You know who's incredible?

Poster for Blammo #8 Release Party

Noah Van Sciver. That's who.

Luke and I were roommates for a year or so, and realized we were both book nerds/collectors. He got me a little more into collecting books of value, and I got him a little more into comics. We bought and saved up books for a year or more, boxes filling every corner of our rented house.

On May 1, we finally convinced the folks at Wax Trax records to rent us the 'in-between' space. That is, the 1000 sf shopfront in- between their vinyl and cd shops. It was left in disarray after a failed attempt to use it as a bike-repair/third hand record shop by one of the owner's wife's family members.

We had no time to waste, so we set a June 1, 2008 opening date, Luke quit his job, I took vacation from mine, and we spent each of the next thirty days cleaning & pricing books, deciding on the layout of the shop, buying and placing shelves, and yes, cleaning out the refuse of thousands of records and hundreds upon hundreds of scattered bike parts. We worked from seven am til midnight most days, seven days  week. We enlisted the help of friends, and generally had a blast. I'd rank May of 2008 as one of the best months of my life.

Blammo #2 Release Party at Kilgore

It was sometime in there that a scrawny kid walked into the shop, looked around, saw the books and
 comics, but was too scared to talk to either of us, so promptly ran back out. I don't think either Luke or I noticed him, as we were likely in the alley hauling old bike parts.

After we were open a couple of days, he came back and spoke with Luke. He asked if we'd sell his comic  book, Blammo #1. Luke said yes and bought three copies for $7.20. The next time we worked together, Luke told me all about this local cartoonists who had brought his stuff in. I read through a copy of Blammo #1 and loved it.

It was rough. It was raw. It clearly ripped off Crumb to a point were royalties may have been due. The writing was decent, but not great. Either way though, we were ecstatic. Our goal had been to help promote comics locally, and part of that would be to promote local comics. So, as out first customers trickled in, we'd say, 'hey check out Blammo, it's by a LOCAL kid -- it's really good'.

Kilgore Bookmark

We sold out of the first three copies within a week or so, and when Noah came back in I got to tell him how much I enjoyed his comic.

Over time he and I became good friends, Kilgore began publishing Blammo for him (which allowed us to become comic publishers, and allowed him to stop worrying about printing up five digital copies every time someone wanted one).

The thing we loved about Noah right away was how much he wanted it. How truly hard he was willing to work to become a great cartoonist. I remember saying to Luke early on that Noah had no other choice in life. This was the thing he could do, and I certainly meant it as a compliment.

The second thing we loved is that he WORKED for it. This guy - like Crumb - always has a sketchbook he's drawing in while you're chatting with him. He works crummy jobs then draws til 3am. He sends out stuff to everybody. He networks, and put stuff into so many anthologies it's crazy.

How hard does this guy work? I just added it up -- since 2008, he's put out 28 solo books -- chapbooks, minis, pamphlets, softcover and hardcover books -- for a total of nearly 900 pages.

This means that since 2008, he's done, on average, 150 pages a year for publication. That's a realized page every 2.4 days, a level impossible to most folks, including many working cartoonists.

But outside of his hunger, he has gotten better over time. Each new issue of Blammo is his best. Every time he puts out a one-shot like 1999 or The Death of Elijah Lovejoy, both the writing and the artwork have improved over the last issue.

The Hypo outtake - Noah decided to leave
much of the political parts of the story out

And his Lincoln book, The Hypo? When he was working on it, he'd come in and show me chapters or section which I'd never see again. He probably wrote & inked over 500 pages to get to the 192 that make up that excellent graphic novel. At one point, he realized he'd drawn modern door knobs, so went back and re-drew all the doorknobs as they were in the 1830's.

He's careful to mix things up. A little auto-bio -- some screamingly funny, some heartbreakingly sad (an early story about his first pair of long pants was the turning point for me, in terms of really seeing him as a high quality artist, and a fella I just wanted to hug), incredible history comics like The Hypo, Elijah Lovejoy, The Denver Spiderman, humor like Chicken Strips (still a fave of mine), fairytales like the Fox and the Hound, and just plain old stories about regular stiffs in stories like Abbey's Road, St. Cole, Julio' Day.

Mixing it up like this has really helped Noah become a great story teller, in addition to a fine artist. His work ethic and commitment to comics will one day make him a master story teller.

As of right now, I know he's nearly finished with St. Cole (a ~100 page story being serialized online), Blammo #9, The Lizard Laughed, I'm guessing his Joseph Smith book, and likely a few record covers, one-shots, and random commission work, all of which I can't wait to see.

I have nothing but respect for his level of work and the quality of that work. It's really a treat to get to call him a friend, because it turns out, he's also a really nice guy. I recently bought a couple copies of his October 2013 diary comic, 'More Mundane', and he threw in the artwork for his Built to Spill t-shirt design. He knows I'm a huge BTS fan, and this meant the world to me.

He loves comics like nobody else I know, and he learns from them in a way that I'm in awe of. Getting to watch this guy grow and learn as a cartoonist, in addition to getting to spend countless hours chatting about comics with him, has been one of the greatest highlights of opening up Kilgore.

Recommended:
The Hypo (Fantagraphics): 192 pps, $24.99 (if you order from FB, you get the free mini, 'Who's Dead in the White House')
Blammo 6-8 (Kilgore): 32-40 pps, $5 each
The Death of Elijah Lovejoy (2D Cloud): 28 pages, $5
St. Cole (serialized at 'The Expositor') soon to be in book form (we hope): FREE for now
1999 (Retrofit): out of print, but Noah might still have some bootleg copies -- check his site for contact info.

Until next time, read more comics.

The Cat Whisperer

I just finished editing down an hour's worth of John P. interviews I'd been saving. It's the first interview I did with him when I started this project. Part one took place on Ruby Hill, a park a few miles south of Denver, and then part two took place at my house.

It's amazing how much John pours out in just an hour. I think I caught him on a grumpy day where he was feeling particularly chatty. I didn't know him too well at that point, and was certainly still getting the hang of how to interview people on the spot. As such, I ended up asking some pretty blunt (even bordering on rude) questions, which John answered with honesty and grace.

He speaks candidly about OCD, his health issues, his feelings of being a weirdo without a place in society, depression, and -- in a lengthy session that won't make it into the final project -- how comics are distributed.

Below is a happy little outtake from when I was getting the gear set up at my house. If you've ever spent any time with John, you know he loves animals, and in particular, cats. It's not crazy to suggest that he views them as being at least equal, and possibly superior to, humans.

We had had a lengthy day of filming, and as I mentioned, John was feeling a bit crabby, so I think by this time he felt much more comfortable chatting with our kitty than he did discussing his life with me. This is another thing that isn't likely to make it into the film, but I think it demonstrates an important side of John.

Enjoy.

A movie, eh?

I promised there would be updates on the John P. project, still tentatively titled 'Root Hog or Die', so here's one. Below is a short except I'm putting up to sate any remaining appetites. Really this clip is intended as a bit of a joke. 

John P. has an intense set of food allergies which he mitigates by eating a very specific diet, with certain types of food available to him on certain days. This diet can also mean a different caloric intake on different days. On this particular day, he was on a low calorie day, and was pretty cranky. He was also drinking a Dr. Pepper made with real sugar. On this trip John drank his first soda in years and years, but I can't remember if this was that one, or if this was his second or third. 

We had spent the previous day with Jeff Zenick chatting mini comics and zines. I taped a lot of the conversation and it was a good day. The next day, I went for a jog around J-ville, and then we drove up to a comic shop which was supposed to open at eleven. By 12:30, they still weren't open, and we were really annoyed, so John decided to treat himself with a soda. 

The soda in question had been sitting in the car ages and was warm as hell, so I asked John if he wanted me to grab him a glass with ice to make the soda a little tastier. This was the response. 

So, what's up with the movie? Well, I'm in hardcore editing mode. I've whittled most of the interviews and such down so that I have usable footage & quotes from each. I'm working on the John P. talks and the 'B-Roll' stuff (us driving, etc.) now, which is pretty fun and exciting. 

My hope is to have it finished in the next couple months, then spend a bit of the late spring/early summer doing any post production work, DVD transfer, figure out what the hell to do, and then debut it at SPX, probably not formally, but around the edges. 

So, that's the plan/hope. Cheers, and thanks for reading. 

Why Don't People Read the GOOD STUFF?

It's about 6:30am and I've been up for about an hour and a half. Had a weird dream that I was castrated and my genitals had to be rebuilt so that I could conceive another child. What the hell was that about? Anyway, couldn't get back to sleep after that.

I came across part II of Zak Sally's 'History of La Mano' over at his blog. If you don't know Zak, you should. I really really love his comics. They're dark and weird, they're sloppy and perfect, they're wordy and sparse, all at the same time.

When I read Cormac McCarthy, it takes months to finish a book because I want to get everything out of every sentence. I pick it up, read a paragraph, I put it down. I come back to it a week later. It's the same with Zak's comics. I find it hard to just tear through one of his comics, the way I do with so many other creators. I want to really soak up every panel, every word, every stray ink speck, because the guy packs a wallop.

You know the expression, 'leave it all on the field'? I really don't care for football, but Jesus H., Zak leaves every ounce on the page, holding nothing back.

Here's the thing, though. Nobody reads this guy's stuff. His incredible collection, 'Like a Dog' is currently ranked at 1,952,838 in Books on Amazon. How is that even possible? He's published by Fantagraphics, he gets amazing reviews, he does stuff for TCJ, did great work at Mome, gets nominated for awards, and is a legitimate, long-term player in indie comics.

And, not unlike the first 27 years of Cormac McCarthy's career, nobody's buying it. Blood Meridian -- arguably McCarthy's greatest work and considered one of the greatest American novels of the 21st century, couldn't even sell through it's first print run of a scant 5,000 copies. A bunch of copies were remaindered and sold for $1.99, and that was perhaps the best-selling of his first five novels. He too won accolades, was praised effusively by critics, but that didn't translate into sales (until 1992's 'All the Pretty Horses' that is).

Zak's a lot like that. 'Like a Dog' is currently the highest ranking of his books on Amazon. His other books, 'Recidivist' and Vols 1 & 2 of the incredible 'Sammy the Mouse' all languish well below the two million mark for sales on Amazon.

While it's infuriating to see such a talented guy go unsupported, it's all the more so because he's not just talented, he has a really unique voice and sensibility. I'm just glad he's a tenacious mother who'll never quit. Otherwise, I could see him hanging up his brushes for good.

So, the question remains, why the hell am I one of seemingly two hundred people who love Zak's comics? At first I went to our similarities. We're roughly the same age, both love comics, both love the cold, like the same music, have similar punk rock ideologies. How could I not love this dude? Plus, he's an incredible musician, is a comics printer and publisher, and a seemingly really good dad. Oh, and he lives in Minneapolis, perhaps the greatest city around.

To test this theory, I gave my fifteen year old comics loving niece a stack of his comics as a gift. She's into the good stuff -- for her last birthday, I commissioned John P. to draw her a mouse with some cheese which she went ape over. But I thought, could this teenage girl dig Zak's stuff? She LOVED IT.  I gave her a stack with some Chris Ware, Jason, Marjane Satrapi, Gabrielle Bell, and others, and it was 'Recidivist' and 'Like a Dog' that she kept raving about.

So, then I got a new theory -- I'm a process guy. One of my favorite things in music is liner notes on a record. I love knowing how things are made. Where did this idea come from and so forth. And the same is true of comics. I love knowing what materials were used, I love seeing artists' studio spaces, I love original art, and sketchbooks.

Zak's the same. The end of 'Like a Dog' comes with ten pages of context, ephemera, stories, and context that -- for me -- really help shape the stories. Knowing the background for me always makes the stories richer and the reading better.

And, let's be honest, Zak LOVES to talk about that stuff. This is not a slam or a tease, I love artists who really get into the background.

This may also explain why so many other artists love/respect Zak's work -- generally it's the insiders who want to know how the sausage is made.

In the late '80's, Rolling Stone did a cover story on R.E.M. in which Peter Buck said, 'we're the acceptable edge of the unacceptable stuff', which didn't make a lot of sense to 12-year old me. I just thought they were weird and neat. Stipe wore dresses on stage, they talked shit about Reagan, what's not to love? For a kid growing up in backwater America, pre-internet, R.E.M. counted as interesting and/or experimental. It took me years, however, to really get into bands like The Minutement, Mission of Burma, or other bands that were a little more challenging than R.E.M.

What I realize now is, in every 'movement' there will be those artists who make a collective idea palatable to the masses. This is not a bad thing. In the independent comics community (very very loosely described) you have folks like Chris Ware, who most folks can read and get into. It's sad, beautiful and totally accessible work for someone willing to give it half a chance.


Zak's work is also sad and beautiful, but it's sorrow is a little deeper, a little darker. Perhaps it's as simple as geography. Zak puts to paper the grim desolation that exists in places like North Dakota and Minnesota. The oppressive dark, the long winter, the places where there's no escape, except perhaps some relief brought by booze. Contrast that to Ware's Chicago. A place that's depressing, sure, but a place where you can escape from. O'Hare can fly you away. Lake Michigan, like an ocean represents departure and travel. Movie houses, plays, concerts, all the benefits of a city exist in Ware's work, but are painfully absent from Zak's.

As a kid who grew up in a town of 900 with winters so grey and long they seemed to last forever, I really identify with Zak's reference points far more than almost any other cartoonist. My niece, by the way, is growing up just one town over from where I grew up. Maybe that's why she was so psyched to get Sammy Vol. 2 this year.

Guess who's back.

I'm going to forego any apologies for a nearly three year lapse in any updates. Let's assume apologies have been both given and received.

My aim here is to collapse the various elements of my life into one place. It turns out, I have a lot of stuff going on. For the record, yes, I'm still working on the King-Cat/John P. documentary. I'm decently far along, and believe it will be released (whatever that means) in 2014.

My wife and I also had a baby this year, Oscar, who's a charming young man at ten months of age.

In the spring of 2011, I resumed my life/career as an activist  by running for the Denver city council and losing. This lead to my current employment at a fairly well known environmental organization, managing a fairly large project team which requires significant travel.

I still co-own Kilgore Books & Comics in Denver, thought my resumed career caused a relocation from Denver --> Washington, DC in September of 20132. My partner Luke and I split responsibilities so that he's in charge of the shop in Denver, and I take the point on our comics publishing venture.

In July of this year, we moved our little family from the 'way too expensive' District of Columbia to the wilds of suburbia in a land called......College Park Maryland.

Oh, and I got elected to the Board of Directors for the Small Press Expo. Congrats, Dan.

So, it's been a busy couple years, my beard has begun turning grey, and I find myself with amazingly little free time. Sadly, I've largely given up screen printing endeavors and much music playing, beyond screwing around on the guitar with Oscar.

I found myself trying to have specific outlets for things -- this blog for the documentary, another for writing about comics, another (in my head) for writing about being a dad, Facebook for kid pictures, a zine for both fatherhood and comic interests.

Meanwhile, I keep trolling Craigslist, looking for a cheap but functioning printer so that I can live out my secret fantasy of becoming Zak Sally.

Oh yeah, I keep buying pens and notebooks and pretending I might some day be a cartoonist.

So, tonight I decided to just say to heck with it, and dump all my weird projects here. We'll see what happens with it.

To start, I've gotten pretty obsessed with collecting original comic art. Over the course of the winter, I got in touch with and bought some pages from Seth, and he sent along the nicest set of ephemera you could imagine.

Here's a little sample that includes his very old (no longer in use) 'Pencil Art Association' certificate:

What a difference a year makes

In true independent comics fashion, my original plans/schedules and such have largely fallen by the wayside.

That being said, the project is still very much alive and well, one year later. After the fantastic road trip last spring (2010) I had to take a little time away from ole John P. This was not for any BAD reason, I just needed to get a little distance from a subject I was so focussed on so that I could gain some clarity.

And clarity I have gained!

I essentially held off on any serious work on the movie until Jan 1, 2011. Since then I've finished transferring the 70 odd hours of film I already have, and am moving into the shockingly exciting NEXT phase.

And with that in mind, I thought, hey good time to revise the blog. I'd like to throw down some general thoughts first, then lay out some plans.

1. I'm not writing this blog for you, or for John P. In truth, when I began shooting, my thought was 'shoot a bunch of shit, and then string it together'. Since I didn't really know what I was doing, I felt having some kind of log would be helpful so that I could at some point review what the heck I was actually doing. I thought, 'if it's online, I'll always have it somewhere, and some people may actually be interested in the thing'.

Turns out, I'm not particularly interested in whether people want to read about this or not, and in fact, knowing that people are reading it is a wee bit distracting. Taking a year off from it SURELY helped as most folks have likely drifted away, but if you are still around, I hope you enjoy it.

At the same time, and please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not super interested in your ideas about how I should do this project. I say this because it's taken a year to get to the point where I have a vision of what this thing is/could/should be, and it will likely differ from yours. Thankfully, there are many cameras out there, and I encourage you to pick one up, and tell the story your way, if you like. Ok, that was snarky, but heartfelt.

2. I'll be throwing working clips up here, along with general thoughts on the timeline, plan, scope of the project. Again, this is partially to document what I'm doing in a easy way/place, and to help me get my thoughts out on 'paper' so that I can have them mildly organized.

3. I have an outline, and most of the shooting is done. I'm off to Chicago again from 3/7-11 to hang with John and dig into his psyche. I'm also working to figure out interviewing his second wife, Misun when I get back from that trip.

4. Basic plan is to have 95% of the filming finished, and all the film logged/separated into chapters before I leave on my honeymoon. Yah, got married. Woot. Going to Viet Nam for most of May. When I return will spend June/July doing more specific editing of video and sound, and have a good working rough cut by end of August. Hell, that's six months from now. I gotta get to work, and quit screwing around on blog spot.

5. Not sure if this will work -- I remember having trouble with it last year, but here's a nice little clip I put together today. It's about a minute long and has footage from a reading in Norman OK at Atomik Pop, in addition to general footage from an awesome state park in Elgin (I believe), and driving through western Louisiana towards Houston. The music is from Zak Sally's 'Fear of Song', and is used because we're friendly with each other, not because I have any right to at all. There's no money in any of this, so I'm sure Zak's cool with it.

Well What's All This Then?

Well it's been a little while since we've had some updates here, which is fair, because I've been taking a bit of a break from thinking about the film for a wee bit. I'm back-ish now though, at least with some updates.

No new video for awhile, because I had to leave all my tapes in Denver after the tour with John. I was flying to DC, then back to Chicago, had limited space, and more importantly, didn't want to absent mindedly set the bag of tapes down somewhere and lose them all. But, with them in Denver, it's been impossible to put up new stuff.

That being said, I'm going out tomorrow and doing an interview with Donal (early friend of John P & member of many bands together), then roaming around Chicago to shoot what could be called 'b-roll' or 'second unit' stuff. Basically shots of Chicago and whatnot. I'm going to put on my headphones, listen to some loud music and cart the camera all over the city. Am legitimately looking forward to it!

For you Chicagophiles out there, I'm going to get some of the classic stuff, but there will be some weird stuff too -- Capone's house, the Biograph theater, some of the weirder/darker historical stuff.

In the meantime, if you need to SEE some stuff, I took hundreds of pictures of the tour and they can be found over at Facebook, and John's been posting some sweet little videos and such too.

To sate the masses, I WILL post a few little iPhone clips I took on tour every couple of days till we're back in Denver, which is this weekend.

This clip is John in the room Elvis was born in, explaining to Bobbie -- the 80+ year old guide -- just what he does for a living. Cheers.

Congrats to John Porcellino!

Even if the excellent write up on the Denver comics scene in the Westwod this week weren't awesome, it turns out, ole Johnny P. has been nominated for an Eisner Award!

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
• Absolute Justice, by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithewaite (DC)
• A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld (Pantheon)
• Alec: The Years Have Pants, by Eddie Campbell (Top Shelf)
• Essex County Collected, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
• Map of My Heart: The Best of King-Cat Comics & Stories, 1996–2002, by John Porcellino (Drawn & Quarterly)

Some stiff competition, it's true, but I always did root for the underdog!

Oh Geez, Oh Pete

Well, we're in Norman OK, and my mind is truly swarming. So many sights, sounds, wonderful people, great events, monster issue back issues and strange Americana history events.

What can you say about a tour that has gone from hunting gators in Gainesville FL, to standing in the spot Elvis stood when he was 10 getting his first guitar, to driving through Dealey Plaza past the school book depository?

As Jonathan Richman would say, 'whatta woild!'

Of course, the FILM is going well. I've filmed about 30 additional hours of events, interviews, and John P. driving around (he's driven all 6,000+ miles of this trip, so far, yet seemed confused when I called him 'tenacious').

I've learned so much about so much, and it's starting to come together in my brain -- the right story to tell, and how to tell it. Of course, NOW I'm going, 'I should have filmed THAT! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!', but I'm careful not to beat myself up.

So what now?

Drive back to Denver tomorrow, then do taxes and rest for a couple days, fly to DC, meet up with Crystal, try to do an interview with Ian MacKaye -- assuming our schedules can coincide -- then back to Chicago, where I need to set up and interview a couple more family/friend types, trek down to St. Louis to chat with Kevin H. (and check out Lincoln's house in Springfield), then back to Denver on May 1/2.

Then, I'm going to not think about John P., King Cat, video, film, soundtracks, or interviews for about 4-6 weeks. I'm going to re-settle into Kilgore, get a dog, hang out with my lady, plan a wedding, and enjoy the beginning of summer. Oh, and I have to start getting ready for kil GOREFEST '10.

Then, come mid-late summer, I'll start back up. I'll go through each tape, and boil down the material I want, and try to get it down around 8-10 hours. Then spend the winter running it down further and further until it's at a workable 90-120 minutes. John's talking about a summer tour of California, so I may try to figure out some of that too -- we'll see!

I'll keep updating this blog here, posting thoughts and murmers, and all input and feedback is welcome. Oh, and here's a neat-o reference to yours truly from the Austin Domy reading the other day.

Ask Us About Our Awesome

Hey folks! It's been a wild few days. We headed from Atlanta up to Marietta so John could check out Dr. No comics -- which reportedly had lots of back issues. Could there be monster comics, we thought? Well, not so much, but it turns out Marietta is ALSO the home of Top Shelf Productions -- the great folks who put out Jeffrey Brown, James Kochalka, Edie Campbell, Alan Moore, Matt Kindt, etc. etc.

We hung around with the very gracious Chris Staros, and chatted about all things comics, Hollywood, Elvis, and hair metal until about 2am. Got up the next day and trucked it on down the line -- Gainesville line, that is.

Gainesville is great. John had an event at the library last night (about 40+ people showed) and afterwards we went out to dinner with Travis -- the awesome librarian/skater/zinester who set the show up. Today's John's speaking at a couple schools -- were I didn't think I could film -- and tomorrow is the conference at the U of F.

Things are good --- I've shot an additional five or six hours of John P. stuff, have worked through a lot of the kinks of interviewing in the car, chatting, etc. & thankfully we're not sick of each other.

Ok, I need to get going -- got my day job to do, private travel journal to keep, postcards to send (hey crystal!) and such and such and such. My 'day off' from shooting is turning into the busiest day this week!

Pre-Tour Round Up

Odds are, as you read this, ole John P. is hurtling off through the Illinois wild on his way to Memphis. I'm hitting the road tomorrow with Crystal, headed to Nashville, where we'll meet up on Monday to officially launch the filmed part of the tour.

We're making stops all over the place, and this got me to thinking about one of the things I just love about John Porcellino. I grew up in a town of 900, and the closest city was Syracuse, NY (a teeming metropolis at 140,000). As a kid, my friends and I would drive up there for basically any show we could get our grubby little hands on, and I always loved the bands who'd play Syracuse (or Utica/Albany/Binghamton) because you knew they were really out there workin' it for the fans, which I appreciated.

And I still feel that way. It drives me crazy when bands play NY-Boston-DC-Chicago-Seattle-SF-LA. Or authors. As a comic shop owner in an admittedly tier two city (Denver), it drives me nuts that the 'big names' don't come out to our neck of the woods (or Albuquerque/Salt Lake/St. Louis/KC). Frankly, the kids in Brooklyn (God love 'em) don't need YET ANOTHER COOL THING TO DO. But the kids in Broomfield do.

And that's why I'm super excited to go to Norman OK, Houston TX, Gainesville FL, and Savannah GA on this tour with John 'keepin it real' Porcellino.

Couple other neat things before we hit the road --

Good write up on Chicago Zine Fest in the Chicago Huffington Post.

Another short write up on the documentary project in Monsters and Rockets (still referring to me as Daniel, which is bizarre and funny at the same time).

NY-based artist/musician/writer Summer Pierre has an interview coming out on Monday with John P., with a little teaser bit here. And, there's a contest!

Lastly, it turns out our Houston event is the same night as the first game of the NCAA Final Four. How funny is that?

Ok team -- interviewing Anne Elizabeth Moore this am, and then getting some work/sleep.

The hidden buddhas

So many updates! First off, John's in Chicago, which is really great. It's lovely to see him, and getting to spend loads of time with him is giving me a lot of much needed insight into his brain, character, and life.

We did the Chicago Comics Symposium, and then the Chicago Zinefest -- where a super sweet guy mistook me for John, told me he was a huge fan and totally made my day. We sold a crap load of comics, and I got some GREAT footage of John P. in action - wheelin' & dealin', stealin' hearts and crackin' skulls. Well, sort of.

Took the day off on Sunday to run 10 kilometers (a first) in honor of my birthday which is today (bizarrely the same as John's dad). Yesterday was a FEST of interviews and talking to really neat people, and hearing great stories. I drove out to Dekalb, where John went to college, and met up with him. He took me on a tour of the city/town, including the old house where he and his buddies would host keggers and play music.

Then the fun began. We drove to Fred H.'s house for an interview. Fred grew up with John, turned him on to R.E.M., shared a love of comics and mischief making. I haven't transferred the tape, but the funniest story was them submitting a copy of The Replacements 'Hootenanny' as their 'demo tape' to the battle of the homecoming bands committee, and won a slot on the bill.

Fred's a really great guy who teaches high school, focusing on media and literature. He's that really cool teacher you had who helped, probably without knowing it, and it was great to meet him and his family.

Then we trucked it over to Al Stark's house. Al does drop dead beautiful block printing, and makes kites that are both beautiful AND functional. Al was the nicest, most unassuming guy, and after years of reading his letter to King Cat, I was nervous to chat with him. But he was gracious and friendly, and offered up stories and memories for the project. I highly recommend you truck it over to his site to check out his work.

Then, with precious little battery power, we headed to the woods to look up Frank Kurtz, the guy who owned the first shop to sell King Cat, and who John credits for getting him to actually think about doing KC as more than a hobby.

Frank was great. He won an Eisner award, fer crissakes, and the three of us just had a blast shooting the bull about all things comics for a good hour or more. The thing that kicked ass about Frank was his attitude towards making things -- he said that people would come into his shop and say, 'I've got this great idea for a Superman story', and he'd tell them, 'don't just talk about your idea, go do it, make it someone beside Superman so you can use the character, and then come see me'.

It was great to see John just enjoying sitting back to gab about dinosaur comics or whatever else came up. We left late and tired, but happy to have made the trip.

For the film, one of the best aspects of the day though, was just getting comfortable with John in the car. On this tour, we're going to be doing a lot of driving together, so good if we're able to feel really comfortable and open around each other.

On the tech side, I realize I've got about three hours of battery life, which means I need to either get more batteries, or find a car adapter.

We'll see!

I'll try to keep posting, but I've got a crazy busy week, and then it's off to Tennessee this weekend, so.......who knows. Cheers.

Not a high falutin' art form

I was chatting with Noah yesterday, and he was bugging me to put up a clip from the Jeffrey Brown interview from a week or so ago, so here it is. One of the interesting things to me is the sheer volume of great cartooning happening in Chicago -- which I'm sure will bowl me over more thoroughly when I go to zinefest this weekend.

So I've started asking Chicago folks, 'what the hell IS it about Chicago'. This is Jeff's answer. I want to add that I have a really funny clip from this interview, but I'm saving it for the 'outtakes' reel.

In other news, I've been working to set up the interview with Anne Elizabeth Moore. In anticipation of the interview I went out and picked up her book 'Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity' which I'm working through, and enjoying. You can pick up a copy at your local bookstore.

John -- I believe -- is in Chicago today. Tonight is the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) comics symposium, and afterwards we're interviewing a couple of his old friends. Should be good! By the way, I'm going to suggest that in future, when doing a symposium, it be marketed as 'putting the simp back in symposium'. Funny, no?

I won't lie, the last couple days have been really tough, anxiety wise, as I get ready for this trip with John, everything seems to be sort of backing up behind me. Despite working for fifteen years as a community organizer for progressive and lefty causes, I truly fear change, and the bottom line is, I really hate the idea of being away from Crystal for two weeks. But it'll be fun. I swear.

I took my camera in to get a good once over, and realized he needs a name. I'm going with 'Buddy' for a few reasons.

A) Buddy Glass was the fictional chronicler of the Glass family. He documented the scene, as it were. Also, his older brother was Seymour, who our car is named after.

B) Buddy Holly. Just, well, Buddy Holly.

C) When I don't know someone's name, but I know the person (that is, I've forgotten their name, awkwardly), I call them 'Buddy', as in 'Hey Budddy, great to see you!' etc. etc.

D) Ole Jerry David passed away this year, and I was saddened by the number of people who said, 'he was alive?!?'

Ok, that's it. Enjoy the clip. I'm going to try to get a good Laura Mars clip up before I go, but I'm not promisin' anything!

I'm talking too much, perhaps

Just sat watching a bunch of the Jeffrey Brown interview, and god DAMN I talk a lot. I need to get better at shutting the f' up, and letting people talk. I think I'm getting better at it, but still.... it gets tiring hearing my own damn voice yammering along.

I had a great time with Laura Mars, who played with John in a bunch of early bands, and got loads and loads of sweet memorabilia -- posters, flyers, demo tapes etc. etc. The most exciting piece is the video her dad made of T.A.C. playing at 'A Taste of Hoffman Estates' during July 4th weekend, 1989.

Weirdly, July 3rd was the day I saw The Sugarcubes, P.I.L. and New Order in upstate NY at the Darien Lake amusement park. Also, July 5th, Seinfeld premiered. Such big events......

I'm not posting clips of that show as Laura was interested in putting some of it up on YouTube, and frankly, I want to save the better stuff for the film.

In other news, John P. is on the road, headed for Chicago, and we've set up a busy busy busy filming schedule here in Chicago, and then once on the road will just sort of film non stop. Likely the updates will get further and fewer between -- unlike John I'm not posting a month's worth of updates in advance.

I think that's it for now. If you're in Chicago, come on out for Zine Fest at Quimby's this weekend!

When I said 'no', I meant it

It's a gorgeous day here in Chicago Illinois, or so it would seem. Yesterday I was able to re-log a bunch of tapes, and log in tapes of the Jeffrey Brown and Joe Chiappetta interviews. Got 'em looking really good.

We went to the Art Institute on Sunday, as it was the last free day (they had the whole month of February free, and I discovered that fact on the 26th). As I walked around, doing my best Cameron in front of that Seurat painting used in Ferris Bueller, I naturally started thinking about the artists in the museum and the ones I've been chatting with, and obviously, John Porcellino.

I know others have spoken far more eloquently to this point than I could hope to, but it makes me want to pull my hair out when I think of how different forms of art are viewed within society, and in particular how comics/cartoons are viewed as a lesser form of art when compared to basically anything else. I'm not even talking about Caravaggio here!

My 'definition' of art, as it were, is that it is the by-product of how a person grapples with the unanswerable questions in life, primarily, 'what the heck are we doing here?' and 'what happens after we die?'

They ask the question, and the 'answer' they came up with is their 'art product'. It can be pretty, funny, ugly, profound, sad, shallow, deep, or pretty much anything else.

It's how a person relates to the world around them, both physically and emotionally. I confess, I'm sort of one of those people who views a crumpled up straw wrapper on a restaurant table as 'art' in some ways.

(As I write this, I'm vaguely wondering if John P. is going 'Uh-oh, I'm going on the road with this hippie?!?')

I think the benefit art gives to society is in how it helps other people define THEIR place in the world, and ask they questions THEY need to ask.

I do believe that's why......

a) There's a lot of really bad art. If anyone can do it, and it's sort of everywhere, well then the quality is going to -- on regular occasions -- be not so great.

b) Art is subjective. This gets into the positives and negatives of art criticism (which I'd like to avoid here) , but it's hard to deny the old adage, 'one person's trash is another's treasure'.

c) It's important to have some amount of technical skill, and it's ok to judge art. Just because everyone can do it, doesn't mean that it's all speaking to you. Just because it's good for the person to DO it, doesn't mean it's good for everyone to experience it. A little practice makes everything better.

Anyway, my point here is that I think it's FANTASTIC that the 'art world' has embraced certain kinds of outsider art -- graffiti, mural work, guerilla political stuff, and so on. But doesn't it make sense they'd have a little love for comics?

I looked at the comic up top, and then one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings, and the only real difference was the nagging voice in my mind that people would go, "You're comparing John to VAN GOGH!?!? Give me a BREAK!"

But that's only because VVG has a rep. Forget about that. Look at the two pieces -- free of fame/value baggage -- and you'll see (I think) some of the same tensions, some of the same phrasings, and well, maybe agree that they could be in the same room.

I mean, assuming John would color his in.

I have a lot more thoughts on this, but do need to do things today like my day job, pay bills, go for a run, do the dishes, etc. etc. etc. BUT my whole (original) point is that while the AIC doesn't have comic art, they do have a very very respectable comic selection in one of their shops. And --- surprise surprise -- John P. and Noah Van Sciver are in it!

That's right, nestled in among all the other hip indie cartoonists were two copies of our very own John P.'s King Cat Classix. Way to go John!

Then I started thumbing through a copy of 'The Comics Journal' and thought, 'well surely Noah's in this one', and sure enough -- it's the one with the John P. interview, which is kind of amazing.

Not bad for a couple of self publishers! Good work, boys.

Oh, in film news, I've relaxed A BUNCH. I think I was getting super antsy/stressed thinking, 'holy shit, people KNOW I'm doing this, I gotta get it done!' But, if it's going to be good, I've got to take the time to make it good. So, well, there. I'm giving myself a year to get it finished, and if it needs longer, it'll let me know, and I'll let y'all know.

The John P. clip, BTW, comes from a great site called What Things Do, which I strongly recommend.

PS -- Let me add a PS here, because that voice is nagging pretty strongly. I'm not trying to be melodramatic, saying, 'oh he's like van gogh', I'm really not. I'm wanting to point out that Van Gogh's work -- while amazing -- is wildly exaggerated (largely because of the costs of it), and when taken at face value, there are a good number of legitimate comparisons, and that the bottom line is good art speaks to you. These guys both speak to me, and in surprisingly similar ways -- not the least of which being their (accidental) vows of poverty.

Some good things coming to a head soonly

First of all, my apologies. I had hoped to have a clip up today of Joe C. plugging his new endeavor -- a science fiction novel he wrote -- which is pretty sweet. It's coming out this summer, it's $10, and from what I can tell it seems pretty good. I'll be reading the whole thing and posting some thoughts up here (along with the previously promised clip of him talking about it.

In the meantime you can jump on over to http://joechiappetta.blogspot.com/ for more info on that project, and his comic 'Silly Daddy'.

I think I'm going to officially jump down to two posts a week -- primarily because the idea/thought of updating this blog daily, or even semi daily, is both making me antsy, but also because the whole project is just slow going, and will be, until I'm done.

Things I'm working on this week.

-- interview with Laura Mars -- super psyched about this one!

-- logging and capturing Jeffrey Brown and Joe C. interviews (many misfires on technology this weekend, sadly)

-- doing master interview schedule

-- amping up for 2 weeks on the road with John P. to commence in three weeks -- logistics, yadda yadda yadda

Think that's it.

Sailing takes me away

Right? I mean, who doesn't love Christopher Cross? Ok, quick update and some thoughts. The first is, I completed my interview with Jeffrey Brown and it was really good. Jeff's a super nice guy, who really works his butt off and believes in his work. I did a second interview with Joe Chiappetta, and that was ALSO great. Joe's a super nice guy who's been doing comics as long as John P. (they were old college buddies).

One of the big things that has been circling my brain, vis-a-vis this whole project, is the notion of quality. All of the cartoonists I've been talking to are really focused on putting out the highest quality work. I know this seems to be a no brainer, but if you consider that we're talking about zines and/or minicomics -- a field where someone can draw, copy, and staple an issue in a day if so inclined -- then quality really does matter.

Not to mention that we're talking about a small small market. I'm really starting to think I need to talk to some of the business insiders. Obviously, the Drawn and Quarterly folks who put out John's books (hopefully going to rock a Montreal trip this summer), but also would be good to meet with some folks from bigger publishing houses.

I got some good feedback on directions for the film/villains/etc. both from emails and comments. All of it's super helpful. One of the neat parts of this whole thing is sort of unwinding the story I'm going to tell about John P. and King Cat, and which corners we'll duck down and which we'll walk by. So keep the suggestions coming! Click on the profile section to contact me.

We (Crystal and I) are in Michigan right now, taking a short break for a Casiotone show, and headed back to Chicago today, where I'll have more time to do some editing/transferring of tapes, and I'll have some neat Jeffrey Brown and Joe C. clips to put up by Monday.

There's a Lot on the Plate

Was a productive weekend, with a lot of time spent learning how to utilize Final Cut Pro. Ultimately, the best part of the weekend was just the realization that this whole project CAN be done, and I can do it, though it will take some time. As with anything good, it's a learning process.

Beyond that, I'm getting some interview set up with Laura Mars & Don Ogilvie, two folks that used to play in bands with John. I'm really excited about getting into that stuff a little more, as I want this project to really reach out beyond King Cat.

My interview with Jeffrey Brown has been pushed back to Thursday of THIS week, which I'm still pretty excited about. Beyond that I need to do some more work with Joe Chiappetta, which I'm hoping to set up today.

In the 'big news' category, I sent off a request to Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang of Damon & Naomi and Galaxie 500, and requested the use of both D/N and G500 songs in the project. I got a lovely note back from Damon saying it sounded like a good project, he was excited about it, and would be happy to have D/N music in there, and pointed out that G500 stuff might be too expensive (when I explained our shockingly limited budget).

I was really psyched on that tidbit. Today, I'm going after some of the other big guns -- Husker Du, Flipper, Minor Threat/Fugazi, and Yo La Tengo. As I've (I think) said before, the goal is to have music that a) was in some way influential to John/King Cat but also b) music that is in keeping with the independent spirit of the zine/minicomic scene. For instance, the Husker Du stuff I'm going to be asking about will I think, be the pre-Warner's stuff they put out on SST.

I am getting very excited for the trip. This film needs motion -- right now it's a bunch of 40 year old dudes sitting around going, 'yah, John P rules' which, while I agree with the sentiment, can't be the WHOLE movie, or well, we'll be the only ones who watch it. I also need to get some WOMEN in the project.

So far I've asked seven women to participate, and sadly four have turned me down -- all saying it was a good project, but no time/dislike of cameras/etc. etc. It's an interesting thing because a subtlety of this project would be to show the egalitarian-nesss of whole minicomic/zine community, but, well, so far it's more white and male than Congress.

As for my 'need for a villian' there's a good comment about using John's illness -- which is basically the plan at this point. We'll see!

What else? I believe that's it. In terms of 'other projects', Kilgore Books and Comics is still working to figure out entering the publishing world by putting out Blammo # 5 by Noah Van Sciver, and I've started putting together issue two of the KBC zine. After getting some rather... intense... feedback from a comic master, I really want to make sure that one comes out right.

I know that this is a blog about the making of Root Hog, but that other stuff will slip in occasionally -- hope y'all don't mind.

As for clips -- I spent the weekend working on actually putting various clips together, and as I MAY end up using some of them for the opening and closing credits, I don't want to spill too much by posting them here. Once I get some more 'b-roll' or throwaway footage, I'll put it up.

People have said they're (again) unable to load the clips, which is frustrating, so I may upload them to YouTube and then embed them here -- assuming I find the time somewhere.

Oh, yah, the other big thing I've been working on is hand lettering the credit sequences. Duh. To the left is the first one, penciled.

Below is the copy of the NY'er I ever so fanboyishly asked Chris Ware to sign for me at Francoise's talk last week:

I do believe that's it for now folks. More to come over the next couple of days.

Casting Call: Need a Bad Guy

No clip today sorry gang. I did get to attend the Francoise Mouly talk at CCC last night, and it was pretty cool to sit two rows behind Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti. I wanted to post a couple interesting thoughts.

A. Ms. Mouly talked quite a bit about 'making objects' and how the intention with RAW was to have an OBJECT vs. the Crumb ethic of 'print a million shitty copies and get 'em into people's hands'. What's interesting to me vis-a-vis King Cat is how John makes beautiful objects that actually ARE disposable. I've always liked that in his self published comics, he foregoes printing histories.

B. Chris Ware likes to cuss. I heard him say 'shit' 'douche' and 'fuck'. Pretty funny. I introduced myself to him, and said, 'yeah I'm the guy doing the John P. doc who's been harassing you'. He was friendly and polite about it, though I doubt I'll be getting an email from him any time soon inviting me out to the Acme HQ.

C. When I chatted with Francoise, I mentioned John P. and the documentary and she was at least familiar with it, which is a good start. We'll see where it goes.

In other news, I've started worrying that I don't have enough of a villain/conflict. What I mean is, John's a good person who makes great comics. Sure, there's some weird stuff about him, but as he himself will point out, he's not a scumbag.

Remember Crumb (movie, not guy)? There were people talking about what a supreme jerk Crumb is. Then you meet his family and go, 'well, he's not assaulting women on the street, sooooo....'.

At the same time, that's a bit of my point. Here's a guy making honest, accessible, beautiful art, yet who is known to a couple thousand people.

Anyway, that's enough of that for now. Hopefully going to do some good editing this weekend --- therefore not likely to post til Monday, but hopefully then with something interesting. We'll see.

In the mean time, I picked up Zak's 'Like a Dog' from Fantagraphics. It's great.

Changing Notions of Quality

Things keep moving along, that's for sure. Heard back from Francoise Mouly's assistant who said she won't have time for an interview while in Chicago. Not exactly surprising, but a bit of a bummer. It is interesting to start to see (and feel) the different stratification within the cartooning world. There's the populists, the socialists, the brahmans, and on and on.

I've finished importing all the interviews, which is good. It will be exciting to really get a chance to start playing around with editing John P. clips with interviewee's thoughts and so on, though it might have to wait until this weekend or Monday to really get into it.

The interview with Jeffrey Brown got bumped into next week again -- not surprising, as he really is one of the hardest working guys in the field with non-stop projects. Add to that a sick kid, and it's a recipe for interview postponement. He's always been super friendly and nice though, so I do look forward to sitting down with him.

In the 'wicked exciting news' category, I went to the bookstore yesterday to get some postcards to send to people who've done interviews so far, and guess who works there? Lilli Carre! Yah, it was a really great, funny, and slightly awkward meeting (awkward on my part because at first I didn't recognize her name). I told her about the film project, and she seemed excited, so I was going to go back today and see if she'd do an interview.

Lastly, today's clip is Ivan Brunetti talking a little bit about obscurity/popularity and the great equalizer of the internets. I've mostly been posting funny little outtakes, but this was a thought provoking piece of commentary, and I thought good to include it too so people don't just think I'm doing a comedy here.

In the 'funny news' category, this clip also marks Chris Ware's appearance in the film. Sort of. Chris, as you can imagine, has a tremendously busy schedule, and isn't available for an interview while I'm in Chicago. (ed. note -- I have the impression he has become -- whether he wants it or not -- the national poster boy for independent cartooning for folks not super into comics.As such, I'm sure he's deluged with requests every day, and I can certainly understand not being able to take each and every one on.)

But, he and Ivan are friends, and you'll see on the wall behind Ivan the original artwork for one of Mr. Ware's Rusty Brown strips. I should add, Ivan's office was really a dream for nerds like me. Julie Doucet drawing, Archer Pruitt s/n poster, not to mention scads of his own random doodles on loose pages across his desk. Anyway, enough with the fanboy crap, on to the clip: