holinaty.com/BLOG

Oh yeah! COVERED! blog creator Robert Goodin curated a show down in L.A. at The Secret Headquarters gallery with some of his fave COVERED! contributors, and Genevieve and I were lucky enough to be asked to take part. Minus a certain mail mishap (e.g. broken frameage, ewch!), the show seems to have turned out great! The opening was on March 6th. I’m not too sure how it will all be up for, but if you find yourself in the Los Angeles area and are in need of some original art, check it out!

I won’t share my submitted painting  with you yet, as the COVERED! blog gets priority. But as soon as it’s up, I’ll post it here.

Gregg Brandly is a prolific guy. He’s submitted many of his silly 3D renderings to issues 2, 3 and 4 of International Beauty Saloon, and it seems that every couple of days I get an e-mail from him in which he “reproduces” some of my newer images in 3D, or places them in 3D environments. Gregg, even though I barely reply to your e-mails, I’m honoured. Hopefully this blog post will suffice.

Above is probably the most impressive thing I’ve seen from him lately; it’s a perfect hommage to the first full page panel in We Hate This Place Here; It’s Our Home. I wonder what it would look like to have the entire first chapter reproduced in this way? (No pressure Gregg).

We only have 8 copies left for sale online. Get yours today with free shipping in Canada and the U.S.!

Another important note: Genevieve has relocated her website / domain, so those of you following her blog should update their links to www.genevievesimms.ca/blog

As of right now, you can find a few copies of We Hate This Place Here; It’s Our Home in Edmonton, AB at:

• Nokomis
• Eden Lily.
• and online, right here.

The next printing of books that will be up for purchases in the future will most likely be the second chapter in the series, due at some point in March ‘10,  hopefully. If these sell out, well, that will probably be it for a while…

Off to Chapter Two…

The past week has been bonkers. On top of having to complete a few illustration gigs on the tightest of schedules yet, e.g, above for The Globe & Mail, rush to get tons of books printed and bound for the past weekend’s Royal Bison Art + Craft fair, Genevieve and I also had to move into our new maison / studio. As of this exact moment, all that stuff is done and my middle name is now Serenity.

Anyway, Royal Bison was a blast. Our small first print-run of We Hate This Place Here; It’s Our Home sold out almost instantaneously, and over half of our stock of International Beauty Saloon 4, The Space Issue flew off the table.  Note: if you contributed to IBS4, expect your copy in the mail soon!

So now that costs are recouped for David Berry and I’s graphic novel, we have to get back to the printing and chopping block so that we can meet the demand. At some point by the end of next week we should be refilled, and the books will be available online as well as at a few other stores in town. I’ll tell you where when they actually exists. I’ll keep you posted.

Finally, I should not forget to mention that the (currently) last copy of We Hate This Place Here; It’s Our Home is up for grabs (and free!) on Raymond Biesinger’s The Daily Sentry if you can successfully guess his favourite single digit number. As of this posting, no one has guessed it yet…

International Beauty Saloon 4: The Space Issue, is near completion. It will soon see the light of day for the first time at the 7th Royal Bison Art + Craft Fair, next weekend. We’ve received some really good content from friends both near and afar. You surely won’t want to miss out on this one. Above you can see one of many of my contributions to the issue. We’re also upgrading our book binding process to ensure maximum durability. Yes, that’s right, staples! You better believe it!

Also, if listening to two nervous guys on the radio is your thing, tune into CJSR radio this morning at 11:30 am or so and hear David Berry and I get interviewed about our soon to be released graphic novelly thing, We Hate This Place Here; It’s Our Home.

Introducing: We Hate This Place Here; It’s Our Home: Chapter One, a serialized graphic novel project that David Berry and I have been working on as of late.  It is the first chapter of six, and comes in at a healthy 35 pages of graphic novelly goodness. We’ve made a few prototypes, and now it’s only a matter of setting up the assembly line and churning these suckers out. Do note, what you see above is not necessarily what the final copies will look like. There are still minor decisions to be made about usual layout / formatting issues. Read the press release here.

This chapter will be officially released and available for purchase at the Royal Bison Art + Craft Fair, November 28th – 29th, pretty much a week away.

Today Genevieve and I are off to New York, N.Y., for the American Illustration 28 book launch / party, amongst other things fun, interesting, and tasty. Do not expect to see much new on this blog in the coming week. Sorry.

In other news, something to keep you occupied: the first chapter of David Berry and I’s graphic novel project is pretty much near completion. With only 3 pages left to ink on my return, I can see the light. Read our 2 promo pages HERE in a higher, more readable, resolution. Yes, the title of the story has not been disclosed yet. Soon.

Apologies for the lack of updates lately. I’ve been very busy slamming out pages for that comic / graphic novel, and keeping with the element of surprise, I don’t want to post all the page updates on here. What I will show will be a small selection of pages that are relatively text free, such as the selection above, seen on page 13. Here we can see the protagonist waiting for the bus in shitty northern Albertan winter weather. Fun.

Today should see the completion of pages 18 and 19, bringing me that much closer to the completion of chapter one, which should end up being roughly 30 pages or so. At this rate, that should make for only a few more days of intense self-slavery…