Gone Like the Giant Sloth...

Well, it's official... I'm out of episodes one and two... I mailed off the last few copies today. But don't despair: The third episode is coming together quite well and should be ready for public viewing in the next few days. If you are interested in having a copy sent your way, just drop me an email and let me know where you want it delivered!

phantomconversation@yahoo.com

And now I'm off to rescue a kitten from a kite eating tree!!!

Up up and AWAY!!!

The cover of episode two... Starring Klaus, Klaus, Klaus, and Klaus!!! 

Collage is fun...

Ludwig Wittgenstein was a brilliant logician-philosopher. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is a wicked, brutal, hilarious comic by Jhonen Vasquez (who you might remember from his animated show Invader Zim.) To me, Wittgenstein always seemed to have this dangerous look in his eye, so the marriage of Luddy's head and Johnny's body isn't that much of a stretch in my eyes... Add a little ransome-note style lettering and the image is complete.

Page Three of Episode Two... 

Children Exploited for Labour Purposes!!!!

I tricked my kids into providing the centerfold for this episode. The first image, drawn in crayon, is by my daughter Frankie (12 years old) and is sweet and colourful (with Ellie's picture upside-down at the top.) Frankie is into animals, has a pro-education message, and an interesting slogun at the bottom of her picture: "I like to act upon what I draw." Great stuff.

The next image shows my 8 year old's picture right-side-up (while Frankie has been flipped over... but you'll probably notice this as soon as you see the picture.) Ellie is into minimalism. Black ink; interesting cartoon images; a ghostly, partial door; a cigarette floating off the ground (she once told me that this means the cigarette has been dropped and is falling towards the ground); and the enigmatic vocalization "Hey you" coming from the character nearest the cigarette. Also a great picture.

What I think I like most about this centerfold is that the Phantom Conversation is now a family project. (And I didn't have to come up with anything MYSELF for these two pages! I should take advantage of kid labour more often!!!)

Frankie's right-side-up... 

Ellie's right-side-up... 

Wait... Let me explain...

The back cover of this episode consists of two images on colour newsprint. The first image is of a character I drew several years ago, "Moon Man," (inspired by a character from the Clive Barker movie Nightbreed...) retouched with a felt pen (because the original drawing is very old and the print out of the scan was lighter than I thought a standard photocopier could accurately pick up.) The bottom image is a photo of a fire hydrant that I took this summer while walking with my kids. Inspired by the touch up of Moon Man, I thought it might be fun to touch up the hydrant, too... I think it looks pretty cool... (Almost like a Ralph Bakshi image.)

This whole "touching up" thing has been an interesting experiment for me. I'll probably try it again in the next episode.

The back cover of episode two... IN COLOUR! 

Work has begun on the second thingy...

I got to work about an hour early today and so I sat around... Then, with about twenty or thirty minutes until my shift was supposed to start, one of my coworkers asked me why I didn't start working on the next Phantom Conversation episode...

So I did... I only got about three pages done, but that's better than not doing anything at all... And I'm very happy with the progress so far. Hopefully you humans out there will think the second thingy is at least as fun as the first... (And maybe my wife will like this one...)

Look forward to some glimpses in the near future...

First Episode Complete...

I completed the first episode (I'll talk about why I don't want to call it an issue in a second) a few days ago and finally took it to a print shop yesterday and made copies. The outer "cover" was printed on white paper, the inner page (with the centerfold picture... you'll see it below) was copied on pink paper.

Originally, I was going to copy all of the text from the zine and retype it here in the blog, but I've decided that it would be fun to keep the two formats unique (or different from each other at least.) So, I'm going to write different things in the blog and leave the materials in the printed version just for people who get their hands on it...

If you want a paper copy, and who wouldn't, just email me your address, or your work address or a P.O. box if you're afraid I'll find you, and I'll send you one. I'd love to TRADE zines if you're into that as well; just send me an email and let me know that's what you want to do...

Here's the email address: phantomconversation@yahoo.com

Now, why don't I want to call this the first "issue" of my "magazine?" Because I think of these as art objects more than magazines. I'm an English major (just finished my bachelor's degree at Washington State University at Vancouver and I'm heading to Portland State University for post-bac studies, until I can get into the graduate program,) and I KNOW this project is not going to be literary quality writing. It's more of an exercise in fleeting emotion and stolen imagery (although I have plenty of photographs and scans of my own artwork, it's somehow more exciting to "borrow" pictures from other sources... I'm going to call it "collage" and "visual juxtapositioning for satirical purposes" to avoid any copyright infringement issues... That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!) And thus, because I'm thinking of these little book-things as art objects, and not magazines, I don't think they should be called issues. I'm not issuing a new edition, I'm performing another episode of this paper happening. (For more on "happenings" I suggest looking into Ray Johnson and Fluxus.) Umm... Yeah...

More Ray Johnson sites, because I love Ray (as a concept... as a person, he is no longer around to have an opinion on...)

Cracker Jack Kid's Ray Johnson Gallery
a documentary about Ray: How to Draw a Bunny
and another great collection or Ray art

The cover for the first episode (minus the skull face I drew on the disco-ball and the slogan at the bottom of the cover below this image which reads: "A Not-For-Prophet Production." I might have inadvertantly stolen that from somewhere, now that I think about it... But that's ok. Nothing wrong with stealing, right? Two of the people I work with in the writing center at WSU Vancouver thought that the slogun was particularly funny... Actually, they liked the whole thing... unlike my wife... who hates me...) 

No laundry baskets were harmed in the photographing of this picture... We waited until after taking the picture to harm the basket. 

The centerfold for episode one. This picture looks so much better in colour... 

I love that floor! They used to have a lighted floor like that one at The City Club in Portland, OR... But, the club was eventually shut down by uncool people who don't like when other's have a good time. 

Do I really like disco?

Yes... Yes, I love disco. I'm not a friend of things like "The Hustle" because I think that is basically elevator music disguised as disco, but I do love electronic dance music. Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" and "Male Stripper" by Man 2 Man and Klaus Nomi's "ICUROK" are all excellent cuts. I love blurping synthesizers and hypnotic rhythms and robot voices and all those things that underground dance music is all about.

I am NOT a fan of practiced, choreographed, repetitive (unless it's meant as a protest) dances like the kind people did in Saturday Night Fever. For me, dancing is a spontaneous activity which is all about the moment, not something that can be planned and practiced in advance...

What are are these things I'm seeing on the back cover???

The picture I used for the back cover of this "episode" is from a photo shoot that a friend and I did one night in the living room of my house. I went down into my basement and he went up into the loft of his garage and we found our favorite new-wavish record albums, spread them out all over the floor, then snapped a whole roll of film of the resulting record-collage... It was awesome...

Here in this shot, we see Black Randy and the Metro Squad's "Pass the Dust, I Think I'm Bowie" rather prominently, and a Visible Target's e.p. right above that. You've also got some Frankie Goes to Hollywood fists, the top of the skull from a Misfits hits, a bit of Split Enz's "Dizrhythmia," and a couple of stars from the bottom of a Psychedelic Furs cover...

I love records... I get all teary-eyed just thinking about it... (And maybe, that's sad. But, really, I don't care at all...)

Back cover (page 8) of #1 

On the first day, there was lethargy... and too much sugar...

I've decided to make a zine... Cuz I think I can... and I want to be like a freight-train...

Here is an email address withwhich humans can complain to me about how much my zine sucks and how I stole their pictures and ideas and how I am going to lose all of my childrens' lunch moneys in court:

phantomconversation@yahoo.com

Cuz, cuzz, cuzzzzzzz....