I’m Going To Be At MOCCA This Year
Not even just at MOCCA, but like totally taking this thing over. Kevin Church, Mike Rosenzweig, and I will be at TABLE #205 at the MOCCA Art Festival in New York City this weekend, June 6 & 7, from 11 AM to 6 PM both days at the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street. (Directions and everything else can be found right here.)
So if you’re anywhere New York City this weekend, seriously do not miss this. Not only will we have all sorts of cool swag, fashionable buttons, sketches from me, and pop culture referencing lobby cards. We’ll also be debuting the very first collection of my stunning webcomic The Rack:
Tons of details about the book can be found here.
We’ll also be selling a beautiful and limited edition print commemorating the show:
And last but certainly not least, LOST and Our Little Losties fans rejoice, because I’ve finally printed out some gorgeous looking prints of this:
![\](http://benjaminbirdie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/lostprint.jpg "\")
So, in all seriousness, be there this weekend. I look forward to seeing all of you!
The Greatest Thing I Ever Drew
Is The New The Rack. I don’t know exactly what happened. But somehow my artwork seems to have finally reached the level of my ambitions for it. (Although, man Lydia’s eyes in panel one bug me with their incosnsistency.) But yeah. I kind of can’t believe I drew that.
The Totally Awesome Secret About Today’s The Rack
Today signals the arrival of an all new, Holidayical installment for The Rack, yes. But if you just read it, there’s one totally awesome thing about it you might have missed.
That little bit of the banner looks TOTALLY like Dave Sim lettered it in the 1980′s. Or whenever the second half of Church & State was going down. Can’t you just see it bursting out of the mouth of a Fleagle Brother?
Can’t you?
Happy Holidays.
Staff Picks For The Week Of December 24th, 2008
It’s that time of the year (and week!) again. Staff picks are here, just in time for the Festival of Lights. Also, support your local me, and get a commissioned sketch for the holiday season!
Actually, You Would Probably Like Me A Lot When I’m Angry
So, today’s Rack.
Before starting it, I watched the latest episode of America’s Best Dance Crew 2. Not only is the awesomeness of about half the dance crews on the show pretty much unparalleled, but the judges’ table is actually a really solid source of constructive criticism and guidance for your every day creative life.
One refrain across this (very young) season, is the idea that this is the second season, that the bar was raised by the winners of the last season, and that to impress the judges, one has to unequivocally ”bring it”. It sounds abstract, but it really boils down to just refusing to rest on your laurels, to rip your shit like there’s nothing else you ever wanted to do besides pop and lock and then pop.
And so, with those exhortations fresh in my mind, I sat down at my desk to draw this strip. Now, we’ve all seen the very uneven results of my courtship with brush-based inking lately. But last night (this morning?), I don’t know if it was the ABDC2 in my head or the fierce anger and frustration that led to the creation of this strip (which you’ve already read about underneath today’s strip), or (more likely) a combination of both; whatever it was infused my drawing hand with an almost unshakable steadiness, it beat back the demons of Only Two Hours Sleep, and erased any ill effects from a Medium iced coffee.
Working to a soundtrack made up completely of Girl Talk jernts, I (let’s be frank) DEMOLISHED this strip. A lot of it had to do with a very concerted amount of pencilling, a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was paying tribute to one of my favorite artists and favorite comics in the final panel, a lot of it had to do with the fact that I knew I was making a statement with this comic and that the art had to stand up to the scrutiny (“Tt! Whatever, brah. Learn to draw first and then tell me what I’m supposed to or not supposed to pay attention to.”), a lot of it had to do with this consistent reminder in my head that I wouldn’t be able to put off drawing Kevin Analog #1 for much longer and that time was running out for me to get good at this.
Whatever it was, it worked.
Who knows if it will be enough to carry me through everything else from here on out, if the next time I sit down to draw I’ll be able to land such an imaginative and well choreographed routine. But no matter what, this strip is here. I did it once, at least. When it really counted.
As old Shakey Legs Bartlett famously said, “What’s next.”
Shame Breeds Hope
So, yeah. There were some missteps in today’s The Rack. I took, let’s say, a less than ideal approach to inking with a brush. I imagined the lines of my heroes being rendered in broad swoops of the arm, landing in perfect swaths of the pitchest blacks.
Then, our man Kevin clued me in to this little pouch of YouTube gold, an inking demo by Chad Cole. I was legitimately surprised, heartened if you will, by seeing such a careful and meticulous approach. I realized the frenzied and breathless jabs of brushery I engaged in last night were deeply flawed.
And so, in a haze of mourning (seriously, this Tim Russert thing is hitting me damned hard), with a new approach in my heart, and the buzz of a mood-lightening and pitch perfect new episode of The Venture Brothers all rattling around, I inked this sketch of a random Kevin Analog thug. Obviously, there’s a lot of backstory and cleverness I’m not yet at liberty to divulge, but enjoy this sketch, inked by brush, as a kind of penance for poor decision making.
The Best Thing I Saw At MoCCA 2008
One of the best things to come out of my visit to MoCCA last year was an extended gawping session at Cameron Stewart’s original art. I immediately went home and completely revitalized the way I inked comics. Going from a completely bland straight line to introducing actual weight and heft to lines, basically getting all I could out of a Hunt 103. It was a beautiful improvement.
Now, one year later, everything is upended once again.
Basically, the same thing served as impetus. As fantastic as Cameron’s art looks on the printed page, when you get a look at his original art, it’s a whole other world. His pages for The Other Side are simply jaw dropping in both their intricate detail and their effortless line. Along side those pages are his work on the upcoming Apocalypstix from Oni Press (coming this summer-ish). And that work is just as detailed but with a completely different and more cartoony style. You can’t help but stare at each page, each panel, and look at the choices he makes with every line. The dude is a living inking class, and I don’t even think he knows it.
(Also, I overheard him telling someone at the table that he pencils only very lightly and most of his work is done directly in inks. Go open up to any page in The Other Side, think about that, and then just jump in front of a bus. I mean, that’s just ridiculous.)
So, Kevin Church, Mike Rosenzweig, and I were sharing lunch today across from the Puck Building and just, you know, talking comics. And Mike and I started just randomly drawing stuff, and he busted out this Pentel ColorBrush inkpen, one that I used to have quite enjoyed messing around with. I tried drawing some stuff just with the pen and was pretty horrified at the result, just like all the other times I had tried using it. But Mike rightly pointed out that I wasn’t taking enough care with the linework. I also realized that as ridiculously gifted as Cameron might be at drawing just with a brush, I realized I’d need some hefty pencil work to back things up. I quickly realized, sketching the Lydia you see above, that just thinking about inking with a brush really freed up my design in terms of the pencils. So I had a really nice, loose Lydia from the get go.
Then I sat there and carefully inked it, took a step back, and was like, “Whoa.”
I mean, seriously. You can see it up there. It just came out spectacular.
So, as you saw in today’s Rack, I’m inking with a brush now. It’s going to take some finessing, as you can see in the furniture in Aaron’s place, and to that end I just ordered some Raphael 8404s, which I have heard are really top drawer brushes. So while I thank Mike and the Pentel ColorBrush for getting this train rolling, I think I’m going to need some better tools going forward.
But I think I’ve finally gotten to point, after drawing for over five years now, I think, where I feel like I’m ready to ink with a brush.
It’s going to be a bumpy ride at first, I’m sure, but I need only to look at this absolutely amazing Lydia and I’ll be able to say (in Henchman 21′s voice, of course), “Dude. Seriously. You can totally do this.”
The Rack: Carnegie Hall
In today’s installment, we take some creative liberties with the Rock Band play list.
The Rack: The Local Beat
In our latest installment, Lydia finds herself ensorcelled by the dark ways of the Local Journalist.
The Rack: Snoozefest
In today’s installment, a (kind of) day off is happily recieved.
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Benjamin Birdie
Suddenly kind of aged, Benjamin lives in Queens with his cat. His Master's Degree in Creative Writing has helped him immensely with his primary responsibilities of drawing things.
He can be reached at benjaminbirdie (at) gmail (dot) com.
And do feel free to follow him on Twitter.
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His Comics
Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, this charming comic strip by myself and Kevin Church receives a sparkling new installment. A Comic Strip About A Comic Shop.