5-27-12

My blog has drawn different audiences: friends and family who not only enjoy my drawings, but also my writings and thoughts. The other audience are those who are familiar with my comics work. I have learned that there are those in the latter group who don't particularly care for my writings of a spiritual and philosophical nature and that is okay. So after a few days of thought, I have decided to create a separate blog that will solely be about my work in comics. This blog will contain new comics material, as well as news regarding it.


As for my current blog, news about my comics will still be there, as well as writings about everything else. 


The new comics blog can be visited here.

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Besides this, I have two finished pages of the seven page story for R-Comics Presents. I plan to give a small preview of them once they are finished, colored, lettered and so forth. I am not sure what the future looks like with my relationship with R-Comics. The publisher wants my characters to be part of the continuity (or in comics' terms "universe") of his. So I have set up my story in a way that if things don't work out in the future, Madras will always be a world of its own.

In addition to this, I also have seven pages (so far) of a Ziff comic that I started back in the fall. It is incredibly detailed and perhaps one of the best things I have ever drawn. I'm considering finishing this after I finish the R-Comics story and will look for somewhere to properly place it.

jim

New Comic

Hello Readers,


As of this weekend, I made plans with a Dutch comic book company named R-Comics to have a story featured in their upcoming anthology R-Comics Presents. It's going to be a seven to eight page strip featuring a character I created called Captain Joe Mann. It will be in the same continuity of Ziff and Madras but with a more realistic approach and more sci-fi oriented.


I'll keep you informed as progress is made.


R-Comics Presents #1 comes out in December. 


http://r-comics.nl/

jim

5-18-12

I haven't posted in weeks, yet people visit my little blog everyday.


I started a new job a little under a month ago and I have found it absorbing a great deal of time and even... gulp... thought life. This is typical of new jobs, I suppose. 


But when I am not thinking about work, family life, or life in general, I come up with creative ideas of things to publish. For a few weeks now, I've been chewing on the idea of an anthology/magazine with comics and art.  I've also been thinking of inviting a few souls to contribute. 


I recently communicated with a young man who was trying to start a comic book company and he was looking for artists and writers to contribute to his titles. When I am asked him how many titles he planned to release, he mentioned ten (good grief). I then asked him what was his business plan, because it would be a downright shame to put all the work into art and script and not see it published. He said he would think of that when all the material was complete for the all the series he wanted to release. I gave my ten cents worth of advice and told the fellow (evidently a youth) that he should start his company with a single comics anthology and go from there. He didn't like the idea. After hearing his plot idea for all ten comic books, I didn't like the idea of doing business with him.


I'm no financial whiz to publishing, but sell copies of work here and there. I think a plan is vital to anybody wanting to start such an establishment. How will you print it? How will you distribute it? Is it worth it? Who do you want your audience to be? These are factors I have learned in time. And small beginnings are always worth it, especially in something like comic books. We in the over-30 crowd witnessed the deluge of different comic companies exploding in the 1990s and all of them dying horrible deaths, all because they started out with big explosions of various titles (mimicking other hot titles) instead of tiny blooms. Most of these companies lost big because they tried to start big, as if they jumped into the market as fully grown competitors with the same amount of experience as more successful companies (who at that time had been in the business many years).


These fads work outside of comics too. Even today, we see fads explode onto the scene in technology and media, only to fizzle like a silent fart a few years later. It seems that popularity and timeless material are at odds. "Mainstream" material is all a matter of what stimulates in the now. When the stimulation is over, people look for a new thrill. That's the mainstream, a very "present" current that flows straight to a deep fall. Timeless material, that seems to be born not produced, isn't too concerned with popularity. The world begins to see it as it grows more and more.


That's my spiel.

Sunday

Sunday


I've been thinking about making comics again lately. I recently thought about not making them anymore and then I had a conversation with a cartoonist and he made me realize I sometimes take myself too seriously. I take comics too seriously. So I have an idea swirling around my head and I'm considering starting an anthology in a magazine format. We'll see how that goes.


Also, speaking of comics, please be sure to see The Avengers. It will not disappoint. I think the makers of the film paid proper homage to Lee and Kirby's run in the 60's. Personally, I drooled like a total fan boy through the whole thing, especially during the big battle at the second half of the film. So five stars. 2012... the year of the comic book movie.


To conclude, my little publishing outfit Postomorrow will be releasing more works in the future. It's a pretty eclectic and personal company, releasing works of interest. So expect more classic Christian mysticism and theology books as well as comics, art, and other written works. 


jim

5-6-12

At the Master's Feet: Including The Visions of Sadhu Sundar Singh is now available at Amazon for $5.00. You can see it here. 

Postomorrow Books Launch

Greetings,

As of today, April 30, 2012, Postomorrow Books has been launched. To have my own little publishing imprint has been a dream since childhood. In a sense, Abba Ka-Powie! Zeno-Zowie! was the first Postomorrow release, but it only had the label on it. It's ISBN belongs to an outside group. But today, the first official Postomorrow release was sent to the printers and it is an official product of the company.


I not only wish to publish works of my own or those I'm close to, but also works of deceased authors who I believe deserve attention. With that said, Postomorrow Books is releasing a special edition of At the Master's Feet by Sadhu Sundar Singh. Included in this edition is a lesser known work called The Visions of Sadhu Sundar Singh. So it's two books in one, for a price of $5.00. 

If you don't know who Sadhu Sundar Singh is, he is often referred to as "the apostle of India." Raised originally as a Hindu, Singh openly persecuted Christians until he had an encounter with Christ himself. The sadhu, or Indian holy man, then became a powerful Christian witness who exercised great faith with great power included. This particular book is revelatory in nature, in which Singh describes visions of interactions with Christ and the wisdom learned from Him.


Postomorrow Books will release other vintage books of Christian mysticism out in the near future, as well as printed collections of my art and writings, and works by those whom I am close to.


The Postomorrow edition of At the Master's Feet by Sadhu Sundar Singh should be available at Amazon later this week. You will be notified on the blog.


lurvins',
jim

Haven't Blogged In A While...

A photo of a power station near a now-gone steel mill in my native Scioto County, Ohio. I dreamt of living at this station when I was a child as a kind of headquarters.


It's been a few weeks since I've blogged. I signed in and Blogger told me that the "old interface" will be removed in a month. I personally think that sucks. I tried the new one and immediately wondered what's wrong with the old one. Oh well, such is life. Things change and sometimes things get worse... such as power lines.


I have probably been fascinated with power lines since infancy. One person probably sees structures of wood, metal, and fiberglass, but I see giant entities. Always have seen them this way, especially the older power-lines. Each one looked unique in contrast to the newer stream-lined ones they are building today. Now as an adult, I know these structures are not "living" persons as my imagination believed in childhood. But when I look at them today, I still see what made me appreciate them as a boy.


Now all the cool old-looking ones are being replaced by the new, dull "aryan" poles. What crap. Here's an example of tragedy.




They don't make them like that anymore and never will. Why? Because technology and postmodernism suck. Now we have these:

The new, longer insulators that have came out in the past ten or so years are kind of dull. This particular line of poles run along my street (crappy cell phone pic) and they are all identical. A lot of older poles were built in this similar style, but had shorter insulators that were either black or gray. I prefer the older insulator myself. Most poles of this wattage are being replaced in the Portland area with the newer versions that lack character.



Here is a comparison of the classic (left) versus postmodern (right). This is in Circleville, Ohio. It has a Pumpkin Festival every year and that's all the good folk there have to look forward to. 


Most of these upgrades are being done in urban areas. In the wilderness and deserts of Oregon, many of the original poles (built anywhere between the 30's to the 70's) are still running the fields and hillsides.


I bet you're so happy you read this blog today.