Spring Con 2011: The Pictures

Spring Con 2011

Clockwise from top-left: Noah Van Sciver, Iron Man, Spider-Man, José Luis García-López

Spring Con 2011. This was the wrong comics show for the kinds of comics I make. Most of the attendees ignored my books (or the books of other creators of not interested in what passes as mainstream in comics). And, yet… I left the show tired but giddy… a pile of mid-80’s comics (from one of the many $.25 boxes) under one arm, an original José Luis García-López page in the other and Noah Van Sciver’s new mini (published by 2D Cloud and printed by Zak Sally) in my back pocket. I took a few pictures too.

Pics from Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes

by bill hauser

I was digging around in iPhoto for something and I found a few pics from the closing party to the Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes show from a few weeks back. I promptly uploaded them to Flickr. My big discovery of the show was the art of Bill Hauser. He works primarily as an illustrator and creates a ton of cover art for a variety of bands. I really like his old school, cartoony take on horror… and he has the chops to pull it off very well. I also really like his hand-made typography. Again, it’s cartoony, but the type is always tight, well arranged, with interesting letter forms.  More Pics here.

Mobile Photography Nostalgia

sony ericsson t610
My dead Sony Ericsson T-610s soul taken by the Nokia 6300.

I don’t take very many pictures with my cellphone. But, occasionally it is the only tool available to record a moment in time. Usually the picture is forgotten as soon as it is taken. When my trusty Sony Ericsson T-610 died a few weeks ago I was compelled to take a look at the pictures I’ve taken with it during the five (!) years it served as my phone. Its camera wasn’t great and the pictures were very low resolution… on top of that, I’m not a great photographer. But the grainy, low-quality images have already acquired that warm and familiar sheen of nostalgia… the same kind of sheen that we experience listening to vinyl records or cassette tapes or playing old arcade style video games (Galaga!). A long time ago I posted a small set of pictures from the old phone when it was still new to me. Now I’ve added a bunch more to that Flickr set. Take a look.

My new phone (Nokia 6300) looks a lot like the T-610. I admit that I bought it mainly on the strength of that resemblance… but… I find its new interface a little too slick, its memory bigger than necessary, its photos are bigger but not better, etc., etc… already I’m missing the relative clunkiness of the old phone knowing full well I’ll have the same nostalgic feelings for the new one in five years time.

Stumptown 2008

Portland, OR Grain Silo

Stumptown is at this point gone from most people’s minds… but I just uploaded all these pictures I took while attending the show to Flickr… only I neglected to take pictures of the Stumptown Comics Festival itself so instead you get bunch of pictures of the Willamette river front, the Red Lion Hotel and the Stumptown after-party held at the excellent Pony Club gallery.

Random Mobile


Some random pictures from my mobile phone (Sony Ericsson T-610). Highlights include, pigeon on a trash can, microscopic concert pictures, the staircase from The Exorcist and more.