Performances, Lectures, Panel Discussions, & Literary Readings

I've fallen wa-a-a-ay behind on posting my sketches of notable creative people. Let's catch up.

First, here's my hero, the hyper literate songwriter/cartoonist Peter Blegvad, performing at The Stone, April 15, 2010. Blegvad, along with other songwriters, presents new songs monthly on the always entertaining webcast, Radio Free Song Club. Check it out.

Here's another, to me, very important and influential author, Harry Mathews, reading new poems at 192 Books, October 19, 2010.

And here's a sketch from long ago of the late Dr. Jonathan Cohen, author of Apart from Freud, presenting a paper at Denver's Auraria campus circa 2002. I miss you, my friend.

Continuing the theme of my personal influences, here's another, Al Jaffee, in conversation with another, Peter Kuper. Jaffee is here receiving an award at the 2011 MoCCA Fest.

And here's Richard McGuire speaking with Bill Kartalopoulos at Parsons in February 2011.

More sketches from MoCCA Fest 2011: a panel on non-fiction comics with Heidi MacDonald, Dean Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Sarah Glidden, and Nick Abadzis,...

...and a panel on book publishing with Mark Newgarden, Ben Katchor, Lauren Redniss, and Stephen DeStefano.

Returning from the comics sphere to the literary, here's Lance Olsen reading at Unnameable Books, along with Rob Stephenson, Brian Conn, and Margo Berdeshevsky.

Here's Mark Usher at UVM reading from The Golden Ass, introduced by Jeffrey Marshall,...

...and here's Mark's "author photo" from the inside flap of our book.

Reading at the Perch Cafe in June 2010 are my good friends Padma Thornlyre and Janet Glovinsky, joined by Kirpal Gordon, William Seaton, Karen Moulding (also sketched by my daughter Violet who was 4 at the time), and Liz Longo.

Back when I first arrived in Brooklyn, there was this reading of poems by the late, great Sekou Sundiata featuring Kimiko Hahn, Rashida Ismaili, and Danny Simmons, at the 2007 Brooklyn Book Festival.

And back before I left Denver, there was this reading at the Denver Zine Library on 5/24/07 which included Patrick Porter, Lee Green (reading from My Small Diary), and Aidan Aberrant.

Whew! That very nearly cleans me out. Now to go draw some new ones.

Check Out My Ass!

few reviews have appeared of the new book, The Golden Ass, which I illustrated for author Mark D. Usher.

Of my contribution, The School Library Journal says, "Motley's pen-and-ink illustrations are terrifically detailed and cartoon like and are reminiscent of John Tenniel's work in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." They also say the book is "perfect for humor-loving middle schoolers."

Vermont's Seven Days Review called my illustrations "cleverly allusive."

A starred review in Kirkus says, "Motley's elaborate illustrated initials and pen-and-ink drawings add satiric bite," and calls the book, "an entertaining romp, even without the raunchy bits."

One can find it at Barnes and Noble and Amazon and, who knows?, maybe your local bookstore.

Fiction Krishna

Someday I'll get around to lettering this better and touching up the art 'n stuff, but here's a five strip miniseries I ran in The Brooklyn Rail last year. It's crawling with little nods to forgotten cartoon characters (and some famous ones). How many can you name?

Future Classes and Former Students

(C) Mindy Steffan 2011

These Images show some of the fun projects students work on in my Figure Drawing for Graphic Novelists course at SVA: composing comics from a live model, creating actions from classic model sheets, and designing characters in various styles.

(C) Ken Frederick 2011

The class starts next week and still needs a few people in order to run, so please think it over and tell your friends!

(C) Bill Roundy 2011

Speaking of friends, more of my former Cartooning Basics and Inking Comics students are publishing copious strips on the web:

A. K. Summers' "Pregnant Butch"

J. Jeng's "Medley U."

Mindy Steffan's "Aer Head"

Sara Sarmiento's "Coffee Bean Chronicles"

Matt Lubchansky's "The Adam"

Max West's "Sunnyville Stories"

Nikos Michalakis' "Dr. Techniko"

and a sizable gang of SVA graduates formed a studio,

789 Studio

If I forgot anybody, shoot me a message and I'll add your plug!

The 99% as Ants, the 1% as Grasshoppers

This is a strip I put in The Brooklyn Rail last summer. You may wanna open it in a new window or something to read it.

Mere Anarchy

Here's one to ring (wring?) in the new year.

I'm pleased enough with this piece that I'm hoping to make a color version and post it again.

Happy 2012!

Raunchy Limerick Favorites

When my strips run in The Brooklyn Rail they look nice in the actual paper, but on their website they're too small to read. So here's the current one. Maybe this will let you view it big enough.

Merry Christmas, world.

The Golden Ass

t last, my new book is about to come out from David R. Godine, available Oct 31, according to Amazon.




The Golden Ass is a classic story from ancient Rome whose influence can be seen throughout the subsequent history of western literature in books as diverse as Don Quijote, Pinocchio, and The Midsummer Night's Dream. This adaptation, by classicist/children's author, M. D. Usher, is aimed at children ages 9 and up.




I festooned it with full page illustrations, decorated initials, and graphic dingbats, and packed the images with little gags and visual allusions. Quoth the publisher, "Motley's lively, thoroughly contemporary drawings capture the boisterous, see-sawing plot, while wittily quoting any number of graphic predecessors. Here is illustration at its best, at once illuminating and expanding a text while bringing it squarely into a new century."



It's a beautifully printed book, and fun to read and look at. Pick it up and/or check it out, if you please.

My Fall Courses at SVA

Cartoon character style treatments (c) by Vernon Williams

This Tuesday evening, September 6, I'll be presenting slideshows for my upcoming Continuing Ed classes, Cartooning Basics and Figure Drawing for Graphic Novelists, at the School of Visual Art's Illustration and Cartooning information session.




Life drawings, comic figure studies, and comic page (c) by Barrett Holloway

In Cartooning Basics, we survey all the topics one has to address to produce a comic story-- from concepts and designs to writing and visual storytelling, composition, figure drawing, inking, lettering, printing, and publishing-- culminating in the creation by each student of a printed minicomic. It's a whirlwind of information but intensely fun work.

Figure Drawing for Graphic Novelists similarly surveys a list of problems one has to address to successfully draw comic book figures. Topics here include figure structure, foreshortening, feature wrapping, action, staging, body language, clothing and drapery, character design, style treatments, ink rendering, and more! Classes alternate between life drawing from the model and figure construction from imagination, in an effort to coordinate the two experiences. More intense hard fun. Come check it out.

Chibi Brando (c) by John Soister