Any Occasion Shows the Best Way

Sketches from the Met’s Stein Exhibition

What a crazy stretch this has been: embarking on a freelance career; MoCCA; Andrea finishing her first year at SVA; birthdays; and in a few days, my 10th-year high school reunion. I’m also thrilled to announce that I’ll have a piece in the upcoming issue of Moonshot Magazine, and that I’ll soon be giving this site some needed updates.

In the meantime, here are some sketches from the Met’s fantastic exhibition of the Stein family’s collection. I was blown away—I’ve love Matisse forever, but found several images for which I’d never even seen photos. Also discovered Francis Picabia, whose line has a lot to teach a cartoonist.

 

 

 

 

And here are a few more from recent adventures. We saw some crazy birds in Central Park and I found a relief sculpture of Andrea in a detail on a lamppost in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. (I call the weirdest bird a kingfisher, but we’re now pretty sure it was a heron with a truly crazy neck.)

 

 

 

 

The post title, by the way, is from Stein’s Tender Buttons.

Screened

Less Orange.

Here’s the actual print of the Herriman piece. Gonna do some more on nice paper.

 

Geo. Herriman

Garge himself

Here’s what my next screen print should look like—except less neon orange and more rust. I’ll try to update with a better version if I get a chance—or maybe I’ll just scan a finished print!

From e. e. cummings’s 1946 tribute to Krazy Kat:

…let’s make no mistake about Krazy. Her helplessness, as we have just seen, is merely sensical—nonsensically she’s a triumphant, not to say invincible, phenomenon. As for this invincible phenomenon’s supposed idiocy, it doesn’t even begin to fool nonsensical you and me. Life, to a lot of people, means either the triumph of mind over matter or the triumph of matter over mind; but you and I aren’t a lot of people. We understand that, just as there is something—love—infinitely more significant than brute force, there is something—wisdom—infinitely more significant than mental prowess.

You can read the whole essay, and much more, in Craig Yoe’s excellent Krazy Kat & the Art of George Herriman: A Celebration.

First Screen print…

…since high school, at least. It’s for Sara Varon‘s awesome screen-printing class at SVA. The piece could be better, but I’m pretty happy with it for a start.

 

 

 

3rd Ward Drink & Draw

Here are some drawings from a Drink and Draw at 3rd Ward that I attended with the extremely talented Demetrios Vital. Definitely a great place. If you are ever in the neighborhood, absolutely eat at Nam Nam, which manages to have bubble tea and banh mi that are both excellent.

For Andrea “Two Bombs” Tsurumi

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Please go cause some mayhem in the name of love.

A-Changin’

Dearest Fans, Detractors, and Passersby

As you can see, it has been a while, and things have fallen into disrepair. I’m overhauling the site as quickly as I can. This area will soon be an actual blog, with a separate, Webcomic-plugin-powered section of the site to display comics-poems.

It won’t be too much longer. Many thanks for your interest and patience in the meantime.

The HoneySuckle Wall

Poems About Running

First of the new collection. Poems primarily about running and probably plants.

Honeysuckle Wall, Winter page 1, Versequential Comics Poetry by Alexander Rothman

Honeysuckle Wall, Winter page 1, Versequential Comics Poetry by Alexander Rothman

 

Kōjō No Tsuki

Formerly known as “Monk’s Japanese Folk Song”

Here’s the third and last piece I’ll post from Circulating Drafts. There’s one more in the print edition, so if you feel like playing the patron, head on over to the Versequential Etsy page and consider picking one up.

 

Versequential Comics Poetry: Kōjō No Tsuki page 1 by Alexander Rothman

 

Versequential Comics Poetry: Kōjō No Tsuki page 2 by Alexander Rothman

 

Versequential Comics Poetry: Kōjō No Tsuki page 3 by Alexander Rothman

 

Studies

Running Engine

Here are some studies for upcoming projects: stealing shamelessly from Andrea Tsurumi, I’m planning a series of 13 blackbirds. And the next bunch of comics-poems will be about running. Probably a whole chapbook of pieces about this.

This blackbird is Andrea

This blackbird lives in a bog.

This blackbird is diving from a perch.

This blackbird knows what you are thinking.

Studies of barefoot runners

More barefoot running

My continuing ed. class is over—thanks again to Sal Amendola for his wisdom. Now it’s time to save money, but still time to keep learning.