A Song Without a Home

I've been working pretty good on the discography. The 'Ditch Trilogy', as it's called -- (Time Fades Away, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night) are pretty intense, so I've let myself drift up to Zuma a little. Not that Cortez the Killer is a 'light' number, but it takes the edge of the previous three off.

I'll do a longer write up in a few days, but I wanted to share this song. It's called 'Journey through the Past'. It didn't show up on the album or in the film of the same name, but rather on 'Time Fades Away', the live album Neil put out but really didn't like. I don't disagree with him -- Time Fades Away is pretty disjointed, not that inviting and all-in-all a difficult record to get into, BUT every time I've played it, this sad gem has jumped out at me.

Discography

Working my way through the Neil Young discography. I've got the 48 albums he put out between 1968 and 2007 (when I finish I'll pick up the ones that have come out since 2007). One goal in 2014 is to give each album 10-15 listens and get a sense of what he's going for, artistically. I'm going to go, roughly chronologically.

I've been very familiar with Harvest, Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, Rust Never Sleeps, On the Beach, and Decade for many many years.  Given how much I love those albums, I've actually been pretty antsy to give too much else a listen, which is shitty of me. Also, I keep hearing about Tonight's the Night, Zuma and a few other 'classics' which are missing from my vocabulary. So, I'm going to rectify this.

I really respect Neil Young as an artist, and so want to give him his due.

I'm kicking off with:
Neil Young (1968)
Everybody Knows this is Nowhere (1969)
After the Gold Rush (1970)
Harvest (1972)
Journey Through the Past (1972) -- soundtrack to film of the same name, directed by NY, never released on CD
Time Fades Away (1973) -- first live album, never released on CD
On the Beach (1974)
Tonight's the Night (1975 - recorded 1973)

So far, I can say the following:
-- his first solo album is much better than I ever would have guessed -- not sure why
-- I've always disliked the tunes on Harvest with the London Symphony -- that hasn't changed
-- Journey Through the Past has a couple INCREDIBLE live cuts from a CSNY show in 1970. Southern Man and Ohio are frightening in their intensity.
-- Tonight's the Night is as good, if not better, than everyone has always said -- why did I wait this long to get into it?!?

If I created eight objects like these eight albums in just six years, well, I'd be pretty amazed with myself. Really excited about this project.

Time to make the donuts

Not a lot of updates -- have been working a lot the last couple weeks, but here it is, 5:32am on a Sunday and I'm gonna get cracking' on the film a bit more. Slowly but surely, I'll get there.

In the meantime, I've completely re-fallen in love with The Who. When I was a kid, they were one of my all time faves. I remember watching a documentary on them, then practicing the windmill and promptly breaking the light fixture in our low ceilinged living room. In 1989, my brothers came home from a road trip and said they almost bought me tickets to see them in Glens Falls but didn't. I was fourteen and I'm not sure if I've forgiven them yet for passing up the ticket line…..

Anyway, go here to check out their 1970 set at the Isle of Wight festival. So ridiculously good. It's not Leeds, but damn, it's incredible. Tthese four guys were something amazing and special. I saw an interview with Townshend where he talked about how they all viewed their instruments as means of releasing their aggression and rage.

It really seems they put every ounce into every show, which is what I love about 'em. Anyway, back to editing.

Support SAW

The Sequential Artist Workshop is doing their 2014 fundraising drive right now, and you should help 'em out. SAW is a pretty great institution down in Gainesville, FL which helps further comics in great ways. Classes, visiting artists, workshops, etc. These folks are on the ground getting their hands dirty, and are true angels.

While I may have mixed feelings about the term 'sequential art', and  some mixed feelings about comics 'classes', the folks at SAW are legit. And let's face it, donating to folks trying to make things and teaching folks how to make things is a better use of your money than any of the other 500 ways you'll piss it away today.

So, head over to the SAW funding campaign via Indiegogo. They're trying to raise a mere $7000 and have some nice giveaways as thank you's. They're at $4500 with two weeks to go, so, go ahead, make it happen.

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.