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His Holiness’ Coffee

I’ve been reading up some more on Caravaggio and his contemporaries.¬† Apparently, Pope Clement VII was a big fan of coffee, which the church saw as Satanic since it was drunk by the Muslims.¬† (Further medieval logic: Muslims don’t drink wine and therefore cannot partake of the Eucharist and thus are from Satan.)

Anyhoo, Clement the VII found it tasty and baptized coffee so it would be safe for Catholics to drink.  I have yet to find a worthy source for this little tidbit of fact about Pope Clement, so take it with a grain of salt.  It could turn out to be an internet hoax perpetuated by bloggers like me.

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My Life in Records Cover Page Outtake

From Outtakes

I’ve decided to¬†post some of my thumbnail and rough drawings¬†that I made while making¬†My Life in Records #1.¬†Since I’ve already¬†established¬†the¬†non-canonical¬†stories as “B-Sides”, I thought I’d play¬†up the¬†music lingo¬†puns some more and call these drawings “Demos” and¬†”Outtakes“.¬†¬†

“Demos”, of course,¬†are¬†rougher versions¬†of the final¬†pages and “Outtakes” are sequences that didn’t¬†make it into the final¬†book.

So here we go!

The picture above was meant to be the title page.  I was in the habit of making little booklets out of scratch paper to make my thumbnails and roughs.  This was a habit that went by the wayside when i realized that I sometimes wanted to shuffle sections around or redo a page completely.  Of course this story had been drawn once already, so I had an idea of how many pages it would take and the sequence I had in mind.  You can see I scribbles notes about color hex codes, appointments and phone numbers (redacted, of course).

I originally wanted the reader to have that sense of expectancy I used to get when I first put the needle down on the record and you heard the initial vinyl crackle before the first track started.¬† For the final version I have opted for a more economic way of starting the book and this section is now, as they say, “on the cutting floor”.

You can see the “Album Version” of this page here and the book can be purchased here in the store.

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Year In Review

Over all, 2011 was a good year for me.  I got some graduate credit to hunker down and polish up some curriculum and make some corresponding podcasts.  In May, my wife and I celebrated six years of marital bliss and a few short months later we celebrated the first birthday of our twin daughters.

Probably the biggest news for me in 2011, was finishing my Masters in Art Education and having my thesis accepted for publication in a scholarly journal.  I was planning on writing my thesis on comic books in art education, and my adviser suggested that I make the thesis a comic book about comic books.  There were a few articles of this type that had been published in this manner, but no one had created an entire Masters Thesis as a comic book.

It was a good year for as far as putting out mini comics, too.¬† In April I put out Dodo Comics #1 which collected a lot of odds and ends I’d made for the last six years.¬† Next I worked all summer on a remastered and reworked version of My Life in Records #1 and also on the second issue of Dodo Comics.¬† On a whim a put together a little accordion book about an undersea adventure.¬† Justin over at the Poopsheet Foundation said, “Thomas indicated that this “accordion” folded gem is free with any order from him, and I’ll tell you it’s worth ordering something else just to get your hands on this.”

So four minis in a year.  Not bad for a guy with two kids wrapping up a degree!

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Comics in Print and on the Web by Grant Thomas

read My Life in Records: a webcomic by Grant Thoams
read My Life in Records: a webcomic by Grant Thoams
My comics are made in my limited spare time- squeezed in before daybreak and on weekends while my children nap.

Print Comics:

Abstract Comics: The Anthology edited by Andrei Molotiu (Fantagraphics, 2009).


A few of my comics have appeared in the Eisner nominated Abstract Comics: The Anthology edited by Andrei Molotiu (Fantagraphics, 2009).

I managed to make my Masters Thesis into a comic book and it was published in Visual Arts Research Volume 38 Number 1 (University of Illinois Press).
I also enjoy making mini-comics, which can be purchased here.  (I also trade with other artists, so email me grantthomasonline AT gmail DOT com if you are interested.)


WebComics:

My Life in Records: a webcomic by Grant Thomas

My Life in Records:

Stories about a lifelong obsession with music.
You can currently read the Prologue for free online.

“One of the things instantly recognizable about My Life In Records is that it captures, in visual language, the magical crackle and pop of a vinyl record being played. There are also some early snippets of song lyrics, those types of generational songs that define us. So, for all those people who say that music doesn‚Äôt work well in comics, this one proves them wrong. Thomas displays the lively colorful reds of guitar strings humming, and builds a tale about childhood memories, music, art, and pop culture like Sesame Street being the ephemeral soundtrack to a person‚Äôs life.”¬† Poopsheet Foundation

“It‚Äôs always a little tricky to pull off music in comics, but I think Grant nailed it here.”¬† Optical Sloth

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Work in Progress – Neck Beard

I’m pretty sure this is my first attempt at drawing a character with a neck-beard.

Here we see Agatho putting a stone in his mouth to remind him to keep quiet.¬† My guess is that he put a pebble in his mouth, but since comics are a visual medium, I changed the pebble into a brick-like rock.¬† It’s funnier to look at and also gives a nod to George Herriman’s Krazy Kat strips.