Friends

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

 Are things gonna get better? What does the future hold? I wish I was the master of my own destiny. I should be a go-getter! I just have to forge ahead. My mind is a mixed mess right now.



There isn't gonna be a NEXT TIME   You dumb, cocksucker, you blew it!!

I told you a long time ago, you fucking little monkey, not to fuck me!

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

Writing the comic is the most important part of its creation. Whether your write an elaborate script like Alan Moore or whether you write-draw (create the story through pictures) as Chris Ware does, the comic is a form of storytelling, so the story is of prime importance.


I do not know how to write.

That's more of a shock header than anything else. I actually believe that I am fairly capable of expressing my thoughts and feelings with words (ie, writing), but the strange thing is that I have more trouble than anybody with writing a comic!

So I am going to break this mule and fix this problem for myself starting now, no matter what!



So let's get down to this thing, shall we?

I subscribe to the belief or philosophy or what-have-you that a story's essence is its ending. I often say "a story IS its ending." The ending is where the author reveals the end results of the rising action and also where the author reveals his or her themes or thesis. This can be as obvious as a speech given by a character stating a moral or it can be subtle, as the thesis' intended truth is revealed by the example of the conclusion of the action.

I apologize for that last sentence, it is a bit awkward. Let me continue:


If the story's thesis, purpose and life is in its ending, then what is the preceding content for? Well, it seems to me that everything before the ending is the author discovering his or her conclusions. If not, it is the author allowing the reader to discover those conclusions. Either way, the bulk of the story consists of examples that support the author's final thesis.


Okay, so the story's purpose is in its ending, the body is the supporting argument, so...

The FUN part for the audience is the beginning and middle of the story where ideas are tried out and explored. The IMPORTANT part for the writer is the ending where the author presents his or her final ideas on the given subject.

All of my life, I've been a reader. In other words, I have the mentality of the "audience." I often joke with my friends that I have more first pages than anybody in comics. I feel I understand, almost reflexively how to begin talking. These First Pages aren't made with an ending in mind and therefore, turn into ghost projects.

So it seems that the only reasonable thing to do is sit and think about what it is that I actually want to tell people and then work my way backwards from there.





This is probably so glaringly obvious to most of you that you're considering deleting me from your friends list. I understand. I have even been told this much about writing, but for some reason, nothing is ever really learned until I am allowed to discover it myself.


Last week...

I was walking to my favorite brunch restaurant last Sunday when I peeked into a diner window and I saw this old couple eating. For some reason, they reminded me of the characters at the end of a hilarious buddy-cop movie where the improbable partners have earned one another's respect and they are laughing about the ways in which their personality differences contributed to solving the case. I smiled and wondered what the beginning of that story would have been like. That's about when all of this hit me.


anyANYway, it's the year 2010, you can say what you want...

I did a couple of warm-up doodles yesterday, but this one's the first finished drawing of 2010...




Re-thinking that character Zoe from "Taco Town." Link to the comic.


Not planning on doing anything with her anytime soon, but who knows what'll happen? Not me, I just started learning to write!


Thank you for reading, always

Happy New Year,

Darryl Ayo

 That means I'll never give up the love that's good to me

Did this drawing to illustrate an article for the upcoming Cinema Sewer that Andy Copp wrote about the early history of video mixtapes. It's a pretty rad 5 page piece, filled with drawings like this and Andy's excellent writing. For the illos I wuz trying to capture something of the "wild west" energy of the early 90s video mixtape trading scene, even though it was clearly populated by lonely movie nerd virgins living in their parents basements -- with only two vcrs to use as equipment on which to create their 'masterpieces'.

Keep in mind that this was back before you could readily find cool girls that were into horror movies and porn. In that respect, the internet seems to have really opened up that basement window for my people, and led them to the promised land.

Speaking of the early 90s mixtape generation of genre film fans, I'm sad to report that Chas. Balun died recently. Stephen Bissette mentioned it on his blog here:
http://srbissette.com/?p=7616
And with Charlie Sheen in the news as of late, it's worth mentioning his infamous connection to Chas.

Bissette writes:
"Yes, it’s true that Chas. was ratted out to the FBI in a chain of events that began with idiot Charlie Sheen calling the authorities when he was grossed out screening a video boot of Hideshi Hino’s notorious Japanese Guinea Pig faux-’snuff’ film Za ginipiggu 2: Chiniku no hana / Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985); being an old hippie, Chas was outraged (and it was Chris Gore, Film Threat founder and cine ‘bad boy’, who narced!), and according to Chas one of the first things he said to the agents at his door was, “Did any one of you watch the end of the fucking video?” Jesus H. Christ, the ‘Making of’ short was right there, showing how the special effects illusions were fabricated. D’oh!"

Charlie Sheen is such a fucking weenie. Honestly.

Hey local perverts. Ever wonder what happened to the wooden sandwich board in front of Books Unlimited? I found it last night on the wall in a Mount Pleasant loft while I was drinking a ceasar. It's new owner, Robin K. discovered it in an alley next to a garbage can and a sleeping homeless man, and rescued it. I was pleased to see it again, hence my winky-drunk eye.

Yes, that is two little yellow people having cowgirl-position sex in my drink.

2009 - my comics year in review

January - 2009 got off to a hectic start. I was penciling / inking THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAVIOR 28 #1, my 5-issue series with J.M. DeMatteis through IDW Publishing, wrapping up penciling / inking / lettering / coloring FOILED, a 160-page graphic novel with Jane Yolen for First Second Books, starting a series of covers for BOOM! Studios’ TOY STORY comics, and penciling / inking / lettering / coloring a 10-page Flash Gorden Story for Ardenn Entertainment, written by the legendary Denny O’Neil. Ooof. Everything got done.
The PARADE (WITH FIREWORKS) trade paperback was released from Shadowline/Image Comics with spot-on, perfect book design by Scott Friedlander.
Review: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/70710-parade-with-fireworks/


February - Hit the New York Comic Con, and had the pleasure of signing copies of the 75th Anniversary Hardcover FLASH GORDON anthology by Ardden Entertainment with EIC (and S28 co-conspirator J.M. DeMatteis). Also, overseeing the color on a 4-issue HERCULES mini series for Marvel Comics.

March - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAVIOR 28 begins its five-month run. I can’t say enough about how great working with J.M.D. was. Thanks to all the folks who contributed their talents to make this project special, including: Joe Sinnott, Sal Buscema, Kevin Maguire, Shawn McManus, Mike Ploog, Don Perlin, Dean Haspiel, Simon Fraser, Michel Fiffe, and Tim Hamilton. It’s gratifying now to see the series make CBR’s “Top 100 comics of 2009” list, and win a “gold” in a similar year-end roundup at Newsarama.

April - Tom and Amy Adams at Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn host an ACT-I-VATE art exhibit / slideshow during Free Comic Book Day; a great turnout and a resounding success by all accounts.

May - S28 #2 hits the streets. Meanwhile, long hours at Deep 6 penciling and inking a monthly book.

June - The MOCCA Arts Festival arrives, and ACT-I-VATE is there with its first-ever official convention appearance, offering a surprise peek at the ACT-I-VATE PRIMER, a 160-page hardcover anthology of never-before-seen stories by members of the collective. My second BEN 10 ALIEN FORCE comic comes out in DC’s CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #38.


July - Dear July, I hardly knew ya. I taught an “Intro to Comic Book Art” class for kids a few years ago. At one point, a 10-year-old asked, “Mike, how come I have to spend so long drawing a page that someone will read in a minute?” I couldn’t answer that then, and I still can’t. I spent July mostly at the desk I’ve owned since my first year at the Joe Kubert School … in 1988 … working on various projects.

August - I helped organize Liz Baillie’s “Sing Along Forever” reading / signing at Bergen Street Comics, with a special acoustic set by The Bouncing Souls. Work, work, work.

September - The final issue of SAVIOR 28 drops. J.M.D. knocked it out of the park with another great story added to a career’s worth of great stories. ACT-I-VATE attends the Brooklyn Book Festival for the first time, with a panel discussion and slideshow. Also, started working on the BATMAN: THE BRAVE & THE BOLD cartoon, painting some of the backgrounds.

October - The ACT-I-VATE PRIMER debuts at the Baltimore Comic Con, with a large number of us AIV’ers in attendance. Got to hang with J.M.D. a bit. Also met up with old art school chum and artist extraordinaire Andy Smith. Said “hi” to Joe Kubert, and bought too much swag. Back in the ‘hood, Bergen Street Comics hosts the AIV PRIMER release party; a capacity crowd, whiskey, and we sold out of books! As the onslaught continues, the ACT-I-VATE SALON, a reading of 5 of the Primer’s stories, goes live at Brooklyn Book Court. My reading of LOVIATHAN is aided and abetted by Chris Irving and Tucker Stone. I got a first look at an advance copy of FOILED, which will be out in April, 2010, and I signed on for the sequel, CURSES, FOILED AGAIN!

November - LOVIATHAN returns to ACT-I-VATE after a long hiatus. My third BEN 10 ALIEN FORCE comic comes out in DC’s CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #43. ACT-I-VATE figures prominently at the King Con, Brooklyn’s first comic con at the historic Lyceum, where we helped organize the event, and participated in numerous panel discussions. PARADE (WITH FIREWORKS) was nominated for the American Library Association’s “Great Graphic Novels for Teens” list. The ACT-I-VATE PRIMER makes the New York Times 2009 Holiday Gift Guide.

December - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAVIOR 28 trade paperback is released by IDW Publishing, and my third TOY STORY cover comes out in BOOM! Studios’ TOY STORY #0.

Thanks to everyone who helped make 2009 a memorable year for me, especially J.M. DeMatteis, Jane Yolen, the folks at First Second Books, Deep 6, XOXO Studio, ACT-I-VATE, The Bouncing Souls family, Mom and Dad, and Lisa.

Looking forward to 2010!

Remember the huge freaky Mohammed cartoon scandal 5 years ago that triggered insane violence in a number of countries? Well, the 75 year old cartoonist that drew the black and white drawing of Mo-cakes with a bomb for a turban was nearly killed the other day in Copenhagen after a man "with close ties to the Somali terror organization al-Shabaab as well as to al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa" broke into his house with an axe. Police then shot the shit out of the guy.

Yes. Chop him to bits with an axe. That'll teach him how misguided he was to make a political cartoon that comments about your religion having direct ties to extremism and violence. Totally sane and rational.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100102/world/international_us_denmark_cartoonist

What a crazy world we live in, where one man drawing a few lines on paper in a manner which resembles a human head can cause so much drama in so many countries and ruin so many lives. It almost seems like the premise for some strange and exotic sci-fi novel set on some distant, violent alien planet.

Human nature. It's both beautiful and wicked at the same time isn't it?

I developed a little bit of a crush on this drawing while I was doing it, and now I don't really want to mail her away. I know that is pathetic and stupid, and yet I'm an exhibitionist of a sort, and I tell you guys about it anyway.


Here is another one. She's acting out because she needs to be tucked in.


Random memory concerning porn:
A man looking at dirty magazines at a magazine store called THE BOOK NOOK in Saskatoon about 12 years ago. He's about middle aged, standing in front of a magazine rack, and he's wearing grey sweatpants. He does not seemed concerned whatsoever about the fact that his tent-pole of a boner is awkwardly pushing forward the whole front part of his stained sweats. Passers by must literally STEP AROUND his dick to get past.

Rebecca and I are disgusted, and yet oddly fascinated by him and we giggle and point. Is he retarded? Or mentally unstable? Perhaps he simply does not care what the other patrons of the store think, and is unhindered by social stigma? For some reason I've never forgotten this well-endowed weirdo and his enthusiasm for photos of naked women.

The Alcoholic – Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel team up to tell us a tale of how life easily crashes and how it’s a non-stop struggle; all through the eyes and experience of an alcohol/ substance-dependent man.

http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2009/12/30/the-best-worst-of-%E2%80%9809/

Tell All, Make Up More: Ames & Haspiel separate fact from truth
by Adam McGovern

http://www.comiccritique.com/cgi-bin/gcolumn.pl?id=525

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

 I just checked over the sample copy of Ria: Cyber-Smasher and it looks really good. It turned out great. It's the first color cover I've had made. The copies should be printed up by next week.

Ok, this one was just an excuse to get all obsessively fetishistic about drawing hair and bodily secretions. I worked from a photo, if it that isn't abundantly clear. Pffthaha, as if I could draw that realistically from memory...

It's kinda fun every once in a while to try a more realistic style, although I'll always been a cartoonist at heart -- which is obvious with the next one. It's just more entertaining to go a little crazier with the expressions and stuff. Trying for photo-realism just deprives you of all that fun!


-----

Also:
"Leksand, SWEDEN -- "Jump for Joy" suddenly got a whole new meaning to it as Henrik Andersen scored his first goal of the season in his Leksand jersey, Andersen celebrated by jumping into the boards, but something went wrong..."

In 25 years of watching hockey, I have never seen that happen. What are those fucking boards put together with? Twine and snot?