Are you ready?!

Moleskine Treats For Tired Feets

Feeling froggy after getting my legs under me a little bit today. Might as well mark the day with another Moleskine drop. . .

Shadows of the future. . .

Something sketchy to keep 'em guessing. . .

The Black Billy Crystal?

We're jussumen that rock the mic!

So I'm back on board to host the GLYPH awards this year in Philly, coming up in May. Check out the PR posted last week for it - it's big news!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JAMAR NICHOLAS RETURNS AS HOST OF THE GLYPH COMICS AWARDS

The Glyph Comics Awards Committee is proud to announce that Jamar Nicholas will return to host this year's awards ceremony at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia. Nicholas, a Philly native, is best known for his hip hop comic strip Detective Boogaloo, as well as his autobiographical series The Jamar Chronicles. In 2007 he hosted the Awards for the first time, delighting the audience with his unique brand of humor while serving as emcee of the evening's entertainment, which also included performances by spoken word/rap artists Grayson Board, Randy Moore, and Brother G.

"I'm very excited about having the opportunity to host the 2008 Glyph awards, and am honored to be asked," says Nicholas. "I had a great time hosting last year's awards, and to have it take place in such a historic institution as the African American Museum makes it even greater."

"We really couldn't ask for a better host," says Committee Chair Rich Watson. "Jamar's local, he's a cartoonist himself, and he's funnier than anybody hosting this thing has a right to be, so we hope to have him as our go-to guy for a long, long time."

The Awards ceremony will be held Friday, May 16 at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the night before ECBACC, which will be held the next day, Saturday, May 17, at Temple University's Anderson Hall.

The Committee also wishes to remind everyone that the poll for the Fan Award remains open until March 31. Everyone is encouraged to head over to the ECBACC website (http://ecbacc.com/wordpress/?page_id=76) and vote for your favorite black comic from 2007.

About the Glyph Comics Awards:

The Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact. By doing so, the goal is to encourage more diverse and high quality work across the board and to inspire new creators to add their voices to the field.

The awards are named for the blog Glyphs: The Language of the Black Comics Community at Pop Culture Shock (http://glyphs.popcultureshock.com), started in 2005 by comics journalist Rich Watson as a means to provide news and commentary of comics with black themes, as well as tangential topics in the fields of black science-fiction/fantasy and animation.

About ECBACC:

The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC), in association with the Temple University Pan-African Studies Community Education Program, is an annual gathering of comic book creators and retailers who create and sell material that caters to black readers of all ages. In addition to selling their work, they also take part in panel discussions and self-publishing workshops for aspiring creators. The convention is held on the Temple University campus in Philadelphia each May. ECBACC is an outgrowth of the original Black Age of Comics Convention in Chicago, founded by Turtel Onli.

For more information about ECBACC, contact event coordinator Maurice Waters at maurice.waters@ecbacc.com, or visit the official website (www.ecbacc.com).

That's What's Up!

USED TO LET MY TAPE ROCK 'TIL THE TAPE POPPED

Do your lessons!

Learn your math!

Sketch study for something else going out the door. stretchy arm is a little wonky, but that's entertaiiiiinment. . .

FRECKLED KID

Little color joint I did as a gift to someone who hooked me up the ill rice paper I drew it on. the prismas bleed RIGHT through the other side, but I loved the effect.

This is a two-fold gift, that will work it's way out into whoever else I need to give art to. I love this stuff!

MAKE WAY FOR THE BOOGALOO BAD BOY. . .

Who's that lookin' in my window?

BLACK IS BACK. . .

Even if you haven't seen me, I see you. You should be ashamed of yourself.


Here's a moleskine joint for you. Look for more posts from me this month. Along with some news. I've been crazy busy, almost so busy I haven't had time to catalogue what I'm up to. Let's rectify that.

Also look for another classic full-color Boogaloo strip in the newest issue of UVC magazine this month.

Peace Connecticut!

Jamar Nicholas: INTERNET SUPERSTAR!

INTERNET SUPERSTAR! is the joint - we stay crispy in milk, son. Click the vid to see me RIGHT IN YOUR FACE talking about the BBWW Blog and pimp some other stuff as well. Thanks to my new ace, Martin Sargent and my man Gator for the look out! This was the inaugural episode, so we make history YET AGAIN. Also hang around to see Tom Green do his thing.

Some Full Page Action in Delaware County Magazine

Well the posting schedule begins, and we're rolling through it with no bumps.

For you on the other side of the world (or state) who can't get their hands on a copy of this month's Delaware County Magazine, you'll be missing the debut of my new comic strip LEON: PROTECTOR OF THE PLAYGROUND, and also you'd be missing a nice article that was done on me for the occasion. It's a nice piece, tho some things were quoted a little fuzzy, it's awesome nevertheless! Big shout outs to my man Scott Neely, my man Marc Manley who takes the best pictures of my goofy face, and also to the interviewer, Tom Leavy, who was a great guy. I hope we cross paths again soon.

Click on it to get a fullsize view!

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!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Happy Holidays you guys!

Here's to fulfilling your dreams one day at a time.

Jamar 12.25.07
Philadelphia

HEY KIDS! COMICS!

Come see me on Saturday, December 1st at Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark DE. I'll be signing and doing sketches for the kids and I'll even have something special in tow!

I'll be there with my mansnthem, Scott Neely, kicking up dust!

Be Easy.

UVC - Filled with 80mgs of That's What's Up!

Hey what's up party people! Just dropping in to give you a little Hap into my mix.

- For a while, I've been putting up color drops into the new UVC - URBAN VOICE OF COMICS magazine, which is what I've heard as a cross between Wizard and Vibe magazine. I called it 'The Black Wizard' magazine, and then got into a silly misunderstanding about there being a market for black wizards.

In any event, Look for the 3rd ep of Boogaloo inside the magazine, and support the cause. ERRRUUUUUUH!

RARRRRRRR.

A kraft-paper hip-hop zombie done for a commission back in the summer. Snapped with my camera - it's a little fuzzy.

The return of the JDOT 5-SPOT!

Hey. Here's 5 easy-to-digest bits from the laboratory of Jamar to take you into the weekend. We're over here at Team Poobah trying to get it going for you - so when you see me in your area, you are sated and full. Full of comic-y nougat. (I've been reading too much Penny Arcade blog entries lately.)

Anyway, here's some news for your side of the world.


ONE.
Next weekend, travel on down to the BALTIMORE COMIC-CON where I'll be set up, shakin' the babies and kissin' the hands. This is a sentimental show for me, as we're gonna go all-out, and have a great show and remember our pal Ringo. He was going to be going to this show. He didn't go to many cons, but Heroes and Baltimore. He'll still be there, but on another energy frequency, and right here (taps heart).

Just for that, I'm going NUTS for this show, and going back to old Jamar-Mode! I will have with me, me hopes, a Tokyopop GrossePack, which will include all three of the GROSSE ADVENTURES books that I did with Tokyopop, (With art on the first one by my mans'en'em, Mike Norton). You can also order the books on Amazon.com if you can't make it down, but look for a hot sketch-tie-in if you buy all three from me. I may even throw in some scratch-n-sniffs! I'm nice like that.

While I'm here, here's the cover of the third book again, with proper dress and editor cleanining:*
Also look for a Baltimore-Special edition of my first sketchbook, E POOBAH UNUM: IN JAMAR WE TRUST. We're still getting that together over here, but don't sleep - They may go fast!

*I have a small stash of the DETECTIVE BOOGALOO ILL CRIMES UNIT CASEFILES left, that I'm gonna bring through. This is gonna be it until the comic book comes out (!) which I'll talk about in more detail at a later date.

*I will have original art that I want to unload, mainly an almost complete pagecount of my first 'mainstream' gig, RADISKULL & DEVILL DOLL HATES LOVE! comic, done with Devils Due/Image. Come cop this stuff!

*I should also have a batch of 'WILL DRAW FOR LOVE' The second Philadelphia Cartoonist Society jambook that I have some sketch material in.

*OH! Also on the table, we'll have copies of UVC MAGAZINE: The Urban Voice of Comics. I'm doing color-re-ups of the Boogaloo strips in the mag every issue! I think we're up to the 4th strip so far. (That reminds me, I have to turn work in to the editor!)

*ALSO! (again) The latest issue of DRAW! magazine came out, where I interviewed one of my idols, Steve Purcell of Sam&Max fame. We'll have copies of that to cop, so come talk to me about it or make me feel good and let me sign your copy. I'll be set up next to my road-dog Mike Manley, so you KNOW he'll have his Draw!s on hand. [||]

* We are going to be in the KIDS LOVE COMICS! Pavillion, so bring your seeds over and be treated to kid-friendly comics and I promise not to swear in front of your kids.

TWO: I have a Twitter account. See my drops at the top of the blog here, and on my myspace page. Come Follow Me!

THREE: What I'm reading: Freakanomics. What I'm playing: PuzzleQuest on the DS.

FOUR: What I'm waiting on: Graduation, Kanye West.

FIVE: Where I'm at next: SPX in October. But that's another post entirely.

Catching my breath

Beach bird. . . a little something in watercolor.

Keeping it brief, it's been a wierd change-of-season for me, as a lot of stuff as happened, and with that also brings about the hope of new things - good things, sometimes bad, but also things that become life-altering.

Not too long ago, my pal Mike Manley and I went down to North Carolina to say goodbye to a friend. That saturday, we all packed up the truck and went to the beach to clear our heads and to enjoy life. I can't say that I've had a lot of perfect days, but that may have been close.

Missing Ringo - sharing stories

It’s been tough trying to whittle down my thoughts to write out something about Mike. I have so many memories and great times in my head, but right now, my head is a huge mess, so I apologize if this doesn’t read that well.

Mike never had the ego of somebody who held his lofty position in the industry, or ever made you feel like you weren’t good enough or high enough on the food chain to breathe his air – he was an amazing, warm, REAL good person whom I feel very blessed to have had the pleasure of calling a friend.

After the news I got Monday morning about his passing away, I’ve run through an amazing range of emotions, and every day since, I’ve woken up and my mind keeps trying to disprove that this is real. I keep reading tributes and these amazing pieces about Ringo, and all of this cements something that I always tried to tell him – hell, all of his friends did – that he had NO idea how much people love and respect him. He was a beautiful person, who loved nature and animals, his friends, art and comics - all that they stood for and what they could be one day.

Out of many, a few things about Mike that we shared were a love of laughter, jokes and stuff that wasn’t comics. I would spend long hours on the phone with Mike talking about the Carolina Panthers’ football team, HBO cable shows or just making stupid voices and making each other crack up.

I know that Mike was down a lot, and sometimes I would just leave a silly message or joke on his machine when he wouldn’t pick up the phone – sometimes I could just feel that he was home, he just wasn’t in the mood to rap. And I was cool with that, but I would still let him know that I was thinking about him, and that he could call me back whenever he got around to it.

The thing the hits me the hardest about Mike’s passing is that we just talked to him – my girlfriend and I – last Saturday, the 11^th, the day before he died. I had been out of the loop with a lot of friends for about a month’s time because of work, and I wanted to spend Saturday procrastinating from cleaning my house, and calling buddies sounded like a great way to while away the afternoon. Mike and I talked for about 90 minutes, and we chatted about everything under the sun. I remember he mentioned that he just got a new SleepNumber Bed, and I said that I hoped he looked better than Lyndsay Wagner does in those commercials! That rolled into a 5 minute laugh-fest of monotone testimonials from Ringo, spoken in a slow teleprompter-style, about the wonders of this miracle device and how he’d never be the same. After I asked him what his SleepNumber was, we then jokingly asked what his cat, Charlie’s was. He shrugged it off and said that Charlie never slept on the bed, and then he laughed and admitted, “Ok, it’s 39”.

Mike was really funny. I don’t think he let on in public how quick with a joke he was because he always seemed to enjoy just listening and soaking in what was around him. Given the chance, he would have me crying with laughter. Now I’m just crying.

I miss you, Ringo.

Mike Wieringo 1963-2007

I know I haven't posted a lot, and I don't expect a lot of people to read this, but I had to put something up.

It came out today that one of my best friends in and out of comics, Mike Wieringo, passed away yesterday. He was 44.

It's really tough to read all the stuff about him all over the internet, but I'm glad - he was as I've always said, one of the sweetest human beings I've ever met, and I am honored and proud to have him as a friend. Nobody could ever say a bad word about him and no one ever will.

That's enough for now.
I'm already missing my buddy. Love you Mike.