In preparation for the upcoming show, I’d like to announce that joshbauman.com has gone semi-live. Sure, it shares a lot of the same stylesheet as the horrendously out-dated darw1n.net (at least it’s not running off of the pre-wordpress b2 from 2005).
Anyhow, the site is up and the portfolio is updated. As usual, comments and criticism are appreciated. I don’t have time to do any major overhauls this week, but hopefully it’ll continue to grow in the next few months.
Possibly the only extant clothing line for lovers of classic metal and obscure film.
There’s been quite a flurry of self promotion over the past few posts, but I think this will be the last for a while. You can now download my 2008 entry from the 24-hour comics day. I Never Look Up weighs in at 26 pages (10.9MB). Sorry, there’s no super-fancy html view, or even micro-PDF for that matter. I hope you enjoy the comic and I’d be more than willing to answer any questions or address any problems.
previous 24-hour comics entries:
2007 – Mr. Scraps
2006 – The Baby
I’d like to take a moment to present a very special flier for a very special show.
On Saturday, November 1st, I’ll be opening my first art show in the Sameheads gallery on Nostitzstr. 11, Berlin-Kreuzberg. I’ll be showing some paintings, illustrations, and a few comics. People in the area should definitely check it out. The show starts at 6 p.m. and goes until whenever.
I’m sure I’ll post some pictures of whatever winds up happening.
I sat down with about 35 or 40 other people on the 18th to begin a proper comic drawing marathon. Something like 22 hours later I finished I Never Look Up, weighing in at 26 pages, in a room of about 12 people. I’m guessing that about 8 finished in the designated time but several were still hard at work past the deadline. Last year, as you may recall, I completed my comic alone at home a week after the official date because of pneumonia. It was surprisingly more challenging finishing the comic in a group again, but infinitely more enjoyable and rewarding.
I’d like to thank Crippa, Jens, Anne, Vincent, and Maki for making the event a reality and being great co-workers on a project that, after three years, is still nothing short of an endurance test that does horrible horrible things to your mind and body. There will be one more blog post dedicated to the 24-hour comic theme this week and that’s it, so hang in all of you haters.
I know, it’s been almost a year since the last Mr. Scraps and almost two years since The Baby. This year the event falls on October 18th.
The usual gang of comic overlords has shifted and a new, more consumer-friendly version is now running things over at 24hourcomicsday.com. This year the Berlin event will be held at Neurotitan, which should be an excellent venue.
Meanwhile, you can find a local event here. C’mon. Do it.
Splatter is a new-ish exhibit by jCaulty&SON that depicts a side of the Warner Brothers cartoons that we all knew was there but somehow never made it to the screen. As the exhibits title aptly suggests, Splatter takes cartoon violence a few steps further and shows some more detail than my TV ever did.
Ben and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweety, and Buggs and Daffy are just a few of the characters that get the treatment. Unfortunately there are only a few pictures of the sculptures.
Check out the previews:
prints and sculptures.
There’s 4 new gameplay videos for Fallout 3 here. It’s looking like it will be pretty sweet. I’ve been playing through the first one for free on Gametap and, for the most part, enjoy it. It really only makes me interested in Fallout 2 though, to see what improvements were made. Hopefully number 3 will be as sweet as it’s looking like it will be.
EDIT:
The Watchmen (Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons) – Yeah, so I’d pretty much heard this was the best “graphic novel” ever, then I knew the movie was coming out and I figured the heck with it, I’ll read this. But yeah, it was amazing, brilliant, etc, totally worth reading. I was expecting to have been affected enough by all the subversive superhero media since this came out that it would be a letdown, and I think it probably lessened the impact somewhat, but not much. As someone who never really enjoyed comic books much in their traditional sense, or more “typical” superhero stories, I’m still a bit surprised how interesting I find this stuff. But yeah: very highly recommended.
The Onion Field (Joseph Wambaugh) – I’d heard this was a true-crime classic next to In Cold Blood, and I can see why. Two small-time crooks kidnap two cops and kill one of them; the other escapes. Both offenders are caught easily, but manage to drag their cases on for years, while reliving the experience mentally destroys the surviving cop. Strong recommendation.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (Kate Summerscale) – The case is fascinating, but as it was a Victorian crime of limited record, there simply isn’t enough of it. The book makes up for it by presenting a history of the first detectives, and how Mr. Whicher in fact personally influenced the mystery genre through his friendships with Dickens and Wilkie Collins, but that just feels like so much (interesting) filler. Fair recommendation.
The Monster of Florence (Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi) – Really fantastic read about the unidentified Monster of Florence serial killer. The book is split into two halves. The first is a fascinating recounting of the unsolved murders and bungled investigation. The second is a surreal twist on the true crime genre, where the investigators, infuriated at the book’s authors for making them look incompetent, effectively kick the American author out of the country and throw the Italian author in jail, actually charging him with the killings. Strong recommendation.
Belief or Nonbelief?: A Confrontation (Umberto Eco and Cardinal Martini) – I can’t say enough bad about this book. It had seemed like a good, more “real” alternative to reading that Freud/Lewis book, so I picked it up. Total mistake. Eco, interestingly, pretty much kills it. The man can’t write in a straight line. This was originally published as a series of letters in a newspaper, but for some reason Eco gets to ask 4 questions, the Cardinal 1. Only a couple of these get “answers”. In the meantime, pages are spent ruminating on how to address the Cardinal. Before the end, Eco acknowledges the editors have told him no one understands what he’s writing, and basically says “screw ‘em”. Extra boos for the fawning intro heralding this as a (the?) breakthrough example of intellectual debate, like, ever. Not recommended.
Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami) – Good, but not as good as Wild Sheep Chase. I increasingly get the feeling that describes much of his work. Still, a good book regarding a 15 y/o runaway and a retarded man who can talk to cats. I kind of felt the latter storyline was more interesting/amusing, though. Ultimately fairly poignant. Good recommendation.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami) – A memoir about the author’s experiences as a long-distance runner. Occasionally amusing, occasionally insightful, overall just OK. Weird to hear a distinctly Japanese author telling me about the ins and outs of Boston, though… I guess he lived here a couple years. Basically, it did what I wanted it to: kept me thinking about running and writing. Recommended if you are interested in both of these or maybe just obsessively interested in one.
Team of Rivals (Doris Kearns Goodwin) – Fascinating book about Lincoln, focusing on his relationships with his cabinet members, who were also his former political rivals. Increased my respect for Lincoln greatly, and did a fantastic job helping me keep names and places straight. I do wish it weren’t so long, but I don’t know how it could be otherwise. As a bonus, taught me a lot about William Seward, whom I am now proud to share a college with. Also, gave me a bizarre hatred of General McClellan. McClellan not recommended. Book good recommendation.
The Fall (dir. Tarsem Singh) – Easy the most visually beautiful film I’ve ever seen. Also quite good. Written/directed by the guy who did “The Cell” so imagine visuals >= that with a good storyline. Injured little girl and injured stunt man bond in the ’20s in a hospital. He tells her stories that reflect their lives and his state of mind. Dark at times but ultimately not depressing. As an added bonus contains the rarest of the rares: a child’s part with believable dialog. For more fawning see Ebert’s review linked above. Highly recommended.
Teeth (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein) – You wouldn’t think a movie about a woman with shark teeth in her vagina could be boring, but yet, here we are. Spends a lot of time being “clever” but not so much “funny”. Movie frequently works at cross-purposes to itself. The main gag is funny and cool, yes, but it doesn’t bother going anywhere from there. Spends too much time trying to build a plot that matches feminist theory perfectly than paying attention to, like, characters and stuff. Not really recommended, though at least you could say that you’ve seen it.