Paper Bag Halloween Dump

Happy Halloween (If you're into that). I gots more of these to show.

Prismas on Paper Bags. You'll see more from me in this medium.

The night the Devil came to Georgia

YOU DA DEVIL!

Now for something entirely different... (Invisible Man)

One of Seven. Gotta Catch em all!

Come Stalk me in Person.

I will be out and about in lovely Middletown, Delaware on Friday 10/21 at BEAV'S COMICS, the new shop run by my good pal, Rob Beaver, from 6-9pm for his annual ART EXPO! I don't know what's gonna go down, but I'm bringing art to sell, since it's, yunno... an art expo.

http://beavs-comics.com
124 West Main Street
Middletown, DE 19709
1-302-449-5581

6-9 pm COME HOLLA.

EYE! FEEL! GOOD! . . .

ABOUT CANDY!

Come on you people - if you don't know that's an old L.L. joint, turn in your hip-hop hallpass.

Man, does THIS bring back memories. I had almost this whole deal, 'cept the blonde eyebrow.
Some lady on the train, who looked like she was having the worst day of her life every day of her life.

Cartoon Candy 2: Electric... Ah, You Know.

Here's some more lil' pages from the past couple of days. I'm really enjoying this.

Cartoonist Candy - First Sketch

10/12/05. Tiny little doods. My brushpen scarred up the marker hits. What can you do.

She Watches Channel Zero

Paying for cable is an expense that I lived without for several years, and didn't miss, until I moved a few years ago, and during a point of duress, decided why not treat ourselves, and hunkered down and got Us Some Cable TeeVee.

It was awesome for the first month or so, then I stopped caring. I care more about the cable internet connection that I get a barely noticible discount on, but for all intents and purposes, I don't watch TV anymore. Let me rephrase that - I'm not a TV guy. I used to be, when I was younger. I'm sure most people in their 30's-40's grew up in front of the TV when there were only 3 channels and a smattering of UHF. That's when the world was a little closer, in an odd way - because if say, The Motown 20th Anniversary Special came on CBS, EVERYBODY was watching Michael Jackson moonwalk across the stage and make the world lose their freaking minds. Now, there's 500 channels of nothing on, and a social disconnect that TV didn't have before now. TV WAS what brought America together.

Before I go onto a rant about what I think about the world and how everybody thinks they deserve to be famous, let me get to the point of the post - I pay too much for cable, and I don't even watch the damned thing.

That's pretty much it. I have a TV in my studio, but I'm not hard-wired for watching/creating - it destroys my mindflow. I'm a music, background noise person. If I put a movie on in the studio, I'm just gonna watch the movie. I can't do those two things together, but music is where it's at for me. So here's my conundrum. I feel since I pay so much for this crap, I force myself to watch cable television. I come in to the workspace, turn on AMC and watch Karate Kid and Young Guns for the 900th time, just so I feel like I'm getting something from this necessary purchase to keep my household happy. I think if I get a DVR box and tape stuff I'd actually watch but not hunt for, I'd be happier. Like maybe Battlestar Galactica 2.0, Adult Swim, RAW, etc. Right now, I think the guys who set up Philadelphias schedule tree were on crack. Let's see - 14 HBO stations? Let's put them ALL OVER THE FREAKING MAP, not right behind each other so that you can find them. Cheese and Crackers, dood... but then again... when would I sit down and watch all the taped stuff? Man.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. Continue on.

The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Minds of Cartoonists

If I didn't hold it on, it'd have fallen off by now. Snaps by Mike Manley.

As I start trying to get this little part of my mind-empire back up to snuff, I try to figure out what I'd like to put on here, what I want to share with the world. One of the things I think is under-represented on the internets with cartoonists, is how they tick and what goes through the head of someone whos' mind is constantly buzzing, fluttering and spinning. My mind is definately like that, and my cartoonist friends are usually the front line of my whirling dervish act.

As my life takes another interesting change, I'm here working on getting back into creating every day. Lately I've been so backed up, it's hard to unblock the dam and get it flowing, so doodling, sketching and warm-ups is really important. I used to be a 'one and done' type of cartoonist, but stopping to get the art juice flowing wasn't something I really had time to do, and I think my art suffered for it.

I've done my best work when I'm 'in the zone' and it's shown when I go to visit my good pal Mike Manley, world-famous cartoonist, and we destroy forests of trees sketching the night away. Being in that enviornment gets the most out of me - I think I'd thrive in a studio enviornment. Maybe one day!

Cartoonist candy: Little blank sketch journals

Last weekend, I procured a little group of mini sketch journals, blank on the inside with a nice tooth ('tooth' is the grain and feel of paper. If you ever hang out with artists and see them feel up a sketchpad in the store, that's what we're checking for. Kinda like when people fondle honeydews in the market - same thing), and I can't wait to stain them up. I'm thinking about maybe doing a color sketch a day in them and posting them here. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll start today. . .

There's a million things trapped in our heads, and you try to get them out before they drive you insane. These little doods will help. Come back and see what happens.

Jamar Nicholas, Mild-Mannered Editorial Cartoonist

Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell pacifying SEPTA - PA's local transit amidst money woes (Again)

As most of you do not know - I am the current editorial cartoonist for the Philadelphia Tribune - the nations oldest Black Newspaper. I've been doing it for almost 2 1/2 years now, 2 strips a week off and on.

It's been more off than on lately, as I don't get much input from the paper on my stuff, good-bad or indifferent, and in some cases makes it hard for me to gauge where a piece needs to go, or to make a story link up with the focus of the OP/ED page. I sometimes get the paper to find my cartoon has no relationship to what the paper is speaking out against that day, and it frustrates me. I am really the type that needs the constant back/forth with clients to let me know that things are still moving forward. I LIKE input! How forward of me.

It's odd how I fell into doing this - it basically began with me looking for a new freelance gig, and I walked into the paper offices and asked if they needed a cartoonist. Comes to find out they did! I did some samples, and next thing you know, I'm rolling thick, with 24's on my car, and iced-out air fresheners on the rear-view. Heh.

But for real, I just kinda started doing editorial strips. I never thought of this as something I'd ever do - but I always followed the big editorial cartoonists, my good friend Signe Wilkinson, Jim Borgman, the late Jeff McNelly, Mike Peters, Pat Oliphant, Horsey - yunno, the good ones. Even new cats like my pal Keef Knight, Lalo Alcaraz - they made it look easy. I still struggle at it, and it's once in a blue moon that I strike on a jewel of an idea, and it makes me feel like it's all worth it.

baby steps

Jacked from my man Mike Manley's blog. Photo by him.

Just getting back into the blogging mix after my man Mike Manley dropped such a great post on the SPX/EXPO we just went to last weekend. Plus I like this new brownish layout. It makes me feel fuzzy inside.

Getting Back on the Bus

trying out new white pens on a brown envelope. Pretty snappy. Finding a white pen that leaves a good mark is as hard as finding a parking space in Manhattan.

You may not know this about me . . .

But Bill Murray is close to the top of my famous people I most admire list.

It's been a long time, Sorry I left you. . .

Just testing out the place again. I've lost and recaptured my website, causing my blog to upend, along with a lot of stuff in my career. But let's see where this adventure takes us this time. I have a million places on line to post my thoughts, and I really should get rid of one of them, but I may just crosspost on all of them until I figure out a better idea.

Hey!

Sorry about the time between posts -

All of the commissions are cleared out, and from what it looks like, we fell a little short of the month goal, but nothing is ever wasted. The whole experience was awesome! I'm gonna try again for November, I just need to work out some particulars.

Be back in a few with some art and some wrap-ups.

Thanks everybody!

Thoughts - Deep and Otherwise

Wow, man.

October is closer to over than just beginning, and JAMARATHON has been awesome. Today I had a commission to do, but they were supposed to send me a sketchbook and I haven't gotten it yet! So I'm taking the day to get some of these pieces ready for the mail. I'm still a little backlogged, so you'll be getting your pieces soon.

Now, I have a few new interestsin commissions (Get at me in email!), but there's still a few days left in October not spoken for. I wanna change that.

My initial goal for JAMARATHON was to fill October. I'm REAAAAL close, I can smell it. But being so close I'm now thinking about November. Why stop now? November is actually Diabetes Awareness Month, and it just makes sense for me to keep going for the month of November.

I'm gonna have to go back out and beat the pavement some more to drum up more support and interest in this. To all that have been looking out so far, thanks SO much! To all the bloggers, psst-hey-you's, and yo-checkitouts, I really, really appreciate it. I hope when you guys start recieving your pieces, you'll tell your friends. I haven't really talked about the diabetes-part of this little project, so I'll start down below. Read if you care to.

DIABETES
(Cue in soft piano)
I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 1993, and even though I've gone through a million stages with this disease, I haven't 'beaten' it. You can't, really - just keep it under control. I've lost weight in the past year, tho I was never a superheavy guy... they tell you that exercise, diet and yadda yadda helps alot. When I lost weight (Around 30 lbs) earlier last year, I actually felt worse than usual - I think my body was so used to being at a certain size, when the extra weight left it was like 'hold up yo - we don't like this' And my sugar levels actually got higher. I've been getting better lately, which is good, but just like everything in life - it ain't easy.

Stress plays a huge part on your blood sugar when you're diabetic, so laying off the candy bars doesn't make you automatically OK like some people think. My doctor has told me on more than one occassion that I'm REAL close to being put on insulin (the shots!) if my sugar doesn't come down. Sometimes the body just can't do any more than it can do, and I'm really trying to fight this, and every days a new fight. I'm now thinking about the next ten years of my life now and what I need to do (or not do) to make sure I get there in one piece. That's a snippet of why JAMARATHON is so important to me. If doing this gets a few people to learn something about this, then we all win.

Ah, that's enough of that for now. Here's some news you can use!

INFO
Here's some myths that these sites below dispel, and also just good info to know to shed more light on the disease - so maybe you can make better choices around your friends or family and educate yourselves and others. There's nothing worse than having people around you who don't understand what diabetes is when you have it, and make uninformed opinions or statements to your healthcare. Here's two of my favorite arguments:

(Gleaned from the sites below)
MYTH:
Eating too much sugar causes diabetes

No. Diabetes is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. However, being overweight does increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, so if you have a history of diabetes in your family, a healthy diet and regular exercise are recommended to control your weight.

MYTH:
People with diabetes can't eat sweets or chocolate

Sweets are no more out of bounds to people with diabetes than they are to the rest of us, if eaten as part of a healthy diet, or combined with exercise. And people who take certain tablets or insulin to treat their diabetes may sometimes need to eat high-sugar foods to prevent their blood glucose levels falling too low.

Some links on diabetes myths and other info:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/home.htm
http://diabetes.about.com/cs/aboutdiabetes/tp/aatpmyths.htm

Till tomorrow.

Jamar and Matt for Fabricari!

WHEW! A breather!

Sorry I haven't been more chatty on here - I've been running round for the last few weeks going insane (In a good way) Sometimes art is harder to produce when you're not in the right mindframe, and you really have to warm up or be properly motivated to get things moving. I had a good night last night, and I feel good, so here's some blahblah.

For all of you new Jamar types out there, When I first got into publishing comics, my first book was called THE JAMAR CHRONICLES, the story of myself, on a mission to save the world through dimensional world-saving escapdes. The dimensional 'key' was a talking doormat named, well, Matt. I swear to god Dora the Explorer ripped my stuff off, with the talking Map, and the backpack and all that, but you know how it is - it's 'coincidence'. JC started in 97 - there wasn't any Dora then.

Ahem. Well anyway, here's a lil rough of me and Matt - all cartooned out for my man Fabricari. Go check fab out at www.comicsindependent.com or www.fabricari.com - he's one of my good close personal friends. THANKS FAB!

new sketches!

So here's two roughs from the weekend. One was the Saturday Sailor Moon for Jeff, and there was a secret squirrel for Sunday that I'm not gonna show. Today was a monkey for my pal Steve.

Sailor Moon drove me crazy. I fixed the eyes (DAMN THOSE EYES!) in the final. Idunno how the anime types draw those wacky eyes all day, man.

She is the one named SAILOR MOON!

. . . .

This monkey is well-read. You can tell.

I have another secret squirrel for today (Tuesday) but I'll be back today to put SOMETHING up.

Oh yeah - 8 slots still open! Give me an email and let's close out October right with art!

YO

Hey all -

Be back in a few with scans from over the weekend.

Da Devils in da Details

for my man Colin, roughs for his Daredevil piece. I need to work out his midsection and pull that belt up. Ha, I keep it hip hop, even on Daredevil.