Chanel

Grand Old Day

I still don't know how to color properly in Photoshop. I know everyone else just “gets it” and just “does it”, but I don’t get it...Color-holding lines, Coloring shapes. I just muddle around for incomprehensible amounts of time until something artistic accidentally happens.

Stop Wasting Your Life Away, You Fool

I'm dropping everything, EVERYTHING, in my life right now to do something I have to. I must do. Right Now. I don't want to do it, I NEED to do it. I've woken up E V E R Y morning for the past 6 years saying to myself, "Ryan Kelly, you HAVE to do this, NOW". I then I don't do it.

Everyone close to me knows what it is. My gallery name, The name of this blog, My flickr name, my ebay name, etc, etc,.. should all clue in to what it is. I need to mention that i'd rather fully write and draw 20 books rather than write a "pitch". But, Here I go. Character sketches, eearggh, Here i go. I got to get in the game, especially when i'm sitting on the most important thing I feel I'll ever do in my life.

In other news:

The best darn sketch pen (and extremely hard to find) Tradio pen by Pentel is now a prominently featured item at Wet Paint on Grand Ave, Saint Paul:



Pros: Everyone describes the "juicy" ink flow. Dries immediately on copy paper. Makes a great bold comic line.

Cons: It can take up to an hour to dry on comic bristol. Sometimes catches on the rough paper. The Pen itself is a little pricey. Refills there are $3.50 a pop.

Triple Sec

artwork©Ryan Kelly

Poughkeepsie, NY

Because anything less would be uncivilized.



Belvedere Mansion.

LOST in my life--oh yeah, and my comic

Lost Season 3. Done, in the bag. I've been fanatically watching this show, as much as I can, and it has been a depressing piece of occupational duty of mine as well. By now, many know of my creator-owned property--it's the one with an ensemble cast lost at sea with an Island as a main character and supernatural forces, and a revolving door of mysteries tying one chapter to the next.....

Yeah, great, it goes on and ON, ofcourse. My luck. Well, I wrote this story some-8 years ago. I couldn't get it out because I didn't really know how to self-publish comics and I was stuck working day-to-day jobs. And then Lost happens. So, it's been both exhilerating and painful to watch. I've had to turn off the tv and walk out of the room many times, smacking myself, "eeaarrgh, that's in my story!!Aargh" Oh well, I should've just drawn the darn thing and got it out.

Well, The GOOD NEWS is that I've dramatically reconfigured my plot and story details. It's a NEW story without taking out the core elements, principles and characters. And the characters are FANTASTIC. I swear. Now I just have to write a "Pitch" which I know will be the hardest thing I'll ever do in my life. Drawing and writing should be easy. I just have to convince a publisher that this will be the greatest thing(and artistic achievement) I'll ever do in my life, hands down.


I can't show any art or anything. Not until I make SOMETHING happen.

So anyway, today let's celebrate the life of Charlie and hum the chorus to "You All, Everybody" one last time!!

I'll miss you, bassist for Driveshaft.

Ryan Kelly deserves any gig in comics he wants--The Local #9 Discussion

"Ryan Kelly deserves any gig in comics he wants, and his emotional range is stunning. I don’t even want to talk about the story, because it is such an easy journey to identify with."
Brendan, Pop Culture Shock

"B-Wood’s writing is superb, as usual, and Ryan Kelly is the guy you want drawing every soul-searching bio comic in the world, but yeah, he should be given any book he wants."
Adan, Pop Culture Shock


"Local has been something of a rarity in comics these days: A book deliberately written for the single-issue format. Wood and Kelly have so far created eight stories that stood almost perfectly on their own, though each issue built on the last. In this respect, too, the book reminds me of Six Feet Under: Even when the series hit a lull, even when the characters got annoying and the stories began to drag, it was always going somewhere, always building, always heading to some unspecified release point. For Local, the ninth issue is that release point: This is what it's all been about so far.

In that way, actually, this ninth issue is something of a failure as far as self-contained stories go. I suppose it's a perfectly good story if you haven't been following Local, but if you know Megan's story so far, this is a great comic.

The best issue of the series to date, and quite likely the best single issue of a comic I've read this year."
Ryan, Metamorphostuff

"Once again, as he has with each and every issue, artist Ryan Kelly takes Brian’s words and shapes them into page after page of visuals that breathe with raw Americana, like a series of black and white photographs lovingly stored in a shoebox under your bed. His work evokes nostalgia as well as your favorite sad song ever could, and he never shies away from taking his art in new directions, like with the flashbacks in this issue. They have a grainy shading to them, like old memories frayed around the edges, the details slowly slipping away. He just might be Brian Wood’s best collaborator to date, and he’s certainly a talent to watch in the future."
Jared,PopSyndicate

"PICK OF THE WEEK -
It's a skillful issue, the best of a series that has consistently been worthwhile. It works in two separate ways, the way that one-off issues always should but rarely do, both as a short story complete in and of itself, but also illuminating the series and the character as a whole."
Graeme Mcmillan,The Savage Critic

Center Of My Universe

The Woman I'm currently dating and the prettiest girl in town turns over a new decade and enters 30-Somethinghood.

Congratulations, you're becoming a woman. Sadly, In some impoverished countries, you would be considered a senior citizen. And, As of today, You are officially NOT in your mid-to-late-twenties.

Welcome to Thirty-something. We now cease to feel comfortable around teenagers and their cool parties no matter how cool we dress or even if we tell them we saw the Beastie Boys or The Dead Milkmen at First Avenue in '91. The mark of "30" burns like a stigmata on our flesh, forever indicating our responsibility for Grunge and the Dot Com Boom.

So, let's all of us 30-year-olds raise our glasses and giveKat a hearty Kanpai!

Merry Christmas, Baby.

SPOTAWHIRL-SpotArt Gallery-May 18

My Paintings will be featured in SPOTAWHIRL at Sportart Gallery as part of this weekend's big ARTAWHIRL, Northeast's art crawl.

As you can see, there's artists, a fashion show, a bunch of good bands, fire dancers, etc. Scotty Spleee throws a serious party every time. Unfortunately, I'll miss it as I will be in New York attending a wedding this weekend.

But Go. Have fun. I'm showing paintings. Maybe something new. Go buy something!

Local #9-Out This Week

Available tomorrow, May 16:



LOCAL #9 (OF 12)
by Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly
"Wish You Were Here" - After hearing news of her parents' death, Megan McKeenan travels to Norman, Oklahoma to see the exact location where her parents first met - in front of the Bizzel Library on the UO Norman Campus. She has an old family photo from that moment in the past, and in an effort to process her loss, she attempts to recreate it with her new boyfriend.


You should go get this tomorrow. It's the best issue since #5, and a very important Megan-story. It illuminates the entire series thus far and It'll make you want to go back to read the first issue.

Make A Donation, Get My Art--How Are You Doing?

Make A Donation Get My Art Update:

I've received just a couple reports of people not getting their art in the mail and I'm getting a little worried and a little paranoid.

How are you doing? Is everyone getting their art Ok? I receive just as many "Thanks!" and reports of artbuyers getting their envelopes just fine, safe and sound, so, for the most part, everything hunky-dory..

Keep in mind, this isn't an official shop or Ebay service. It's an Internet Garage Sale. Or, If you may, One of those grab-bags in the form of a taped-up shoeboxe you can buy at Ben Franklin for $1.00 and you don't know what it is until you buy it, when it actually contains some 10-year old batteries, shoelaces, a pack of chewing gum, and a Hallmark Keepsake Ornament of Elvis Presley.

Anyway...
Just to insure that everyone gets the best art for the buck (and that I get a fair amount for what I send), I put it in a basic envelope, sometimes with backboard, your address, USPS standard delivery. I can't buy delivery confirmation, Insurance (unless it's a high-price item) and I don't really keep a "record".
Sorry, no time to keep records, I have to keep making art!

If there's ANY problems, I promise to send out atleast one more "replacement" art but that's the absolute best I can do.

I have to send out 3 things today, Otherwise let me know how you're doing.

I hope everyone kinda likes what they get. and THANK YOU for the donations. I love you all. I'll totally invite you to my birthday party. Or maybe just a trampoline party.

I'm sending all sorts of crazy crap out. Look what you could get!!...



AYN RAND, The comic book! Actually, commisioned by Heidi Macdonald for the aborted Big Book Of Women.

But wait, there's more..



Cloak and Dagger!!

Conventions and Stuff 2007

Well, Microcon has come and gone. I didn't bring a camera, so here's a picture I found on the web of me holding a Wondergirl sketch from Microcon 2006 for Joel Thingvall's Wonderwoman gallery. As you can see, I'm a real live artist. But , no use in dwelling on the past, now let's look towards THE FUTURE...

Here's the conventions I think I'm almost sure I will probably maybe be at:

June 23-24 MOCCA New York,NY (Artist Table)
July 26-29 SAN DIEGO COMICON San Diego,CA (Wandering, Looking for someone to talk to)
August 10-12 Wizard World Chicago (Don't know if I'll be there yet, actually)
October 6-7 MNCBA FALLCON



In the meantime, I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to publish my book, Funrama. It's a personal issue, really, and it's the MOST IMPORTANT SINGULAR thing I MUST do in my life. Problem is, It really should have been published 9 years ago when it was conceived. In the meantime, All the themes, visuals, and plot devices that I wrote 9 years ago, have come to be realized in other well-known books, comics and movies. It's a mark of shame and failure for me. No matter, I'm months away from just deciding to do the whole 150-page thing on my own and tossing it at a publisher and saying , "There it is, Publish it or not. You make the call. Help me." It sucks, I can't even show artwork for it until I get some publisher to do it, and it's the best artwork of my life, I swear.

I don't have a therapist, so there will be a lot more posting on this subject. Sorry.

Supergirl

My version of Supergirl for The Engine's Remake/Remodel 5 Thread.

As I said in the thread, My Supergirl combines the beauty and intelligence of Helen Slater in "Supergirl" (1984) and the Beauty and rebellion of Helen Slater in "The Legend of Billie Jean"(1985). But, without the Pat Benatar music.

"Fair is fair!"

(Full view for maximum pleasure, please.)

Nothing Good Happens at 5:00 AM

This is life at 6:00am. I have gone back to taking these epic "walks' in the morning as the Burrito Brothers have gone back to their evil ways, raising hell at 4:00 or 5:00 in the AM. They don't sleep and they're going to take the entire fragile operation down with them, dammit. There's not much offered at this hour for entertainment except for a Starbucks about 8 blocks away. But I refuse to find a 75¢ banana at that hour exciting.

Year after year, week after week, I find new and creative ways to get work done. I'm just thankful that I can eventually amble back to my work chair in a feeble attempt to draw comics, and not designing bar graphs for quarterly reports or something.

Baseball Card Of The Month-Roger Clemens 1985 Donruss

Many people “hate” the Yankees because they win, or they’re rich, or “arrogant”, or because Alex Rodriquez exists. Primarily, I dislike the Yankees because they’re the type of team that panics and calls a team meeting every time they allow more than two base runners an in inning. It’s annoying. Usually Joe Torre can just sit there and watch the game, and not move an inch while his team scores 14 runs everyday. But, their pitching sucks.

So, Roger Clemens has come out of retirement (again?) to join the Yankees and give making a crazy amount of money one last try.

From ESPN.com
He agreed to a one-year contract for $28,000,022 -- the last two digits matching his uniform number -- that will start when he is added to the major league roster for his first start, most likely in three to four weeks. Clemens will earn about $18.5 million under the deal, which will cost the Yankees approximately $7.4 million in additional luxury tax, meaning they are investing about $26 million in a seven-time Cy Young Award winner who will turn 45 in August.

To celebrate, I offer my 1985 Donruss Roger Clemens Rookie card as the Baseball Card Of The Month. Check it. I got this card out of a wax pack! I won’t say how much I paid for the pack, but for a 13-year old kid, it was a handsome sum. Nevertheless, it was worth it to see the look on my friends’ faces (well, at the time).

Prorated for 4 months, The Rocket will make about 18.5 million. He’ll be starting a little late in the season. So, he’ll make about $750,000 per start ( a pitcher, these days, usually works no more than 6 innings or a 100-pitch count). Thus, he’ll make about $7,500 EVERY TIME HE THROWS THE BALL. I make QUITE a bit less than that everytime I draw a comic page, which takes all day.

I don’t know how much my card is worth now. Maybe $50.00.

Roger Clemens Lifetime Stats

James Lileks-Portrait Of An Everyday Average Joe Freelancer

Apparently, James Lileks’ folksy Daily Quirk column is being cancelled

Here’s the painting I did of him for the City Pages article on his work for his Republican blog,
The Bleat.

I also a crafted a very James Lileks-style response to my painting:

"Oh, bravo, you little Wheat Thin chattering twit. Lileks, the Evil rampaging conquistador on his steed, blindly following patriotism over the cliff as the End Times happen all around at my feet. I’ve never seen that before, How Hieronymus Bosch of you.

Oh, you forgot my Hummer and Bush/Cheney04 button? You’re loosing your touch, Titian, back to $50,000/per year knitting school for you. And don’t forget your sandals and contempt for the tyrannical evil emperor and his band of Pioneers and Rangers.

Oh yawn; while you’re taking on War-Mongering Fascists and Global Warming with the shiny Arts Grant you got for Christmas, some of us are doing important things. Have fun with the 10 people who read your blog, Pierre. I’m a Best-Selling Author, goodbye.”

See how easy it is to be James Lileks? Anyone can do it.

Inking 101-Class of 2007

The graduation picture of my Pen and Ink class. I drew each and every student. My new style! Look ahead young graduates, the future is yours! Ink, Ink, INK! And never look back. Full view on this, please.



A blurb for me in The Rake's "10,000 Arts"supplement.

The Green Lama

The Green Lama
A Remake/Remodel character for a thread on Warren Ellis' The Engine.