Restricted Frequency #141
NYC, TSG, and Comix Engine #2
1.
The night at Joe’s Pub was amazing.
One of the highlights for me was when the crew, slyly scattered between the audience, shouted “down with the president” at the top of their lungs, getting everyone in the otherwise gentile space that is Joe's Pub totally riled up and very much on board.
And y’know, I think I’m taking a liking to this whole live hosting thing. I just might do more of it.
On a not-quite-related note, I’ll be on the East Coast again for a big chunk of January, this time touring with Ramy Essam between Washington DC and New York City. I have to be honest, I’m not particularly keen on being in the bowels of New York’s frost giants this year, but it will be cool to kick it with Ramy and come up with visuals for a bunch of his music stuff.
Detailed tour schedule forthcoming.
2.
Someone leaked a photo from an academic conference for me.
Okay, so it may not be the most well attended of conferences, but still!
Funny thing is that THE SOLAR GRID (which is not yet finished and I feel absolutely terrible about that) has increasingly become the subject of academic interest. It’s almost every couple of months now that I get an email from a different scholar requesting hi-res images for use in a journal article or presentation or something of the sort. Which is totally surprising to me!!
And a little weird. It feels to me like someone researching a not-yet-finished painting. Not that I’m complaining! I’m totally happy it’s getting that kind of interest, but now I just feel way more anxious about finishing it (which, let’s face it, is probably a good thing).
3.
I have a few Advance Reader’s Copies to give away.
This volume constitutes chapters 1-4, so only half the overall story. However, as the sole writer/artist/designer/editor/everything on this project… I need feedback! Especially at this stage as I plow through the second half. In case there are any changes that might need to be made in the first half that could potentially affect some of the stuff in the second half, it’s good to get that feedback in now.
So, if you’d like to partake and be considered to receive a free copy, like and retweet this tweet. Fellow artists, writers, editors, and publishers to the front please.
4.
Comix Engine #2—Previously in Restricted Frequency (in a series I am now dubbing Comix Engine) I discussed the prospect of a 90-page periodical containing a mixed bag of comix, prose, and other art to be released three times a year. With 36 pages of those 90 constituting Act 1 of a 3-act graphic novel. It occurs to me now that a 4-month wait for an installment in a story is probably… a bit too long.
Heck, even monthly is a considerable wait. Weekly is the ideal. I think we as humans are kind of hardwired for weekly doses of pleasure. Hence: Weekly week-ends, weekly sermons, weekly television episodes, weekly “city mags”, and so on.
So perhaps a weekly trickle of 3-page installments in the lead-up to the publication is a good idea?
Online obviously. Not much point in a 3-page print publication. It would need to be written with that 3-page “beat” structure in mind though. With something of a sort-of cliffhanger every 3 pages, while avoiding the likely camp that comes with that sort of gimmick. The trick is to make sure that that “beat” doesn’t become too tiresome as a 144-page volume at the end of the year 🤔
Again, just thinking out loud here, about ideas for future projects I probably shouldn’t even be considering.
Hope everyone’s year is coming to a pleasant end, except the English who clearly want nothing but their own demise (save for the 1/6 minority of the population, who we are willing to forgive and accept back into the post-colonies with open arms).
Ganzeer
December 14, 2019
Houston, TX
P.S. I’m moving again! 🤯Well, tentatively. And this time not out-of-state. Honestly, if this move does work out 🤞 it should be a good thing because it’ll be the first time in 5 years that I’ve had the space to do the painting and comixing and all the things! I should know for sure come January 😬