Posts Tagged "any empire"

Over Burdened: Comic-Con, Southern California Review, and School

Solrac drawing

My OC Iambic Hexameter is exhausted with all the writing he has to do lately. Drawing by Kreid from Solrac Ventures

I have been more productive in the past few weeks than I have been in the last few months combined.  That would be a good thing if it wasn’t so exhausting.  Also, I’m kinda an agnostic Muslim, but I still play Ramadan.  So all this work and thinking and stuffs has been while not eating or drinking while the sun is up.  I’ve had to cheat on some days.

I fasted throughout Comic-Con so that I could get some extra Allah blessings as I ran up and down the San Diego Convention Center trying to get copies of the Southern California Review to select cartoonists that I respect.  Since the other editor-in-chief and I have made the decision to start adding literary art comics as one of the genres that we publish.

I’m still waiting to hear back from most of the comic artists, whom I’ve been e-mailing individually, whom I’m also giving a month until I consider myself blown off and try for others.

So far we’ve confirmed Dana Claire Simpson, the artist behind the finished web comic Ozy and Millie and currently her syndicated comic strip Heavenly Nostrils which you can read for free on gocomics.com.

Heavenly Nostrils fan art I made on D.C. Simpson's envelope.

Heavenly Nostrils fan art I made on D.C. Simpson’s envelope.

Ozy and Millie fan art I did on the flip-side.

Ozy and Millie fan art I did on the flip-side.

We have a tentative not completely a yes, but more like a probably from Nate Powell, graphic novelist who made Swallow Me Whole, Any Empire, and just released the first volume of a graphic biography about Civil Rights icon Congressman John Lewis called March.

Swallow Me Whole Fan Art.  I won't show the reverse side because I ruined it.

Swallow Me Whole Fan Art. I won’t show the reverse side because my Any Empire artwork came out terrible…

Comic Alliance actually took a picture of me talking to Nate Powell about the Southern California Review.  (Top Left: Me, Top Middle: Nate Powell, Middle: Andrew Aydin, bottom right Congressman John Lewis

Comic Alliance actually took a picture of me talking to Nate Powell about the Southern California Review. (Top Left: Me, Top Middle: Nate Powell, Middle: Andrew Aydin, bottom right Congressman John Lewis

I wanted to have time to personally draw fan art and make a personal letter to each cartoonist explaining why I was a fan, why we were interested in their work, and why their involvement in Southern California Review would be important.  I hated soliciting work as poetry editor, because I couldn’t really do things like this to show how sincerely I liked the poets work.  I don’t like mass letters.  I like a personal touch, but it takes a lot of time.  I drew these envelopes while in a laundry mat the day before I left for Comic-Con.

Last weekend I took a television writing class taught by a writer on the Simpsons, Michael Price.  Which was both fun and time consuming.  It really taught me a lot about working in a writer’s room and really got me over my fear of them.  This is something I’ll probably write about when I have more time.  Doing this class right after doing a killer revision of a short story was creatively draining.  I mean I literally finished the draft at 8AM after an all-nighter, took a shower, and drove to USC to attend this all day class which got out at 4.

But right now I still have a 6 page homework assignment to turn into that class, and I have a ton of reading to do for my thesis adviser, who I don’t think is too happy with my last revision of my short story.  Her e-mail had a “We need to talk” vibe to it.

Which is a real facehoof if you read my previous post.

This is a real facehoof if you read my previous post.

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