I came back to Seattle with a lot of books. Friends and family were very generous, including my in-laws who gave me a couple of books on the illustration biz (maybe they’re trying to tell me something?). Add these to a few other books I’ve picked up over the last couple years (and haven’t actually read), and I seem to have a nice little set of books on how I should go about becoming an illustrator.
I’ll try and find the time to go through these and maybe relate any useful information I find within. If anyone has any other suggestions of good books about illustration, drawing or creativity, let me know.
I’m going to be doing this every once in a while to try and keep track of the things I’ve been into: books, movies, music, all of that crap. Here’s what I’ve been really into lately:
I’ve been really into Yoshihiro Tatsumi lately. His work is amazing. The Frontiersmenis a book about frontier life in Kentucky from just before the revolutionary war through the war of 1812. The first half of this book was incredible. Pitch Black was a gift from my sister, signed by the author. I thought it was okay, but I was admittedly more interested in the story of the how the book must have come together than in the book itself.
Movies
Death Proof, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Inglourious Basterds, The Fall
We had a little Tarantino marathon of sorts before seeing Inglourious Basterds. It was a good marathon. I also re-watched The Fall recently and still love that movie.
Other than these things and drawing, I haven’t been up to too much. The only other thing I can think to mention is that I’ve been trying to perfect a recipe for swimming rama to get it just like they have it at Thai Tom here in Seattle. I’m nearly there.
I just ran accross a book on Amazon coming out in February. It’s called Misery Loves Comedy, and it’s an anthology of the earlier works of one of my current favorite teachers, Ivan Brunetti. I thought that the star review of the book on Amazon was of particular note:
“A psychiatric case study masquerading a fancy-pants graphic novel, Misery Loves Comedy collects Ivan Brunetti’s early issues (no pun intended)… wait, let’s rephrase that. Misery Loves Comedy collects the first three issues of the legendary comic book series Schizo in their entirety, as well as a host of miscellaneous flotsam and jetsam from various anthologies, c. 1992-2005. Readers will find the author’s unwitting self-caricature as a paranoid, deluded young man intriguingly repugnant and often chuckle-inducing. Besides Brunetti’s trademark nihilism, self-loathing, relentless depression, and inchoate, spittle-soaked misanthropy, these earlier comics offer a dollop of scatology and blasphemy for that extra puerile, lowbrow tang. These are comics for those who enjoy witnessing one man’s sanity in its final death rattle, swinging its tail from anhedonia to schadenfreude and back again. Also: lots and lots of filthy jokes.”
Time to ring in the new year – the new school year, that is. After making it downtown, I pushed my way through the crowded hallway on the 6th floor of the Congress building to get my U-Pass, past the large discussion of today’s changes to Facebook. I got pizza and then headed over to my first class: Ivan Brunetti’s “Drawing the Graphic Novel.” The first day was basically a re-hash of the first day of his Graphic Novel Workshop that I took a few months ago, but he kept it interesting enough. I am really looking forward to the later and more in-depth assignments and information, and hopefully to actually feel challenged for once. We shall see. I also picked up our text book for the class:
Awesome.
I accompanied Jord to Gunther Murphy’s tonight for a comedy show hosted by Sean Flannery. Kumail very craftily got me in for free. I also ran into Robert Buschemi for the second time today. I believe I’m going to help Jord film his DVD on Thursday night at the Subterranean. Should be interesting.
