Bottomless Bellybutton by Dash Shaw

Satellite CMYK was the name of the short I was referencing with the people living in the isolated floors, btw

Also, (sorry I'm on Dash Shaw overload today) there's a decent interview here.

I especially like this, which is basically an awesome unwritten epilogue to Bodyworld:

That said, if there was a telepathy-inducing drug, I think it should be experimented with, in a controlled environment, and I would definitely want to try it. But it's dangerous because if it becomes too widespread, it would lead to a hive mind, which is what happens in "BodyWorld." However, eventually, after the hive mind has become the norm, then people would find ways to "shield" their bodymind from the other members of the hive and things would return to almost exactly the way things are now, pre-telepathy. But that would all happen many years after the "BodyWorld" story ends.

And also this little bit about how his animation work is affecting his comics:

oing animation increases your sensitivity to your body, because you have to think about how you walk and move. You have to do a million little drawings for the most mundane things. You could do a comic like that, but it'd take a lot of pages and very little would happen, which is I guess what "Bottomless" is like. Now that I'm doing animation more, my comics are getting leaner, tighter, and more detailed. If you do a hundred drawings of someone sitting down for an animation, you want to work on one detailed comic page next, to keep yourself balanced.

I thought bodyworld was fun and well structured but showed his need to mature as a writer... he got away with some silly scripting in bellybutton but it felt a bit strained and precious at times in bodyworld
that said: i'm so excited this guy is on the scene. hope he doesn't become a filmmaker

name-checking P. Chung twice - nice! wouldn't have guessed that as influence

btw, did anyone else pick up the The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century compilation?

I bought UNCLOTHED MAN this week, just thinking it was a collection of miscellaneous Shaw shawts. Imagine my annoyance when, removed from plastic shrinkwrap, the inside flap helpfully explains that it's 20% storyboards for a cartoon I can't watch, and 80% stuff I already have. Fuuuuck off, helpful bookshop.

― Oh boy, Midgard! That's where I'm a Viking! (sic), Saturday, 1 May 2010 18:12 (4 weeks ago)

You can watch the ifc stuff free online, although none of them look nearly as cool as the trailer to his new film imo

I watched all of Unclothed Man online and thought it was amazing.

IFC even started geoblocking their podcasts a few years ago!

sic, you can't watch these?

http://www.ifc.com/unclothed-man-in-the-35th-century-ad/

unclothed man also collects his blind date short story, which is one of my favorite things of his. when i went to see him talk in berkeley, he talked about how there was going to be a whole book of these, based on pages from a blind date tribute website that he had bookmarked, but when the website went down and he couldn't get in touch with the page administrator, he gave up and moved on to other projects.

he's working on a new book in addition to the animation stuff, so i don't think the printed page is in danger of losing him just yet.

sic, you can't watch these?

hmm, I tried, but after two minutes of buffering-and-playing, the ad before either Schrodinger's Shaw or a message saying that this content is unavailable in my area had made it from 31 seconds remaining to 21 seconds remaining.

BTW I should have said that Satellite CMYK was indeed great, in Mome. There was a high-school-set one that struck me the most from his contributions, though. I suppose I might as well actually turn the pages of the hardcover and read it again.

he got away with some silly scripting in bellybutton but it felt a bit strained and precious at times in bodyworld

disagree! found bodyworld a real leap forward in art and script! opinions!

got my copy of bodyworld yesterday and re-read it last night in bed (but not naked). The vertical format - which i found interesting and novel to start with, then somewhat suspicious and cumbersome, and finally it just felt natural - is cool, and the book just looks great.

I liked the way that the fluoro orange ink on the left-hand side, where the spine would normally be, made satisfying snapping noises as I opened each fresh double-page.

i keep moving house and whenever i come across this thing tucked away in a pile of books i'm sure that it's the nicest shiny-brown object i own

as a banana slug farmer, I still agree with you

I finished editing the layouts for the new book I’m working on. I started working on this comic last year, simultaneously with the animation, but after going to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (for The Ruined Cast) I decided to scratch what I’d done on the comic and script it all out- like a comic script, all words, and then from that I did the layouts in sketchbooks.

This is the first long book I’ve completely laid out and scripted beforehand. Usually I’d start with an outline or piece together and rearrange separate scenes, but I’ve tried a lot of different ways, and I’ve written scripts for shorter comics before.

http://i54.tinypic.com/2whgvna.jpg

PUMPED

"Ruined Cast" is one of those things where it's like they scanned my brain to figure out just what I'd like most to exist in the world w/out consciously realizing it. I am stoked. And also excited for whatever comic comes out of that epic stack of scripts!

<3 Dash Shaw

"Ruined Cast" is one of those things where it's like they scanned my brain to figure out just what I'd like most to exist in the world w/out consciously realizing it.

Definitely. Frank Santoro contributes, too! It's going to be awesome, there's no way around it

frank santoro is awesome. i've emailed him back and forth about buying books and art from him, and there's this really noticeable and funny trend in his tone going from REALLY EXCITED THAT I'M INTERESTED IN HIS ART to just. barely. tolerating. me. he's still awesome, though.

Dash Shaw photographed for L'Uomo Vogue

he gets a groomer now?

bit of a dash shaw reference/influence in the new Chris Ware book, Lint, I think. Just a bit?

Dash posted some character model sheets from the Ruined Cast (still really excited for this btw!) this morning. Character model sheets are pretty much my favorite thing to look at in the world, I think.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2nb7qkk.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/103x160.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/oktxqw.jpg

I like Jose's full, puffy lips. They look satisfying to draw.

me too. Jose's my fav out of the three. I had the following exchange with Dash on his blog:

ZS
December 6, 2010 at 10:37 am
These model sheets are so fun to look at. I especially love Jose and his chiseled jawline. If you have any more I’d love to see them!

Dash Shaw
December 6, 2010 at 10:49 am
Thanks, ZS. I’ll post more later. Some of them get pretty sloppy, though. Mostly I try to keep everything very simple and generic-looking, knowing that when different people draw the same person it’ll always move a little off-model. If it’s generic, like a house style, everyone can shoot for the same face and it’ll end up a little wonky in its consistency (which I like) while still being recognizable as the same character.

:D

I should write Dash Shaw a letter.

Yesterday I went with the family to see Rabbit Hole, new movie w/ Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart directed by John Cameron Mitchell from Hedwig. It was OK. As my girlfriend described it "grief porn". But at some point you see a hand drawing these designs and it looked interesting but you weren't sure who was doing it. A bit later they start drawing faces and I immediately thought "that looks just like Dash Shaw's style" but it was pretty basic and I thought it was a coincidence. Later you see the complete drawings, a full comic book a character was drawing called "Rabbit Hole" and soon as they showed it I knew immediately it was his. The character in the movie even describes the comic, something about parallel universes and a teenager with a double looking for his father or something. In other words, a Dash Shaw comic. It looked great, I hope they release it!

Yeah I saw the drawings in the trailer and thought "D. SHaw???" I missed Mitchell's name in the trailer or I probably would have made the connection bcz they're both doing "The Ruined Cast." I want to see it in spite of it looking like 90 straight mins of a divorce (iirc?).

I didn't even put the Ruined Cast thing together. I can't believe how excited I am for the Ruined Cast. And in general I can't believe how excited I am about Dash Shaw. Been a long time since any kind of artist has affected me this way.

Anyway, divorce issues are there, but it's more about coping, or not coping, and people's various ways of coping. It has some funny bits and some melodramatic bits. It's worth watching I suppose but not a priority.

wait...what's the deal with Rabbit Hole? I didn't know about any of this! Is Dash Shaw (the real person) putting out a comic called Rabbit Hole? Or did they just use some of his drawings in the movie? Sorry, feel like a dummy here, totally hungover.

yes. http://blog.electricantzine.com/dash-shaw-hands-and-art-in-rabbit-hole

thanks!

also, that post pointed to a video that Dash put up on the Ruined Cast blog once that's cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbHwS_hDBk

http://www.strandbooks.com/strandicon

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/999818113/the-ruined-cast-an-animated-feature-by-dash-shaw-0?ref=recommended

The Ruined Cast has a kickstarter thing going now:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/999818113/the-ruined-cast-an-animated-feature-by-dash-shaw-0?ref=recommended

Along with the list of things you "get" if you donate at various levels (i'm probably going to splurge and go for the $40 to get a ltd. edition print from the film+digital download of film on release day+signed postcard - rich people may want to donate $1000 and get themselves drawn into the movie itself), it also includes this description of the project:

The Ruined Cast is a hand-drawn animated feature I’ve written and am directing. It’s my first attempt into feature-length animating. I’ve been tamed, beaten, and trained by producers John Cameron Mitchell (director of Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Shortbus and Rabbit Hole), Howard Gertler (Shortbus & Bobcat Goldthwait's World’s Greatest Dad) and Biljana Labovic (Bill Plympton’s Idiots & Angels) to bring this to the screen. The video above is a teaser meant to prematurely arouse you for a movie night that is two million drawings away from completion.

I’ve also been developing the project at the scenic Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting & Directing Labs. It’s been a loving, collaborative environment in which I’ve honed the script and learned to mercilessly manipulate actors and crew.

What’s the story?

Michael Malone has created an enclosed scientific community, Argus, where he experiments on the population and the members of his own family. His latest experiment is a personality-altering cosmetic shell. If you don the shell of another person, their personality seeps into you. Aided by gross overdoses of Jamais Vu pills, which give you the experience of feeling something for the first time (as opposed to déjà vu), you can be completely reborn in a new personality. When he loses a test subject in this new process, his control over Argus and his family begins to unravel. His art student son finds and hides the escaped test subject and plans to overthrow his father’s work!

uh, multiple weird things in that post of mine just now, sorry. for some reason even with stupid posts like this i end up trying to write it several different ways, with different versions of the post, and then sometimes i forget to clean up the mess before hitting the "submit post" button.

Oh man, I've never wanted to throw $$$ at anything so bad.

I funded 50 bucks. It's not a lot of time to raise that much money, but I kinda think there's two kinds of projects on Kickstarter. The ones nobody really cares about that raise a little money from family and the ones everyone already loves and will raise more then they need.

or not.

$40 for an image from the film seems like a good buy

and he's at the strand in half an hour!

Wld maybe throw in for the $150 pkg if Justin3 & ytth hadn't already hooked me up with an Unclothed Man... decorated by Shaw.

Also those 'thank you' portraits at the end of Bottomless Belly Button make me think whoever has the disposable $1k probably will not be disappointed.

$40 for an image from the film seems like a good buy

Plus a signed postcard and digital download of film!

knowing my luck, the image from the film that i get will be an extreme close-up of poolwater or something, just a flat grey-blue

http://www.globaltotaloffice.com/textiles_finishes/large/DF_94_GreyBlue.jpg

limited edition still!

i threw in $40 as well. 25K is a lot, but i hope he gets it.

this is off the subject of dash shaw, but still comics related: this is the most recent kickstarter i donated to.

everyone should at least watch the video - it's pretty rad.

i love bodyworld soooooooo much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9xtzY5Lmw

yo shaw fans... desert island is selling an awesome bodyworld print for $15 on eBay right now... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dash-Shaw-BodyWorld-hand-printed-and-signed-art-print-/220946476470?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33716fadb6#ht_500wt_1313

this used to be way more expensive, and it's really cool (and enormous).

also zs - did you ever get the print from the ruined cast kickstarter sent to you? i got mine pretty recently, and i have to say, it was great but totally not what i was expecting.

I got the ruined cast print as well. I dont' know where I'll put it, it doesn't go anywhere in my place! I've met the guy who does a lot of Dash's and Desert Island's printing, he just moved his shop to a bigger space in brooklyn and had an open studio party thursday night:

http://havenpress.com/

How did you guys hang your Dieball prints? nails? tape? psychic spells?