In 2012, comics and I became blood brothers. What started in 2010 with a return to making comics artwork has quantum leaped into a regular occupation that has me using all of comics’ production techniques. This year marks the release of both a graphic novel and a 24-page standalone comic, 20 pages of which will run in an upcoming anthology. Additionally I now create web comics on a monthly basis with a group of 8 new colleagues in the comics world.

This year I traveled to the University of Oregon in Eugene OR, The Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, OH and the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL all for comics purposes. In August 2012 I started teaching Sequential Art / Comic Books at the University level.

Instead of me boring you all about my 2012, just see the links below. I’ll keep you updated here, but for daily links, etc, find me at James Greene, Artist on Facebook.

2012 Comics Links in chronological order:

March 1st, 2012: Panelist, “Pop Art, Comics and the High Art of Roy Lichtenstein”, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL. Presented with playwright, radio host and comics author Al Letson.

March 21st, 2012: Interviewed in the UNF Spinnaker about the MOCA comics panel. Here I announce the Sequential Art Class beginning in the Fall.

May 15th, 2012: Self-published “Salvaged Horizon”, my first published comic and also my first collaboration in the medium.

May 16th, 2012: NOMAD Mentorship Program, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. Was flown out to Eugene where I spent 3 days teaching literature students about writing for the comics medium. Met Michael T Gilbert, creator of Mr. Monster, and Dr. Ben Saunders, Chair of Comics Studies at UO and 2012 Eisner Award Judge.

May-September, 2012: Pencilled and inked 25 pages of a graphic novel. I’ll continue with the second part this spring/summer.

August, 2012: Began teaching Sequential Art / Comic Books class, the first of its kind at UNF.

October 5th, 2012: Traveled to the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, OH to present on the panel “Authoring Comics: Form and Collaboration.” Presented with Douglas Wolk, comics critic for the NYT, and Rafael Rosado, storyboard artist for animated TV.

October 8-28, 2012: Attended 3-week artist’s residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, where I worked with Dean Haspiel and lived with 30 cartoonists from all over the world. Read all about it here.

November 2012: Dean Haspiel writes about his experience at ACA as our mentor.

November 2012: Continuing with the collaboration the started at ACA, 8 cartoonists formed a comics making collective known as Studio Yolo. I now produce a webcomic for Yolo’s monthly comics challenge. See all of our comics here.

December 2012: Studio Yolo’s most popular creation is a character called Shifty Goth, who now has a website and it makes him sad.

January, 2013: Web-published my first script, which several cartoonists interpreted on Studio Yolo.

I’ll see you in 2013!

http://jamesgreenecomics.tumblr.com/

Huzzah!

This project has been a real labor of love and the story through which it came about sheds some light on the fact that Ben and I are doing this whilst nurturing our families and pursuing other careers. (Although for me, lately, comics and my teaching and artmaking practice are colliding in more and more ways.)

Way back in the Spring of 2010 I was prepping to return to comics with a project I was planning with another author. She eventually had to bail on the project which left me full of comics energy but with nowhere to put it. Sure I had ideas of my own, but what I really wanted to do was work as part of a creative team with an author. After telling my old friend Ben Kubczak about it, he offered to write a story right then and there. Ben is an architect by trade, but also happens to be one of the most well-read people I know. He has also read just about every comic ever made, so he is good at writing for the medium. Within days he had a 7-page intro all scripted and a cast of characters ready to design. Soon after, he had a finished script for a 50-page comic.

I leaped into action and busted out a record-setting 20 pages of artwork in just under a month. Then my family and I moved from our apartment in Washington and hit the road- traveling all over the American West and living without an address for 6 weeks, during which time I landed another job teaching at a college in West Michigan. During the first semester of classes at my new job I did no work on Salvaged Horizon, in effect taking 6 months off of the project. During that time, Ben got engaged to Rachel and I experimented with an upcoming illustrated-prose project that I wrote and SH sat on the shelf.

Then one frozen morning in February of 2011 I awoke from dreaming that comics pages were flying out of my fingertips, billowing everywhere. In the dream it was SO easy to just create page after page of comics that I took it as a sign and got back to work. I had a completed script in hand, and the story had had time to marinate in my brain, so the homestretch of the last 29 pages of SH Book 1 was quick and dirty. Some of the pages and panels in the last part of the book, I admit, are pretty rugged, but it was no time to hem and haw over minute details. I had a comic to finish.

Once school was out in May of 2011 I kicked into even higher gear and tore through the inking of the final 29 pages. My self-imposed deadline was June 30th- the day we’d be heading to Iowa for a couple weeks to see family and celebrate Ben and Rachel’s wedding on July 9th- my birthday. As planned, when Ben and Rachel arrived in Iowa, I handed them a portfolio containing all 49 pages of the original comic artwork plus the front cover illustration.

By this time I had been experimenting with color and Ben and I agreed it was worth the extra time needed to color it. Immediately after returning to Michigan, however, my family and I again turned around and moved back down to Florida, where we had lived before moving out to Washington. I started teaching at another school and again spent little time on the project. Things opened up in December when school was out for break and during this time I colored like a madman. Coloring was finished by February of 2012.

Next, it came time to choose a publish-on-demand service through which we would turn SH into a real book. There was no question about whether we would try to pitch it to publishers or do it ourselves. From the start, the project was conceived as a DIY project. I finally settled on createspace by Amazon because it offered the best price on the kind of printing we wanted plus with expanded distribution, the book will be available through Amazon.com.

We are super stoked to finally be presenting our project to the public. Even if the book does not rake in millions (HA!) it is already a success in our opinion because all we ever set out to do was make a comic we could be proud of and could put on our shelf. This mission has been accomplished, even though it has been a long time coming.

Enjoy!

-James Greene  May, 2012

Team Greene believes in this family dynamic and for years we have seen it in action on the many miles we have traveled around the US. Check out snapshots from the road at Team Greene’s tumbler page.

Fellow panelists include Al Letson, host of NPR’s State of the Reunion (and alleged comic book lover) plus MOCA director Marcelle Polednik.

Can’t wait to engage in a real discussion about the changing status of comic books in American culture, their mobility between “high” and “low” art spheres, and the changes in copyright laws since Roy’s day. Should be a great night.

The discussion starts at 7PM in MOCA’s 1st floor auditorium on Thursday March 1st. Check the links for more information. Hope to see folks there!- JG

A few colored pages can be seen here.

Before inking was completed I started experimenting with coloring using a Wacom tablet. The initial results looked good, so I started coloring the whole project. I’m nearing completion on this leg of the journey and once again the road has been twisty. I have since moved again and started a new job while attempting to be a stay-at-home dad.

But fear not, true believers! For I have given myself a Yuletide deadline on the coloring. Look for more to come from the Salvaged horizon crew soon including info on how you can obtain a copy of this space-boy-dream from the creative pairing of Ben and James, who have been both making and thinking about comics for the last 20 years!

I have been invited to speak at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, Michigan. While I do not have an exhibit on display at the MMA, I am nonetheless included in the roster of events scheduled to take place at the museum. my lecture is being organized and funded by the West Shore Graphic Arts Society.

When I was first approached by my friend Erin Hoffman to speak at the MMA, she said it could be open to whatever I wanted to talk about. I told her since most of my energies these days are going into teaching- it would likely be about ways that my art practice have taught me to be a teacher.

My talk is entitled: “Fighting for Humanity”

Should be a good time.

The lecture goes down at 6:30 PM on Thursday March 31st in the MMA Auditorium.

These are the first few pages of my forthcoming project entitled “101.” The project is being both written and drawn by yours truly. The story involves an art professor (sounds familiar) who is denied tenure and goes off the deep end, taking a handful of his students with him on an odyssey of self-discovery and civil disobedience on campus.

All pages are completely rendered by hand- including the lettering which was accomplished using an Ames Lettering Guide. (Note: The Ames guide is named for Ames, Iowa)

Look for more to come.

JG