Inking!

Here's page 14 of a 26 page story called: Shut Your Piehole, Johnny Pinetop. I hope to have this in a shittily-printed, slapped together edition for sale at the Comic Art Brooklyn show on November 9, where I'll be hanging out with old Andy Brown of conundrum and his new releases.
That's my new Hamilton studio in the background. I know, it's the same as the Montreal studio. Also, no panel borders!!

Kiitos means thank you…

Hey Everyone, just got back from the Helsinki Comics Festival where Conundrum Press was a guest. It was a fantastic festival, good in terms of sales and also just a wonderful group of organizers and events and I spent the weekend hanging around with a bunch of great friends, new and old; Andy Brown, Howard Chackowicz, Philippe Girard, John Martz, Michael Deforge, Lilli Carré and Alexander Stewart, Bill Kartalopoulos and Julie Delporte. When Howard learned the Finnish word for thank you, he NEVER stopped using it, charming the hell outta the locals.





Howard! Doin' his thang.

A quote from Alexander about the sauna, which we Conundrum guys missed. I'm okay missing out being naked with a bunch of other cartoonists (been there, done that…) but I am sad to have missed the sour cream and onion chips and beer.

Spoke with Ulli Lust again, her book, The Last Day of The Rest of Your Life is fantastic and should be read by everyone. I met Jooste Swarte and spoke briefly to him, then he bought a couple of Conundrum books. Filled up an entire sketchbook over the weekend keeping up with Martz and Deforge, who NEVER stop drawing. Kids, the secret to comics, as with everything, is always HARD WORK.

Here is the damage we did to the table cloth.

In that same bar, Howard Chackowicz–one of the best the best cartoonist travelling companions in the world– made friends with a seriously drunk Finn named Pikka, who was filled with a love for Howard that bordered on homicidal. “I come back and smash your face” is an actual quote, though he never returned.

And here's a bunch of cartoonist's drawing good ol' Andy Brown. (Look out Annie Koyama, Andy's a close runner for the most beloved comics publisher though no one could hope to beat him in terms of hirsuteness.) Andy's giant, picture-filled report is  HERE!

Thanks to The festival organizers, especially Otto, Maura and Kalle and all the volunteers, they all made us feel so welcome. This really was a wonderful festival, if you can attend next year, you should!
Okay, back to work.

another page

new page

This is a short 30 page comic I'm working on.

he's only happy when it rains.

more shite about MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Here's a bunch of new reviews of my book Science Fiction.
(click the links below to read 'em, old timer.)

Scroll down to read this one by Brian Heater (I didn't realize he was reviewing comics on BB.) in :Boing Boing.
A review in Quill and Quire always makes me feel like I'm Margaret Atwood or something. How nice. Quill and Quire.
A Nice review from John Seven, co-author of the great kid's book, Happy Punks 123. Reverse Direction.
A great, in-depth review by Rob Clough, who makes a few good critical points about my last book too. High Low Comics.
This one's from NY writer, Dominic Umile.
And this was in yesterday's Globe and Mail, by Sean Rogers. In Canada, a review in the Globe means you are special. I will sleep easy tonight.

old joe ollmann's not dead yet!

I've moved to Hamilton. Met Dave Collier and son james at the waste transfer centre.

Fuck all the Hamilton haters, this place is a paradise of nature. I am not kidding and will document the mountainous bike path behind my house that is part of the Bruce Trail.

This city is for real. It's a union town and that permeates the psyche of the populace. There is literally a revolution going on here to change the focus of this town from post-industrial wasteland to an artistic community. It's an exciting time in old Hamilton.

But I've been moving for months, I'm exhausted, scarred, arthritic and wake up every day as if I've been beaten liberally with hammers. I've lost 10 pounds since Montreal, mostly from building shelves and swearing.

I am set up enough that I drew a page tonight for a new short story I'm doing.