Studio YOLO Now on Facebook

The fanciest Studio YOLO digital masthead to date

Studio YOLO was born out of the comics residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with Dean Haspiel (and Megan Kelso and Ellen Forney). The nine artists in Dean's group have banded together digitally to bring you interesting stories every month. One script, nine artists, and a few guest artists--once a month!

Check out the Studio YOLO website here, as well as our shiny new Facebook page, where you can follow new work and submit your own renditions of YOLO stories.

Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues Comic

Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues is a really cool jug band from Brooklyn, who make a lot of fun roots music and write catchy, funny songs. I did this twelve page comic for their upcoming record release party at Jalopy on December 22nd. Take a peek, then get over to Jalopy later in the month, if you're in the city and haven't gone out of town for the holidays just yet.

This project was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to the release party. Thanks Ernesto for the fun assignment!

Veteran Writers at The Old Stone House

I had the pleasure and good fortune to meet Peter Catapano at the Joe Bonham Project exhibition reception this past weekend and he told me about a reading he was co-hosting at The Old Stone House. Presented by Brooklyn Reading Works, the reading showcased the incredible writing talents of several young writers who are recent alumni of the NYU Veterans Writing Workshop and have been using their war experiences to inform their creative writing. It was an incredible evening and I am looking forward to hearing more from this group of great writers. A collection of their writing, "Fire and Forget", will be available in February, but you can pre-order the book here.

Maurice Decaul is a former Marine who served in Iraq in 2003. He is a poet, essayist and librettist.

Matt Gallagher is a Senior Fellow at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and the author of the Iraq memoir, Kaboom.

Mariette Kalinowski served in the U.S. Marine Corps between 2002 and 2012, deploying twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She studies fiction at Hunter College's MFA program.

Phil Klay is a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a graduate of the MFA writing program at Hunter College.

Roy Scranton is an Iraq War veteran, and is the co-editor of Fire and Forget.

A Letter Lasts Longer

While at the Atlantic Center for the Arts' 3-week comics residency, studying with master artist Dean Haspiel, I made this interesting comic based on a script he generated. The script was interpreted by each associate artist in the group. These varied and beautiful permutations can be seen on the Trip City blog here.

Space Wino

Thanks, Maria, for the fun drawing commission!

Sketchbook Pages from ACA Comics Residency

I had the honor and great experience of taking part in a three-week long residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida this past October. Things have finally settled down long enough for me to post these sketchbook pages.

(An outdoor yoga session taught by Ellen Forney and Lara Antal.)

(Clever hats on a boat tour.)

(Birds and houses and trees seen from the boat.)

(Gabby Gamboa, Lark Pien, Eleanor Davis, and Leela Corman in Gainseville, Fl.)

(Sketching one of the ACA interns, Greg.)

(Greg seated, three views.)

Joe Bonham Project on the Cartoon Picayune

(Photo credit: Josh Kramer, Cartoon Picayune.)

 This past weekend, the Joe Bonham Project's second public exhibition was held at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery in Downtown D.C. The reception was well attended and the feedback was incredible, it has been a great experience working with so many wonderful veterans alongside some seriously talented and incredibly gracious artists.

Josh Kramer of the Cartoon Picayune has some nice things to share about the opening, check out his coverage here on the Cartoon Picayune website.

Victor Juhasz posted some really fun photos on his Drawger page of the installation with a few of the other artists, you can see the photos and his reflections on the whole process here.

New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium

Jess Worby and I will be speaking at Parsons The New School this Monday November 19th as part of the New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium's Twenty Sixth meeting, facilitated by Ben Katchor. I will be speaking about my recent collaborations with veterans on my current nonfiction comic book project. Jess Worby, in addition to having one of the coolest names, is a talented and highly inventive comics artist. I always enjoy seeing the things he thinks of drawing, he's always up to interesting and weird things. If you're a fan of comic books and live in New York, you would probably not regret coming to this talk. Also, it's free, which sure is handy. You can read about it on the Parsons website here.

Rashad at Jalopy

Part of a semi-top-secret drawing project for the Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues. It's been too long since I last updated. I have a huge pile of work to scan and share, but am running off to Washington, D.C. for the Joe Bonham opening reception (are you free and in the area? Please come with friends!)

Post-Hurricane Survival

I've recently come back from a really amazing, three-week comics residency in Florida. I was lucky to get into LaGuardia Airport before it was shut down and flooded. Instead of celebrating my return from the residency and getting back to normal life, the hurricane hit. We have power and internet, but our gas supplier is no longer delivering oil--meaning no heat, and hot water for only a few more days.
 
I moved to NYC on August 28, 2005, the day Hurricane Katrina hit, and cannot describe what a terrible loss it was for me, my friends and family. It's surreal that a hurricane has hit New York and has destroyed so many lives. We are all very fortunate to have what we have. The subway tunnels are flooded, repairs will take months.  My nine-to-five job that I get by on is without power and internet, meaning I'm out of work for the indefinite future. I have already missed three weeks of work so that I could attend the residency, and to be honest, I am worried about making ends meet.


I'm taking advantage of this time off of work by doing drawing commissions. I will draw for one hour on a 9 x 12 piece of paper, using a phrase suggested by you (i.e. sexy librarian, Batman, flying objects). I'll also do portraits, please send me a photo. Email your drawing request with your Paypal receipt to callingthedog@gmail(dot)com.  The finished piece will be sent via email, but I will mail the originals out when I've got access to a post office later, so be sure to include your mailing address. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for spreading the word. It means so much to me.

Lots of love and gratitude, 

Jess

Open Studios at Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Fl.

Page 2 getting inked at the comics residency.

Paul Studies and First Pages

Here is what I have been drawing the past few days. I'm working on a story from a veteran who I have not yet met in real life, it's been interesting translating this story into a comic. I'm trying to develop cleaner lines and possibly do more with less digitally with this story.

Page One Pencil

Page 2 Pencil

Studies of Paul, done from photographs.

Drawing Paul from memory, making a character.

Florida Week Two

I'm here at a three week comics residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in eastern/central Florida, a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, in the midst of saw palmettos and stands tiny magnolias and brushy oak trees. It's already the beginning of the second week and time is moving quickly.
I got through sixteen pages of thumbnails in just a few days, which was a new personal best. Hoping to work faster! I learned some cool Photoshop moves from George Folz, his comics are really cool, check them out on his Tumblr here. Hopefully laying out pages will be less of a struggle now. Gonna try it out now.

Here's the thumbnails, pre-Dean Haspiel edits (they look a bit different now). These are only half of them, the other thumbnails were vague and uninteresting, because I drew them too small initially, and when I blew them up I drew them very fast.

This story is beautifully written by a friend-of-a-friend, Paul David Mansfield. He's an incredibly gifted storyteller, and it has been such an amazing experience to translate his words into comics. I will post pencils soon, I can't wait to share this story.

Also, currently obsessed with Bon Iver's newly-minted Stems Project, a collection of remixes from the most recent album. Not much of it is on Youtube, but you can find it on Spotify.

First Days in Florida

I've been at the Atlantic Center for the Arts Comic Book Residency with Dean Haspiel for the past few days. It's a wonderful and amazing program so far, here's some pictures of the vegetation, art folk, and other assorted items.

New studio space.

They have tea here, and we each got a mug :)

Outside the painting studio, where we are camped.

Inside the painting studio, view from my desk.

On the first day, we met most of the day and talked about our projects.

Dean imparts some wisdom to us.

Megan's amazing comic thumbnails during crit.

James' inked pages during crit.

Megan, Gregory, and Fionnula on a walk down the road.

Turnbull Bay and a heron!

Baby banana spider catching the sunset in his web.

Following Fionnula to dinner.

Dirt road between housing and art buildings.

My place.

New Nib and Brooklyn Book Festival

 

I went to New York Central Art Supply on Saturday and picked up a new nib holder, fancy G-nibs, and some really gorgeous Strathmore 500 Bristol. I bought a Dustin Harbin original drawing at SPX and was inspired to use the materials he draws with to see if I could make something really clean and pretty, like his stuff. The lines are not as clean as I thought they would be, quite messy actually, but really fun. I don't understand how people letter comics with nibs. It's hard and unwieldy. I think the ink I use is too thick and may be causing all the trouble. Further investigation is required.

 

 

I also had the opportunity to see a great panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival, moderated by Bill Karalopoulos. It was inspiring and encouraging to hear about each of their story-writing processes.

Bill Kartalopoulos,  Gabrielle Bell, Carla Speed McNeil, Adrian Tomine, Jaime Hernandez.

Adrian Tomine, Jaime Hernandez.

I want to find a smarter way to work, or a way work faster. Maybe it is a matter of developing consistent work habits.