‘Mindset Vertical’ is the first solo exhibition of artist Jerrell Conner (creator of the Revelations graphic novel series & The Red R) in over 5 years. It will be his most ambitious art show ever. This project is about the characters of the book… more specifically their thoughts, ideas, and perspectives. Story is key, but rich characters make the story. The artist wants to create an art show exploring the lives, experiences, and beliefs of the diverse and eclectic mix of characters from the books. His goal is to create 13 large portraits (5′ tall) painted of each of the main characters from the story. Coupled with the paintings will be brief descriptions and quotes from each character, delving a bit deeper into their psyche. Along with the paintings there will be animations breaking down the evolution of the characters over the years, as well as a process book documenting the steps of each piece and the story behind each character. But in addition he wants to paint YOU the art patron and the comic book fan! You not only have the power to help this dream project become a reality, but you can get involved in the actual creative process directing the artist as he creates some of the pieces, and depending on which reward option you go with you can even have custom artwork of YOU created by the artist for the show!

DWAP Productions honestly hopes that making this a reality is not a problem. Please support.

CNE: Dale Wilson Interview at LBCC 2011

Met some awesome video bloggers from Code Named: Epic at the Long Beach Comic and Horror Con last week. Peep the interview from the show floor and check out the awesome DWAP Productions banner by Iva Sasheva in the background.

The words “Alternative Press Expo” still hold kind of a heroic aura. You could think it was a barely legal rowdy-dowdy event where you could procure anti-government pamphlets, banned books, zines about the most demented music, et cetera. At first glance APE (which actually centers around indie comic books) would seem like a more vegetarian enterprise, proposing to dive into other people’s imaginary worlds and private fantasies, most of which are far from X-rated. Nevertheless, the concept of the fair is - I wouldn’t call it radical, but indeed alternative, since it is based on kindness, not (or not only) on the bare need or desire of the consumer. It presupposes two subjects, one of which is genuinely interested in the other’s inner world and ready to not only engage in fruitful conversation, but to reward the other for having such curious fantasies. It’s quite a different model of commodity exchange from what we’re used to in our society, because the focus is equally on the consumer and on the producer (moreover, the line between the two is blurry, since I assume that most of the APE visitors are “creatives” of some sort). Ideally, APE would function as a space for exchanging ideas and opinions and thus preparing the ground where strange flowers would grow.

Everybody at APE is super friendly. Everyone smiles and offers you candy. Every minute you feel like you’re being invited for a cup of tea. Cuteness fills the air: everywhere you see bunnies, owls, and nameless hybrid beasties which tempt you to take them home and make them your best friends. I resisted, since (horrible confession!) there are already enough toys in our apartment (because I am creepy…) Dale of DWAP Productions shared a table with Jason (Carpe Chaos) and Khalid (Fried Chicken and Sushi); the latter’s the creator of the only “cute” thing I grabbed at the fair - a comic called “Caffeine Baby” where he tells a crazy little family story in his trademark dynamic style.

Khalid at the DWAP Productions booth. ©Bryan Glosemeyer

Other stories I lay my hands on were a tad more uncomfortable and queasy. Speaking of families, by the way: this APE is where I got acquainted with the work of Austin English, whose book “The Disgusting Room” combines a crooked narrative about a dysfunctional family unit with a very unusual drawing style. His human figures, executed in a faux-childlike primitivist manner, always threaten to melt into abstract puddles of thick paint, calling to mind the post-World War II gestural painting. There are more comics by him in a publication called Windy Corner Magazine, which also features a pretty interesting work by Sakura Maku. Here not only the narrative, but some sentences as well are fragmented. While English’s characters seem to exist in an out-of-time state, Maku places hers in a contemporary urban space oversaturated with data. Drawing is neighbored with collage, figuration with pattern, English language with Japanese… And her deep, dark reds are simply beautiful. The same publisher, Sparkplug Comic Books, issued “Flesh and Bone” by Julia Gfrörer. It is a great Gothic horror tale about a witch.

©Windy Corner Magazine

Upon seeing “Ego,” a series of books by Dunja Jankovic that feature picassoid figures in dreamy scenarios, I understood that a Surrealism aficionado had been lying dormant in me. So I grabbed them all. Dunja Jankovic is Croatian, and her style has something vaguely Eastern European in it. There was a time in my life when I looked at a lot of reproductions of non-official Soviet paintings, and I can feel that atmosphere, kind of desolate, kind of introverted, in her work. Finally, I got a DVD called “Zebratron,” which is basically a case study in what happens when you give a hipster a camera, some magic mushrooms and a fake golden axe with a ruby on it. There are little animations telling nonsensical stories about an eight-legged zebra in a candy-colored world, kind of a narcotic twist on kids’ shows such as Teletubbies. Zebratron was hilarious, I hadn’t laughed like that in a while.

Who didn’t come to APE this year: V. Vale, of Re/Search Publications! His magazines feature seminal figures from the worlds of punk and Industrial, including William S. Burroughs and Genesis P-Orridge. I am a fan of the latter, so I will conclude this post with his band Throbbing Gristle’s song “Convincing People.”

Posted by Julia Glosemeyer

I like watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I like watching the reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, even more… because there you can catch a tiny glimpse into what the fighters are in real life. As one who grew up with Latin American soap operas constantly on TV, I’m voraciously interested in people’s feelings, and always want to know what (and how!) people think. Of course, the UFC is synonymous with epic hype, and to get to the real stuff – blood and punches – you need to penetrate a thick coat of delirious media-shaped male fantasy. When the famous fighters say (to dramatic soundtrack), “I will destroy him! This is the most important moment of my life,” I sometimes think: no, it isn’t, it’s just business for you – or not? Anyways, the issue of “fighters’ feelings” offers ample space for creative engagement. Erwann Marshall, mixed martial artist and author of the short film “NUMB,” explores just this in his new project, “One More Round.” The film will have its share of thrilling bloody action, but the goal is to show a fighter in a more human way. Watch Marshall’s presentation of his project and contribute via Kickstarter.

Posted by Julia Glosemeyer

Donovan Vim Crony of EMPOWERD fame comes through again for DWAP Productions with these awesome videos featuring music by DWAP Productions writing partner, Bryan Glosemeyer’s audio persona, DJ Dim Mak. We are stupid-excited about the videos and want you to tell all of your friends.

If you dig what Donovan did here, please swing by his site and give his portfolio a look - he has some great stuff. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, he’s a crazy-talented guy and has a huge future.

As far as Bryan goes, we’ve got a lot in the works with him. He’s one of the co-creators of Once Upon a Time in the Dark and we’ve got him writing night and day on Once Upon a Time in the Dark: Suicidal Tendencies, a novel with co-creator Dale Wilson. This is the first mention of the novel in public but you can find other Once Upon a Time in the Dark stories, My Favorite Weapon (found in Caffeine Dreams 3) and Kali’s Burlesque (found in Caffeine Dreams 4) in print and digitally.

I’m super intrigued about Dale Wilson’s upcoming project with Nathaniel Osollo, aka @Eyedraugh. Why the Twitter handle? Because I’m enigmatic like that. Yeah… and because Nathaniel’s most talked-about project (it even got into the LA Weekly blog, ha!) is a comic book where all text comes from tweets. You can check it out here: as you see, the artist has used all that witty nonsense that people have posted very creatively. The quality that I perhaps admire the most in his work is its humor: for example, he has done stories about Kanye West on a monster-infested island and a rogue Jean-Michel Basquiat. Nathaniel’s art can be designer-sleek, but I like it most when he introduces an element of mischievousness and messiness to it. I knew that his collaboration with Dale would be a no-fail option when I saw this piece:

Here is Nathaniel’s description:

This is photo documentation of the Most Dangerous painting ever created. Its power and existence is a great threat to any who view it: beware. I have destroyed most of it for general safety but I maintain possession of the third piece in case I need the paintings power.

And this is the third part… tremble.

Here are some more pictures for good measure. This guy loves skulls!!

Some more Nathaniel Osollo-related links:

Lots and lots of pics!

Comics!

Buyyyyyyyy

An InlandSoCal profile

Posted by J.

Continuing with my relatively unintentional theme of “death”, here are Ten tracks including music by Agents Of Oblivion, Alice In Chains, and Blind Melon. Most of them are about death or living or transition or legacy but all of them are songs that have gotten me somewhere. And the image is another one from the original art stock pile that I have from making comics - learn more at http://www.DWAPproductions.com.

Do You Know Elbis? DWAP Productions knows Elbis; an online comic by Magnificent Creatures co-founder, Mulele Jarvis. Before you go and check out Elbis, we just want to “warn” you that it is Manga-style so read the pages from right to left. That having been said, Elbis will also be printed Manga style which will be the first book like this from DWAP Productions.

Mulele has been working with and around DWAP Productions for several years now including Caffeine Dreams 02 & 04, Butterfly Industrial and Hunting Buffalo on MagnificentCreatures.com which he co-founded with dale of DWAP Productions as well as his other works outside DWAP Productions:  Elbis, Weird Crime Theater, and Mindgator. Elbis has been online for a while now but DWAP Productions just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it in print so this September, we’ll be taking it to print with an all new cover and other fun, never before seen materials.

As it should be, both DWAP Productions and Mulele are excited about seeing Elbis go to print and we’ve been anxiously editing and drawing away. We are particularly excited that it will be printed in time for the full list of shows where DWAP Productions will be appearing between now and the end of the year. Hoping that this works out, dale @ DWAP Productions has been poking around Mulele’s other work out side of his company and maybe we can trick Mulele into letting us print something else? You know, Mindgator has never seen real, serious print.

Oh, and don’t forget to go and check out Mulele’s Redux Shop!  Go buy stuff - it’s good for the economy.

Elbis Coming to Print Via DWAP Productions

At Wondercon 2011, I purchased two small drawings by Iva Sasheva, based on her “The Beautiful Future” project with Dale Wilson. I was attracted to the drawings’ charming “art deco” style, which conveys a sense of twentieth-century optimism - a fascination with speed, a desire to break through space. Afterwards I discovered the comic and was hugely impressed by it. The plot is simple: somebody in a lovely retro car, bored with the decaying capitalist world, ventures into the cosmos, which turns out to be filled with watchful eyes, fish-like giant predators and mysterious planetary bodies. The comic made me think me of many things, primarily of mid-century provenance - not only space-age design, but also weird surrealist movies (like Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan, which also had improbable skies covered with eyes) and psychedelic rock with its impulse towards nirvana. I am actually making a music mix dedicated to “The Beautiful Future.” Dale said that the project was inspired by stoner/doom metal, but for me, the artwork’s luminous colors make me think of something more, for lack of a better word, “upbeat,” like Boredoms or Jesu. Off I go to make my mix!!

The Beautiful Future - cover

Posted by J.