Preview pages (and a contest!) from the forthcoming graphic novel Part-Time Dog, from Tom Seltzer, principal of Seltzer Studio Graphics.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Daily News Features Not-So-Daily Dog
Just a quick note: Today's New York Daily News features an interview with me on Part-Time Dog.
If you want to fight the trend of declining newspaper circulation and buy the paper, you will be treated(?) to a photo of me holding up a sketch of Cuba, a lovely Havanese, on page 13. That we have approximately the same hair is mere coincidence.
Thanks for supporting this project so far. I received my first new dog photo submission at 8:45 this morning, so if you have a dog photo you want to send in, the sooner the better, please.
Saturday morning was not fun. It was rainy again, so the kid and I stayed inside and watched Sesame Street DVDs. But the dad was there too. He sat down on his chair and told me imperiously, “Dog, go fetch the paper.” I didn’t move. “Dog, don’t you know how to fetch?” I’m two chapters away from my PhD, from an Ivy, for God’s sake. I’ve completely refuted the idea that Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit” was propaedeutic to philosophy instead of an exercise in it. Of course I know how to fetch.
So I got him his damn paper, but I gave him a look. Baleful. A baleful look. I hope he’s ashamed for lowering himself like that.
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Fantastic news! TAMA Gallery in New York's TriBeCa has offered to host an exhibit of original art from Part-Time Dog. The lovely and extremely discerning Lilia Villanueva will be curating the show, which should open in Mid-December.
I haven't decided how this will affect the art contest, but here are my preliminary thoughts: I'm going to have a cut-off for new entrants by December 1. The winners will be announced at the show's opening, but the artwork will be held until after the show is closed. Seem fair?
None of this will affect my need for more dog pictures, because I'll keep drawing new ones even after the show is up. (I have to finish this thing, nu?)
Speaking of which, this week's dog is Pearl, sent in by Madeliene Taylor. Madeleine found Pearl injured on the streets of Baltimore and she and her husband adopted her. Pearl soon recovered enough to model for high-end fashion magazines. (Really.) Pearl's story is of course close to my heart because her story so closely mirrors my own. Except for the generalities and particulars.
More big, big news about Part-Time Dog very soon, but it's so good that I don't want to curse it. Prepare yourself for an electronic kvell very soon.
More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.
There was a really cute girl in the park yesterday and she came over to coo at the kid. “Arf,” I said. The kids’ mom mumbled, “He’s being my boy’s dog.”
“Confidentially,” I told her,“I’m a talking dog.”
That girl couldn’t get out of there fast enough. The kid’s mom looked mortified. But I don’t get it: who wouldn’t be impressed with a talking dog?
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I once had a drawing instructor who told me that anytime you cropped a woman's head out of a drawing, it was a sign of incipient misogyny. I really couldn't argue the case at the time, because I was 13 and she had used two very hard words. I apologized reflexively - a practice that has served me well - but after a brief pause for consideration of two and a half decades, I believe I'd like to change my plea to not guilty.
Sometimes figures just spill off of the page as you draw them. Sometimes gesture trumps everything else. And sometimes drawing the face is beside the point, as is the case in this week's drawing.
Obviously the woman rushing away thinks our hero is some kind of weirdo. This might make for a funny picture, but I think funnier is the fact that our hero is genuinely confused by her reaction, an idea underscored by the mother's embarrassment. (The kid looks confused too, but that's just the way some kids look. If they're not giggling, crying or about to cry, they look confused. Some adults too, come to think of it.)
In any case, throw in the “this guy is a weirdo” face into this already ongepotchtik arrangement and it's like topping the joke with a rimshot. At least that's how I figured it. If anyone disagrees strongly, I'll apologize reflexively.
This week's dog is a lovely Havanese, appropriately named Cuba, sent in by Bob, who runs DPFamily, a New York-based social networking site for dogs. For info, send a line to cuba@chelseacommons.com. Thanks, Bob!
More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.
That day at the park the kid and I were tearing it up. He’s finally got the hang of throwing the stick, and I’ve gotten to like the taste of bark. He clapped his hands when I brought it back to him the first time and said, “Good dog!”
I AM a good dog!
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Last week's entry - an innocent picture of a knees-bent confrontation - apparently raised eyebrows, temperature, hackles. The picture a few week's back of our hero inserting his proboscis directly into a canine's hindquarters was downloaded by more than a few as a screensaver. I offer this comparison as a simple fact, without comment. Or judgment. No judgment at all.
This week's entry should raise no objections, except from me. My beloved Holbein square-bound sketchbooks have disappeared from the shelves, and this drawing was done on different paper. Artists, like baseball players, become extremely superstitious about their equipment. If you're on a streak, you don't change nothing,
your paper, your pencil, your socks. But I think this picture looks about the same as last week's, so maybe I've been fooling myself all along. Or maybe it's the continuity in my socks that has salvaged this painful transition.
This week's dog is Jimmy, as sent by the lovely and talented Nissa Blocher. Thanks, Nissa!
One last note: more major-league publicity for Part-Time Dog is coming, although I will be obli
que and mysterious and not mention what it is. BUT I will beg and plead you all to please take a little time and send some emails, post some comments and forward on the NSDD to your loved ones because that would be oh so very helpful. Also, I think this project has now generated enough momentum to be attractive to a publisher, so if any of you know anyone I should talk to or you happen to be the shadowy but benevolent head of a large publishing conglomerate yourself, this would be the time to mention it.
More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.
