1998 Comic: Triple Threat

Cover to the Triple Threat graphic novel, 1998

Triple Threat was comic about a gang... well, it was more like an army, of wholesome individuals I knew in the late 90's. I remember drawing the whole 1st issue on the coffee table in Luke's living room. He just kept feeding me and cheering me on. I photocopied them using the secret code for the teacher's photocopier, and passed them out in school. It all started with 3 friends: Adam, Luke, and I- but it grew into a huge community that I was very grateful for. It was a means to bring cheer to my friends, and make new friends. Still to this day, people bring Triple Threat up to me, which is great. I'm including the entire 1st issue here. Triple Threat!

My advice to artists in school is to follow my example: create a comic or zine and fill it with friends and people you admire, hand it out, and create your own communities. School was frustrating, but it would have been unbearable without the friends I made from this humble comic. And thanks to Luke for forcing the whole thing to happen in the first place. To read more about the origins of Triple Threat, stay tuned for my autobiography Secrets of Silent James. Lastly, I want to include a page from a later issue that I just love. The drawing style I believe was my best during that time, and it has a good collection of the cast.

1991 How I Love Comic Books

In elementary school, we used to create these books made of construction paper (such a good name), that were laminated and bound using that plastic comb binding. I loved making them, though I hadn't developed a sense of layout/design yet. This book was called "How I Love Comic Books". The "typography" on the cover is interesting because I chose to draw in the holes on the B.

My poor mum used to have to stand there for endless amounts of time while I went through every book in the store, and if I came out empty handed... that's when she'd flip her lid. Rightly so, sorry! I don't actually recall her ever saying that I am a comic book, I think that was me using my creative license. Ah, youth!

I find the text in this book hilarious. I remember getting yelled at for using ballpoint pen to draw on that green paper, I understand now tho. It doesn't read well.

I'm glad I appreciated weirdness. The weirdest part about this page was that I didn't even like the Fantastic Four! I never even bought an issue my entire life. I think I was writing this book as more of an introduction to comics. I wish I was more bold with my imagery here, maybe I should recreate this book? haha

I get a kick out of this page, especially in the google adwords time we live in today. I drew most of the book in crayon. My handwriting is pretty neat. I remember coloring this all in at my classmate Eric's house, he was the fastest runner in our grade. He lived in a very ritzy part of town. I remember 2 girls from our class skated by us and he yelled, "Posers!" at them. I'm not sure why he did that, at the time I didn't know what the word meant and I just thought he was complimenting them on how they were able to pose why skating. I remember weird things.

I wonder if any parents that read this were inspired to begin reading comics? There was a parent's night where everyone came and read all of our laminated books, there was a sheet on the back of each book for them to write comments. I lost the sheet, unfortunately, but I remember people wrote about how much they loved the artwork. My Mum wrote something nice in there too.

This is probably my favorite part of the book, I can't believe I wrote this! haha

I'm happy to say I still love comics, and I'm re-reading Dragon Ball (still good after all these years!). I love Frank Miller's early work, everything by Alan Moore especially Miracle Man, Jaime Hernandez' Locas, Alejandro Jodorowsky's many masterpieces, The Maxx, and a new book I love is the Invader Zim comic. If you are in NY I highly recommend my friend Menachem Luchin's shop Escape Pod Comics. His ability to recommend books is more spot on than any silly algorithm, and he has a true passion for comics. Here in SF, I go to Comix Experience. Enjoy!

2004 Comics: Bermuda Triangle, part 3

Last but not least, this final Bermuda Triangle book I made. It was a completely silent comic, no words or sound effects, all told visually. This had the same character of Judith but told a different story about her on Earth: a neglected child that meets a weirdo who trains her and leads her to the Bermuda Triangle.

It was done in ink and screentones, all of the architecture was painstakingly (for me) done with measurement and rulers in proper perspective. It was not fun to create but I enjoy looking at it. She's wearing my infamous BATS shirt that I bought at salvation army for $1. Some of the pages she looks waaay too much like me, but overall it was a good effort.

I printed out 20 copies at school and had them tape bound at Staples. I brought them to NY Comic Con and gave them out. I was dressed as Charlie Chaplin and was allowed to enter for free. I came in 2nd in the costume contest, an injustice since I lost to a little kid wearing an out of the box star wars costume. Another injustice was I was supposed to receive a year of free passes to comic con and I never got them. I gave one to ECW wrestler Sandman and he proceeded to draw in his own dialogue bubbles throughout the book, he created his own bizarre storyline about how Judith missed her boyfriend the Sandman. It was hilarious but I couldn't laugh lest I break character.

Around this time, I visited my good friend and amazing artist Jade Kuei at Cosmic Comics in midtown Manhattan, and her boss was kind enough to buy 6 copies from me! It was the first time I was paid in cash bills for my art, I was so happy.

I kept that money in a separate bank because that money was special to me. Alas, the end of that year I was so poor that I had to spend it on groceries :(

I told all of my friends my comic was being sold in the "Independents" section of Cosmic Comics and a bunch of them came through and bought copies, I specifically remember Rachel bought one, I think Jessica bought one too. They ALL sold! It was awesome.

2004 Comics: Bermuda Triangle, part 2

In 2004, I continued making comics set in the Bermuda Triangle. This one centered around 3 characters: Judith, Samuel, and Stephen. They were a pirate gang that lives in the Triangle until they cross paths with Bonnie and Clyde. They are sent to the outside world to find B+C's daughter Vera, but end up battling villains named Clarence and Jameson (me). It reads right to left (traditional japanese manga style) because I intended to submit it to Shonen Jump's call for submissions and that was their guideline.

I never heard back from Shonen Jump, but Tokyo Pop came to FIT and reviewed my 31 page creation. They were very surprised I did the whole thing myself, but told me I had too many panels per page for a manga and did not like my design layout for the type (not shown here because it was that bad). I kept in touch and showed my work to them again at NY Comic con, they were very happy to see me but nothing came of it work wise. I look at these pages now and I'm very happy with them, there's a lot of technique.

It ended with a huge fight scene, a lot of hand drawn action lines a la Dragon Ball, I'm proud of myself.

I did another BT comic that year; taking tokyopop's suggestions of doing my book left to right, having less panels per page, and doing all of the screentones as a pattern in photoshop.

This book was much weirder, it had Judith and Stephen taking a drug called "Swipe" and battling each other while they were out of their minds, ending with a huge Ladybug installation falling and Judith catching it. All of the lines done with ink and ruler. The characters were a little too posed, but there's some good stuff in here.

2001 Comics: The Bermuda Triangle

In 1998, I began drawing mini comics that took place in the Bermuda Triangle. This one I drew in 2001, at that time I was working at a bank and thoroughly disgusted by how creepy the male customers would act towards my female coworkers. This comic, done in ballpoint pen, features me and my friends Will, Rachel and Mignon, I give you: It's NOT a Man's World...

My whole life I've refused to play along as "one of the guys", whenever "guy talk" reared its ugly head I would shut it down. As a result, I was shunned by almost every guy I met and looked at as a spoilsport and trouble maker... and darn proud of it!