this week

we here at the offices of barekublishing are celebrating the pony's birthday. to start, here is a comic featuring the pony:








the fishing trip was drawn this past june or july, and is printed in the funny aminals anthology. at the time i had just breezed through "a drifting life" by yoshihiro tatsumi, which influenced me to play with the vertical four-panels for each page.

also, credits for the story idea are due to Neighbor Lee, who employs this tactic while sometimes enjoying the out-of-doors.

if you wish to celebrate a birthday too, whether for the pony or someone else, please do so. if you are in austin and wish to commence in the onesies extravaganza cruise friday night, meet us up north at the bout time (or go to one of the various shows) and then set sail to my house for the afterparty featuring dj wonder! you can send me an email with questions about the venue if you are not a creep.

if you can't find it, grind it

i have been having bouts of misconcentration around projects. i have magically alleviated some of this bother by deciding to pull together the first installment of the clare story into a mini. now i get to be all dreamy about production. today after my job i spent a long time (for me) on the avenue of obtaining a scanner and tomorrow i will look at a free one from craigslist.

i kinda like this part of the process, where ridiculous gets serious.

anyway, since i don't have anything new scanned, here is something old.

it's from an unfinished comic that folks seem to refer to probably more often than other things i've worked on, although i don't think too many anybodies have seen it.
barekublishing is pleased to present a glimpse into a bygone era of secret wonder:

i love my mom

sometimes i think about what her life must have been like in her younger days.



she didn't have it easy
my mom is amazing and beautiful.

it's friday

nobody came for johhnycakes?

what IS clare all about? part IV

what IS clare all about, part III

what IS clare all about? part II

what IS clare all about? part I

those who know what clare is all about

the challenge:

today is

also: crumb, spiegelman, and mouly to be in austin on the 13th.

be not faint of heart!

still working on clare. this comic makes me think i'm nuts--that is, i never thought i'd be drawing something like this. but i will try not to falter!
happy spooks everyone!

excitement of the hunt

i forgot to mention!!

after looking in one big art store and not finding the nibs i wanted, a friend passed this along to me, an antique box (which once belonged to someone's grandfather or great-grandfather) of nibs--hunt 67 round point:



"a pen is only as good as its point" sez the box and well, i would like to believe these were probably crafted from a far superior grade of metal than ones i could find new today.
i'm pretty happy about these nibs and they are what i've been drawing clare with. they've seemed pretty durable, not that i have to worry about burning through these in a week or even a month. these come from when getting your nibs in bulk was more than 3 or 12--i'm not gonna count or figure how many would come in this box.

oh! and further exciting news--yesterday was a drawing day and i arrived to discover silky had burned me a wooden name plate for my drawing table!! yes, austin has been pretty decent to me thus far.

CLARE

hey all
i started a new comic two weeks ago that i am tentatively calling "clare"
i've been having fun with it. last week i averaged a page a day, which with job and social obligations, i was pretty happy about. but now it's averaged a page every two days cuz i only did two this week. here's one of them, page six:



so other fun news, i have a drawing buddy here in atx: silky! i went over other day to draw and just the night before she found a drawing table on the street that she brought home for me to use over there! so, i worked on the above page then. and we also talked about gathering together screenprinting materials. yes!!
we'll see how clare goes--
i apologize for the picture quality. thanks for tuning in in these sporadic times.

falling right into place, things are

hey cadets!

first of all, WHY ARE WE BOMBING THE MOON?!?

second, big congrats to miz colleen and cat for winning ignatz awards last weekend at the small press expo (SPX)!! miz colleen recieved one for promising new talent and cat got one for outstanding online comic!

speaking of spx, the funny aminals anthology is now available!

i didn't have a chance to mention that rob clough wrote a nice review of some of my stuff here a couple months ago. check out high-low anyway; rob gives thoughtful and intelligent reviews.

so what else is there?
i've relocated. i left white river, had some summer travel and work(see below), and i have very recently landed myself in austin, texas! with so much going on, it's been hard to get to the drawing board. and i also have not yet found the nibs i like to use. but! i do have a space where i have been drawing when i get a moment to do so. just to stay limber, i've been messing around with one-page 2x3 grids. also just sketchbook scribbles and brush sketches. but i also do not currently have regular access to scanners or for that matter, computers. so do not worry, those of you anxious and awaiting! i have not forgotten! but i may not be posting regularly for a while...



with my new location, you can pick up some of my books at domy books, down on cesar chavez. russell there knew jose, and i saw a singular issue of pizza wizard! in the austin store there are also items of interest, a gallery show (and i think ron rege might have a show here later) and a secret room with an installation. check domy out if you are in austin or houston.

also (not quite comics) when i first got here i started compiling and adding to one of my backburner projects--an illustrated basic chainsaw safety and maintenance book/zine/primer. i hope to have it completed for next fall, where some of us extended family of ida are planning to participate in a workweek and i may be presenting a workshop on chainsaw basics and the manual would accompany it.



and i guess lastest is some recent aquisitions--i ran into edie fake out there in the woods and i got three more of his books: gaylord pheonix issue 4, thisisnotaplaceforlovers, and rico mc taco. edie's pretty swell and look for some of his work -possibly this winter- from secret acres. also, my fantastic new housemate gave me the kinship structure of ferns by dewayne slightweight. some good readin'



oh, and as for secret acres, it looks like ken dahl's book, monsters, is finally out!! i do highly recommend this.

here are some pictures from the in-between, for the curious:


i finally got to see a LAVA performance at summer camp! they're hard to take pictures of due to all the moving.



my baby-love, valentine!


look how close to the barn this walnut was!! we cut probably over 20 trees from around the front barn. the chickens were temporarily moved and part of the coop fencing taken down for this and some other trees. there's some of the firewood produced on the other end of the lengths.





still standing sturdy: i worked on the structure of this bridge a little over two years and some rushing highwater ago.


that's it for now! thanks for reading!

2 tone

or not too tone?
sometimes i pretend i don't have other things to do. i've been messing around with putting half-tone grays on my funny aminal comic.
here's page one:



i know here in computer-land things should just be colour-poppin, but i did it this way in consideration for the printed page.
also, thanks to cat who gave me some tips on doing it this way. my test print-out looks alright, but really makes me want to see it on cheapo newsprint paper!

happy fourth!

today will be more odds 'n' ends.

has anyone out there seen this:



it's the marvyns preview by jeremiah piersol. i have been a fan of his since i laid eyes upon a copy of "the latoya jackson story," and i might add good luck in ever finding that gem!!!
so, this is just the first volume of "the marvyns:proper deception" and has quite the cast of characters. i anticipate how piersol will weave this story in the future. piersol has an underappreciated dark sense of humor and some of the characters are properly disgusting as they represent the different parts of society and the sicknesses that ail us. i laughed through much of the book!

in other news, last night i played i was part of the press as i went to a book release party at the revolution in white river junction, vermont. i snapped photos and conducted interviews.
the featured releases were woman king by c. frakes; monsters & girls: amelia part 2 by denis st. john; don't hate, menstruate by jen vaughn; and indestructble universe quarterly 2 morgan pielli.

there were some all-stars there and you can tell by my photos they will go to hell:



zara the pirate, who got interviewed:

bk: [zara], what brings you to the book-release party?
z: people
bk: oh, i see, i see--when did you start this obsession of yours?
z: uh, last tuesday-it kind of hit me like a bolt of lightning



b. elston



nicholas patten



sam carbaugh



jess




c. frakes



morgan & denis st. john



gabby & jen vaughn



robyn & dennis



dane, jon chad and chuckles


and
here are some highlights from my interviews!

denis describes his comic as "body horror--a genre of horror hat describes a physical transformation or a physical pain but it's not the same thing as the torture genre."
he recommends all the books, "which will be available at revolution for all time."

morgan has "spelled out all the difficult words, and you can sound them out."
his comic "holds doors open, waters the garden, will function as a shim if your table leg is too short--if the others are too long, useful for propping up the tv so it's at that right angle so you can watch it without getting a glare, sops up spills, shade your windo if you tape it over the top. it's very, very practical."

jen "will be your tour guide through the uterus"

lastest but not leastest,
c. frakes is inspired by bears. she also claims, "i do silent comics cuz i'm not good at--sayin' stuff"

i disagree as we all know images can say many things words cannot.


thank you, dear reader for tuning into the antics here at barekublishing.
and yes, the film's expiration date was 06/02. but really, isn't this the future of polaroid, rumored to have been discontinued?

Cherry's and bears, kibbles and bits

posting from my personal side:
hey all, been busy with the non-comics. in a couple weeks i will be going to the woods for a month and from there, moving to someplace hotter than white river. in short, just trying to get my life together to go, which includes working on my auto.



i did take a break from that this weekend, though. yesterday was the four-year mark since cherry-o died. for those who don't know, she is/was a big love in my life and she had cancer and i was almost constantly by her side in her last months. anniversaries are funny. there are certain things i do for this day. one is go to the water. this year was queechee gorge.

i inherited a camera from my roommate so i started a flickr account. you can see photos of the swimmin hole i found and i also went to a peony festival yesterday.

so, although i've been having almost too much anxiety to draw, or much else, i have started a comic for submission to the funny aminals anthology. yay! i guess i can still draw (kinda) after all! here's a preview cuz i kinda like using the camera intead of a scanner for a non-finished work:



also, it has been raining a bunch and the lilies out front finally opened:

back in the junc-yard

hello lovelies,
i'm back in white river from a weekend down in new york. i had a great weekend.

and yes indeed, i held the dummy for snappy's book in my very hands!!! i don't know if i can adequately express the excitement of that, but i am going to love the final object, all properly bound and on the proper stock. it was really refreshing to talk shop (book-making business) with someone who doesn't do comics but still doing the same thing in a way.

MoCCA:
i scanned the internet and plenty of folks had a few grips about the whole thing. i had a worthwhile time. i guess i didn't realize how hot it was. it was hot, but hey, even though i've been up here in vermont the past two-ish years, i've spent time in the south and have done outdoor labor and such which i think lends to more tolerance of conditions that are out of your hands than sitting around in offices. and i really, really don't mean that to sound bad toward those who do that. i do a fair share of sitting around these days.
the times i realized it was hot and stuffy was when i went to panel discussions, and that was a bit in hindsight. i thought my passing out no matter how interesting the panel was due to sitting still.
i also went into the weekend knowing i would have a loss of funds, and i was okay with that. i did sell a couple books and i did some tradsies. some folks are not into that, depending on their product, but heck--it's people-magick to trade!! that said, i feel like i had some good interactions considering the compression of it all.
here is my mocca booty:



i haven't looked through it all, but here is some info and/or excitement:
fagelhjarta by sofia falkenhem
crooked teeth and the archer by nate doyle i had seen his work at mecaf, but didn't really pick anything up from anyone while i was there.
jin and jam by hellen jo YES!
will play for food by pat woodruff (it's the cardboard book) the presentation of this book is better than many of the minis i saw. it was at the sva table, which i can say i appreciated much as most of their minis were $1 or $2, an honest price, especially compared to some of the $4-$5 minis i saw. little pieces of paper stapled together should be cheap.
the first book of hope and the second book of hope by tommi musturi,these editions through bries
the hookah girl and other true stories vol 1 by marguerite dabaie
keha by tiitu takalo
lillian the legend by kerry byrne available from conundrum press
i also want to check out the new sundays, but i thought that could wait until i was back here in the junction.

i could keep going, but that's enough for now.

HAPPY JUNE!

and i am figuring out how the links work, please be patient.
i'm going to mocca!



this'll be my first time there! i'll be volunteering at the center for cartoon studies (ccs) table, #804. on their display i will have beauty patrol, and perhaps something else if space permits. another gem i am bringing along will be the indelible collection, which i coedited with c. frakes and is a fundraiser for scholarships for CCS. two incoming freshwomen next year will be recieving scholarships in which sales of this book helped contribute to that fund! that's really exciting! the price is $10-15 and can also be ordered from ikjk. also, the cover was one of my earlier screenprinting experiments(and there is a print on the back as well):



i will also be found wandering around, with a satchel of comics to hopefully power a couple tradsies, including but not limited to the ugly place and a reprint of pocket porn #1, written by the clever pilou and drawn by myself. there are a couple of the panel discussions i want to check out, descriptions here:
http://moccany.org/artfest-09-program.html

i am also excited about non-comics aspects of the trip. one is the physical act of travelling and the headspace that comes with it. this is probably crazy-sounding to most folks who find travelling a headache. i have a strange love of roads, those great scars cast upon our land and the beauty and ugliness that landscapes provide. i will also be travelling with these folks, so check them out at mocca too! table 510.
i am also looking forward to seeing some pals! one of them is snappy, a supersweetheart photographer, who has a new documentary photography book called welcome home in the works and will be out VERY soon. perhaps you've seen some of her work in a plethora of other places, but check out her website.

by the way, have you checked out the shulz library? amongst the bounty of ever-new entries beauty patrol got a review here. books by my buddy brandon and myself are pictured here. unfortunately, the computer screen doesn't show the colors of the screen prints too well. anyway, if i am able to get my hands on some copies of brandon's lusty tales, i'll bring them to new york too. lusty tales: densely filled four-panel grid story about the west and other bonuses like a hiawatha story. there is also a project that we are collaborating that may or may not be ready by the time i leave or ever. i know it's a vague mention, but i only want it to be a small blip on the radar for now.

maybe you were amongst those

who perhaps thought i was only kidding when i said i was gonna screenprint a cover to my 24-hour comic. i try not to lie. well, here is:



very simple yet satisfying print. red on red action with some lavender gray. i forget sometimes how neat-o screen printing can be on construction paper. i wish it would translate on the computer screen. i am still working on the inside cover, but here is approximately what the full outside cover looks like:



screenprinting magic!
i might as well post a couple pages as well, but that'll be it for now
page 2:




page 14: