• Comic – Creativity

We’ve hosted a lot of guest filmmakers, animators, and even occasional illustrators for workshops and lectures in Juneau. One of the most regular questions I hear asked of these remarkably creative people is “Where do you get your ideas?” I feel like it’s always followed by a heartbeat, a hidden slice of disappointment, as they work through stock answers in their head.

It’s a hard question to answer, too broad and too common. It almost seems to demand a physical location, some deep, hidden well of ideas waiting to be slopped into a bucket and carted away.

But ideas don’t work that way, ideas are intangible ghosts that appear when you conjure them and often when you don’t. If you’re lucky you can remember enough of an idea’s shape to put it to good use later, pencils help.

I really enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s essay which gives a thoughtful response to the difficult question.

I think it had something to do with the use of the words like “viking” and “starfish” in their description of the project. I was already on board when Nick told me about Le Tigre, a midget in a tiger suit.

Congratulations to Nick and Jenny, I wish you many happy years ahead.

Here’s a larger version.

What bothers me most about the “Faces of Aces” commercial is that it isn’t just a corporate message speaking to the public, it’s meant to speak for the public. This is the oil industry putting on a clever mask and pretending to be a concerned citizen.

I remember the last time major players in the petroleum industry tried to rewrite tax law, they were caught bribing a good chunk of the legislature. After that, the new tax, ACES, wasn’t quite what they wanted. Never mind that they’re still raking in billions in profit, the big oil companies are standing out on the corner ringing their bells.

The oil and gas taxes are a tough balance and a far more complicated nest than I can understand. I’m just happy that the group funding the “Faces of Aces” advertisement is called “The Alliance.” Their logo is a chain. It just automatically makes them the bad guys, right?

If you need more context for this short bit of satire, please read Krestia’s article at the Anchorage Press – “For whom the bell tolls.”

If you’re interested in Alaska politics you might want to watch some of our other political satire pieces from the past few years.

• Buy Back Alaska
• Frank Murkowski – A Tribute
• Sarah Palin – Relatively Awesome
• Buy Back America
• Town vs. Valley

We all thought about this when we were kids right?

• Comic – The Ceiling

Here we go…

Just to clarify, that was John Leo, he’s doing a play in Juneau next weekend called Peg-Ass-Us. He’ll also be touring Seattle and Portland if you want to errmm.. take in the performance.

We do occasionally get crazy people coming into the office to announce things but John isn’t one of them.

The kid’s music was on loop. That birthday song was killing me, I fought it off with the sandwich song.

Sorry to end it like that.

Update – I think Dad’s going to recover, he’s in good hands and even cracked a few jokes when I saw him this morning.

Dropping bombs into a volcano? Brilliant! I’ve never been more proud to be a Nanook Alum.

It seems to be an evolving project and I can’t wait to see what comes next year. Personally, I’m rooting for more cold fire and a finale involving a giga-nanook sending the earth into the sun with a super nova inducing slap shot.

Good job Mike!!

Comics have been temporarily displaced by commercial work and an avalanche of other distractions but I’ll be back at it next week.

The above image is part of a commissioned piece I’m working on. It’s been a great project but way too time consuming. I’ll share the rest of the image once I’m finished.

This week we’re all scrambling to prepare for the JUMP Society Film Festival. Locally made short films on a sesame seed bun. Delicious!

It sucks to get parking tickets and I’ve long advocated the removal of windshield wipers as a solution. No wipers, no tickets. Right?

• Comic – Parking Tickets

I like the car I drew for this comic but it doesn’t have nearly enough rusted dents to do justice to Aaron’s jalopy.

I like the idea that if you knit a big enough sweater Mothra might appear. That’s the world I want to live in.

• Comic – The Summoning

I’m giving away the whole show, I never was good at keeping secrets. This one was an experiment in using contrasting colors to create an illusion of depth.

Far out man.