WHY I OWN GUNS
DISPATCH FROM THE PUMPKIN SHOW
You are in search of pumpkins. In the cold October rain, you head out of Mordor south on 71, the trail of tears and construction. Southern Ohio greets you with water towers, trailer parks, and Adult! Video signs. You pick up old friends, and head for the show.
The clouds part for the smell of fried food. You eat pork tenderloins. You eat breaded cheese on a stick. You go thirds on a blooming onion, but insist on your own piece of pumpkin pie.
You run into people you thought you’d never see again. You ask them what they’ve been up to.
“Just workin’,” they say. “Just workin’.”
You live in a city with many immigrants. A man sells t-shirts that read, WELCOME TO AMERICA, NOW SPEAK ENGLISH!
Your protest is a chuckle.
A woman in a scarf buys a Fried Twinkie. She shares it with a man wearing assless leather chaps and white tennis shoes. You are too busy gawking to notice the carnies are heckling your girlfriend.
Who are these people? you think. What is this place?
NEWSPAPER BLACKOUT POEMS
TEACH YOURSELF TO DRAW
Scribbling in the notebook lately has felt a lot like curling up on Grandma’s kitchen floor with butcher paper and crayons: endless possibilities with limited tools. But, I’m schooling myself. Check out this treasure trove of comics syllabi and drawing lessons, including a great step-by-step how-to by Tom Hart of Hutch Owens fame. I’ve also been printing a few lessons out from The Scientific Artist, a great drawing and design blog run by a guy named Paul Rivoche.
Of course, no education is complete without the work of other artists. Somebody whose work lit a fire under my pants recently: R. Kikuo Johnson. NIGHT FISHER, his new graphic novel, is coming out from Fantagraphics Books and it looks amazing (excerpt above). And the Drawn!, Fantagraphics, and Scott McCloud blogs are all great for checking out new artists, too.
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