Coming back...
Hey there ole faithful LJ, I'm back. Sorry for being gone so long. It's a new year and lately I've realized that, though i have other outlets online, it is nice to come back to this little corner of the web, LJ, where I can put down my thoughts and not have to curate and promote myself so much.
The year is just a week old and I'm still not sure what I want to do this year. I have so many ideas but none of them really cry out to be immersed in (i.e. like my solo show CHOP was in 2010). I just finished a play for a small theatre company in Denton which they'll put on in April. Lots of ideas for new stage works, just no motivation to create them.
I've been drawing a lot. I'm starting to fall into the mini-comics/zine community via blogs and such online. I want to take my own comics to a comic con someday and sell them and talk with other comic creators and all that, but I'm held back by that neewbie feeling I always get when I get into something new. I always have this vague collection of thoughts in the back of my head that say stuff like "You don't belong here... you're just crashing a party you weren't invited to..." I had this about the theatre community for a long time, the improv community, solo performance, teaching, Aikido, etc. I guess the thing is, I like the activity a lot and it is often just incidental that I also become part of and like the community that surrounds that activity. I'm not the sort that has to have groups to belong to. Maybe I'm actually the opposite, destructively so in some cases (i.e. willfully super-isolated).
I am signed up for the STAPLE! Expo in March in Austin. That deadline means I'll need to things to sell at my booth. I've already made a batch of RASPBERRY FIZZ chapbook-style scripts (I'll do an ebook version of that play through an online publisher soon). I'll also have I HATE HAWK SEASON! and my collection of early plays, but I'm aiming to put together a comic. I have a good idea already involving a lost robot and a sea captain. It will be a sort of warm-up project for a longer, more ambitious graphic novel I've started writing which will be 2014's big project. I'm just not ready for it yet.
I am frustrated with my drawing skills. When I stopped drawing in high school I figured I could pick it up again where I left off, but it is not really like riding a bike. I'm finding I have to practice a lot to even get close to where I used to be.
On the upside, I have been reading a lot of indie comics by a slew of contemporary folks. Not just the big guns like Kate Beaton, John Porcellino and Chester Brown, but not-so-famous types like Liz Prince and Ramsey Beyer and Lars Martinson. The big lesson I've observed is that NO ONE draws really well. No one is such an excellent draftsman. No one is the new Rembrandt. that said, each of the folks listed above has an individual style and aesthetic. So, just like I have worked hard to discover in my playwriting over the past few years, I now have to start at ground zero to uncover my own "voice" as a cartoonist.
I'll just have to see what 2013 holds. I recorded a Bike Soccer Jamboree podcast with Hernandez the other day (it will be episode #10) and we discussed our resolutions for the new year. I've kept mine vague since I still haven't formulated any concrete goals...
1.) Be a Better Man
2.) Rock Harder
3.) Produce More
Upon looking at these here, I think they are awesome resolutions. They encompass so much. At this point I'll just let the time unfold organically, without trying to impose too much. Eat when I hungry, sleep when I'm tired approach.
The year is just a week old and I'm still not sure what I want to do this year. I have so many ideas but none of them really cry out to be immersed in (i.e. like my solo show CHOP was in 2010). I just finished a play for a small theatre company in Denton which they'll put on in April. Lots of ideas for new stage works, just no motivation to create them.
I've been drawing a lot. I'm starting to fall into the mini-comics/zine community via blogs and such online. I want to take my own comics to a comic con someday and sell them and talk with other comic creators and all that, but I'm held back by that neewbie feeling I always get when I get into something new. I always have this vague collection of thoughts in the back of my head that say stuff like "You don't belong here... you're just crashing a party you weren't invited to..." I had this about the theatre community for a long time, the improv community, solo performance, teaching, Aikido, etc. I guess the thing is, I like the activity a lot and it is often just incidental that I also become part of and like the community that surrounds that activity. I'm not the sort that has to have groups to belong to. Maybe I'm actually the opposite, destructively so in some cases (i.e. willfully super-isolated).
I am signed up for the STAPLE! Expo in March in Austin. That deadline means I'll need to things to sell at my booth. I've already made a batch of RASPBERRY FIZZ chapbook-style scripts (I'll do an ebook version of that play through an online publisher soon). I'll also have I HATE HAWK SEASON! and my collection of early plays, but I'm aiming to put together a comic. I have a good idea already involving a lost robot and a sea captain. It will be a sort of warm-up project for a longer, more ambitious graphic novel I've started writing which will be 2014's big project. I'm just not ready for it yet.
I am frustrated with my drawing skills. When I stopped drawing in high school I figured I could pick it up again where I left off, but it is not really like riding a bike. I'm finding I have to practice a lot to even get close to where I used to be.
On the upside, I have been reading a lot of indie comics by a slew of contemporary folks. Not just the big guns like Kate Beaton, John Porcellino and Chester Brown, but not-so-famous types like Liz Prince and Ramsey Beyer and Lars Martinson. The big lesson I've observed is that NO ONE draws really well. No one is such an excellent draftsman. No one is the new Rembrandt. that said, each of the folks listed above has an individual style and aesthetic. So, just like I have worked hard to discover in my playwriting over the past few years, I now have to start at ground zero to uncover my own "voice" as a cartoonist.
I'll just have to see what 2013 holds. I recorded a Bike Soccer Jamboree podcast with Hernandez the other day (it will be episode #10) and we discussed our resolutions for the new year. I've kept mine vague since I still haven't formulated any concrete goals...
1.) Be a Better Man
2.) Rock Harder
3.) Produce More
Upon looking at these here, I think they are awesome resolutions. They encompass so much. At this point I'll just let the time unfold organically, without trying to impose too much. Eat when I hungry, sleep when I'm tired approach.