Jason Rodriguez's Blog, page 4
April 29, 2015
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April 13, 2015
This Saturday I was joined by Matt Dembicki (Trickster, Wild...
This Saturday I was joined by Matt Dembicki (Trickster, Wild Ocean) and Brooke A. Allen (Lumberjanes) for an afternoon of comic book making with the kids from Powhatan School in Boyce, VA. Over the six-hour session we taught everything from character design to figure work to paneling, penciling, inking, cutting, and stapling. When we were done, everyone had a comic to show off and they were all really great!
I had the kids using ink in my sessions and they quickly tossed aside their markers and crayons for a chance to spill ink over paper. I had them inking with feathers, calligraphy pens, brushes, and even their fingers in order to get a feel to the different tools you can use to ink a page. They had a blast using it, but the clean-up took some time.
I’d also like to briefly mention 8-year-old Cal. He brought a ziplock bagged filled with his own minis and we were all blown away by how talented this kid was. Here’re two photos of his comics:
The kid just has a natural talent for storytelling and art. We gave him his first copic marker, and he spent an hour learning how to use it before drawing three panels about a pirate ship and calling it a day. He was a perfectionist and had patience and he wanted to learn - he’s going to be a star one day if he keeps drawing comics.
But all of the kids were great and we had a blast. Hope to do it again next year!
April 1, 2015
Title slide for my 4/21 talk the Massachusetts Historical...
Title slide for my 4/21 talk the Massachusetts Historical Society. And at the Happy Hour afterwards, we WILL be making an exquisite corpse comic. Please RSVP at the link (http://www.masshist.org/calendar/event?event=1520), because space is limited!
March 31, 2015
Putting history comics aside for a moment, just wanted to talk...
Putting history comics aside for a moment, just wanted to talk for a second about my first novel coming out in May, a short story collection called TRY LOOKING AHEAD from Rosarium Publishing. I showed Dell Harris's amazing cover, but I wanted to show two of Stacey Robinson's nine illustrations. One for the first story, “The Boy Who Could See Through Mountains,” and one for the final and the titular story, “Try Looking Ahead.”
Coming to a bookstore near you, or you can pre-order on Amazon here.
March 26, 2015
"“Everything you can see is always falling toward something. And the fact that most things aren’t..."
“Everything you can see is always falling toward something. And the fact that most things aren’t hitting anything is one of the most amazing, non-boring things you will ever witness.”
Charles imagined his own feet, pressed against the floor of his house. He realized that if the floor were to disappear, he’d fall until he hit another floor. He never realized that he was always falling into the earth, and that the only thing stopping him from getting hurt was the ground that was constantly stopping his fall.
Charles’s father saw the confusion on his son’s face. “Don’t think about falling,” he said, “Just try looking ahead.”
Charles went back outside and peered into his telescope. He spent an hour staring at a giant rock that was falling toward him, always missing.
”-
Try Looking Ahead, by me!
Just wanted to share an excerpt from my upcoming book, Try Looking Ahead from Rosarium Publishing. The book comes out May 1st and it is a collection of sci-fi short stories aimed at Young Adults. Each story is sort of a modern day fable, heavily influenced by the Twilight Zone in tone and execution. In fact, an unnamed “editor” who pops up occasionally in the book is a short and surly man who talk about hope and progress throughout. It’s a modern-day pulp, with stories about climate change, the horrors of gun violence, identity, letting go of the past, and accepting different cultures.
This excerpt is from the final story in the book, called “Try Looking Ahead,” and is about the lifelong relationship between a father, his child, and gravity. I wrote it long before watching Interstellar, I promise.
Anyway - please feel free to pre-order the book (it’s only $7.95 on Amazon!). I’m very proud of it.
March 21, 2015
Yesterday was my second event at the American Library in Paris,...
Yesterday was my second event at the American Library in Paris, a comic making workshop for teens. We played a version of exquisite corpse where I gave every kid the description for one panel of a 24-panel comic to draw. Whenever I do this exercise, I like to use a story that twists and turns, so that the kids realize that they need to communicate to make a better comic.
Since yesterday’s workshop was in France, we illustrated the story about Napoleon being transported into the 1980s with two most excellent dudes and going to an ice cream and water park before ultimately helping them with their history presentation. Afterwards, we did a story about astronauts in space. You can see pictures of their first comic below.
March 11, 2015
Saying goodbye to something I truly love, before giving it up to...
Saying goodbye to something I truly love, before giving it up to Rosarium Publishing and, ultimately, you all. I hope you like TRY LOOKING AHEAD. It’s a very special book to me.
April is going to be busy! Come say hi if you’re in DC, Philly,...
April is going to be busy! Come say hi if you’re in DC, Philly, Brooklyn, Boston, Cambridge, or Concord!
Announcing the Colonial Comics: New England, 1620-1750 April 2015 tour! We’ll be in Washington DC (Fantom Comics, fantomcomics), Philadelphia (Big Blue Marble Bookstore and Locust Moon Comics, locustmooncomics with James Comey, Josh O’Neill, msgier, and JT Waldman), Brooklyn (Bookcourt with erikaswyler and giantearthpress), Boston (the Massachusetts Historical Society with J.L. Bell and the Boston Comics Roundtable), Cambridge (Harvard Bookstore with J.L.Bell), and Concord (the Concord Museum). Workshops, talks, signings, special guests, and fife playing through the streets! Check the map for dates and times!
Granted, my wife and I are going to France for vacation, but...
Granted, my wife and I are going to France for vacation, but what’s a vacation to an editor like me, can you please remind me.
