I’m speechless. Unfortunately, that isn’t conducive for writing posts so I’m putting aside all stupefaction to confirm that the Process has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Digital Comic category! This is the single greatest honor (besides winning) that could be bestowed on this project and I am very fortunate to be in such esteemed company as the other finalists, The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl, Billy Dogma, Immortal, by Dean Haspiel, PX! By Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson and Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon. The awards ceremony, held during San Diego’s Comicon International, will be at a gala event on July 25th, 2008.

When this really sinks in, I’ll write a followup post but in the meantime, I’d like to thank the judges for their consideration and thank YOU for supporting this project.

Best,

Joe

Yes, I know. I hate to disappoint and I worry that my silence and lack of updates may result in losing people’s attention. Please take heart that my reasons are good and are beyond my control. As some of you already know, I was hit with a major setback thanks to some herniated discs in my neck. The good news is that I’m feeling much better and am now mostly out of pain and have gotten sensation back in all my fingers. Hooray! My plans are to be fully operational in two weeks. Once I get healthy again, it’s time I start taking measures to improve my regularity with updates. It also means the resumption of a severely delayed project, Borrowed Time 3.

Borrowed Time 3 will get cranking again after NYCC but in the interim, I’m working on a short story that will appear later this year. This one’s tuns o’ fun and has been good to help me get back into action. For a hint as to what this may be about, I’ll direct you this way. I’ll have more to say about this as we get closer to show time.

Once that’s in the can and BT3 is in full swing, I’ll resume duties on cardboard theater construction for page 33. The plan is to do double duty on BT3 and this project. Once Chapter 2 closes with page 34, I’ll take a short break during which time, I’ll plot out Chapter 3 and construct a majority of the remaining projected set pieces. With those things in place, I expect to be able to update on a more regular basis. Every two weeks will likely be the schedule but that’s still negotiable.

Something else I am considering is implementing some blogging about the actual nuts and bolts of my thinking behind each page and the overarching themes and motifs of this story. I have been reluctant up to now for fear of spoiling the mystery and discouraging participation. If I reveal too much of my own intended meanings, readers might be content to settle on my ideas and not explore their own. On the other hand, it might inspire some more comments! These have been hard to drum up so maybe if I let you in on my thoughts, you’ll share yours. Does that make sense? If I told you some of the things that have informed my decisions and cast a light on some of the big ideas, would you be more encouraged to tell me your interpretations? I’m curious to know. I always wanted this blog to create conversation and an exchange of ideas so let’s see if we can make that happen.

As April comes to a close, I’ll be shaking the bushes a little to generate more attention for this original art drawing I am having. I expect that there will be some media coverage to help make this happen. We’ll see how that goes but either way, come May 1st some lucky reader will be getting a fine piece of art.

How does all of this sound? Can you hang on for two weeks? I sure hope you do and I’ll reward your patience with tons of intriguing art and mysterious adventure. At the very least, there’ll be some studio shots, perhaps some coverage of NYCC and other fun stuff to boot.

Thanks for being such a loyal fan and reader. You are an integral part of this and I am very appreciative of your valuable time. We’ll be seeing more of each other very soon!

Joe

The irony of showing “behind-the-scenes” views of the creation of the main hall of a theater is not lost on me. Can you really show ‘backstage’ glimpses of the construction of what goes in front of the stage? Only on the Process can you achieve such a paradox, folks. It’s like using photography (a supposedly accurate representation of reality) to depict the theater in one’s own mind (the immaterial and imagined). Such are the philosophical conundrums that I am playing with here and before I let any more cats out of the bag, back to the business at hand:

Once again, here’s some sneaks of the theater hall I’m constructing. Things are moving very slowly as you probably already know but I think the results are worthwhile. The side wall will have a large reinterpretation of this famous alchemical illustration. The theater’s two balconies form three levels that correspond to Freud’s Id, Ego and SuperEgo. The lowest, floor seating area is the Id, the first mezzanine is the Ego and the top balcony is the SuperEgo. They are analogous to their terrains and fauna as well. The lowest floor is underwater and full of various sea creatures including a giant squid. The Ego mezzanine is on land and has a dragon and lion. Lastly the SuperEgo upper balcony is represented by air or sky and has an flying eagle. Here are a few more shots showing the latest progress. I’ll have more as it nears completion…

Things are moving a little slow thanks to a large construction for the next page. So, I thought I’d give you a little peak at what’s to come—boxed seats! You may be asking yourself, “but where are the seats?” and my answer to that is simple. This already finished seat was made to be photographed separately and to be added later when needed. I’m obsessive and meticulous but not so much so that I would make every individual seat in this cardboard theater! No, just meticulous enough to construct half an elaborate theater out of an inane and obstinate material for just one panel of the next page!

Stay tuned as I’ll likely be posting more images as this comes closer to completion. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to do, vote for what free giveaway you’d like to get in the poll!

I’m sure this whole thing of creating cardboard sculptures is a little novel to many people and so I like to post up photos of some of the sculptures separate from their home in the artwork for the pages. It’s a way to see these things without the compositing and effects. So here’s a shot of the chandelier used in page 32. Going into making this I had very little worked out in my mind how to execute it. A lot of the problems solved in creating the cardboard chandelier came from a lot of trial and error along the way. The main column that provides much of the structure’s stability comes from a thin wooden dowel. Pieces of this same dowel were sharpened and used as the candles as well. The ‘chains’ are made from stripping the paper off of corrugated cardboard. The sheet was slit into roughly even strips and glued around the circular top ring. The strips splayed out nicely and were glued to the larger lower ring. From there, the addition of the ‘arms’ was easy and the whole piece was finished with some ink details. The result is what you see to the right. Enjoy!