March Reading List

From the Reading Desk

I made a goal this year to actually read all the comics I’ve bought but never read. And to not buy any new graphic novels. The goal was even more specific: read a book, screenplay, or graphic novel a week.

And as of earlier this month I had only read ONE.

So this month, every time I wanted to reach for my phone to check social media, the news, or messages, I reached for a comic instead.

Here's what I read:

TMNT books I, II, and III.

This is where it all started. These collect the first 10ish issues of the Turtles. I hadn't read this since I was a teenager and it was amazing to be reminded of how much these books have influenced me. It also rekindled a love for the Turtles that has been somewhat dormant, though never extinguished.

I was also reminded of how fun these books are, and the secret sauce of making good comics which I will get into another day.

Get copies here: LINK

RADIO SPACEMAN: MISSION TO NUMA 4 #1

Mike Mignola writing a story about a space skull character??? SIGN ME UP! Drawings by Greg Hinkle are so much better than they needed to be to pull this off. Can't wait for issue 2.

Get your copy at your local comic shop.

THE WITCH OF WICKERSON by Derek Laufman

I highlighted Derek back in November and talked about the kickstarter for this project and how cool I thought it was to do a smaller "graphic novellas" instead of these epic 200+ page stories. This approach directly inspired doing a shorter story for Red Shift Renegades.

Well, I finally got my copy of The Witch of Wickerson and it is just plain delightful. REally impressed with the whole thing. Laufman is a real pro.

Get your copy here: LINK

I actually got this book on audible and listened to it while inking Red Shift Renegades. If you've seen the Social Dilemma on Netflix this book covers a lot of the same ground.

What was interesting to me was reading the author's experience of doing a three month detox from the internet by going to a secluded seaport village with out anything but some books, a laptop (with internet disabled) to write with, and a dumb phone for emergencies.

The author sets up the problem, shares loads of reports and data to back it up, then offers some solutions to fix it. Pretty well done, even though I don't entirely agree with some of his conclusions.

Get it here: LINK​

Honestly, if you feel like you've got an attention problem due to your phone or internet you're better off reading this book: LINK

-Jake

Colliders

From the Machines Division

Photographer Luca Casonato put together a nice gallery of colliders he's photographed. I love machinery and interesting tech. Colliders are some of the wildest stuff out there. What's great about these is they're designed by engineers with the needs of project and the constraints of the technology as the motivating factor of the design. And yet there's still a distinctive beauty to them.

Eating lunch with a friend yesterday and we were talking about jets. He brought up that they look like the way they do not because we designed them that way, but because we discovered the best shape needed to get the job of flying accomplished. There's a beauty to function.

Colliders are the same way.

See the rest here: LINK

-Jake

The Epimeriidae Aliens

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From the Flora and Fauna Unit

I keep finding images of these little suckers popping up in Pinterest and Twitter. They're not alien life or mutated lab experiments, these are little shrimp cousins that live in oceans and lakes. One of these is from Lake Baikal, the oldest lake on earth. Creepy and cool, I do take a little comfort knowing they're very small.

To me these look like inspiration for monsters in a future comic I'll be working on.

You can read more about them here: LINK​

Or this New Scientist article: LINK​

And here's a cool paper on how one of their legs evolved into wings in insects: LINK

-Jake

RED SHIFT RENEGADES #1 DROPS

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From the Making Comics Division

The first issue of Red Shift Renegades, my self-published sci-fi comic, is now available in my online shop for download. It's digital only for now.

I was this close to launching a kickstarter for the print version of the first 3 issues which will be coming out over the next several months, but I had a change of plans and decided to postpone that kickstarter.

I have an extended explanation on the Patreon of some pretty exciting things that are happening behind the scenes with this book. You can read all of that here: LINK

Can't wait for you all to read this explosive first chapter!

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Accepting New Patrons: Patrons are getting frequent updates on the comic I'm making, including more behind the scenes stuff. They've also read the full comic in both roughs, pencils, and now inks as I finish them.

I just dropped the Red Shift Renegades title logo reveal plus a detailed breakdown of how I designed it. You don't want to miss that.

I'm also sharing other art and sketches and stuff related to other projects. It's a treasure trove of information and cool art. When I finish this comic I'll have an exclusive special edition Artist Edition PDF for patrons.

Join here: LINK

-Jake

On Imperfections

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From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Have you ever created something and while looking at its finished state could only see where the project was wonky in places. Where it fell short of the vision? Where the parts that failed to live up to your expectations glaringly obvious? Perhaps you were satisfied with the outcome, but not thrilled with the execution?

I like the outlook on dealing with this let down of reality vs vision when it comes to your work. From Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland:

For Charles Darwin, evolution lay revealed when a perfect survival strategy for one generation became, in a changing world, a liability for its offspring.

For you, the seed for your next artwork lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece.

Those imperfections are a signal that your work is wanting to evolve. Maybe the faces you draw, or the dialogue you write, or the way you manage a project isn't as good as your inspiration. Your next piece of work is a chance to lean into that flaw and make it your style.

​Kirby wasn't a master at anatomy, but he leaned into the energy his peculiar faces and limbs had made it into a distinctive approach to drawing that was ALL his.

-Jake

TO ZO

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From the Illustrators Division

TONČI ZONJIĆ ( pronounced tawn chi zawn yitch) or just To Zo for short is a Croatian illustrator based in Canada and I think his work is just so darn good.

This comic is one installment of a series he calls A+M about a couple of space robots (cyborgs?). You can read the rest of them here: LINK​

I spent about an hour last Friday just soaking in all the work on his website. The man is PROLIFIC. His style is a beautiful marriage of Toth and Ware and Caniff.

Check out the rest of his work here:

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

-Jake

Batman Ephemera

From the Department of Interesting Collections

I found this amazing album on Flickr of 60s and 70s Batman ephemera, toys, and miscellany. I mean, c'mon that scalloped school binder at the bottom?! It's something I would have flipped out over in first grade. Pretty amazing design.

My favorite here is that Japanese Batmobile model box. The bat-tipped kanji are perfection.

I love this era of Batman because it wasn't so dark but FUN and more importantly weird. I the modern trend to make superheroes grittier and more realistic has its place but the more you sacrifice the weirdness of superheroes for more reality the more ridiculous a man wearing a batsuit becomes. Also...can Robin please come back?​

The sweet spot was the animated series in the 90's. I've said it before, but if we had a live action version of that I'd be in Batman heaven.

These images are all a part of the personal collection of Donald Deveau and there's three pages of this stuff you can check out here: LINK​

The rest of Deveau's collection is like a middle 20th century pop culture museum. Good stuff!

-Jake

The Faroe Islands

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From the Photography Desk in cooperation with the Exploration Unit

This place is amazing. The Faroe Islands is a rocky and rugged archipelago in the North Atlantic. The 18 volcanic islands are an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. I would love to visit this place with a sketchbook.

Hamburg-based photographer, David Altrath photographed this incredible landscape in 2019. Looks like the perfect spot to hide out for a summer and just center yourself. Do some fishing, mow the roof...you know, Faroe stuff.

You can see the rest of the photos here: LINK​

And more of Altrath's fabulous work here: LINK​

And his Instagram: LINK​

-Jake

Skull Chaser and Vodrogo

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From the Drawings Unit

I drew this a few months ago for my buddy @vodlines and forgot to post it. As you know, I’ve been working on a new Skull Chaser comic and while going through my archives of art to find cool images of him I found this and forgot I never shared it online.

This was penciled digitally, printed out and inked traditionally, then scanned in and colored digitally, then printed out and photographed. Phew!

--

Accepting New Patrons: Patrons are getting frequent updates on the comic I'm making, including more behind the scenes stuff. They've also read the full comic in both roughs, pencils, and now inks as I finish them.

I just dropped the Red Shift Renegades title logo reveal plus a detailed breakdown of how I designed it. You don't want to miss that.

I'm also sharing other art and sketches and stuff related to other projects. It's a treasure trove of information and cool art. When I finish this comic I'll have an exclusive special edition Artist Edition PDF for patrons.

Join here: LINK​

-Jake

The Nutty Bubblepunk Vehicles of Luigi Colani

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From the Department of Interestingness, Office of Wheels

Luigi Colani was a german industrial designer active from the 1950's until the 2000s. Clearly ahead of his time by pushing the boundaries of design in every project he took on. Looking at his work I feel like I'm seeing a future that never was. I had seen this guy's work for years while growing up. (I wanted to be a car designer when I was a kid) but had forgotten about him until I saw his Super Truck in my twitter feed: LINK

I found a nice online repository of all of the vehicles he designed: LINK

Here's a few of my favorites:

On Resources

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From the Inspirational Thought Unit

The French have an expression: "faire feu de tout bois" which translated means "to make fire out of any wood." This is the fundamental principle of my concept of filling your creative bank account.

Every experience you have whether directly (seeing the pyramids for example) or indirectly (watching a documentary about the pyramids) is creative fuel. But it doesn't need to be amazing experiences like traveling someplace exotic or seeing an inspiring movie or reading an incredible graphic novel to fuel your ideas. Creative capital can come from anywhere...even from the crappy day you might have had last week.

Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges says this about it:

"A writer — and, I believe, generally all persons — must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art."

Next time you're down, or in an unfair situation, or you keep screwing something up, take stock of it, audit it, and see where the gold of an idea is. Pair this with last week's inspirational thought: perhaps you now have the right story to help someone.

-Jake

THE GAPE

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From the Comics Division

A massive monster, mouth wide open and a lone character courageously confronting it. I see this illustration trope a lot in comic covers. AND I LOVE IT.

I feel like there's one or two of these covers that come out every year. I decided to start collecting them in a folder as I come across them. If you know of any let me know. Here's the a bunch I have so far:

Really, if you know of any more of these, send me a link or email them to me for my collection.

-Jake

VR Workstations

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From the Concept Art Division

Every so often I talk to people who think that AR or VR aren't ever going to really catch on. They laugh at the goofiness of headsets and how helpless people look with them on. There's not a lot of virtual infrastructure or mass adoption yet leading some people to wonder what they'd even use a headset for. To play what? To meet up with who? BUT I can see a future where we are wearing these things all day.

Now, it mortifies me think that my kids and grandkids are going to spend a good part of their lives in a metaverse type situation. That they might be spending their days without seeing actual trees or sunlight. And if you think that's not going to happen, just go check your screentime from last week and multiply that.

However, I'm trying to see the silver lining here and one good thing about this is VR headsets are going to democratize workstations for people. Imagine not needing a laptop, or an ipad, or a big screen to work off of, or a synthesizer, or a mixing station. All you need is a headset. These tools are all barriers of entry for creators and removing them means so many more people are going to be able to create things.
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Greg Madison has caught this vision and decided to make a mock up of what that could look like. You can see his short demo here: LINK​

-Jake

Dashboard Gallery

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From the Office of Wheels

Found this great gallery of old dashboards on Flickr. I'm always paying attention to this kind of stuff because A) I love industrial design and B) I never know when I might need to design a dashboard for a comic or concept art job. I love industrial design because I think it's pretty cool to see how 100 different designers decided to solve the same problem. Some of these are really spartan with just the essentials (LINK). While others have every gauge, knob, dial, and lever available at arms length (LINK).

Also find it fascinating where some car companies will spend money on interior design, and others look like the interior was an afterthought...something for the engineers to handle.

You can see many many more dashboards here: LINK​

-Jake

Inks Are Finished!

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From the Making Comics Division

Inks are finished for this Issue One of Red Shift Renegades! Colors are coming along nicely too by Anderson Carman. I should have digital copies for sale soon.

One thing I love about these two pages was getting to draw the inside of Aven's ship and figuring out how to make it livable, but also functional. Also, I love drawing cities too.

You can actually watch me ink this last page over on Instagram: LINK​

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It's time to join the Patreon: Patrons are getting frequent updates on this comic, including more behind the scenes stuff. They've also read the full comic in both roughs, pencils, and now inks as I finish them.

I just dropped the Red Shift Renegades title logo reveal plus a detailed breakdown of how I designed it. You don't want to miss that.

I'm also sharing other art and sketches and stuff related to other projects. It's a treasure trove of information and cool art. When I finish this comic I'll have an exclusive special edition Artist Edition PDF for patrons.

Join here: LINK

-Jake

On Telling the Right Story

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From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I recently watched Walk the Line about Johnny Cash's sordid life of drug abuse, philandering, and reckless life decisions all the while trying to make really good music. It's a by-the-book biopic, with great actors, great writers, and great filmmakers operating at the top of their craft. I liked it. Cash is a flawed and broken man who is able to find a way to heal, and ultimately help others through his natural abilities as a singer/songwriter.

I especially liked its theme as stated by Cash's older brother in the opening scene. The two boys are laying in bed, and Johnny is lamenting the fact that his brother is so good, while he is such a bad kid. His brother reads the bible every night trying to know it front to back. His reason:

“...you can't help nobody if you can't tell them the right story.”

The film then goes on to break that idea down and build it up again through the events of Cash's life. He crashes and burns when he believes the wrong story about himself, but when he finally learns the right story about who he is, and who his story connects with he's not only able to help himself, but actually help others.

As a storyteller your reason for writing and drawing and crafting worlds and characters is to ultimately help others. Stories are how people process and digest the messiness of life. They offer a roadmap for healing. If you are failing to do this as a storyteller it might be because you aren't telling the right story.

So how do you tell the right story? You have to tell a story you know and you have to tell a story you believe.

-Jake