Tragic Strips: Made Out of "Mac"

I've fallen seriously behind on my plan of posting recent Tragic Strips.

Last summer, I did four more permutations in the Made Out of "Mac" series: 2 Mathews's Algorithms, a panorama, and a larded acrostic (the original strip runs vertically down the middle).


I published a collection of the strips so far, which includes a number of guests and jam strips. It can be purchased from the Squid Works.

Doodle Diary

Awhile back, my friend Isaac Cates took one of my doodles and colored it, which inspired me to try dabbing some color onto these.


The approach to the drawings follow a method I teach under the name "DareDoodle Number Three."


Maybe I should do a post explaining the DareDoodles someday.


What with Halloween looming, I guess I had costumes on my mind.


I imagined these as costumed figures in some sort of post- or neo-constructivist theatrical performance.


Happy Halloween, everybody.

Rest in Peace, Raymond Federman

One of my favorite writers passed away yesterday.
I'm very happy he let me illustrate one of his books in his lifetime.

Middle-Aged Rage?

I've been meaning to pull together this post highlighting some of the reviews of The One Marvelous Thing :
(Click on the pictures for a close-up view)

The biggest was a substantial review in the L. A. Times, where Susan Salter Reynolds called Rikki's story collection a "manifesto of middle-aged rage" and said of my drawings, "They erode the text, and maybe that was the intention. We are so used to drawings enhancing prose that it wouldn't surprise me if Ducornet and illustrator T. Motley had cooked up something different." In fact, that's what we did.

She goes on to say some fairly nice things, like: "Ducornet appeals to her readers' feral natures; their covetous side (she is a master collector of glittering objects -- corsets, linens, gold and dumplings -- which are sprinkled generously throughout her prose) and their lascivious, voyeuristic tendencies. You feel naughty reading Ducornet, you hide the book. Gonna have to face it -- you're addicted to lit."

Charles E. May, professor emeritus of literature at California State University, Long Beach, wrote in the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinal, "Ducornet has still got it" and called my illustrations "sometimes whimsical, sometimes grotesque."

"If you go to Literature-map.com and type in Rikki Ducornet's name, you can watch the names of Barthelme, Borges, Barth, Coover, Lovecraft, Calvino and Angela Carter fan out around her. We should be glad that although those who know only the 'normal' may frown in disapproval, there are still writers like Ducornet who have their number. For which we cannot resist singing a chorus of the Steely Dan song inspired by her, 'Rikki, Don't Lose that Number.' "

In The Seattle Times, Robert Allen Papinchak called my drawings "devilishly haunting" though he warned "Some may find the graphic imagery of the illustrations disturbing." He said the texts are "a wholly original series of phantasmagorical tales" and "an irresistible sequence of bizarre, quirky and zany stories."

Jacob Lee, in the Brick Weekly of Richmond Va., wrote, "The more erudite among us might recognize Ducornet for her half-mocking pastiches of post-modernist style, but what you probably didn’t know is that she’s a wonderful short story writer, creating modern fables that read like Calvino re-translated for our strange, modern years. This small collection showcases some of her best stuff, and is wonderfully illustrated throughout by the incomparable T. Motley. Good stuff."

The Midwest Book Review gave the book five out of five stars, said my work is "charming," and said the author " ranges from humor to joy to love to suicidal depression."

Publisher's Weekly mentioned my "inky, scruffy black-and-white sketches" and said of the writing, "these stories spotlight Ducornet's linguistic pyrotechnics and will delight readers who, like Ducornet, can find the beauty in the irreverent and absurd".

Leslie Patterson in the Library Journal called Rikki's writing "wildly unconventional" and "boldly inventive" but dissed my work as "more juvenile than witty," which stung at first, until I remembered the various penises and blow jobs I put in there. What's a librarian expected to think?

I came across an enthusiast review on a website called Library Thing, where a member going by kmaziarz said "The book is boldly illustrated with pen-and-ink style cartoons and sketches whose hidden details, snarled curving lines, and snide humor somewhat recall the “underground comix” style and perfectly complement the stories." and called the stories " Surreal, vivid, and often strangely lovely."

Jeff VanderMeer at Omnivoracious.com wrote: "Ducornet can lay rightful claim to being one of North America's preeminent surrealists. She is sui generis in her particular combination of passion and precision, the strange muscular delicacy with which she approaches her writing. In her latest collection, that sensibility is supplemented in true eccentric fashion by the illustrations of T. Motley (who may well be a pseudonym for Ducornet, since she is also an artist)."

Hmmm. Am I a pseudonym for Rikki Ducornet? A tantalizing thought. Is it too late to make that my ambition?

One cool development has been that the book is beginning to be taught in colleges. The thought that people are being required to look at my pictures and graded on whether they did so gives me a perverse thrill. One professor, Catherine Kasper of The University of Texas at San Antonio, has provided some of the students' feedback:

"By far this is the coolest book I'll have assigned to read this semester."

"This book is fantastic, one of the most enjoyable reads of my college career. Ducornet's prose is subtle in the way it tells the story, leaving just enough for the reader to imagine and make me completely jealous."

"I love love love these stories. The use of illustrations informs the text with manic comic psychedelic energy!"

So there you have it. You know you want it. Here's one of the ways to get it.

Doodle Diary

Sequential Doodles

Subway Sketch

Doodle Diary

Lest I forget...

The May issue of Nickelodeon Magazine, may it rest in peace, included this little cartoon of mine:


I think the June issue's on the stands now, but if you stumble across the May one, check this out on page 25. Nifty, eh?

Panel Discussions

I had a very nice time at MoCCA the weekend before last-- saw great work, made new friends, and sold some books. My tablemate, Isaac Cates, wrote a nice piece about it on his blog, as have many others.

It was frustrating, though, that as an exhibitor I didn't have time to visit every table and I didn't manage to check out any of the cool programming. I'm a guy who really enjoys these panel discussions. Next year, I think I'll just buy a ticket and check out MoCCA from the other side of the table.

Meanwhile, I'd like to post the remainder of my sketches from the New York Comic Con last April and the year before. Apart from the welcome presence of top graphic novel publishers, the comics on the main floor at NYCC are mostly too commercial, too lowbrow, or too garish for my taste (I've already posted a comic strip about that). So I spend most of my time downstairs with the programming, where the real action is. Click on the images to enlarge them. Please help me with the attributions if you see that I didn't get somebody's name or spelled it wrong.


My favorite panel was this one titled "Graphic Novels and Academic Acceptance," which might've been the governing theme of much of the programming this year. I could feel big changes brewing from the year before, as more and more educators are getting involved in the field.
Here we see Greg Urquhart, a Comics Editor at Alexander Street Press; Bill Savage, a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at Northwestern University; comic artist Jonathan Hickman; Gene Kannenberg Jr, Director of http://www.facebook.com/l/;ComicsResearch.org; Kent Worcester, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Marymount Manhattan College; cartoonists Dean Haspiel & Peter Kuper, and moderator Karen Green of Columbia University.



A close second favorite was this impromptu panel that erupted when a scheduled panel on comics in the classroom was suddenly cancelled. Some teachers in the audience discovered that the mikes were still working and took to the stage to guide a lively conversation where everyone in the room swapped ideas and resources. This enthusiasm for comic books as teaching tools would've been unthinkable even a decade ago. Assuming you can struggle with my handwriting, a glance at my notes will give you taste of what today's educators are passionate about. Here we see a school administrator named Pat (?), a schoolteacher named Lou (?), and Sebastian Mondrone of Teachingmatters.org.


This panel titled "Comics and New Media" focused on the forthcoming, eagerly anticipated graphic novel, "A.D.--After the Deluge" and featured artist Josh Neufeld, Smith Magazine editor Jeff Newelt, literary agent Kate Lee, and Pantheon editor Lisa Weinert.


Here's a fine panel titled "Inkers on Inking" moderated by Andy Schmidt and featuring Bob Almond, Zander Cannon, Mark McKenna, and Nelson DeCastro.


And here we have "Editors on Editing," with Lindsay Kraemer of the Comic Artists Guild, host Buddy Scalera, and comics editors Scott Alley, Glenn Hurdling, Nick Lowe, Mike Martz, and Rob Levin.


"Comics for Kids" featured Franco, Jeff Parker, Jan Jones, Art Baltazar, Chris Giarusso, Chris Eliopolis, and moderator T. J. May.


From 2008, "Using Computers to Draw Comics" with Frazer Irving, Dan Goldman, Lincy Chan, and Hector Casanova,...


"Comic Writers on Writing"with Danny Fingeroth, J.M DeMatteis, Tom DeFalco, Denny O'Neill, Jimmy Palmiotti, Colleen Doran, and Justin (?),...


"Comic Artists on Drawing" with Peter Sanderson, Colleen Doran, Walt Simonson, Dean Haspiel, Jim Lee, and a pretty girl in the audience,...


and "The Art of Storytelling" with Mark Guggenheim, Klaus Jansen, and Andy Schmidt.

Doodle Diary

More quasi-vegetation doodles, though these are more abstracted than that last batch.

Doodle Diary

Doodles to greet the Spring.
Appropriately enough, these got rained on before I could scan them.

Doodle Diary

Our New York dream.

Oulipo in New York

Writers from the Oulipo were in New York last week conducting readings, book signings, panels, and workshops. I managed to attend three of the events:
A reading at The New School on April 1st introduced by Honor Moore and Jean-Jacques Poucel, featuring Anne F. Garreta, Herve LeTellier, Marcel Benabou, Jacques Roubaud, Daniel Levin Becker, and Ian Monk;


an April 3rd panel on "Translating Georges Perec" at NYU's Maison Francaise with Ian Monk and David Bellos, moderated by Emmanuelle Ertel;

and an April 3rd reading at Pierogi Gallery hosted by The Brooklyn Rail, featuring Monk, Garreta, Roubaud, Benabou, and LeTellier, and hosted by Donald Breckenridge.
Please click on the images to really see them.