Architectual Boston from me, You and Who

My t-shirt finally arrived! It is exciting to see my design on the t-shirt at last! If you want to wear Architectual Boston as well, you can order them here. You will be supporting a good cause when you do. Either way, spread the love!

Buildings, Business Cards and Beacon Hill.

After almost ten years working at a big law firm in Boston, my better half, Josh Gardner, is starting up his own practice as a plaintiff's lawyer. Naturally I designed his business card. Josh rented an office in the beautiful Beacon Hill neighborhood, right downtown, and wanted an image of his new building on the card. I went up there one weekend and sketched his building and its immediate surroundings on Mt. Vernon Street, right behind the state house. I really love drawing buildings and houses, so it was a fun assignment for me. Back home, I finished up the drawing with ink and instead of the usual bristol board, I used a type of paper that I had bought at the art supply store previously: Border & Riley's #234 Paris Paper for Pens. It is super smooth, of high quality and I love it (though quite pricey, so it won't be for everyday use, that's for sure)!

I leave the web design to the experts, though. Freelance web designer/illustrator/cartoonist/editor and fellow member of Boston Comics Roundtable, Roho, is in charge of the web site's design and maintenance, and I will post a link to it as soon as Josh officially opens his practice (to visit Roho's blog and see his portfolio, click here).

Do you want a picture of your office building/house on your business card? Instead of a generic-looking drawing, the illustration will still have the characteristics of my usual style. Send me an email for info on rates, turnaround time and rights of usage!

MICE 2012

 This year's MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) was great! There were tons of vendors and visitors, but at its third show MICE was still local, friendly, unpretentious, and free! Here is a bunch of comics I picked up there: Catalina Rufin's The Summer of Aquarius in the back, next to Allie Kleber's Fruitless. Next row, left to right: Babka Remembers, by Marek Bennett, Eirik the Fed, by Will Clark (Laughing Boy Comics), Heartburn, by Allie Kleber, You're Never More at Home Than When it's Time to Leave, by Matt young, and Oo Pp Qq, Adventures in Substitute Teaching, by Anne Thalheimer. Third row: Free People, by L. Nichols (whom I was lucky enough to sit next to at MICE), Greetings, Brookline: I Am In You! by John Hilliard (a collection of his comics from The Brookline Tab), Zombre, by Ansis A. Purins (this comic was a big hit with my little boys of 8 and 6), Flocks, by L. Nichols, and Monarch Monkey, by Doug De Rocher. In the front: All Rumors Are True, by Laurel Lynn Leake, and the second issue of Inky Stories, by Dave Marshall. The books that didn't make it to this picture are: Nicaragua Comics Travel Journal, by Marek Bennett, and Comics as Poetry, edited by Franklin Einspruch, who also did the vibrant cover illustration and has a poem (as a comic) in there as well: "What Killed The Flowers."

 Above (top): a page from Allie Kleber's Heartburn. I really like her distinct line work! And check out Ansis A. Purins' front cover from Zombre. Pure awesomeness, or what?!

Dave Marshall, here with a spread from "Six-Year-Old Horsethief!" is a pro both when it comes to drawing comics and to teaching the art of drawing comics. He teaches a class at MassArt, The Art of the Comic Book. Outside of class, he often generously shares his knowledge of inking, lettering, etc., so we're happy he is still in our group (BCR) and not off somewhere signing autographs at bigger conventions.

 Doug De Rocher impressed everyone when he joined the BCR (around the same time that I did) and brought along his comics boards, created with cut paper. Monarch Monkey is a collection of his stories, and this one is from the upcoming anthology from Ninth Art Press (more info on that later).

Can you imagine a better gift idea for people who love comics, or who just have a sense of humor than these magnetic comics by Erik Heumiller? Below: three panels of whiteboard comes in a wooden frame with a stand, a marker and a wipe, plus a small bag of magnet people (right) to put in your panels. And voila! You bring the characters to life with your own word bubbles, wipe out the panels as you get new ideas, and have your friends play around with it too!

Left: characters from Charles Schneeflock Snow's new series, Oscar's Kitchen. I really loved his Sordid City Blues comics about a group of friends in Boston (sort of a romantic comedy from a male perspective), so I am looking forward to reading this one. As far as I can tell, it involves Satan and the restaurant business, so it sounds interesting!

The most powerful comic I encountered at MICE this year was L. Nichol's Flocks. Nichols sat at the table next to me, and I found her comics fascinating with their beautifully printed covers and intriguing mixed media technique. When I picked up Flocks, I expected it to be something good, but I did not expect that just from leafing through the pages, the story would throw me a punch in the stomach. This copy of Flocks, with the under title "A Paradox of Faith" is the first chapter of what Nichols intends to be a full graphic novel, and takes us into the world of a girl who realizes that rather than being a part of the "we" of her surrounding community in fact belongs into the category of "those others" who only seem to be defined in degrading, ridiculed and shameful terms. 

Here are some shots of Tofusqirrel's table, which of course caught my eye immediately, because of all the vibrant colors and intricate designs displayed there. I bought a button with a purple Boston terrier for my messenger bag, but could easily have spent more money at her table, it felt like a candy store and I felt like a little kid!

Finally, I picked up Anatomy for Artists (by Anthony Aspesos, illustrated by Karl Stevens) at Karl Steven's table. I needed one for the tutoring classes I am giving to kids, but I can't use the old (originally published 1896) anatomy for artists-book that I picked up in the Brookline Booksmith's used book cellar a while ago. I bought it because I liked the old black & white photos of chubby women with a silent-movie sort of look, but that was before I started reading the text. In the chapter on facial proportions, I realized that this was a book that operated with other theories and terms than we would expect to find in such a book today (it assumes theories of "highly civilized races" and that sort of racist nonsense, I wouldn't be surprised if this were the book Hitler used as a young art student). But Karl Stevens promises that there will be none of that in his book, thankfully! :-)

Of course, I have left out a bunch of awesome people whose tables I didn't get around to this year, or who I didn't buy a comic from this time. A lot of the BCR people were there of course, with their awesome stuff. I would list names, but then I would accidentally leave one or two people out, and so I'd rather not mention any. All the people who arranged the Expo and helped out at it (I regret to admit that I was not one of them this year) did a fantastic job and I am very thankful and impressed by their efforts.

One last thing: Hellbound III is out! I can't wait to buy a copy and read it!

Magnus and Jenner! They're here!

Finally! The children's book, Magnus and Jenner, written by Kim Girard and illustrated by me is available at amazon and at the Brookline Booksmith in Brookline's Coolidge Corner! Also check out the book's website here. Magnus and Jenner will make its way to more independent bookstores in the greater Boston area and I will also bring copies to sell at MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) in Porter Square, Cambridge, next Saturday, 09.29.12. I'll have half a table at MICE, selling my minicomics as well as copies of Magnus and Jenner. My next blog post will be about MICE and the comics I'll bring there, so check back again soon! In the meantime, read the Boston Globe article about MICE, posted on BCR's page on Facebook.  The photographer was walking around taking photos at our meeting last week when we all sat down to draw cartoons of mice for MICE.

Coming soon: Magnus and Jenner.

The children's book, Magnus and Jenner, by Kim Girard, which will be out in May, 2012! I am very excited about this project, since I have had the pleasure to illustrate this awesome story, and I can't wait to see it in print! This illustration, however, is just something I've put together for this blog post. Who better to start talking about the book than the hostess from that grisly reality show, "Beasts in Your Backyard?"


In Magnus and Jenner, this lady will help you hunt for strange creatures that lurk around your neighborhood. She is not the only one who offers help for people in distress either; further south, you can call the Alligator Eliminators, who will be more than happy to remove those pesky alligators that wander off from the swamp...and maybe the alligator eliminators have an eye out for other suspicious-looking creatures too...like trolls! But do trolls really exist? Are they dangerous? Or perhaps they are even more afraid of you than you are afraid of them? If they exist, then how come you never get to see them?

Magnus and Jenner is the story of an unlikely friendship between two very different characters, a boy and a troll. While the ever-cautious New England bridge troll, Magnus, sets out to search for his family, Jenner is in trouble at school, weighed down by his troubled family and just wants to run away. Since they  have a common destination in mind, the two set out on a journey that turns out to be more of an adventure than they had envisioned...

This won't be the last blog post about this book! Look out for the book's webpage too, it's currently under construction!