David Chelsea is reading: I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)
by Chuck Klosterman
Continue reading Just Wrapped Up On Patreon: Snow Angel Origins
Category: Comics
American Bystander #10: James McMullan and Full Frontal Haiku!
The latest issue of American Bystander, number 10, contains a murderer’s row of heavy-hitting cartoonist and writers, including Drew Friedman, M.K. Brown, Ed Subitzky, Charles Barsotti, Rick Geary, et al, and I especially recommend the reminiscence by Jennifer Finney Boylan, who was Managing Editor of the American Bystander’s original prototype issue in 1982, but for me the most significant name is this month’s cover artist, veteran illustrator James McMullan.
David Chelsea is reading: Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America
by Jared Cohen
Continue reading American Bystander #10: James McMullan and Full Frontal Haiku!
ARE YOU BEING WATCHED? The Promo
Just a heads-up that I’ve posted an Adobe After Effects video promoting my webcomic ARE YOU BEING WATCHED?- which ran from 2015 to 2017, and is still viewable on Patreon (and which is soon to become my next book from Dark Horse)- on YouTube and Patreon. The video takes the form of credits sequences for imaginary Reality TV shows such as KIBBLE KITCHEN and CLOSET CLEANSE, which appear as part of the story. I’ll be posting digital art created for the video in the coming weeks.
Watch the video on YouTube
Watch the video on Patreon
Read ARE YOU BEING WATCHED? on Patreon
Round Black Glasses: The Morph
The other day I blogged about the first Adobe After Effects project I posted to YouTube, a morph video of my son Ben’s Presidential portraits. Today, it’s another morph video, a survey of famous Round Black Glasses wearers both from history and popular culture, including Harold Lloyd, David Hockney, Sigmund Freud, Barton Fink, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Edna Mode, Poindexter, Simon Chipmunk, and MTV cartoon star Daria. The video can be seen here.
David Chelsea is watching: Ruby Sparks
starring Zoe Kazan
Continue reading Round Black Glasses: The Morph
Happy Presidents Day! Ben’s Presidents Morph In Adobe After Effects
I haven’t blogged about this very much, but one of my main activities this the past year has been learning to do motion graphics in the software program Adobe After Effects. It’s been a steep learning curve, but my efforts are beginning to bear fruit. This week, I posted two short videos to YouTube, both of them morph sequences created in After Effects. The first is a collaboration with my son Ben.
David Chelsea is reading: A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel
by Amor Towles
Continue reading Happy Presidents Day! Ben’s Presidents Morph In Adobe After Effects
American Bystander #9 Is Here!
The latest issue of AMERICAN BYSTANDER has just recently arrived. Considering the figure on the cover by Rick Geary, this issue may have been SLIGHTLY delayed in getting to me, but hey, who says Santa Claus is just for Christmas? This issue continues the high standards of hilarity the fledgling humor magazine has set for itself, with contributions by mainstays Shannon Wheeler, Roz Chast, Drew Friedman, S. Gross, Ron Barrett, Brian McConnachie, and Peter Kuper, a cartoon by newcomer Lila Ash, and multiple contributions by yours truly.
David Chelsea is reading: The Goat Getters
by Eddie Campbell
Continue reading American Bystander #9 Is Here!
DAVID CHELSEA IN LOVE Gets Some Love
The things you stumble across when you Google yourself- TOTAL ECLIPSE is, in its own words,”An Ill-Adviced Re-Reading of All Comics Published by Eclipse Comics”. Eclipse was a comics publisher which existed from 1978 to 1994, run by husband-and-wife team Dean Mullaney and cat yronwode, which published hundreds of comics including early work by Eddie Campbell, Scott McCloud and Dave Stevens, and was the original publisher for my first graphic novel DAVID CHELSEA IN LOVE. The unnamed blogger has taken it on himself to re-read Eclipse’s entire comics output, as well SOME of the trading cards which were their other notable business (but not BLOCKBUSTERS OF RHYTHM & BLUES, the Eclipse card set I illustrated with text by Barry & Pat Katzmann).
David Chelsea is watching: The Savages
starring Laura Linney
Continue reading DAVID CHELSEA IN LOVE Gets Some Love
New Feature On Patreon! The Unwatched List #1: GIANT
In Patreon page news, WELCOME TO THE ZONE wrapped up last week. DUCKLAND, the WELCOME TO THE ZONE sequel, is a natural next act, but I have hopes of placing it with a digital or print outlet that will pay more money, maybe even enough that I can do it in color. I’m giving myself until the end of the year to make this happen, and after that I’ll decide whether to do a version for Patreon or chuck the project altogether. So, the series I began this week, THE UNWATCHED LIST, kills two birds with one stone- creating a comics series for Patreon at the same time I find 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!
David Chelsea is watching: Electrick Children
starring Julia Garner
Continue reading New Feature On Patreon! The Unwatched List #1: GIANT
WELCOME TO THE ZONE Touches Bottom!
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
Continue reading WELCOME TO THE ZONE Touches Bottom!
LIFE OF THE PARTY: The Last-Ditch Appeal
Saturday, October 6th 2018 was 24 Hour Comic Day, and just like last year, I drew my comic (my 19th!) at Enthusiasm Collective from 9 am Saturday to 9 am Sunday. Given the (in my opinion) absolute necessity of electing a Democratic Congress this November, I made my comic a benefit for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Much like my S. Clay Wilson benefit in 2009, I took pledges for a specified dollar amount for each page completed (as usual, I hit it on the nose with 24). I collected seven pledges before the event, for a grand total of $289. Presumably, the DCCC will spend the money on a lot of ads with creepy music and a gravelly voiceover saying stuff like “Walter Wunkett SAYS he cares about people with pre-existing conditions, but he voted against the Affordable Care Act EIGHTY ONE TIMES!” The seven people who pledged each received a print copy of the completed comic.
David Chelsea is reading: The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time
by Maria Konnikova
Continue reading LIFE OF THE PARTY: The Last-Ditch Appeal