The Mind's Overflow, Vol. 1 + behind the scenes

My friend recently was going through her inventory and look what she bumped into, one of my first endeavors in self-publishing: The Mind's Overflow, Vol. 1! It's a 69-paged anthology that has comics, poetry, short stories, and more comics that my partner-in-comicbook-making-crimes Alan Abbadessa-Green and I put together. You can see also in the pic above that it is "suggested for mature readers." As I remember, it was a massive labor of massive love.

May I remind you of the bars to your right? Do you see the Books I'm In section? Notice that Mind's Overflow has been there all this time? Here's the post all about it.

Inside, you will find an exciting sneak preview of Philip Clark's Quantum: Rock of Ages comicbook series. Philip Clark is soul musician by trade, and trust me, he can rock a soul out of your body. Check out his site for some free listening. I would suggest The State of the Blue-Eyed Soul. But he is an apt writer of comics also. You can read an IGN interview about Quantum: Rock of Ages here, you can read issues #1-4 for free here, and even issue #5 here (with art by James Rodriguez), yes, for freeee! Come on, you know you want to. Give indy comics a read. You'd be surprised how much of high-quality stories are in independent comicbooks. Forget super-heroes; they're so establishment. Indies are in and they're sexy!

Inside Mind's Overflow are also some comic strips by Jeffrey Plotkin. Just do yourselves a favor and go to his link in the last sentence. At face value it looks all cute and cartoony, but his strips are deep when you read into them. He can say a lot in one picture. Here's a random page from his DeviantArt gallery so you can see what I mean: http://emperornortonii.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=3024.

Alan Abbadessa-Green and I, while planning all the logistics of The Mind's Overflow, came up with a couple of themes, keys and key holes being a central one. So as you can see, the cover has a key hole, giving you the illusion of you peeping inside the book. The cover illustrates one of the short stories, 'A Dying Bird' by Matthew Scott Carr, illustrated by Joe Kelly. All the stories and poems had a front page like this, with the title and credit and a key hole giving a glimpse of the inside of its respective story.

Yours truly was Editor, Art Director, and one of the general illustrators. Alan Abbadessa-Green was EIC. He would read all submissions, sift through the ones he likes so I would read them, I would sift through the ones I selected and we'll discuss the finalists' submissions to select which ones will end up in the anthology. I made the cover design and logo, as well as the design for. Every. Single. Sixty-nine freaking pages! And this is before I knew how to mess with InDesign! Both the designing & illustrating and the editing aspects of creating the book were arduous work for both of us, but I enjoyed it immensely (and I know Alan too). Publishing is something I can definitely get used to. Creating a book from scratch just seems to be what I like to do, and I'd do it again (hint, hint).

Below is an example of some of general illustrations I did for MO. It's from one of the short stories 'Return' by Miguel Ortega.

Below is another of my illustrations. I like this one because the guy is a writer and he is real. Yup, a real existing writer. I also think the illustration's cute. This drawing is from the introduction, written by Alan. He mentioned how we bumped into this writer at a comicbook convention, sitting at his table selling his books (he's a prose writer, not a comicbook writer, but comicbook conventions tend to not be exclusive like that. God bless them). We kicked off a conversation and it impressed Alan. Here's a glimpse from the introduction (by the way, a reminder, this is For Mature Readers Only, so if you don't have the stomach for cuss words, you might as well skip the quotation):

Step in the fat guy. While at a convention, I see Rammer talking to a fat man sitting behind a desk. I decide to join them and see who the fuck this guy is. It turns out he's a sci-fi/horror/fantasy writer (which I should have known from looking at him). Being the artistic whore that he is (and has to be in this industry), Rammer asks if he can be considered to do artwork for the guy's book jackets. This somehow spins into a conversation about how to make it in the industry. And by "the industry," I don't intend to limit that to comicbooks. Comics are particularly hard because the market is weak and saturated (a bad combination) but the same holds true for novelists, screenwriters, painters, and illustrators. Creators are in for a rude awakening when they first try to send their art into the market. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, the fat guy says that if you want to be successful, there is a very easy way to do it... Do it. It's as simple as that. Here I shall try to quote him as best as my memory will allow [yes, a double quote. So what? You're in a house of mirrors here.  —Rammer]:

"If you want to be a writer, write. If you want to be an artist, draw. Every night, even if it's just a page a night. In a year, you'll find you have a book. If someone invites you to a party, decline the invitation. If you want to go out on a date with a girl, don't. If you want to have a life, too bad. Hell, if you want to, I'm fine with that. There's already too much competition for me out there and I'd be very happy if you didn't pursue your work. You'd be doing me a favor to sit home and watch TV. But if you want to do it for real, you have to actually do it."

Now, this isn't original advice, but it's true. I'd actually given my brother similar advice when he was having difficulty finding the time to write. I suggested he take baby steps. A page a night. It was advice I had given him but had failed to practice myself. I say this man may have saved my life because he re-instilled that work ethic within me. Now, whenever Rammer and I are tempted to meet at a bar and drink our paychecks away, one of us will always remind the other to "be the fat guy." And it's advice I pass along to any of the inspiring writers and artists out there. Be the fat guy.

And I'm passing the advice forward onto you. Be this guy.

I know I will see him in another convention in the future. He always makes sure to have a table. What a hustler. When that happens, I'll make sure to buy one of his books and get his name and mention it here.

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Now, without further ado, I'd like to present to you my contribution to The Mind's Overflow, Vol. 1: the comicbook story by the same name, drawn, inked and lettered by yours truly, more drawing and inking by Jeff Ploktin, and with writings by Alan Abbadessa-Green, pre-pressed by moi. I really enjoyed this one. It's very unique. I'll tell you why and how. 

First, the main character, Key, man he's something that can only come straight out of Alan's head. "Make his feet HUGE," he tells me. I give him this:

He tells me, "Make them BIGGER!" LOL. So I gave him this.

Play close attention to his face. He's like a realistic cartoon in a unrealistic real world. His hair is something else. The hair would convey and echo the emotion Key's going through and/or direct your eye to the focus for that particular panel. It's a great visual aid and aesthetic in character design. 

Here's a character design for Molly, Key's girlfriend, just to be fair for both characters.

Now, I will tell you why this is a very unique comicbook. You see, in the story, Key goes to another dimension. Alan had the idea to do something visually interesting: have one kind of artist draw the characters in our dimension and the background in the other dimension, while having another kind of artist do the vise versa. Being that I like to stick to details, he chose Jeff Plotkin as the other artist, for he's more on the comic strips/cartoony side. It was an intriguing and unique progress.

This is the first segment to 'The Mind's Overflow' comicbook story, starring Key. Another reminder: this is For Mature Readers, don't like cuss words? Please skip the comic. Hope you enjoy it!

Here's a bit more from behind the scenes:

Alan Abbadessa-Green wrote about The Mind's Overflow book and comic too over at his blog Look At All the Happy Creatures, but in completely different take.

I have fond memories of Alan and I going to Baltimore, MD for the not-so Small Press eXpo con. We had tons of material and art work to show, plus MO. I also met a lot of creators that I still am proud of knowing to this day. And guess what. The Mind's Overflow, Vol. 1 ended up in the Baltimore Museum of Art's Cram Sessions: 02 Dark Matter exhibit! That's what pays to go to cons as a creator.

Alas, The Mind's Overflow was an endeavor that ended prematurely. With all of life's demands and anguish, there is no Volume 2. But Alan and I still work together. Since then we've made tons of comicbook short stories that ended in comicbook anthologies. He continues to writes books, like The Sync Book (Vol. 1 and 2), one of which we have work in. We have our 8-page comicbook story 'Desperate Skin' in it, and I have two poems in there. I ended up becoming a poet of sort and host a monthly party and open mic while doing gigs in Graphic Design (if you're interested in my writing and poetry, may I direct you to my writing blog I, Rammer? If you are, thank you and I hope you enjoy it). Comicbooks is still a love of mine. I put comicbooks and graphic design in one set; they're the same to me, just with the same elements re-arranged differently. But that's a topic for another post.

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Although The Mind's Overflow, Vol. 1 is out of print, you can still purchase a copy for a measly $6! I have like five of them left, I'm sure Alan has one or two, but there are two copies of The Mind's Overflow, Vol. 1 at NYC's Forbidden Planet comicbook store! Just go there and ask for it.

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Hope you enjoyed the post. And if you've been reading and looking and have gotten here, all I have to say is:

(the Happy Face bag is the last thing you see at the last page of MO. We also had a ton of those bags to put MOs in when costumers purchased it. So, Thank You for reading!)

;-)

She Is

Happy 2012 Valentine's Day!

This is She Is, about 14 inches squared frame, written by yours truly and made by hand, with love for love. It's sits in the home of she.

This is the text to the poem:

She Is

She is that way.
Her manner is affable,
vision and sound. Soothing
and I will never stop her bantering
so I'd reminisce if I become lovelorn.

She is her smile.
Her smile is her joy.
Her voice is pleasant to my
ears, like the waves and sounds
of foams from the sea by the beach,

and the dunes of warm sand are her skin. The makers to her words, her lips, do her
voice justice. The creator to her words, her heart, is always true to her soul. Kissing
her during the summer, and I kiss the warm summer rays. Kissing her during winter
I kiss refined snow. You would want to hear her nature as you sleep, in hopes you
dream of resting times, dreaming a long dream. Her lips feel like marshmallows.
the soft ones. Not viscous like honey, but a bit diluted like marshmallows.
not sweet like honey, but a bit tender like brown sugar. Making me yearn
for more. And whenever she speaks to me, her words travel through my
ears pass my veins and wind my heart into a golden glaze. When she says
“hi” to me, I feel my body soothingly warm. It’s because I feel as
though she is here, with me, in front of me, with open arms. And
she warms me. She is what I look forward in·a day, or pass
many days. One can say this about few people; her way
manner and words are all the act of her heart in
fruition. She is the reason to my ambitions,
the fuel of my intellect and joy. She is
the lovely hand that genuinely
cares. She is lovely, every
day in every way.
She is lovely.
She is love.
She
is.

Friends

Every now and then I draw whatever I see, sometimes scapes, sometimes things, sometimes my friends. Here a some of the latter:

Joshua D. Cochran
Joshua D. Cochran is a writer. I had him as my prof for my last English class in City College of New York. He has a book, Echo Detained from Fractious Press on Amazon.com, and though I never read it, he and I share publication in City College's Promethean, the 2004 issue. His poem, Dance of the Nomenclature is one of my highlights. Google him; he's around.

This is what happens when you think with your eyes in class:


Lenny
Quick one of my boy Len, while playing cards.


Felix Luis García
Poet with the last punto.


Hristo Atanasov
The random brains behind Rather Random Reality. I play the games he designs and creates, I look at his drawings, I watch (and sometimes contribute) his animation. His latest one won him a spot on the front page and a Daily 3rd Place award on NewGrounds.com. It's called Cigar Wars: Lightersabers Collide!, and worth me reserving a post to hightlight this nice masterpiece.

This drawing says 'Aku' to the left, for Aku is the wickedest shapeshifting master. Actually, there is evidence Hristo might be this world's Aku master:


See!?

Hys

This is Hys; talented MC. Check his tracks. It's rare to bump into an MC that actually has flow and energy throughout. He has a very interesting indy music video directed by fellow comrade Key Soto. Key has a few tracks of his own (by the name of Key Melodics), one of which is a Hys track featuring he. They seem to be a natural together.

I was strolling the group of photos from Hys's page, while listening, and just saw this montage in my mind' eye. Theme Art's photographs really exercised the various angles and poses Hys can evoke.

Theme Art has a style where he controls light by obfuscating anything that he doesn't want shown. Most of his work consist of portraits and portraitures and headshots, bodies flowing in darkness... very distinctive.

Between them two, this piece had to be done. It's a web exclusive piece, since it was in the spur of the inspiration, and limited to 72dpi, alas. It needs tweaks here and there, but all in all, it was a good exercise.

Two Logos, Out of Five-Hundred

For some 'really good' news, the Rammer ambigrammatic logo and the Seven Up logo (not to be confused with 7UP) are published in Rockport Publishers' Really Good Logos Explained, written by Margo Chase, Rian Hughes, Ron Miriello, and Alex W. White. This makes this heap of flesh a happy designer.


Seven Up is a logo for a column by a prominent news site for comicbooks and its ilk, The Pulse. Seven Up was an interview column orchestrated by fellow comicbook writer Len Wallace where he asks seven questions to up-and-coming comicbook artists. I figured I'd do the logo in black & white since most comicbook artists that're starting out print their comics in black & white for the cheaper price. Check out Len's latest endeavor, Love Buzz with Michelle Silva.


This is the spread featuring the Rammer ambigram, its neighboring logos, and critique from three out of the four authors/designers. I wonder why any of them didn't suggest to put the logo upsidedown for those whom aren't privy to John Langdon or the advent of ambigrams.


It's good to see that all the attention to negative space and my attempt to take Blackletter away from its current pigeonholes got recognized. The two logos wouldn't be in the book if it weren't for Alex W. White. I took the Electronic Design 2 class and there he was, ready to turn the class into a design bootcamp. Not only did he introduce me to the existence of John Langdon, or the Type Directors Club (of which White's currently serving as President), but he openned my eyes wider, and I began to see the negative space all in the world.

JetBlue Vector Magic

You saw the Lavalife vector ads at the NYC subway. (Done by Marcos Chin, the guy does good work) In a similar vein, here's some vector magic as a hypothesized gig:

JetBlue ad


Yo JetBlue, get at me if you like the looks. The latest ad campaign was good (as I look at the NYC subway ads. Can anyone tell I'm from NYC?).

Fun is there if you see close enough. Done 100% vector.

Comments welcome and ilcome.

a Poster or two

Yo yo yo. Whatup? Here's a poster for a fictitious reading event by David Mamet called Gems from a Gambler's Bookshelf and other Stories.



Below is a poster I did for City College of New York's SAME-TV for a fashion show they were throwing. I was art directed, so no one get any assumptions, ahem, ideas; 'very ghetto' is what we were going for. This was done with watercolor and color pencil, tabloid size.

some Book Covers

Here are some Book Cover exercises I've done. These are from existing books, so they weren't gigs but still fun to do.

E.B. White's Here is New York front cover


E.B. White's Here is New York back cover and spine


The following two book covers were exercises to abstract the design to an indiscernible stage, and yet showing some kind of abstract relationship between the book and the design, and the different visual elements it bears:

Gabriel García Márquez's Living to Tell the Tale book cover


Thomas Mann's Transposed Heads book cover

Christopher North's Forever Waltz and Renquist

Christopher North's Forever Waltz CD package design:
front


back


CD


Christopher North's Renquist CD package design:
front


back


CD


Let me just say that Christopher North took a chance working with me and I can't thank him enough to have had the opportunity. Go clickedy-click his site and take a listen. He's in iTunes, CDBaby, and all those musical places. He has done music for off-Broad shows as well as films, on top of his personal albums. And, guess what, yup he's at work on a double CD, Spacebar, that will be designed by whom...? Wonders of wonders, will this particular wonder turn into fact? A fourth dimension will have to tell.

Wind & Pieces mag layout

Magazine Layout, Spread


Magazine Layout, Pgs 3-4


Magazine Layout, Pgs 5-6


Magazine Layout, Pgs 7-8



Magazine Layout, Spread 2


Magazine Layout, Spread 3