· Article in the New Issue of CRAFT:

I was tapped by the lovely people over at CRAFT to write and illustrate a how-to article in their new issue, which should be on the newsstands any day now! The issue is all "paper" themed, so they asked me to do an article on papermaking! All the illos are watercolor, which was fun to do... I was trying to give the whole thing aq bit of an "old-fashioned" look, which should be interesting to see in CRAFT since their asthetic is so clean/modern. Anyways, check out my article if you see it, and if you end up making some paper from it please e-mail me pictures!

Wow, the Zine Fest is tomorrow! How time flies... I really do think that this year will be much cooler than last year, despite some issues we've had to wrangle. Everyone, please come join us!

Friday, October 5 from 2:00pm - 8:00pm
Saturday, October 6 from 11:00am - 7:00pm

The Women's Building
3543 18th St. (between Valencia and Guerrero)
in the Mission District of San Francisco

It's a FREE annual two-day conference for independent and underground publishing. Exhibitors come from all over the West Coast, and while the focus is on zines, all walks of DIY life are represented — comics, arts and crafts, literary presses, and more.



www.sfzinefest.com

· 36 Views of Sutro Tower (Dolores Park in July)

Finally really getting started with this big project! As I mentioned in a previous post, ever since I first moved to San Francisco I've wanted to do a series of illustrations: "36 Views of Sutro Tower," (inspired, of course, by the incomparable Hokusai) as I've often been struck by how often that ubiquitous landmark will pop into view behind various everyday scenes here... A restful (yet unnatural!) background presence underscoring and countering what is going on in the foreground view. A month ago, I found a postcard book of Henri Rivere's "36 Views of the Eiffel Tower", which was an even greater inspiration, given the similarities of our subject matter (with the great exception of the Eiffel Tower being so truely magnificent on its own; the Sutro Tower is a bit ungainly in comparison!).

So, I have re-started the project with a renewed vigor. I liked Rivere's limited color palette, so I am planning on sticking with that. I'm very pleased to have this vehicle to explore my wonderful city and its environs.



The above scene is in Dolores Park in July... I happily ran into my friend Aliza, who obliged me by being my model.

· Root & Branch Mini

Jonas and I just finished up a little mini version of the first chapter of Root & Branch, our waaay too-long in the making collaborative fantasy comic... Just a fun little thing to have at MoCCA since neither Jonas nor I have a new issue out of our "regular" series (Ochre Ellipse and Friends, respectively). The mini's got a hand-sewn binding and fancy metallic ink on the cover! If you are in New York this coming weekend (june 23 + 24), come the Puck Building by and visit me at my little spot with Greg Means and Alec Longstreth!

· MoCCA bound + Couple of Elfworld Reviews!

I will be heading out to NYC for the MoCCA Art Fest on June 23 + 24! Family Style will be setting up camp with those affable chums Greg Means and Alec Longstreth, the brilliant masterminds behind Tugboat Press and Phase 7 Comics, respectively! It looks like they will have new stuff; Papercutter #5 (great line up for my favorite anthology with Elfworld contributors Kaz Strzepek & Liz Prince, and Bwanna Spoons, who I'm trying to get into Vol. 2!) and another part of Alec's "life with comics". Yay! I am trying to have a mini-comics version of the first chapter of the François/Jonas epic fantasy colaboration, Root & Branch, and of course the still fresh smelling Elfworld.

The reviews are starting to come in for good or ill:

From SFist, a local Bay Area general interest blog:
"Overall great art, very good writing, high quality throughout, and cast of indie darlings that are definitely, definitely deserving of more attention".

From Rob Clough at Sequart:
"The stories that work best here are the sort that take after Lewis Trondheim's approach in Dungeon. There, the sword-and-sorcery stories are ridiculous but told with a straight face, and the humor comes out of the situations that arise rather than with easy parodic targets. Walking the line between understanding what makes the genre work and how to transcend its limitations isn't easy, and only a few of the artists in Elfworld got it right to my eyes."

The one I was waiting for, Tom Spurgeon's review on The Comics Reporter: "Elfworld, for its part, is almost ruthlessly cohesive. While there's no one must-have short story within its pages, there are a number of solid shorts, among them one-pagers by Matt Wiegle (please someone give him a solo comic) and his longer, viscerally satisfying adventure story collaboration with Sean Collins "Destructor Comes to Croc Town"; funny and diverting stories from Kazimir Strzepek and K. Thor Jensen, a lovely two-pager by Jeffrey Brown, and fable-like stories from folks like Dalton Sharp that are modest but surprisingly satisfying."

Sarah Morean had this to say on the delightful Daily Crosshatch: "The familiar art of Liz Prince, Martin Cendrea, K. Thor Jensen and Souther Salazar, among others, is a treat. It’s rare to see an anthology so slim busting with notable talent... The title of the anthology clearly had a huge influence the contributors’ imaginations. Each story contributes to the greater land of Elfworld, which is mapped out on the first page. The map is a clever touch, but there are words on the back cover promising “a swords-and-sorcery anthology” that really only consistently delivers elves. Wizards, trolls, royal romancing, trebuchets, dwarves, and yes, even fairies appear to be missing from the Kingdom of Elfworld’s treasury of tales."

Click on the links above for the reviews in their entirety!

· Hard Working Nerds

Some bios for the amazing contributors to Elfworld...

<Jeffrey Brown has yet to write any autobiographical comics about his nerdy, D&D-loving, Tolkien-reading, Magic-card collecting days of youth. He looks like a big Hobbit.

Martin Cendera is a continuing contributor to MOME and also has a new continuing series titled Sublife, both published by Fantagraphics.

Sean Collins has written about comics and popular culture for Wizard, The Comics Journal, Stuff, Giant, Complex, WWE, and the A&F Quarterly. His comics have been published at TopShelfComix.com. He lives on Long Island with his wife and their cats.

K. Thor Jensen lives in New York City with his wife and their dog, cat, and unborn child. The child will probably be born soonish. His graphic novel, Red Eye, Black Eye, is in stores now.

Dave McKenna’s comics have appeared in House of Twelve, Mauled!, and Legal Action Comics. He dwells inside an enchanted Roger Dean poster in the mystickal land of New York City.

Erik Nebel recently finished writing and drawing a 234 page graphic novel called Happy Birthday. His next project is a graphic novel adaptation of War and Peace. Erik believes that if Tolstoy were alive today, he'd be big, big comic-book fan.

<Jason Overby lives with his wife and their cat in Portland, Oregon. He works on comics all the time, but he's generally too lazy to scan them in and print them out.

Liz Prince has been drawing comics ever since she was in 3rd grade. Her first full length book is Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed? (Top Shelf Productions).

>Ansis Purins is an artist who resides in the ancient port town known as Boston. A freelance illustrator who's clients include Wheelhouse Pickles, he self publishes the comic series Zombre and Duppy.

Ron Regè, Jr. lives in Los Angeles, where he has been playing drums in a musical group called Lavender Diamond. Their debut LP will be released in May 2007. His most recent books are "The Awake Field", and "Skibber Bee~Bye" from D&Q, as well as Yeast Hoist 12 from Buenaventura Press.

<Jesse Reklaw has been drawing the self-syndicated, weekly comic strip Slow Wave since 1995. It's currently printed by ten newspapers around the United States, and online at www.slowwave.com. Currently he is working on a comics memoir, one chapter of which was published in the 2006 Best American Comics by Houghton-Mifflin.

Grant Reynolds lives in Chicago and is a regular contributor to The Skeleton News, a monthly underground paper. His books “Smaller Parts”, “To the Mouth of the Source”, and “M'Lady Serene” are available through Short Pants Press.

Souther Salazar lives and works in Los Angeles.His many works include the children’s book Destined for Dizziness (Buenaventura Press).

Dalton Sharp works on his comic Love is Lava. He is a member of The Crown Commission. He lives in Toronto.

Kazimir Strzepek RACE: Higher Nerd DIETY: None ALIGNMENT: Neutral Chaotic STR:7 INT:13 WIS:14 DEX:13 CON:10 CHR:14 SKILLS: Jump +4 Handle Animal +2 Drawing +1 Bicycles +1 Tetris +3 BACKGROUND: Kazimir was raised by Owlbears and draws Mourning Star put out by Bodega Books.

Jason Turner & Jody Turner are Canadian brothers, born in Manitoba, but spent most of their lives in Ontario. Jody builds props for television and movies in Toronto. Jason works crappy day jobs in Vancouver and recently had his first graphic novel, True Loves, published by New Reliable Press. When the brothers are in the same place they sometimes write goofy comics together.

<François Vigneault has recently converted his alignment from Chaotic Good to Lawful Neutral, much to his chagrin. He draws the comic Friends and lives in San Francisco.

Matt Wiegle lives in Brooklyn and draws things. He is responsible forthe mini-comics "Ayaje's Wives," "The Ghosts," "The Four Husbands" and "Seven More Days Of Not Being Eaten." He is a member of the Partyka comics collective.

· Rollin' Hatin'

Here is kind of what the Elfworld contributor's section in the Rollin' Hatin' art show looked like:

From left to right: Ron Regé, Jr. + Souther Salazar, me, Grant Reynolds, Jeff Brown, K. Thor Jensen, and Jesse Reklaw. Not sure where Ansis Purins' and Liz Prince's work got to...