Busy Dude

Oh man things are busy!

This is the last week you can see my work in the Goodman Theater lobby, and I implore you to check out Madeline Sayet’s masterful “Where We Belong” - which the art is running in conjunction with. I was lucky enough to sit in on an advanced performance and it knocked me out of the back of the theater.

August 5-7 is C2E2!!! I’ll be in Artist Alley, table G5 so feel free to swing by and say hello. I’ll have books, prints, original art and I’ll be doing a few commissions so please drop over and chat.

September 16 & 17 is the Monroe Pop fest and I’ll be there in Michigan both days! Just stone chillin’!

In Oct 1&2 I’ll be in Wisconsin Dells with LEAF, signing and discussing “Come Home Indio” - it’ll be a good time.

The following weekend, Oct 6-9 is New York Comicon! I’ll be there looking out of place, so again - stop by and say hello!

Of course you can always check out art for sale at www.jimterryart.bigcartel.com (or click the link on this site) and follow me on Instagram @jimterryart … I’m on there more than anywhere else for the now.

Just wanted to check in, better get back to work on West Of Sundown. Hope you’re well!

Well What Can I Say

Yesterday I was sitting in the theater waiting to endure “Morbius” when the phone buzzed in my pocket. I was still suffering advertisements for everything from Mountain Dew to General Motors so I took a look and it was my friend Melissa informing me that my website had expired!

That’s not good! Have I been so derelict as to let my own website languish and slowly fade? Where were the emails informing me that this was impending? Why didn’t I have my shit in gear?

There’s no excuse. To be honest, I’m just as susceptible to the instant gratification of social media as anyone else - it’s a chore for me to keep up with it, and my beloved WBD goes neglected. Also, LIFE HAPPENS! Things are pretty chill now, I’m working hard on “WEST OF SUNDOWN” and I’m mostly keeping my head above water and out of the deep sea of “future despair”, but for a while there things were PRETTY ROCKY for your boy.

That’s right, I got thrown into the cement mixer of life, tossed around back there in that spinning tube, driven to a different city and dumped in a bad part of town. Somehow I emerged intact but I’ve been walking wounded for a bit, still staggering a little, looking around all dazed. FOCUS!

So that’s my story, I’m sticking to it. WEST OF SUNDOWN #1 came out this week and has been slated for a 2nd printing, which is wild. INDIO is still out there and I appreciate everyone who’s read it and shared their thoughts and memories with me. I’ve been getting back into making movies as well, which has been a steep “tech learning curve” but also a tremendous joy. I completed my first short in years, and I’ll be SURE to let you know when and where you can check it out.

Still putting work up on the big cartel, I’ll try and set up a link here on the site… so that’s where we’re at!

Thanks for being patient with this clown.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll drive that tanker”

An update, a ramble

Hey all, wow look… it’s only been about a month since my last update! I’m going to stay on top of it from here on… (looks around shiftily) Well, in all honesty it will be my ongoing struggle to stay on top and in touch.

Thanks to the Ho-Chunk Nation (and a couple trips to Wisconsin) I now count myself among the fully vaccinated and am eagerly awaiting the rest of the world to join me. Was able to visit with family while up there and actually had some outside no-mask time with loved ones. It was nice.

In other news, COME HOME, INDIO was nominated by the LA TIMES for its Book Prize in the graphic novel category, which is… amazing. The ceremony took place via zoom last Friday night and the award went to my fellow STREET NOISE BOOKS alum Bishakh Som for APSARA ENGINE, and I’m not being false when I say I’m glad to hear it. There was definitely a thrill to seeing INDIO up there among all those heavy hitters and I’m still coming down from it a little.

I’ll admit I’ve felt a little adrift of late. I’ve got a project coming up that should be steady and fun, as well as doing art for art’s sake but it’ll be nice to charge my battery with human interaction again soon. During the lockdown I managed to unearth the old movies I made in my college years and edited them with modern(ish) software and put them on disc for those who’d been involved… there were over seventy of them, and at least three were over sixty minutes long. Wow. From that experience was a renewal of love for that medium and a desire to get back into it, but once again I find myself butting against the fact that it is the most collaborative of the mediums I engage in and there is not much I can do right now.

So it’s time to gather a fellowship of nerds who want to be creative for creativity’s sake. In the meanwhile, I’ll always be working on art and putting it up on my Big Cartel site and sharing it on my social medias and I’ll also do my best to be better about updating here.

Take care, be safe!

Am I a hermit???

Jeez, I really wish I was better at maintaining a “blog”. What with the numerous social media platforms (really, only 1 and occasionally 2 others) I participate in I forget that I have this to express longer ideas and share more specific things.

That being said, I usually find I don’t have much to say. February was brutal here in Chicago, and what I usually find comforting - blankets of snow, forced indoor recreation, vague cabin fever - came at the tail end of a year long forced indoor incarceration that robbed it of its seasonal charm. But hey, you just get through one more thing, it ain’t that bad.

I’m very happy to say that I’ve gotten my first shot, compliments of the Ho-Chunk nation, and am slated for shot #2 in a couple weeks. I’ll admit that the drive home from getting the shot, going 70 on the highway in the truck with The Who cranked and the sun FINALLY shining was the most free and grateful I’ve felt in a very long time. I’d forgotten what feeling hopeful, even for an hour or so, felt like. Once I stopped for gas and experienced humanity again that sort of soured a little. Ah well, not everyone wants to wear a mask or help their fellows out. I guess.

At any rate, there’s good stuff happening. COME HOME, INDIO made it to the New York Times! And the LA Times just selected it as a finalist for their book prize! Yow! The award will be announced on April 16th and I have no plans on winning but am floored to have been considered. Good things! Sadly, it will be virtual (understandably) so I will be watching in my living room with a suit jacket, jeans and no socks on.

I’ve spent most of my Covid time editing old movies I made during my college years and on, putting them on DVDs and shipping them out to those who participated. It was a blast and reawakened my love of making movies, so perhaps I’ll get back into the saddle and give it a try, just for shoots and giggles. There were over 70 films we made! Yowza!

Ok, bored you enough. Guess I had more to say than I thought, so there you are. Hope you are staying safe, sane and as well as can be. I’m not going to promise I’ll get back on this before too long, since I hate lying even if it’s unintentional. Take care!

IT'S BEEN... A YEAR

Howdy, I’m back again again again….

After completing COME HOME INDIO I’ve sunk into a funk of trying to get the will to work back and achieving that in fits and starts. Needless to say the monotony of living an isolated and masked existence is not helping the creative energies. That being said, I’ve still been productive and things have still been happening in spite of me.

The book is out! I hope some of you have read it and connected with it in some way by now, I welcome your thoughts on it. I recently spoke to Allison Stewart at ALL OF IT NYC and you can listen to it here:

https://www.wnyc.org/story/all-of-it-2020-11-11

I also hung out with the folks at QUIMBY’S BOOKSTORE in Chicago for a virtual book release! You can check that out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZlN-GpvOJU

In the meanwhile I participated in “Drawlloween” for Inktober, creating 31 ink illustrations that are now up for sale on my bigcartel site for anyone interested, you can find that here:

https://jimterryart.bigcartel.com/category/original-art

Oh yes, I also was lucky enough to be included in Marvel Voices: Indigenous Voices #1! I did that cover and am honored to have been asked and to be in the company of so many incredible Indigenous artists. Wow.

I have some other things brewing that are kind of exciting but of course there are NO SHOWS to talk about. I’ll try and hop on here and let y’all know if I’ll be popping up on someone’s computer screen or podcast, like when I did the HOUSE OF X podcast, which you can find here:

https://www.stitcher.com/show/house-of-x-podcast/episode/episode-25-interview-w-artistwriter-jim-terry-79506212

Okay I’m going to try and get back to work, I’m currently signing/illustrating some bookplates for an event in Milwaukee with LION’S TOOTH in December. They will be including INDIO in their ordering list with exclusive plates to anyone who would like to order from them.

I believe QUIMBY’S still has some bookplated copies left, if anyone in CHICAGO feels like stopping by one of the best book stores in the city.

I’d better get back to work, stay well!

Jim

Has anything been going on?

Well, it’s… ha ha… been a while. I hope everyone has been keeping well and as safe as possible. Things here at the cat compound are okay, been following all the COVID rules and been doing alright. I’ve been busy, though.

The big news is that COME HOME, INDIO, my graphic memoir, has been completed. Spanning, well, my entire life up to now, it chronicles some of the heavy moments that made me who I am at present. If you’ve ever felt like an outsider, or if you’ve struggled with addiction, or were a child of the 80’s, or are lost and trying to keep afloat in the madness of recent times, you might find something of worth in there.

The book is being released by STREET NOISE, an independent publisher based out of Brooklyn, NY and headed by the unstoppable Liz Francis. She approached me at the Indigenous Comicon a year and a half ago and asked if I’d be interested in talking about my trip to Standing Rock during the pipeline resistance. Since I was only there for a number of days (over two trips) I didn’t feel like I was qualified to tell that story - but I was certainly qualified to talk about my own life leading up to that trip, and the profound effect my short time there had on my life.

I had to wait to work on it until September, as I was finishing work on HACK SLASH Vs. THE CROW and was penciling, inking and coloring those 4 issues and barely keeping up. Once that was in the can I jumped on the memoir and worked like mad, digging up all the miserable and joyful and mundane memories I could and hammering it into something that made sense. There was no great through line in my mind until I was about halfway done, when I realized that it is about FINDING MY PLACE IN THE WORLD.

Being part Native and part white, growing up in the 80’s suburbs, and ultimately becoming an urban dweller completely enslaved by booze, I didn’t get my feet on the ground until I was in my 30’s. I didn’t get my first professional comic work until I was damn near 40… I was a lost sucker for a long time but this book will tell about how I finally figured a way to exist without tearing myself apart.

I hope you take a look at it, and I REALLY hope you take something away from it that you can use in your life. I can easily summon that old feeling of “nobody is like me, nobody understands” and it ain’t an easy one to live with but - though circumstances vary, certain feelings and thoughts are universal.

The book comes out September 28th, but it can be pre-ordered through your local bookstore or comic shop, or bookshop.org - where local bookstores get a cut of the sales. It’ll also be available on a certain megasite… but please support your local biz if you can.

In the meanwhile, stay safe, keep your head above the water and one day we’ll shake hands at a con.

Jim

Halloween season

I am amazed at how poorly I’ve maintained this blog.

Nonetheless, here I am, dusting the spiderwebs off and typing away once again. Not an excuse, but I’ve been pretty busy. Since I last wrote something here I moved, penciled+inked+colored a four issue HACK/SLASH VS CROW mini, and started an epic project that will probably ruin me. I’ll tell you more about that later.

And I have yet to start shopping EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN around, probably my biggest folly. I’ll get it out there, hopefully before my passion for it wains. JUST KIDDING, it NEVER WILL. I love those two and hope to get another leg of their adventure told soon.

This Friday (Sept. 27) the SHUDDER network will be releasing the CREEPSHOW TV SERIES, and I’m very proud to say I did a little work on it, on (I believe) 4 different episodes. So if you’re into horror and have SHUDDER, tune in and see if you can spot some of my art peppered around in there.

Sadly, I won’t be attending NYCC this year so I’ll save you the trouble of looking for me, just wasn’t in the cards.

I will be at NWI Comicon in February as well as C2E2, so hopefully my hermit ass will have more on that before the days come and go. Jury’s still out on Emerald City.

Also, I’ve been slacking on my Big Cartel page but rectified that - for a brief while it will be only prints but there are plenty to choose from. As I said, I moved recently and still need to figure out all my originals and what to do with them.

Okay. Well, hope to talk to you again sooner than later!

Upcoming shows!

Well here we are, 2019! Yay?

If you’ve been following along you’ll know that EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN: THE GIFT has been completely told on jimterrycomics.com - if you haven’t, feel free to swing over there and you can read the whole epic for free! (there’s a link on this page)

Next weekend (Feb 23) I’ll be at the NWI Comic-con (Northwest Indiana) with a bunch of other Chicago folk as well as talent from all over the midwest… Of course I’ll have original art, prints and books so swing on by!

Let’s not forget C2E2, March 22-24, the biggest convention in this part of the country! I’ll be at table G-4 and I’ll have some new goodies. I won’t have any of the sequential stuff I’ve been working on (yet), but I should have a new banner and for those who are into it I SHOULD have a new Artbook - vol 2, which concentrates on HORROR ART! Ooooh!

If you’re jonesing for art in the meanwhile, lately I’ve been posting new stuff on instagram and you can find the link at the bottom of this page - otherwise, I have some exciting new projects in the works that aren’t quite ready to unveil yet so stay tuned!

I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day but I hope this year is treating you as well as it can, and maybe we’ll run into each other soon. Thanks for keeping up!

JT

New Year on the horizon

Well, the time is here, where I’m going to pretend that I’m going to change a lot of the ways I live.

That’s not entirely true, I actually like my life and I’m pretty happy with who I am these days…

Okay that’s not entirely true either. Last few years have been a bit tumultuous and though I’ve made a point of creating as much art as possible, I’ve spent a fair amount of time getting lost in movies and books and not enough time hustling and moving forward. I’ve managed to get good work done this year, but nobody has really seen it. That’ll change in 2019.

There are interesting things on the horizon, and I hope I’ll be able to share some of it with you soon. I’ll let you know as things progress. In the meanwhile I’ve taken steps toward making my art easier to buy! No more “do you sell your art?” I DO! And now you can find a rotating selection of work at https://jimterryart.bigcartel.com/

that’s https://jimterryart.bigcartel.com/

that’s

Ha ha! Okay so have a safe and happy new year, and keep your eyes peeled because I’ll be busier than a bee this next year and I hope you’ll stick with me for the ride.

jimterryart.bigcartel.com is up now!

Yup, I recently set up a store on bigcartel.com, and put some prints and original art up there.

https://jimterryart.bigcartel.com/

Aside from that, I still throw things up on eBay for auction rates and you can always hit me up personally for commissions or inquiries about a specific piece!

Well, hope you all have a good Holiday. However you may or may not celebrate, I don’t think there’s a damn thing wrong with wishing peace on earth and goodwill to each other.

Gonna go watch Black Christmas (1974) now, have a good one!

CRUSTY OLD MAN EMERGES FROM CAVE

Boy am I bad at keeping up with things! Just got back from Albuquerque for the 3rd annual Indigenous Comic-con, and it was amazing. If I saw you there, thank you for coming out for it! I met some incredible people with very exciting ideas for how to keep creativity flourishing, and got to hang with one of my favorite people in the world Tim Truman and his amazing family. Altogether it was an inspiring show, and I’m looking forward to participating in whatever capacity I’m able for any future shows Lee Francis puts together!

I’m still putting 1 page a week online at jimterrycomics.com (link above) of EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN: THE GIFT, and am getting toward the finish line on that. When that wraps up it’s decision time… I have 4 additional issues of the saga completed and am trying to figure the best way to present it. More on that later!

Let me know how you’re doing and if you’re enjoying/loathing the story thus far. In the meanwhile I’m done with conventions until late February, so I’m just gonna buckle down against the cold and keep hammering out the art!

I feel like I can’t end it without saying something quick about Stan “The Man” Lee. He was 95 years old and missed his wife, so I can’t say I was surprised or angered by his passing. He led a great life and achieved legend status (within his lifetime), and from everything I’ve ever heard or read he was exactly the man he appeared to be - a childlike love of the world, endlessly enthusiastic and as beautifully cornball as his alter ego. The man shaped my life as though he were family - he was the Uncle who told me stories on Saturday morning, his voice was a guarantee that something amazing was on the way. The universe he helped create taught me how to be a good human being, instilling in me a sense of empathy in a clear way and ham-fistedly encouraging me never to give up, no matter what the odds. Modern mythology. My tastes would develop and change over the years but there will always be a sense of wonder with those early stories… especially Spider-Man - who to me was the greatest hero of all time when I was young. Hats off, Uncle Stan!

And finally - For those of you who might not know (or have forgotten), Stan had a monthly editorial column he called “Stan’s Soapbox”. There are those these days who say comics should not make “statements”, that they never have. I don’t know what books these folks were reading, but I’ll just leave this here below - from The Man himself.

EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN IS LIVE!!!!

Well, as is usually the case, I dropped something with absolutely no warning! Businessman! Showman! Entertainer! Slacker! Fool!

Yesterday a friend helped me set up the site jimterrycomics.com and we dumped the first three pages of EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN: THE GIFT right then and there. There is a link at the top of this page where you can access this completely free story, and I only ask that if you enjoy it please pass it along to someone you think will also like it!

The story was completed some time ago during a time of great change in my life, and I self published them in black & white and sold them at conventions. I figured that was probably the end of things, but life has pushed me around a little and I had to look back to my friends E&L for a little strength and found they were still in trouble. I am currently working on "E&L: THE BANNER OF THE SERPENT", which finds them a bit older but still young and foolish and full of courage and emotion, facing new and deadlier trials.

I've cleaned up some of the awful lettering on THE GIFT, as well as added color, and am sharing it now a page a week (give or take) until it's completed. I'll also share the short story "PYG", which features Edgebright in a solo adventure, before dropping the big hint: a kickstarter to collect the whole saga thus far, including the fully completed BANNER OF THE SERPENT.

This is a passion project - it's what I do when I have 5 minutes of free time, and I want it to be as epic and beautiful as I can make it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it, and if you do please pass the word along!

Much obliged.

It's been a while, ooooops

Well, so much for my continual updates! A bit has been going on and most of it is good, so here's a recap:

Emerald City Comicon just finished, and as you didn't read here I was there with brand new work! So glad I shared about it. TRASH BRIDGE, written by Ryan Browne and Steve Seeley and illustrated by me, was unleashed on the world at ECCC. There was a limited run of 300 and we're halfway through those. The future of TRASH BRIDGE is uncertain, on a knife's edge as the saying goes, so get your copy while you can. Ryan has put it on his etsy page, here's a link:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/584761162/trash-bridge-issue-1?ref=listing-shop-header-0

Cover by Tradd Moore

So that's pretty cool!

I'll also be at C2E2 here in my home town in April, so keep an eye out for that!

And I'll have news about EDGEBRIGHT & LEOFWYN soon, I promise! I'm still chugging away at it and having a wonderful time.

Thank you to everyone I met or hung out with at Emerald City - you made the trip a success.

Happy New Year

Well, 2017 is over and what a year it was. Not going to bore you with a retrospective, I'll just say I hope '18 is a step up - globally and personally. It was a rough one for me and I've let my work slide a little, not enough time spent at the drawing table and I'm going to do my best to change that this year.

I've also been working quietly on a personal project that I hope to unleash very soon, "Edgebright & Leofwyn", a fantasy story that's pretty near and dear to me. Once I have all the technical pieces in place I'll reveal a little more, right now I'm still figuring that all out and doing all the fun (drawing) work in the background.

It's freezing here in Chicago. Very cold.

Oh yes, I will be opening myself to commissions as well this year, so if you've got something you really want to see me draw, hit me up. Send me an email.

So cold. More later.

Indigenous Con, Sherman Alexie and final Inktober

Folks, I'll be in Albuquerque NEXT WEEK for the second annual Indigenous Con! I'll be at table A2 with an assortment of books, art and prints! I'll be doing commissions as well, so hit me up if you want something done pre-con or just stop by the table and say hello!

In that spirit, I have to say I've had Sherman Alexie's novel RESERVATION BLUES sitting on my bookshelf for 25 or so years... (I'm old) and never picked it up until last week. I read THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN many years ago and enjoyed it, but Reservation Blues was one of those rare reads that seems to wait for the perfect moment to leap into your hands, when you need it the most. I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the Modern Native or just enjoys a damn fine read. It's also funny as hell, I laughed out loud more than once and a smile (almost) never left my face. Thank you, Mr. Alexie.

Oh yeah, here is the last batch of #inktober illustrations! If you're interested in any of them, hit me up at jt@woundedbutdangerous.com. Much obliged.

These were all done with a #2 round Blick Studio brush and sumi ink. I recommend participating in #inktober next year if you didn't this time around!

Another Inktober bundle, and a... radio show?

So this Thursday, 12-1 Central Time I'll be talking with Native America Calling, a radio program based in Albuquerque, about being Native and also about Horror. Are the two inexorably intertwined? In me perhaps, in others maybe not so much. Either way we'll get to the truth of the matter this Thursday the 26th.

I'll also BE in Albuquerque Nov 10-12 for the Indigenous Comic Con, where I'll be discussing many of the same things with whoever comes to my table! It's the show's second year, my first at it, and I'm looking forward to it immensely. I'll have, of course, many book and much art with me. Please stop by if you're able!

Here are some more #inktober doodles!

All of these, except the Eyeball (which was done with a garbage brush pen) were executed with a #2 round brush from Blick Studio and Sumi ink.

Why do I have so many Dionne Warwicke albums? Also, #inktober catch up!

If you follow me on social media you'll know I've been cranking these puppies out to varying effectiveness, but I'm collecting them all here for your viewing displeasure.

Real quick - I'll be at the Sideshow Gallery this Friday for the "Phobias" show, for which I did a special piece... it might be the creepiest thing I've done. Hope to see you there!

And lastly - if you haven't seen Blade Runner 2049 yet, DO IT. In IMAX if possible, if not at the very least go see it in the theater. That's the only way you'll see those incredible images as they were meant to be seen (I don't care how big your tv is), and it's the only place you'll be as immersed as you should be for this film. It's a masterpiece, in my opinion.

Here's some inktobers!

These were all done with a #2 round Blick Studio brush, and Sumi ink on bristol.

#inktober, yet more

Well, it's "Columbus Day" and I couldn't be more proud to be Native. I'm not going to get much more political than that today, I'm so sick of everything. What I'm NOT sick of is inking! Here's some more #inktober pieces!

Spooky!

#inktober, mayon!

It's a gorgeous day, perfect to sit in a hermetically sealed room and sling ink. Here are the last two (2) days' worth of inktobers! Shoot me an email at jt@woundedbutdangerous.com if you're interested in purchasing any of these!

#inktober again

If I had my rusty old harmonica I'd be playing it right now, stomping my foot with the dust coming out the floorboards and the air going through the thing would taste like dried blood.

Anyway, here's another #inktober entry, "Devil"!