Today is the day! The long-awaited final installment of WELCOME TO THE ZONE drops on Patreon! To briefly recapitulate the situation, Jones the banjoist/wheatpaster has finally burst out of the cocoon of flyers that he was pasted into on page 35 by the caveman band The Bedrockers, whereupon he immediately lands on the back of a giant dog chasing a mounted policeman. All of them eventually plunge off a dock into the East River, and Jones finds himself in an underwater version of The Zone:
David Chelsea is reading: The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist
by Michael O’Donoghue and Frank Springer
WELCOME TO THE ZONE is a new version of a graphic novel originally published by Kitchen Sink in 1995, rescanned from the original art and reformatted into Indesign layouts, with new balloons and lettering. The original was drawn on coquille board and photocopied at high contrast, then reproduced as line. This time around, I wanted a more tonal look with a full range of grays, so I extensively reworked the original art in Photoshop. Here is the final panel in the original book for comparison:
In advance of the final WELCOME TO THE ZONE page dropping, I did something I should have done from the first- made the story navigable by including links to previous and next installments on each page. Start at the beginning, and get up to speed. You’ll have to become a supporter to read a couple of the raunchier pages, but you’d want to do that anyway, right?:
Here are links to all the installments posted:
Patreon is a reader-supported site, but all comics content (except for a couple of those raunchy pages I’ve put behind a paywall) is free. If you like what you see, tell your friends, and $how Your $upport!
Next week on Patreon, the first of the Unwatched List, as well as… other stuff. What is the Unwatched List, you ask? This is a new comics series for Patreon which finds a use for my sizable shelf of unwatched DVDs, VHS tapes and Blu-Rays. We all have them- that guilt-inducing collection of gift movies, TV series box sets, and taped school productions starring relatives, all gathering dust as their respective formats teeter towards obsolescence. My plan is to watch one of them a week and produce a page of comics in response- maybe a review, or a story inspired by my viewing, or maybe just random doodles drawn while the thing is playing. The list is below- some of these are classics, some are obscurities, so very, very many are Emmy screeners- but all are guaranteed to be new to me- unless I’ve watched them already and forgotten, which is certainly possible!
THE UNWATCHED LIST
Before Midnight, 2013
Blackout, 1950
Black Rainbow, 1989
Black Veil For Lisa, 1968
Blue Jasmine, 2013,
Bond Of Fear, 1956
Broken Wings, 2004
Catfish
Click and Clack’s As the Wrench Turns
Chu Chin Chow, 1934
Copic Techniques & Projects With Sketch Markers
Count Dracula, 1977
The Crash, 1932
Day Watch, 2007
The Debt, 2011
The Dreamers, 2003
Ellery Queen Mysteries: Disc One
Ellery Queen Mysteries: Disc Two
Ellery Queen Mysteries: Disc Three
Ellery Queen Mysteries: Disc Four
Ellery Queen Mysteries: Disc Five
Ellery Queen Mysteries: Disc Six
Ernie Kovacs, The ABC Specials
Everybody Rides The Carousel (1975)
Exodus, 1960
Fences, 2016
Giant, 1956
Get On Up, 2014
Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party: The Sublimely Intolerable Show
Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party: The Halloween Show
Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party: The Crusades Show
Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party: The Documentary
Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party: The Everything For Sale Show,
Guys & Dolls, South Pasadena High School, 2007
The Greatest American Hero: The Complete First Season Disc One
The Greatest American Hero: The Complete First Season Disc Two
Hal Sparks Charmageddon
HBO Emmy screeners: Banshee
HBO Emmy screeners: The Knick
HBO Emmy screeners: Foo Fighters:Sonic Highways,
HBO Emmy screeners: Game Of Thrones 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: Getting On 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: Girls 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst
HBO Emmy screeners: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
HBO Emmy screeners: The Leftovers
HBO Emmy screeners: Looking 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: The Newsroom 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: Real Time With Bill Maher,
HBO Emmy screeners: Silicon Valley 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: Togetherness
HBO Emmy screeners: True Blood 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: VICE 2014
HBO Emmy screeners: Bessie
HBO Emmy screeners: Beyoncé Jay Z On The Run
HBO Emmy screeners: The Concert For Valor
HBO Emmy screeners: Jerrod Carmichael: Love At The Store
HBO Emmy screeners: Kat Williams: Priceless: Afterlife
HBO Emmy screeners: Mel Brooks: Live At The Geffen
HBO Emmy screeners: Rosie O’Donnell: A Heartfelt Stand Up
HBO Emmy screeners: Bill Maher: Live From DC
HBO Emmy screeners: The Case Against 8
HBO Emmy screeners: It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise
HBO Emmy screeners: Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown
HBO Emmy screeners: Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck,
HBO Emmy screeners: Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All
HBO Emmy screeners: Saving My Tomorrow
HBO Emmy screeners: Alan Alda And The Artist Within You: A Young Arts Masterclass
HBO Emmy screeners: Clear History
HBO Emmy screeners: Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight
HBO Emmy screeners: The Normal Heart
HBO Emmy screeners: Treme
HBO Emmy screeners: Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays
HBO Emmy screeners: John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown
HBO Emmy screeners: Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth
HBO Emmy screeners: Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles
HBO Emmy screeners: Six By Sondheim
HBO Emmy screeners: Life According To Sam
HBO Emmy screeners: Paycheck To Paycheck: The Life & Times Of Katrina Gilbert
HBO Emmy screeners: Seduced And Abandoned
HBO Emmy screeners: Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley
HBO Emmy screeners: One Last Hug: Three Days At Grief Camp
HBO Emmy screeners: Wynton Marsalis: A Young Arts Masterclass
HBO Emmy screeners: Eastbound & Down
HBO Emmy screeners: Game Of Thrones
HBO Emmy screeners: Getting On 2015
HBO Emmy screeners: Girls 2015
HBO Emmy screeners: Hello Ladies
HBO Emmy screeners: Looking 2015
HBO Emmy screeners: The Newsroom 2015
HBO Emmy screeners: Real Time With Bill Maher 2015
HBO Emmy screeners: Silicon Valley 2015
HBO Emmy screeners: True Blood 2015
HBO Emmy screeners: VICE 2015
The Holcroft Covenant, 1985
Home To Danger, 1951
The Hound Of The Baskervilles, 1985
I Do (2012 Chinese)
International Squadron, 1941
James Dean: Silence Of Death,
James Dean: Hill Number One
James Dean: I’m A Fool
James Dean: The Bells Of Cocaigne
Kickin’ It Old Skool, 2007
Manchester By The Sea, 2016
Manos: Hands Of Fate
Maron IFC
The Midnight Blue Collection: Celebrities Edition
The Midnight Blue Collection: Porn Stars Of The 70s
The Midnight Blue Collection: Porn King,
The Midnight Blue Collection: The Deep Throat Special Edition
The Midnight Blue Collection: Freaks & Geeks
Meet Mr. Callaghan, 1954
The Misfits, 1961
Nicholas Nickleby, 2002
No Man’s Woman, 1955
No Trace, 1950
The Odessa File, 1974
Oliver Neuland The Making Of Product Design Renderings
Our Mutual Friend, 1998
Peter Pan, 1924
The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1946
Queen Live At The Rainbow 1974
Recoil, 1953
Registered Nurse, 1934
The Secret Heart, 1945
Sin City, 2005
The Statement, 2003
Village Of The Damned, 1960
Here’s where YOU come in: you can decide what I watch next! Just go through the list, pick a title, and send me a comment saying why you’d like to see a comic about it. I’ll even send you the tape or disc once I’m done watching it, so can you watch it too! (That’s if you want it, and unless I decide I can’t bear to part with it, which is unlikely, since I’m looking to clear some shelf space here.) The first four discs have already been chosen- GIANT, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, NO TRACE, and Ernie Kovacs. I’ll be posting about this on Facebook as well, but I’ll be giving priority to Patreon supporters (who are mostly Facebookfriends anyway). And if NOBODY comments, I’ll just pick subsequent ones at random.