Alec Longstreth's Blog, page 17

February 16, 2014

Europe was rad

Hello there, blog friends. I am back in the United States! Man, I had a great time in Europe. Those people sure do love comics over there.


I uploaded a bunch of photos from my trip and wrote little descriptions to accompany them, so head on over to my Flickr account if you want a play-by-play account of how awesome my trip was. I was especially glad to get to spend some real quality travel time with Chuck, Joe, Scott and Max, not to mention the whole rest of the gang at L'employé du Moi. They are the best! I am so lucky to be published by such wonderful people.


It was a crazy week back here at home trying to get caught up with everything. I've got a lot of illustration stuff going on right now, which is good, but also I am trying to send out all the Kickstarter Basewood copies. Luckily Claire is helping me out a lot. We're going to try and get all the copies sent out before I leave for Emerald City Comic Con, because after that I am going to be traveling A LOT.


Anyway, thank you so much to all the wonderful people who made my trip so memorable. I had a wonderful time and wish I could visit again soon!

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Published on February 16, 2014 04:54

January 26, 2014

Angoulême, Paris and Brussels!

Well, the Basewood books arrived safely from the printer on Thursday. Over the next couple of months I will be mailing out the Kickstarter backer copies, and then the book should be showing up in U.S. stores in late March or early April.


Meanwhile, in Europe, Basewood has been out for more than a year! On Tuesday I'm finally heading back to France and Belgium to promote the book. This trip will be especially fun, because I will be traveling and doing some signings with two of my CCS buddies, Charles Forsman and Joe Lambert.


Our trip kicks off with the Angoulême Festival International de la Bande Dessinée which runs from January 30th - February 2nd. Chuck and I are both published by L'employé du Moi so we'll be at table N5 in the "Nouveau Monde" tent:



Then after the festival we will be taking the train up to Paris to do a few signings. On February 4th at 6pm Chuck and I will be signing books at L'Atelier d'en face and on February 5th at 5pm Joe, Chuck and I will all be signing books at Super Héros.


After that, all three of us are heading up to Brussels for two more signings. The first is on February 7th at 4:30pm at Tropismes and the second is on February 8th at 4pm at Multi-BD.



This is the first of about a dozen trips I will be taking this year to promote Basewood. You can check the comics page to see a list of my 2014 comics appearances.


Well, that's about it. I'm sure it's going to be a great trip. The last time I went to Angoulême, it was quite an adventure! I'm probably not going to have consistent internet access while I'm on the road, so I'll report back here once it's all over, to tell you all how it went. Bon voyage!

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Published on January 26, 2014 13:49

January 21, 2014

Phase 7 #019 Preview!

The first eight pages of Phase 7 #019 are up over on the comics page if anyone would like a sneak peak! Phase 7 #019, which will be out later this Spring, contains the third and final chapter of my "Weezer Fan" trilogy. In this installment I tell the story of every Weezer concert I went to from 2000-2010. Readers will follow along as I go from regular fan to super fan: drawing posters for the band and eventually going backstage to pour my heart out in Rivers Cuomo's face!


You can keep track of my drawing progress on the homepage, and as ever, I'll update this site with ordering information as soon as it is available!

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Published on January 21, 2014 06:07

January 14, 2014

Anniversary!

One year ago today, Claire and I were married at the Alameda County Hall of Records in Oakland, California. Only our parents and Liz Prince attended the quiet civil service.


It was kind of a hectic time, with Claire's thyroid surgery scheduled for the next morning. But now, a year later, things have settled down nicely and we are both happy and healthy.


In two weeks I leave for a trip to France and Belgium to promote Basewood at the Angoulême Comics Festival. I had to cancel my trip last year when Claire's surgery was rescheduled right into the middle of it.


Claire and I are also in the planning stages for a much larger celebration of our marriage which will include our friends and family, which should take place this Autumn.


Last weekend we took a trip into the Arizona desert to visit Claire's grandparents who are 95 and 98, respectively. They have been married for many, many decades. We hope our marriage will last as long as theirs - we're off to a good start!

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Published on January 14, 2014 21:58

January 9, 2014

Out with the old, in with the new!

I finished my eleventh sketchbook last weekend. I started this one on December 20th, 2011, just after finishing Basewood. It was one I bound myself out of an old flannel shirt and some cool Steve Bissette dinosaur prints for the endpapers. The front half was full of yellow photocopy paper that I had laying around and the back was some nice drawing paper that I had left over from a project.


I mostly filled this thing up with daily strips about what is going on in my life, on days when I was too busy to draw "real" comics. I was pretty disappointed with the quality of Phase 7 #015 and #016, which were both sketchbook issues, so I intentionally drew in a sloppy, fast style, so that I will never be able to use these comics as a publishing safety net. No one's ever going to see these comics, and I'm okay with that. The rest of it was thumbnails and sketches for various illustration work.


For my twelfth sketchbook I'm going to use the "Bulking Dummy" that the printer sent me for my self-published edition of Basewood. This is basically the exact book (actual size, real paper, real cover stock, etc.) except that it is entirely blank. It'll be fun to fill up, and it's sort of symbolically nice, because so much of my work this year is going to be devoted to getting Basewood out into the world. I can use this blank version of the book to capture my new ideas while I am out on the road, trying to sell as many filled-in copies as I can!

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Published on January 09, 2014 22:31

January 4, 2014

Cat!

Oof, that last post was kind of a downer. As I said, we're all about fighting back against sad things with positive stuff around here, so in that vein, I'd like to introduce everyone to our new cat, who we just brought home from the animal shelter this afternoon!


At the pound his name was "Cosmo" which we may or may not stick with. He is super affectionate - he loves to get pets, and purrrs a lot. I grew up a "dog person" so this is definitely my first cat, but he seems like a great guy so far. I'm sure we'll be fast friends.


I'm going to be on the road a lot this year, so hopefully this little guy can keep Claire company while I am away. Anyway, I know the internet likes cats, so here's the first picture of ours!

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Published on January 04, 2014 01:37

January 2, 2014

2013

2013 was a crazy year for me. In one way or another, most of that craziness stemmed from Claire's thyroid cancer. We got married, she was treated and recovered, and I worked harder than I ever had before on a variety of professional projects. As 2013 was wrapping up, I realized I had still not drawn a 24-Hour Comic, which I try to do every year. I decided to spend all of December 31st reflecting back on this crazy year by drawing a comic about it.


This ended up being Claire: Part Two which is now available to read online. It was drawn from 8:08am to 10:24pm.


Today I also drew the image you see here for my 2013 blog archive. It's kind of a sad one, but it depicts a real turning point for me. Horrible things are going to happen in life, but you can fight back with happiness and hard work, to turn things around. I learned that the hard way last year.


We had a quiet holidays here in Alameda. I am enjoying our new apartment very much and have been getting a lot of creative work done here. The Basewood book is done and should arrive from the printers next week. Getting that book into people's hands is going to be my big project this year, so more about that later.


For now, I'm excited for a fresh start. Let's hope 2014 is a good one!

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Published on January 02, 2014 05:08

November 25, 2013

Friends! Books!

Two of my closest friends, Jon Chad and Greg Means both have brand new books that came out this month! Things have been so crazy around here, I haven't had a chance to properly plug these projects... until tonight!


Leo Geo and the Cosmic Crisis is Jon's follow-up to his 2012 book Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth. Readers of Leo Geo 1 know that Jon loves to play with the possibilities of what a physical book can do, and Leo Geo 2 is no exception. If you flip the book over, it is also "Matt Data and the Cosmic Crisis." You can read the book from either end and they meet in the middle. Two stories in one!


Jon really went all out on this book. Unlike the first Leo Geo book, this one is in full color, which allows Jon to pack every single page with tons and tons of hilarious details. You can read this book over and over and you will constantly find new things that you missed on previous readings. If you have a kid in your life who loves detailed drawings, or science, you should definitely pick up this book for them. It would make a great Christmas present!


The Cute Girl Network would also make a good gift, but maybe more for an adult in your life. Greg co-wrote The Cute Girl Network with MK Reed and it was expertly drawn by Joe Flood. It's a romantic comedy about a girl named Jane who meets and likes this guy, Jack. But before she can date him, she has to get clearance from The Cute Girl Network, who put her in touch with many of his exes. The whole thing takes place in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn, so it was extra fun for me to read. You can read the whole first chapter over on BoingBoing.net if you want to check out the beginning of this great story.


Both of these books were published by various arms of Macmillan Publishing, which is one of the "big five" so you should be able to find these books at your local book shop. If not, they should be available everywhere else too. I know I'm biased, because these guys are my friends, but I did genuinely enjoy these books, so I'm recommending them to you, Dear Readers.


Claire and I are heading up to Seattle this week, to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I will also be participating in the Short Run 2013 Festival on Friday and Saturday while I am in town, so hopefully I will see some of you there!

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Published on November 25, 2013 02:23

November 1, 2013

Alameda

A few weeks before Claire and I decided to move from Vermont to Oakland, we flew out here to find an apartment. We only had five days to find a place, so we knew the apartment we settled on would work, but we would probably not be here forever.


After a little over a year of living here, there are a few things about our apartment that have started to drive us nuts: 1) It's pretty dark in here because there are only windows on one side of the apartment, and they all face North. 2) Outside those windows is a weird sort of parking lot/hangout zone for all the teens in our building. They are out there at all hours of the day and night, idling cars, revving motorcycle, boat and ATV motors, shooting pool, smoking weed, playing loud music, slamming the electronic gate that is attached to the side of our apartment, etc. etc. etc. 3) We get absolutely no cell phone reception in our apartment, which is very frustrating. We had to set up a weird workaround using Google Voice to be able to use our phone numbers through our computers, but we are still constantly missing important phone calls. It makes it very stressful to get packages delivered and stuff like that. 4) Someone broke into our mailbox, stole a credit card offer that was sent to Claire and filled it out with their own information. Luckily we caught the piece of mail when the cards arrived, but it was pretty scary coming that close to identity theft. People have also stolen cars out of our building's parking garage by being let in through the front gate. 5) There are about 80 units in our (huge) building, so everyone just kind of ignores each other and there is no real sense of community. People litter around the building and inside the building and there is a general lack of respect which rubs me the wrong way.


ANYWAY, last summer I was heading home to Seattle for the fourth of July weekend, which was right in the middle of the BART strike. I had to take a weird bus route to get to the airport and it went right through Alameda, which is a small island/city, just South of Oakland. There were tons of cute houses and the main street had a nice book store and a crazy toy store and lots of restaurants and shops and stuff. After my trip to Seattle, Claire and I went back to Alameda a few times and really enjoyed checking out all the parks and fun stuff there is to do out there. Did I mention they have Pinball Museum???


So for the last four months Claire has been hunting around on Craigslist for apartments in Alameda. Eventually one popped up that we like and that we can actually afford. It's the exact same size as our current apartment, but it's got windows on the South, East AND West walls! There are trees outside instead of a parking lot! Our mail will come through our front door and into the studio! We get four bars of cell phone reception inside the apartment! There are only eight units - we've met the neighbors - they're nice! Also there are hardwood floors and we are allowed to get a cat and/or a dog if we want!


So, we're moving. We have been making a lot of little trips using City Car Share but on Monday we're getting a Uhaul to move the big stuff (like my pinball machine...) We're both pretty excited about this move. Claire and I spend about 95% of our time inside our apartment because we work from home, so it'll be nice to have a quieter, brighter, less stressful place to live and work.


The other great thing about this new place is that it's only a 20 minute bus ride to get back to our old neighborhood in Oakland. I'll be back a few times a week at least because I'm keeping my Oakland P.O. Box. It also means we can still go hang out with our Oakland friends and go do all of the fun stuff that we love to do in Oakland, like seeing old movies at the Paramount Theatre or walking around Lake Merritt.


This move is inconveniently overlapping with the home stretch of my giant illustration project which is due on November 15th. I have been pretty stressed out lately, but compared with some of the other things I've had to deal with this year, it's not so bad. Right now I'm looking forward to November 16th, when I'll have a bit more time on my hands to enjoy my new surroundings. Hopefully it will be a LONG time before Claire and I move again! I would love to turn 40 in this new apartment.

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Published on November 01, 2013 23:17

October 6, 2013

Back to Work!

Well, the Basewood Kickstarter finished strong, raising 214% of its original goal. September was a very internet-heavy month for me, as I tried to promote the Kickstarter on twitter and facebook, etc. etc. etc. Honestly, I'm a little burned out. Luckily I have been drawing a lot, which helps balance out all of this "screen time."


Last week I finished penciling my big, top-secret illustration project that I have been working on since this summer. Inking for this project will go much faster than the penciling, so that has freed up a tiny slice of my schedule, which I'm using to start penciling Weezer Fan: Part Three (see above). The illustration project should be wrapped up by the end of November, at which point I'll be able to devote myself full time to finishing off that issue. I'm hoping to send it out to the Phase 7 Subscribers in early 2014.


SPX was wonderful, as usual. Thanks to everyone who swung by and said hello. I'll be tabling at the Alternative Press Expo this upcoming weekend (October 12-13) along with Claire who will have some of her plush toys along with the full line of Fluff Engine pattern/instruction booklets, as well as the new issue of her Terrible Movie Nights zine, and Greg who will have all kinds of cool stuff from Tugboat Press. We'll all be at table 604. If you're in the San Francisco area, swing on by! There should be plenty of cool stuff to check out.


Okay, I think that's it? Back to the drawing board!

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Published on October 06, 2013 22:20