My story is finally finished! You can check it out at Spot.Us. 4,000 words!? In its hugeness, it looks like the graphic might be breaking their site though — if you can’t get it to work, try this mirror. And let me know what you think! The project is finished, but we’re still looking for the last $70 in funding if we can get it — donations will be open through Friday.
So far I’ve raised $600 for my story about Mid-Market blight and troubles, past and future, at California crowdfunding journalism site Spot.Us. I’m humbled and amazed by the generosity of my friends and strangers — and I’m surprised by the general interest in this topic. The story will be finished in two weeks (hey Newsom, call me back!) but in the meanwhile, I’ve been posting brief updates on the Spot.Us site. My most recent one concerned this little infographic seen here.
When McSweeney’s hired me to write this story for the Panorama, they also hired graphic designer Laura Foxgrover to work up an accompanying infographic that would include my reporting on the individual empty buildings plus a map of the Mid-Market area. I’m working with Laura to update the graphic for Spot.Us and I’ll be paying her 15% of whatever I raise. This is just an unreadable preview of Laura’s most recent draft — we’ll be adding a bunch more info to the map by the time the piece is out.
For the last two months I’ve been working on a hefty 2,000 word story about Mid-Market blight in San Francisco for the McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama newspaper. Early this morning I received word that management had killed the article a few hours before the paper hits the streets. Instead of punching a wall or giving up journalism forever, I’ve decided to try the crowd-funding system at Spot.us to help this story get published after all. I have some interested parties but the extra money certainly won’t hurt; it’ll also give me the opportunity to do some more reporting and dig deeper in what has already proven to be a juicy and unique piece. I’ve already invested dozens of hours by way of city maps, planning documents, and first-person interviews, but I think there’s always more to be done. Also, this way I can include a section on how Dave Eggers himself didn’t want to take out office space on mid-Market because the neighborhood was too troubled. Meta!
I hate the idea of asking for donations, but if this story would interest you personally I would appreciate any small amount you could give. If you think it sounds boring, I don’t want your money! Spend it on some comics instead, okay?
I realize this blog has become a clearinghouse of excuses as of late, but what can I say? It’s in the works, but so are a lot of new comics and, well, you know my priorities.
Speaking of which, this coming weekend, I’ll be exhibiting at the San Francisco Zine Fest at the County Fair Building’s Hall of Flowers in the Inner Sunset. It’s completely free, besides your N-Judah fair or gas, plus the willpower to withstand the Sunset fog, and there will be 100 exhibitors, several interesting workshops and lots of cute 20 and 30 something hipsters with tattoos and expensive cheap-looking clothes. I don’t have the latter two, but I’m still hoping to move some comics (I’m even reprinting some of last year’s stuff, since I now live around the corner from a $.02 copy place). I’m also whipping up some affordably priced watercolors for the occasion, and I might even offer $5 portraits. Plus: free chocolate chip cookie with every purchase.
I think the “Zine” part of this fest is sort of misleading, as the majority of the exhibitors seem to be cartoonists, small publishers or crafters. But I won’t get snarky about my take on how worthwhile it is to make a zine in 2009 considering the love-in poster over there, plus the fact that I’ll be Xeroxing, folding, trimming and stapling more than I’d like to admit over the next few days.
SPX was sweet. The minicomic I made for it will be going up in part on Flickr over the coming days, plus I’ll even leave my apartment for a time to drop some off at the usual spots. They’re a paltry $2 each — even you can afford that in this economy. And because I like self-torture, I’m going to make a new lil’ something for APE, too, so stay tuned for some preview panels maybe.
In other news, I wrote another one of these political cartoon book dealies, this one campaign specific. The yearly book will be out in a few more weeks, and I’m writing a depressing forward on the state of political cartooning for it, so there’s lots to look forward to.
AND ALSO: I’m the new editor of Curbed SF. What-what? Yeah, about that whole leaving the apartment thing… Only to get more coffee.
After all that, I registered too late to get a table at APE. Unfortunately, the state approved my application for a temporary seller’s permit, so I still have to file a tax return after the event — which means I might as well sell something!
So I’m working on a mini about my more noteworthy Food Not Bombs experiences. This was one of them. But there will be more. (Incidentally, a brief Googling after I drew this seagull turned up some really disturbing YouTube videos of the act in progress that I refuse to link to here; I stand disgusted and corrected.)
I did this piece for the Gutenberg, a new little magazine out of the Bay Area. The colors are just for fun/learning Photoshop, though — it’ll be black and white in print.
I originally wanted to cover seed bombs, but apparently those are too mainstream now? I guess I’m out of touch with the youth culture these days.
Either way, worms are cool, too.
It appears that yesterday I was peer-pressured into getting a table for APE. Despite what this might make you think, I’m generally a pretty strong-willed person.
This being said: um, do you any of you guys know someone who might want to share a table with me? I don’t need all that real estate for just three (3!!) (knock on wood) things (unless I make the T-shirts!!*), and if there are more of us we won’t be stuck there so often and will have more opportunities for bathroom and Chris-Ware-stalking breaks.
Oh, right, plus it’s cheaper — that too.
*You didn’t really fall for that, did you? If I made T-shirts, I wouldn’t be in this mess now would I?
The San Francisco Zine Fest is this coming Saturday and Sunday! Self-publishing, Vanessa Davis, screenprinting, nature stuff, kickball, etcetera! Woooo zine fest!
So while you may think I am lazy for not updating this blog, it is only because I am frantically-ish putting first/final touches on the comic for which this image is a tentative cover.
(I say tentative but at this rate, I will probably not have time to obsessively draw three more near-identical versions. Which is probably for the best, as the circulation in my right arm is severely lacking.)
If you see this girl at the County Fair Building, ask her nicely for one and she will probably give it to you.
Otherwise I’ll probably put it all online at some point.
I went down to City Hall yesterday to watch democracy in action (thank god for activist judges in the face of activist intolerance). I was hardly the only one around with a camera. The real characters were the ones passing out bouquets, the guy with the trumpet playing a spritely little tune for every emerging new couple, and the many, many ministers for on-the-spot hire. I imagine the parade is still continuing today, though maybe with a little less SFPD protective detail.
Personally I’ve always been a proponent of everyone abandoning the antiquated system of marriage — not because I’m polyamorous, but because that’s the only way I think any sort of equality is really going to come to the whole monogamy-and-tax-breaks thing.
But all the pretty lesbians warmed my cold, cold heart… A little.