Has anything been going on?

Well, it’s… ha ha… been a while. I hope everyone has been keeping well and as safe as possible. Things here at the cat compound are okay, been following all the COVID rules and been doing alright. I’ve been busy, though.

The big news is that COME HOME, INDIO, my graphic memoir, has been completed. Spanning, well, my entire life up to now, it chronicles some of the heavy moments that made me who I am at present. If you’ve ever felt like an outsider, or if you’ve struggled with addiction, or were a child of the 80’s, or are lost and trying to keep afloat in the madness of recent times, you might find something of worth in there.

The book is being released by STREET NOISE, an independent publisher based out of Brooklyn, NY and headed by the unstoppable Liz Francis. She approached me at the Indigenous Comicon a year and a half ago and asked if I’d be interested in talking about my trip to Standing Rock during the pipeline resistance. Since I was only there for a number of days (over two trips) I didn’t feel like I was qualified to tell that story - but I was certainly qualified to talk about my own life leading up to that trip, and the profound effect my short time there had on my life.

I had to wait to work on it until September, as I was finishing work on HACK SLASH Vs. THE CROW and was penciling, inking and coloring those 4 issues and barely keeping up. Once that was in the can I jumped on the memoir and worked like mad, digging up all the miserable and joyful and mundane memories I could and hammering it into something that made sense. There was no great through line in my mind until I was about halfway done, when I realized that it is about FINDING MY PLACE IN THE WORLD.

Being part Native and part white, growing up in the 80’s suburbs, and ultimately becoming an urban dweller completely enslaved by booze, I didn’t get my feet on the ground until I was in my 30’s. I didn’t get my first professional comic work until I was damn near 40… I was a lost sucker for a long time but this book will tell about how I finally figured a way to exist without tearing myself apart.

I hope you take a look at it, and I REALLY hope you take something away from it that you can use in your life. I can easily summon that old feeling of “nobody is like me, nobody understands” and it ain’t an easy one to live with but - though circumstances vary, certain feelings and thoughts are universal.

The book comes out September 28th, but it can be pre-ordered through your local bookstore or comic shop, or bookshop.org - where local bookstores get a cut of the sales. It’ll also be available on a certain megasite… but please support your local biz if you can.

In the meanwhile, stay safe, keep your head above the water and one day we’ll shake hands at a con.

Jim

Halloween season

I am amazed at how poorly I’ve maintained this blog.

Nonetheless, here I am, dusting the spiderwebs off and typing away once again. Not an excuse, but I’ve been pretty busy. Since I last wrote something here I moved, penciled+inked+colored a four issue HACK/SLASH VS CROW mini, and started an epic project that will probably ruin me. I’ll tell you more about that later.

And I have yet to start shopping EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN around, probably my biggest folly. I’ll get it out there, hopefully before my passion for it wains. JUST KIDDING, it NEVER WILL. I love those two and hope to get another leg of their adventure told soon.

This Friday (Sept. 27) the SHUDDER network will be releasing the CREEPSHOW TV SERIES, and I’m very proud to say I did a little work on it, on (I believe) 4 different episodes. So if you’re into horror and have SHUDDER, tune in and see if you can spot some of my art peppered around in there.

Sadly, I won’t be attending NYCC this year so I’ll save you the trouble of looking for me, just wasn’t in the cards.

I will be at NWI Comicon in February as well as C2E2, so hopefully my hermit ass will have more on that before the days come and go. Jury’s still out on Emerald City.

Also, I’ve been slacking on my Big Cartel page but rectified that - for a brief while it will be only prints but there are plenty to choose from. As I said, I moved recently and still need to figure out all my originals and what to do with them.

Okay. Well, hope to talk to you again sooner than later!

Upcoming shows!

Well here we are, 2019! Yay?

If you’ve been following along you’ll know that EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN: THE GIFT has been completely told on jimterrycomics.com - if you haven’t, feel free to swing over there and you can read the whole epic for free! (there’s a link on this page)

Next weekend (Feb 23) I’ll be at the NWI Comic-con (Northwest Indiana) with a bunch of other Chicago folk as well as talent from all over the midwest… Of course I’ll have original art, prints and books so swing on by!

Let’s not forget C2E2, March 22-24, the biggest convention in this part of the country! I’ll be at table G-4 and I’ll have some new goodies. I won’t have any of the sequential stuff I’ve been working on (yet), but I should have a new banner and for those who are into it I SHOULD have a new Artbook - vol 2, which concentrates on HORROR ART! Ooooh!

If you’re jonesing for art in the meanwhile, lately I’ve been posting new stuff on instagram and you can find the link at the bottom of this page - otherwise, I have some exciting new projects in the works that aren’t quite ready to unveil yet so stay tuned!

I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day but I hope this year is treating you as well as it can, and maybe we’ll run into each other soon. Thanks for keeping up!

JT

EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN IS LIVE!!!!

Well, as is usually the case, I dropped something with absolutely no warning! Businessman! Showman! Entertainer! Slacker! Fool!

Yesterday a friend helped me set up the site jimterrycomics.com and we dumped the first three pages of EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN: THE GIFT right then and there. There is a link at the top of this page where you can access this completely free story, and I only ask that if you enjoy it please pass it along to someone you think will also like it!

The story was completed some time ago during a time of great change in my life, and I self published them in black & white and sold them at conventions. I figured that was probably the end of things, but life has pushed me around a little and I had to look back to my friends E&L for a little strength and found they were still in trouble. I am currently working on "E&L: THE BANNER OF THE SERPENT", which finds them a bit older but still young and foolish and full of courage and emotion, facing new and deadlier trials.

I've cleaned up some of the awful lettering on THE GIFT, as well as added color, and am sharing it now a page a week (give or take) until it's completed. I'll also share the short story "PYG", which features Edgebright in a solo adventure, before dropping the big hint: a kickstarter to collect the whole saga thus far, including the fully completed BANNER OF THE SERPENT.

This is a passion project - it's what I do when I have 5 minutes of free time, and I want it to be as epic and beautiful as I can make it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it, and if you do please pass the word along!

Much obliged.

Jan 2, 2017 #inking #comics #storytelling

It's going to take a minute to get used to writing a 7 rather than a 6... Anyway, here's a little bit of inking talk.

So after the pencils have been laid down, the FUN begins! With this particular story I decided the wavy lines of hand drawn borders would add to the rugged bare bones-ness I was looking for, so I drew the panel borders freehand with a pen. Generally I avoid using a pen whenever possible, as I'm a diehard brush man. I also tend to avoid using white paint, and prefer to establish negative space while laying down the blacks. Here, though, I used the white paint to do the razor wire - then wondered why I didn't use it more - before putting it back in the drawer to be not used again.

Most of the textures I like to implement while inking were established by the '50s by masters like Jack Davis, Will Eisner, Wally Wood, etc. O'Barr and I share a deep love and respect for the old EC war books, TWO-FISTED TALES and FRONTLINE COMBAT, and wanted to emulate that feel with this puppy. So in the snow, rather than leaving it pure white space, I couldn't resist putting in a few wavy Kurtzman lines to signify clumps; most of my lighting techniques are ripped off from old Spirit books. In fact, there might not be anything original on this page! Ah, wise King Solomon was right. HOWEVER - it's all about using what works to tell the story you're telling. Hopefully this portrays the kind of grit and gruel we were going for.

After the inks are down I erased those damned pencil lines and scanned the page in, usually at least 400 dpi, and submit it to the editor. Hopefully they like it! No, hopefully it blows their minds. I think our editor on this was nervous but kind about it.

6/14/06 "Look pal, I just want to talk to her"

I love noir, I love circuses, I love detectives. Just a piece I had fun doing (once I stopped using a bad brush, that is). Don't use faulty tools out of stubbornness, like me. Make life easier and doubt yourself less.