Comics – News

ARE YOU BEING WATCHED? Logo #1: Cellar Dwellers

My first foray into Adobe After Effects, this animated logo is taken from the Cellar Dwellers chapter of ARE YOU BEING WATCHED?, a graphic novel about Reality TV which ran from 2015 to 2017 on my Patreon page, and which is forthcoming in book form from Dark Horse Comics. My eventual plan is to make animated logos for all the Reality shows in the story as a video promotion for the book. I got a major assist on this one from Milan Erceg, After Effects wizard and director of 24 Hour Comic, the recent documentary I appeared in. I did the illustration and lettering, but Milan added the creepy blur-in effect and lots of digital noise to simulate the look of a vintage TV show. My hope is to eventually acquire enough chops to be able to do this kind of thing on my own with no help. Wish me luck!

David Chelsea At Free Comic Book Day!

This coming weekend I’ll be making a rare public appearance- signing copies of all my books and giving away copies of some of them this Saturday, May 6th, from 1 to 3 pm, as part of Free Comic Book Day at Cosmic Monkey in Portland, an annual event which takes place at comic shops across the country. With me will be Jacob Mercy, co-star of the documentary 24 HOUR COMIC, and co-creator with Pete Soloway of Barkles, America’s Favorite Dog.

David Chelsea is reading: Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World
by Steven Johnson
 
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Secret Stash: The Real Zoners

I’ve been continuing to post two pages a week from my revamped version of WELCOME TO THE ZONE on Patreon. I’m now up to part 15, including this particularly grisly death scene:

David Chelsea is reading: Winter: Five Windows on the Season (CBC Massey Lecture)
by Adam Gopnik
 
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The Artcasters #126!

If you missed it last night, catch it on archive! The Artcasters #126, A live show featuring art talk from artists Scott Serkland, Joshua Kemble and a rotating third guest chair. This week’s special guest is me, Eisner nominated David Chelsea, showing image files of current comics work for a scintillating hour and a half while chatting with Joshua and Scott about comics, perspective, and why the scalloped edges of a sharpened pencil are hyperbolas. Highlight: me begging for storyboard work!

David Chelsea is reading: Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life)
by Mark Cohen
 
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WELCOME TO THE ZONE: Out And About With Oot And Aboot

In this week’s installment of Welcome To The Zone, my 1995 graphic novel revised and revamped for a new century and serialized on Patreon, we are introduced to Oot and Aboot, two homeless aliens from the Planet Borgon. Their nameless species graces the cover of the original edition:

WELCOME TO THE ZONE Rebooted: Enter Mugg

I’ve been continuing to put up episodes of the rebooted version of my 1995 graphic novel Welcome To The Zone on Patreon at a rate of two pages a week. This week’s installment introduces three new characters, Invert, Shroom, and Mugg. The three of them run a mobile soup kitchen which feeds the homeless, whether they want to be fed or not:

David Chelsea loves his: Victor M241 No Touch, No See Upgraded Electronic Rat Trap
 
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Welcome Back To The Zone… Again

Longtime readers will remember that I began to post revised pages of my 1995 graphic novel Welcome To The Zone on my Patreon page during the election campaign of 2016. This 21-year-old story was newly relevant because of the character Ronald Duck, a thinly-disguised waterfowl caricature of real estate developer Donald Trump, who had become a presidential candidate that year. I set aside the reboot to work on other things for a while, but now I have come back to it, with Ronald Duck more relevant than ever in the age of President Trump. Apart from minor details I have not altered the story or dialogue in the slightest, but the art is getting a major overhaul. My friend and sometime assistant Jacob Mercy likens this to George Lucas going back in and inserting CG effects in the original Star Wars trilogy– fortunately for me, there does not seem to be a contingent of diehard Welcome To The Zone fans to object.

David Chelsea is listening to: 3:47 Est
by Klaatu
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Round Black Glasses On Tumblr!

For anyone who wants to read my latest 24 Hour Comic straight through, I’ve posted a new, navigable version of ROUND BLACK GLASSES on Tumblr.

David Chelsea is reading: Conversations with Mary McCarthy
 
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RIP, Mort Walker: Canned Funnies

The recent death of BEETLE BAILEY and HI & LOIS cartoonist Mort Walker brought back memories of my first job for The Portland Monthly in 2004. The trigger event was The Oregonian‘s controversial decision to drop Hi and Lois from its comics page after 50 years (it was displaced by Berkeley Breathed’s brief revival of Opus; Cathy was dropped at the same time). Think about this for a moment. Imagine that in 2004, Frank Sinatra’s Swing Easy (released in 1954) had just dropped off the charts, The Pajama Game was finishing a 50 year run on Broadway, and a local television affiliate was catching flack for dropping Father Knows Best, which first appeared the same month as Hi And Lois, from its lineup (Cathy, a relative stripling, made its debut in 1976, the same year as Frampton Comes Alive! the musical Annie and Charlie’s Angels.). On the other hand, The Tonight Show and Face The Nation started that same year and are still going strong, so network television is hardly a paragon of dynamic change.

David Chelsea is reading:Conversations with Mary McCarthy
 
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Palindromes In Print! American Bystander #6

The latest issue of AMERICAN BYSTANDER, America’s freshest humor magazine, is out, by which I mean I’ve finally gotten my contributor’s copies in the mail. Issue #6 has a cover by the legendary Arnold Roth, as well as some choice humor, illustrations, and comics from a stellar stable of regulars: MK Brown, Rick Geary, Ron Barrett, Randall Enos, Mimi Pond, John Cuneo, Peter Kuper, etc.

David Chelsea is reading: Night of Camp David
by Fletcher Knebel, Co-Author of Seven Days in May
 
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