Um in the Coil

THE ACT-I-VATE SALON @BOOK COURT 10/29, 7-9PM

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:55:05 GMT

It certainly does look like a sweet tome! Here's a peek at it - Here

FLOWING WELLS

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:02:16 GMT

Enjoy:)

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:53:55 GMT

Once again, the Yahoo welcome page's top ten most popular search engine results gives me the giggles...expecting a person of any sense to imagine that there are droves of people searching for "fall foliage" of all things. Just what peculiar domestic scenes are to be guessed at when trying to fathom scores of people searching for "fall foliage"? I imagine that people all over America wake up to discover that the leaves have begun turning color, and they all gasp aloud, "dear god, what's happening?!" Then again, the implications that the people at Yahoo would wish to direct anyone to make their own independent searches for "fall foliage" is just plain weird.:)

Henry Darger....

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:06:25 GMT

I need to thank Tim Hall for reminding me that I still had yet to watch this wonderful documentary regarding Henry Darger. Thanks!:)

Henry Joseph Darger (April 12[?], 1892April 13, 1973) was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a janitor in Chicago, Illinois.[1] He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story.[2] Darger's work has become one of the most celebrated examples of outsider art.
- Wiki

The playlist for all 12 chapters of this documentary can be enjoyed here, though if you've the means I'd suggest finding the real thing at your library or borrow a copy from your most reliable recluse artist friend:)

FLOWING WELLS

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:04:34 GMT

I thought you might dig another sneak-preview of a page in progress.
I've every intention of returning some Friday soon with the beginning of a new chapter of FLOWING WELLS
I really want to make it worth the time away I've taken recently and bomb you with a strong batch of pages.

Cheers!

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:06:11 GMT

Many thanks to jasonturner for sharing this tonight..hits the spot:)

All of it does.

The Basement...

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:26:23 GMT

I've no clue who these women are...heh

...the basement though was my home for a couple of months just before bouncing clear of Madison WI.
I hadn't mentioned it before, but it was quite a basement, and I shared it with two separate indoor gardens which were maintained by a curious and pleasant mad scientist who had constructed these "gardens" to more or less run themselves on the whims of state of the art gizmos and electronic doo-dads. My only complaint was the constant flooding that kept the carpet and everything I owned in a perpetual state of funk, which was where I laid me down to rest most nights.
I have to say though, that the fruits of those gardens would have earned the seal of approval of Terence McKeena :) So, yeah, I do miss being on such a healthy diet.

Anyhoo...

Questions for the US...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:38:14 GMT

This a follow-up to my last post concerning Gordon Brown's leading green adviser Jonathan Porritt and his suggestion that the UK should cut it's population in half from 60 million people to 30.

I'm a wee late-comer to all of this stuff, having pretended as though I could take a break from it after last November more or less, so playing catch-up has been a real eye-opener.

Anyhoo..with regards to eugenic-centric-witchdoctors who happen to be chosen to offer advice to political leaders, it's only fair now to point to Obama's "Science Czar, John Holdren...because it appears to me as if perhaps Obama's only other choices for the job were Invader Zim and Doctor Claw!

This Malthusian ghoul co-authored a book that was published in 1977 titled Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, wherein the authors make a case for such abysmally grim suggestions as forced sterilization by adding infertility drugs to water and food supplies...Legalizing "compulsory abortions...Permanently sterilizing people who authorities deem have contributed to "general social deterioration"...suggests that babies born out of wedlock or to teenage mothers should be forcibly taken and put up for adoption...suggesting that all of this ( and more ) be overseen by a transnational and centralized "planetary regime"...

Now, I'm not saying that I believe that life is bound to go down in the manner as outlined by Holdren's book. But hell, I look at such statistics as one from as early as a 2003 study, finding that in the United States alone, over 750,000 people were actually dropping off each year from prescription medicine; the majority of which were simply working-aged people with prescriptions...and that when measured by return on equity & return on investment, the Pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable industry in the world...and I've watched how in the last twenty years all of these emergent illness have become "mainstreamed"....
Americans make up a smidgen 5% of the planet and yet account for roughly 80% of prescription drug consumption...also accounting for over 25% of the planet's prison population..christ!
Well, to my mind, eugenics is hardly a new ball game.

My aunt Ruth was among those unfortunate women sterilized in the 1920s when it was argued that the population of the United States was being "corrupted" by the birth of too many individuals of "inferior genetic quality". And my Aunt Ruth was not mentally handicapped or otherwise in any way. Sadly, it just so happened that my aunt lived in Indiana where this bullshit first became legal, headed by a board chillingly called the "Indiana State Mental Hygiene Association"...for whatever reasons these bastards had, the women chosen in Indiana weren't the primary targeted victims, but rather chosen on the basis of simply being poor and living outside the urban development.

Looking around, I imagine that I see eugenics being played out in layers and layers...and it's still a weapon of class war.

Who needs a drink?

Questions for the UK...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:08:26 GMT

I'm curious to get some opinions with regards to a couple of things..you know, it's true that maybe I tend to react a wee bit knee-jerk to certain things I read, so no doubt this first snippet seems particularly creepy to me. I'd really like to know just how people in the United Kingdom are expected to react to this sort'a statement...mind you, this was news in March.

UK population must fall to 30m, says Porritt

It's difficult for me to imagine just what this Optimum Population Trust will suggest in order to cut a population of 60 million-plus down the middle, but at the risk of sounding alarmed, I'd suggest keeping an eye out for radical social reforms, among other things.

More I could say maybe, but I'm too damn sleepy.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:31:15 GMT

I'm not entirely finished with it, but near enough to share a peek...it's a pin-up or possibly a cover for
a comic written by my dear brother Rafael Nieves, a character named Bob Howard who looks an awful lot like my own character ( Donald ) though it is entirely a coincidence, even that they both use conventional tools to slay monsters with, and say nary a word while doing so..heh

And get a load of those coveralls..heh
If I knew that I hadn't had any weed in over two months I'd almost swear those coveralls were the result of THC :)

Happy 70th Birthday, Harvey Pekar!

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:54:20 GMT

From Jeff Newelt aka JahFurry, editor of The Pekar Project:

"To toast Harvey's 70th birthday, the Pekar Project posse blew the horn to assemble a surprise allstar gallery of freshly-drawn Harvey Heads. Our magic number was, naturally, 70, but so many artists heeded the call that we're now at 90+ nogginsand the heads keep rolling in. Stroll through this illustrated salute to a beloved American original, and join us in wishing Harvey Pekar a very happy birthday."

http://www.smithmag.net/pekarproject/harveyheads

Pretty damn cool:)

Late afternoon sprinkles...

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:26:23 GMT

It's ever so "undude like" of me, I know, but I might be becoming a curmudgeon...finding myself almost involuntarily saying "good Christ" and rolling my eyes to the tune of these pet peeves that seem to be multiplying; like this morning, discovering that the actress Scarlet Johansen is being called "Scar Jo"..

In fact, my defaulted Yahoo start-page is quite a who's who of nonsense, requiring some curious suspension of disbelief and an iron stomach for distraction; a patchwork-jigsaw of doodads...on any given day it might be suggesting that my penis is too small, or that "chili recipes" and "Ardipithecus ramidus" are among the most popular searches at that given moment. It also wants to know if I have life insurance, if I might have breast cancer, if I perhaps I'm lonely, if maybe I'd like to say what's on my mind, or would I care to see what the stars have to say about my career & love-life, and was I aware that space tourism just around the corner.

Thankfully, there are expressions of pure joy just a click away.

"It's a good thing that bees aren't the size of barn owls"

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:01:51 GMT

I've been keeping myself busy so I haven't given a whole lot of thought to it in the last couple of months, but back in June I sent another contest pitch to the Zuda competition, and have simply never heard a peep back from them about it.
A part of me wonders if they took one look at the title, the synopsis and the eight pages of the thing and thought that I must have been pulling their legs or something.

It's maybe the ponderous amounts of coffee...

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:34:29 GMT

...but, I'm sit'n here chewing over a few things..

It's no secret that paranoia runs rather deep in my super-soaker, so I've opted to more or less steer a wee bit clear of anything "corporate news" for most of the last month of Sundays. However, this morning I followed a link from off my Yahoo "welcome" page, bounced from one link to another, and the next thing I know it's hours later and I've read a mess of this and watched clip after clip of that...most all of which confirming my belief that corporate news is as clear a case of "conflict of interests" as a Priest/gigolo or maybe an arsonist/architect.
Anyhoo...paranoia is hardly a retractable quirk, but it does get one to think'n.

Case and point is this curious Swine Flu buzz'n I've heard off and on for a few weeks now, though until this morning I hadn't given it much thought honestly.

On the surface, it's difficult to see just what the fuss and hype is quite about. I mean, it's a rough estimate that over and around 30,000 people die each year from the run of the mill flu, then you have less than a dozen people dead from this Swine business ( originally it was thought were hundreds but they later had to retract that as it turned out to be Pneumonia ), and yet you've got the World Health Organization acting like their ready to swing into "level 6", which turns out is their peak level signaling a "Pandemic" with "Widespread Human Infection", and the W.H.O. is quoted as saying that while we are currently sitting at "Level 5", that a "Level 6" is "Immanent"...and this "Immanent Level 6" threat is being handed out like candy whenever and wherever this Swine Flu is mentioned on any of the various mainstream sources.

And it gets all the more absurd...
Seriously...check this clip out.
It's what words like "pernicious" were created to illustrate. They're all so eager to more or less seed the crop-minds so that we all get nicely acquainted with the "Immanent" loss of yet more of our rights and civil liberties...

...and that FOX morning news schmuck squeezes out a little breadcrumb at the very tail-end of this clip, mentioning the "possibility of Martial Law".

Color me kooky, but I get this feeling that this Swine-mongering is yet another vehicle to dog-train us into being only too accustomed to accepting more layers of that Draconian cake, and just as seamlessly as they've dog-trained us into being only too familiar with airport strip searches, with surveillance, with having our phones tapped, with unconstitutional search and seizures, with getting shot up with Planet Mongo guns for shit that used to get you told to "move along", or "can I give you a lift home fella?", etc,etc, etc.

Anyhoo...if you happen to spot me at one of the many F.E.M.A. camps getting a beat down, be polite and say hello...heh...I'll be the one with a boot in his face.:)

FLOWING WELLS

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:30:25 GMT

Sorry, just the one page this week.
I think I might just need to take a couple of weeks away from the good folks of Flowing Wells and get myself caught up on other tinkering activities.

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:50:04 GMT

heh..I recall being spellbound by this guy when I was kid.

"How must I prepare, you must ask yourself! Should I jump off the tallest building in the world? Should I lay on the lawn and let them run over me with lawnmowers? Should I go to Africa and let them trample over me with raging elephants?"

"Dig your claws into my organs! Stretch into my tendons! Bury your anchors into my bones!"

Page process...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:32:19 GMT

I thought some of you might dig seeing a small peek at the progression of Flowing Wells pages..a quick before and after from pencils to the finished digital inks...one will be quick to notice that it's not a terribly 'precious' process..heh..paper riddled with coffee spills and what-not, and the stray random note or reminder :)

.

This is a page ( 56 ) that I only just finished doodling, and not entirely ready to leap into the inks, I find myself scanning and posting it :)

Cheers!

FLOWING WELLS

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:49:37 GMT

If you're only read'n one absurdest-dystopian-cautionary-webcomic this year, I do hope it's mine :)

Art History Part One:)

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:37:55 GMT

Seeing as how I've long since given away every every last contributor-copy of every last thing I've had in print over the years, it's been rare that I've ever posted anything from my time as a freelance ink-slinger, but my friend Jim has kept a little bit of everything ( bless his heart ), in some cases, even the original pages, as at times I've been the least trustworthy custodian of my own stuff..heh
So, I thought that I'd start scanning some random things and post them now and again.

This first page is from issue 4 of Dark Horse Comics anthology ( the color alternative to their Dark Horse Presents title ). It was written by John Arcudi ( "The Mask, B.P.R.D." ), and inked by Chris Warner...way back in 1992.

This next piece was a cover I penciled for Joe Martin's "Seeker" back in 94.

And lastly for this afternoon is the cover of Bill Halliar's "EVILMAN", which he was sweet enough to let me write & illustrate a fill-in back in 98 :) Fun stuff!

Again, I'll say that "Grandmothers are antique little girls"...

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:41:03 GMT

I snagged a book several months ago from a pile of easily snag'able books in the downstairs of fairly strange Lutheran church. The books were free, along with bread, rolls, canned foods, macaroni boxes, hand soap and all other such staples donated from here and there.
I meant to take home a copy of "Green eggs & ham", but the ladies who were volunteering that afternoon were pigeoned on the idea that it was strictly "for the children" so instead, the book I snagged was "The naked ape"; a rather bold little tome printed in 1967, and largely concerned with our exceptionally hairless human anatomy...curious as it was, I couldn't help but feel as though it were written with an arm tied behind it's back.

Elaine Morgan on the other hand is a treasure :)

"The MASTER"

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:20:22 GMT

Entirely out of left field an all, but...

An awful show, but a glorious tagline.

"The Master Is Here! He's the supreme warrior! Even his eyes can kill you! His student is the supreme heartthrob! His eyes can melt you!"

wowzers

a film review...?

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:16:39 GMT

In these last eight years of keeping a blog I've maybe given a review of one or two movies at the most..even now, I doubt if I've an actual 'review' to offer...it's just that, now, after a good 24 hours since having watched Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist" I find that I'm still distracted by it..distracted and feeling not unlike one feels in the days following a grim funeral.
I wasn't aware of any hype or controversy before watching this film...only after, as I was curious to read other viewer's responses - which were not surprisingly polarized..."this film is utter garbage!" or "the most brilliant film I've seen!".
Personally, I'm inclined to call it a "masterpiece"...at the very least, I'll say it's extraordinary.
Near about halfway through the film I realized, if only remotely, that I had been slowly leaning forward towards the screen, that my face was locked in a mask of most earnest concentration, and that true anxiety had been crawling through me in a most refreshingly vivid fashion, that seldom, if ever anymore, manifests for anything short of a true-life experience.

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:38:21 GMT

Just on a lark, I came across this cover this evening...the cover of Northestar's "Slash" #4 that I penciled as far back as 1992...I recall this cover with a grin as I had been married at the time and took a polite pass on my wife's offer for sex so that I could finish it...she got pretty pissed and spent the night with a friend that evening...heh...you live and learn.

FLOWING WELLS

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:12:46 GMT

Flowing Wells; Squeegeeing your third eye for the last 51 pages:)

FLOWING WELLS

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:01:55 GMT

NEW pages!:)

Only two new pages this week, but the chaos of recent weeks has settled to a more manageable muddle so there really should be no more of these weeks that come and go without updates.

Cheers!