linkdump — Notes — ANDREWDRILON.COM

All right! We've made it to the end of the year, and I've got a few notes.

2022 is the year that I lost one of my best friends, which has kind of informed everything I'm doing now. I'm coping with the loss by pouring all my love into the work. It's been rough...I got hacked. I got injured. It's been a struggle. Despite it all, I'm grateful to have gotten a bunch of good stuff done which I'm proud of.

SECRET HEART ATTACK

By far the accomplishment I'm proudest of for 2022 is the release of Secret Heart Attack #1. This comic has been in gestation in various versions since before COVID, and to have a satisfying 22 pages of it out in the wld makes me so excited that this story is finally seeing the light of day.

It hasn't been easy -- the first seven months of the year were pretty much dominated by this heavy lift. I had to use all my available free time to get pages moving forward, to the detriment of other things like YouTube and socials. Still, it felt good to finally start putting comics first in my life.

The plan is to do 3 issues of this, with the second already in production. The story may grow in the telling. If it does, we'll probably add an extra issue, but it's a finite story with a real gut-punch ending that I'm aiming for, so if all goes well, I'll have enough material for a full book by 2024.

I self-published the book in October and almost sold out of the first print run of 200 copies. I set up a web store specifically for that, hoofed it to various stores in NYC to get it stocked on their shelves and hand-shipped every copy ordered online. It's been a huge learning experience and really makes me appreciate just how much work a publisher does.

Speaking of publishers...

SHAZAM!

DC Comics reached out to me this year. I still can't believe it. There's a single-page sequence in SECRET HEART ATTACK where I talk about the first comic I ever remember reading (CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS) and how I got swept up in this crazy universe of superheroes without knowing who any of them were; a formative moment which triggered a lifelong love of comics.

I got the email shortly after I finished drawing that page. Guys, the editor literally titled the email "DC Comics" as if to underline things. What a rush! I was literally screaming with joy.

I've been tapped to pencil, ink and color a short story for their upcoming anthology special, SHAZAMILY MATTERS. It's a tie-in to the upcoming SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS summer movie, and story is by veteran comics writer Josh Trujillo and actor Ross Butler.

I've already finished illustrating the story and I'm so proud of the pages. It's my first mainstream professional gig and I poured my heart and soul into it. More on this when it comes out in February, and fingers crossed for more! I feel like I've been baptized a professional comics artist finally! Now to keep up the momentum and hopefully build a career! We’ll see!

Meanwhile, in Manhattan:

WE FANCY

My short comic, THE FRAGILE MANSION OF LOVE was selected by curator Eric Shiner for the landmark 2022 exhibition at The Art Students League of New York, titled WE FANCY. The show ran from October to November and was a spotlight on LGBTQIA+ artists at the League through the years, featuring everything from oil paintings to sculptures to comics. I think I was the youngest artist on their roster.

It was such a huge honor to be in the same show with fine arts greats like Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Deb Kass, David Marchi, Paul Cadmus and more! And it was all the more sweeter because it featured the kind of work I'm most devoted to making--comics!

If you want to read the full 5-page comic (a supernatural romance set in 15th century Philippines), the whole thing is free to read HERE.

CHARACTER DESIGN 101

This is also the year that I started honing my teaching skills. Back in the summer, the fine folks over at PI Art Center offered me a gig teaching Character Design at their school in Chelsea, Manhattan. After mulling it over with much anxiety, I accepted, and I couldn't be happier with the decision.

There's nothing quite as fulfilling as seeing a student improve in their art week after week, and I look forward to getting better as a teacher as the semesters go by. Each class is me putting together a ton of research and experience and trying to articulate it in the best way possible for my students. I feel like I’m learning more than they are! The first few weeks were a bit clumsy but I think I found my footing this past month, so I’m just gonna keep at it!

THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF NEW YORK

My alma mater, my school of schools, my favorite place in the world...ah, what can I say? I'm so grateful I get to work at a place that I love so much. This year I got promoted twice--from Content Specialist to Marketing Coordinator and now Content Producer. It's all under the Marketing Department, where I get to exercise my skills at copy writing, illustration, photography, production and video editing.

I don't know if I'll ever find a day job as harmonious to my goals as this. I feel so valued at this place and thankful I get to return the favor by really showing it off to the world. My mission for the year is to help broaden the League's audience and spotlight all the wonderful work being done in the building, especially by all these underrated and unknown artists. I want to bring all that beauty into the light!

COMICBOOKER

Last but not least...YouTube! Comicbooker had a decent year as I experimented with livestreams and shorts. I didn't upload as many regular videos this year due to my focus on Secret Heart Attack, but we still grew by 1,500 subscribers. I'm going to try and double that in 2023! Plans are afoot (more on this shortly.)

This post has gotten really long, but if you're reading this, THANK YOU for joining me on this ride. We made it! 2022 is done! See you in the new year! 😁

INSTAVERTED

Instagram Apocalypse Averted! I got it back! Woo-hoo!

After all that drama (I got hacked, I reported it, got my account back then suddenly deactivated due to all the reports during the hack)—I am back on my proper Instagram, andrewdrilon. If you don’t follow me there yet, I urge you to, as it’s where I’m most active and up-to-date in terms of posts.

Not that it’s been all that active lately, as I’ve been knee-deep in finishing a bunch of comics projects. But expect the pace to pick back up around October. In the meantime, here are a few links to dive into:

INTUITED

Interconnected talks about cricket of all things to propose a different approach to your work: "Don’t keep your eye on the ball but prime your intuition." To whit:

"This seems like a small twist in framing but actually I find the difference quite freeing: I can see now that I’m no longer meant to be right with my sketches. I’m not supposed to be straight to the point. What I’m doing is scouting the field; I’m loading up my unconscious with everything it needs to make the right choice later, intuitively."

IMMERSED

Osama Shehzad talks about how desi wedding dances and authenticity, citing the trending "Quick Style" shadi dance video as well as the recent Ms. Marvel:

"Desi weddings are portrayed in popular culture, as seen on Amazon's Made in Heaven and Netflix's The Big Day, as lavish multi-day affairs — such weddings do happen but are exclusively for the absurdly rich. For most desi people, the weddings are modest affairs — often each wedding looks identical to the other. In the US, that means that there is the same venue that every desi wedding in that city happens at, and the same local desi restaurant catering food. These weddings and their decors are nothing to show off on Instagram — and that is what we see in the background of the Quick Style video...It is the wedding that most of us have attended, and the wedding that most of us will probably have. "

Here’s that trending video, in case you just want to be mesmerized:

IDEATED

An appreciation article on a ten-year-old tweet:

"Over the past 10 years, “Everything happens so much” has been turned into a shrine and a site of pilgrimage for those who spend their lives in front of a computer. When the news is not just bad but overwhelming, people search out “Everything happens so much” and reply to it or repost it to their feeds, often with a note like “now more than ever” or “the eternal mood.” These messages acknowledge what feels like ancient wisdom: The absolute best we can say about this moment in time is that everything is happening, as it always has and always will, so much."

Which led to this gem of a process bit:

"Bakkila told The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean that he couldn’t remember exactly where his most famous tweet had come from, but thought the original context might have been, “Everything happens so much faster when you’re retired.” In chopping that sentence in half, Orlean noted, Bakkila had made it koan-like. “I was trying to wrest wisdom from these wisdomless piles of information,” he agreed."

Which is a little meta in this post full of links to other posts, but you get the point. Everything is grist for the mill. The mill has to cut things down to make them useful, a la William Burroughs' cut-up technique or just plain old sampling.

INTERRUPTED

And with that, I must go. Labor Day weekend is over, and I have a lot of work to jump on at my day job. But I’m also super-excited for tonight as I finally get to see my favorite writer, Grant Morrison, in the flesh! They’re in NYC this week doing a book tour for their new novel, LUDA. Can’t wait to get a signed copy tonight and start this short week right!

Have a lovely one! All will be well! 😁