2006 Xbox Magazine

Dead Rising Save Point Illustration by Silent James 2006

I learned the most valuable lesson as an illustrator because of this early job for Xbox Magazine. The art director asked me how much I would charge for a full page illustration, I told her, then she told me "it's your lucky day" because their budget was pretty much double what I quoted. From then on, I would ask on calls with art directors how much their budget was. 75% of the time, it was higher than what I thought I could make doing the work. Do not sell yourself short & show no fear!

The idea was to highlight things in games that are frustrating for players. The above image was of the game Dead Rising and how annoying it was to find save points (which were in bathrooms), so the hero is shown doing a pee pee dance. I've never been crazy about zombies, but this was fun.

This image was about how some games had really bright flashes.

Originally, I was asked to create the Dead Rising one as a full page, the other as a quarter, but for some reason they ran them vice versa. I was not happy about that, since they blew up the bright image (they should have asked me for a bigger file, which I had), they also cropped the Dead Rising one. They did send me multiple copies, which was nice, and this was the first major publication I was printed in. I could go to any drug store and they'd have the issue. I remember they took a REALLY long time to pay me, we're talking months, telling me something about they didn't get the invoice. I finally got paid and they sent me this humongous Xbox shirt with it as a "thanks for waiting gift". Unfortunately, this same exact scenario happened to a friend of mine and they were given the same excuse (but no shirt!).

2006 Illustration for 11211 Magazine, Let's Grow Art Show

Another early job I got was to illustrate Roni from Laila Lounge in Williamsburg for 11211 magazine. There was no direction or images sent to me, so I went down and interviewed him/sketched him in person. This was not typical in 2006 and is practically unheard of today, but it was a really great experience. Roni was a very funny and interesting person, he told me all about the place and himself and I was able to add some details into the image. I really like the way the spray came out in the background; the gradient and textures. They only ended up using the image as a quarter page, which meant my already tiny compensation would be even less. I never got to see the image printed, and I also had to fight for months with the owner of the magazine to get paid. But, Roni loved the image and wanted me to show my work in his place.

Flyer designed by Esther Westwood, art by artists in show

I organized Let's Grow! Art Show on Aug 17, 2006 with some of my friends including: Fumiko Yoshioka, Jason Raish, Rob Harrigan, Stephanie Buscema, Esther Westwood and Magie Serpica. We had about 5 or 6 pieces up each and there was a pretty good turnout. My childhood friend Lucas came, and my friends Matt and Morgan, Molly Crabapple etc. It was a really nice night and all came about from one tiny job.

2010 Lecture at FIT on How I Got My First Illustration Job

On December 8, 2010 I joined artists Hope Gangloff and Kim Rosen to speak at the Fashion Institute of Technology about "How I Got My First Job". Heidi Younger contacted me and it was all very exciting. My lovely friends Esther, Matt, Woo, Luis, Monica, and Lavon showed up and Woo was nice enough to record it for me. Check out the above video clip, and here is the original flyer...

I talked about my first job which was an illustration of golfer Michelle Wie for NY Press in the summer of 2006. Here is the image:

Michelle Wie Illustration by Silent James

And here is the clipping from the newspaper:

I remember I was so excited, I told all of my friends to pick up a copy.

My favorite part of the lecture was getting to meet Hope Gangloff and Kim Rosen, they were such delightful people and we felt like a team. After performing in immersive theatre for 3 years and being a graphic recorder, I have definitely gotten better at public speaking since this video was shot, but I think I did a pretty good job. Years later I ran into SASHALYNILLO at a gallery show and she recognized me from the lecture and told me it was pretty entertaining. I would like to do more of these talks in the future!

There's more to the video where I discuss other projects, I'll share those in future posts.

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!

2003-2014 Hunter S Thompson, Dan Valle, Ralph Steadman, Death Positive

Dan Valle and Silent James, Halloween 2003

In 1998, I saw Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas film. It had a big effect on me, I used to run up and down the halls in high school quoting Raoul Duke. I read the book, I especially loved the artwork by the great Ralph Steadman. In 2002, I met a punk kid at FIT named Dan Valle. He became one of my best friends. It turned out he loved Fear and Loathing as well, and we both dressed up for Halloween in 2003.

Silent James attending Ralph Steadman's show at AIB, Feb 2006

Hunter S. Thompson died in 2005. I remember my sisters and I were visiting our Mum, and we were so sad when we heard the news. We were crying in the snow. In 2006, I piled into a car with my sister, her husband, and Esther and headed up to Art Institute of Boston for Drawing Breath: A Retrospective Whisper, which was a huge Ralph Steadman show.

The postcard flyer for the show

Silent James w/ Cardinal Zin

The show was a comprehensive collection of his school work, ink illustrations for books in the 60's (my favorite of his work), the Big I Am images which were stunning, as well as new work including beverage packaging.

Soon after, Ralph Steadman's book The Joke's Over came out, about his relationship with his friend Hunter S Thompson. He came to the Barnes and Noble bookstore on 6th ave and 22nd st for... not quite a signing, since we all got pre signed book plates... but he did have give a talk and even dressed up as Hunter (cigarette holder and all!). I remember hearing someone banging on the window of the bookstore at one point, but I didn't pay it much attention because I was so mesmerized by seeing Mr. Steadman.

Illustration of Ralph Steadman by Silent James, 2006

I painted this huge watercolor of Ralph Steadman, in the style of one of his favorite artists Goya, and gave it to him. His friend laughed, "He's got more hair than that!" I got to ask Ralph a question during the Q+A, "Hunter always told you not to write, that it would bring shame upon you and your family, and now you've written a book. I'm curious, did Hunter ever draw?"
The room kind of went dead, as is usually the case when I'm given a microphone, and Ralph just said that "Hunter couldn't draw."
He was rushed out by his wife, as people were trying desperately to get him to sign their stuff, and I yelled a big "Thank You!", he stopped in his tracks, turned right to me and yelled, "You're welcome!" It was amazing.

Illustration of my friend Dan Valle, 2014

Dec 2008, I met Dan at Kenka near Saint Marks and we had a great night catching up. He told me all about his new band Hollow Jones. Obama just became president. He asked me if I'd like to create some illustrations for him. He was happy and excited. We talked Ralph Steadman and I mentioned I saw him at B+N over a year ago and he told me it was him banging on the window. He said he saw something was going on but had to run.

A few days after Valentine's Day 2009, I received an email out of the blue from my friend Sasha that Dan Valle died in a bike accident on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Ghost Bike for Dan Valle at South 5th between Driggs and Roebling

A kind artist made a Ghost Bike for Dan. I went to the funeral in Howell, NJ. At first I was crippled by this devastation, but I began painting his picture every year, which I found very therapeutic. I learned to accept death and become death positive years later thanks to mortician Caitlin Doughty and the Order of the Good Death. Dan's birthday is on April 6th, this year I spent it listening to Tragedy (one of Dan's favorite bands) and flying home from the east coast.

2006 She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

In 2005, my professor Eric Velasquez sent me an inquiry from an art director he knew about illustrating a series of love poems in graphic novel format. I immediately got to work illustrating "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways" by William Wordsworth, a poem I first read in high school and was very fond of. The job was on spec, and didn't go anywhere, but I created some pretty cool pieces.

"SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

--Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown,

and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!"

Normally, I can't stand when characters look alike (if they aren't related). Some artists just draw all their people the same way. Wordsworth wrote a series of "Lucy" poems, but never discussed her true identity. Scholars speculate it was his sister and that he was infatuated with her, so it's OK they look similar here :)

I brought these samples around to book companies, another very competitive market. The style I used is a little too similar to Nightmare Before Xmas, but I still like them.

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.