Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahnuik, author of Fight Club, lullaby, Survivor, etc, was signing last night at Borders Book store and my friend David and I attended. I had been to the same store a night earlier when another reading/signing was going on- that one drew about 15 people. Thus, I was pretty surprised when we showed up almost a full hour early and there were already hundreds lined up to see Chuck. Yikes.

Problem number two was that the line moved extremely slow. Chuck seems like a nice guy and was in a good mood. He said it was the second to last signing of his tour, so he spent a good amount of time personally talking to everyone who came up to him. Unfortunately that meant that in about a half hour I moved maybe five feet forward in line. Ultimately I didn't get to meet him for this reason (plus the NBA finals were on and I didn't want to miss the entire game).

I did get to hear him speak though, which was a lot of fun. It seemed we were one signing too late for the goods though, as Chuck related that his publisher had called him that very morning warning him he had to tone down the content of his presentations at book stores. That meant of course that he couldn't do the reading he had planned, as there's almost nothing the guy's written that's appropriate for all audiences. Fortunately, the guy's a pretty entertaining speaker and the talk was still good.

I had also wanted to go because on both night's signings I picked up some tips on how to do this stuff. As a hopeful author, I need to get a handle on that. I've done some Q & A's as a comic artist and publisher and have never been quite comfortable at them. Chuck's technique is really good. Basically he takes a small number of questions (rotating boy girl boy girl) and uses each question as an opportunity to tell a story or really elaborate on his writing. In a half hour talk, he maybe took 8-10 questions, and told several funny stories.

Chuck pointed out that what he really likes to do is document things that he feels will never be documented by anyone else. Most of the writing in his books are based on crazy stories people tell him or that he's experienced with his friends. He said, "100 years from now, no historian will write about the sex industry boom in Portland Oregon in 2006, or the odd sport of Big Car hunting, or whatever." So he puts those facts in to stories. He even said that most of the stuff that he purely makes up is only there so that people will believe the real stuff.

Big Car Hunting by the way is a really funny idea. Apparently this is a sport where folks rig a beat up old car with a remote control steering mechanism. The car is then sent out and several "hunters" follow in other cars with rifles and try to shoot the thing to death. When it finally dies of gunshot wounds, the hunters drink beer, fix it, and send it out again. Love it. Beats the shit out of hunting deer in my humble opinion.

Like I said, I couldn't wait around as long as it would've taken to meet Chuck, but I did give him a drawing. I usually try to give drawings as gifts to people I meet who've inspired me. For Chuck, all I had was a hunk of wood to draw on. David suggested I draw a scene from Fight Club that was in the book, but didn't make the movie. I chose the scene where our narrator first meets Tyler Durden. In the film, this happens on an airplane, but in the book it's on a beach. The narrator has fallen asleep while sunning, and when he wakes Tyler is there, naked, sitting in the shadow of a huge hand he's built out of driftwood.

I drew that image of Tyler, with two sentences from the book that describe that scene. I wrote, "To Chuck- thanks for good reads- Michael Lagocki" on the back and left it on the table where he was signing.

Fun stuff.

Gallery Meeting

The meeting at Art Prostititute went well. Mark, the owner, is good people. I was glad I brought my comics, because the paintings didn't really catch much attention. Painting represents a pretty small portion of my art. I've done maybe 20-25 paintings in my life and of them, maybe 5 really mean something to me. I took several of those, and it was really the first time since college that someone looked at them with a professional eye. He pointed out some things to work on, but the more we talked the more it became clear that illustration is what I really love and the conversation went that way. I brought several pages from my Misprecision project and those were a hit. That project gets the strongest reaction out of anything I've ever done.

Mark digs comics illustration too and has featured several cartoonists in Art Prostitute's magazine. He gave me some local contacts to reach out to, and pointed me towards some other illustrators he thinks I should contact, and he invited me to stay in touch and keep bringing new work over to the gallery. Good stuff. I suspect there will be more to this story.

Other...
My work for the Dallas School district last weekend went well and I had several requests for teaching and freelance art. It's got me thinking about doing some private lessons. I like to teach and would enjoy designing and presenting something like say... a one-time two hour course aimed at giving novices a leg up and some confidence on making art. Not sure I'd enjoy teaching someone over and over, but I know that I could create and delivery a one-shot course that people would really enjoy and would get some skills out of. That's a good service.

I'll keep turning that one over in my head.

Become an Art Prostitute

I attended the opening of the Art Prostitute gallery in Deep Ellum last Saturday night. Great Time! First off, the opening was a huge success, people filling the gallery and lining the streets. Second, I LOVED the show. Dave Kinsey's illustrative paintings are gorgeous, have a lot of life and spark to them. As a cartoonist, I was particularly attracted to his controlled linework. (see above painting) You can check out his site at http://www.kinseyvisual.com/

Aside from the show, I just really loved the gallery too. It's a cool space, they had a DJ supplying beats for the opening, and they were selling comics in the gift shop. Score! Anyway, tomorrow I have a meeting with the owner to show him my work. I was just so comfortable at the gallery that I'd love to become involved, possibly show there.

So wish me luck on that. And I think the gallery is a great place to check out. It's right downtown, very fun, very welcoming, and free. Here's the site:
www.artprostitute.com

worth taking action

So I'm pretty encouraged by a new wave of people who seem to be tired of listening to the same old BS and making a stand. This week as Bush rolled out the gay marriage amendment again, I've heard a lot of people simply say "enough", we're done with this nonsense. There are real problems to be solved and acting like our most pressing problem is who wants to love who is just ridiculous. For me it's simple, I'm done listening to politicians and radical preachers telling me who to hate.

The same week, an Inconvenient Truth (a great documentary about global warming) opened on just 77 screens and still managed to break the top 10 most profitable movies in the country. That's amazing. You'd think that'd be impossible on less than 100 screens nationally. People are hungry for change, and their hungry for messages about solutions.

When I saw it, I was so encouraged by the audience's reactions. The end credits included suggestions on actions that individuals can take, and as they rolled, audience members cheered their favorite ones. One thing I loved is that some of the biggest cheers came from the following suggested action: If you believe in prayer, pray we'll find the strength to make the necessary changes. I loved this response because so often a perception is put forth that republicans are Christian and Liberals are atheist. If anything, what I've seen in the last few years is that the major republican issues all seem to be about standing for war, for building walls, for limiting freedoms. Christ preached unity and peace, Christ was a radical, I see nothing Christ-like in the current administration.

What does all this have to do with movies? Well, movies are the campfire of our generation. It's where people form ideas, discuss conclusions. Some of the best conversations I've had with friends over the years have been interpreting films we just saw. It's one place that change begins to happen.

Here are links to two great trailers that are from documentaries about changing the way we think about progress. Both are about technology and the earth.

An Inconvenient Truth
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_classics/aninconvenienttruth/

Who Killed the Electric Car
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/whokilledtheelectriccar/

back in the saddle (sexy girls included)

yep. I've haven't been great about posting in the last few weeks, but here we go again- got some new work, some new things to yap about.

First- everyone's favorite- sexy girls.
Comic artists excel at drawing beautiful women. It's something I've kind of shied away from because it's overdone and usually done in a pretty goofy way. (Girls with 100DD breasts and all that) So I didn't put a ton of effort in growing in that direction (I draw more cartoons than realism anyway) But recently I realized that it had gotten away from me a bit and that if I needed to draw an attractive lady pic, my skills in that area were kind of weak. So I did these two images as practice.

Click on the images to enlarge. Enjoy.