Want to try to get back to doing this more. Didn't do as much sketching as I would have liked in Chicago, no time to stop and draw much, to tired the rest of the time. But I did do a bit on the trains on the way to see Jeremy, a little bit in a cafe on the north side of the loop, and then yesterday I had time to do a nice portrait of a writer who kindly remained still for 10 min strait! :)

Landed in Montreal on Wednesday[13th] and crashed on 6 days of all day walking, gathering reference for The Rise in Fall of it All in Chicago IL. Built a reference file of specific and general imagery for the book and attempted to get a feel for the city, at the least the parts that the story takes place in.


A hidden filed of green in the badlands of Chicago's south west side
Had a good if short hook up on the last day before jumping on the plane with my collaborator [author of the story and composer of the soundtrack] John O’Brien. He took me around to a few specific locations from the script, the protagonists house, reference for locations of some of the scenes in the finally, and other assorted details.

Just before hooking up with him I caped off my Hostelling adventures at the H.I.Chicago, room 312 by having a classy buffet feed at the Signature Lounge on the 95th & 96th floor of the on top of the John Hancock Centre with my Australian roommates Dave & Alex.


the respective views at the buffet

Night before took a brake from my roaming to have a drink with Alex, and our other roommates James [America] and Andreas [Germany].

room 312 on the train



the train stop at Jeremy's place
Also visited with Jeremy (On) Smith and his housemates, and a few nights before joined him and Ivan Brunetti, David King, & John Hankiewicz at earwax café for a cartoonists kevetch session. Just before that I was around the corner checking out Quimby's books and had dinner with Tim Broderick, Carla Speed McNeil and a bunch of the gang form sequential tart. At the con that day I finally net in person with Ivan Brandon, Jeff Amano, Paul Mounts and Gabriel Benson whom I worked with on the T3 books.

Ivan and Gabe live out a fantacy

Also at the con I chatted with the Rumble Royale guys, Kagan McLeod, Chip Zdarsky, Samuel Hiti & Cameron Stewart. Laid my inking samples on Will Denis whom I’ve been trying to get to put me on a Hellblazer book (the one mainstream title I have any real strong desire to work on) and got to say hi to Jill Tompson, who I haven’t seen since back in the day.

All this was surrounded by 8 hours of walking a day all over the city, shooting photographs of the loop and the other neighbourhoods that appear in the book.. I’m beat.

Now i'm off to Tortonto....sigh

So if you are at the Canadian National Comic Expo i might see ya...

Arived in chicago 3 hr late due to dead AC in AC crap planes with dipers in the seat poket, broken trains and missed stations. Now typeing fast as the time ticks and toks and talking is probably cheeper, at least till i find a proper internet cafe.

over

out

It’s a bit last minuet I know but if you’re at the Chicago Wizard con this weekend I’ll be there, you’ll find me at the Beckett table with Ivan Brandon & Jeff Amano Saturday and Sunday, Not sure what times but most likely I’ll be there at some point between 1pm and 4pm each day doing signings and such for T3: before the rise.


I’ll also be in Toronto later this month at the Convention there, not sure if I’ll be dong singings though.

Some of the T3 B&W art (me inking Goran Parlov)
here

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A good recent interview with Ivan at Brakebows

the rough