Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Back in Full Effect
Friday, September 3, 2010
Zine Fest
Everyone that has seen my comic so far has given me great responses except for a small group. But they are pretty PC so I try not to let that get to me. My comic is raunchy but fun and light hearted in the end. I think people look at it and think I'm trying to offend. But I'm just spectating and commenting. But I digress. My original point was that it feels good to know that people are interested in what I'm doing. I have a few mixed feelings about Zine Fest. I'm excited to see all the zines and what other people are working on, I'm even more excited to see who is interested in what I have been working on. But it's a whole new different ballpark. It's the first time I will be meeting people face to face and putting myself out there as an illustrator. And that alone is enough to make me feel a bit odd. I am confident as an artist, but this is a really big fish for a little guppy like me to be in right now. Luckily enough I am so excited that hopefully it won't matter.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Man Made Magic
Last Monday was a great day for Barely Alive. I printed the first silk screened covers for the very first issue. And they look absolutely AMAZING! I am so happy and pleased with them. It had taken so long to get the covers printed that I had finally given up, but then luckily I got to go to a good friends house and print my screens there. I had so much fun just being stoned and zoning out pulling print after print. Altogether there were about 200 prints, with 2 colors. So I pretty much was printing for 8 hours straight with drying breaks. But I was pumped. It was so worth it. I felt this caffeinated adrenaline just rushing through my brains out of sheer excitement and content feeling of being finished. I wanted nothing more than to keep going, and Mel helped a bit. But I pretty much did most of the work on my own.
It was magical seeing the covers, seeing what I had visioned in my mind for months, finally be pushed out onto paper. It's almost like watching your brains visions just appear right before your eyes.
Today was the marathon folding and stapling session. I managed to spend all day putting patches and comics together and yet and still you would think I would be too tired to write it all down here. But it's so important. The process, and documenting the emotions and all of it. I love that people will be able to come here and scroll back to the day I put together the first 200 copies of my first zine, and fell in love with it as fast as a mother would a newborn child. I am so excited I could literally just shit.
Now for zine fest....
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Miseducation and Miscellaneous Hold Up's
As if the rest of the day hadn't been annoying or frustrating enough, we get to the final copy store no one hardly wants to help us, and the guy that we ask to print our transparencies tries to give us the shittiest one in the pack with holes and crinkles all up on it, and then looks at us crazy when we tell him that we need the copy to be darker with less streaks. Turns out, the guys the brother in law of the manager and complaining does nothing because there is no way he'll ever get fired for sitting on his ass and doing nothing.
*Sigh* I love this, but if you can't tell I'm starting to get discouraged.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Ol, Buddy! Ol, Pal!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Barely in Wonderland With Things I Can Not Say
Monday, April 26, 2010
Barely Alive Art!!!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Bessie Johnson and The Tale of The Disappearing Re-Appearing Comic
As anyone reading this blog knows, I just recently started my first of God knows how many mini comic books. For those of you that are curious, I am actually about ready to print my very first issue at this point. The process has just been getting held up by random problems here and there, like the internet connection being messed up, or not having a driver for my scanner. One of my biggest issues has been the problem related to my newest comic.
In recent months I have been turned on to the fabulous Love and Rockets comics, and was lucky enough to receive a collection of Locas for Valentine’s Day from my sweets (thanks babe!) I was very inspired by the fact that there is a complete collection of comics portraying the everyday life of punk rock Hispanic females, and I slowly began to realize that I have never seen a punk comic devoted to the lifestyle of black females. SO, it got me thinking about starting a small comic in that style. After reading various indie comics and watching various female exploitation films, I had finally put together an idea of what I wanted to do. My aim is to draw black people in a predominantly black known city (like Oakland) doing things that are naturally mixed into black culture as well as DIY culture.
Most people don’t realize that black culture has been deeply invested in DIY culture for years out of necessity. Blacks in the south used to make moonshine in tubs, sew patches on old worn clothes, and planted their entire gardens by hand. These are customs that were taken up out of broke necessity, which is just the same when you look at Indie/Punk DIY culture. People generally do things themselves because they can’t afford it any other way. Yet and still there is a huge line drawn between us, and them in Black culture. It’s as if it’s weird vs. necessity.
Anywho, I digress. The point of my comic is to bridge a cultural gap. To portray Black women in DIY culture, and show how we are all in one way or another tied to some type of DIY culture or mindset out of necessity. And I felt I did a good job with my first mini-comic. It was about 5 pages long and it was a very difficult comic to draw. The first 3 pages entail a long walk through the rain and a series of panels that make up the act of train hopping. I have never train hopped, but I know lots of people that have and still do, and this is some SHIT to draw. But as I was saying, the comic was all done and ready to go, all except for the watercoloring of their skin tones. And then a thunderous storm cloud opened up from above and it happened. I lost the first 3 pages!!! How could this happen? Where could they be??? I was so hurt. I tore the house apart looking for them, and yet they were NOWHERE to be found. Eventually I said I’ll just re-draw them. And I did, however my new drawings were nowhere near as clean and interesting as my first drawings. But I was prepared to take that set back, at this point I just wanted my comic to be done.
So there my comics are, just sitting in my purse while I chill at home ( I always take my sketch pad everywhere I go) and then it happened again. God played a silly little joke that I’m sure just tickled him pink. I’m laying on the couch sipping on some white wine mixed with Mandarin Lime soda (hella trashy) and in walks the drunken love of my life, to accidentally knock my wine right into my purse with my EFFING COMICS!!!!!! I could have died. I was going to have to re-draw them again for the 3rd time. And just when I finished the first page about a week later, he calls me and tells me he found them in the top drawer of the living room. Just sitting there, all 3 pages, AND the cover to Barely Alive Issue #1. Ain’t that some shit? So you know when you read your copy of Issue # 1 that it nearly killed me.
Monday, March 15, 2010
ANARCHY!!!
Yesterday I tabled with Endless Canvas at the Anarchist Bookfair. It was pretty much the most fun I’ve had in a really long time. I got to see my friends from Sacramento and even right around the corner in Oakland. It was nice to see so many people I know from so many different areas in my life come together for so many different reasons. I felt like so many sides of me were appeased to there. And I luckily sold enough sticker patch packs, and art pieces to buy a $5 t-shirt from AK press, a compilation zine from Microcosm ( I love you Microcosm), and a sketchbook of Love and Rockets comics. Another thing I enjoyed , was that literally everything I had thought of doing in the last 3 months as far as art, other people were there with the exact same ideas as their finished products. One idea I had was to make a comic zine with a soundtrack to listen to when your reading it, another was to make really cool jewelry out of beer bottle caps (which isn’t that original) but someone had done that too. It was nice to be surrounded by so many like minded creators. I even traded a girl a piece for a massage for me and my bf. They were pretty nice too! I felt uber relaxed.
All of my experiences and peeking at how many copies BEER IS GOOD, Issue #1 sold, it really put a fire under my ass to want to make more stuff. I like the reactions I was getting from people at the bookfair. It’s like it gave me some confidence that I didn’t have for a while. Sometimes artistically it can happen where you get bored or uninspired by what your doing. And when you see other people’s faces when they look at your stuff it really helps. So that totally set a fire under my ass to get cracking on the second zine and get the first one published, also to make even more accessories. I just always feel like there is never enough time for me to everything I always set out to do. I always feel like I should have so much done, and when I set my mind to it all of these everyday distractions come billowing down on me. Sometimes it’s enough to make you just want to scream. But it’s alright. I’ll get there soon I suppose. I just have to really buckle down and want it.
Cheer’s to you Bookfair.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Drawings from Issue #1!!!!
The first page of A story about a girl Cat and the dirty little things that horny teenagers do.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Greetings Fans!
So at this point I don't have any fans. I just figured it would be a good idea to document this experience in it's beginning stages.
If your reading this, your reading the very first entry of Bessie Johnson, and this is for Barely Alive in Cubicle 5. In case your wondering what that is, it's a comic zine that I created when I was working at the most mundane of jobs, while trying to pass the time. It was spawned from the fact that I am a huge dork, and I often find humor in things that I laugh at to myself, and often I wonder if the rest of the world is laughing at them too, it also spawned from the fact that life is full of interesting and hilariously crafted stories, I thought it would be fun to tell the stories of my many misadventures.
Today is January 21st. I'm watching a shitty episode of Jay Leno right now. Usually today would be just as passing as the next. But I realized that I am halfway through with my first issue. So far I have 23 pages. I set my goal at 40, but who knows how much bigger than 40 it will be at this stage. I'm having a lot of fun passing the time with this, it's definately going to continue. I even have the first 3 covers for each zine drawn out and ready to go. At this stage the 1st issue will be mostly stories of witnessed experiences, small pieces of collage art, drawings of silly funny things, and random exploitations of friends experiences.
Later I hope to have an illustrated tonight show, interviewing Bay Area Locals, and an illustrate a story section where people can send in their stories for me to illustrate.
More in later...