Links to Jack's Comics

I feel guilty about pushing Rosie's picture down in the queue, but that's the nature of blogs, and they must roll on. Today is comics day. Click on the pictures below to read:

The Adventures of James McGill

This is a recent freelance job. A comic that was supposed to go out in a mailing to McGill University Alumni. It was written by Daniel McCabe of McGill Alumni affairs. Unfortunately, it had to go through a lot of bureaucracy to be approved, and one level decided it was too flippant. Hence, it never came out (however, I did get paid). But I've got permission to put it up here.

It was a pleasure researching all of the university backgrounds. Also, working with someone who had not written a comic before, but was flexible, and had a sense of humour. Though there were a lot of words to fit in, the writer had a good visual imagination, so it worked pretty well. I can't say the same about all the writers I've tried to collaborate with!

Some Buildings Breathe History

This is old, but something a friend of mine, Drew, wanted to see. It was published in the 1994 edition of "Statik," which was a tabloid-size zine (long defunct, only a couple of issues, it seemed) put out by CKUT, the McGill campus radio station (I've not actually gone to McGill, but I seem to be having a lot to do with them).

I did this way before I had heard of Ben Katchor's "Julius Knipl" comics in the Village Voice, but it was also a kick to research the history of this building in Montreal.

I talked to the Super of the Belgo Building, and got a chance to visit the bowling lanes in the basement, which still exist, but in a dilapidated state. The pool tables are long gone, but you can see the bare rectangular spaces on the floor where the legs went. I wish I had recorded the mosiac in the floor, also still there, proclaiming this to be the "Windsor Lanes." The Super told me to mention there are no rats there, absolutely no rats.

A French version of this (helpfully translated by Richard Gagnon) is appearing in an anthology published by Jimmy Beaulieu's Mechanique Generale imprint. I don't know when.

The version here is a little hard to read, thanks mainly to my spidery lettering, but the original went over two pages in the middle section of a tabloid newspaper, so there you go.