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CITY LIGHTS: Seth at Drawn & Quarterly

One evening in the early days of November, a group of 50 or so admirers crowded into a small bookstore on Bernard street, quickly occupying its 30 or so chairs, filling up its aisles and then finally sitting on the floor when no more room could be found. The shop, The Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, is perhaps the last outpost of indie high culture that stands on guard along the northern border of Montreal’s Mile End before that neighbourhood, known for it’s Sesame-esque street life and thriving hipster population, extends into the decidedly un-gentrified Siberia of Parc Ex, where there are presumably no complete Peanuts anthologies in the window displays, no complete box sets of eclectic McSweeney’s postcards to purchase, and no 2ft high “Sof Boy” figurines that stare up at you like the most perfect embodiment of pure wonder and glee. The audience was an alchemy of those born after the year 1980, and those born in some mysterious time period prior to that, who looked remarkably similar to the 80’s group in dress though disturbingly altered somehow. They gathered there to sit at the heels of (or kneel in some cases) the cartoonist Seth.

Seth, whose comics and illustrations may be familiar to readers of The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine, is also the creator of many of his own comic books, or “graphic novels” (a term he despises for its inherent discrimination against the word “comics,” which, he suspects, is a word that certain audiences still find distasteful). His talk was, not unlike his comics, a series of short stories told in succession, the ending of each he would punctuate with the nostalgic “bing” of a clerk’s desk bell. This was, in his words, “a cheap device” that he had “grown attached to.” The  stories were true life accounts from his own biography. Seth believes that comics are a medium best suited for auto-biography, and were presented more or less in chronological order. They also had nothing whatsoever to do with the slide show being presented alongside them (although here, it turned out, there was to be more then one instance of uncanny alignment of words and imagery. “So that’s why I draw things like hockey players even though I haven’t watch a game in 30 years” remarked the artist, just as a Montreal Canadian flashed a semi-toothed smile on screen).

Later, when asked by a member of the audience about the importance of the the past as a theme in his work, Seth remarked: “The question is, why am I so concerned with the past…” (the event was being filmed be the National film board, so Seth had to repeat all the questions addressed to him first, before answering them). Then to answer: “I feel that the past is inherently sad, because as soon as any moment happens, it’s gone forever, never to return.” Because of the subject matter of his work, his pallet of sepia tones, his style of brush stroke,  his daily implementation of vintage tweeds and brill cream, and the model 1940s town he constructed in his basement, Seth is sometimes referred to as a nostalgist, which is, as it rather cruelly turns out, yet another term which makes him bristle. Perhaps though, it is not that his audience is constantly searching for new ways in which to secretly derive his work, but instead that Seth is in fact an expert in capturing the ephemeral moment: that through his stories and pages of worlds, loves, and objects long-vanished, he is sharing with us the beauty of things to which we too have grown attached.

One of the funniest stories Seth told also happened to be one of the shortest. It was about a conversation that he once had with fellow cartoonist Chris Ware while the two were in Paris–a fact, it turned out, which was apropos of nothing. Seth: “I said to Chris, ‘Isn’t it such a shame that you’re only given so much talent, and so much wisdom in life, and that no mater how hard you try you can never make yourself any smarter or more talented?’ And Chris Ware, who is very talented, and very smart, just looked at me and said, ‘What are you talking about? Of course you can.’”  Bing!

THE CURRENT SEASON: Remembrance Day

To honour this November 11th, I’ve decided to create an illustration for the occasion. — Throughout the day, I posted the work in its progress: drawing, inking and colouring. Above is the finished piece, and below you can see it in its previous stages.

— Thanks to those of you who have commented here and on facebook.

EXTRA EXTRA: It’s a Wonderful Life — 3 Covers hit the stand

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Three weeks ago I received a call from Toronto Life magazine, asking me if I could create three, yes three, covers for their upcoming issue. — How it works is, you have you’re “cover cover” that’s the one everyone sees when they first look at the magazine, and then underneath that you have your second cover, and underneath that a third. And the idea was that I could use these covers to create a three part story, which features a day in the life of some creative Torontonians — “Sounds terrific.” I said, “that sort of thing is right up my alley.” — “Great,” they said. “But there’s just one thing. We need it in exactly five days.”

Then if my life were a movie, Journey’s “Ask the Lonely” would have kicked in, and there would have been a montage scene which condensed 120 hours of drawing, colouring and dripping takeout food on my keyboard, into one moment of triumph; in which I conquer my demons, rise to the challenge, and kick some major illustration ass. — But in reality, I had to play that song again and again, and eventually got sick of it on the third day. The rest though, all happened exactly like that. — I hope you enjoy.

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PORTRAIT RADIO: Boo Are You?

November 5th can be scary too! – Just because Halloween was officially over days ago and now your pumpkin is silently rotting on your porch, do not allow yourself to give into the notion that the season for scares is over. — This Halloween episode promises to be worth the wait. So much so that we are willing to wager that if you allow yourself to sit back and enjoy the entire thing, you will actually forget that you are listening to your friend’s amateur pod cast, and feel as though you’re not wasting your time. And there is nothing scary about that.

CLICK  ANYWHERE  ABOVE  TO  PLAY

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AN ARTIST AT LARGE: “City Scape” Group Show Opens in London UK

Good News Everyone, I’m in this group show with Famous People. — Curated by Dalphine Ettingers, The LAVA Collective has put together a group show of predominantly North American origin, focusing on street art and urban culture. Big names like Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Dalek and Skullphone vie for attention with an exciting selection of emerging artists. Read more…

I’ll have 8 original drawings in the show, including these two below…

Pop Montreal 09, “Audience” & “Building” Ink and White Paint on Paper, 28″ X 18″

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DEPT OF QUEBEC CINEMA: “Lacrymal”

Poster for a Short Film

This is a poster I recently designed for “Lacrymal”, a short film by Montreal artists Xavier Hamel and Pierre-Alexandre Girard.

For those without their French anatomy books handy, lacrymal, is the French word for a glad in the body that produces what we call tears; and tears feature heavily in this story. The film, three minutes in length, follows the story of a girl who is always crying; a curse it seems, but a unique gift as well it turns out.

Lacrymal is currently in post production, and should arrive at Festivals next year.

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PORTRAIT RADIO: An Appeal to the Masses

Portrait Radio profiles people and stories, casually steals from NPR’s “This American Life” and does a not-so-bad a job of it.

Right now we are in the midst of putting together our upcoming episode for Halloween, an episode we are calling “BOO, are you?’ — And in thinking about scary stories that we might bring you for this season, it got us thinking about all of those classic Halloween characters that always seem to come back to life this time of year. Characters like the Vampire, the Witch, the Werewolf, Frankenstein. It got us thinking, what if we could find actual people who at one time or another found themselves or someone they knew, actually embodying some of the traits and behaviors of these classic characters? Not literally of course, but metaphorically. After all, aren’t these characters just archetypes of our own all-too-human qualities, perhaps the ones that we’re most afraid of?

What if for instance, there was someone out there who went around using people; who fed on the energy of others and then discarded them? Someone not unlike a “Man-pire”, say.  Or what if there was another person who found themselves walking through life in a trance, devoid of human emotion and feeling, totally alienated from the world of the living, kind of like a Zombie? Or what if there was yet another person, this time one who felt alive, but suffered because it seemed like the world wasn’t seeing them, like it chose not to see them, as if he or she didn’t even exist?; kind of like, a Ghost.

— Well, it is in the interest of perusing that idea, that we are now asking for your help — yes, your help, — in bring us these stories to us.  We want to know if you or someone you know has a story about a time when it felt like they were being a Ghost, or a Werewolf, or a Dr. Jekyll character, or maybe even a total Witch. If you would like to help us and maybe even be interviewed yourself, then please get in touch. Send us a message through facebook or through the website. There are only two weeks left until Halloween so there is no time to waste. And if you live far away and you’re out of Montreal, this is not a problem, we can (apparently) interview you through Skype and would love to talk to you. Thanks.

AN ARTIST AT LARGE: Puce POP! — Thanks for your Support

— Thanks so much to everyone who came out to see and buy some posters. Your support is really appriciated and it was great to get the chance to speak with so many of you.  — Thanks!

PORTRAIT RADIO: The Graycale Rainbow

Listen and Learn: Host Jack Dylan shamelessly rips off NPR’s “This American Life” and does a not-so-bad a job of it. CLICK THE IMAGE TO PLAY.

In this episode I talk to Jim Holyoak and Matt Shane, two artist who created a project where for one month they would live, eat and sleep, inside of an art gallery. The gallery’s walls were cover floor to ceiling in paper and brushes and inks set up in the middle of the room.  The final touch: The public, anyone who wanted to at all, could come in, pick up a brush and join them. — Also featured in this episode, music by Montreal’s Shortpants Romance and Think About Life.

– FINISSAGE: Fri 02/10/09at 5pm as part of Art Pop

– Shortpants Romance: Thur 01/10/09 at 3pm at Barfly as part of Pop

PORTRAIT RADIO: “Posterer” Life on The Streets

Talk POP! - Host Jack Dylan shamelessly rips off NPR’s “This American Life” and does a not-so-bad a job of it. Click the image to play.

In this episode we talk to a man who’s name cannot be revealed because the job he does is illegal. — That job, “Poster-er”: As in the person who actually goes around and puts up all of the posters on street poles for so many of the music show here in Montreal. For five years now he has been doing this job and over the course of that time he has put up literally thousands of posters and collected as many stories. Life on the streets has forced him up against the police, the cold, rival posterers, and even the homeless at times. This story is one of the funnest and truly unique shows we have even brought to you, we hope you enjoy it.