Jess-Belle Wants To Rock And Roll All Night...

I know the above is awfully similar to the photo below, but I couldn't resist. While flipping channels last night we landed on VH1 Classic and something about the pyrotechnics or all the shiny leather and metal caught Jess-Belle's eye...or maybe it was the music. Should I be more worried about her appreciation of classic Kiss or her growing TV addiction?

--C

Happy Birthday, Jess-Belle!

Above: Jess-Belle today
Below: Jess-Belle exactly one year ago

Our little girl is one year old today! It's been a blast watching her grow and change(see for yourself how much by comparing the two photos above). One thing that has remained the same is her seemingly endless supply of energy! She's also still cute and loveable as ever. Tonight we celebrated with some spirited laser-pointer play and a little cat film festival consisting of a slideshow of all the photos we've taken of her plus all the video we have.
--C

Front row at the film festival

Cleveland Alterna-Rocks, Part 2

Yesterday we enjoyed a great day off in Cleveland. Once again, we were visiting the city for a concert, but we went up early and shopped in Coventry at Big Fun, scoring some Pee Wee's Playhouse cards and a floaty toothbrush (a novel twist on the floaty pen concept!) for our collections, among other items. We also picked up some toys for our little girl at a posh pet store and grabbed a bite to eat at Que Tal. In the evening we headed to the Beachland Ballroom & Tavern to see a live show by Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, formerly half of one of my new favorite bands, Luna. A thunderstorm that threatened to turn into a tornado caused some delays and the show started late, but the music was good(the setlist was heavy with Luna songs so I was happy)--even opening act Michael Holland was quite good, and as in the past, we were able to stay and meet and talk with the performers afterwards. They were incredibly approachable and really nice to us--especially Britta, who chatted with Xan for a while before grabbing Dean to autograph a poster and a setlist for us!
--C

The Spirit

Here's a peek at my take on Will Eisner's Spirit. More soon...

--C

R.E.M.

Button from Lifes Rich Pageant Tour, 1986

Okay--I promised/threatened in a post from last year that I'd soon be writing a longer piece on R.E.M., and here it is. So, if you don't like R.E.M. and/or have never had a favorite band or have never been moved by music(any kind of music, but especially rock and roll), then just skip this and come back next week...

Last night I watched R.E.M. get inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I first discovered them my freshman year at college and it changed my life. No joke. I was a horribly lonely and insecure skinny little art major at James Madison University, looking for something/anything to connect with, something that spoke to me. I came to college with all the holdovers from my early 80's suburban high school years: stale prog rock(Genesis, Yes), Claremont & Byrne comics that I thought were the epitome of the comic book art form, polo shirts, and lots of other boring stuff that I was quickly growing disenchanted with. I spent my first semester at JMU feeling miserable and scared, not really socializing and just sort of going through the motions to get decent grades. I started hanging out alone most of the time, walking around Harrisonburg and spending a lot of time haunting record and book stores. On one such record store trip, I realized I was sick of everything I had been listening to and I wanted something completely new that I had never heard before. I scanned the albums until something caught my eye in the "R" section: Reckoning by R.E.M...the album cover was bizarre and captivating, with strange song titles like "So. Central Rain" and "7 Chinese Brothers." I dimly remembered reading a positive review of one of this group's albums somewhere, and I think I might have seen the "So. Central Rain" video on MTV(this was back in 1984 when they still played music videos). Whatever it was, something about this weird little album did speak to me, so that was that: I was trying something new and R.E.M. was it. Back in my dorm room, headphones on, I listened to the album and was instantly and powerfully hooked! I don't think I can describe the music very well and do it any justice, it was just a "Beatles-on-Ed-Sullivan" kind of eye-opening experience for me.

Things started to change very quickly after I bought that first album...Not only did I become an R.E.M. fan, but through interviews with the band and by researching songs they covered I found dozens of other new and interesting musicians to get excited about(Robyn Hitchcock, The Velvet Underground, The Replacements, Television, X, Billy Bragg, and on and on)--I was saved from dreary Prog-Rock Hell! I also began to come out of my shell--finally making friends at college, going on group road trips all over Virginia to see R.E.M. play live. I'll never see another concert as good as that first R.E.M. show I saw in 1985: me and six or seven friends who knew every word to “Gardening At Night”(well, as much as anyone can know all the words to any of those early songs), an encore set that went on longer than the main set, covers of everything from "Toys In The Attic" to "Behind Closed Doors!" All these changes in my musical life inspired me to experiment with my own chosen art form, trying non-superhero comics (like Love & Rockets, at least after the early issues) for the first time, which led to me trying to discover other art styles and art forms and break out of my very stilted comic book only drawing style. I actually stopped drawing comics for a while(something I'd been doing since I was a little kid) and started to let go of old influences as I took in new ones, concentrating on figure drawing from models and life drawing--the two most important art-related things I took away from my college experience.

Okay, I know it may seem like a stretch, but it's hard for me to put in words--I'm an artist not a writer! All I know is that I had sort of a creative and social awakening at the same time I was discovering this band, and it is absolutely impossible for me to think of that period of my life without hearing R.E.M. songs in my head.

I continued to follow the band, and their music continued to be the soundtrack to my life. I distinctly recall listening to Automatic For The People repeatedly while working on Legionnaires, going to see a great show on the Monster tour with a new group of good friends, and how much "Why Not Smile" from Up helped make some bad times a little better later on. Sounds corny, but that's me--sappy and sentimental...

In 2004, thanks to the love of my life, Xan, I was able to meet R.E.M. after a show in Cincinatti, almost exactly twenty years after I stood in that Harrisonburg record store looking at the cover of Reckoning. We splurged on tickets for good seats and went on our own little two-person road trip. I brought a camera and took some pretty decent photos from the sixth row, and I could have gone home right then and would have considered it a great concert just because of our phenomenal seats, the great setlist, and all the photos. I had heard the band would meet and greet fans after shows, but I just thought it'd never work out, and if it did I'd spaz out and feel like an idiot fanboy. Xan, a veteran of waiting around after concerts to meet bands and get autographs, prodded and reassured, and we ended up waiting with other fans after the house lights came up. The band did indeed come out and shake hands and talk with everyone--they were as nice as could be, and even a little shy, (except for Mike Mills, who looks like he should be the shy one) and very humble-- every one of them. Of course I was a complete spaz and blanked completely on what to say to them(I think I managed "thank you"), but we took some photos and got our ticket stubs autographed, and I was buzzing all the way home(non-alcoholically, of course). Incidentally, I eventually had Peter Buck sign my old copy of Reckoning at a Robyn Hitchcock show(see the archives for November 2006), but by then I was a veteran of these things myself, having met tons of bands after shows and I knew enough to bring something to get signed.

So...as I said at the beginning of this monstrosity of a post, I watched the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction last night. I found it unexpectedly moving--from Eddie Vedder's funny and touching induction speech(which strangely mirrored a lot of my own feelings and experiences with R.E.M.) to seeing how choked up and nervous Mike Mills and Michael Stipe were; as well as seeing and hearing Bill Berry playing with the band again after leaving ten years ago. There was also some of that old-style R.E.M. unpredictability with Peter Buck throwing his monitor offstage as well as the band unearthing "Gardening At Night" during their performance. What most moved me was thinking about how much had changed since 1984--who I was back when I first heard that unknown little band as opposed to who I was last night, watching a superstar rock band with a twenty-six year career behind them. I don’t know—like I said. I’m an artist, not a writer—I’m not sure what I wanted to say or exactly how to end this except that it was just fun being excited about my favorite band again and being happy for them, like watching your team win the Superbowl, maybe? Oh, well—enjoy the photos, at least!
--C



Reckoning LP cover, signed by Peter Buck 23 years after I bought it!


Ticket stub from 1986--check out that price!


Cincinatti, 2004--"Begin The Begin"


Cincinatti, 2004


Cincinatti, 2004

Film Premiere

I've posted a 30-second film on both of our MySpace pages showing our little psycho kitty in action. Follow either MySpace link at right (or if you're really lazy, just click here or here) to be taken to our mini-movie so you can figure out what's going on in the above picture! I'm pretty sure you'll have to be a MySpace member and be logged in to see it. If you're not a MySpace member, it's pretty easy to sign up, and you don't have to maintain a MySpace page if you don't want to(trust me--my own page was dormant for three years!). Give it a try!
--C

So since I have had glasses since the age of 13, I am trying to assure Chris that all will be right with the world and his eyes soon. New glasses are always hard. You either feel much taller or much shorter, and the sharpness of the world practically stabs you. Hopefully, he will adjust nicely. I am adjusting nicely to his glasses...I think he is super cute in them!

Due to illness, injury, and ice, I have nothing to talk about lately. So I guess I will go now...

The big news for me this week was that I finally had to get glasses. About two years ago I noticed I couldn't focus easily anymore on 3-D objects after long stretches of drawing, and it just kept getting worse. Additionally, I was getting frequent headaches and having to hold items I was reading out to a distance of about two feet to see them clearly. Time for glasses. Oh, well...the specs came in today, and I've been trying to get used to them all day...

--C

P.S. Received my comp copies of Midnighter #5 today, so that means it should be in stores this week or next. Possibly the best looking one so far--in color. Issue #2 is still my favorite in black & white.

A Virtual Tour
of Plankton Studios
Here's a cyber walk-through of Plankton studios for those who've never visited and for those who have and have perhaps wondered "what is all that crap?"

Click on each photo for a larger view(clicking twice may give you an even larger image). I've tried to point out and label some of the more interesting, fun and/or hard-to-identify items. Enjoy!
--C


My workspace


Xan's workspace


The Computer Corner? The Geek Grotto? I don't know
what to call the above area...


Reference shelf 2

Comic Book Update

New Midnighter cover pencils

Just a quick one this time: I'm working on future Midnighter covers. We have a new writer on that book, but I'll wait for some sort of official announcement before I say who it is--no big secret deal or anything--I just want to wait until all the papers are signed and everything's nailed down. Also, the Walter Simonson Spirit story is in, so I'll be starting that this week.
--C