Girl On The Road

Myself and Roberta Gregory
enjoying the awesome vibe at Hometown Heroes.

Starting this week, I'm going to be focusing a LOT MORE on the process for the creation of my graphic novel, Girl On The Road.  I did want to note a quick few things before I do.

What A Week

It started, for me, on Friday night with the first ever Hometown Heroes, a new Seattle event featuring independent Seattle comics creators.  I posted a ton of photos on the Hometown Heroes Facebook page, but here is one of me with pioneering female cartoonist Roberta Gregory.  The event was packed and really, really fun. 

Two handsome cartoonists,
Sarah Romano Diehl with Marc Palm at Comicon.

Sunday I tabled the I Heart Comics art table at Emerald City Comicon.  I waded through oceans of super fans in cosplay to share a space with fellow Seattle cartoonists Sarah Romano Diehl and Marc Palm.

Monday I dropped off two large illustrations I produced for the Science +/- Art show at Twilight Gallery.  The show officially opens this coming Thursday, and I'm excited - what a great last commitment to have before delving back into relative solitude to work on a book-length comics story.

My portraits of Jay Defeo and Eva Hess, depicted with their iconic
art works and the chemical symbol for one of the toxic mediums
they worked with that may have lead to their deaths.
They will be on display until the first week in May at Twilight Gallery.

Back Into The Fray 

Misfire!  My first stab at a first page for a
sample chapter of Girl On The Road.
I decided against it before completing it.

The work I've been doing for anthologies and gallery shows sometimes feels like a distraction from the real work I've cut out for myself.  I've been wondering if signing on for so many projects hasn't been a form of self-sabotage.  I'm not going to get any farther as a cartoonist, period, without completing a graphic novel.

However, I feel like I have been upgrading my drawing skills, and have been able to experiment with some stylistic choices that I wouldn't have if I were already working on a book-length narrative.  There's going to be a lot of visual choices to make moving forward, and I think (hope) that all of the projects I've put my shoulder into this past year will be informing those decisions.

I'm going to be spending the rest of these weeks reviewing the work I've already done - going back over the maps and timelines, the sample chapter scripts, and trying to set up a framework to move forward with.  The plan is to wake up Monday morning and treat the book like a full time job.  I'll keep you posted.

C-log posts on comics, publication and community that publishes on Tuesdays.