1927: Serene, Colorado

I made the paper out of all sorts of “office paper”; old copier paper I use for writing rough drafts, old phone bills, electric bills, etc. Sometimes letters, numbers, or bits of text will survive the soaking and blending. If it’s really distracting, I can scrape it off the surface with an exacto knife. There’s a dollar sign on the fence post, and “$68″ where the barbed wire would be, and I think I’ll leave them in as it seems fitting to the story.

A page from the 1927: Serene, Colorado comic I’m working on. I didn’t do any talking or dub any music on the video because I wanted to capture the sound of the nib. There’s no penciling, just straight to ink, then some watercolor.

Serenity Now

I just spent the last 15 weeks making handmade paper, and now I’m starting to use it.These aren’t really sheets of paper, they’re more boards. You could eat a pile of greasy BBQ off one of these, and it wouldn’t fall apart.

I’m interested in making comics that are unique objects. I’ll probably print a few copies to sell, and I’ll make a digital copy for the Gumroad page, but my real interest is in the making of the physical object, the tactile quality of the surface of the paper, the thing existing in space and not just on a computer screen.

here’s a WIP, the first 5 pages of a 16 page comic, about an event that happened in Colorado in 1927. I’m using a brush and a crowquill with india ink, and coloring it with watercolor. I might add a little acrylic paint or colored pencil, and it's contained in a thick, clear plastic bikini packaging box.

I’ll have a bunch of these comic objects at The Chicago Zine Fest and The New South Festival of Literary Arts and Cartooning in Austin, TX.

Naked In The Rain

A tiny accordion comic... India ink, crowquill, and watercolor on handmade paper, contained in a Timex watch packaging case.

Tampon Platitudes #1

India ink, crowquill, and colored pencil on the back of a Hy-Vee grocery receipt, rolled up and stuffed inside a tampon tube.

Pawnee

The Reverend Bart Yates, Iowa Secret Conviviality Society member in good standing, gave me some short stories to work with, and I condensed them down to mini comics. The first one was the “Fart in Church” comic. This one is about an extinct Iowa town that became the model for a town in Leonardo Dementia The Third Hill North of Town

Piper at the Gates of Dawn

The Reverend Bart Yates