cons until SPX

What can I say?  I love Vancouver like conservative governments love fucking marginalized people over.

What Just Happened

MoCCA 2011 - NYC

Stumptown 2011 - PDX

The bird a nest,
the spider a web,
man friendship.

~William Blake

I'd say ol' Bill Blake is on to something, given the past couple months of my sleep-deprived, chaotic mess of a life and the plain fact that I could not have possibly gotten through them if not for the diligent efforts of my friends. Without fail, my friends stepped up to help me not just keep my wits, but to help me thrive. Whether with getting around and housing me in a foreign land, laying out, editing, printing, and putting together books, tending to my needy kitties, helping me table at conventions, getting me around town after my car breaks down, setting up websites, sounding off my crazy ideas, getting me to or into afterparties, festivals, and so so so much more.

My comic odyssey started with an impromptu visit to the Emerald City Comicon in March, which was considerably more...diverting than I thought possible.  I had intended to just go as an attendee, but ended up something else entirely. Still sussing that one out. Perhaps in a future post. Anyway, two weeks later I went up to a Vancouver Comicon to try my hand at Steve Rolston's homemade Canadian parlor games. After another two weeks of constant scrambling, I headed out for NYC for the MoCCA Festival in early April. Any visit to NYC is a trip which I would gladly lengthen, but I had to cut my East Coast time regretfully short and get back to Portland too soon. I was required back the Saturday after MoCCA, which happened to be my birthday, to attend the first day of the Stumptown Comics Fest and the grand opening of the Samo Lives gallery, where The Matter is on permanent installation.

The week from MoCCA to Stumptown was a sleepless, bewildering juggernaut that I couldn't stop, slow, or even comprehend most of the time. Like any good show should be. Not surprisingly, the Monday after Stumptown closes up, I tailspin into a week-long illness as my body stops fighting whatever nastiness I got from the NYC subway handrails. However, since I'm a con/fest/party animal, I was rewarded by scoring free all-access wristbands to the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. I live at the epicenter of the fest, and the last two years I've been unable to go, so this was sweeter than Sweet Reward. And as usual, it was all on account of my friends. In this case, Mr. Josh Bremer, who did the Festival's website, let me use his passes.

On that note, I suppose I should end this senseless, rambling post. I wanted just to stress that I have the best friends ever.  I might gloss over the details of Emerald City and the last Vancouver Comicon, but expect posts about MoCCA, Stumptown, Samo Lives, Bridgetown, and more as time rolls along.  I'll get to the fests soon, because I have some neat pictures, but most importantly, a jam comic about lil' ol' me by, I kid you not, the finest artists at Stumptown.

Now that I'm done with all manner of fests and conventions (besides an occasional Vancouver jaunt), it's time to get cracking. The Matter no. 3 is near it's printing, though we've already printed the Issue no. 3 Teasers. We'll have an electronic version of the teaser up before the week is out, which should be concurrent with launching the Kickstarter for the issue as well. Anyway, I'll have more to say later. I'll endeavor to make it more exciting if you endeavor to make it back for it.

Thank you again, friends. You know who you are.

-=-

P.S. Sorry to get all blabby on everyone. There's been a ton of crap what done gone on since we last talked, and I had to start somewhere. My thoughts got a little bottlenecked, so forgive the 90s-era blogginess of this post.