Erasing is a pain! Erasing 40-odd pages, making tiny corrections (with more to be made later), while trying not to spill toooo much coffee because your table shakes… it’s all a pain.
Anyways, that’s what I’m doing right now. In New Mexico, the hometown from whence I just was (?), I finished inking Chapter Two of Birds & Wolves. A milestone, soured by bittersweetness. Sometimes I wonder if people read more sadness than there is in the story, but then again, it may just be very sad, and I’m adult enough to not feel the sadness anymore. HA!
So, Chapter Two’s almost finished. After that, some slight revisions to it, little fixes here and there. Then hopefully, more fixes to Chapter One, then the creation of the purchasable copy. Revised Chapter One, Chapter Two, and an in-progress Omnibus edition of both Chapters. So, stay tuned, I guess. And do me a favor and listen to Side Two of both Low and “Heroes”.
So I’ll do a little thing here. I’m inking page 79 right now. For reference, Chapter 2 has 81 pages, so JUST THINK WHAT THAT MEANS! It means that I’ll likely be done with Chapter 2 by the end of the year. It won’t be out quite then, though. I think I’m going to do some more revisions to Chapter 1 first, then put them both up online for consumption! There’ll be a Chapter 2 stand-alone thing, and a Chapters 1 and 2 omnibus thing, which is sort of a thing for me so that I can see how the book is reading. Hopefully it is reading well!
I’m listening to a lot of David Bowie, as you may know if you know me. It’s starting to hanker me (did I use that word right? Whatever. In working-on-planning-on-working-on Album #5, I keep saying to myself “It’s got to be like Scary Monsters,” or “It’s got to be like Low,” or “it’s got to be like Hunky Dory.” The other day I realized that what I’m really saying is “It’s got to be good.”
I listened to “Never Let Me Down” today, which is often regarded as his absolute nadir (more so than Tin Machine!) My official opinion is “it’s not actually bad, y’all.”
Here’s what I wrote about it on my tumblr today:
“I’m listening to the much-maligned ‘87 (and Cry) Bowie album, “Never Let Me Down.”
I’m shocked, honestly. Because I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as it’s cracked up to be. I think it’s a lot better than “Tonight,” the album that came before it! Sure, it’s wayyy 80s, and it’s very very busily produced, but I think it’s got a lot of great moments in its 80s production. And the songs aren’t bad, either! They still have catchy melodies! What’s the deal, universe? Just because a Bowie album doesn’t sound like “the future” doesn’t mean it’s bad.
Thus far, the only real “UGH” moment is the monologue that begins “Glass Spider,” but the song that follows is pretty great!”
It’s true, it’s a far-out album. Give it another chance, guys! You all used to hate Lodger, too, and now look at you! (Never Let Me Down is not as good as Lodger.)
Lastly, a couple of weeks ago I played a show with Pool Holograph, Granny Frost, and Renee-Louise Carafice. It was quite an exciting night, lemme tell ya, since I’ve listened to Renee’s song “House on Fire” on repeat for most of the last two months. She is a very nice person, too! It’s so great when people you like listening to are also people who are nice to talk to! Anyways, my usual policy of “video taping my own shows” fell through (due to a cable pressing the record button off, I think), and there’s no video proof of the show.
But someone at ElasticArts, where the show happened, bootlegged it! With mic stands and everything! It’s like my first bootleg, guys! A recording I didn’t do!!! Be stoked.
And, because I love you, here’s the set. It’s one file, but the tracklist is in the “comments” section of the info. Also important about this set is the return of “All Things Being Equal” to the set, and the inclusion of a brand-new song, “Burque Spirit!”
This post is going to be totally unrelated to me, so I’ll begin it by saying “I’m penciling page 72-73, and I might be 10 pages away from finishing Chapter Two.”
Okay, now, the speculation. Kerry Brown, producer, etc of the new Pumpkins album, “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope,” just tweeted (I can’t believe I just used that word here) that the first track will be released in the next week. So, does that mean Tuesday to Tuesday, or Sunday to Saturday? That’s speculation one.
Speculation two is which song will be the first? The fan community is pretty sure which ones are among the first four, so let’s hear ‘em:
“A Stitch In Time”
This song is supposed to be “more psychedelic” (IE, more sitar) in it’s studio incarnation. That makes me nervous, I like it as is, but we’ll see!
“Widow Wake My Mind”
This is my personal fave of the bunch. It’s poppy and catchy, but is it strong enough to make a huge first splash?
“Astral Planes”
This is the one that we aren’t 100 percent sure on, but it’s probably one of the four. This is a good rocker, a psychedelic (I only overuse that word because Billy does) barnburner that can satisfy the rockers, right? Meh. It’s pretty good.
“A Song For A Son”
This is the one people think will most likely be the first. Honestly, it isn’t my favorite song, but it’s about the only New Song from the 20th anniversary tour that wasn’t instantly derided, so it’s got the critics on it’s side? I doubt it. Honestly, I feel like this song sets Billy up for more failure and derision that it’s worth.
So, fingers-crossed, Teargarden begins in a week. Will it be The Smashing Pumpkins’ stellar return-to-form, an album widely praised by everyone just like the old days? Or will it go the way of TheFutureEmbrace, Zwan, and Blinking With Fists?
Read a blog about Bowie, listen to pre-Hunky Dory Bowie, read about either Hunky Dory or 1977-1981 Bowie, and now, I guess, listen to John Cale covering LCD Soundsystem?
Whatever. Point is, I try to continue work on songs, have ideas. Think they’re great. And they might be. But it’s possible I’ve overstepped myself? I want to do more than I now can, by myself. I need someone to throw ideas to, who can extrapolate them and know what I’m talking about, because I know so hard! but can’t articulate them into music. I know how I want “James Dean Aurr,” the song, to sound. I want some sort of cross between a Nuggets-style-glam stomper and “Low,” in general. But what do I get? Over-reverbed, over-done, crap. I can’t play the drums, I can’t even figure out my own guitar parts to play them well enough.
It’s a mess.
I’m not even posting the drummed up version I made today.
It’s a time of being confused and wondering where to go. As for Birds & Wolves, I’m slowly starting again, and I’ve just inked page 65. My keyboard is terribly disgusting from my inky dirty fingers.
I’ve been waiting to hear back from people. Not my fault (it is my fault). I don’t want to go into it.
I started recording a song I’ve been trying to write for over a year, now. I don’t think it came out very well, but what do I know? I’ve thought every album I’ve started was absolute crap at the beginning, so I don’t know nothing about it.
I’ve had a few ideas about this next album. Right now, it’s to be called “Burque Spirit,” and either will be a twenty song double album, or be a song-stiched-Furnaces-esque collage album. I’m pretty into both ideas. Feedback?
“Intentional detail in everything although sometimes you had to dig for it. Budget dictated reduced quality in many choices, endurance preferred over luxury or eye appeal. Compromise, and like most compromise, satisfying no one.”
—Reverend Mother Superior Darwi Odrade, in Frank Herbert’s “Chapterhouse: Dune.”
The reason, though, that I find this quote from Dune (above all others) so interesting is that it sums up better than I ever could how I feel about latter-day (say, post Batdance) Prince records. The genius is there, the albums are still dense and interesting, but they sound terrible and are confusingly bad. It’s tough sometimes to listen to things on, say, Chaos & Disorder, or Planet Earth, but when you do, you start to pick out the little things, and you start to get a picture of what Prince is trying to do.
Of course, comparing Prince to a Guild Navigator, encased in a tank of Melange Gas, is also pretty funny.
PS EVERYONE I FOUND PAGE FIFTY TWO IT IS NO LONGER MISSING.
If I did, that’s cool, too. Here’s a loop that I made. It’s one track, no overdubs, all looping. I left the microphone on so it would feedback sometimes. It’s all made with the microphone, the sound it makes when you turn it on and off with reverb is really nice. It makes the clicking drum sound.
It’s a weird thing. It’s funny, trying to describe it make me sound like one of those dudes who make beats. I am no such dude.
Now, what exactly is the tragedy when something like this happens? Is it the hard work that went into the penciling being lost forever, right when I was feeling that I was getting back into it? Is it the hour or so of time that is now lost and wasted? Is it the loss of paper, something I’m already starting to reuse the backs of old comics for? Is it the waste of liquid that is now all over the floor and makes my room smell like mildew-y coffee-substitute?
I don’t know, some sort of mix, I assume. Still, this, coupled with the either missing or never-done page 52, I am getting my first taste of setbacks in a project I already know I’m committing two years to.
Bright sides? I shouldn’t have been drinking that mildew-y coffee-substitute anyways, and now maybe the redrawn page will be better?
I don’t know. Also, I still haven’t found that missing pen.
ANYWAYS,
Here’s something that is NOT a drag. A little bit of a song, some sort of bizarre surf demon trance.
Which means, of course, “David Robert Jones 4 Life.”
Sorry I spend so much (all) of my time blogging here about David Bowie, but the man is fresh on my mind. I do owe a lot of my personal and intellectual freedom to the man. That freedom to be yourself, and all. In high school, you know (when I was in it, the way I wrote that, you’d think I’m IN high school. i just got my COLLEGE ALUMNI ID CARD for goodness’ sake). Anyways, there’s no one to look up to to put up a fight for. Like when I grew my hair out (and wore fur coats and petticoats for shirts), and kids threw me into lockers, it’s easy to think yourself friendless. But then you have the age-old moment of staring at a picture of Ziggy Stardust and knowing it’s all okay.
HA! That is the funniest thing I have ever written.
Anyways, I had a point to all this. Recently a tape reel went up on eBay, declaring itself recorded on August 13th, 1974 at Sigma Sound Studios, and also declaring itself to be a recording of a rehearsal by David Bowie. (all images and audio files are hosted and found by the lovely people at The Illustrated DB Discography)
Now, all the song titles check out in Bowie lore. Young Americans and After Today we all know, of course. I Am A Lazer is a song Bowie wrote for Ava Cherry, one of his backup singers he was a little involved with. Shilling The Rubes is an exciting name to see as it’s long been known to be a working title of Young Americans, the album.
But still, too good to be true, right? Yes and no.
The no, first. Snippets were then culled from the reel. And they are so 100% and Fantastically real that it’s chilling! The glimpse into the working world of DB is astounding to have, not to mention the fact that the songs themselves sound INCREDIBLE. Shilling The Rubes in particular sounds like the beginnings of a great lost-classic-type of song. Here are the snippets (again, hosted by the DB discog site):
It certainly is not every day when we get to hear songs culled from the Bowie archives that aren’t intended to ever see the light of day, let alone when we encounter songs we didn’t even knew he wrote!
So, like I said earlier, there is a part of this that’s too good to be true. Before the auction could take place, and before a supposed second reel could be put up for sale, word is that Bowie’s lawyers got involved and asked for the reels to be returned. It looks like these minute-snippets are all we’re going to get, unless some divining angel intervenes.
Who knows, though! We did get those Trident ‘72 sessions last year, and the recent Space Oddity 40th Anniversary edition had some unreleased jams on it (the whole set sounds incredible, by the way. Hearing “Conversation Piece,” one of the top five, in a new stereo mix, was totally mind-blowing).
But still, we got what we got, and what we got is terribly exciting!
The following is what you could call a “Rough Draft” of an …essay? I’ve just written about David Bowie’s 1999 album “hours…”. It just… sort of… happened…
Occasionally I still check BowieNet, David Bowie’s official website. Over the many years since Reality, his last album, and in the light of his increasing doing-nothing (of which I can not fault him for, the man has done more than 10 of us non-superhumans put together), I’ve let my subscription lapse.
It’s a shame that I’ve had to do so, but honestly, the only thing it could do for me now is give me the chance to win some contests. I’m mildly interested in having a signed t-shirt he looked at once (not interested), but really. It’s 60 dollars spent better elsewhere (gee whiz).
Anyways, the point is that it’s “hours…”’s 10th birthday. The last album of Bowie’s 90s period, and as such, is often similarly derided as every other 90s album. I, of course, don’t really buy into it. I love all the 90s albums, with Buddha of Suburbia being one of my favorites, and 1. Outside and Earthling being some daring and exciting pieces of music.
But everyone says hours… is boring, a misstep, an in-between piece of music. I will agree with the latter in this. It’s certainly an album that finds Bowie changing where he wants to go with his music. The daring collaborations with Reeves Gabrels that Outside and Earthling birthed are clearly of waning interest to him. Now, I doubt it was so clear a decision (”oh, Reeves, I just don’t want to be edgy anymore”). Certainly there is still much avant-noodling sprinkling this album, and of course, it’s history is also a little unique.
Most of the songs on hours… (from now on I’m dropping the ellipsis) started as songs that were written for the soundtrack of a video game, namely Omikron: The Nomad Soul, which I’ve never played or been able to, but it’s certainly an interesting concept for a game (inhabiting different characters dimensions, a melding of action/puzzle/fighting [much like one of my faves, Burn:Cycle]).
I don’t know why DB got involved with the game, but he makes appearances in it, and does the soundtrack. A few of the songs on Hours, “New Angels of Promise,” “The Dreamers,” come from it. As such, they’re a little more strangely composed than the other songs. They have the feeling of being written for aliens, which is fine, because they were (plus, writing songs for alien worlds is nothing new for DB).
The fact that these songs are alien though, makes them not mesh with the earlier songs on the album. These form a bit of a theme, which was oft-discussed at the time of its release. For the first time, everyone said, Bowie is looking back on his life!
Well, that’s not true, they’re forgetting about Ashes to Ashes, which is a goofy thing to do, since there hasn’t been a Bowie album since Scary Monsters that isn’t reviewed as “his best since Scary Monsters.”
Anyways, it’s true. The earlier songs are imbued with a sense of loss, a loss yet to come, but still felt. It’s aging, through and through. It’s like DB’s running to catch up with the future is finally catching up with him, and the realization of this gives him pause.
Hours (at least the non-Omikron songs) is Bowie making an album for himself again, not an album for the kids, or for the masses, or for experimentation’s sake. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with any of those options, but honestly, it must have been tiring to keep making albums ahead of a curve no one knew was coming yet. Like he says, “I’m dreaming my life away.” It seems like an apt phrase for Bowie’s 90s output (hell, for his entire output).
Enough wanton speculation on my part. The thing about Hours is that it’s full with a lot of great songs. Very nice songs, nicely written, nicely performed. While it seems like Bowie and his new band (the beginnings of the band he would continue to perform with for his next 2-3 albums) are trying to find their feet in this new Bowie-as-Bowie world, it’s fun to go on the ride with them. And Bowie’s lyrics, touching on age, can be moving, as is his delivery, stunning as usual. They aren’t as up and personal as his next album Heathen’s are yet, the cards are still a little close to the chest.
In a way, that makes it a lot like R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant, where Michael Stipe’s vocals are finally turned up in the mix, but his lyrics are still in the fog. It’s an interesting midsection, a slice of almost-there.
But still, despite this, take a fully-realized pop song like Thursday’s Child, with it’s touching singalong chorus, or the growing-up feel of Seven, or the adult-contempo-yet-no-less-touching pop of Survive. They’re all golden! Even the experiment of the fan-written lyrics in What’s Really Happening isn’t a total dud. It’s a cybersong, through and through.
Yet still, despite the chilling cover of 1999 Bowie holding the exhausted (or dead?) 1997 Bowie in his arms, it’s really Heathen, the next album, that is the true beginning of the next phase of Bowie’s music, where his goals, his emotions, his latter-period vision, truly came in to focus. But Hours remains as a completely enjoyable and exciting album, one that makes little demands of its listeners. It’s just still and always (until it isn’t) a shame we haven’t heard anything from him since 2003’s (!!!) Reality.
So, now it is time for an update on Birds & Wolves!
To be brought up to speed, B&W (Bee an’ Dubz? No thanks you) is the book I am working on right now, which is looking to be something of a 400-page epic.
The way I came to that estimate is: seeing as the first chapter came out to be around 40 pages, and there are 10 chapters in this book, that should be around 400. It’s a total estimate, though. I don’t know if every chapter will be the same amount of pages. And as I work on it more, you know, maybe there’ll be only nine chapters? No, I don’t know, that’s giving too much (nothing) away.
So, the biggest problem that I face in my day-to-day-i-am-working-on-this-book is “how do I explain it?” Like, what’s a good snappy one or two sentence description that encapsulates everything it will be while also sounding really interesting? From a purely dollaz point of view, I need a good sentence so if someone google searched “Birds & Wolves” on google and found Chapter One on Lulu, they’d read it and say “sounds interesting,” ka-ching! But of course, there is more to it than that. I need that sentence so I can guide myself along, too! Working on a book of this magnitude is a long and arduous process, one I know next-to-nothing about. But I enjoy doing it.
Anyways, it’s about death, seeing your mortality for the first time. Obviously more happens than that. The lead character, Arden, is emotionally bruised on a day-to-day basis by his gf. He has dreams of a forest, with a Cat that goads him into sticking it out. He remembers an old friend from high school, one who was very important to him.
I mean, technically, it’s the first sentence that encapsulates. I don’t know. Here’s the thing: at one point in my tenure at SAIC, someone said comics with people are boring and that’s why people draw animals (actually, i think i totally made up that they said it was boring, it’s just the gist i got from it). Well, there are few animals in my comic! Does that make it boring? No! It doesn’t. But I worry about writing a melodramatic comic book.
I guess it’s a familial thing. My dad writes screenplays that are dramas about people. People don’t buy screenplays about people. I’m just worried that people don’t buy comics about people, either (this is not true— Jimmy Corrigan is a person, but I can’t draw as flashy as Chris Ware can [bad example?]).
Well, no matter. All that whining masks an important milestone: I penciled page 60 today!!! That’s huge! It’s of course the longest thing I’ve done. But still, a good number. I’m excited about that.
Now, some samples of pages I’ve been working on. I’m afraid they’re all lousy Photobooth pictures, but that’s the best I can do right now.
The page I’m working on this moment (note the whited-out wine stain):
Some other select Chapter 2 (Birds) Pages:
Stay tuned for other things. Hopefully soon I’ll go downtown and scan some things, and I can show you all some high-quality ANYTHING.
I will be participating in Challenger Comic’s 24 hour Comic Book Day extravaganza this weekend, starting Saturday at 11AM. Boy howdy! That’ll be some crazy stuff no doubt. My friend Joey Jacks is also participating, so that should make it that much more pleasant!
Since I’m forgoing the Fever Ray concert to do this, I’ve got to make my comic simply the best. Missing Fever Ray is my impetus for greatness. I won’t disappoint you or myself! Anyways, reason to get excited, yes it is.
Here’s their info about it. I don’t know if you can come hang out and egg us on, but you certainly should try! Who knows what will happen!!!!
Over the summer I played A show. I think it was one, I don’t think I played any more than that. Anyways, it was a fun show! I played some songs I’ve never played before (which i try to do at every show), and some covers (that always seem to sneak in). Soon I’ll put up the most recent show I played, but I have to find the DV tape first. :D
Anyways, there’s much more on my channel, so do take a look!
I was listening to both Stereolab and Purple Penguin (a close friend of mine) at the time (very late in the night). The first band made me want to use chords I’ve never used before, and the second made me want to write beautiful melodies over intricate and wonderfully composed songs.
I don’t know how much either of those inspirations came out (and plus, it’s like a 30 second song), but still, it’s something! And it’s something that I really want to use in another song. Now to find the rest of the song! Such a puzzle. Is that the chorus? The verse? The end? A completely arbitrary part of a more complicated suite of songs?
Typing that title makes me want to listen to Genesis. Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, of course!
Now that I am a man (which I’m defining as “done with school”), I must keep my blog up more! I’ve got the time! You want to know! (Don’t you? Yes.) So I’m going to try to do a few things.
A) Keep up with this blog
B) Get more people a-reading it!
C) Have more reasons to read it!
Yes. These are what I will do! And you can help with them! Well, B, at least. Once I get this honey up and running to how I believe it’s potential 2 B (thanx Prince), hopefully you will enjoy it. Well if you end up enjoying it, tell your friends to enjoy it! It will be much fun that way! :D
The third is still in the planning stage, but I have ideas and I will implement them in like an hour or so.
One idea is progress, of course. Either by song or by comic page. Y’all deserve to see what I’m working on/working with! And you will.
Did you know I am penciling the 54th page of a book called Birds & Wolves? EXACTLY! Now you do, and you will know more. :D
Another thing I will do is have a kind of feature where I will let you in on what’s driving my daisy (ew?). By that I mean what I’m listening to, what I’m reading, what I am experiencing as a Man. (I mean human, of course.) Yes.
I am excited. You should be, too! And you will, I promise!
I can also say that I am thinking of an idea for how you guys can get my music in a sassy digital package, but that’s all I’ll say. Much thinking to do, and ruminating on the recent Teargarden by Kaleidyscope announcement. I am intrigued and inspired by this.
Anyways, that’s all for now, until later in the day, when I begin these pledges I have promised.
So, as you may know, I recently published (with Lulu) the first chapter of a long long story I’m working on, called Birds & Wolves. Well, luckily for you no one but me got a copy, because it was missing a page!!!!
That was my fault, but I’m here to tell you that I’ve now just updated the book so it’s ready again for your consumption! And reading. And all. It’s great, promise. Just wait for the finished deal (in like 4 years ha ha).
Anyways, here’s the old post giving a bit of backstory to it all:
A few years ago over a summer, I started a comic that would end up being called “Youth.” It was originally going to be many chapters, detailing a group of kids going through experiences that would end up with their youth ending. I ended up finishing one chapter of it, a whopping 36 pages of decently drawn set-up, talking, and melodrama. (If you reaaally want to read it, here it is: Youth 1.)
But it was too early to really get into drawing some long, complicated, overwrought story. But a lot of the things I was using from real life as events in Youth were terribly compelling, really worthy of being used in a story somehow (one of these particular events I have used in almost every song I’ve ever written, and many many different art projects).
Two semesters ago, while finishing “Good-Bye, The Pig,” I started drafting this story about a man walking into a forest, searching for love that was symbolized by a third of the French flag. It was loosely based on my romantic experiences at the time. And while I loved the forest itself, the story was too easy, too happy. But, at some point, I ended up drawing the forest aflame (what does this say about how things were going in my life?), and was compelled.
Sketchbook examples:
I storyboarded the forest story to somewhere around 25 pages, but decided I shouldn’t draw it for the class I was in (instead I made It Won’t Be Long). So shelved again it went.
Throughout last semester, I began to try to map out a story based a lot on the experiences I’d just been through, some of which had been harrowing (for instance…). Then it came to me to have the story combine the Forest story with the real life story that inspired it. This was exciting, and I combined it with some older story ideas I’ve had (some offshoots of Youth), then, while sketching a particular poignant night from high school debauchery, realized if I combined a real-life story arc from those days, I’d have a fantastic arc of my own.
The arc deals with those zany things like “death” and “growing up.” Really it’s a man’s (a boy’s?) struggle with coming to terms with death as a reality in the face of his own independence as he nears the end of his school days and his days as an independent man. The romantic situation he’s currently in is wrought with unpleasantness, and his mind often wanders to memories of his last years at high school, where he had to go through a similar change in his life.
Sketchbook test page that mirrors directly the first page:
That’s as good a description as I could ever give. There are ten chapters:
1. Later Never Comes
2. Birds
3. Laughing
4. So Cruel
5. Hourglass
6. Say, Fear
7. Arms Are Warm
8. Blue, Blue Jeans
9. Wolves
10. Water
For my internet-publishing assignment, I have completed, to a space above rough-draft yet not finished level, chapter one, “Later Never Comes.”
Now available at Quimby’s is Garfield in Chains, a first volume containing 38 strips (out of a countless and ever-growing number) spanning from two years ago until now. Wow! 38 strips! Full color cover! Garfield-book shaped!
Here’s a bit of backstory to it:
During the week of Halloween in 1989, Jim Davis’ popular comic strip Garfield underwent a dramatic change. The strip had long begun its descent into monotony and mediocrity, but this particular week gave the strip a surprising boost in interest. The art changed to a more dark and horror-like style, and the strip gained, for that week, a storyline. Garfield wakes up to find himself alone in the house. Upon further inspection, he finds out that the house is abandoned and no one has lived there for years. The strip gains a narrator, who tells us that Garfield is faced for the first time with his worst fear: being alone. Freaking out and running around the house, the narrator tells us that Garfield can fight back with the only weapon he has: denial. Screaming that he doesn’t want to be alone, Garfield is then back in his normal existence, in what seems like a happy ending.
There is a theory, however, that in fact Garfield did not escape his abandoned house, and that the rest of the strip to this day is a fantasy Garfield invents to keep himself happy as he slowly starves to death in his empty house.
For over two years, I have been using that week of Garfield strips as the basis of a mind-clearing exercise in my sketchbook. Whenever an idea doesn’t come, or I’m getting frustrated with my current situation, I draw a non-sequitur, stream-of-consciousness Garfield strip. Some of the time they end up pertaining to some obscure pop-culture reference that’s on my mind. Sometimes they betray more of my deeper emotions and insecurities, leading to a bizarre and surreal landscape for the ailing Garfield (now a mirror to myself) to inhabit. “Garfield in Chains,” as I’ve named my strips, is a reflection of my psyche, and as such, is very important to me, personally and professionally.
My impetus for undertaking this project is in part because it is something that I have always wanted to do, but is something that always is but on the back-burner in the face of schoolwork or other personal projects. Now is the perfect and possibly only time in the foreseeable future that I will have the opportunity to collect these works, which I feel have merit in their humor, their surrealism, and their sheer growing number.
“Extremely nice publish. I just add your weblog and wanted to say that i get actually enjoyed reading your web ...”
— Fernando E. on Garfield in Chains!
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