True life stories - Driving along Steeles to dim sum

Hey look, I actually made a comic!

In other news, one of my favorite musicians, Pat the bunny, is back to making music after taking a year off in rehab to get his life back together. If you have been reading this blog for a while now you have probably seen me mention his previous bands Wingnut Dishwashers Union or Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains so you know that his music has come to mean a lot to me over the years. I was actually pretty upset when I found out that he was going into rehab (which is a totally weird sensation to feel for a complete stranger) so I was super stoked to see that he's out and wrote a bunch of new songs.

His songs are often about the realities of his life told in an incredibly honest way. I find some of them hard to listen to because they talk to depression in a very, very truthful light and they make me think too much about my own problems with it and how hard it is to conquer. That said, they have also given me the strength to keep on trying to fight it off in simply knowing that holy shit I'm not insane (or, at least, not alone).

Although I can't fully understand the scope of some of the things he's talking about in these songs having never dealt with addiction, of having done an insane amount of drugs like, given the nature of some of his older songs, I'm sure he's done - but I can appreciate that he's willing to share himself with us in this unflinchingly self-critical light.

Ultimately, I think as an autobiographic cartoonist listening to music like this is like a parallel to what I try to do in music. I seem to always fall short of what I want to express and I can only hope to express in one of my comics what Pat expresses in any of his songs - but holy fuck I've got to keep on trying. Keep on writing. Keep on trying to make the best damn comics I can make.

Anyway, You can find links to all of his old music here

Or, you can go see some really horrible quality youtube video's of a couple of new songs(which I have, of course, ripped the audio from and have been listening to constantly tonight) here

Until next time, don't ever fucking give up on yourselves.

Jason <3

Runaway

Everything will be O.K.

Have you ever heard the Neil Young album Live at Massey hall 1971? It's such an intimate performance with Neil just talking to the crowd and playing both his guitar and a grand piano. Really, really powerful stuff.

I am a WEIRDO!

Changing up the format a bit on the journal comics. This one was drawn at twice the size as my normal journal comics, with a pitt artist brush pen in less time (about 45 mins!) that it usually takes me to finish a strip. I'm pretty happy with this as a little experiment - I think I may do a few more!

Also, I've started a sketchbook that I intend to fill with tonnes of doodles and people sketches by the end of the month. I have this awful tendency to completely stop doodling or drawing from life when I'm in the middle of a few different projects... but man, whenever I cafe' sketch or just randomly doodle the craziest shit comes out that I never would have come up with had I been trying to "design" something. I'm sure most of it won't be worth sharing, but if I come up with something truly remarkable I'll be sure to post it here.

Man, I am SO STOKED on drawing right now.

Jason <3

I am a WIZARD! for sale! Also, Boredom pays #2 sale

So, after a couple of weeks of putting it off I finally got around to printing up a few copies of my new mini comic, I am a Wizard! It's got 16 pages at 4x4 inches with a color cardstock cover as well as hand done spot color on the interior. You can go over to the sidebar and click on the "add to cart" button if you would like to purchase a copy of it. Of course you could always just go here to read it.

Also, I've decided to run a little sale in light of my Shuster nomination for Boredom Pays #2. So, if you order a copy of Boredom Pays #2 I will also send you off a free copy of my remaining copies of my other mini, The Worst In Everything until I run out of em'.

Gene Day nomination

Now that I'm back into a bit of a work groove and riding the subway pretty much every day, which is mostly where I draw these things, I'll be able to get some more out!

I'm thinking of scrapping my Diary Doodles book and repackaging all of these into a third issue of Boredom Pays. I'll probably release it for TCAF, provided I get a table. But who knows, really?

Also, why do I keep writing the date as 2010?

Sheesh.

Boredom Pays issue #2 nominated for a Shuster award!

So, the nominations for the 2011 Shuster awards are out and, to my complete and utter surprise, I have been nominated for the Gene Day award for self publishing for Boredom Pays#2!

I can't express to you how completely blown away I am by this nomination. I'm totally humbled to have my name alongside so many fantastic creators that I admire. Seriously, exciting stuff!

Thanks so much to the panel that nominated me and, of course, those who encourage and support me in this whole cartooning thing. It means the world to me.

In light of getting this nomination I feel a little silly sitting here with two new mini comics completely finished(Diary doodles, I am a wizard) But just haven't printed them and put them up for sale here. I'll get them up for sure within the next couple of weeks!

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In other news, while my Diary Doodles have petered off, I have been hard at work on a new all ages comics project that I intend to launch at TCAF. I don't want to say too much about it right now, but it's going to be awesome. I promise (I hope!). In the meantime, here's a little sketch of a couple of the characters, one of which looks completely different now.

Big things are already happening this year, people! Everything is awesome!

Jason <3