Bottomless Bellybutton by Dash Shaw

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?

i never hung mine! it's in a folder of prints i just "had to have" but never got around to hanging. for most stuff, unless it was really expensive, i put it in a poster frame.

Hung it up with some tape and my wall is looking MIGHTY FINE right now. Wish I could've afforded the kickstarter Ruined Cast print while it was available.

I think Bodyworld is what helped me understand the insaniac later poetry of William Blake.

so, i didn't realize that he pretty much abandoned his old website(s) and started a tumblr at http://dashshaw.tumblr.com/. He's actually been updating it pretty frequently, sometimes with new information about his animated film and forthcoming book, sometimes with older videos he's done, old cover art, etc. this is probably old news for those who pay more attention than i do, but:

• New book coming out via Fantagraphics in Spring 2013! New School. Lots of information here
• Also a comic book called 3 New Stories. Some limited information at the previous link.
• His animated film, The Ruined Cast, appears to have a new title: Shell Game.
• Sounds like making it has been a crazy process. In this entry he talks about redrawing all the storyboards, drawing 20 minutes of animation in color only toss it all out and start over in black and white.

oh cool! glad he has a new book, like i sorta appreciate dipping into news about his animation, &c, but it feels at a tangent from how concretely exciting i found the couple of books. like i might just think it's cool or something.

update just sent out to the Ruined Cast kickstarter supporters:

We made a new short film! Seraph! Part of the Sigur Ros Valtari Mystery Film Experiment! It's playing at Sundance later this month. Hey, if you backed us to receive an original drawing from the feature, but would like an original drawing from this too, please let us know and we will mail you one! I sleep next to stacks of these drawings and I'm eager to send them to backers...

Also, other news: I have a new personal tumblr! dashshaw.tumblr.com

The longer animation is chugging along. I hope you liked Seraph... But do you like comic books too? You should! I have a bunch of new comic books coming out in April. A graphic novel called New School that took me years and years to make, plus a couple zines (New Jobs and Family Feud) and also a comic book called 3 New Stories.

The short film, Seraph, is embedded in the message, but here's the link: http://vimeo.com/valtarifilmexperiment/mitchell-dash

Haven't been able to watch since I'm at work.

dash shaw follows me on tumblr now! he probably follows everyone else back, but still :) :)

he follows me too, and i was also excited about it. high five!

hey, crabbott or z s or others, did any of you pickup the new dash shaw? it's called NEW SCHOOL or something, is set in the 90s & costs $40 & looks really good. I could read a new dash shaw book right now.

new school is really good, but i liked bodyworld better. there's something about new school that feels a little unfinished - i get what he was trying to do, but (and this is weird to say about a 350-page book), but it could have used about 100 more pages of development in the middle. i like that he's trying stuff graphically that no one else in comics is doing right now. at some point he's going to bust out an absolute masterpiece, and it will be amaziing. new school doesn't quite get there, but it's still one of the best books i've read this year. (i'm a huge fanboy, though, so if you're lukewarm on him, you may not like this as much.)

hey! thanks ytth. that's really interesting. i still feel sorta torn by bodyworld, like it maybe had some similar kind of lacunae that could have existed differently. but then it's nice for someone to be working casually & freely in that medium. flicking through the new one made it look lovely, those kinda weirdly brash rauschenberg-coloured spreads in the middle. i hope i get to pick it up. out of curiosity & totally permitting you to go off-topic, what else did you read this year that you liked?

the new dash shaw

He has three new books this year btw, all with "New" in the title

Dash talking about his new books.

I have meant to buy New School for a while but I want to get it from the comics store in town I like and haven't had a chance...

it pains me to say, but i was pretty let down by New School. i don't share ytth's overall enthusiasm, but i do agree with this...

there's something about new school that feels a little unfinished - i get what he was trying to do, but (and this is weird to say about a 350-page book), but it could have used about 100 more pages of development in the middle.

...except that i don't understand what he was trying to do. he made a decision to have the main character speak in a purposefully exaggerated formal old fashioned way, but i don't think it ended up being nearly as funny or interesting as he thought it would be. i also found it difficult to get interested in any of the main characters. in bottomless bellybutton i was so sympathetic toward the frog teen, and recognized elements of myself and others in the rest of the characters. in bodyworld (still my favorite dash shaw work - i'm a bit obsessed) the oddball psychotropic professor was so enjoyable to watch, just the epitome of a slimeball. but New School...i just didn't care what happened to them!

agreed that it's a beautiful book, though.

to be less of a downer, here was a recent post on dash's tumblr that is going to cost me some $$:

I’ve been working on this tonight. I’ve just been thinking about possible presentations. I made a list of single comics that I could easily talk about, each one, for over an hour. So this isn’t my “favorite comics” list… it’s my “I can ramble on endlessly about this book, without any encouragement at all, and bore everyone” list. As of September 4th, 2013, 11pm, off the top of my head. Here you go:

Ayako / Tezuka

Inner City Romance by Guy Colwell

X-Day by Setona Mizushiro

Paying for It / Chester Brown

Underwater / Chester Brown

City of Glass adapted by Mazzucchelli / Karasik

Vengeance Squad / Pete Morisi

Ninja by Brian Chippendale

Wilson by Daniel Clowes

Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi

Black Blizzard by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

bodyworld was dope in a lot of ways, but it still sort of left me unsatisfied... like the idea of the next phase of human consciousness being an anti-individualist hivemind nightmare could have somehow been pushed in a more interesting direction. i think i will check out the new one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8epyx7pt184

i haven't watched all of this yet, but 16:45-23:00 is worth watching if you've ever read his wheel of fortune/blind date/family feud stuff, where he basically just transcribes an episode, straight up. i found these to be pretty much profoundly boring to read through, but listening to him describe his thought process gives it a bit more meaning.

to go back to zs's criticism of new school, here's my thinking on the book. some of this is from my own rumination, although reading some interviews with dash shaw also helped clarify some of his thematic choices. two that stick out are: 1) he taught english in japan as a teenager, and so alot of this book comes from personal experience (although obviously it isn't an autobiography). 2) he was trying to capture what it's like as a teenager when everything that happens to you is the most important thing that has ever happened to anyone, and a lot of the book makes more sense if you think of the narration as limited to what's in danny's head. this is interesting in comics in general, since above-panel narration is often clearly either 1st person or omnicient 3rd person, whereas speech bubbles are associated with whoever is speaking them. it messed with my head a little to try to view the entire comic as something that is limited to danny's perspective, but it works. the overwrought speech stems from this as well - it's meant to convey danny's heightened sense of the significance of everything he says. i realize his dad also talks this way, but to me that illustrates familial bonds in danny's mind, which is why it's significant that his brother stops talking like this after being on X for a while - to danny, even the language spoken by the two brothers illustrates the dissolution of family bonds. and, in a book where much of the plot is driven by teaching language to others, this disconnect between the brothers is pretty ripe for further unpacking.

i also like how clockworld compresses history and time into a single plane where everything that has ever happened is frozen in place so that people can interact with it in whatever way they want to. this is a counterpoint to the teenage perspective where everything happens so fast that it's difficult to make sense of it beyond basic emotional reactions. part of what i wish the book did more of - namely, world building on X - might not be necessary if you begin from the idea that danny's perspective drives the narrative, since he doesn't put together what life is like on X outside of what he sees in each moment. still, his transition from loving X to hating it and rebelling against clockworld is awfully abrupt, even considering the above issue of perspective/narration. the climax doesn't really ring true for me, since a lot of the action is brought about by choices the character made that didn't read as being arrived upon genuinely. (there's some overwrought language for you.) but, as i said in my earlier post, i really liked it, because even through its shortcomings it offers up so much for further discussion and consideration. it's ambitious and even a little groundbreaking, and it reinforces dash shaw's position as one of the most intelligent and creative cartoonists currently working. at some point he's going to come out with an absolute materpiece and it's going to blow my mind to bits.

xpost

interesting list! was always put off guy colwell's work by his very creepy Doll comic, maybe his 'realist' stuff is more interesting. don't know X-Day by Setona Mizushiro at all - always interested in gd new manga recommendations, will have to check it out (love Tezuka and Tatsumi, obv). the pete morisi is a bizarre choice - morisi's own backstory (policeman by day, comic book artist by night) has always struck me as being much more interesting than anything he ever actually wrote/drew - find his artwork incredibly stiff and obviously derivative of ppl like alex toth and george tuska. wilson wld not be my clowes choice.

i will cosine

Paying for It / Chester Brown

Underwater / Chester Brown

City of Glass adapted by Mazzucchelli / Karasik

Wilson by Daniel Clowes

Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi

Black Blizzard by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

man, know what i just remembered the other day? The Ruined Cast. his kickstarted animated feature length film (with help from frank santoro). i donated money to this back in April 2011. the last email update on it was from october 2013, and all it talked about was some other short film he was working on (not ruined cast) and the last update that even made a passing mention of the film was from january 2013. meanwhile, the website that he used to post work-in-progress stuff on - http://ruinedcast.com/ - isn't even live anymore.

uh

he seems to have migrated here: http://dashshaw.tumblr.com/

New book: http://www.fantagraphics.com/images/stories/previews/docsds-preview.pdf