An Award, A Party & The Best Damn Comics Festival I've Ever Seen

Girl On The Road Garners Artist Trust GAP Funding

I am excited to report that my application to the Artist Trust Grants for Artist program has been met with success!  I am honored to be one of the 61 artists to receive funding in the 2016 grant cycle, including fellow cartoonist Sarah Rosenblatt plus cut paper artist and animator, Lauren Lida. 

I wrote about the process of creating this application back in May, including how I felt my work had been rushed but also sensed that the universe had sent me a positive sign after I finished my submission.  I'm so happy that I was not wrong.  Big thanks to Artist Trust for supporting me.  The funding they provide will be just enough to push the sample chapter of my graphic memoir into being.

October 22nd - Rock Is Not Dead!

It's here at last!  The Seattle project release party for Rock Is Not Dead will be happening this weekend on Saturday, October 22nd from 6 PM to 8 PM at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery. 

If you can make it, please come by.  Mark Campos created an excellent animation out of the comic we created for the printed anthology.  Come view comics in action plus a musical performance by Seattle Jazz Hall-of-Famer and punk rocker (yes, she does it all!) Amy Denio, who recorded a track for the project CD.

More on the anthology itself can be found on the 11th Dimension Press Website here. More on the event is on the Facebook event page.  And if you just want to purchase a copy, it's available at my Etsy store here.

An AWESOME New Festival:
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus

Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai at the
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus opening reception.

 Cartoon Crossroads Columbus celebrated it's second year this year as one of the world's coolest comics festivals.  They are not a big-ticket super hero comic-con.  Instead they are celebrating comics as art, and putting the innovators of comics as art in the center of their programming.  They are not a standard tabling event.  The festival has a tabling component, yes, but its schedule is built around fairly intimate panels, workshops and lectures by the industries' leading creative professionals.

This may sound dry to you, but it's a blast, and a big part of that is because you get to meet and talk to people you would never normally get to hang out with at the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus receptions and parties.  

Me and Keith Knight talking
about the garbage public schools
he deals with in North Carolina.

Last year I spent almost half an hour talking with Jaime Hernandez, who was my main reason for attending, but then also got to talk with Art Spiegelman in the hallway of the Wexner Center for the Arts and Bill Griffith during his book signing. 

This year I informally talked about micron pens with Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai at the opening reception, discuss racism and home schooling with Keith Knight and traded art and stories regarding our shared affinity for trilliums with Seth.  I picked up tips on script development from Raina Telgemeier and friended Carol Tyler and laughed until I cried at the antics of Lalo Alcaraz during a panel about political cartoons.

This is just brushing the surface of awesome experiences I've had at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus.  Mark Campos, who traveled with me this year, posted a small photo album here and wrote a blow-by-blow of our experience this year on his personal blog here.    But check out their website for yourself, and plan on attending next October!

Girl On The Road posts about comics, publication and community on Tuesdays.

 

New Arrivals

It's October already!  If you are a cartoonist living in or around Seattle, this means it's only a few more weeks until the Short Run Comix & Arts Festival, which happens this year on November 5th.  It catalyzes a lot of cartoonists and zinesters to create new work.  My goal was to have the sample chapter of my graphic novel, Girl On The Road, done by this year's event (WAY more about this next week!  I have astounding good news.) but I also have some long-term projects that happily just happen to be wrapping up right now.

Rock Is Not Dead - Available Now!

Me giving my super model, Cait Willis,
her contributor's copy of Rock Is Not Dead.

A large box of books and CDs arrived at my house last week, containing the finished Rock Is Not Dead project.  It is exciting to hold these in my hands.  When I heard about the anthology almost two years ago, I excitedly built a comic around the Throwing Muses song "Not Too Soon" with fellow cartoonist Mark Campos, and got Seattle's punk-jazz Seattle Music Hall-of-Famer Amy Denio to cover the song for the soundtrack.

Now that it's here, I'm happy to report we are doing a Seattle Rock Is Not Dead release party on Saturday, October 22nd at Fantagraphics.  All of the artists involved will be on hand to hang out and sign books, as well as the fabulous artist who was the model for my main character, Cait Willis.

The event has already received a sweet write-up in Seattle's "City Arts" Magazine.

You can find more details about the anthology and the event on the Facebook event page here.  https://www.facebook.com/events/387618274695843/

You can also order your copy of the book and CD at my Etsy shop, www.etsy.com/shop/NoelFranklinArt

I do a lot of drawing in my
leopard print pajamas.

Can't Say

I've been writing occasionally about working with anthologies.  I love anthologies.  They are like a comprehensive community in book form.  I've been lucky to be included in some really great ones, over my first three years of making comics, and now have a stack of stories created for anthologies and publications that I can compile into a new minicomic.

So, that's what I did.  Here it is.  It's entitled "Can't Say," based on an illustration I created for the Norway-based Outre Press.  It's a zine-style minicomic that includes 6 stories and 2 illustrations that I created for publications from Seattle's alternative weekly newspapers to international anthologies and online journals.

Can't Say is also available at my Etsy shop, and will be at my table at Short Run.

Coyote and Butterfly Woman

Sample page from
Coyote and Butterfly Woman.

I have been working for a year to realize Anne Bean's brilliant story, Coyote and Butterfly Woman,

I spent just over 9 months on creating Coyote and Butterly Woman, though it is only a 12-page story, and drew from over 300 source image files.

And it is finally at the printers!  The narrative is a modern feminist take on a tradition Nez Perce story.  I've never worked harder on a comic.   The writing itself is hard-hitting and dark, with some nuanced humor, and I wanted to do my very best to honor both the origins of the story and Anne's take on it through how I illustrated each panel.

These are arriving on my doorstep this Wednesday, and you can order these at my Etsy shop, as well.  For a mere $5, you can have the best comic I've created to date.

Next Week - Girl On The Road Gets Real

Check back in with me next week.  I have great news on my progress towards making the Girl On The Road graphic novel a reality. 

Girl On The Road posts about comics, publication and community on Tuesdays.

ROCK IS NOT DEAD - A Tale of Two Collabs

Cover graphic for ROCK IS NOT DEAD.

ROCK IS NOT DEAD

I'll be hosting a book and CD release party for ROCK IS NOT DEAD at Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery on October 22nd!  The party will include performances by Amy Denio, Mark Campos and myself. Special Guests TBA.

ROCK IS NOT DEAD is an international anthology of comics and short stories inspired by rock songs. It includes a CD of indie musicians covering each song that the stories are based on.

The Seattle ROCK IS NOT DEAD team comic was conceived by Mark Campos (Moxie My Sweet, Places That Are Gone) and illustrated by Noel Franklin (me). It is based on the Throwing Muses song "Not Too Soon," which is covered by the Seattle musical virtuoso, Amy Denio (Kultur Shock, Tiptons Sax Quartet).

The story takes place entirely in and around the SIFF Egyptian Theatre and features Seattle artist Cait

Cait Willis models for a panel in
Not Too Soon for
ROCK IS NOT DEAD.

Willis as the model for the central character.

I'll be writing more on the backstory closer to the event!  Until then, you can check out the Facebook event page for ROCK IS NOT DEAD here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/387618274695843/

ALSO: for more information on the ROCK IS NOT DEAD project, or to order online, visit the 11th Dimension Press website at http://bookstore.11thdimensionpress.com/product/rockisnotdead-package-1/

 

Coming Soon: Coyote and Butterfly Woman

I've been writing about my collaboration with comics script creator and lover of fairy tales, Anne Bean.  She recieved a grant from Artist Trust to commission a handful of cartoonists to illustrate her updated treatments of folk and fairy tales from around the world.  I'm working with her on Coyote and Butterfly Woman, a modernized version of a Nez Peirce folk tale.

I love working with writer Anne Bean, but
she does introduce me to some
sketchy characters!  Meet Magpie
from Coyote and Butterfly Woman.

When Mark Campos and I created the story for ROCK IS NOT DEAD, we worked almost organically, to the point where he provided the impetus for the story but we ultimately co-created the script and I ran with the visuals.  Anne had a script, complete with panel breakdowns, already in hand, and getting my mind inside the story was half the battle for me.

I'm in the final stretch of completing the artwork, however, and I'm loving it.  The final comic is due to premier at the Short Run Comic and Art Festival in Seattle on November 5th.  (I may try to sneak a few copies to the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus festival in October, though.)  More on what's coming up for Short Run in the coming weeks!

Girl On The Road posts about comics, publication and community on Tuesdays.

Though I Walk Through The Shadow of Uncanny Valley . . .

Mark Campos at Bistro Montage in Portland,
featured here with Moxie, My Sweet.

Living with a fellow cartoonist has its benefits, particularly when they are a long-standing feature in the minicomics world.  My housie Mark Campos wrote the anthology Moxie, My Sweet - illustrated by some of the finest cartoonists Seattle has to offer - and has drawn stories for anthologies like Not My Small Diary and Fantagraphics Treasury of Mini Comix.  Mark is not only experienced in the practical aspects of making comics, his head is full of cartooning history and theory.

I'm not like that.  My comics tool kit contains little more than combining a disparate background in fine arts and poetry as an approach to telling stories.  I have limited knowledge of the medium and it's context and having seasoned cartoonists to turn to while I attempt creating a graphic memoir is invaluable.

Uncanny, Isn't It?

Panel with self-portrait on a Chicago train platform.
What is wrong with this picture?

Creating Girl On The Road hasn't been precisely "Write script. Grab pen. GO!"  I've had to make decisions as simple as page size and as difficult as fictionalizing elements of an autobiographical story.  Somewhere in between, how to stylistically approach drawing people is one of the hardest things I've wrestled with.

The book is partially travelogue, so I want backgrounds that deliver a specific location in the story. But the core story is relational, so I want characters that are expressive.

My attempts at marrying photo-realism and expressiveness have not gotten me where I'm going yet.

Back to Mark Campos.  As I sit cursing at the kitchen table over the fact that an image I drew straight from photo reference looks like a mutant, he factually chimes in "It's 'Uncanny Valley'."  And DAMMIT if he's not right.  It is.

Things That Look Almost Human Creep Us Out

Screen grab from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
by comics blogger Coelasquid.

Uncanny Valley is a term developed by people in robotics.  As certain corporations race to invent the humanoid robot that everyone will love, they keep running into the problem that robots that look like humans freak real humans out. 

There's a dry Wikipedia article about it, but I found an absolutely AWESOME blog about the Uncanny Valley effect as it relates to comics here.  Funny as hell.  References Soundgarden.  You should check out "Close But No Cigar" on Manly Guys Doing Manly Things and get a hard laugh out of it as well as some good information.

What I got out of it was reinforcement that I need to put my hands up and step away from the light table.  My just-slightly-off photo-realistic drawings of people are just-slightly-off-putting.  Even if I had an exact photo reference for every panel of the book, it wouldn't be enough to carry the characters.  But at least I have something of a measure to judge against when assessing my next crop of drawings.  It might keep my book from falling into the Uncanny Valley.

Thanks, Mark.

 Girl On The Road posts about comics, publication and community on Tuesdays.

Grinding Up The Gears

Jezinkas!  My 18-page adaptation
of a Bohemian folk tale.
Now available on NoelFranklinArt Etsy.

Hello, Etsy!

So I've launched an Etsy shop.  Right now it only has a few mini comics on it, but I will be bulking it up with additional stories and lots of original arts in the coming two weeks.

You can find it here:  

https://www.etsy.com/shop/NoelFranklinArt

Once upon a time I had a shop associated with my website.  And then I foolishly allowed my URL to lapse and it was purchased by some URL brokerage and is being held ransom.  

DO NOT DO AS I HAVE DONE.  I totally need to relaunch a website.  

Until then, come on over and check my Etsy out!

Also know that I am available for commissions, including portraits, album and poster art or....try me.   You can contact me with requests at m.noel.franklin@gmail.com

 

Hometown Heroes and ECCC

The location of Hometown Heroes.
Emerald City Comicon is happening literally right up the
street, where Pine Street runs into Interstate 5.

Quick reminder come check out Hometown Heroes, an awesome sounding new comics event where you can sample the art and minicomics of 30 local Seattle independent creators.

The event happens on Friday, April 8th from 6:30 to 11:00.  The location is 1927 Events, just down the street from Emerald City Comicon.

You can check out the details on the Hometown Heroes Facebook Page. 

If you are going to be in attendance at Comicon, you can find me at the I Heart Comic Art Table, Booth L13 in the Artist Alley.

You can find full details here.

A work by Aaron Morgan from

Push/Pull Book Club Presents: The Master & Margarita

But What About Saturday?
Two Art Shows of Note.

Push/Pull Book Club Presents: The Master & Margarita

You already know I'm a big fan of Push/Pull Gallery in the Ballard district of Seattle.

Well, they are having a fantastic art show of works inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov's brilliant book The Master and Margarita.  

The show will feature work by Seattle artists Corianna Garrels, Maxx Follis, Melissa McClintock, Aaron Morgan and Mark Campos.
 

The event runs from 6 -10 PM on Saturday April 9th.  Full details here.

But wait, there's more!

A Tribute to CREPAX: Art Show + Book Launch

I would be remiss to not mention Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery's tribute to late Italian cartoonist Guido Crepax. The event features an exhibition of original art by contemporary American cartoonists including David Lasky, Peter Kuper, Benjamin Marra, Roberta Gregory, George Pratt, and Mark Wheatley, as well as reproductions from the Complete Crepax Volume 1. 

The opening on Saturday, April 9 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM includes film shorts by Brazilian artist Alex Korolkovas, a sound installation by Sérgio Rocha of Portugal, a limited edition Crepax companion publication, and other exclusive merchandise.

NEXT WEEK. . . Twilight Gallery!

Defeo's Deadly Rose.
One of two works I'll be exhibiting at
Science +/- Art show at Twilight Gallery.

I will have two works in the Science +/- Art show at Twilight Gallery.

Science+/-Art examines the interplay of art (empathy, creativity, subjectivity) and science (categorization, rules, objectivity).

The show opens April 14th from 6-9pm during the West Seattle Art Walk and runs through May 28th.

Featuring artists include myself, Marie Hausauer, Jody Joldersma, Satpreet Kahlon and Jess Rees.

I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! And it may be my last gallery show for a while.  So stop on by!

Until next week!

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

 

Rock Is Not Dead! Hometown Heroes Comes to Life!!

Rock Is Not Dead. 
The Anthology.  The Album!
Now available on pre-sale from 11th Dimension
Press at:  http://ow.ly/Z8nC5http://ow.ly/Z8nC5

Rock Is Not Dead

In a year where we have lost countless awesome musicians to the Grim Reaper, I am happy to be part of the anthology Rock is Not Dead.

The project is ambitious.  The anthology collects stories and comics inspired by Rock and Roll songs.  Simple enough, right?  But the publisher decided to pay for the rights to the music and are putting out a companion CD of cover versions for each song the stories are inspired by.

I collaborated with fellow cartoonist Mark Campos to create a story inspired by the Throwing Muses song, Not Too Soon.  The lovely and talented artist Cait Willis agreed to model for the story, which is entirely set in Seattle's historic Egyptian Theatre, and international recording artist Amy Denio recorded a spooky cover version of the song.

The comic is full color and features a full range of styles.  If you are a lover of music or comics, you want this!  It is available on presale through indiegogo here.

There's a new kid in Seatown!
Check out Hometown Heroes on Facebook or the World Wide Web.

Hometown Heroes, Launching 4/8/2016

Speaking of things that rock...there is a new comics event coming to Seattle this year.  It's called Hometown Heroes, happening Friday, April 8 at 6:30 to 11 PM.

That's right, those of you who just double-checked your Emerald City Comicon schedules.  Hometown Heroes is happening on the same weekend as the industry juggernaut known as Comicon.  But it's an event of an entirely different stripe.  It's free of charge, features only local independent comics creators and is low-pressure.  Founder Casey Silver describes it as a one-night local comics pop-up shop/art show.  Creators will be present, but free to roam as you pay for your awesome local finds at a check out station.

I'll be at Hometown Heroes, and I'm hoping A LOT of people come down to check it out and make the event a success.  NEVER FEAR Comicon attendees, Hometown Heroes is also just down the street from the Convention Center - at 1927 events near the corner of 3rd and Olive Way - so you can have your big comics cake and fulfill your minicomics cravings too.

I'll have free postcards for the Rock Is Not Dead
anthology at both Hometown Heroes, Fri 4/8
and Emerald City Comicon, Sun 4/10

Emerald City Comicon, 4/10

I will also be attending and tabling Emerald City Comicon on Sunday, April 10th as the winner of last year's I Heart Comic Art competition hosted by Ladykiller Promotions. 

You can find me there for sales and signings at the I Heart Comic Art table, located in the Artist Alley, Booth L:13.  I'll only be there on Sunday of the event, from 12:30 to 2:15 PM.

If you've already got passes, come by and say hello!  I don't have a lot of new work to sell - I've been drawing like crazy, but it's been for anthologies, art shows or on the graphic novel.  

HOWEVER, I will have a free postcard for the Rock Is Not Dead anthology to hand you, and a special edition of my Czech horror/folk tale, Jezinkas as well as Gone Girl Comics #1 and 2 will be for sale.

See ya there!

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

The Hurt That Heals

Update #1:  

Thinking about my 2015/2016 in terms of John Porcellino's "The Hospital Suite" gives me hope I can turn this thing around, yet.

Update #2:

In a long late night conversation with Mark Campos, we came up with the idea mining the wound hard enough for the art might just retrieve the bullet and allow you to heal.  And maybe the bullet is diamond pointe and maybe the wound shines like glass on a ruby lake.  

At least it only took 'em 1 try
(as apposed to 8, yes 8!) to set the IV this time

This week's blog is going to be short and....sweet?  Not so much, as I've been spending more time in hospitals that outside of them over the last couple of months and last week was no exception.

Lets start out with some of the good parts.

OK! OK! OK HOTEL!

Artist Jeff Milhalyo and Royal Room
co-owner Tia Matthies.

I wrote last week about my much-anticipated enjoyment of the OK Hotel Family Reunion.

Seattle's Royal Room, whose owners also ran the OK Hotel from 1987 - 2001, is a great venue.  The shows were perfectly booked, well attended and I sold a lot of my little illustrated histories of the venue.

I also got to acquire some art as well, in the form of a limited edition vintage calendar from back in the day, produced by the lovely and talented and full-hearted Jeff Milhalyo.

I attended 3 out of 4 of the nights before I fell ill again and was back in the hospital on Monday, just getting discharged this morning.

The Hurt that Heals.  If it doesn't kill 'ya.

Debbe Penne, whose death on the crash of Alaska Flight 261
is part inspiration for "Girl On The Road"

Don't get me wrong.  Art can be this amazing, joyful, fun activity that is a celebration of all good things.  But a lot of what I work with is dark material--things that have hurt me physically and/or emotionally in the past.  The graphic novel that I've working on is created from several of these incidents, and digging far enough into them to make a comprehensive, cathartic yet funny and page-turning story means feeling a lot of that hurt again.  

I'm starting to realize that the work going into the art is bigger than the art itself, and I'm going to need a lot of support around it.  It means building up this concept of self-care, which was completely foreign to me until I nearly killed myself from lack there-of.  And, of course, enjoying my friends who are still here.  I have this lovely creative community.  I may possibly be misguided by the notion that if you use art to cut deep enough into the wound, it might just heal you--and done well enough, heal others as well.  I have no proof of this hypothesis, but I'm working on it.

The Grants Game Part 2

Gone Girl Comics has moved!  And will also be sunsetting the name "Gone Girl Comics" pretty soon here.  HOWEVER, things are kicking up in 2016.

FUNDED!  Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle - City Artist Project Grants 2016

I'm happy to report that my graphic novel has been selected as one of the 30 projects funded by the Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle for 2016.

This is the second grant the project has garnered, after the 4Culture Art Project award.  I was very nearly certain the proposal would not be funded, because the application requires you to select either literary or visual arts, yet comics incorporate both.  In the spirit of "Don't Ask, Don't Get," I went forward with the application.  You can learn more about the Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle here.

Both grants support the creation of the full script plus sample chapters and require a public presentation, so I've got A LOT of work to do.  It will be worth it, though, because I should have what I need to shop the book to an agent or publishing house when I am through.  

Awesome women's comics inside!

The Anthology Game Part 3

I had a fair amount of anthology inclusion in 2014 & 2015.  The highlight for me, hands down, was being included in The Strumpet, Issue #4, "The Friendship Issue."

The Strumpet is an anthology of quality comics by women only, and it publishes in both London and New York!  Issue #4 "is all about lady friends -- from best friends forever to friend with a question mark. [It] explores the highs, the lows, the joys, the sorrows, the awesomeness and the awkwardness of female friendship."

Many of the stories in this issue rocked my world, including one by Casandra Grullon that made me cry.  You can read more about The Strumpet here, and you can buy the current and back issues at Editor Ellen Lidner's Etsy shop here.  

I also have a comic in the most recent issue of multi-medium literary magazine Raven Chronicles as well as Connections, a comics anthology to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Moving forward, I have a 3-party collaboration with Seattle Cartoonist Mark Campos and Seattle Musician Amy Denio, to be featured in the pending 11th Dimension Press' "Rock is Not Dead" anthology with accompanying music CD.  Mark conceptualized the story based on the Throwing Muses song "Not Too Soon" and Amy Denio recorded a cover of the song and had Mark and I play "trash percussion" utilizing only a wash basin and mallets. 

Detail from "Not Too Soon."
Gone Girl Comics with Mark Campos and Amy Denio.

Starting the sample chapters of my graphic novel leaves little room to work on other independent project, unfortunately, but I AM collaborating with writer Anne Bean on her story "Coyote and Butterfly Woman."

The story is a modernized version of a tradition Nez Pierce story, and I get to have fun drawing anthropomorphic characters.  Anne has also joined into the grants game, and this comic collaboration is made possible in part by an Artist Trust GAP grant she secured.

Next Week:  Tabling In Honor of a beloved Seattle institution, The OK Hotel.

 

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

Gone Girl - Origins

The NYT best seller.
Image from Wikipedia.

Sometimes if you begin a manuscript, stamp a title on it and then let it percolate for a decade, someone else publishes a New York Times best-selling book under the same name before you get yours underway.  OK, I'm sure it doesn't always happen that way, but that is what happened to me.

 

 Gone Girl the Prose Memoir

In 2006, I participated in National Write a Novel Month (NaNoWriMo) with the goal of creating a minimum 55,000-word manuscript.  I took a blood oath to complete the project along with two fellow artist and writers.  By November 30th I had written 77,000 words of a memoir outlining the years leading up to and after a friend's death.  I meant it to be an interesting travelogue that just happened to include a tragedy.  

Toast to our lost friends!  Taken on November 29, 2006
after typing the last words of my NaNoWriMo draft.
(It really was that cold in my apartment.)

It was not the Great American Novel, which is forgivable from an unedited manuscript written in 30 consecutive  late evenings.   The process did get the raw material onto the page, though, and--while I pushed the project aside to work on professional projects--it started a process that I hope will eventually lead to a work worthy of the subject.

The 1995 Cover.

 

 

Gone Girl the Poetry Chap Book

The obvious reason for titling my manuscript Gone Girl is that the book included two female lead characters and one of them goes away.  The less obvious fact is that I was falling back on a title I had already used in 1995.  It was the title of one of the poems I used to read on Portland, OR Spoken Word stages and later used as the title of my first poetry chapbook, which is copyrighted 1995.  

One night I was going to perform at Portland's historic Cafe Lena, and I told the poet Douglas Spangle that I was nervous.  When they called me to stage, he yelled "You Go Girl!" and when I walked off after reading he shouted "You're GONE Girl!" It stuck with me.

 

Gone Girl Comics - Then and Now

Gone Girl the poetry chap book also contains my first comic.  It's a four page silent comic that only has two word, GIMP and HEAL, spelled out in sign language at the beginning and end of the story.  Ten years later, I drew my second comics story--an illustration of a poem by David Lasky--and another 5 or so years after that I published my first all-out minicomic.  

Gone Girl, the novel by Gillian Flynn, came out shortly before I put out Gone Girl Comics #1, and I was unaware of it.  When people started referencing it, I didn't pay much attention.  Lots of things share titles.  Then her book sold very, very well and now the movie.  

Page 1 of 4 of my first comic.

I am disappointed, because all of the comics work I've done up to date has been preparation for
converting my initial manuscript into a full-length graphic novel under the title Gone Girl.  I have friends who pseudo-jokingly goad me to sue for the name, since I published first, but there's very little chance Gillian came across my 600-run self-published poetry/comic hybrid, to begin with.  And I'll leave fame-via-litigation to former Jerry Springer contestants er...special guest speakers.

On top of everything else, I've had women roll their eyes at me without even masking their condescension when reading the title of Gone Girl Comics.  Even if it lived in my mind first, and I'm attached to it, some faction from the Court of Public Opinion will always judge against my use of Gone Girl as a title for anything literary.

 

One cover image from the
Real Gone Girl site.
Courtesy Miriam Libicki

 

Other Gone Girls

My Gone Girl is gone.  I've changed the title of my pending graphic novel to Girl on A Road, which is a song by Ferron, suggested by cartoonist Mark Campos.  But it's worth noting that Gillian Flynn just might have lifted the title Gone Girl from a short story of the same name by noir writer Lew Archer.

I'd also like to mention Real Gone Girl comics by Miriam Libicki.  Miriam lives in Canada and creates beautifully rendered and well-written autobio comics about her service in the Israeli army during the second Intifada, among other things.  Though our comics have shared a similar name, I can't imagine a much more different life than mine, and I'm really happy that the whole copyright issue led me to discovering her stories and artwork. Be sure to check her work out here.

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