d_morris

Schedule is so weird.  I have class two days a week and work the other days.  Having too much too much time in the afternoon and just general dissatisfaction with most things I've done on my senior project has led to procrastiation.  Script for Chapter One is written and I'm happy with that.  I've done thumbnails for the first few pages but I need to do more.  I need more research photos which I should have taken when I was in Charlotte last weekend.  The character designs I'm still not happy with though I guess they're getting better.  Here's one of them



Maybe I'll feel better the more I work on it.  Part of me wants to scrap everything and do something else but more of me knows I need to stick this through.  Frustration is building.

Everything else is okay though.  I like my 19th Century Art class and while I'm not wild about my roommates, I could be living somewhere worse.  Broke at the moment but got my job at the library back which works out well and I'm working in special collections which has been interesting so far.  Yesterday I held an actual Kirby Fantastic Four in my hands.  It was a great feeling.  I've also enjoyed looking at all of the really old books the library has in it's collection.

Back to work.  Maybe I can muster up enjoyment for this project?

Going to do more updates from now just to get back in the habit of writing.

Senior project has begun.  I'm working on a love story set in high school. It has kung fu fighting and revenge.  To show my commitment to this project, I am going to keep my head shaved and my face bare.  I am in essence the anti-Alec Longstreth.



Doesn't come back until the first 24 pages are done.

Be back soon with some preliminary images for the comic.

Quarter ended a few weeks ago and I'm really glad that it did.  This was both a good and bad quarter.   It started off awful and ended okay.  I worked my ass off and in some places it showed, in others it didn't so much.  In that way, I'm glad it finished.

Christa graduated and my parents and grandmother Griffith came down to celebrate.  Her parents met my parents for the first time and things seemed to go well.  After graduation, I went up with Christa to Massachusetts for a week and a half.  We spent a lot of time together and I met a few of her friends up there.  I had a wonderful time and if had been up to me, I wouldn't have come back down.  However, I have summer classes once again so a return trip was unavoidable.

I miss Christa and finishing school is going to be very lonely without her.  She's the best thing in my life and my rock.  Nobody cares about me like she does and I can't wait for the day where we just get to spend our days together.

After the adventures in Massachusetts, we celebrated my grandmother Morris's 80th birthday in Myrtle Beach.  It was a mini reunion and I saw family members I hadn't seen in years such as my cousins and my aunt and uncle.  It was great having that half of the family all together for the first time in years.  I got to ride down to South Carolina in a RV with my cousins Robyn, Beth, and Robyn's husband Chris.  That was an adventure.  I do want to point out that I hate beach traffic.  I love my grandmother but seriously, I need to visit her in winter months when people aren't driving like maniacs and it doesn't take half an hour to 50 feet.  If South Carolina disappeared off the map tomorrow with my grandma's house intact I would not shed a tear.

On my way back to Savannah, I found out about Professor Mullins.  I've already posted my feelings on that but even now I'm still conflicted about it.  It hurts but I think I'm feeling less stunned.  It's hard looking at pictures of him and knowing I won't see him again or hear his ridiculous laugh.  All I can do is soldier and make great comics.

I think my way of coping right now is listening to a ton of hip hop and dub.  It started off with relistening to Enter the 36 Chambers and I've been listening to Clipse, Aesop Rock, Company Flow, and most anything else I can.  The Madvillainy album has been on repeat frequently.  I need to dig out Cannibal Ox because that album is a classic.  When it comes to dub, I've slowing been working my way through that.  I've given a few  King Tubby albums and Black Uhuru's The Dub Factor listens, loving both of them. I really needed the change since I've been listening to a lot of noise rock and indie stuff over the last few months.  I think it's been taking my mind off of things that have been going on lately which is good.

Off to Heroes Con this weekend.  Going to get my portfolio looked at and hopefully get my name out there with Marvel and DC.  Wish me luck friends.

In honor of Mullins, I'm going to start posting about comics I've been reading lately and enjoying.  I don't write enough about comics anymore and I don't talk as much about comics I enjoy as I should.  So I'm going to make it a goal everyweek to talk about at least two comics I've been enjoying.  Here are this weeks comics

The Calculus Affair by Herge
Amazon.com listing

  I've been on a Tintin kick lately after I was doing a cartooning project where I figured Tintin would be a good basis for to pattern the kind of stories I was interested in doing for a set of particular characters.  One thing I've noticed lately as I've been buying Tintin books that seems to be a shame is that Little, Brown, the USpublishers of Tintin, seem to be focusing more on the smaller collections with several adventures over the over sized single albums.  It's a real shame because Tintin is meant to be read one adventure at a time.  It's a lot more easily disgestable that way at least for me as a reader. What really gets me is that the collections of adventures are printed at a smaller size thus loosing some of the impact of the adventures.  I found it harder to be excited for some of the stories I think because of the smaller page sizes.
 
But that's not what's important.  What's important is the comic.  Of all the Tintin comics I've read over the last month or so, The Calculus Affair is possibly the best of the bunch, if not the best Tintin adventure ever (I am sure there will be some people here that will argue with me about that). 

The plot is simple; Professor Calculus, Tintin's scientist friend, has invented a sonic device that if developed properly could be used as a weapon of great destruction.  Two countries are after him to develop one for their country while Tintin and Captain Haddock try to rescue him.

What struck me reading it is Herge's sense of balance when it came to the storytelling.  Something that's always struck me about the earlier Tintin strips that I've read is that while they're all wonderful to look at was that sometimes the humor might seem out of place or the exposition would slow everything down when the action needed to be at 11.  This works okay in stories like Tintin in Tibet where it's more about characterization but some of the earlier stories tend to plod where they should be zooming.  It's always kind of bugged me when it came to Tintin as I've always wanted them to be the adventures that were a little more exciting.

Yet for me, The Calculus Affair solved all of these problems.  This was the story where Herge was firing on all cylinders.  There's this great balance to the humor, the action, and the exposition.  The humor adds comic relief in all the right places, the action is brisk while the narrative isn't distracting from that.  The running gags in the book from the wrong number gag to the annoying inusrance salesman pop up in all the right places.  Everything in this book moves at such a brisk pace and I couldn't help wondering what was going to happen next.  It was very hard for me to put this comic down once I started reading it.  This comic has one of the most page turning narratives ever in comics. 

This comic is one of the finest pieces of storytelling that I've ever read.  It works on so many levels; an adventure story, a detective story, a spy thriller, and a social commentary on the Cold War.  As I said before, none of this ever gets boring.   I think what really helps is that unlike some of the other Captain Haddock stories, this is a single story where some of the others are two parts.  That's where things became plodding for me is that I thought some of those stories could have been much tighter and leaner than they were.  This possibly the leanest Tintin story that I've read.  Nothing feels extraneous or out of place here.  Characters don't over stay their welcome nor are they distracting.  It dawned on me that Thompson and Thomson only show up for a few pages pages and I'm okay with that.  Adventure comics don't get much better than this.


This comic is two things that the majority of comics coming out of DC and Marvel are; it's exciting and it's fun.  It's also really easy to get into as it explains why certain characters are in the positions they currently without dwelling on the recent events that have been going on in Batman.  For those unfamiliar here is a spoiler filled update.  Batman (Bruce Wayne) has presumably died during DC's most recent event Final Crisis.  Gotham has since been without Batman while all of Batman's various allies have been trying to keep up with the rampant crime.  After a big battle, Dick Grayson has taken up the mantle of Batman while Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne's sociopathic illegitimate child, is now Robin. 

The comic never gets caught up in this set up.  Grant Morrison as a writer one trusts his audience to know what has been going on in comics to not let his narrative get bogged down in these details.  One thing that I think is putting people off superhero comics is their current tendency to get bogged down in the details of what's happened in the immediate past or even in the far past.  This is a story that's only interested in what's happening in the comic now and what's happening is pretty awesome.  Batman is doing what he does best in here; catching crooks, doing some detective work, and keeping Robin out of trouble.  What's more impressive is how much this feels like a Batman comic without actually having Bruce Wayne in it yet feeling distinct on its own.  A lot of this is owed to Grant Morrison's skill at characterization and putting a new spin on old concepts.  Dick Grayson isn't Bruce Wayne but he pulls it off so well because he's known Bruce for years.  He makes it seem as if there has been no change whatsoever while he has the costume on but out of it is a man who wonders if he can hold the legacy to which he is beholden.  Damian on the other hand takes the notion of Robin as a touble maker and puts it on his head. Morrison puts a sense of entitlement into this character and while he's a likeable enough character it's hard not to see him as anything other than a sociopath that needs Batman to keep him in line.  That's one of things that I think makes this comic interesting is that you have a genuine ying and yang between Dick and Damian; a character who has been raised to expect to be part of this legacy (Damian) versus a character who has fought to have his own identity yet now must take up the legacy he's tried to escape (Dick), the adopted song versus the biological one, etc.  Yet at the same time, Morrison has the characters fill the familiar roles because I think it's pretty obvious that both of these characters need each other to survive.

One thing that's always struck me about Grant Morrison is that his stories either sink or swim based on who his collaborators are.  Some of the earler Batman stories were marred by artists who took the subject with far more gravity than I think Morrison was injecting into his scripts.  Here though he's working with Frank Quitely who generally does wonders with Morrison's scripts (see JLA: Earth 2 and All Star Superman).  On this book, it looks like Quitely has gone back to traditional inking rather than the digital inking he's used for All-Star Superman and the book We3.  The change has given the book a look that's a little grittier than he's usually given us but it works for this book.  His action scenes are fantastic (his use of sound effects is fantastic) and always zipping yet never getting confusing.  What really strikes me was that every character had their own mannerisms.  Quitely in the past has had figures with oversexualize positions and body language but here it's really subdued.  Each figure has their own manner of looking whether it's Dick false confidence in the Batman costume to Damian's over posturing with every step he takes.  It's one of those things you don't register immeadiately when reading the book but shows up on subsequent rereadings.

Seriously, I wish more superhero comics were this smart, well writtern, and excellently draw.

As a lot of you know, Jeremy "Sweetwater" Mullins died this past weekend.  I'm still trying to gather my thoughts on the issue.  On Facebook and other forums, I keep trying to have this brave face but deep down this is tearing me up inside. He wasn't much older than I was and that got to me.  I called all of my family members yesterday from Christa to my brother to let them know how I felt about them.  I cried for about 20 minutes after I started telling my brother the news.  He's gone.  I didn't always agree with his opinions on comics or on creators but Jeremy was someone who genuinely loved comics.  It was hard not to see that.  The man was honestly one of the good guys and someone our department needed dearly.  He was someone that never settled for doing things simply.  He wanted to preach the gospel of comics and boy did he. 

On top of all this, he was a fantastic cartoonist.  The sole comic that I've seen in any form of his is his web journal comic Sweetwater is an Asshole and that seems like too few.  Mullins had a way with expressions and caricature (probably helped by his tenure as a editorial cartoonist) that really helped him capture the viewpoint in his comics.  His comic really captured his particular kind of energy not to mention his use of that obnoxious highlighter color palette.  As much as it is a loss to lose him as a teacher, it's just as great a loss to lose him as a cartoonist.  That kills me most of all.  As much as I like him as a teacher, I think I liked him even more as a cartoonist.  Now this is all we have but man it's a killer legacy.

I always felt like I disappointed him in that I never really lived up to my potential.  I had him for Cartooning in the fall and I bombed on the last part of the quarter.  He knew I had the drive for comics but I think it pissed him off that I never let my drive overtake my fragile ego.  That's what I think is killing me most of all.  He knew I could be great and now that I can see that in myself, I will never get to show him.  That's what tears me up on a personal level.  I am glad thought I told him one thing though months before he died and that was he gave me confidence.  He made me realize I could be good at this and that I needed my drive to get things done without letting the ego get in the way. 

I'll miss him.  Here's to you Sweetwater.  Time to make some damn fine comics. 

Hey guys, thought I would update.  Life is weird right now.  I don't feel like going into the details but things haven't gone the way I wanted this quarter.  That's life. I'm just grateful for my friends, family, and of course Christa.  However, saw Dinosaur Jr. and that was a great show.  Also really friggin' loud but that's how J Mascis rolls.  Anyways,  I'm trying to pick up the pieces and trying to turn things around as best I can.  Trying new things not to get overwhelmed drawing a page.  Here's something from the sketchbook.


Time to draw comics.

I want to go to SPX this year.  I missed it last year because I began planning for it far too late but this year I am starting now.  I'm looking for someone to share a table and a room with so that the trip is more affordable.  I'm putting this out there now so that I can get a table now.  Is anyone interested?

So I was thinking this morning about after I get my degree in Sequential here at SCAD (two more quarters to go?  yeah me?), that I might go to the community college back home and get an Associate's Degree in Graphic Design.  When I looked at the catalogue, I noticed that they had something called certificates and they have them in Graphic Design with three that specialize in Illustration, Typography, and Digital Pre-Press.  Looking at the requirements, I could very easily get all three probably with the space of a year since so many of them are required for the others.  As much as I love making comics, I do want a skillset that is applicable in a broader sense and graphic design essentially lets me use the same tools I use for comics but in different manners.  I think it's worth it.  My only concern is how much time that's going to keep me away from Christa.  I could ask her to hold her career for me but in this economy, I really don't want to make her wait for any opportunity to get employment that we could both use.  I'm just afraid of losing her because we got separated for too long or making her do something that she's going to regret.  If anyone has any advice, I would definitely appreciate it.

I haven't been able to write here lately due to life being so busy.  Last quarter I took three studios for the first time and that did not go well.  I ended up having to drop a class so that my grade point average (which was in the toilet already) wouldn't go in the toilet even more. It ended up being a really great move since I ended the quarter with two Bs which is a good thing.  One of those classes was my Alternative Comics class taught by one Brian Ralph.  This was a huge deal for me since when I had decided years ago that I was going to be a cartoonist one of the bigger influences on me was Fort Thunder.  Getting to have a class with one my artistic heroes was something that I never thought I would ever get to do while I was at SCAD.  While there have been teachers that have given me confidence, there's something about having someone whose work you admire so much tell you advice that sticks to you.  I don't think there's been any other teacher at SCAD who has given me as much confidence as Brian Ralph did.  I don't think there's been anyone who has gotten me thinking about the medium and trying to make work that's interesting like Brian has.  As late as it's come in my school career, I'm working hard to make that class my turning point and trying to do better comics.  I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to class a class with him and that the department hired him this past week.  I think it will be really strong for the department to have someone like Brian, who thinks about comics differently than some of the professors, in the mix at our department.

Speaking of last week, Christa (the fiancee), and I went to Florida for the majority of Spring Break.  Since we've been together for a year (as of yesterday), we considered it our anniversary celebration.  The big thing we did was go to Epcot.  I'm not really a Disney fan (and in fact I once vowed never to step foot into a Disney theme park) but I really enjoyed just being able to spend time alone with Christa doing something with just the two of us that didn't involve watching cartoons or doing homework around each other.  Christa did as well and we both said that we should do things with just the two of us more often.   Here are some photos of the trip with the two of us and random places in Epcot.( Photos and comments about Epcot )

Part of the trip was so that she could drag me to DisneyWorld for the first time (we went to Epcot), but the other part was so that we could meet each other's grandparents.  My grandmother lives a little outside Sarasota and her grandparents live outside of Tampa.  Since they're not too far apart we thought it would be a good idea to visit them.  Christa's grandparents are from the United Kingdom and I was really glad that got to meet them.  I also met her aunt and uncle who don't live too far from her grandparents.  A good deal of Christa's family on her mom's side live in Florida and it was nice being able to introduce myself to her family though I was little nervous so I feel bad that I may have come across as distant. 

Christa enjoyed meeting my grandmother and learning more about my mom's side of the family.  Actually, I ended up becoming fascinated with that as well and asked my grandmother more and more questions about my family.  I realized that on both sides of my family, I don't really know much about people or relationships between people.  Talking to my grandmother, I became more interested in my family history than I have been in the past.  I don't know why really.  I think part of it may be that talking with Christa and hearing her talk about family I realized I didn't know much.  Maybe it's the possibility that I will have my own someday that if my kids have questions, that I'll be able to answer them.

We got back to Savannah on Sunday.  Classes have started this quarter.  I'm taking Visual Storytelling II, Cartooning (again so I can pull up my GPA in my major), and a math class. Going back into a math class after not being in one for like 8 years is an interesting experience.  It amazes me how much is coming back to me though slowly.  The Visual Storytelling class seems promising and I should get some nice portfolio pieces out of it.  The Cartooning class is kind of a pain in the butt since everything is coming across as review but I think that I've grown since I took it in the fall and my drawing has gotten better since then.  We'll see what I come up with in that class.

By the way, I'm debating whether I should turn this into an art blog where I'm just posting stuff that I've done recently or continuing the journal format with art thrown in there.  I've become a little anxious about putting my life on display but at the same time I know that people are interested in what's going on with me since I talk about that more than I post art.  Any suggestions anyone?

Tomorrow in the SCAD student center, the third annual Zine Fair is going to be held.  I believe that it's going to be 12-6.  I'll be debuting for the public two new mini-comics, and a poster made up of the constructivist Batman pages I've posted here.  Also, a new printing of Vs. will be available (though I I think most of the people there will already have it) and I am debating whether I should or should not reprint Cast Adrift just so I have another mini.  Thinking about that book at this point bothers me.  I think I would like it more if I hadn't consciously attempted to make my own version of Sammy Harkham's infinitely better comic Poor Sailor. I still like parts of the writing but reading it, the comic comes across very much of being something I could have only done two years ago.  I don't think I could or would want to make that comic today.  I thought I was going to have one more poster made up of a comic page but I'm still working on that one.  If you are going to be out and about in Savannah and you have a student ID, you should feel free to stop by and pick up the Batman poster and the two new minis.  Who knows, you might pick up some really cool comics!

There's going to be text but I figured I would show people this Batman project I've been working on.
( Here's the project under the cut )
Oh I forgot to mention but I'm trying to make it to FLUKE this year since i have no idea if I'll be near the area to do it again.  I hope I can make it.

My biggest childhood fear was and I kid you not, the Incredible Hulk.  When I was very very young, the Incredible Hulk TV show (both animated and live action) was still on NBC and my dad being a huge comic book fan watch the show pretty regularly (I think).  The sight of an enormous green man bursting out of walls and lifting large objects was enough to scare me.  Oh and the fact that he talked in nothing but growls and screaming did nothing to help this.  I'm pretty sure that when I was younger I had several nightmares where the Incredible Hulk chased me or hunted me down.  It took me a long time for me to look in an Incredible Hulk comic  because of that.

For my mini comics class, we've been required to keep a journal comic since two Mondays ago.  While I'm debating whether or not to post them, (honestly there are plenty of other journal comics out on the web with slightly more exciting lives than mine that you can read) I will say that it's been slightly therapeutic doing them.  I also think it's helped me get some confidence in my artistic skill and helped me value myself as a cartoonist.

Also next quarter I'm taking

Senior Project
Cartooning
Visual Storytelling II

two more quarters to go!

What follows is me sharing a little bit about my life.  I'm not really doing this for pity because honestly, that's not productive.  However, I came to moment of realization right now that I felt like sharing with everyone.
( Hopefully this isn't too sad bastard... ).

So I'm engaged.

yawmin did this and it looks like too much fun not to do (plus I am seriously just killing time because my stomach feels like crap).

1. Pick 20 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them in a note for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDB search functions. That's cheating and it ruins the fun.

Let's see who can guess what movies I like.

1. You and your submarine! Look where it's got us now! - Batman The Movie - jonio 

2. Detective, you run this precinct like chicken night in Turkey.

3. No one is as dumb as I appear to be. - The Stuff - jonio 

4. Is it all ready? Right. Come on then. Back to creation. We mustn't waste any more time. They'll think I've lost control again and put it all down to evolution.

5. A sword isn't a sickle.

6. Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence.

7. No more lodgers - more trouble than they're worth!

8. It's human to lie. Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves.

9. I was busy pushing bodies around as you well know and what would a note say, Dan? "Cat dead, details later"? - ReAnimator - jonio 

10.  Evil mind, evil sword.

11. Today no need to know how to ask for directions or a room with a bath; today we must know how to spell 'Thomas Hardy'.

12. Oh, I still do believe in God, old man. I believe in God and Mercy and all that. But the dead are happier dead. They don't miss much here, poor devils.

13. It may be ridiculous, but I'm gonna miss every one of the psychos, and the neuros, and the schizos in the place.   Harvey - myaurasmiles 

14. Well, I, uh, don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir - Dr. Strangelove - prophylactic_ 

15.  It was such a relief when I saw it crying. It may look different, but it's still true to itself. It's still an emotionally charged towel.

16. Fuck! is what I'm thinking.

17. You think this is a safari, bitch?

18. Now wait a minute... you're taking this kind of personally, aren't you?

19. Unpleasant? Strange. I've been told I have a very winning personality. The very best shoe clerk the store ever had.

20. You know if I wanted to get shot at everyday, I'd move my black ass to Los Angeles!