Recent Days (Closure)

Right out of school, a month before starting Brain Frame, in the cosmic summer of 2011, I began this autobiographic comic called Recent Days. I performed some of it at the first Brain Frame, and some more at the first anniversary (BF7). I got to around seventy pages before abandoning the book. Here, finally, the story finds closure. This 2-page spread will be printed in the Brain Frame Yearbook, released this August at our third anniversary (BF19) and final show.

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Recent Days (Wedding Page)

Here's another page from Recent Days. These panels are drawn from photographs of my father's wedding. This project has been stalled recently, making it more difficult to start again. The book will be finished in the spring next year, but I'm not exactly sure when. In the meantime, I'm finishing a poster for Ben Rivers, drawing a comic for Lumpen, and incessantly operating the many tendriled beast Brain Frame.

Speaking of Brain Frame, here's a fantastic critical review by Bill Bacarella, recently published on Chicago Artist Writers. Read it!

Recent Days (Preview)

Here are a few pages from the comic I'll be reading tomorrow at Brain Frame 7. It's an autobiographical comic about the summer of 2011 called Recent Days. When it's finished, it will be well over 100 pages long. (The longest comic I've made to date is 11 pages.) I'm reading the first half at this Brain Frame, and the second half at Brain Frame 8, in September.

The comic is all drawn in pencil and non of it is planned beforehand. Usually, I methodically organize every little detail of my comics before beginning to draw them; not so in this case. The comic began as an exercise in forcing myself to draw and not worrying about it. It has morphed into a raw, honest, particular style, new to me and well suited to the subject matter. I often find autobiographical comics tiresome and problematic - it's been interesting trying to make one of my own, and one that I like.

There are a lot of real people featured in this narrative, and addressed by their full names. One of the great things about this reading is that most of those people will be present and playing themselves. Here're some photos of Ben Bertin, Gina Wynbrant and I working on a silhouette booth for the performance:

And here's a photograph of the Brain Frame 7 screen printed poster, which I finished last Sunday with help from Andrew Ghrist and susan sarandon:

This Brain Frame, I've upped the ante in more ways than just my reading and the poster. Brain Frame is goin' public! It got listed in The Reader, profiled (and recommended!) on Newcity, and Gapers Block was kind enough to interview me for a writeup as well! Susan sarandon also created this incredible gif:

Other, more personal, internet news include an artist's profile on Make Space and a wonderful, business-man's shout out on BOOOOOOOM! Yeah!