Back in March at the Salon del Comics de Granada in Spain, I was told a story by my buddy Lance (www.lancetooks.com) that one of our spanish compadres related to him while we were there.
It happens that one of our friends Javi was at the salon also and, a day before, was in a conversation at one of the stands with a
friend of his and the subject of Kevin Taylor came up. At this point someone else at the stand joined the conversation
by saying "Kevin Taylor es una cabron!" ("cabron" being" the spanish equivalent of "bastard") Javi, being puzzled by
this, asked "Why is Kevin Taylor a bastard?" The newcomer explained "I met him at a salon some years ago and asked him to do a drawing for me, and he did. But while he was sitting there doing my drawing, he couldn't take his eyes off of this girl standing next
to me and kept looking at her. I was expecting the worst drawing from him, but when he finally finished it, after signing it to me, I
looked at it and it was a perfect drawing. I couldn't believe it! He's a bastard!"
How could I not laugh at that?
But wait...this is even funnier.
That same night after the salon, we cruised to a pub which was where all of the guests, and anyone else, would meet for a round of copas (drinks - and, man, I mean drinks!) and I met some other young spaniards who were guests of the salon. One of them worked with KISS, the music group, as a graphic designer, and the other was an art director. I thought, "Man, these guys are getting younger and younger", meaning, to me, people in those positions used to be wizened old chaps with thick grey hair billowing from ginormous ears. After a few copas, and watching a bunch of drunk American girls try to dance to Abba, I showed some new and old work to the new guys and talked a bit. As it turned out, the art director was taking a class in erotic art in comics at the university in Madrid and he told me that he knew about my work because his professor used it regularly as (I'm not making this up) a "how to" method in erotic comics. He also told me that his professor is an erotic comics illustrator and we've both worked for the same spanish magazines-and I'm very pissed that I don't remember his name. Like I said, there was lots of drinking done by then and those goddamned American girls were loud-but at least they knew the words to most the disco songs playing.
I told my buddy Lance this latest story and, after laughing for five minutes he said, "Aw, man-you're part of the curriculum!"
I share these stories because, as a graphic artist, it's difficult to know the impact my work has on anyone, if at all. I spend an unnatural amount of time behind a drawing board, trying to do the best work I can-not only to give something to fans, but something I can look at later and say, "Yeah, that came out pretty good." But the only way I know if my work is well received is if or when I do a comic book convention, something I just don't like doing anymore. Now I just like to go as a spectator and telling people what a bastard Kevin Taylor is.
I don't know what I can accomplish by doing a blog because I hate typing on the computer. I did all the lettering this way for the first volume of GIRL: The Second Coming and my eyes were never the same from staring at this goddamned monitor. Maybe I can communicate with you this way and figure out a way to explain why it's taking so long to finish my last GIRL book or how they make Fig Newtons. I just don't know.
I'll write here as often as time allows and put up a new drawing or two to keep you updated on what I'm working on.I'm hoping I can do this at least once a month. Trust me, for me that's a lot. Mainly because I don't have much to say.
I'm trying to get my work done.
