David Chelsea's Blog, page 37
October 25, 2012
24 Hour Comic #14: The Crumb Bums
Last weekend, for the second year running, I accepted an invitation to spend 24 Hour Comics Day as a guest at the DIVA event in Eugene, organized by Ken O’Connell of The University Of Oregon. This year’s event was bigger than last year’s, with about twenty participants, and it attracted the attention of local TV outlet KVAL.
Here’s a story from the KVAL website- there was also a report on the 6 O’Clock News, but they don’t seem to have posted the video.
David Chelsea is listening to:
True Believers: A Novel
by Kurt Andersen
Like many of my 24 Hour Comics, story #14 is on the slight side. My main intent was to resurrect the 60’s by doing a comic about a band like the Monkees in the manner of R. Crumb, but I did include a number of autobiographical elements as well; incidents involving a clogged vacuum cleaner and a stopped-up bathtub come directly from my grubby New York apartment days, and I used dreams written on strips of paper and pulled from a sack as a randomizing and surrealizing element. One surreal detail not taken from a dream is that one character has a double penis, which I borrowed from an obscure Jodie Foster movie, Beach House.
With three main male characters (the fourth member of the band is a monkey), things are pretty testosterone-heavy, but I was careful to have the story pass The Bechdel Test by including a sequence in which two named female characters have a conversation about something other than a man.
(However, Judi and Robyn’s talk does nothing to advance the plot, and since this story is something of an homage to Crumb, both girls inevitably wind up in an utterly gratuitous threesome).
Eugene 24 Hour Comic Day Participants (me on right in black sweater)
Many thanks to Ken O’Connell and everyone at DIVA.
Girl With The Keyhole Eyes alert! You can see a has a preview of the current issue Dark Horse Presents, including a page from the aforementioned story, at their website here.
October 24, 2012
Does Sex Sell Comic Books?
I sure hope so. The above image comes from my comics story The Girl With The Keyhole Eyes, the third installment of which appears in the current issue of Dark Horse Presents, which is being published today. This story is a memoir which freely mixes fact and fiction, or maybe just fiction and fiction.
In addition to my story, this issue features the return of Colin Lorimer’s UXB and Michael T. Gilbert’s Mr. Monster! Plus, another Edgar Allan Poe story adapted by Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee Richard Corben and a new short written by Michael Avon Oeming and illustrated by Victor Santos!
* Crime noir, horror, fantasy, science fiction—this anthology has it all!
* The DHP conclusion to Tony Puryear’s Concrete Park and John Layman and Sam Kieth’s Aliens: Inhuman Condition!
* 80 pages! No ads!
* Dive into The Deep Sea—a new creator-owned series from Palmiotti and Gray!
The Many Faces Of The Girl With The Keyhole Eyes
October 22, 2012
Another Frog From Rebecca
It’s a big week for blog posts, what with my latest 24 Hour Comic, and a couple of new books coming in, but first up, here is a new stop motion animation from Rebecca, Kelso’s Choices. Like Frog Chase from a few months ago, this also features a frog protagonist and was animated on the iPad. One big difference is that this one comes with a soundtrack (created in Garage Band). Big brother Ben Celsi contributed the music and Rebecca’s school friends Samuel Redding and Krystyna Klucznik did the voices.
David Chelsea is reading:
The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans
by Lawrence N. Powell
You can watch here on YouTube.
Rebecca has another animation featuring Bingo The Cat all ready to go once Ben finishes the music for it.
October 15, 2012
24 Hour Comic Day 2012
Announcement: Here’s where I’ll be all day this coming Saturday- drawing my FOURTEENTH 24 Hour Comic at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Here’s the press release:
David Chelsea is listening to:
Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood
by Teri Garr
“Be a Comic Artist for 24 Hours on Saturday October 20, 2012 at 930am to 930am Sunday October 21.
Where: University of Oregon, Art Department, room 141 Lawrence Hall (classroom in the NW corner off Lawrence Hall courtyard). Register to participate at the Art Department office at 198 Lawrence Hall and then receive a special “24 Hour Comic Survival Kit.” It is full of ideas and instructions on how to approach your 24 hours as a comic artist.
The day of Extreme cartooning allows 24 straight hours for amateur and professional cartoonists of any age to challenge themselves to write, draw, ink, and letter an entire 24 page comic in 24 hours.
Special guest comic artist, David Chelsea, will be participating in the Eugene event. David holds the world record for the most number of 24 Comic events that he has participated in. Dark Horse Comics is publishing “Snow Angel” by David, which he created during one of his 24 Hour Comic Challenges. David is an illustrator, cartoonist and the author of over 4 graphic books on comics.
The University of Oregon has just started a Comics Studies Minor this fall and they along with the Art Department and the Duck Store are sponsors of this event that is open to the public
Last year more than 2,000 professional and amateur cartoonists around the world took the 24-hour Comics Day Challenge.
For further information contact Ken O’Connell or register at the University of Oregon Art Department office. After registering you will be given a Survival Kit to help you plan your participation in the event.
This event is sponsored by the UO Comics Studies Minor, Imagination International, Inc. (Importer of Copic Markers), DIVA, and the U of O Art Department.
Other information can be found at www.24hourcomicsday.com. If you have any question, please contact Ken O’Connell, oconnell@uoregon.edu 541.953.0190″
I’m not sure at this point what I’ll be drawing, but I’ll post about it once I’m done. Meanwhile, here are some posts about previous 24 Hour comics:
http://dchelsea.com/wp/?p=2507
http://dchelsea.com/wp/?p=1503
October 3, 2012
Just In Time for The Debates: Obama Meets Romney
Obama/Romney illustration for INX.
David Chelsea is reading:
Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America
by Nancy L. Cohen
Line art
Color file
A good drawing is worth recycling: Here is an INX piece from the Bush/Kerry election of 2004:
Order this drawing (or others from this week’s selection) to run in your publication at the INX website.
September 26, 2012
Over The Cliff With Mitt
I haven’t had occasion to draw Mitt Romney this election cycle, but here is a Boston Phoenix piece from 2004:
David Chelsea is reading:
Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation
by Elaine Pagels
The story was about a failed attempt by Governor Mitt Romney to elect more Republicans to the State Legislature. Apparently not much has changed in eight years.
September 24, 2012
Facebook Posts: The Mamie Bangs
Mamie Bangs. Most unflattering hairstyle ever?
David Chelsea is reading:
The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square
by Ned Sublette
More Mamie Bangs:
Still More Mamie Bangs: an early version of Little Dot by Vic Herman
I used this picture of Robert Wagner as Prince Valiant as part of my Mamie Bangs collage. Then I noticed a strange resemblance….
September 19, 2012
Dark Horse Presents #16 On Sale Today!
From the official preview:
“True-crime writer Phil Stanford tells a gritty tale from Portland’s underbelly as he kicks off City of Roses with artist Patric Reynolds—a new era for the Crime Does Not Pay name!
Plus, Richard Corben adapts a spine-tingling story by Edgar Allan Poe!
* A creator-owned comics celebration!
* 80 pages! No ads!
* The return of Crime Does Not Pay.
* Dive into The Deep Sea—a new creator-owned series from Palmiotti and Gray!”
Oh, yeah, and the second part of my three-part story The Girl With The Keyhole Eyes.
At a comics shop near you.
David Chelsea is reading:
Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland
by Harvey Pekar
September 12, 2012
The Kiss Of Harvey
This just in! DARK HORSE PRESENTS, which is serializing my story THE GIRL WITH THE KEYHOLE EYES, won the coveted Harvey Award (named for comics legend Harvey Kurtzman) for best anthology! Congratulations to my editor Mike Richardson and all the crew at Dark Horse.
David Chelsea is listening to:
Kill Bill Vol. 1 Original Soundtrack
September 11, 2012
Icosahedral Perspective: Anny’s House
Here is an example of the kind of 360º perspective I was doing just before I began drawing and painting on spheres. This drawing of my sister Anny’s living room is from 1994.
David Chelsea is reading:
Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The Story of the Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind
by Richard Fortey
Anny's House Drawing flat
I was inspired by seeing Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World Globe projected onto a twenty-sided icosahedron to try the equivalent in perspective- an entire 360° visual field as seen from one point in space, drawn onto twenty triangles to form a continuous image. Space does not allow a detailed explanation of the perspective construction, but each of the six vanishing points in the scene is located on the midpoint of an edge between two triangular faces.
Anny's House drawing folded into icosahedron
I only did a handful of icosahedron drawings because I got tired of the difficulties involved. Each of the twenty triangles has its own perspective, and it’s extremely difficult getting objects to line up over the gaps. Eventually I figured out a method of spherical perspective, which was much simpler to draw.
Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Globe
You can view a large version of the original drawing here at Flickr.
Flickr panorama
One drawback to both spherical and icosahedral perspective is that while the image is drawn as if it were traced on the inside surface of the ball or icosahedron, because of size considerations the drawing can only be viewed on the object’s outer surface. Fortunately, the experience of viewing the image under ideal conditions can be simulated in Flickr. Through a complicated process involving CGI, I was able to convert the drawing to an equirectangular panorama which can be viewed immersively here.
By the way, the baby in the picture is Anny’s son Ivan, now a a gifted musician who is a sophomore at the University Of Chicago. Here is a video of him singing his composition Marigold with Angelica Garcia .
Blog post about spherical perspective
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