Jed McGowan: Blog

XOXO

2009-06-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

These just arrived in the mail. I have work in them! You'll find a one-page comic about the Boredoms in the latest Signal to Noise and a Bluesy Face illustration in The Oxford American.

Hey!

2009-05-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

Chapter six is complete.

And this:

Mystical Dimension

2009-05-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a handful of pages into chapter six.

I watched Woman in the Dunes the other night:

Tesseract and Carl Sagan:

Song from the internet:
Should have taken acid with you

I know now but I had to find it by myself

2009-04-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Chapter 5 is complete.

From Colleen and the Beach Boys:
Everyone Alive Wants Answers
I Know There's an Answer

In the desert, an oasis

2009-04-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

My buddy Dave Dell'oso did a rad five-minute drawing of me, and I thought I'd share it with you (see below). Be sure to check out Dave's blog along with his recent contribution to Covered.

Also, a video for you:

You walk for days among trees and among stones

2009-03-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Halfway into chapter five.

So how are you? I've been hiking a bunch. A wonderful meeting of the physiological and the psychological!

You walk for days among trees and among stones. Rarely does the eye light on a thing, and then only when it has recognized that thing as the sign of another thing: a print in the sand indicates the tiger's passage; a marsh announces a vein of water; the hibiscus flower, the end of winter. All the rest is silent and interchangeable; trees and stones are only what they are.

Finally the journey leads to the city of Tamara. You penetrate it along streets thick with signboards jutting from the walls. The eye does not see things but images of things that mean other things: pincers point out the tooth-drawer's house; a tankard, the tavern; halberds, the barracks; scales, the grocer's. Statues and shields depict lions, dolphins, towers, stars: a sign that something--who knows what?--has as its sign a lion or a dolphin or a tower or a star. Other signals warn of what is forbidden in a given place (to enter the alley with wagons, to urinate behind the kiosk, to fish with your pole from the bridge) and what is allowed (watering zebras, playing bowls, burning relatives' corpses). From the doors of the temples the gods' statues are seen, each portrayed with his attributes--the cornucopia, the hourglass, the medusa--so that the worshipper can recognize them and address his prayers correctly. If a building has no signboard or figure, its very form and the position it occupies in the city's order suffice to indicate its function: the palace, the prison, the mint, the Pythagorean school, the brothel. The wares, too, which the vendors display on their stalls are valuable not in themselves but as signs of other things: the embroidered headband stands for elegance; the gilded palanquin, power; the volumes of Averroes, learning; the ankle bracelet, voluptuousness. Your gaze scans the streets as if they were written pages: the city says everything you must think, makes you repeat her discourse, and while you believe you are visiting Tamara you are only recording the names with which she defines herself and all her parts.

However the city may really be, beneath this thick coating of signs, whatever it may contain or conceal, you leave Tamara without having discovered it. Outside, the land stretches, empty, to the horizon; the sky opens, with speeding clouds. In the shape that chance and wind give the clouds, you are already intent on recognizing figures: a sailing ship, a hand, an elephant...

--From Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities

I feel a need to start some sort of collective. A group for discussing your work/the work of others, drawing and drinking, whatever. If you live in the Los Angeles area and you're interested in joining this collective, write me an email and we can meet.

Yay!

Keeping up, letting go, moving around

2009-02-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

Chapter four is complete and presentable, I think, and chapter five will be starting soon. Excited to begin drawing that one.

Other stuff that may interest you: I've contributed some work to the new Mr. Judas. I interviewed the band No Age here. I watch this film sometimes to raise my spirits: Century 21. And, finally, I very much recommend the wonderful book The Idler's Glossary. A sample:

IDLENESS: "Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself," insisted a young Robert Louis Stevenson. How right he was! Idleness [from the Old English word for "worthless, useless"] may look to the untrained eye like laziness, slacking, killing time. Unlike slacking, though, idling is not the opposite of working hard, but is instead a rare, hard-won mode in which your art is your work, and your work is your art.

Laugh Giggle Chuckle

2009-01-05T22:24:00.000-08:00

Chapter four is underway.

This is pretty rad: Bluesy Face is among Derik Badman's picks for Best Webcomics of 2008.

A song: White Rainbow's ijuswannatellsumbudy

The World Made Amazing

2008-12-25T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hands up

2008-12-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

The third chapter is done. 25 pages.

Here's some music for you as well: Dang Thing

From a recent trip:

My brother recently told me about Martin Arnold:

Take it away and put love in its place

2008-10-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Chapter three progresses and Bluesy Face speaks.

Limbo with two of your closest friends and one stranger while listening to this joyful tune.

I drive down Hollywood Blvd. 10 times a week. Some beautiful mind at the Fonda communicates with me via the marquee.

The most romantic place in all of Los Angeles:

The Fugitive Kind

2008-10-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

I've finished chapter two.

I suggest you sing along to this.

Maybe you want to watch a movie?

I will alert you when it's ready. Thank you.

2008-09-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Chapter one is done. Chapter two is starting.

Seeing Beach House this week. Yay! And very happy to learn Shugo Tokumaru is opening.

The Words, They Command You

2008-09-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

The estimable Derik Badman has written about two Top Shelf 2.0 strips--my Ritual of the Savage and Cave Adventure by Michael DeForge.

Read the review. Also, be jolly men and women. And smart and kind.

And, finally, an exercise in imagination: You're in a forest. Head tilted just so. Arms akimbo (optional). You're staring at the sky. See? Isn't it lovely?

Pine Cone Fight

2008-09-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

There's a new comic starting. I've named it Bluesy Face.

My summer song is here. Play it loud, while driving, and shake your hips.

Robert Breer and a W(H)IP

2008-08-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Also, my friends, I implore you to watch the wonderful Fuji.

Take a more casual attitude towards any dramas today -- it help you persevere!

2008-08-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

P.S.:

Ritual of the Savage & Top Shelf 2.0

2008-07-29T20:33:00.001-07:00

The good people at Top Shelf are now hosting Ritual of the Savage for all to read. Enjoy!

My supremely talented artist friend Teemu Matinlauri flattered me by doing some art based on my Savage comic. And I think you'll agree, it is awesome:

Constructing

2008-07-28T00:42:00.000-07:00

Sprinkle anxious, mad, lovely people across the land.

Don't Let the Little Things Get to You

2008-06-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

I was feeling really down--->

Then I was feeling really goofy--->

Signal to Noise

2008-06-08T18:06:00.000-07:00

I received a copy of Signal to Noise in the mail today. I have a comic in the back of the mag (see above). I drew the strip from a script by the writer Kurt Gottschalk. It was a fun experience. It should be available at your local magazine stand.

Comics, I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)

2008-05-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

Look closely and you'll see that things are happening. The universe is changing.

Top Shelf is launching a new online comics site--Top Shelf 2.0. Cookie Duster and Ritual of the Savage will be among the comics offered. I'm excited. Take a look.

My heart continues to grow.

Blaise Larmee and I are collaborating on a little comic. Read it here.

The following is humorous, heartbreaking and lovely.

Hot Hair

2008-04-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

That's a short comic I did.

That's Taken by Trees. I like her music.

Clem

2008-04-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

That's Clem in the last panel there.

:(:

2008-03-26T22:12:00.000-07:00