February Recap – Cafe sketches, zigonnage, second-hand everything

Hello everyone! February brought with it the end of most pandemic restrictions over here. Dinners with friends and family happened, we started drawing in cafés again (it sounds more pretentious than it is) and I feel generally good! If winter could end somewhere in the next century, it’d be very swell.

As I’m writing this, Utown is about to be shipped to my publisher for review. I spent the month tweaking wonky artwork, fixing faces and changing bits of dialogues here and there. And adding a third shade of halftone because I’m a dummy who can’t let go until the end apparently! One of my favorite Quebecism is the verb “zigonner“, which means to tweak and waste time doing a menial task. Let me tell you that I’m zigonning the hell out of that book right now. Announcement! Utown (in French) is gonna drop somewhere early/mid May, just in time for this year’s FBDM/MCAF. I am losing my goddamn mind with excitement, I cannot wait to hold that book in my hands and promote the shit out of it. Now if I could just decide on a cover…!

With Utown out taking less and less space in my schedule, I started drawing for myself more. A trip to a local thrift store prompted me to draw last fall’s Outfit of the Day lineup, just like the one I did in summer. I find that drawing these is very fulfilling exercise and it always makes me feel better about myself. The power of art, amirite?

I’m almost done ripping my awkward, indie-sleaze-ish CD collection and doing so made me realize there are a lot of forgotten bands I still really, really enjoy listening to. One Saturday afternoon, I went to one of the few surviving used music/book store on the Plateau and spent an hour browsing for the fun of it. I know I sound like a raging nostalgic (I’m not the only one), but I couldn’t afford to shop at HMV for new releases until well into my college years so second-hand shops were where I built a resemblance of musical culture. Plus, with what went down with Spotify over the last few weeks, owning my music feels I dunno… right. Plus, they look dope.

So with that, January III -I mean, March- is here. Here’s what got me excited during January II, The Revenge – I mean, February.

Reading: Karl Kershl’s Abominable Charles Christopher, all three issues. It’s my first time reading them cover to cover in 2-3 sittings and what a treat.
Watching:
– Why do we Care if Movies are “Realistic”, an 11-minutes essay by Patrick Willem that kinda blew my mind. I started thinking about my work on the whole realist/formalist spectrum and I had a moment. He also thinks Marvel movies look like shit, and yeah, can’t disagree.
– Cartoonist Kayfabe’s Print Magazine episode, in which the guys go over the super niche, 1988 special edition of the magazine, entirely devoted to comic books. As someone who used to pour over graphic design magazines, this episode was pure delight. The ads!
Listening: Not just old stuff, I swear! Gravity Licker by Clear Capsule. Gotta love a band that makes up their own sub-sub-sub genres on Bandcamp *rolls eyes*. Montreal’s own tragic romantic figures The Dears are still Very Good. A comprehensive guide to King Gizzard’s discography made me 1. Like them more 2. Fear them more.

Cool art, bro: Libby. Cute cozy art! Artists need to get proper portfolio/gallery pages for chrissake’s./rant