At this point, that’s the best any of us can do. Being home-bound since March 13th and only leaving my apartment for drug store errands around the corner, driving my car around the block to keep my engine running smoothly, or just going for a short walk around my neighborhood, there are only two constants in my life: working from home for my day job, and continuing to replicate my convention/artwalk/comic shop experience from my computer desk (which still includes the weekly Fanbase Creator Forum Zoom meetings that began four months ago) . After a rocky start a month and a half ago, I think I found my groove with three interactive art activities I perform across both Facebook and Instagram: The return of Mongoose Mondays, two timelapse illustration games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (both on FB), and a live art sketch plus agenda broadcast on Instagram. I also got to do a rare interview about my work, thanks to a trio of indie-comics-friendly individuals. So let’s recap last month in detail. as only I can:
CARTER COMICS @ HOME GOES INTERACTIVE: MONGOOSE MONDAYS: As I mentioned briefly in the first paragraph, my goal in these times of no physical comic book conventions or related mass-gatherings, was to reproduce that same energy with drawing a crowd to either my single artwork or comic books in an online format. Thus, the interactive illustration games Mongoose Mondays, Timelapse Tuesdays, Timelapse Thursdays, and Live Art Agenda Sundays were born. Now, to most of you reading this, Mongoose Mondays is nothing new, but the presentation of this game was retooled from a shot-in-the-dark guess with a few hints given, to a now multiple choice answer format. For those who may not be familiar with this game, Mongoose Mondays is a game I originally created seven years ago that feature a sketch of my cartoon character, Mr. Figure-of-Speech Mongoose. Mr. Mongoose likes to spend his quality time performing those everyday expressions, or “figures of speech” that we use everyday, but don’t really think about what they mean, such as “head in the clouds,” or “pushing the envelope.” Its current format is a photographed inked illustration posted on both Instagram and Facebook. I have even recently sketched two different “everyday expressions” to throw the online player off the scent.
TIMELAPSE TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS: The day after “Mongoose Mondays,” this game involves much more detailed illustrations, recorded in timelapse format from my phone as I sketch it. The subject: Realistic drawings of everything from celebrities, musicians, wrestlers, stand-up comedians, TV dads, and superhero actors that the player has to name as they watch the illustration come to life from the IG and FB posted video. To keep up with the alliteration theme, I do a second game on Thursdays, and create a theme for the two recorded drawings that week. I’m currently doing a Superman-themed week for the next few games, where I sketch various Superman, Lex Luthor, and Lois Lane live-action actors from TV and film over the years.
LIVE ART AGENDA SUNDAYS: I’ve done several different versions of this “Agenda” concept, from a quick social media live video, to just audio, to finally a mix of live video art with a short art and comic progress report for the week. These live drawings started out unrelated to the timelapse art themes, but soon I made them an extension of the twice a week recorded art, as I was running out of separate ideas for the Sunday concept. These “Agendas” currently run on Instagram live Sunday evenings between 7 and 8 pm Pacific time, with a shared version on my personal FB page (as I’m not always able to share them on my Carter Comics fan page).
INDIECOMIX INTERVIEW: One final but definitely exciting happening last month, was an online interview with fellow creative friend Tyler, along with his friends Brandon and Maddie. I went into detail about my “Damn Tourists” series, as the interviewers were very intrigued and amused by that comic line. I did slide in a mention of “Cosmic Force,” since I’m currently working on the 4th of five prequel books for that series. If you would like to listen to the interview, the podcast link is currently listed on my “Reviews and Interviews” page on this site. Definitely check it out when you get the chance.
And that is a wrap for July highlights. We shall see what the month of August holds for Carter Comics. Aside from the obvious California triple-digit heat, perhaps the completion of another book project? More themed timelapse and live art? figure of speech games? More podcast interviews? YES PLEASE!
Until next month!
Regards,
Allen Carter
Carter Comics