Update: Yes, I do contract/custom book cover design. Please contact me directly to inquire about rates.

Here’s an early sketch I found for the Ojingogo book cover. I loved doing cover / production design. I wanted the cover to hint at the whole story – the same way Saul Bass’ credit sequences do for the films they introduce.

It was also important the cover be a good design and not necessarily a good illustration. Too many comics rely on good illustrations – or worse – ruin good illustrations by neglecting design.

I was also taking photos of book covers wherever I went. Here are a few book covers I found in Paris last Spring:

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One of the projects I’m working on right now with the National Film Board is a production blog for a film about DJ Socalled (aka Josh Dolgin). Socalled samples classic Klezmer music and turns it into phat beats.

Here’s an early videoblog from by Aisling, where Josh talks about his sampling process. Pretty cool.

Right now, SoCalled and a film crew are cruising down the Dnieper river in the Ukraine with about 200 Klezmer musicians and enthusiasts. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, Aisling‘s recording the whole Klezmer cruise over at the Socalled Film site.

More stuff:
Socalled Music
Socalled on MySpace
Aisling Chin-Yee (Associate Producer, NFB)
Beitel / Lazar Productions

Awesome.

Ragni’s CD and accompanying 72pp graphic novel are finally available for purchase! And, at, $12.99 it’s a frickin’ steal. Karl has posted a couple sample pages. I think they should put up more preview pages. The art is gorgeous, but you really need to see it to believe it.

Just posted about it at Drawn! Hopefully, it will get them a little more well-deserved attention.

I’ve had access to a camera lately, so I put together this music video for Eric Bachman’s instrumental masterpiece, “Islero”.

Well, Johnny threw down the gauntlet again. So here are the first 15 random tracks from my iPod:

1. Across the Great Divide – The Band
2. Used to Be A Sweet Boy – Morrissey
3. One Last “Woo-hoo!” – Sufjan Stevens
4. The Future Language of Slaves – Hawksley Workman
5. In a Mellow Tone – Louis Armstrong
6. Reptilla – The Strokes
7. Letterbomb – Green Day
8. Beauty is Only Skin Deep – The Temptations
9. Jump In The River – Sinead O’Connor
10. The Common Cold – Raising The Fawn
11. Helter Skelter – The Beatles
12. Smokescreen – Odds
13. No. 13 Baby – Pixies
14. All in a Day – Paddy Casey
15. All of Me – Dinah Washington

I’ve been meaning to delete that Green Day album.

I really have.

The Hidden Cameras, now signed to Rough Trade, have released their second CD, ‘Mississauga Goddam’.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Mississauga – my father used to live there – and though I know nothing about urban planning, I am sure that universities everywhere use Mississauga as a case study in how not to organise a city. Despite the lakeshore, there is very little green-space and few walkable footpaths. The city is connected to Toronto by vast swathes of concrete, punctuated by clusters of apartment buildings and smoggy highways that are navigable only by car or ass-numbing bus rides.

Then, it was no joke. But now, along with The Hidden Cameras, I can laugh and sing about it. Here are two selected verses from this instant classic:

Mississauga goddam
There’s the drudgery of my old man
I’ll be wearing my disguise
Until I rid my life of
Mississauga goddam

Mississauga skyline
Filled with the shadows of the power lines
With the garbage at your feet you can build a mountain to the moon
Mississauga goddam

More from the iPod Shuffle Department. I’ve since tripled the volume on my mp3 player, but the “random” feature still seems to like Blur a lot more than I do.

1. Dire Straits – Single handed sailor
2. Doves- Friday’s Dust
3. The Constantines – Steal This Sound
4. Brian Reitzell et al. – Shibuya
5. Ron Sexsmith – First Chance I Get
6. Matthew Forsythe – Fill My Umbrella
7. Blur – The Universal
8. Dire Straits – On Every Street
9. Blur – There’s No Other Way
10. Stevie Wonder – Summer Soft
11. Sarah Harmer – Tether
12. Wilco – Company In My Back
13. Nick Buzz – River
14. Bill Hicks – The Pope
15. Spiritualized – Lord Can You Hear Me

Okay. Mp3 player on random. First 15 songs. Editing for coolness is strictly against the rules:

1. The Beatles – Let it Be (Acoustic)
2. The Shins – Weird Divide
3. The Decemberists – Leslie Anne Levine
4. Elvis Costello – Alibi
5. Blur – Tender
6. Steve Earle – Don’t Want To Lose You
7. Blur – Girls & Boys
8. Broken Social Scene – Cause = Time
9. Natalie Merchant – Dust Bowl (Live)
10. The Flaming Lips – Gash
11. Ron Sexsmith – Wastin’ Time
12. Sarah Harmer – Black Coffee
13. Brenden Fletcher – Spinning The Checkmate
14. The Beatles – I’ve Got A Feeling
15. Jack Johnson – Tomorrow Morning