Alec Longstreth's Blog, page 14

2014 / 2015

Every year I draw an image that attempts to sum up my entire year, which I then use for the blog archives page of this site. A lot of stuff happened this year, but when I look back over all of it, I think I'll remember 2014 as the year I was on the road promoting Basewood!

Last week I returned home from my twelfth and final comic convention of 2014. I added up all the days that I was either at a convention or traveling to a convention this year: 58 days. So... that's like two full months away from home.

And if you add in other travel (weddings, teaching jobs, etc.) it's another 22 days, for a grand total of 80 days away from home this year, which is just shy of three months.

Now, I know to some people that wouldn't seem like a lot. There are certainly cartoonists who do a lot more. I am in awe of road warriors like Raina Telgemeier who seem to be constantly out in the world, interacting with their readers and promoting their work. But for me, this was too much time away from home.

I have no regrets about this year. I upped the number of shows that I was exhibiting at so that I could promote Basewood and sell as many copies as possible within its crucial first year of publication. I feel like, overall, this strategy was successful. Eleven months after 2,000 copies of Basewood arrived from the printer, I have sold or distributed (with the help of Chris Pitzer at AdHouse Books!) 1,300 copies of the book. As a self-publisher, it was essential that I got out and promoted the book this year, because if I didn't do it, no one else was going to do it for me! However, all of this promotional effort has left me extremely burned out.

I was standing at SPX, my favorite small press show in the world, thinking, "God, I am so sick of this. I just wish I was at home." I never want to feel that way again. So, in an effort to prevent long-term burn out, I am not going to exhibit at any comic conventions in 2015. I'm going to stay closer to home and use those two months that I'll get back to draw as many pages of comics as humanly possible.

In the future, I hope to exhibit at a smaller number of shows (three or four a year?). I'm sure someday I'll have to do another big promotional push when my next book is out. Maybe that will become the new routine... Lots of shows in a "book" year, no shows the following year, to recover, and then a few shows in "non-book" years. It sounds good to me!

So, I won't see you all in 2015, but I hope that will allow me to return in 2016 with a big pile of new work and some genuine enthusiasm for the wonderful comics community that I love so much!

Short Run 2014

On Friday I'll be traveling back to my hometown of Seattle, Washington for the Short Run Comix and Arts Festival which is this upcoming Saturday, November 15th.

I'll be at Table F-31 along with my stalwart tabling buddy, Greg Means. Just to our left will be superfriends Liz Prince and Nicole Georges and there will also be a whole room full of other incredible cartoonists and artists. If you are in the Seattle area, please swing by and check it out!

This will be my twelfth convention of 2014, and my final one of the year, for which I am very grateful. I am looking forward to sitting at home for a good long stretch and getting some work done.

After finishing up Phase 7 #019 a few weeks back, I took a little break to script out some future comics projects and to work on a short animation project. Now that those are wrapped up, I'm finally back to work on the next issue of Phase 7, which is all about my experiences growing my beard out for three and a half years. You can keep an eye on my progress, over on my homepage.

Phase 7 #019 is now available for online ordering!

All subscriber copies of Phase 7 #019 have been sent out, so Phase 7 #019 is now available for online ordering. This issue is the third and final installment of my "Weezer Fan Trilogy." Part Three documents every Weezer show that I went to between 2000 and 2010, including the show in Vermont where I poured my heart out in Rivers Cuomo's face backstage. You'll also read about how I eventually got to work for the band, drawing the Memories Tour posters!

It feels great to have this issue done for a couple of reasons: 1) it was an experiment in drawing faster (smaller, in a simpler style) and in having more fun with my comics. I feel like I succeeded on both fronts! 2) I now have 20 issues of Phase 7 completed! This feels fantastic. I am 1/5th of the way through my goal to reach issue #100 before I die. I've got so much fun stuff planned for the future of Phase 7, I'm excited to dive in and start telling new stories!

It's also worth noting that the new weezer album is out now and it is totally amazing! You should get it. You won't regret it. It is the best album I have heard in a long time. I've pretty much got it on repeat all day long over here at Phase 7 headquarters. It's a great time to be a Weezer fan.

APE 2014

I will be tabling this weekend (October 4th and 5th) at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francsico. I'll have copies of Phase 7 #019 hot off the press (subscriber issues are being mailed out TODAY!). I'll be joined at tables 903 and 904 by the following powerhouse of small press superstars:

My wife, the multi-talented Claire Sanders will have all three issues of her Terrible Movie Nights zine, all of her Fluff Engine instruction and pattern booklets, as well as a few of the finished stuffed animals.
Liz Prince is coming all the way out from Boston to promote her incredible new graphic novel, Tomboy. Tonight (10/3) she's doing a reading at Green Apple Books, and then she'll also have copies to sell at APE, along with her other great books like Alone Forever.
Greg Means, of Tugboat Press fame will, of course, be in attendance and will have copies of graphic novel The Cute Girl Network as well as FREE copies of Runner Runner #3, the best indie Free Comic Book Day anthology out there.

Also, on Saturday, at 6pm I will be on the Teaching Comics: Academia and Sequential Art panel with comics faculty members from SVA and CCA.

And just in case anyone didn't know, APE has changed locations this year! If you are planning on coming out, please check the APE website. There are shuttle busses that can take you from downtown out to Fort Mason. I hope to see some of you there!

Everything Will Be Alright In The End

Last night the new Weezer album, Everything Will Be Alright In The End (or "EWBAITE") was posted on iTunes Radio as a "First Play" album. This means you can stream the entire album for free (with a few ads thrown in). I've listened to it about 15 times in the last 24 hours.

Do me a favor, go listen to it yourself. And if you like it even 1/100th as much as I do, consider pre-ordering it on iTunes, or swing by your local record store on October 7th and pick up the album. You won't regret it.

Obviously, I'm not able to give an unbiased review, because Weezer always has been, and always will be my favorite band, but it really is a fantastic album. I don't have the hangups that a lot of Weezer fans have, but a lot of people who gave up on the band after Pinkerton are calling EWBAITE a "return to form." If you're one of those people, and you feel like you got burned by Weezer at some point, please consider giving them another chance and checking out this album - I think you will be happily surprised! It's got everything you could possible want in a Weezer album - massive sound, catchy tunes and more face-melting guitar solos than you can shake a stick at.

It's hard for me to talk about how it feels for me to hear a new Weezer album... I genuinely enjoy every Weezer album and listen to all of them, all the time. Each album acts like an anchor in my life, reminding me of the year it came out and where I was and what was going on at that time. When I listen to a new Weezer album, I can hear the influence of all the previous albums, or at least hear the creative path that has lead from each album to the next. I really feel like I hear everything that is going on in a new Weezer album... or I will, once I listen to it a thousand more times. Anyway, it's a very personal experience for me. Another anchor dropped - Fall 2014 - I'll always remember this time! I'm so thankful for all the guys in Weezer and the music they create. Being a fan of their band makes my life so much richer.

Okay, that's enough out of me - have fun rocking out!

Webbigail AKA Webby

Claire and I went down to the pound on Thursday to pick out a new cat. We chose the little fuzzball you see above, and named her Webbigail (after the character from Duck Tales). She was an owner surrender, I guess because she was being picked on by another cat. Everyone at the pound told us that she had been really shy when she first showed up but eventually she came out of her shell. When we met her, she hopped right out of her cage and played with us and let us pet her. Good enough for us! And Webby is seven years old, safely putting her well outside the age range of cats who can develop FIP. Hopefully this will mean that we'll have her for a good long time.

Now that she's at home, she has been a bit shy, mostly hiding under the couch. But at night she comes out and plays with us and let's us pet her, so we're confident that she'll come around eventually, once she settles in. She's very sensitive to sound, so if the dog upstairs barks or a motorcycle goes by outside - ZIFF! - she's back under the couch. Hopefully once she feels safe here, she will mellow out a bit.

There's lots of other stuff going on too. Phase 7 #019 is at the printer right now, just in time for APE. (If you are a Phase 7 subscriber and you moved recently, please send me your new address!!!) I'm also juggling a bunch of illustration projects right now, all of which have the same deadline. That seems to be how it always goes... Anyway, I'll post more about that stuff later. For now I just wanted to let everyone know we got a new cat! I'm posting photos of her in my Flickr account if you're into that kind of stuff!

Phase 7 #019 is inked!

Tonight I finished inking Phase 7 #019 - Weezer Fan: Part Three. It's going to be a long weekend in front of the computer, touching up files and adding gray tones to everything. Then, on Monday I'm sending the files off to the printer.

This means that I will most assuredly have the book for the Alternative Press Expo October 4th and 5th in San Francisco, and more importantly, the issue will be in the Phase Seven Subscribers' hands and available for ordering online before the new Weezer album, Everything Will Be Alright in the End, is released on October 7th!

It took me 816 days (or 2 years, 2 months and 25 days) to draw the 90 pages of comics in Weezer Fan: Parts One, Two and Three. That's one finished, penciled and inked page, about every nine days. It took me 2,868 days (or 7 years, 10 months and 7 days) to draw the 204 pages of comics in Basewood. That's one finished, penciled and inked page, about every fourteen days. So I'm now working about a third faster than I did on Basewood, which feels good. I've got some more ideas about how I can improve my cartooning efficiency and speed, which I'm going to try out on the next issue of Phase 7. I'd like to speed up my process so that pages take about half as much time as they did on Basewood. Anyway, I'll report back here with my findings!

Well, it's time to switch into production mode. I know this issue has been a long time coming, so I appreciate everyone's patience. I can't wait to share the rest of my Weezer story with everyone! I'll post here when it's ready to order!

SPX 2014

When I got home from Santa Fe on Monday, I unpacked all my clothes, but I did not put away my suitcase! Oh no, I left it out, because I knew tonight I would fill that thing right back up with comics and then lug them out to Bethesda, Maryland this weekend for the Small Press Expo. SPX remains my favorite comics show of the year. Even in my current, extremely burned out state, I am pretty excited for this show. There are going to be so many great new comics there.

I'll be at tables N1 and N2 all weekend long, along with my friends Greg Means and MK Reed, who will be promoting their book The Cute Girl Network and our pal Jason Shiga, who is nominated for two Ignatz Awards for his mind-bending webcomic, Demon.

I'll have copies of Basewood, Songs From the Basewood, Phase 7 (sorry, I decided not to finish Weezer Fan: Part Three for this show), Drop Target Zine (including the brand new issue 6!) and Claire's Terrible Movie Nights zine (including the brand new issue 3!). So much fun stuff! If you're in the Washington D.C. area this weekend, please swing by and say hello! You won't regret it.

Wedding Celebration

Claire and I got back from Santa Fe, New Mexico yesterday. We spent the weekend there celebrating our marriage with a whole bunch of our friends and family. When we got married at city hall last year we knew we wanted to have a bigger celebration, but I don't think we knew how meaningful and fun it would be!

It was really amazing for me to have so many people from different phases of my life, all in the same place; talking to each other! My old pal Gabe officiated the ceremony, which was very moving but also somehow filled with a lot of laughter.

The biggest surprise of the evening came after the ceremony and after dinner and cupcakes when suddenly I was asked to come over to the dance floor. Unbeknownst to me, superfriend Liz Prince had invited Dave Jordan and his rock band to set up at our wedding, and they had specially prepared six Weezer songs for me to sing (!!!?!) I jumped on the mic and we blasted through My Name Is Jonas, Buddy Holly, You Gave Your Love To Me Softly, Undone (The Sweater Song), Susanne and Say It Ain't So. Nate Beaty took the picture above, which does a great job of capturing how crazy everyone went. It was totally nuts!

I've never been in a real rock band that plays live before. It was pretty magical - like karaoke times infinity. I just about passed out from lack of air (the venue was at 8,000+ feet) and I fumbled on the lyrics here and there, but the crowd full of friends all had my back, singing along with me. In the end it came off pretty well. It made an already incredible night totally unforgettable!

Now that I'm back home, I'm desperately trying to catch up with everything, but it's not going well. I leave again on Friday for SPX so I may have to wait until I get back from that show for things to finally start calming down a bit. It has been a crazy couple of weeks.

Well anyway, thanks to everyone who helped make our wedding celebration so wonderful. Claire and I will have happy memories of it for the rest of our lives together!

San Francisco Zine Fest 2014

This weekend (August 30th and 31st) I will be tabling at the San Francisco Zine Fest with my buddy Greg Means of Tugboat Press. We will be at table #62 all weekend long.

I will have brand new copies of Drop Target #6, as well as issue three of Claire's Terrible Movie Nights zine, which is also hot off the press. I'll also have the usual slew of Phase 7 minicomics and my book Basewood, so please swing by and check it out if you live in the Bay Area!