Labels: material, postcards

I posted the first page from each of the 16 stories, in case anyone's interested.

Labels: material, postcards

Recently, I talked a bit about the horrible experience of getting my headshots taken at the JC Penny Portrait Studio in the Springfield Mall. I never even went to pick up the pictures. I was content with the fact that Random House and Olsson's Books was content with the fact that Noel Tuazon's sketches of me were awesome.

Well...that didn't last long. Someone requested headshots for a newspaper feature and they didn't want to use the sketch. And I need to get them out ASAP.

Robin grabbed the camera and while we still had some daylight left we went outside and took some photos. I think I have one I'm happy with. Without further ado...a headshot that's good enough for now:

Labels: jasonrodriguez, material

I felt like sharing some images that show the evolution of the POSTCARDS cover before going to bed. This will most likely take me a lot longer than I'm assuming it will...

Anyway - Matt Kindt was my guy from day one. The idea was to have Matt do the cover and all of the interior design so that we can build up to the Pekar/Brabner/Kindt story that closes out the book. When Random House said it was time to think cover, Matt and I had a brainstorming session and he sent me the following thumbs:



Eight designs. My favorite one was #8. I loved how it had that old scrapbook feel I was trying to capture with the book and it lent itself perfectly to the chapter breaks (I'll talk about those some other time). We sent them off to Random House and, well, they sent us back their idea. A postcard on the cover with a comic panel superimposed over it. Here's the mock-up they sent us:



We liked the concept but wanted to make it more inline with the book. Matt and I talked it over and we decided to take Random House's general idea and change it a bit so that the comic panel had an image that partly blended into the postcard but also contained something that obviously had nothing to do with the original postcard. It was meant to capture this idea of artists creating stories from these postcards. Matt went ahead and made the following mock-ups:



As you can see, one of them is an early design for what eventually became the final cover. After seeing the choices I told both Random House and Matt that it had to be the elephant one. For one thing, the postcard was nice and bland - no-one would think there was originally an elephant on that card. Also, Chris Steven's and Gia-Bao Tran's story, "Blue," which was set to open the anthology, centered on Lucy the Elephant. So we had Matt Kindt - the guy doing the last story in the anthology - creating a cover that captured the concept of the book while leading into the first story in the anthology. It was the way to go. We wanted to make it more exciting, though, so Matt changed it around a bit to give us this:



Interestingly, Random wanted to see one that was a bit more rendered and tranquil so Matt did this one:



After a bit of deliberation we went back to the livelier one and Matt tightened it up to give us the cover we all know and love:



And that's how it happened, folks.

Labels: material, postcards

Here's a little look at the draft of the Creative Writing Supplement.

Labels: material, postcards

A while back I posted a page from the POSTCARDS Student Supplement I have been working on. I wanted to do something for creative writing classes - these old postcards make great creative writing prompts (we did make a book out of the concept, after all). Anyway - I wasn't satisfied with how the first supplement came out. Too much set-up, color scheme wasn't right for printing on home computers (way too much black), and I wasn't using the best postcards for inspiring stories, I don't think.

I've been working on version two of the supplement and figured I'd post some of the pages - I think it's coming along much better now. I hope to have it finished next week sometime.

Labels: material, postcards

My new office set-up is 95% complete. I figured I'd share it with you folks while it still looks moderately tidy. I uploaded the pictures to Flickr and added some notes so you can sort of take a virtual tour of the workspace. Enjoy!

Labels: jasonrodriguez, material

Spam...

Cheap viagra, Nigerian friends, Adobe products for cheap, weight-loss products, and, of course, women (or men) that want to, you know, "get to know me." Recently, I've been getting a ton of emails claiming I've received an e-Postcard from some relative - it's either the new thing or I'm being targeted because, you know, 80% of the time I'm talking about postcards on this site.

At any rate, the ePostcard spam reminds me of a postcard I have in my collection that I consider to be the origin of modern-day spam. The front of the card is a head-shot of Helen Holmes, a movie star from the early 1900s.



The back of the card has a big advertisement for the Odeon Theatre and a hand-written note from someone that says:

Dear Friend,
I saw Helen Holmes the fearless film star in "The Girl and The Game" the great railroad film novel, she's Great! You simply must see here.

Someone must have really liked...wait a minute! That message is printed on the card! It looks authentic, it's addressed to a "friend" it's presented as an unbiased, friendly correspondence, and it even has grammatical errors? That's spam, baby, right there!

I tried to do a little bit of research into Helen Holmes and didn't find much, which is a real shame. She was an action movie star that did her own stunts during the woman's suffrage moment. Looking at the IMDB page for The Girl and The Game, she wasn't only the star of the movie but she was also the writer. I'll try to look into her a bit more.

Yesterday's spam is apparently today's treasure. In the future, people will use our spam to learn about male enhancers, home loans, and Asian babes.

Labels: material, postcards

From my intro to POSTCARDS: TRUE STORIES THAT NEVER HAPPENED:

Earl Pace went to fight in Eastern Europe. He left his family and his girlfriend behind. He was in the trenches, got injured several times, and fell for a nurse during a hospital visit. His father found out about his cheating ways, purchased an engagement ring, and gave it to Earl’s girlfriend back home. Took a picture of the girlfriend with the ring and sent it to Earl, told him that he’s an engaged man now and he better start acting like it. Earl then finished his tour, earned several medals, came home and married his fiancée. They had five kids together. Earl opened a local bar and lived out the remainder of his too-short life as a neighborhood hero.

That’s not Earl’s story – that’s my grandfather’s story. Maybe Earl died in training the day after his postcard was mailed. Maybe he went MIA and spent the rest of his life roaming Europe without an identity. Maybe he came home disabled, found out his girl had fallen for someone else, and had to put his life back together.

My grandfather's (Poppy's) stories are legendary around my old neighborhood and even more so within our family. A decorated soldier, as you can see by this picture of his World War II medals that actually survived the fire that destroyed most of my mom's family's possessions:



You always heard different stories about Poppy - often variations of the same tale. My mom once guest blogged on my site and told her own stories about Poppy; some of them I've heard before but with little tweaks here and there. With a man like Poppy, it's hard to nail down what's fact and what's fiction. That's why I was hesitant to publish the above story, the one about him and his WWII girlfriend, despite it being one of the most repeated stories in my families. It just seemed too...perfect...to be true.

And then my mom came across some pictures of Poppy in World War II. And lo-and-behold, there's a picture of Poppy with his arm around Fifi (that's what she's always been called in my family). I can't help but wonder if this picture made its way stateside and was the catalyst behind the story I've heard since I was five years old. I'll never really know but, like the creators in POSTCARDS, I'll fill in the blanks on my own. At any rate, Poppy and Fifi:

Labels: material, postcards

I was just cleaning out my phone and came across some pictures I took that are worth sharing. The first picture I snapped at the Barnes & Nobles at Tysons Corner Mall. Elk's Run (a book I edited) had great shelf space.



I love seeing Elk's Run on the shelves. I saw it at an airport, recently, and at Union Station in The District - two stores that didn't have a lot of real estate dedicated to graphic novels. It's nice to see book stores supporting it like that.

The next one is from the Borders at Pentagon City. Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, and Marc Hempel's Re-Gifters, the second offering from DC's teen-girl-centric Minx line, shelved with manga.



Two interesting things: 1) Minx's first book, Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg's PLAIN Janes (an excellent read, by the way), was in the graphic novel section and 2) I love the "Seen the anime, now read the manga!" sign placed right above the book. By the way - every bookstore I've been to recently has been stacking these Minx books DEEP.

The next picture is of a snowboard I saw at some shop in Jersey last December. I bought my sister a new snowboard for Christmas and we were getting some bindings on it.



It jumped out at me as a James Jean design instantly. I asked the guy working the store if I was right and he said he never heard of James Jean. I had to verify it later.

The last two pictures aren't really comic-related but I love some smart marketing. This was sent to the office last week:




I tell you what - I'm going to check out Jericho now. Good job.

Labels: jasonrodriguez, material

I came home today to find my first copy of POSTCARDS waiting for me. I ripped it open and fell in love. I took pictures...

Labels: material, postcards

In case you don't know the story, here it goes: Josh published three issues of Elk's Run under his own company, Hoarse & Buggy Productions. We ran out of money, so Speakeasy Comics republished issues 1-3 and then issue 4. Speakeasy ran out of money, so Random House published the whole story - what was originally intended to be Elk's Run 1-8.

Now...we had six issues in the can before Speakeasy went under. Issue 5 was print ready. However, it was never printed as a single issue. Cleaning out my files today, I came across the letter page for issue five. Being that I loved putting together the letter pages and this one was never used, I figured I'd share it with you all. I'm taking out some text for spoiler reasons - go buy Elk's Run if you want to know what I deleted.

Welcome back to issue 5, we’re in the second half now – only three issues to go before you all start crying for “Elk’s Run: Season Two” or whatever the trend will be next March. Elk’s Run Classified. The New Elk’s Run. Ultimate Elk’s Run. All-star Elk’s Run.

“What are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I’m the goddamn John Kohler!” I think it works.

Josh had this issue planed for some time. It was supposed to be the montage of sorts, the story of how the events at Elk’s Ridge have been affecting the lives of the people not directly tied to the action. There were several characters planned for this issue at different stages of the project’s development but by the time it got to scripting it made sense to have Jim, Alysha and Shane be the three focal characters.

I was honestly expecting a nice little collection of scenes to advance the plot, none of them really being much more than a bridge to the big events we have planned. I was almost expecting an anthology – a collection of unrelated stories taking place in Elk’s Ridge. What was actually written, as you can see, was much different.

As you all know, Josh is focusing in on a different character with each issue and playing around with how their lives are influenced by the decisions of other people. When the script for issue five came in I realized Josh’s true intentions, to have that same sort of “outside influence” theme that we have for the whole series and do it within a single issue. [DELETED] It was a good idea, well executed – and I loved watching this one come together. I hope you all feel the same.

And on that note, letters…

__________________

Hey Joshua,

I received my Bumper today. Thanks a lot! I really enjoyed it and am definitely adding Elk's Run to my pull list. I also plan to pass the Bumper onto a friend of mine.

Again, thanks. This book had a lot of positive press to live up to, and did. I'm really looking forward to the rest of it.

-Sleep

Sleep? I didn’t realize hippies read Elk’s Run. What’s your friend’s name? The one you passed the book on to? Sky Blue?

Either way, I’m glad you and your friend Sky Blue liked the Bumper Edition and thank you for adding us to your “pull list”, which I assume is something in the commune you and Sky Blue live in.

Hey Josh,

I'm ashamed to say that I was one of those uninformed comic fans who had never heard of Elk's Run in my life. But after repeated recommendations from the Bendis Boarders, my co-workers at Midtown Comics and some of my customers, I decided to give it a try and purchased the Bumper Edition.

Needless to say I was amazed at the quality of the work. The story was enthralling and constantly kept me second-guessing what was going to happen next. I loved the dialogue and the art was perfect for the story.

Keep up the good work and I wish the whole crew of Elk's Run the best of luck.

-Jesse Chin-

So, the Bendis Board, your co-workers and Midtown Comics were all harassing you to get this book and you just, what, assumed they were lying? I mean, I’m seriously glad you checked it out and dug it but what were you waiting for? Jesus Christ to rise again to judge the living and the dead to take a five-second break from The Rapture to tell you that you really should get Elk’s Run?

I mean, if you can’t trust the Bendis Board to never steer you wrong, who can you trust?

Josh, I love Elk's Run. It is damn fine funnybook making. That is all.

-Scott Ziolko

I think people should end every statement with “That is all.” That is all.

Dear Joshua Honey

I just found out I'm pregnant and I don't know who the father is. Would you mind taking a test to find out if it's you? Also how are we supposed to talk about what will most likely be another great issue of Elk's Run if we haven't even read it yet?

Maybe you should have a letter page devoted to the back up stories this time? Well I thought Nate Bellagarde was fantastic and you really played on his strengths when doing this story (insert joke about how well he can draw poo or something). Also how did you come up with these back up stories? Were they when you were pooing? Wow that last sentence was most definitely poo. I would love to hear some of the back story and if you researched werewolves or maybe office life or maybe a little of both.

Well Elk's run is great and there should really be more discussion on it out there but it won't be me ‘cause I'm smart enough to read it but too dumb to get down to the psychological and social commentary in the book but that doesn't mean I don't want to hear others opinions on it. Oh and how about wearing socks to bed next time your feet are cold

Yours forever snokoms wov wov
Stephen

I was going to answer this one but instead Bobby Bollis, Hoarse & Buggy’s esteemed lawyer, decided he should handle it. Bobby:

Greetings Mr. Stephen –
On the eleventh of October, 2005 – my client, Mr. Joshua Hale Fialkov, received a letter from you in which you notified him of your pregnancy and asked him if he would willingly take part in a paternity test in order to determine whether or not my client is the father of your child.

Without even getting into the fact that my client denies ever having sexual relations with you nor does he even recall ever meeting a Stephen, I feel it is my obligation as a lawyer, father, and man of God to educate you a little bit on the “birds and the bees”, as it were.

You see, Stephen, when a man and a woman are in love they get married and on the night of their wedding they have consensual unprotected sex for the first time (not counting college, that San Diego “accident,” and the night before the wedding when the bride and groom-to-be had way too many Captain & Cokes). When this magical event happens, the penis meets the vagina and nine-months later an often-healthy baby is born.

The key word here is vagina, Stephen.

Sincerely,

Mr. Robert B. Bollis

So, there you have it, straight from the lawyer’s mouth. You can’t have a baby unless you have a vagina. And if you have a vagina, are you single? Because I like vagina.

Dear Elk's Run Crew,

I'm going to steal something from the webcomic "Joe and Monkey." I think it applies here:

Please stop hogging all the Awesome. Other people want some too.

Thank you,

John Sitton

Goddamn it. Again I hand it over to our lawyer, Mr. Bobby Bollis.

Dear Mr. John Sitton –

Joshua Hale Fialkov, my client, and I wanted to inform you that we are not hogging all the Awesome. We, as upstanding capitalist citizens, do not condone any monopolies and any attempts to publicly accuse us again will result in us taking legal action against you.

Sincerely,
Mr. Robert J. Bollis

Dear Josh,

I think it's far past time that we gang up and bludgeon Dan Taylor. Now that he's got his hoity-toity editor job at IDW he thinks he's SO cool.

Oh, congrats on the book and stuff.

lwk

Jesus. What’s wrong with you people?

Dear Mr. lwk –

I am writing to inform you that my client, Mr. Dan Taylor, will not stand for being bludgeoned and we will press charges at any attempts and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We are currently processing the papers necessary to get a restraining order against you and I would appreciate your cooperation in not even thinking about my client until said papers are in place.

Sincerely,
Mr. Robert J. Bollis.


So I received my copy of Elk's Run Bumper in the mail the other day and I have since read it.

It's good.

At first the art put me off a bit. It's hard to get used to the sketchier style, but as I read it – it seems that the art fits the feel of the town and the story. Sometimes it's difficult to tell who is who and what's going on. But overall I think it's good and it fits the atmosphere very well.

The story itself: obviously, you know what you're doing. The premise of the town reminds me very much of the short story 'The Lottery' or M.Night Shyamalan's “The Village”. A group of people, to escape some evil in the world, establish a place of their own to live by their own agreements. Also- the changing perspective in each issue gives a great feel for the book. I am interested in reading further, to see why John wants the guns, the war he wants to start (because, to this point, there's been no conflict with the outside world other than the police officers).

Very nice work. Keep it up.

-jason

“A group of people, to escape some evil in the world, establish a place of their own to live by their own agreements…”

…and make up a myth about monsters to keep the people scared and in place and believing that it’s the turn of the century. And they both have Ron Howard’s surprisingly attractive daughter in them.

Yeah, I know, we get that all the time. Seriously, I’m glad the book grew on you like a rash, that’s all we really want.

Dear Elk’s Run –

You should try to play the WWJD game except make the “J” stand for “John SR”. So, let’s say you’re on-line at the movie and some guy cuts in front of you. Right off the bat you probably want to slam his face through the glass candy-case but instead, just pause and say “WWJD?” Then you go into your truck, grab your shotgun, a tank of gasoline and a match, blow the bastard’s rectum off with the 12-gaugse and then burn the movie theater down.

You can use WWJD for many things. McDonald’s won’t serve you breakfast even though your watch says 9:55AM? Pull the clerks head off and deep-fry it! Guy cuts you off on the highway? Use your Camry-mounted rocket launcher to fry him and make his kids bastards!

This is the new way to run your life – WWJD?

Reggie Grey

I play the WWJD game but instead use “What Would Josh Do?” I complain a lot. Procrastinate. Get really excited over TV shows that no-one else watches. I repeat what I just said as if I’m the person who had the idea. It’s a fun game. I wish I got laid more, though. Maybe Stephen’s free this weekend.

_______________

And that concludes this issue’s edition of the letter page. Please check us out in two months for Elk’s Run #6 where we get a little peek at what life was like for the boys years ago, a relaxing stroll down memory lane that ends in the shit truly hitting the fan like you’ve yet to see in this book. Don’t forget to tell your retailers to order you up a copy and feel free to send us some email and let us know what you think. At the very least I can get all smart-assed with you on the letter page.

Before I go I’d like to thank all of the usual suspects. Josh, Noel, Scott, Datsun, Jaco, Chris, and Bobby Bollis for making this book possible, our family and friends, everyone out there who keeps promoting this book and talking it up, there’s an unavoidable buzz in the air and hopefully that buzz will turn to some serious orders. All the message boards, blogs and comic sites that are showing us love – we thank you. All of the comic shops that are continuing to take a chance on us and ordering strong, pushing the book on your customers. And of course you, right now, with the book in your hand. Without you, well, we’d probably be in a lot more debt.

See you in two months.

Labels: elksrun, material

...I like to get a good hearty “fuck you” from an editor – my work for this week is done!"

- Elton Pruitt, in response to me...well...you can figure it out.

Labels: jasonrodriguez, material, quotes

...in dental work. Thankfully my insurance covered more than half of it but not much more. Why is this relevant to this blog? Because I'm filling cracks in my teeth that I've obtained from grinding them together. These cracks weren't there six-months ago. Over the past six months, however, I've been really, really stressed trying to get POSTCARDS wrapped up. This stress has led to an increase in teeth grinding. This grinding has led to $1000 cracks.

And in two weeks they're doing the other side of my mouth.

Labels: jasonrodriguez, material

...Don't they tell you government secrets and stuff*?"

- Josh Fialkov, laughing at me on the phone last night, after I told him about my conversation with a creator where I spent the first five minutes quizzing the creator to see if it was really him.

Nobodies perfect all the time...





*In case you didn't know, my day job does, indeed, consist of defense work.

Labels: fun, material, quotes

No, this article isn’t about video games, unfortunately. It’s about pain. Horrible, horrible pain.

You see – we’re setting up a signing at Olsson’s Books in Dupont Circle. This makes me very happy. I love Olsson’s. One of my favorite local bookstores. They have great events there – draw big names into their stores and bring in big crowds to support them. I will do anything the staff there asks to get this signing stitched up.

And they asked for a headshot.

I don’t have a headshot. So when April Flores, my lovely publicist over at Random House, wrote me and told me I needed one – I kind of didn’t know how to respond. I sent her some pictures of me. One of me with a bird on my head, one of me gazing lovingly at the camera, and one of me pouring wine. Unfortunately, none of these were headshots by any definition of the word “headshot.” So I had to make an appointment to get real headshots.

Quick question – what’s the most depressing department store in the universe?

That’s right, JC Penny.

And what’s the most depressing department within JC Penny?

That’s right, the Portrait Studio.

For some reason I decided to take the “easy” way out and get my headshots done at the JC Penny Portrait Studio. I set up an appointment and went Friday after work.

Let me tell you about The Springfield Mall. I’ve been to some bad malls in my day – I don’t know what the Albee Square Mall is up to now-a-days but back when I was growing up in Brooklyn that place had: a) An escalator, b) seventeen shoe stores, and c) a Wendy’s. That’s a bad mall. Speaking of Brooklyn – King’s Plaza Mall is not the type of plaza or mall a king would often be found in. And we have the Ballston Mall down here in the district – a great place to buy ornamental axes and novelty pimp gear. And Landmark Mall…oh, Landmark Mall – let’s not even get into that one.

But the Springfield Mall is a whole different kind of pain. The empty corridors, the food court – the clientèle – the merry-go-round with the bunny on it that gives me nightmares. The left-over-trim from stores long gone – like the discount, no-name clothing store with the Wizards of the Coast layout and decorative store front. There are three arcades in that mall by my count and the biggest store, not counting Macy’s, is the As Seen On TV store. It’s huge – they carry everything you’ve ever seen on TV.

Combine The Springfield Mall with a JC Penny Portrait Studio and you have the worst way to spend two-and-a-half hours.

After being told it’ll be a twenty minute wait for my pictures I made my way to the food court and got a burger from Checkers. I’ve never eaten at a Checkers before but, you know, when in Rome…

I slowly ate my sandwich, figuring the twenty-minute estimated wait time was optimistic considering there were three families in front of me lining up for baby pictures. Boy was I right. I waited two hours to get my pictures taken – a process that took about five minutes. The girl taking the pictures was new – she was real nice but I didn’t feel like I was getting headshots – I felt like I was taking elementary school portraits. Every picture had my body at a 45-degree angle and my head facing forward.

Also, I’m not a good smiler. I can’t smile. The girl took her first picture of me and I said, “I have to tell you – I can’t smile. You have to make me laugh.” I needed to joke around and pretend I wasn’t taking headshots. Because I seriously can’t smile. I can laugh. I can’t smile. Look through my Flickr account if you don’t believe me.

Anyway – I see B&W thumbnails of the pictures and pick out the two best ones. I drive home and show Robin the thumbs and the ones I picked to which she says, “Did you wear a white shirt with a white background?”

I snatched the sheet out of her hands to verify that I did, indeed, spend two-and-a-half hours taking pictures that are going to look downright stupid when they’re developed. I’ll look like a floating head. They will, literally, be headshots.

So now I need to get new ones. Luckily for me, Noel Tuazon came through (like he always does) and made me these:

Labels: material, postcards, press

Coming soon to Eximious Press - The Postcards Creative Writing Package. Designed for creative writing classes, the supplement will feature used postcards, presented to students the same way I present them to creators in the book. More information on this free package will be available as we near completion. For now, take a look at a sample page:

Labels: material, postcards