Ingrid Rios' Untitled Comic Project

I had the opportunity to read the first five pages of Ingrid Rios' memoir about her life-threatening eating disorder. Her drawing is incredible, she's come so far artistically in the years I've known her, and the story is powerful. It is emotionally honest, raw, and well-done. You must read this.

Page 2 of Ingrid Rios' comic, via her Tumblr.

Sketches from the Studio: The Decisions

Nichole talking, page 1 study

So sweet! Nichole in the Army National Guard

Smoke plume from the base in Iraq

Page 1 thumbnails

Page 2 thumbnails

Page 3 thumbnails (my favorite pages)

Page 4 thumbnails

I drew some character studies and thumbnails for a short, four page story I'm working on about my friend Nichole, who served in the Army National Guard in Iraq. It'll be part of a zine I'm making of shorter (4 page) veteran stories for the Brooklyn Zine Fest in April.

To Build A Home

Hang Dai v2.0, March 2013. Photo: Dean Haspiel

I moved to a new studio space in Gowanus with some cool cartoony folks on Friday. Hang Dai version 2.0 desks left to right: Christa Cassano, Dean Haspiel, Fred Harper, Seth Kushner, myself, Greg Benton. Not pictured: microwave. The building is really beautiful and already feels like home. I did a lot of drawing over the weekend and rode my bike there on Saturday. The sky is open in that part of Brooklyn, there's weird overpasses, train trestles covered in black gauze, and little brick apartments with tiny porches.There's also 99 cent chicken in a parking lot nearby (which sounds as magical as it actually is, no sarcasm). The trains go by above our heads and sound the way an airplane sounds when you're inside it and it's taking off, but even softer. It's interestingly soothing.


To Build a Home - Cinematic Orchestra with Patrick Watson

New York Times: Trauma Turns Female Veterans to the Streets

Here's a very wonderful yet terribly haunting article about the failings and betrayal of the U.S. Military to take care of its soldiers and veterans.

Good Times at The Drawing Center

A few weeks ago I had the honor and privilege of speaking about my involvement with the Joe Bonham Project, an artist activist group that seeks to raise awareness about wounded veterans (physical as well as psychological traumas).

I was nervous about speaking, so I tried out this neat trick I learned from Lacy Rhoades. He once had to give a speech in front of all the staff at his job (he's a programmer for Etsy and also a talented photographer). Before he started the speech, he quietly took a picture of the crowd at the podium with his iPhone. Looking back at the photo I took now, I am amazed at how kind and sweet everyone in the crowd was--I couldn't see it clearly at the time because of my pre-speech jitters. It ended up going well and I had a really great time. A lot of fabulous questions were asked and really helped me think about my work in new ways. So thanks to the friends reading this who came out and showed your support, you are loved and appreciated! And I hope you think you look lovely in the photograph below.

I also took a photograph of myself in the downstairs bathroom at the Drawing Center because:

a) The entire space has been remodeled and it is a really lovely restroom, especially for a public restroom (in New York, no less!)
b) I thought I should document the experience; it was handy I thought I looked pretty fly in my fancy dress, with my new haircut. I'm also showing support for one of the veterans I met at Bethesda in August, Nathan Rimpf, with a wristband his sister designed. His family sells them for $1 to help with the bills, but you have to beg them to take your money, they pretty much give them to everyone they meet. There's a great photo album on his support page on Facebook, documenting where in the world all the wristbands have made it to, it's amazing.  You can check it out here: Where in the World are Nathan's Wristbands?

Alfred I. duPont Awards Comic

The nonfiction comic piece I did for the Columbia University School of Journalism's duPont Awards, Passing the Baton, went live today! You can check out the comic here. Thanks to Abi Wright and Beth Canipe for the fun assignment!

*Edit*: The comic is no longer available on the Columbia Journalism School website, so I've posted the full comic here.

Drawing Commissions

Here's two drawing commissions I finally finished. Slower than Christmas, please forgive me! Thanks George and Amber (and all the rest) for being patient with me. The Batman one was lots of fun!

Drawing Center Talk Tonight

If you're in NYC, come check out this talk I'm giving at The Drawing Center about my participation in the Joe Bonham Project:

For Immediate Release

Comics Journalist Jess Ruliffson Collects Veteran Narratives for Upcoming Graphic Novel
February 13th, 2013, 6:30-7:30pm, The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, NYC 10013
Jess Ruliffson in a Brooklyn based comics journalist currently working on her first graphic novel. In this presentation and comic reading, Jess Ruliffson discusses her work with the Joe Bonham Project, where she and several artists visited wounded veterans at Walter Reed Military Medical Center, drawing and documenting their stories to serve the public in cultivating a better understanding and awareness of the impact of war on this generation. The Joe Bonham Project was founded 2010 by Michael D. Fay, a combat artist and former Marine, along with several other artists, in an effort to catalog veterans' experiences as part of the public record. Jess Ruliffson has taken these veterans' narratives, along with other service members' stories, and serialized them in comic book form. Q + A with the artist to follow.

Sketches From Last Night

Last night in the studio: drawing Ai Wei Wei, listening to Beyonce. Life is interesting. I recommend checking out the doumentary Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry. These are drawings for a secret project-- I can tell you about it in a week when it's done!

A Belated Reflection

2012 was an incredible year. I visited veterans at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with the Joe Bonham Project, studied cartooning for three magical weeks with Dean Haspiel and a whole mess of  other talented cartoonists at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, tabled at SPX, published an eight page nonfiction comics piece in the Oxford American New South Journalism Issue, received a Sequential Artists Workshop Micro-grant for self publishing, and made lots of new friends and new work. 2013 has already been a busy time, here's to watching it all unfold. Special thanks to Josh Kramer, Dean Haspiel, Tom Hart, Studio Yolo, Victor Juhasz, and The Joe Bonham Project artists for pushing me to make my very best work.

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!