SO, I told myself, HEY, I'm graduating, I'm gonna enjoy myself. You know, take some time off from drawing, art for... I don't know, a month or so.


BUT. I GUESS THAT'S KIND OF A NO. Admittedly I've been running around aloof, seeking any and all adventures, big or small. In this short time of course I have tales to tell my god haha, but, there is art to do. It seems to be right at my doorstep saying, hey Charmaine, WHAT ARE YOU DOING, COME ON. Someone needs to be here to whap me on the head with a newspaper or the sort.

WHAT CALLS:


ACAD GRAD SHOW 2008
I just finished a collaborative mural with my two good friends Chika Ando and Heather Reinhardt. How it took so long, I do not know. I have never painted on glass, NOR with tempura paint. SO LET ME TELL YOU, I've had quite enough of that. I suppose we took our casual time, nor did we actually plan ANY of it. So you can imagine what happened... yea. Anyways it will be in FULL VIEW SPLENDOR tonight at the 2008 ACAD GRAD SHOW. HA HA HA. Good times, can't wait. I believe I am showcasing my portfolio as well, so it's all good! Come on down if you have time! I'm going to wear a cute dress, come see how well I clean up! And of course there will be ever so much art!! OOH AHH! The results of 4 years of BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS (I mean really, someone's grad glass sculpture randomly fell over yesterday during set up and smashed, the artist cried :( ).

Opening is tonight 5:00pm at ACAD! Good art, booze, hor d'oeuvres!! Art openings, always great.




ART ATTACK '08
!!! I've been asked to do a piece for the live auction, as well as maybe a little itty bitty piece? I'm quite excited! A lot of great and reputable artists from Calgary and afar are contributing, even Rick Sealock! A lot of my old professors, who I guess I am now peers with haha! It's one fancy night, come if you can! Tickets are $75 (its worth it, money raised goes towards the arts community etc), drinks and food included! The theme is Food & Drink, and there will be Live & Silent Auctons!


Bird Dog Video Art Charity Auction '08
I've been asked by the find folks at Bird Dog Alternative Video (site down atm) to do a piece for their annual charity art show! Awesome, they are really great people involved with the art and music community! The theme is movie posters this year (last year was those rad Russian nesting dolls!), I'm so stoked to do it, I think I'm going to do either Godzilla VS. Mothra, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, OR Royal Tenenbaums? Any other suggestions anyone? I'd think I'd like to try to do a more "popular" or "respectable" movie, so it will sell and make the charity some money!


Solo show @ Oolong Teahouse/JUNE
I've got the artspace for all of June at the teahouse! Theme is anything and everything, But I need at least ten paintings to fill the space (this all depends on size of pieces of course)! I'm excited, its a good little venue to sell stuff too! BUT GOODNESS, I better get on this, or I might have to assemble friends to contribute some art! STOP BY IN JUNE AND BUY MY ART haha. Or just come to say hi you guys and I'll serve you some tea.

I should have ALL of this (plus a little more actually) done by the end of the month (that's the average deadline for everything right now, haha dang how did this all happen to me!?). Afterwards the main focus turns to freelance and comics, especially if I want to get something together for SDCC, hargh!

On that note, SLOANE craqued, WHEN DO YOU NEED THAT ART PIECE BY???







Avenue Magazine is doing a little artist spotlight on me!
Never do interviews when you are ridiculously tired, especially on the phone when you already have bad hearing! Good grief, well the interviewer assured me I would sound "intellectual and funny" in the write up... ha ha ha, ohhhh maaaan. Lessons learned, but I'm still excited. That little puppy should be out in the September issue? I think that's what they said? I still need to send them three images for to be featured, I'll decide on that this weekend, since I have some new stuff in the works! It was fun and I'm delighted to be featured in such a swell magazine!



IN OTHER NEWS
Website should be up soon, real soon. Dreamweaver (haha) and I have a date.

Europe set date is June 7th to the 27th, I am HIGHLY looking forward to that, though I have to make sure I DRAW, while there, too. Responsibilities!! The general plan looks to be France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and ??? whatever else is manageable! I'm looking to meet up with SKAFFA when I'm in and around Utrecht/Holland, that should be mad rad.

I have a bike! A lovely old blue Free Spirit dropped at my feet since my roommate has left for the summer! I took off the fender because I rode it too hard (I am too fierce) and broke the fender?? Man I forgot how GREAT bikes are. It has a little basket and I love it.

I just hit the Destroyer show last night, sooo good, how do you do it Bejar?? Just what I needed mhmm. The show was in the Legion hall downtown, I love old community halls from the 60's. It smelt like the 60's. Old. Awesome.
Tomorrow is Chad VanGaalen" (man of my dreams) & Black Mold at CREATURE: A Monster Collaborative E.A.R. art and music show yesss. I believe Consonant C is playing, they are really cute.
More shows coming up, though I just realized I have to give my Islands ticket away because I will be in Europe. CRAP.


&SKETCHBOOK SNIPPETS







All I want to draw lately is people (hipsters?) and bears.


BISCUITS it's hot out (and inside my badly insulated apartment. I bid you adieu.

I don't normally do this kind of thing, but my brain is sore, so I figured I would do this kind of simple q&a thingy...as a semi-update of human existence.
1. Your cell phone? awesome, but my old man ambivilance towards new communication technology has kept me from exploiting its complete capabilities.
2. Your significant other? a....my Popple doll is still in tact after all these years.
3. Your hair? Ummmm, have not cut it since Fall 06'
4. Your mother? My life line...
5. Your father? a dead, prolific and mad genius.
6. Your favorite thing? hip-hop
7. Your dream last night? about my old rehab.
8. Your favorite drink? ice-cold guava juice
9. Your dream/goal? leave this country(not for a vacation), and I am also waiting for my 15 minutes of obscurity.
10. The room you're in? Chinatown compound
11. Your ex? what ex?, I been single forever....
12. Your fear? Bumping into people that know me
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Teaching kids how to build a better world.
14. Where were you last night? in bed...slept for like 14 hours.
15. What you're not? a patriot
16. Favorite Muffins? a really good bran muffin with hella butter.
17. One of your wish list items? All the Stone Roses bootlegs in one nice boxset, signed by Ian Brown(since he made most of them). It would come with a free pair of his signiture Adidas superstars.
18. Where you grew up? Honolulu
19. The last thing you did? coffee
20. What are you wearing? Old jeans, a black wife beater, and an old Chinese military shirt.
21. Your TV? in my roommates room
22. Your pet(s)? I have a lot of dolls.
23. Your computer? mac
24. Your life? no comment.
25. Your mood? recovery mode
26. Missing someone? yes, but they are all dead...so I march forward, looking for someone else to miss.
27. Your car? 3 pairs of Adidas.
28. Something you're not wearing? my hood
29. Favorite Store? Walgreens...I just love the cheap, utilitarian stench that risess out of every location,...and how when you see tourists point one out as a sign of civilization....priceless.
30. Your summer? I am taking two classes, and hope to work for the CITY STUDIO program, but we shall see...
31. Love someone? My family, and the un-attainable Peruvian girl.
32. Your favorite color? green
33. When is the last time you laughed? Um, not sure, but it happens multiple times a day
34. Last time you cried? Everyday at some point, but its usually tears from coughing after a bong rip.
35. Who will/would repost? violet reposted....

Yesterday I answered ten questions for some lovely webcartoonists. I was too preoccupied with server stuff to remember to post about it, but I am remembering now!

10 Questions For Josh Lesnick (contains this and that)

I feel like I have a never-ending supply of old notes, sketches, odds and ends, but, uh, I don't. Anyway, here's some more.

That page there is the FIRST PAGE EVER DRAWN!

And if you click here, you can see the original plot outline for the first half of Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, scribbled down the margin of a page of notes.

On my flickr there's some other stuff, like pages of script, and I even dug up one of the original release party flyers.

Insert a ton of sentences here about how Clare is seriously gorgeous, a pleasure to photograph, and how much I love the end result.

( Pretty pretty pretty. )

People who work with webservers. I know a few of you probably read this.

IS IT POSSIBLE for a server that has been running the same websites with the same code for months to suddenly slow down, with no apparent increase in traffic causing it, and have the problem be due to unoptimized code and database calls that are my fault?

Is it possible for a server that's been running this unoptimized code for months to somehow just not be able to do it anymore?

I would think that this is not possible, but maybe I'm wrong?

The support staff at Dreamhost seems convinced that it is possible. They haven't really explained to me exactly HOW it is. The help they gave me was essentially that I needed more RAM. I was rather cross about this. They were cross in return. I apologized. They aren't responding to me at the moment.

My site ran terribly today, but gradually, it's coming around. If this ends up being some strange mysterious problem that fixes itself, that'd be grand. But this experience was one of the most terrible I've had with Dreamhost in years. And I mean years. I was going to hit my tenth anniversary with them in December.

Their support staff acts like underpaid, disgruntled workers who look up their solutions on Wikipedia now.

I heard some good things about iweb.ca...

"Ari, the group liked your poster and they wanted to bring you on stage!"

"Well, the lead singer said he wanted a signed copy from you. He said he felt like it had the most heart out of all the ones for them he's seen."

Best texts ever. It's really not even my best poster, but I did work hard on it. That totally made my night. I am so bummed I missed that show now, but I am going to San Francisco tomorrow and need to get all this work done before I go.

Speaking of weird texts, I also got one that said "Hey. Will you go out with me? I like you..." I asked who it was and I got the same response again, so I ignored it. I am guessing it is a joke.

• 14:57 man, I hate doing invoices.. but I love getting paid. #

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after next week's vacation i'm going to be hitting nario and other arts SO hard!

I don't know what the hell this video is but I am in it making an ass of myself:



I had a lot of fun at the con. The lucky dip hat was pretty successful. I managed to shift about 200 of my own comics that were in it and a whole load more of everyone else's (thanks Becky, Will, Emily to name but a few, no thanks TOKYOPOP who stuck a bunch of their stupid flyers in there, EAT A BAG OF HELL TOKYOPOP)




To start with it seemed like a bit of a hard sell and my call of DOYOUWANNAGOONMYLURRHIDHPPHAT wasn't really bringing in the crowds, but once I realised what an alien concept this was to most people and developed a patter which established what the hat was, what you had to do and what was in it, putting your hand inside a strange man's head to get comics out had become second nature to everyone there.

( READ MORE )

Early notes as I prepared to write the first Scott Pilgrim. Click to make big.

Note uncertainty about the band name, etc... it was a while before I was fully comfortable with "Sex Bob-omb". Because it's idiotic. But at least it's idiotic in a way that is true to the characters!

I found some earlier notes (from 2002) and see that I had whittled the characters down from a larger number.

Stephen Stills was the last "final" character to appear. Young Neil was named first - although he was originally an actual young kid, for HILARIOUS purposes - and Stills flowed naturally out of that, I guess.

Originally, Scott had a number of friends based on old characters I made up in high school and stuff. Of these, only Kim Pine survived (thank god).

He also had multiple roommates.

I am really happy that I figured out a little thing called "narrative economy" between conceiving this book and executing it.

Anyway, this scrap of notes is from pretty much immediately before I wrote the first book.

The Portland Mercury interviewed me last week prior to our signing. Whittled down to three questions. Easily digestible. Go for it.

I invented one yesterday.  See below:

wife texting me:  how is bedtime going?  (meaning, me putting our kid down)
me:  currently much crying.

So much easier, now that we've established it, to just text CMC for "currently much crying.  But it has other uses!  Such as:

me: the story in Local #12 will be an extra ten pages long.
Ryan Kelly:  CMC!

I am a genius!

bri

I just overheard that the paper im working for is going to give a horrible review to Iron Man... ahahaha. WOW.I wonder what he found so horrible about it... and if he's just one of those critics that takes his young daughters to things and basically just puts THEIR opinions down like the guy who did it for this paper back when i was still in school.

I mean.. i've yet to see it, but i havent heard anything bad about it at all. period.

will the pace ever pick up?

Hey comic readers! Here is some more exciting news about
my recent project "The Bravest Nino" and a new launch of
Top Shelf webcomics 2.0

Now featured on Publishers Weekly.com
www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6560183.html

I can't wait!

Comic Book Tattoo editor Rantz Hoseley knows his stuff. The first, of what should be many, swag items in anticipation of the July 2008 release of this Tori Amos anthology I'm a part of includes.... IM icons?




And I can finally reveal the song that Star St. Germain and I chose for the book. "Glory of the 80s" from the album "To Venus and Back". Although it has nothing to do with the story we did, here's the music video to the song

I'm gagging to show this project off, but alas i dont want to show off individual pages until i can show the whole thing off.
Instead, this is an I.O.U. Which reads:

"I.O.U one 'LEGEND OF DORIAN SANCHEZ'"

( Thank you for the invite to dance on golden streets )

Sorry, I've been busy. There's always so much to do.