(Ed's Note: A last minute 2014 in Review, new posts about other things start tomorrow.)
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?
I’ve started using a nib to ink with again after mainly focusing on using a tech pen for the past 10 or so years. It’s one of those things that only perhaps only artists worry about, for most people it probably looks the same if I use a pen or a nib. But it does feel like a major change to me and something I’ve been working up to for the last couple of finished comics I’ve made. Every now and then I feel comfortable in my own drawing skin so to speak, which is also a new feeling for me, or should I say something I haven’t felt since I started art school, and it disappeared sometime after art school. It may only be 20-30% of the time that I get this kind of clarity of my creative direction, but it’s enough to make me feel happy about continuing to try and do the best work I can.
What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?
I read comics so sporadically these days especially with the international move we undertook this year, I didn’t have much time for reading longer comics at all. But I have enjoyed watching Pat Grant’s new comic unfold online, same goes with Dylan Horrocks.
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?
Two documentaries I really loved this year were Tim’s Vermeer, and Jodorowsky's Dune. Both films had a made a profound impression on me artistically speaking. I also follow this blog called the Discipline of Innovation, it’s mostly related to business innovation practices but I enjoy thinking about how the process of innovation happens in general, and it doesn’t take that much of a mental leap to apply the principles to an art practice.
What are you looking forward to in 2015?
I’m hoping to go to TCAF for the first time ever in May. In addition to this i want to make more comics, my biggest hurdle is that I work at such a slow pace. I’m working on a new mini comic at the moment and it makes me cringe to realize how long just a few pages take. Something is better than nothing right.
