Listen for yourself!

“New Suede Jacket”

“My Candelabra”

Hey all, how you doing?

The comics are going to be a little sporadic for a few weeks. I am working on a big art project, but don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you. Kisses.

Sorry it is so damn late! Next up, a Halloween Comic!

So…

About a month later I found it in the parking lot at work. Run over, left out in the rain, searing in the 100 degree heat. It was like coming across a crime scene:

The poor guy looked bad. Cap busted, clip bent all to hell. He had fallen on tough times:

I tossed him in my pocket next to the newer one and went inside. I pulled out a fresh piece of paper and sure enough, it still worked.

I was so impressed that I drew a little picture and hand wrote a letter to Pilot telling them the tale. I am sure they know how awesome their pens are but I just thought I would let them know that it doesn’t go unnoticed.

I figured they might send me a note back, but I wasn’t expecting anything. A few days go by and I get a package in the mail. Holy Shit. It is from Pilot:

Class act Pilot. Class Act. Thanks a bunch Pilot for not only making one hell of a pen but for taking care of your customers.

If you are reading this, thanks.

Nick Folz.

Hello readers! As I’m sure you have figured out, my wife and I are having a baby. We are just days away so the updates might be spotty at best. Wish us luck!

It is true, Pregnancy is ten months. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

For those of you who are not regular readers, I have a problem with tracking numbers: http://brokecracker.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/we-put-the-lord-in-mail-order/

It is a sickness. If you have a tracking number, I would love to see it…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvtr9ordB8Y

Just noticed I am getting flooded with new users from DMFA, welcome to the page! Hopefully you all can occupy yourself by poking around here for a little bit. I hope you like it!

Thanks Amber!

No update for the rest of the week, busy busy busy. Should be back to normal over the weekend! Now would be a good time to catch up on the older posts, or just go back and re-read them. Think of all the good times we had together. Hey remember that one with me and the dogs? Good times…

Maybe I will to put a couple extra updates into next week.

Thanks for reading!

Here is a flyer I did for the local roller derby team, check out their website: http://www.demolitioncityrollerderby.com/

Shout out to my dad, the archetypal collector. Done out of love, pa. 

My dad does actually own the pair of pants in the first panel. They might look funny in the cartoon, because in real  life they have patches of throwback logos of sports teams all over the legs. I have no idea where he bought them but he loves them.  He never met a yard sale he didn’t like.

P.S. I do have to go to the dentist today, this is all I can think about…

He really did! We watched my nephew one night this weekend, he is really about 7 months old. I will give you the simple two step process to maky any infant laugh: lean back and take a big breath, then lean in and make a brhrhrhrhrh sound with your lips. He would cackle and kick his feet. If making adults laugh was that easy, I would reprint that every day and be the most popular artist of all time.

I can officially state that this is NOT what happened, I am just always worried about sounding like an asshole in print. I guess I worry about that a lot because sarcasm does not transfer well to the written form, and I can be sarcastic about 80% of the time and ironic the other 20%…

Big thanks to Mark and Dylan and everyone at News 4U! I thought the only people who read my comic were my friends and family. You all should check out Mark’s website: http://www.markmccoyphotography.com/

And if you want to read the article it is here: http://www.news4uonline.com/features/creative-spotlight—nick-folz-2035.aspx

Thanks yall!

A friend of mine is doing a horror anthology and has asked me to do a six page story for it. I am very excited and honored that he thought of me, plus it will force me to work in a different subject matter than usual. I will post the pages here as I finish them, hopefully the first page will be up tomorrow.

See you soon!

This one was for a friend who really liked the SNES video game “Earthbound.”  All of the characters in the picture are in the game. I could explain but it would be easier for you just to play it, which you should have anyway.

So my wife bought me a huge pack of what she thought was Sharpies but turned out to be Shoupies. I didn’t notice until after a few hours of use, only because I tried to put the wrong cap on it. They are dead-ringers for Sharpies, but for some reason they won’t “wear” Sharpie caps.

Sorry about the blur factor, but you can see the resemblance.The  ”ar” and the “ou” are obviously meant to look like one another. The Sharpie has very little writing on it: “SHARPIE fine point AP (logo) permanent Marker.”

The Shoupie has quite a bit more: “SP (logo) Tou Wen Zi  Series No.95000 SHOUPIE fine point permanent market. Permanent on Most Surfaces. Quick Drying. Recap When Not In Use. Do Not Shake. Not For Letter Writing Or Cloth. Made In China” let me repeat part of that “Not For Letter Writing Or Cloth.” that seems weird.

So, being the picky pen person I am, I couldn’t help but do a side by side:

Well, the first thing you can notice is the line is thicker. I looked at the felt tips and they are the same size, but the shoupies felt seems to be softer and gives quite a bit more when even lightly pressed. You can see this easily in the dot test, it is possible to make fine marks but you have to be very careful.

 The Shoupie tip doesn’t seem to have as fine of “action” either. Look at the curves of the wavy line and the drawing of the hand, you can see it in the turn of the line where the Shoupie seems to stick a little.

The black box test the Shoupie hands down wins. At first I thought it was just releasing more ink in the line, I flipped the paper over and there was no more bleed-through than with the Sharpie. You can still see it in the scanned version, but there is no comparison in real life. Shoupie FTW.

The Sharpie wins the water test, and here you start to see a real drawback to the Shoupie. The line is already staring to fade. Both these pens were tested fresh, first time I have used either of them. I capped the Shoupie and it seemed to work fine for me later, but it is always scary to get that weak of a line in only a couple of minutes.

Final Thoughts: The Shoupie is pretty much what you would expect from a Sharpie clone. While I am disappointed in the line quality in the water test I am not surprised. I was surprised by the black box test. For $3.99 at a flea market for a 14 pack I think it is still a bargain. I have been using them on the series of paintings I am working on and they have been outperforming the Sharpies due to the soft felt and dark ink. So pick up a pack if you see them around, I wouldn’t kick them out of my pen case.

For pen related fun check out: http://www.penaddict.com/ for reviews and giveaways

No kidding!Here are some pics of Peanut Folz!

Yes, it’s true. My wife is two months along now. We didn’t want to say anything too early, now the cat is out of the bag. Where did that expression come from anyway? I mean really, who carries around a cat in a bag? It should get out and claw your fuckin face up for putting it in a bag in the first place, but I digest…

I hope to update a little more regularly now that I can draw cartoons about it, because that is how I deal with things, I draw about them.

Robot!

The Log Inn is a real place. You can’t find the damn thing on google maps, you search for it and you find a damn corn field. You have to look up Scotty’s Lawn Care and then pan up the road a piece to find it. Bad directions are like a hallmark of any great downhome cookin’ joint.

And downhome it is, they do it “Family Style” which means you order your meat: Fried Chicken, Catfish, Roastbeef, or Ham. Then They bring out plate after plate of it and sides that are pre-chosen. Basically you eat until your jaw is tired then lean back and pat your belly and try not to nod off.  Good stuff.

And here are the paintings I still have for sale, if interested let me know…

It was a lot of fun this year, got a lot of art from local artists I have been meaning to get stuff from. Excited about maybe more shows. Big ups to Amerikant for showing up, that was the surprise of the day for me. Looking forward to future art projects. I will keep you posted.

I the meantime… feel free to sign up for this free pen giveaway! http://www.penaddict.com/2009/09/giveaway-sharpie-stainless-steel-permanent-marker-sharpie-pen-rt.html#trackback

Leave a comment with what you are looking forward to!

I carry such a selection:

Above: Pen Case, Two Moleskins, Three Pack Bristol Board stored in a Laptop Case.

I have converted an old PSP case I bought from a dollar store into a pen bag. I know, I know, but it works fine:

Inside I have a bunch of erasers, lead refills, gray scale markers, and a sharpie or two. But the main line-up I use is here:

From Left To Right: Alvin Draftmatic .09, Alvin Draftmatic .03, Uniball KuruToga .05, Pilot Precise V5, Faber Castell Black Brush Pen, Staedtler .07, ZIG Millennium .08

I could write and write about all of them, but I will focus on three:

Alvin Draftmatic .09 is awesome.  I like a writing utensil to feel sturdy, like a machine. Boy does this fit the bill. More of a drafting tool than a pencil, you could drop this thing from the scaffolding of a skyscraper and it wouldn’t be phased. I like the .09 lead because you can actually shade with it because of the large surface area. Also would make a great makeshift weapon in the zombie apocalypse.

Pilot Precise V5: Once again, this pen is a work horse. I had one for almost six months, I lost it before it ran out of ink. I am a fan of the utilitarian design and style, but the cold hard fact is this pen preforms better than any other pen, needle tipped or otherwise,  I have used.  My favorite writing utensil period.

The Uniball Kuru Toga: This is THE mechanical pencil to have if all you are doing is writing words. That is probably hard to understand, what I am saying is this isn’t a great drawing pencil. It IS a great writing pencil, because it rotates the lead while you write so that the lead stays sharp. Let me repeat that. It rotates the frickin’ lead WHILE YOU WRITE. The way it does this is through the pressing and lifting of the pencil to the paper, so if you are are writing you are doing this fairly frequently. If you are drawing, well, you are doing this inconsistently. Some lines are longer than others and there-for the edge doesn’t stay as sharp. But this is hands down the best pencil to lay out text with. Plus it’s cool to show off.

I keep my paper, Bristol Board, in a laptop case that I got for free when my lovely wife bought me my messenger bag. Bristol is a heavy stock brand of paper they sell at most art stores, it has a heavy tooth (texture) that holds ink really well.

I have two moleskins, one is a sketch book and the other is mainly for writing and lists and whatnot.

And that is it, my studio on the go. I have everything I need in my messenger bag to make comics, now if only I could learn how to draw…

For those who are unfamiliar with Joe’s work, his music is jazz based with very loose arrangements often featuring piano, Spanish style guitar, and usually highlighting dramatic horns. That description does what he creates little justice.

Joe Henry started his career as an alt-country artist.  To be honest I have only heard one of his older albums and it struck me as unremarkable.  Mid-career Joe released “Trampoline” in 1996. It would be a watershed moment for him, like when Dylan went electric or Tom Waits’ “Swordfishtrombones.”

On “Trampoline” gone are his country song structures and steely guitars, in their place are sweeping drum brushes and wavering horns. His next release “Fuse” experiments with song samples and a more heavily produced sound, with a Sly and The Family Stone feel bordering on Dub. 

His next release “Scar,” featured Marc Ribot, Brad Mehldau, and a rare performance from legend Ornette Coleman,  gained him respect in jazz circles. Joe also becomes more daring with his song writing on “Richard Pryor Addresses A Tearful Nation” and “Stop” (covered by Madonna as “Don’t Tell Me”).

Joe Henry then signs on with ANTI record company and drops “Tiny Voices,” a sonic soup that roars from start till stop. If “Scar” was a warm cup of tea on a rainy day then “Tiny Voices” is an overflowing, bubbling cocktail. Songs spin out of control and spill over into the next track, only to get wrestled to the ground by Joe, who then lets them loose again. Joe really shows his strength as a producer here, which he is building a reputation as, producing albums for Solomon Burke (Grammy winning) and Ani Difranco among others.

 ”Tiny Voices” is followed up by “Civilians” which is much simpler musically and much more complicated lyrically. His song writing stretches and reaches flipping phases and turning words into surprising twists. It is sonically stripped down as if to say “Pay Attention, you might miss the point.”

Well, that brings us to the new release “Blood From Stars.”  As you might guess from the title, it is a darker, bluesy album full of some of Joe smartest lyrics. Sonically, prepare for a return of the cacophony of “Tiny Voices.” Marc Ribot is back with his ten fingered hands and Joe’s son plays the sax which is spot on. Most of the songs follow the blues structure of simple lines and repetition, here it is juxtaposed by the wild antics of top notch musicians. Subtle when it needs to be, out of control when it should, the songs ebb and flow. Production is top tier again as you can almost sense a menacing force hiding in the back beat of the songs.  Light and dark is a huge theme through out and the final two tracks seem to close that theme out quite nicely: “Stars” despite the lyrics  (a couple searching for a light they swore they left on) is bright, playful and hopeful. “Light No Lamp When The Sun Comes Down”  is dark, moody and yearning.

It is those two forces that pull this album towards it glorious end: grace and grime, hope and fear, joy and misery. For an artist who is overlooked too often, purhaps the darkness is where he will shine the most.