trust in me

I have started on a new project and it is going to be super duper awesome.

Now, I realize that I make a lot of empty promises here (where are those other invertebrates I asked you to wait for?) and I do change my mind a lot. 

This morning, for example, I decided it was my life's ambition to become the lead singer in a Faith No More cover band. Scarcely a few hours later, I'm already beginning to have my doubts about that.

But I am really really into this project and I WILL see it through. Aside from the drawing above, I am also in the middle of some exciting roughs. Included here, even though they are ugly, illegible and riddled with cliches, because this is how all of my comics begin and it is my favorite part of the whole process.

You can't rightly call it art, and it's not really storytelling either because it doesn't make any sense. 

But it's oddly exhilarating to do - ad-libbing roughs, to me, is the part where the story feels like it's most alive.

My next task is to make it a whole lot better, and figure out how to make it come alive for you.

Man, I love cartooning.

I think I'll go draw worms

There has been altogether too much Loser and not enough Creepy around here lately. My apologies. 

Here are some Earthworm-inspired drawings, with more invertebrates (and better scans!) to come.

Happy belated Halloween.

Trashed

Dead Air got its first random review! This person totally hated it. 

But while reading the review resulted in a shitty day for yours truly, it does mean that someone bought my comics, took the time to read and think about them, composed a review and was even thoughtful enough to post cover images and a link to this here blog. I'm not sure why anyone would follow that link to pick up a comic that has been deemed pure and utter waste-of-time crap, but I kind of appreciate it anyway.

It's Done It's Done It's Done

It's...sorta done. Dead Air #2 is now in printed form and awaiting SPX fun. I made it really small this time - the sort of comic you could hide inside of another comic book and read in secret. 

It means a lot to me to have finished another issue...circumstances surrounding this particular project made working on it feel like having my face shoved repeatedly into a toilet bowl filled with all my faults and failures, only the person doing the shoving is also me.   

And hopefully it is also fun to read! It should be available soon at www.iknowjoekimpel.com or it could be yours for a smile if we cross paths and I have a copy handy. 

thanks to Lauren O'Connell for design help!

Oh yeah, also those pages from the last post ended up in the comic after all. Now you can consider them a preview?

Pages that will NOT be in Dead Air #2

At present: Dead Air #2 is a fucking mess, pardon my french. 

It's time for some delicate surgery.

In the interests of providing a coherent narrative and not wasting your time with repetitive filler, a whole bunch of it has to go. 

Join me in bidding a fond, fatal farewell to pages 6 and 7, which offer nothing whatsoever to the story except a glimpse of what everybody's hair used to look like:

Still Partying

but you don't have to pretend with me anymore. 

Thanks to everyone who did, though - it's nearly done!

And by "nearly" I mean NEVER.

Please Come to My Imaginary Party

invitation courtesy of Brent Miller                                                                                             

I'm having a party, by which I mean I'm drawing a party. 

And I have reached a special level of pathetic where I'm going to pretend that I am actually at said party. There will be a keg and live music in the living room, courtesy of Midnight Carnival ("I didn't think up the name"). 

I will be hiding behind the horrible plaid couch with a handle of Jim Beam and a sketch pad. Be warned: the girls next door were invited and might show up.

Also be warned: at the rate I've been drawing lately this party might be going on for the rest of September. I fully expect to be passed out on the stoop surrounded by half empty bottles and cigarette butts by the end. 

In any case, I invite you to join me in my sad charade. Feel free to immerse yourselves in the rough pages I will be working from - taste the cheap beer, smell the sweat, frown at the selection of music...

Then if you want to take it even further and leave me comments as if we were actually at this party, I will totally make you a character and put you in the finished pages.