David Chelsea's Blog, page 36

24 Hour Comic #15: Are You Being Watched?

I drew my fifteenth 24 Hour comic at the Theater for The New City in New York City on Saturday March 2nd and Sunday March 3rd. Here are some photos from the event:

David Chelsea is listening to:

Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age

by Steven Johnson

The other participants were Jim Ryan, Rachel Nabors, Adriano Moraes, Lindsey Morris and Arlen Schumer. Here I am with Arlen:

Jim Ryan inking. His comic was based on stories he tells his five-year-old daughter:

Adriano. His story is about a guy who is hired to evict a nest of ninjas:

Four of the stories from the session are up online, including Arlen’s autobio comic, drawn with an increasing number of frames per page (Arlen aimed for 24 pages, but only reached sixteen, after taking an extended nap. In 24 Hour Comic parlance, this a “Gaiman Variation”).

Adriano’s The Evictor in “Take Out”

Rachel Nabors’s Battle Princess part 1

My own story “Are You Being Watched?“, is another Gaiman Variation, with 21 pages completed in 24 Hours. Part of the reason I failed to meet my goal was a constant stream of visitors through the theater, some of whom I had not seen in decades (and all of whom I was delighted to spend time with, don’t get me wrong), but mostly it was that the story was particularly dialogue-heavy, and there are few things in comics more time-consuming than filling in a lot of dialogue balloons with tiny lettering, especially when you write it all in pencil first.

I borrowed the structure from the old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore movie Bedazzled (itself based on the Faust Legend), but most of the content satirizes current Reality TV shows (all of which me and the family watch). Without giving away TOO many spoilers, Mugg (my interlocutor from the perspective books) falls for a girl who only has eyes for Reality TV (Mandy from the Sandy & Mandy strip I’m currently drawing for Dark Horse Presents):

Mugg trades his soul to the Devil (me) in exchange for seven wishes, all of which land him on one Reality TV show or another:

…. among them, Hoarders, Storage Wars, What Not To Wear, and Survivor:

You can read the entire story at the Comics Lifestyle website here.

Blog post about my upcoming 24 hour Comic Collection, Everybody Gets It Wrong!

Many thanks to Brad Smith and Jennifer Jones for organizing the event, and to all the other participants and visitors (Sarah, Robin, Clare, Dan & Adele, Madi, Jorge, Martin & Barbara,  Randy & Susann,  Jill & Slim and anyone else I’ve forgotten), and everyone at the Theater for The New City.

Live from New York- 24 Hour Comic #15!

Mark your calendar! One week from today I’ll be taking part in a 24 Hour Comic event at Theater for The New City in New York, following this year’s Webvisions Conference. Believe it or not, this will be my 15th 24 Hour Comic (a world record until someone tells me different) and my first visit to New York City in nine years! Other participants will include comics scholar and illustrator Arlen Schumer, Cartoonist Jim Ryan (author of some hilarious cartoon books including THE JERSEY SIDE) and graphic novelist Rachel Nabors. Read all about it here.

David Chelsea is listening to:

Bring Up The Bodies

by Hilary Mantel

24 Hour Comics NYC Edition // March 2-3, 2013

Theater for the New City (155 First Ave.)

Just in Time For Presidents Day: Kaleidoscopic Tilings

Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey

“America’s Most Wanted Painting” by Komar and Melamid. George Washington in there somewhere.

Self-portrait by George W. Bush

RIP, Ed Koch

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who died this week, appeared frequently in The New York Observer’s Eight Day Week column during the years I was illustrating it. After leaving office he wore many hats, including restaurant and movie critic; I suspect he’s giving the thumbs-up gesture in the above drawing in that capacity.

David Chelsea is listening to:

Switched on Bach

by Wendy Carlos

Another Koch gig: replacing Judge Wapner on The Peoples’ Court (both this and the previous drawing date from the pre-computer days when I faxed the art in, hence the scribbled notes to the editors visible at the side ):

Koch got along well with his Republican successor Rudy Giuliani, and even crossed party lines to endorse him twice. Here, the two mayors enjoy a friendly square dance. (BTW, I have a much larger trove of Giuliani drawings to show when HE kicks):

This drawing commemorates some event at The Strand Bookstore. Naturally, Koch reaches for a copy of his own book, Mayor:

Coming In June: EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG!

The plans for this one have been in the works for some months, but seeing it up on Amazon and elsewhere makes it seem real: EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG! AND OTHER STORIES, the new collection of my 24 Hour Comics from Dark Horse, is coming out this June. Here’s copy from the website:

David Chelsea is reading:

Family Britain, 1951-1957

by David Kynaston

“A spokesman for and frequent participant in 24-Hour Comic events held around the world, acclaimed graphic novelist David Chelsea’s first six 24-hour comics are collected into one volume! Following rules devised by comics legend Scott McCloud (”Understanding Comics”), Chelsea delivers six inspired improvisations - each drawn in a single day! This first collection finds Bingo the Cat stepping through a looking glass and into a surreal adventure, the determined Harold climbing a clock tower to win a bet, two talking tomatoes hunting for fresh raspberries, witty pun play, hilarious literary allusions, fantastical free-association games, and more.”

The stories included in this book are:

THE HAROLD PROJECT, an  off-kilter interpretation of Harold Lloyd’s silent comedy Safety Last. 

AUGUST 29TH  2004, a suite of four shorter stories, including an adventure in which twin tomatoes Singar and Mingo tunnel to Australia. 

JESUSLAND, a religious satire with an all-animal cast.

EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG!, an essay in comics form advancing the argument that  all  autobiographical comics should be drawn “subjective camera”- as if from the artist’s point of view.

BINGO THE CAT, a wordless adventure,

and,

FROM AN INFINITE DISTANCE,  an  extremely random story concerning global  warming, a father-daughter reunion, and Dick Cheney’s hunting  accident, drawn on graph paper in vertical oblique projection. 

Thanks to my editor Philip Simon, and everyone at Dark Horse!

My drawing board after 24 Hour Comics session, 2006.

Everybody Gets It Wrong! And Other Stories: David Chelsea’s 24-hour Comics Volume 1 HC

Written By: David Chelsea

Art By: David Chelsea

Cover By: David Chelsea

152 pages, black and white, $14.99, in stores on June 5.

Coming in April: SNOW ANGEL

SNOW ANGEL is finally getting her own book! This sort-of-superhero story began as a black and white 24 Hour Comic, was then reworked in full color for the anthology SNOW STORIES , and when that book was cancelled eventually appeared in three parts in Dark Horse’s flagship anthology DARK HORSE PRESENTS. Now, SNOW ANGEL will appear in a 32-page comic going on sale April 3rd. Many thanks to my editors Mike Richardson and Philip Simon, and everyone at Dark Horse!

David Chelsea is listening to:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

Here’s the copy from the Thing From Another World website:

“David Chelsea creates a superhero like no other: an ordinary little girl who becomes a crime-fighting cherub whenever she makes an angel in the snow! Snow Angel faces jaywalkers, bicycle thieves, menacing dogs, and other dangers! This special, all-ages one-shot also includes “The Kids’ Movie”—an all-new, four-page masterpiece!

* All-ages adventure from longtime New York Observer illustrator!

* Fantasy and humor from frequent Dark Horse Presents contributor!”

I have done many blog posts about SNOW ANGEL over the past few years. Here are images from a few of them:

And here’s a frame from “The Kids’ Movie”, the all-new, four-page masterpiece:

SNOW ANGEL

Writer: David Chelsea

Artist: David Chelsea

Cover Artist: David Chelsea

Genre: Humor, Fantasy

Publication Date: April 03, 2013

Format: FC, 32 Pages

Price: $3.50

UPC: 7 61568 22443 6 00111

Pre-Order Snow Angel (one-shot) Now @ TFAW.com

RIP, Dear Abby

Frame from Anapest Comic

Christmas Icosahedrons

Just in time for New Year’s, here’s my Christmas blog post.

Nowadays, Eve & I send a Holiday Letter with a summary of the years’ events to the dwindling number of our friends who aren’t already well aware of our doings through Facebook, but in years past we used to send cards I illustrated, often featuring our cat Sophia. Twice, I got more ambitious and created 360 panoramas in icosahedral perspective on cards which were meant to fold up into Christmas ornaments.

The first, from 1993, depicts our loft on 27th st. in New York:

David Chelsea is reading:

Austerity Britain 1945-1951 (Tales of a New Jerusalem 1)

by David Kynaston

To create the drawing, I actually built a model icosahedron out of plastic tubing and sat inside with my eye as close as possible to the geometric center, drawing twenty triangular views which would link up to form the scene.

Sophia made it into this one:

By 2002, Eve and I had moved to Portland, our children Ben and Rebecca were born, and I had a computer. The second icosahedron reflects all these changes.

First, I made six square drawings, one for each of of the cardinal directions, plus up and down, then added flat color on the computer.

I built a virtual cube in Lightwave, a 3D animation program, and projected my drawings on its sides. I then placed my virtual camera inside an open icosahedron model at the geometric center of the cube and pointed it in twenty directions to create renderings for each of the twenty faces of the icosahedron.

Once I had all the renderings done, I combined all twenty central triangles into one big drawing to form the model. An elaborate procedure, to be sure, but less work than creating twenty separate drawings.

There was one additional complication. Instead of a simple model to be assembled with tabs and glue, I sent 2002’s card in the form of a plaited model to be braided together,

which necessitated this page of instructions:

You can view both cards big at Flickr here and here. You can even print the images out, and (with some assembly) hang them on your tree.

I have also adapted both cards into equirectangular panoramas which can be viewed immersively here and here.

Previous blog post about icosahedral perspective.

Bingo The Cat Returns!

Rebecca’s newest stop motion animation stars Bingo, the family cat previously featured in his own 24 Hour Comic and numerous illustrations. Once again, music by Ben.

David Chelsea is reading:

Building Stories

by Chris Ware

Watch Bingo’s Fantastic Journey on YouTube.

Previous blog post about Bingo in comics and illustrations.

Blog post about a previous Rebecca animation.

Blog post about another Rebecca animation

Portland In The 1960s

This new book by Polina Olsen is pretty self-descriptive; it’s about Portland (Oregon, not Maine) in the 1960s. I grew up in Portland, and my memories of that decade are fairly sharp, since I was drinking my Kool-aid without acid in it, but they are mostly of stuff like Saturday morning cartoons and those weird old exhibits at OMSI (Oregon Museum Of Science And Industry) rather than the student protests and psychedelic concerts that this book covers (I knew many of the prominent figures in the book, like Psychedelic Supermarket proprietor Emery Ingham, the artist Henk Pander, Outsider-In founder Dr. Charles Spray, and Storefront Theater co-founders Tom Hill and Anne Gerety, because their kids went to the same school I did, the Metropolitan Learning Center; Portland’s counterculture was a pretty small scene compared to Haight-Ashbury or the East Village).

David Chelsea is reading:

More Baths Less Talking: Notes from the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle with Football, Family, and Time

by Nick Hornby

My own contribution is the last illustration in the book, a 1976 flyer from the radical feminist coffeehouse Mountain Moving Cafe (a bit late for the timeline, but the 1960s lingered longer in Portland than most places). It’s odd that my work represents Mountain Moving Cafe rather than the Storefront Theater, where I was a performer and poster artist for several years, because I wasn’t much of a radical feminist, and only went there once in my life, though it was a memorable occasion- I shared my first kiss at a party celebrating the Fall of Saigon, which should tell you all you need to know about the company I used to keep.

There will be a signing event for Polina Olsen’s Portland in the 1960s: Stories from the Counterculture this Wednesday, November 7th from 7:00-8:30 pm at Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy Portland, OR 97219 503-246-0053