AWAY NOTIFICATION

I will be away from this blog and other personal internet endeavors such as my Twitter, etc. until January, 2010. If you would like to keep up to date on what I'm doing, or follow my projects, please sign up for my newsletter, which I will keep updated during this time. I may pop up in other places, but you'll know all about that if you sign up for the newsletter.

Thanks for your support! See you in January!

Jamar

HVD!

LEON from the holidays!

LEON for the holidays.

I'm a few behind, so I'll try to put a bigger drop of strips up soon...

Jamar E. Nicholas: HANDSOME GENIUS!

Hey yo!

Yours truly was a recent guest on my good friend Anthony Kingdom James' ill pod/blogcast called THE HANDSOME GENIUS CLUB. I am now a Handsome Genius, so you have to live with it. Please visit his site, and listen to Kingdom and I rant about the Eagles/Steelers meeting in the superbowl (NOT GONNA HAPPEN NOW - THANKS IGGLES!), the best cheesesteak in Philly, and my cartooning career so far. Also a great spoiler that I haven't put on the blog yet, so if you pay attention, you'll hear what it is.

Kingdom's interviews are filled with geekitry like comics, sports, videogames, professional wrestling and some light cussing, so be warned that I may drop a bomb or two.

So go listen to this week's podcast and tel me what you thought.

2009 THE NUMBER ANOTHER SUMMER (winter)

SOUND of the funky drummer!

What's going on! Another year down, and I kept pretty much on the low-low the last couple of months of 2008, so what can you do?

I have thought about doing a 2008 recap, on all the stuff I didn't blog about, so if I haven't done that before February, you may not see it.

I've started a pretty robust mailing list you can join (look up and to the right) to keep up on my breaking news that doesn't fit on the blog, so keep your eyes peeled.

If you look at my 2008 NY post, I had a lot of stuff to promise - this year is all about cutting the fat - streamlining my process, my deal, and what I spend my time on that's of most importance to me.

Hope you can join me on the journey - it's gonna be interesting!

ONE.

OogalooBay IrbyKay OtsDay

LEON: Enter my darling Clementine

One of my other fave LEON strips is where I introduce CLEMENTINE JUSTICE, the nosy overachiever one-upper, always-the-last-worder kid from Leon's school, Antonio Hardy Elementary. Clem is the captain of the Hall Monitors, a group you'll see more of as the strip progresses, and maybe more when it opens into new formats. One thing with the monthly strip, is that there's not much room to keep a daily setup since it's one strip a month, you need to keep it fairly open-and-shut, story-wise. That's a lotta hyphens!

As you can see, she also has an admirer, a kid I didn't name, but JUICEBOX sounds good right now.

LEON: Protector of the Playground

Yo yo.

So I've been doing my kids' comic, LEON: PROTECTOR OF THE PLAYGROUND in Delaware County Magazine for close to a year now, and never really got around to putting the strips on my blog. Here's the first one, and I'll post more as I get the second.

I really enjoy Leon, and it gets great reviews from kids and adults alike. I will be at the Baltimore Comic Con at the end of the month, (More info to come) and I will be on a LEON kick while I'm there. Come through and get art!

Here's the first strip. I enjoyed the colors on this one.

SUPERIOR FLOOR SYSTEMS: Notes from the group show

Remember a few threads back I went on about the tile I was creating for the group show SUPERIOR FLOOR SYSTEMS, at Exclamation Gallery? Well I did, it was done, and it got lookeded at. My pals over at the gallery posted a neat look into the show along with plenty of pics and a great video. See if you can find mine.

Here's a link to the gallery Flickr site, as well! Thanks gang!

Thesaurus is Colored.

bad joke. I felt like giving that sketch some pigment.

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES: Dissecting Detective Boogaloo Pt I

Now that I've been streamlining my deal over here at the JN Studios, it's been easier to put things back in place, to put some stuff in order. Some things that have been in the works or have fallen to the wayside find their place again. One thing I wanted to focus on for the JHAAJ gawkers is my place in Hip Hop Culture, and all that stuff that comes with it.

One of my properties, DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP HOP COP has always been my study on my life and love of Hip Hop, and what boils down is a dialogue on 'Old vs. New School' Hip Hop and all that goes with it. Some people who enjoed my webcomic just enjoyed the pretty colors, or 'like a breakdancing detective'. That's cool. Do You. The strip, at least in my mind, had a lot of layers, and one is the idea of Hip Hop broken down into sections of eras, and along with that, come fashion/lifestyle examinations. One character in the DB Universe is contact and Ill Intel Copper: THESAURUS JONES. (Click here for his first appearance) Thesaurus' look is of mid-late 80's fashion and ideals - like the 80's Rap Scene blew up in his closet. He also comes correct with the illest High-Top Fades, Flattops, Boxes and Trigonometry Haircuts.

figure 1: Black to the Future

What's really interesting to inspect, is that I came up with Thesaurus, probably in 2000 or somewhere around there. He used to rock a Theo Huxtable Shag, but when I intro'd him into the comic, I thought he Box would be a little more culturally and visually revelant. It's bugging me out that the 80's have finally come up on the fad/culture dial, and now I'm seeing young teens out in the streets rocking them again. Apologies to whomever this image got jacked from. Respect due, Internets:

Figure 2: What Comes Around Comes Back Around Again... Again

Now, That's great and all, and is amusing to see kids go nuts with this outlandishness, but the 20-year-later Jamar has to stow the 'fad' part of this and just see it for what it is. I think the olny difference was when it happened the first time, is that it was the first time. "You had to be there" really applies to what's rocking out there in the streets. Thesaurus' character is a keeper-of-culture, and has an important place in the DB universe. I wonder, when I bring Boogaloo's adventures back, if he'll be seen the same now that you can look out the window and see some kid looking just like him.

MAKE WAY FOR THE BOOGALOO BAD BOY. . .

Who's that lookin' in my window?

The store is OPEN! Boogaloo ILL CRIMES UNIT CASE FILE for the last time EVAR!

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: ILL CRIMES UNIT CASE FILE (The Collected Strips)

Hey all! Back again (Told you I'm on the schedule!) and this time I'm trying out some new store stuff. I created the Boogaloo Case File some years ago, back when I was still doing the strip at Moviepoopshoot.com and I just unearthed a little crate of extras that I thought I sold off. Now it can be yours yours yours!

The Case File collects in a neat manilla-file folder, the first 25 strips from the Detective Boogaloo: Hip Hop Cop webcomic, presented in a police format - black and white interior, complete with never-to-be-seen-again (!) insider info on the DB Universe - an official Ill Crimes Unit Rap Sheet on Boogaloos' nemesis ICE TRE, along with an ill forward by then-editor now-editor-in-chief of IDW Comics, Chris Ryall! Yeah, I knew him back when.

It's a real cool package, and every folder is different - I self-stamped and self-coffee-ringed each one of these babies. I've been selling them for years at cons, but now it's time to put this to rest and do the NEXT Boogaloo thing, that I'm not gonna put over yet. . . But you knew it was gonna happen eventually.

The price for this is going to be 10.00 USD, (I know the cover says 5) but I'm throwing in the shipping and I'll personalize it for you and your shorty. That's MY gift to you!

After this dissappears off the front page, I'll put this on the sidebar, and I'll be putting up other things I find in the studio attic as we go through the Great Purge of 2008 - to get ready for THE NEW NEWNESS.

And you can pay with PAYPAL! If you don't know what Paypal is by now, then maybe you don't need to be on the internet yet.

Thanks - let's see how this works.

2008 - The Year of the Poobah

What's good party rockers!

As referenced by many of my blogging pals, 2008 seems to be a turning point for a lot of creatives that I know, and I'm bunching myself in there as well. Not dealing with the resolution route - 2008 is taking off to be a 'make or break' year for a lot of people, and with that, I'm planning on steamrolling thru this sucker with some bull power.

First up is some structure. I'm fixin' to begin a posting schedule here on the blog, where on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays expect a post from me on the Big Beautiful Wonder Woman Blog, and then on Tuesdays, Thursdays and mayhaps the Weekend, check for new posts here. I'm sure you're all RSS-ed Up here, so you don't have to miss a thing.

I have a million things I need to get out of my head this year, so let's start with one simple one - more updates.

Also, pay attention to the Appearances sidebar, as I'm going to try to stay on top of that this year. I have a signing for Tokyopop next weekend here at the American Library Association 2008 Midwinter Meeting: , but I don't think they let you in unless you're a librarian. Who knew? As one would think, I'll be at the Tokyopop booth signing copies of THE GROSSE ADVENTURES for a few hours. I'm all atitter!

One other thing you should be on the lookout for is another one of my properties, LEON: PROTECTOR OF THE PLAYGROUND is a new comic strip that you can see every month in the Delaware County Magazine!

LEON is the story of a super-hero sidekick in elementary school. It's a lotta fun, and it's all-ages, and I think people of all ages will dig it. You can see the first comic story of LEON in the pages of EVEN MORE FUND COMICS anthology, from a few years back. Dig it up and you'll see me working out the kinks. I'm really proud of Leon!

Along with my great pal Scott Neely, (GLO, Mr. Bundles!) and Mike Manley, we will be bringing you a full page of full-color comic strippy goodness every month in the pages of this super mag!

If you live and love in the Philly/Delaware/Tri-State Area, you can cop this anywhere. There is also an awesome interview with me in the latest issue, as we debut our new strips (Scott debuted ALFIE a few issues ago, but now were all in it to win it)!

I guess this counts as a weekend post, huh? Sounds good to me.

Be Easy!