Dream Speaks

Page One

Panel 1: Looking down on a bed occupied by a disheveled mess of a man wearing tan Carhartt work pants stained with dirt, food, and ink, one boot on- one boot off, asleep on his back with a black cat curled up between his leg and a tuxedo cat stretched out next to him. It's dark, but there's a block of sunlight stretching across the bed/sleeping man. The bed is kind of a mess, with at least one book, a phone, no pillows, and maybe a blanket, but maybe the sheet is even pulled off one of the corners of the mattress.

Panels 2 + 3: Small inset panels, virtually the same image of a cell phone on the bed somewhere in the folds of fabric. In panel 2 it's just the phone, in panel 3 the phone is ringing and lit up with the name "Leia Alligator" on the screen. Sound effects "RRRRIIINNNGGG" in the background of panel 3.

Panel 4: Similar to panel 1, only now the disheveled man is awake and holding his phone to his ear. The tuxedo cat is awake and bothered- the other cat is still sleeping.

DISHEVELED MAN: I'M AWAKE!

VOICE FROM PHONE: HEY- IT'S ME. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

DISHEVELED: NOTHING. NOTHING. SUP?

VOICE: ARE YOU SLEEPING??

DISHEVELED: NO. YEAH. NAW- I NEED TO GET UP.

VOICE: IT'S 6PM! IN THE EVENING!

DISHEVELED: I WORKED ALL NIGHT- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Page Two

Panel 1: Close up on the tuxedo cat, now sitting up on the edge of the bed as the disheveled man scratches behind his ears. We can see tattoos on the fingers of his hand, the letters D-R-A-W.

VOICE: I'M DRIVING TO CINCINNATI

DISHEVELED: WHAT'S IN CINCINNATI?

VOICE: I HAVE TO PARTY WITH SOME GHOSTS AND TIME TRAVELERS, IT'S FOR WORK.

DISHEVELED: AWESOME

Panel 2: Close up on Disheveled's other hand as he grabs a wire shelf to pull himself up into a seated position, we can see the tattoos on his other fingers H-A-R-D.

DISHEVELED: I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR INDIAN FOOD

VOICE: INDIA GARDEN??

DISHEVELED: YEAH- I'VE NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN THERE

VOICE: IT'S SOOO GOOD, I'M JEALOUS!

DISHEVELED: I'M NOT EVEN HUNGRY.

Panel 3: Mid to long shot, looking down on the scene again. The tuxedo cat is jumping off the bed, passed a wheelchair that's parked next to it. This is the first time we can actually fully see the chair. Disheveled Man is now petting the all black cat that's still between his legs as it wakes up.

VOICE: WELL... I'M CALLING FOR TWO REASONS

DISHEVELED: OH YEAH? YOU'RE NOT JUST MY FRIEND, THE ALARM CLOCK?

VOICE: ONE, I SAW THE AD YOU MADE FOR CLEVELAND MAGAZINE. THE ONE WITH ME AND JOHN. IT'S PRETTY FUNNY.

DISHEVELED: OH, YOU SAW THAT?

VOICE: JOHN SENT IT TO ME. HAHAHA. IT'S GREAT, WE'RE GOING TO HIT MELT DRESSED IN THOSE GET-UPS AND LIKE, TRY AND GET FREE SANDWICHES FOR BEING IN THE AD.

Panel 4: Close up on Disheveled, holding the phone up to his ear. Even in the shadows, the concerned look on his face, the mass crinkles a the corners of his eyes, are still visible.

VOICE: TELL 'EM "HEY- THIS IS US!"

DISHEVELED: HA! I DON'T KNOW IF IT WORKS THAT WAY.

DISHEVELED: Y'KNOW, ANYTIME YOU WANT SANDWICHES, I CAN EASILY MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

VOICE: OH, I'M KIDDING! DON'T BE SILLY!

DISHEVELED: HEY- I'M BEING SERIOUS.

Page Three

Panel 1: Worm's eye view, looking up at the bed from the floor, looking passed the wheelchair and tuxedo cat, the black cat is looking down off the side of the bed. Disheveled is now holding a boot by the laces in his other hand.

VOICE: WELL, I'M ALSO CALLING BECAUSE I WANT TO COMMISSION A DRAWING- BUT IT'S TOTALLY WEIRD.

DISHEVELED: TOTALLY WEIRD, I CAN DO.

Panel 2: Disheveled now has his boot up on his foot, the black cat is now sitting up and intensely interested in the boot.

VOICE: WELL, I WAS GETTING UP TO LEAVE EARLIER, AND JOHN WAS STILL SLEEPING BUT HE WOKE UP TO SAY GOODBYE BEFORE I LEFT

VOICE: I COULD TELL HE WAS TOTALLY OUT OF IT, THEN HE TRIED TO EXPLAIN A DREAM HE WAS HAVING

DISHEVELED: HA!

Panels 3 and 4: Closing in on the black cat as she freaks out at the laces of the boot being shoved on Disheveled's foot.

VOICE: LISTEN, HE SAID IT WAS ABOUT A MAN MADE OF PIZZA FLAVORED TATER-TOTS...

VOICE: ...FIGHTING A GIANT MONSTER MADE OF TVs!

DISHEVELED: WHOA. THAT IS TOTALLY WEIRD.

Panel 5: Close up on the cat as she has a shoe lace in between her fangs.

VOICE: SO DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THAT? DRAW SOMETHING LIKE THAT?

DISHEVELED: A MAN MADE OUT OF PIZZA FLAVORED TATER-TOTS FIGHTING A GIANT MONSTER MADE OUT OF TVs?

VOICE: YEAH

DISHEVELED: OF COURSE.

Page Four

Panel 1: Close up on Disheveled's face, looking thoughtful but concerned, worried.

VOICE: HOW MUCH WOULD YOU WANT ME TO PAY YOU FOR THAT?

DISHEVELED: WELL... AS IT HAPPENS, I DO NEED TO DRAW A POSTER FOR THIS SHOW JOHN'S GOT COMING UP IN OCTOBER

Panel 2: Our disheveled hero has pulled his right leg off the bed, the cats have scattered, or are scattering, depending on the angle of the shot.

VOICE: OH, IS IT AIDS WOLF?!

DISHEVELED: YEAH, IT'S A PRETTY AWESOME SHOW. http://www.myspace.com/aidswolf, D.RIDER, CAVE BEAR, QUEENING, AND DPI*, WHOEVER THAT IS.

Panel 3: Disheveled is throwing his left leg off the bed next to the wheelchair. This might look awkward, but that's okay. It's actually kind of awkward to do.

VOICE: WHAT'S THE DATE FOR THAT AGAIN? I FORGET.

DISHEVELED: IT'S A TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19th... AT NOW THAT'S CLASS, I THINK.

VOICE: OF COURSE, WHERE ELSE COULD IT POSSIBLY BE?

Panel 4: Disheveled is now falling back across the bed, this could possibly be broken into two panels. at least one of the cats is jumping back up onto the bed, but definitely imply that the other is coming, show it's shadow in the background.

VOICE: SO THIS IS DOABLE? YOU CAN DRAW THAT FOR THIS POSTER?

DISHEVELED: HELL YEAH I CAN. THEN, WHEN I SEND IT TO JOHN HE'LL BE LIKE: "WHAT THE HELL?? THIS SHIT IS FROM MY DREAM!!"

VOICE: HAHAHA-haHAA! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT!

Panel 5: Disheveled is laying on the bed, looking up, like panel 1 from page 1, the cats have returned too.

DISHEVELED: YEAH, ME EITHER!

DISHEVELED: HEY- LEIA, I GOTTA RUN! I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR INDIAN FOOD!

VOICE: DON'T DO THAT!

Panel 6: Close up on Disheveled again. Leave room for the Title, and Credits (DREAM SPEAK: BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS Written by John G with Art by Shades McQuade**, Special Thanks to Leia Alligator and Zippy)

DISHEVELED: OKAY, HAVE A SAFE TRIP!

*The character doesn't realize didn't realize DPI was Dead Peasant Insurance right away.

**Shades McQuade, as far as I know, is not a real artist, or person for that matter. This name is just a stand-in until an artist that wants to draw*** this script steps up.

***This will never happen, this script was really just an exercise in typing.

Meat

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Plate

FOR ONE WEEKEND ONLY!!! MELT bar & grilled has gone completely off the deep end.

JAWS MELT

Grilled Blood Orange Marinated Mako Shark
Pineapple & Blood Orange Salsa
Sweet Balsamic Reduction (black, like a dolls eyes)
Muenster Cheese

Of course, this amazing sandwich is only available for the weekend that the terrifying classic, JAWS, is playing at The Cedar Lee. Which will be on Saturday, October 2nd at both 9:30 and Midnight!

I'm definitely going to see this, maybe at Midnight. Jaws is one of my all time favorite movies, but I've never seen it on the big screen. My plan will be to grab a sandwich at the East Side Melt, right up the street from the Cedar Lee, then go watch this movie with a vengeance.

I remember the first time I saw Jaws as a pup; I think I was afraid to even take a bath for something like 6 months after that. Not that I was a huge fan of bathing at that time anyway. Or... now, for that matter.

Speaking of Roy Scheider, I just got a copy of Blue Thunder, about to put it on as I wrap up the drawing aspects for the posters for Melt's monthly special in October.

Asb Jam for Boo Box 10/10

I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure there's not really any way to post about the process of these things. Asbestos Breath, on a rampage!

Sarah Johnson from Minneapolis
Cave Bear
Nate Scheible + Jack Smiley (if you missed their set at Champagne of Fests this year, now's your chance to see a really killer performance!)

@ The Boob Box (formerly the Menstrual Mansion)

Asb Jam for Front Room 10/11

Monday October Eleventh, Nine Pee Emm

Hurray For The Riff Raff
Samuel Doores and The Tumbleweeds
Crooked River Blues Band

Front Room Gallery
3615 Superior, Bldg 42, 3rd Floor

Here's the Facebook event listing: HERE!

Flier by Asbestos Breath

Get Valiant

I drew this so long ago, I'm not sure what I was thinking other than that I wanted to go the literal route, but stay a ways off the path of just drawing the character THOR from Marvel comics. Which, I've never really been a huge fan of the comics, but he's always had the best covers.

Anyway, Valient Thorr playing with Junius, Howl, and local heroes All Dinosaurs. This should be a great Rock and Roll Show, like only The Grog can throw.



I made a very limited print run of 16" x 24" prints (on a beautiful glossy indoor vinyl- seriously, they're so vibrant!) of the full color version of this poster. I'll be selling them at the show for just a mere $20. If you want one, but can't make it to the show, definitely shoot me an email and we can work something out! I also have these HUGE 24" x 36" black and white versions of the poster I'll be selling for only $10! Signed and numbered, and there's only 10 of them. I'll also have full color 11" x 17"s on a nice cardstock, so if you aren't fortunate enough to steal one off the wall of the Grog Shop, but still want one, I'll have those for $5.

Get Doomed

THIS is the only possible better bill for a Metal Dude, and really, only the true Metal Dudes that have that stoner/doom receptors in their physical brains. High on Fire, I've done a poster for in the past, but goddamn, they might be my favorite band of all time. There were a few records there that didn't get the type of obsessive constant jamming in The Cave or The Moastery that Art of Self Defense and Surrounded By Thieves got. However, Snakes for The Divine has been a pretty perpetual companion for me this year. Such a great record. The mighty Kylesa, I've also done a poster for, but this is my first jam for Torche. This is a pretty goddamn great bill, and I think I did this jam justice with this one.

I was going to post a process explanation, but decided not to. SO, here's the text of the band names that came out way too good for once:



I really want to make a comic book, on which I can use this type style for the logo. This image is kind of somewhat inspired by this great great comic called Yeti vs Vampire, and the scene in Lord of The Rings, with the Ghost Army in the mountain. I love that ghost army.

I'll be making a very limited, signed and numbered, edition of prints of this poster to sell at the show. They'll be 16 x 24 full color glossy jams for $20. I'll also have 11 x 17s for $5. If you're not going to the show, but want one of these- please don't hesitate to shoot me an email: jgritty@gmail.com

Get Deathly

I can't really imagine a better bill for a Metal Dude. I mean, I almost can't imagine a better bill. It's Tryptikon (from Zurich featuring members of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer), 1349, and Chicago's invincible Yakuza. Seriously, I saw Yakuza a couple years ago, and it was pretty goddammotherfucking awesome. Not to be missed!



Here's the line art, that's a statue of Saint Bruno, which I didn't really choose for any real reason other than the way it looked. There's a skull, and a cherub scaring him with a scroll! The Chalice of Doom, I used because it's fun to draw. Also, I'm kind of ripping off Mike Mignola's design moves that he uses pretty much for every cover of anything he draws a cover for, but especially the Hellboy books. I do this out of pure love though, in all seriousness, I've posted about my love for Hellboy comics in the past. If anything, after the last few Hellboy series (Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt and The Storm), it's only gotten crazier, more vehement.

At any rate, I posted the rough of that Warrior dude elsewhere, but this is what I developed him for, this Metal Poster. It was a lot of fun, I kind of based the helmet on this one I found online: here.



So, the way I do the colors in Photoshop, I use a layer on top of the line art, set to "Multiply" and I just block out the areas, then go in with a brush tool and add whatever values and shading I need. This on was easy because so much of it was black.



I didn't want it to be just all black though, so I added another couple layers of splatters (which I merged for the above jpg), at two different opacity settings. I think the big main one was 35% the orange lighter stuff at 30%. This added a subtle hint of colors to the whole thing and texture that wasn't apparent from just coloring the line art without it.



I drew the text, but knew I wanted to do something new for this one. I put it on my copy machine and shrank it down to 50%, then blew that back up 200%, giving it a crustier war-torn feel. I like that, it's not vastly different from my usual crust, but just different enough to feel more ...Deathly.

Weasel Walter Trio

Another great show at Now That's Class! Weasel Walter Trio is Weasel Walter from The Flying Luttenbachers with Mike Forbes and Andrew Young of Tiger Hatchery.

Probably my favorite band to see play right now, Swindlella, is opening along with rock destroyers Flat Can Co. and Goth Cock which is Moth Cock and David Russel (of Jerk).

I drew Weasel separate from the background, here's that:



See you at the show!

Sniper's Holiday

YES, SKULLFACE returns to snipe some absurdly heinous motherfuckers from the rooftop.

The unfortunately named Star Fucking Hipsters, which is made up of members of other bands like Choking Victim, Leftöver Crack, The Degenerics, and The Slackers. Pretty much, in some circles, legendary musicians. Here's a video for one of their jams:



I like this video. Mostly because it kinda reminds me of episodes of Homicide: Life on The Street where detectives would question suspects in "The Box". Seriously some of the greatest, most compelling, television ever broadcast.

Other bands playing on Friday are Against The Grain, from Detroit, Michigan, Jordan Castro, The Facials, and Flies.



Here's the line art. I'm pretty happy with how this perspective landed. I used a pretty ridiculous photo ref that I took of myself, but I'm definitely not posting that. I ended up drawing all over it anyway. I opted for the photo-copied crusty versions of photographs of Glenn Beck, Lebron James, and Terry Jones for the targets because I thought it would look better and help differentiate between the scene and the perspective of Skullface's point of view through the scope.

Welcome to Waterloo Road, Cleveland, Ohio

Here you have the full page ad from last week's Scene, and I think it's supposed to run in the Scene 2010 College Campus Guide, but I can't remember if that's real or something I basically just made up.

I've been down to Waterloo a lot lately, it's seriously a community that keeps growing in leaps and bounds. It's been really awesome to see, as an outsider kind of looking in.



The next Walk All Over Waterloo is coming up on Friday September 17th. This is probably the biggest and most involved that the street has gotten for an event other than the Arts Fest. It's really pretty awesome.

Right now, up on the Music Saves website, there's a version that has the logo linked to the other involved individual business's websites.

Here they are:

Arts Collinwood
Azure Stained Glass Studio
The Head Shop
Salty Not Sweet
Rebel City Tattoo
Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
MUSIC SAVES
C.L.E. Clothing Co.
Star Pop
Cleveland YoYo Club
Blue Arrow Records
The Boardwalk

STUDIO•A•RAMA , The 2010 Version

This is the shirt design for this year's Studio-A-Rama, the annual day long celebration that Case Western Reserve University's radio station, WRUW 91.1 fm, throws every year towards the end of summer. They're also using this design on the cover of the program, and maybe fliers/posters, but I'm not 100% sure.



I'm actually pretty happy with this piece. I've always loved the setting for Studio-A-Rama. It's the courtyard of that building, the architecture, the way you kind of have to look up at the bands that are being dwarfed by the castle-like structure behind them. It's a beautiful thing.

I was pretty dead set on doing a Will Eisner move for this design job, incorporating text into buildings and architecture, some kind of creative use of a city-scape, I knew I wanted to do that but wasn't certain how. I looked at all the Eisner I could find to try and figure the ins and outs of the technique, but there's surprising very little of what I was specifically looking for online. Maybe I was just misremembering the idea of what I was trying to do. At any rate, I can't remember how or when it occurred to me to use the actual buildings at Case, the Mather Memorial building or whatever it's called, where WRUW is, but I took a camera over there and got to snapping some references!

Here's a quoted thing that Steve Barrett, AKA: Lightning Fingers, posted on the facebook event listing for Studio-A-Rama:

29TH ANNUAL STUDIO-A-RAMA
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11TH
presented by 91.1 WRUW
courtyard of the Mather Memorial Building
11220 Bellflower Road; Cleveland, OH 44106
...on the campus of Case Western Reserve University
in the University Circle area
at the corner of Ford & Bellflower
just one block north of Euclid & Mayfield
rain location: The Jolly Scholar (11111 Euclid Avenue on Case's campus)
can bring food & beverages (no glass bottles!)
will be broadcast live on 91.1 and at http://www.wruw.org/
FREE SHOW!!! / 1pm to midnight


THE BLACK ANGELS (coming from playing All Tomorrow's Parties;from Austin TX; toured with The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Raveonettes, Black Mountain, and Wolfmother; collaborated with Unkle; and acted as Roky Erickson's backing band; new album due out on September 14th on the recently relaunched legendary British blues label Blue Horizon Records)

SUN GOD (Husker Du meets heavy metal, members of 9 Shocks Terror, Machine Go Boom, Insurrect, Homostupids, Vietnam Werewolf, and The Fucking Cops; Big Purple Records)

AFTERNOON NAPS (the current reigning royalty of pop music in Cleveland, members of The Volta Sound, Picklefight Puppet Theater, Bears, and Dreadful Yawns; Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records)

FAWN (first Cleveland show ever!!!; Detroit supergroup comprised of members of Kiddo, Von Bondies, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Child Bite, Javelins, & Nice Device; Super Sweet & Rich Records Co. & Suburban Sprawl Records)

SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON (prog noise rock, members of Clan Of The Cave Bear, Biblical Proof of UFO's, Proletarian Art Threat, Lives Of The Saints, Deathers, Mohammed Cartoon, The X Bolex, Small Object A, Neo-Nothing, Skullface Unit, Land of Buried Treasure, Washout Corp, Oblongata, etc. etc.; Tower Control Records)

NICK RIFF (classic 80's, 90's, 00's riff-heavy psych rock; Sonic Swirl Records)

PRISONERS (writing some of the catchiest garage pop in the good ol' USA today; Smog Veil Records)

TEENAGE GRANDPA (new kids on the block tearing things up with their brand of poppy indie punk; members of Left Field)

ETHIOPIANS (lo-fi / no-fi garage punk; members of Neon Tongues and The Soulhounds)

SLOTH (brutal gore-grind metal meets Gallagher-style stand-up comedy complete with ridiculous costumes; undisputed kings of underground cassette tape releases)



BLACK ANGELS
http://www.theblackangels.com/
http://www.myspace.com/theblackangels
http://www.facebook.com/theblackangels.tx
http://www.lightintheattic.net/artists/3-the-black-angels
http://www.twitter.com/_theblackangels
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-black-angels/
http://www.last.fm/music/the+black+angels
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Black+Angels&aq=f
http://www.buzznet.com/search/Black%20Angels/
http://www.ilike.com/artist/The+Black+Angels
http://www.nme.com/artists/the-black-angels

SUN GOD:
http://www.myspace.com/sungodcleveland
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sun-God/493155155192
http://www.sungodcleveland.bandcamp.com/
http://www.bigpurplerecords.com/sungod.html

AFTERNOON NAPS:
http://www.myspace.com/afternoonnapsband
http://www.facebook.com/pages/afternoon-naps/90509165456
http://www.last.fm/music/Afternoon+Naps
http://www.hhbtm.com/category.php?manufacturer_id=54
http://www.youtube.com/user/AfternoonNapsCleve
http://www.ilike.com/artist/Afternoon+Naps
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Afternoon+Naps&aq=f

FAWN:
http://www.wearefawn.com/
http://www.myspace.com/wearefawn
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FAWN/234209481309

SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON:
http://www.myspace.com/selfdestructbutton

NICK RIFF:
http://www.nickriff.com/
http://www.myspace.com/nickriff
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1632144916
http://www.last.fm/music/Nick+Riff
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/nickriff
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/nickriff2
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/NICKRIFF3
http://www.reverbnation.com/nickriff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N0GFtplhpw

PRISONERS:
http://www.myspace.com/clevelandprisoners
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prisoners/117410248292133

TEENAGE GRANDPA:
http://www.myspace.com/teenagegrandpafuckyea
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teenage-Grandpa/106594609388281
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Gt7_Fi3bg

ETHIOPIANS:
http://www.myspace.com/iamethiopians

SLOTH:
http://www.myspace.com/slothohio

You will want to come to this at some point, but missing SLOTH would be a mistake. Also, buy a T-Shirt.

Root Beer

Her name is Root Beer. My name is John G.