Alec Longstreth's Blog, page 11

Suzanne!

Yesterday at 4:31pm Claire gave birth to our daughter Suzanne Sanders Longstreth. This name will not come as a shock to my close friends. We named her after my all-time favorite song, Susanne by Weezer... but we thought it would be cool if she had a "Z" in her name!

The baby was delivered by our midwife Anna, at the Southwest Care Birth Center, with Claire's mom, Ellie, acting as our doula. The cutoff for Claire having the baby at the birthcenter was 42 weeks, after which point we'd have to go to the hospital. Suzanne was born at 41 weeks and 6 days, with a little help (Anna ruptured Claire's bag of waters, which finally kicked off the labor).

It was a crazy, intense experience and I am so proud of Claire, who did an amazing job. We are now safely at home where she is recuperating and we are spending time, getting to know our new daughter.

So, yeah - I'm a DAD! It's going to be a crazy year. Thanks to everyone who sent congratulatory notes over twitter! It was great celebrating online with everyone!

Okay, I better go see how my daughter is doing! It may be quiet around here for a few weeks while we adjust to our new routine (or lack thereof!)

Phase 7 #021 is now available for online ordering!

I finished the big Phase 7 Subscriber mailing this afternoon, so

Phase 7 #021: The Beard Issue, is now available for online ordering.

As many of you probably remember, I did not cut my hair or facial hair from August 1st, 2008 to December 10th, 2011. This issue of Phase 7 examines the various life experiences that lead up to the "Basewood Beard" and how society treated me very differently once I had long hair and a massive beard. You can read the first eight pages over in the comics section of this site.

PLEASE NOTE: My wife Claire is currently two days past her due date! I will get these copies in the mail as soon as I can but there may be a delay of a few days (up to a week) while I experience the birth of my daughter and get readjusted to life with a newborn. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

My New Comics Project

Today I launched my second big comics project, Isle of Elsi, which is a free, fantasy webcomic for kids.

I've been working on Isle of Elsi in secret since 2006, with the occasional anthology contribution being publicly released here and there. In 2009 I finally sat down and began scripting out the first real story. At this point I have over 200 pages scripted and ideas for thousands and thousands of more pages of comics.

I posted a small mission statement for the comic over on the site, but the basic idea is that I really wanted to draw a comic FOR KIDS. There has been a trend in American comics over the last 30 years to fight back against a post-Wertham-hearings public perception that comics are just for kids. You know.... "BANG! POW! Comics aren't just for kids anymore!" Well, it worked. I feel like most comics aren't for kids these days. If you do manage to find a comic that might work for kids, it usually hedges its bets by being labeled "All Ages" which I feel is probably foisted on the work by some cowardly marketing person, hoping to snag as wide a demographic as possible.

I am consciously rejecting the label "All Ages" for this project. It is FOR KIDS. I want KIDS to read it. If you, as an adult, have the confidence to read material that is specifically created for children (as I often do), I encourage you to read the work. But more importantly, I hope that you will share it with the kids in your life, because I created the work for them.

My main source of inspiration for Isle of Elsi is the work of Carl Barks. A few years back I went to great pains to track down all 6,000+ pages of Barks's work, and I read every story he ever did. It is an incredible body of work. Actually I was re-reading it, because these are the comics that I was lucky enough to read as I was growing up. Seeing them now, through my cartoonist's eyes, I had an even greater appreciation for the craft and care that went into each and every story. And Barks knew that his audience was children, and still made great comics for them. With Barks as my role model, I am hoping that I can keep this story going for at least 6,000 pages. If that takes 25 years (as it did for Barks), then so be it!

With this new project, I am trying to wholly embrace the webcomics platform. Nate Beaty helped me build a great site for the comic, and we worked hard to make sure it is a fun, safe place for kids to read comics, with no ads. In lieu of ad revenue, I am hoping to raise financial support for the comic using Patreon. It is my intent to keep every page of the comic online, for free, indefinitely. I plan to reject any publishing offers and instead try to connect to my readers directly, using the many digital tools that are now available. Once there are enough pages to make a book, I intend to use Kickstarter again, because I had such a positive experience with them, creating Basewood. It is an amazing time to be self-publishing!

I will still be continuing Phase 7, which I will use to draw my comics for adults. I got issue #021 back from the printer yesterday and will be sending it out to all the Phase 7 subscribers over the next few days. I'm still trying to get to issue #100 before I die!

Okay, that's what's going on. I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve tonight! Here's hoping 2016 is a good one!

December 2015

Every year I draw an image for the archive section of this blog in which I try to sum up my entire year in a single illustration.

This was the year that Claire and I decided to try and get pregnant. It worked! As a result, I feel like I spent this whole year trying to finish off old projects and stockpile progress on new projects so that I can hopefully keep releasing new work next year, when I am trying to navigate my first hectic year as a parent.

It was a year spent at the drawing table. Here's what I created:

The Isle of Elsi website (I drew all the assets, but Nate Beaty built it!)
A 25-page buffer of finished Isle of Elsi pages, plus 100+ scripted pages for future stories.
45 of the 100 Watercolors, many of which are still for sale.
The 100 Watercolors book and eBook
The Weezine Omnibus (a 200-page collection of the '90s weezer fan club zine, created exclusively for the current weezer fan club)
My 15th 24-Hour Comic, 300 panels (the layout of which is available for free!)
A top-secret, 12-page comic for The Center for Cartoon Studies, which will be released at MoCCA in 2016
Drop Target #7 with a lot of help from Jon Chad
Phase 7 #021 (Which will be heading to the printers later today! I'm still hoping to mail this out to all the Phase 7 subscribers by the end of the year!!!)

There might be some other stuff in there too that I am forgetting, but those were the big projects. I also read (or listened to) more than 50 books this year, which felt like a big accomplishment.

Claire crossed the 39-week mark yesterday, which means the baby could arrive any day now. I feel about as prepared as I can be for the birth of my daughter. I'm trying to not set too many expectations on the coming weeks and months. I've cleared my schedule and I'm looking forward to spending time with the baby and helping Claire recover from her ordeal. We'll see how it goes!

Star Wars: Episode VII

I finished inking Phase 7 #021 yesterday, so I'm finally going to write some blog entries that have been backing up (while I still can!)

On the 17th, my old college friends Frunch & Gwyn (and their 4 year-old son Brenyn) and Gabe (and his girlfriend Danielle) all came out to Santa Fe to watch Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. Frunch and Gwyn came from Madison, Wisconsin (actually, Frunch was at a conference in San Francisco, but you get the idea) and Gabe and Danielle came from Portland, Oregon.

This was not the first time these awesome friends have traveled thousands of miles to watch a Star Wars movie with me. The original plan was actually for me and Claire to go watch the movie with them in Madison, to repay some of this karma, but Claire's due date ended up being two weeks after the movie. We wouldn't be able to fly then, so they once again traveled across state lines to watch the movie with us, which was a real treat.

We were also joined by Claire's friends Amanda & Dustin and Benji and Emily. We went to an 11am viewing on Friday the 18th. We chose a local Santa Fe theatre (The Violet Crown, shown in the background above) which lets you reserve your seats, so we didn't have to wait in any crazy lines or anything.

I'm hopeless when it comes to Star Wars. I'm one of the few people I know who genuinely enjoyed the prequels, and have said many times before that I'd happily watch a movie if it was just a character reading off the Star Wars phone book ("Antilles, Raymus.... Antilles, Wedge....") so it should go without saying that I loved this movie.

Disney's approach for this film felt very similar to their 2011 relaunch of The Muppets. That movie tread on very familiar Muppet ground ("we have to put on a show!") and made sure to hit very specific beats that fans had come to expect. There was a sense throughout that the filmmakers were almost breaking down the 4th wall to try and hook old fans ("people have forgotten about the Muppets!") while also slightly nudging the story forward, or updating it here and there.

So a lot of the plot of The Force Awakens feels very similar to previous Star Wars movies, especially A New Hope (there is a droid carrying a secret, a protagonist from a remote planet discovering the force, a giant weapon that must be destroyed, etc. etc. etc.). There are specific jokes and references put in just for old fans, but plenty of fun things to keep the series moving forward, including a much-appreciated, increased diversity amongst the main characters.

Speaking of characters... During the final X-wing battle, I was shocked to see my good friend Stefan on screen as the pilot Yolo Ziff. At first I thought I had imagined it but then he was on a second time, with a big line (something like, "Looks like there's a new hole in that oscillator!") The second time, I was sure it was him, and so I was keeping an eye out for him during the credits. SURE ENOUGH:

Luckily, Claire did not go into labor during the movie, and I've been fortunate enough to see it three times in the theatre (probably the last movie I'll be able to go to for a while....) I love it and can't wait for it to come out on DVD so I can rewatch some scenes over and over, to suss out all of the details. I already started my countdown for Episode VIII.... only 515 days to go!

November 2015

Yikes! I blinked my eyes and November is almost over. There is a lot going on right now, so I'm not surprised everything feels like it's moving fast...

My heavy Fall semester teaching load is slowly starting to wrap up. It will be a relief once I have all my grades turned in, which will (hopefully!) free up a precious week or two to finish off a few last projects that I'm hoping to get done before the baby arrives, including Phase 7 #021.

Claire is 34 weeks pregnant, and getting bigger every day. We have been taking a birthing class and are both reading a lot of pregnancy books, and getting everything around the house ready for our daughter's arrival.

For Thanksgiving we are heading out into the desert with Claire's mom to spend the holiday with Claire's grandparents. Her grandmother turns 100 years old in about a week, so it will also be a birthday celebration. That is my very last trip of the year and then we are just settled here, waiting for the baby.

I've cleared my schedule in January and February and I am trying to go into this experience with no expectations, so I can just adapt to whatever is going to happen. I feel like I'm about as prepared as I can be at this point!

North Carolina Trip Canceled :(

I woke up at the crack of dawn yesterday to head out to the Santa Fe Airport to catch my flight to North Carolina. Inconveniently it was the first snow of the season for Santa Fe. As my father-in-law drove me to the outskirts of town, it began to snow harder and harder and I began to get nervous. He reassured me that the planes should be able to take off, and wished me luck as he dropped me off.

While I was waiting to get on my plane, the flight before mine was delayed and they kicked everyone out of the boarding area (it is a very small airport). We all boarded our plane and taxied out to the runway, where they began de-icing the plane. Unfortunately, the snow was falling as fast as the de-icer could spray, so the snow was still piling up on the plane. It was deemed unsafe to take off, so we were sent back to the terminal.

Quickly after our flight got back, the next flight after ours was delayed also. It was complete pandemonium in the airport, with a small staff trying to deal with hundreds of irate travelers. Everyone was scrambling to get on the next two flights, which filled up in about five minutes. Plus, it was still snowing outside, so there was no guarantee that those flights would even take off! It didn't seem like that much snow to me, but I guess it was enough to royally screw up this day of travel!

I checked the weather on my phone and saw that the snow was supposed to clear up by 3pm, so I called my airline and transferred my ticket to the 4:30pm flight, which would still get me into Charlotte by midnight, allowing me to rent a car and drive out to Appalachian State University in the morning, before I was needed there. I got in touch with Charlotte-based cartoonist Dustin Harbin, who graciously agreed to let me crash on his couch in the middle of the night. With everyone still screaming at each other, I grabbed an Uber and headed back home.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Liz Prince is in town, and she has a rental car, so she came over to work with Claire and me for a few hours before giving me another ride to the airport in the afternoon.

I had set up a text alert for updates on my flight, and as I sat at the airport I got a series of texts about five minutes apart. My flight was 30 minutes delayed, an hour delayed, an hour and a half, two hours... and then they canceled the flight. I guess there were horrible thunderstorms in Dallas (where my connecting flight was) and the plane that was supposed to leave there to come get us couldn't take off.

Once again, everyone waiting at the airport completely freaked out and started yelling at the small staff at the airport. It was very stressful. Eventually I found out that the one late flight to Charlotte from Albuquerque (an hour away via shuttle) was full, and the first flight in the morning from Santa Fe was also full. I might be able to get the first flight out of Albuquerque, but even if I did it would get me to Charlotte at 4pm, and after a two hour drive I would get to Boone by 6pm, having missed the screening of Cartoon College and the Q&A session.

I called my contact at ASU, Craig Fischer, who did all the hard work to set up all of these events, and we agreed that it was not worth it for me to fly out on Friday, teach one workshop and then fly back on Saturday. Obviously, this was very upsetting and disappointing for me, and probably for him as well.

Although I can rationally say that this cancelation is due to forces outside of my control (ie The Weather), I still feel horrible that I will not be able to see the exhibit, At The Junction of Words and Pictures: The Tenth Anniversary Celebration of The Center for Cartoon Studies and that I left Jen Vaughn high and dry, to handle our commitments alone. Jen is totally capable of handling this stuff by herself and will do just fine without me, but I'm bummed to miss an opportunity to work with her and hang out for a few days.

So anyway, now I'm back home and feeling a bit sick, and frustrated by the waste of time and money that this cancelation has caused. I'd like to publicly apologize to Professor Fischer, Jen Vaughn and CCS for not making it out to North Carolina this weekend!

6 Days at Home

Late last Thursday night I returned home from Vermont.

On Friday morning I had a dentist appointment and tried to catch up from my trip.

On Saturday morning my mother arrived from Seattle. We ordered some pizzas and hung out at home that night, which was Halloween. We only got two trick-or-treaters: a half-ninja, half-power ranger and some zombie teens.

On Sunday, Claire's Mom threw us a big baby shower at her house where tons of friends and family gave us many useful gifts for our forthcoming daughter - from clothes and diapers to a high chair and a stroller. Let me tell you, when I was holding up a tiny pink onesie, it really sank in that there is soon going to be a little baby in our lives!

On Monday my Mom headed back to Seattle, and I had an assignment to set up for my online CCA comics class.

On Tuesday Claire and I went to the third week of a birth class that we are enrolled in. I missed the first two weeks because of my trip to Vermont, so I had some catching up to do. Claire also hosted her weekly Terrible Movie Night with her friends, including Liz Prince who is visiting from Boston!

Today I taught my Professional Practices class for CCS.

Tomorrow morning I get on an early flight headed for North Carolina to participate in the exhibition celebration of At the Junction of Words & Pictures: The Tenth Anniversary Celebration of The Center for Cartoon Studies which is being exhibited at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University. I've got some work up in the show, along with many other talented CCS alumni, fellows, faculty and thesis advisors.

My old pal Jen Vaughn is heading out there too and we will be doing a Q&A discussion after a screening of the Cartoon College documentary on Friday night, and then we will be teaching a comics workshop for teens at a local library on Saturday morning.

If all goes according to plan, I will get home late Saturday night. I have one more short trip planned to visit family for Thanksgiving, but otherwise I will be home for about six months after that! I am looking forward to it.

Back to Vermont!

I'm packing my newly-redesigned bag and hopping on a red-eye tonight to head back to The Center for Cartoon Studies for another 10 days of teaching in Vermont. Last time I was there I bought one of their Joe Lambert-designed pencil cases, which Claire hand-embroidered for me, so it won't get confused with any other similar pencil cases that are floating around.

As Claire heads into her third trimester her belly keeps getting bigger and increasingly, I feel like I'm running out of time. I'm working frantically to try and get Isle of Elsi up and running by January 1st and I'm also trying to finish off a few top-secret side projects, as well as put Phase 7 #021 to bed. We'll see if I can get it all done before the baby arrives! I'm also pretty busy teaching three classes for CCS and CCA...

In other news, the new poster for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens was released yesterday. It should go without saying that I am very excited about that movie. I'm keeping a close watch on my local movie theatre's advance ticket sales page, and the core of my Star Wars crew has agreed to come see the movie with me out here in Santa Fe. The original plan was to head out to Madison, Wisconsin, but Claire's due date is about two weeks after the release day, so we can't travel. I have the best friends in the entire universe.

Anyway, it feels like there is a lot going on right now! The good news is that I've cleared my schedule for the first few months of the new year, so when that baby does come, I can just spend time with her, and help Claire recover from her ordeal. It'll be my reward for all this hard work. Onwards!

"Graphic Novel" freakout

I have been thinking a lot lately about the term "graphic novel" and was mentally preparing a blog post about it, but then last week I kind of freaked out and posted all my thoughts on twitter instead. I thought I'd repost all those tweets here, in a row, so that they're at least collected in one place.

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! Movies aren’t just for kids anymore!

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

TYPE! EDIT! TYPE! Novels aren’t just for kids anymore!

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

POWER! CHANNEL! VOLUME! Television shows aren’t just for kids anymore!

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

STRUM! TOOT! THUD! Music isn’t just for kids anymore!

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

GESSO! BRUSHSTROKE! VARNISH! Paintings aren’t just for kids anymore!

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

SETS! PROPS! CURTAIN! Theatre isn’t just for kids anymore!

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

#comics pic.twitter.com/9qcQPQxqJz

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Best write-up I’ve ever seen on this topic: http://t.co/sdXVwp45Wm by @dmeconis

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Some of you are missing my point. I’m not putting three descriptive words in front of some random activity...

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

I’m treating other mediums the way people treat comics! NO ONE would say that movies, novels, TV, music, painting or theatre are kids’ stuff

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Let me be clear: I *HATE* the term “Graphic Novel” and think it is insulting to the comics medium and to cartoonists.

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

I use “graphic novel” to describe my projects too, but more and more I find myself choking on the words.

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Will Eisner popularized the term in the 1970s - a time when comics WERE seen as only kids media because of the Wertham trials/comics code

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Eisner put “graphic novel” on A Contract With God to distance himself from this public perception of comics.

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Thanks to the hard work of cartoonists like Eisner, spiegelman, Bechdel, cartoonists have overcome this perception! WE WON THE BATTLE.

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

And yet “graphic novel” is still being used, and in my ears it still sounds like “BANG! POW! COMICS AREN’T JUST FOR KIDS ANYMORE"

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

And by using “graphic novel” to describe our comics, we distance ourself from comics of the past and the cartoonists that create them.

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

I feel no need to do this. I am proud of my cartoonist influences that drew comics for kids. I stand on the shoulders of Carl Barks.

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

I don’t know a single cartoonist who likes the term “graphic novel.” At this point it’s a marketing buzzword

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Editors take “graphic novel” upstairs to convince the suits that they’re pitching something legitimate, that can make money

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Libraries and bookstores use “graphic novel” to try and convince parents that these books won’t harm their children, the way COMICS would

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

In France and Japan there is no euphemism for comics! They just call them comics.

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

In short: I’m done using the term “graphic novel” to describe my comics, and I encourage you to do the same. (End Rant)

— Alec Longstreth (@AlecLongstreth) October 2, 2015

Of course, after I posted all these, some of my cartoonist friends said that they do like the term "Graphic Novel" and that for many of them, it has morphed to take on the meaning of "long comic book." I don't argue that point, but I still don't like the origins of the term!

Anyway, on Wednesday I successfully made it through a half hour interview with Jamie Tanner at Kickstarter talking about Basewood without using the term "Graphic Novel." I'm going to try and continue this practice when talking about my own work.