Two sentence book reviews!

Ok, here's a new list of books that I've recently read:

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk from W.W. Norton & Co.: Nope, not for me. At all.

Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden and Stephen R. Bissette from St. Martin's Press: I was disappointed by this book. Probably because I knew most of the anecdotes about Gaiman's work already and also by the fact that I've really enjoyed Golden's fiction, but this is a different beast entirely.

Tonoharu by Lars Martinson from Pliant Press: I have never heard of Martinson before, but he excellently captures the feeling of alienation that one must feel when dropped into a foreign culture. His drawing style is very cartoony, and the four panel page structure of this graphic novel really serves the story well.

Blue Pills by Frederick Peeters from Houghton Mifflin Company: Peeters expressive brushwork beautifully illustrates this tale of how love can go right. Unlike most introspective graphic novels, Blue Pills is not full of the navel gazing that I've come to expect; a very welcome change!

The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim from First Second Books: I'm a big fan of both Gene Yang & First Second Books so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this graphic novel. Three slightly connected short stories that make you question whether most people want reality or the freedom of fantasy — and the answers will surprise you.

Aya of Yop City by Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie from Drawn & Quarterly: I read the first volume of Aya about a year ago and when I saw this second volume on the shelves at the library I grabbed it immediately. Continuing the tale of a teenage girl living in 1970's Ivory Coast, this funny book presents a warm and lighthearted vision of Africa that we don't often get to see.

South End Slant & Rainy Boston

When will it end? June was horrible!

Random Sketches

More weird scribbles.

Goody's Lament

The College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies at the University College of Cork will soon be publishing my original story "Goody's Lament" in the college's annual research journal! I originally created the story for a solo exhibit for GloveBox here in Boston, so I'm very excited about my work being published in the Old Sod!

In the 1680's, during an era of anti-witch hysteria, the Puritans of Boston condemned an innocent woman to hang on the Commons for practicing witchcraft. Unfairly accused and sentenced, Goody Glover's plight was not helped by the fact that she was a proud Irish Catholic — a small group that was hated and despised in Boston at the time. A poor women ripped from her home in Ireland, sold into slavery and eventually settled as a servant in the New World, Goody Glover would find that the old miseries of hatred and intolerance had followed her across the Atlantic.

Below is the brief story presented in it's entirety. Click each image to read three pages at a time.

South End Slant & Voting

Voter turnout last week was pathetic. Too bad Obama wasn't running...

4th Wedding Anniversary

Four years ago today. Time flies...
Best move I ever made.

Random Sketches

More weird warm-up sketches.

15 Books in 15 Minutes

Via Terry Teachout and CAAF: “The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.“

My List:
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
The Great Shame by Thomas Keneally
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli
Deogratias by J.P.Stassen
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Patch of Askeaton Days by Patrick J. Carrol
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

RSW & her spring rolls

A week ago my wife Rachel decided to make spring rolls for a group of us to enjoy on the roof with a few "cold" beverages. This was the first time she had ever attempted making spring rolls and was so happy with how everything looked that she asked me to snap some photos of the before and after. Rachel served them with soy sauce (flavored with garlic and ginger) as well as Sriracha Hot Sauce. The rolls were slammin!

One sentence book reviews!

Just finished reading several very good books and here are my reviews—

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse: Loved the novel's examination of the middle-class mindset & really enjoyed it except for the unclear ending; main character would probably be labelled as bi-polar in the modern era.

Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist: This novel was unbelievably creepy, extremely well written and has a very unique take on the vampire genre.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz: Tremendously good read and the prose reads like a comedic and heartfelt conversation with dudes hanging on the street back in Bridgeport.

Currently reading Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Random Sketches

Here's a bunch of warm-up sketches from the little Moleskin book I'm currently using....gotta say, I'm not a fan of the small size. I can't wait to finish this book off and get back to a larger sketchbook.

South End Slant & Parking in The South End

South End Slant & Game 7 Blues

Lousy days for Boston sports fans, but Politics is considered a sport, right?
Also, turns out Aaron Michlewitz won the 3rd Suffolk special election Democratic Primary yesterday. Looks like he'll definitely be taking DiMasi's old spot on June 16th.

South End Slant & Swine Flu!

Word is that Swine Flu had been discovered here in the South End at Boston University's Dental School.
Does this signal my impending doom?!

Sketches

Fooling around with some sketches and various Photoshop brushes. Weird, but interesting?

South End Slant & Typical Boston Publicity

C'mon...we all know Menino's gonna run again.

The Phonecall

I hastily created this short three-page story about a year ago to hang as part of a show at the Laconia Gallery. At the time it was just black and white, hand-lettered and probably hit a little too close to home for me. I was really unhappy with it. But after scanning it in, cleaning it up and adding some colors I'm figuring why not post it?

South End Slant & the South End Decorating Committee

There's ALOT of garbage on these here streets.

For more on this, see here: South End News

South End Slant & the South End's Favored Candidate

Currently, there's something like five or six different people running for the 3rd Suffolk seat. Truth to be told, people in the South End are so dog crazy that if one ran, I think the animal would win overwhelmingly.

South End Slant & The Boston Irish

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. To Irish-Americans: remember your roots and the Hell your Irish ancestors went through as you form your opinions about immigrants, outsiders and others.

What is this a photo of?

Multiple choice:
A. The site of my epic battle with the Incredible Hulk
B. When I played a special agent investigating a bombing on the tv show CSI
C. The time I built a time machine and travelled back to WWII so that I could "soak up" the fantastic mood
D. Me posing like an idiot 10 yrs ago at exit 28 off of I-95

???????????????

South End Slant & Boston Mayor Menino

Will Menino run for an unprecedented 5th term? And how scared are Flaherty, Yoon & McCrea that he will?

Valentine's South End Slant

Seems like this pretty much represents the Valentine's Day spending plans of my fellow Bostonians this year.

South End Slant

I almost blew out a tire last week!

South End Slant

This week's editorial for the South End News.

Happy New Year!!!

Here's the cover I created for the South End News year-end special that came out today. Make with the clicky and you can see the image in context here.

To those in the know, it's been a rough year—here's hoping that 2009 gets better, 'cause there are no reverse gears on this tank! Hopefully it's only onward and upward in the new year.
Happy and safe New Year to everyone.

South End Slant

This week was the first week that my new editorial cartoon spot "South End Slant" ran in the South End News. Hopefully I'll be creating two cartoons a month for the paper. The crew at the SEN have been very cool and I'm really looking forward to becoming a part of the paper's team. Below is a color and black & white version of the cartoon.

Goody Glover Show —Nov 25th

In the 1680's, during an era of anti-witch hysteria, the Puritans of Boston condemned an innocent woman to hang on the Commons for practicing witchcraft. Unfairly accused and sentenced, Goody Glover's plight was not helped by the fact that she was a proud Irish Catholic — a small group that was hated and despised in Boston at the time.

A poor women ripped from her home in Ireland, sold into slavery and eventually settled as a servant in the New World, Goody Glover would find that the old miseries of hatred and intolerance had followed her across the Atlantic.

I hope as many people as possible can make it out to Goody Glovers in the North End and see the show on the second floor. The show just went up, and is hanging until the end of November. Also, there will be a reception on Nov. 25th from 7-9 PM. Stop by and buy a pint (or two)!

When Glovebox and I decided to do this show, I tried to find out as much info about Goody Glover that I could and found that there isn't much out there. In fact, her first name might be Mary or Ann as there is no clear answer. After putting together the rough story outline I moved on to creating thumbnails on small index cards; a process that allows me to see the whole story easily. Obviously, not much time is spent drawing at this stage.



After laying out the whole story, I was ready to move onto actually penciling the pages. Shown here is the the first pass at page #4 and it's clear to see that I hadn't yet searched for proper ship reference. I quickly indicated a ship in the last panel.


I then found some good reference for a ship, and set to drawing that one panel completely.



Then I inked the page with brush & pens.


Finally, the original art was scanned, cleaned up, gray-toned and lettered on the computer.


And lastly, a shot of my work space during the project. The mess pictured has since been cleaned up!

BARACK OBAMA!!

Finally.

Goody Glover show

I'm having a show at Goody Glover's pub up in Boston's North End in a week or two. I'll post the show dates after I've talked with GloveBox and verified them.

The show will basically be made up of sequential art that tells the story of Goody Glover—an Irish Catholic executed by the Puritans of Boston for being a witch...a story right up my alley!

Shown here is some preview art without the accompanying text.

Interview/Q & A with yours truly

Check out a brief Q&A with me over at http://www.whohub.com/johnawalsh

It's fun and brief!

Rasputin—the mad monk

Random faces

Just fooling around while warming up. See anyone you know?

Laconia Lofts Gallery Show

I've got a short three page story in the Laconia Lofts "Live:Work:08 resident artists" show opening this week. Anyone in the area should definitely come and check out the show as there are some really excellent artists featured. So stop on by and take a look.

My piece is "The Phone Call" and it's the true story of a very dark moment in my life. The art here is a scan of the pencils for the story, not the finished ink pieces.

Paddy Promo

Here's some art I created for a project that I'm developing. That's all for now...

Click the image to see it larger.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy — a road trip through Hell.

The Road is the first Cormac McCarthy novel that I've had the pleasure to read and it's a terrifying narrative. McCarthy takes the reader on such a bleak journey that the story in many ways reminded me of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, but much, much darker. For those unfamiliar with the book, it's the tale of a father and his young son trying to make their way South in a post-apocalyptic United States; the environment is destroyed, food is beyond scarce and humanity has descended into madness. The author is less concerned with explaining whatever catastrophic event plunged civilization into despair than he is with telling a story about survival and maybe even Grace. While the novel offers many brutal moments that show the depths of human depravity, the book also presents the reader with the power of Faith. Not traditional religious faith, but faith in the face of no hope at all. Belief in hanging on, rounding the bend and searching “for the Good Guys”. The conviction that love can protect. And the belief that a father can shepherd his young child on the road to some form of salvation.

The Road is without a doubt a modern classic...too bad I'm finally reading it almost two years after the novel was published!

On a side note, The Road is so damn good that it makes me wonder whether there will be a graphic novel equivalent at some point. Will graphic novel creators produce fictional works that have the power, weight and impact of novels like The Road or The Grapes of Wrath? Paul Pope wrote about this last year over on the First Second Blog. It's a topic definitely worth thinking about and discussing as the graphic novel has unlimited potential.