BEST JOKES?

comicsworkbook: Behold THE INFINITE CORPSE, a jam comic started...

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:24:25 -0400

Behold THE INFINITE CORPSE, a jam comic started in secret over a year ago by Aaron Renier, Nate Beaty and the other cartoonists of Chicago’s comics collective Trubble Club. Based on a combination of Raw’s Narrative Corpse project and Scott McCloud’s idea of the “infinite canvas,” it’s a kind of exquisite corpse comic focused around the skeleton Corpsey. There are already 200+ cartoonists who’ve participated (Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Pen Ward, Carol Tyler, Ivan Brunetti, Lilli Carré etc etc etc) and now it is open to everyone. So go, read! Contribute! Be a part of this ground-breaking new project!

comicsworkbook: Jessica Campbell “MRS. CONNIE DUTTON: A...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:51:10 -0400

comicsworkbook:

Jessica Campbell

“MRS. CONNIE DUTTON: A literary adaptation of spam”

Made for Comics Workbook

comicsworkbook: Jessica Campbell “Cubicle Ghost” Made for...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:35:24 -0500

comicsworkbook:

Jessica Campbell

“Cubicle Ghost”

Made for Comics Workbook

Nate Pritts very graciously asked me to do this NEXT BIG THING...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:09:30 -0500

Nate Pritts very graciously asked me to do this NEXT BIG THING interview series that is floating around amongst writers, so here is mine, several days later than I had anticipated/hoped!

What is the working title of the book?    

KENNY ROGERS: TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN LOVE

Where did the idea come from for the book?    

Did you know that Kenny Rogers is a phone sex freak? It’s true. A person I used to work with at a bookstore once told me, so it is credible ‘cause those people are smart. Anyway, I had been talking about it for years, how Kenny Rogers had a phone sex line hooked up to his house and his wife left him because of it and then I started to think a little more about it—just WHERE in the house would he field these calls? Was it a normal looking phone? Or just the regular family phone but with a special ringtone? Or, maybe, he built a special phone sex antechamber kinda room that his wife didn’t even know about and hung out in there waiting for phone calls. So that is where the idea for the book came from, kinda.

What genre does your book fall under?

I wrote it out as prose but I’ve started to turn it in to a comic, which is what it will hopefully end up being unless something goes terribly awry.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?   

Well, the clear choice is the man himself, Kenny Rogers. However, on the chance that the tabloid magazine cover I saw recently that proclaimed he “is on the brink of death” is accurately, I guess anyone from that “men who look like Kenny Rogers” website would do the trick. Or maybe Lena Dunham could play him.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? 

Kenny Rogers, the smooth-voiced gambler, seduces his way across the phone lines of America.

 How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?   

Well, I am still working on the draft so really who knows. It has been intermittent work—I’m in grad school for painting at the Art Institute of Chicago so much of my time (in theory at least) is spent doing that—but I started it in September. This probably sounds way more impressive than it should because it’ll probably end up being zine length, but still. It feels like it’s been a long time, at least. So that is something.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?   

Well, mostly it was because I’d been talking about Kenny Rogers’ sexual proclivities for years but hadn’t really spent enough time emotionally investigating that. And, of course, I thought it was funny. Mostly the latter, actually. Oh and I decided to try to make it a comic because some cartoonist friend was talking about renting a cabin with a bunch of people and swimming and biking and making art and then kind of caught himself and said to me “er, artists [i.e. cartoonists] only,” and I wanted to be invited, on the OFF CHANCE that ever happens.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?   

It really depends on what shape it takes and if it ends up being any good, which is easy-ish for me to gauge with my joke-writing and drawing but IMPOSSIBLE for me to gauge with comics. If it turns out well, I imagine Oily Comics (who published My Sincerest Apologies and The Public Life of Bees) will do it. If I am still in their good graces.

My tagged writers for next week are:

Lee McClure

Guillaume Morissette

Corinne Mucha

Aaron Renier

Marian Runk

comicsworkbook: Being a book person and moving is a pain in the...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:15:39 -0500

comicsworkbook:

Being a book person and moving is a pain in the ass, but one slightly positive thing about it is that packing and subsequently unpacking books sometimes uncovers a few forgotten gems. Case in point, this 1959 reprint of a 1917 collection of wood cuts and “humourous poems” by physicist Robert Williams Wood. Some (very minor) research brings up a slightly different version from 1907.

This ed. has an introduction written by his daughter that essentially lauds the “dad joke” nature of this book. For instance:

“Here, dear Reader, is the true zest for living. No barbed satire, no insults, no attacks, no grounds for libel suits. In these days or sharp words and strong accusations, political and non-political, I hope that you will be surprised and pleased by the simple, whimsical humor that was so characteristic of my father.” (Margaret Wood White’s intro to How to Tell the Birds From the Flowers and Other Woodcuts)

Also, dig the puss/octo-pus on page 31! How Lynda Barry are those drawings?

-Jessica

comicsworkbook: Jessica Campbell “Accidental Baby...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:37:51 -0500

comicsworkbook:

Jessica Campbell

“Accidental Baby President”

Made for Comics Workbook

Photo

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:25:36 -0500

comicsworkbook: Jessica Campbell “Books I Wish I’d...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:05:48 -0500

comicsworkbook:

Jessica Campbell

“Books I Wish I’d Written”

Made for Comics Workbook

comicsworkbook: Jessica Campbell “Movie-themed salons I...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:59:32 -0500

comicsworkbook:

Jessica Campbell

“Movie-themed salons I wouldn’t patronize”

Made for Comics Workbook

THINGS NO ONE HAS EVER SAID TO ME

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:16:51 -0500

THINGS NO ONE HAS EVER SAID TO ME

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:00:38 -0500

THINGS NO ONE HAS EVER SAID TO ME

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 22:15:51 -0500

THINGS NO ONE HAS EVER SAID TO ME

BROS I AM SORRY FOR NO JOKES LATELY, but I have been working on paintings. Back to jokes soon, I pray!

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 16:18:25 -0500

BROS I AM SORRY FOR NO JOKES LATELY, but I have been working on paintings. Back to jokes soon, I pray!

Jessica Campbell at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago...

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:26:55 -0500

Jessica Campbell at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago giving a lecture on her discoveries in the field of Modern Art and her family connection to Andy Warhol

A SECRET MISSIVE TO MY CANADIAN BRETHREN REGARDING MY RECENT...

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:20:00 -0400

A SECRET MISSIVE TO MY CANADIAN BRETHREN REGARDING MY RECENT FINDINGS ON U.S.A. AND ITS CULTURE, LOVINGLY SUBMITTED FOR YOUR APPROVAL BY YOUR UNDERCOVER COMRADE (part 1) by Jessica Campbell

MURDER SHE WROTE by Jessica Campbell

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:54:50 -0400

MURDER SHE WROTE by Jessica Campbell

BAD NICKNAMES TO GIVE TO A WOMAN YOU’D LIKE TO...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:49:10 -0400

BAD NICKNAMES TO GIVE TO A WOMAN YOU’D LIKE TO “DO” by Jessica Campbell

EVERY TIME I’VE BEEN DUMPED, RESPECTIVELY, ROLLED IN TO...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:45:20 -0400

EVERY TIME I’VE BEEN DUMPED, RESPECTIVELY, ROLLED IN TO ONE EXTENDED CONVERSATION by Jessica Campbell

REASONS WHY A DOG CAN’T BE PRESIDENT by Jessica Campbell

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:55:05 -0400

REASONS WHY A DOG CAN’T BE PRESIDENT by Jessica Campbell

BLOOM BROTHERS 2000

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:27:45 -0400

Reading Harold Bloom for school reminded me that I wrote a convoluted synopsis for a movie a few years ago called BLOOM BROTHERS 2000, which combines BLUES BROTHERS 2000, THE BROTHERS BLOOM and Harold Bloom. ENJOY.

“Bloom Brothers 2000

Bloom Bloom (Adrian Brody) decides, many years after his “last con” that he must perform another con as a way to reconnect with his deceased brother, Stephen Bloom. His mentally disabled wife, Penelope, died very recently and the long con is the only way he has of remembering both her and his brother. Bloom Bloom seeks out his other, less popular brother, Harold, and decides that they should form a popular touring Blues Band and con music clubs across the US until they can ultimately con the foster care center in which they were raised. Harold Bloom, however, proves not to be the “story teller” that his brother Stephen was and spends the majority of his time criticizing the actions of Bloom Bloom. When Bloom Bloom ultimately decides that he would like to include more scatting in their set, Harold declares it to be the “death of art” and quits the band. Bloom Bloom questions whether a story is really written or not if there is no one around to hear it.”