Broken Pencil Review

I just found out that I got a really sweet review of Dreams of Donuts #14 in Broken Pencil (which you can peek at here)!
Publication: Broken Pencil
Author: Gordon, Cam
Date published: October 1, 2013

Dreams of Donuts Comic, Heather Wreckage, issue 14, all4choice(ci)hotmail.com, heatherwreckage.blogspot.com

Hellarity was an (in)famous squat house in Oakland, California that boasted a rotating cast of punks, vegans, tramps, anarchists and other fringe dwellers during its tenure, and was known to neighbours and authorities for its "lively" comings and goings. Heather Wreckage was a one-time occupant and has captured a tribute to Hellarity in the latest issue of her Dreams of Donuts comic. To say this is a "warts -and-all portrayal" is an understatement and make no mistake, a portion of those warts are of the genital variety. While Heather details the mass of rats, vomit and bed bugs that inhabited the house, she always paints (well, draws) vivid portraits of love, companionship and self discovery-all completely off-thegrid and yet familiar and comforting to anybody with any semblance of heart The comic also give a fairly fantastic account of the house residents' battle with the owner, including details on the eviction process and the residents' attempts to seize control of the dwelling. It's dense, it's fascinating and it's way more than a glimpse into a lifestyle that is 100 per cent counterculture and yet rooted in a lot of fundamental emotions that are entirely relatable. All told, this issue of Dreams of Donuts is a compelling read with an amazing array of drawings and stories that should fascinate any and all. (Cam Gordon)

The Birth of a Flyer

How I'm spending x-mas today, along with reading Vegans Must Be Stopped (seriously, it's so amazing and hilarious).  This show is going to be for Sophie's birthday, and the line up is going to be the Crude Studs, Bad Daddies, No Business, Fiscal Cliff, and Class System.  It's January 18th here in Sacto, so if you're in the neighborhood you should totally come.

Trial and Error

I finally finished this drawing for the Hellarity documentary website, and scanned it today at a copy shop that is new to me and confusing.  It took me forever to figure out how to save it as a picture instead of a document, and honestly I wasn't even the one to figure it out, but it's done and thats all I care about.

Anywho, it's the holidays right now.  I pretty much hate x-mas because I'm one of those folks with little-to-no family and nothing to do, not to mention the blatant consumerism as well as the buying sweat shop products made by unprivileged kids for privileged kids.  That said, it can also be looked at as an opportunity to get a bunch of illustration done.  I'll be home drinking and drawing for the next two days, and I hope all of you dear readers are having happy, if not decent, holidays.

Hellarity

Saw this today and filled with nostalgia for this dirty junk pile I called home, as well as the variety of characters I called housemates.   It could be an experience in itself to stroll through the house and look at all the crap on the walls (art/flyers/maps/etc).  I circled my part  in this picture in red.

Printer Hero Merit Badge

Part of my prize from the Arts Exchange Program zine grant.  But where to put it?

When Life Gives You Lemons

  I have been pretty inactive with art lately due to a bunch of factors.  Friends came to town, which is probably the only positive factor, but also I had to deal with a leaky roof, a terrible cold (maybe it was the flu, either way I'm still not over it yet), and a flooded carpet which resulted in my landlord putting me up in a shitty motel room for a while.  My room is pretty much my "studio" and is still not totally fixed, but at least I am able to sleep in it now without it being a cold, icky swamp.
  Dreams of Donuts 19 is still in progress, as is this banner for my dear friend Vanessa (Hurricane in the Hellarity issue of DOD).  Vanessa is planning on making a documentary about our old home, Hellarity, and this should end up being the banner for the facebook page/website.  I think I heard the release date is being planned for November 2014, and will most likely be a must-see for punks galore.

  Also, just wanted to share some nice notes from the Screaming Queens and Lunchlady, was well as a sweet piece of mail I got from one of our incarcerated comrades (who unfortunatly was writing about the Razorcake review and used "Dreams and Donuts").

Art Exchange Program

Remember that zine grant that I applied to from the Art Exchange Program?  Well, it turns out I got FIRST PLACE!  I could barely believe it when I heard the news.  I get satisfaction from making Dreams of Donuts in a lot of ways, but this is one of the first instances where I have actually monetarily profited off of all my hard work (it really is hard work to draw that much). You can see who else won and what rad zines they produce here.  Also, if you make a zine, you should really think about applying for the grant next year.  Special should out to Marc for running the grant and helping carry the torch for small print.

Razorcake Review

  I got an order in the mail yesterday for the issue of Dreams of Donuts that was reviewed in Razorcake, but didn't remember mailing anything so had no idea which issue it was.  Fortunatly, Razorcake posts zine reviews on their website, so I was able to track it down as well as read it. The review's for #17, and although it's pretty nice, they did get the title wrong (Dreams and Donuts).  Unlike most reviews I get, though, this one barely mentions the art and instead focuses on the interview with Jimbo.  When I was working on 17, I was really passionate about including the interview with Jimbo, since it had struck such a deep cord with me.  But once it was finished, people didn't respond to the interview the way I thought they would.  A lot of people were rubbed the wrong way by his attitude, or simply didn't read the interview at all.  Point being, that is the thing I like the most about this review, that the reviewer talks mostly about the interview, and that they see how inspiring Jimbo is.  Thanks Steve Hart!

DREAMS AND DONUTS #17
$2.00 ppd, 8 ½” x 11”, photocopied, 44 pgs. 

By Steve Hart
Thursday, November 21 2013

The interview with Jim, who walked from Sacramento to Seattle, is inspirational. Although I’ve hitched-hiked across America a few times in my twenties, (and unfortunately, walked for a few days across Iowa when I couldn’t catch a ride), I’ve always wanted to explore the country on foot. In the interview, Jim describes his depression and his desire to go for a long walk in search for freedom and adventure. I was also impressed with his honesty and openness in describing his depression. Issue #17 also includes a few stories in comic form about a trip to Oakland, drive-in theaters, and shitty Christmases. –Steve Hart (Heather Wreckage, 3913 Boyle Ct.Sacramento, CA, 95817)

This is what progress looks like...

  Dreams of Donuts 19 still has a long way to go, but I think it's coming along nicely.

  Also, I have always felt strangely reluctant to post about things on this blog other then my own personal art and I'm not really sure why.  It is my blog, and I can do whatever I want on here.
   I got a zine in the mail today that I'm pretty excited about called "The Girls Have Their Say".  The zine is not only lovely, but empowering, consisting of black and white photos of female musicians from around 2007 to current.  Most of the bands are unknown to me (since it's a European zine), but I did recognize our own west coasters RVIVR.
  You want an issue?  I know you do...  Check out Michelle Olaya's blog for more info.

MRR Prisoner Subscription Ad

This is the first time I've ever done work for Maximum Rocknroll, and I was really happy to help them out.  This ad will hopefully be printed, it still hasn't gone up for approval yet.

Since it is for U.S. prisoner subscriptions, I had a hard time deciding on an image to use.  I didn't want to do something too dire and serious, but I also didn't want to do something humorous that could be construed as belittling towards prisoners.  So this is what I came up with, since I figured you can never go wrong with Joey Ramone.

Purple House Halloween, Circa 2010?

 My friend Elisa from the Purple House shared this photo with me the other day after thinking of me, since she dragged this photo prop thing out from under their house for a party.  I made this in 2010 (I think?) , and the back side was painted to with an executioner stranding over a guillotine.

  I like looking at old stuff like this, because for being self taught at art, I feel like each year I get better just by trying to do projects all the time.  Like, if I'm getting down on a drawing I'm doing now, most likely in three years I could do it again and do it well.

Arts Exchange Program Zine Grant

  A while ago I heard about a grant specifically for zines called the Arts Exchange Program.  It's, like $100 and some free printing, which in zine terminology is a lot, so I thought I would give it a go.  The page count had to be under 40, so I sent Dreams of Donuts #15 and #16.  I'm not sure when winners are announced but if I win you can be sure that I'll be bragging about it on here.

  This grant is pretty cool, because it's specifically for zines, and the money is out of this guy, Marc's, own pocket.  You can see the website here, and maybe other zinesters can compete against me nest year.

Show Flier

I ditched a birthday party that was partially for me last night to make this flier, and in the process kind of impressed myself because I did this all in one night.

Also, found this old picture of me stapling zines for the PDX Zine Fest, which I failed to attend...

I Went to the East Bay to Work on Slingshot...

...And all I ended up doing was this one measly drawing.  The positive, of course, is that Slingshot finally has more volunteers and I got to spend more time with buddies.

I haven't updated in a while, and to be honest it's because I've been having some depression issues.  Normally when I'm really depressed I'm still able to work on projects, but this time I've been unmotivated to do art at all.  But the last week or so my head has cleared a bit and I've been back at working on Dreams of Donuts #19, among other projects.

Oh ya, some other stuff real quick.  I recently got a visit from the masterminds behind the zine Paperteeth, Jake the Snake and MaxiPad!  They are total cuties and you should check out their zine and other projects here.

And lastly, here is what the Screaming Queens/Lunchlady flier was originally gonna look like, but I didn't like it.

Bikes

Trying to work on Dreams of Donuts 19 here and there, but some of the panels are so small I decided just to draw big, shrink it all and cut and paste it together later.

No News

I haven't been up to much art at all, since I've been going to school and being social.  Soon!  On the bright side, I had insomnia last night from late day coffee, and I CAUGHT my room slug.  Seriously!

P.S. This is Make Me Sick playing at Casa De Chaos.  I just really like it cuz I miss my friend Eggplant and in this photo we're right next to each other.

Ghost Snail

It's really fucking weird, but lately when I wake up I've seen snail trails on my carpet and there are little holes in any paper I leave on the floor.  I've never actually seen the snail, and have no idea where it lives or how it's getting in here, but it definatly exists.  That being said, I left this flyer on the floor one night and a snail ate a hole in it.

Abandoning plans and mixtapes

  I was supposed to be on a Greyhound bus last night and in Portland within the next two hours from now, but instead I'm laying in my bed drinking coffee.  For two or three months, whenever I would think about going to Portland I would just start to feel stressed about the trip and it would ruin my day.  I'm not sure why, it just happened, I guess there were some factors about visiting Portland this year that were different then years past, but my anxiety was starting to feel out of control.  Cutting back on coffee and taking herbal stress relief pills weren't helping either.  Yesterday when I woke up, immediately stressed, and started to pack, I decided "fuck it, I don't want to go so why am I going?". and I stayed home.
  I have just come out of a year long depression and really don't want to end up back in one.  I know triggers for me can be making myself do things I don't want to do or stressballing to the point where I lose it.  I think it was the right thing for me to do for myself and have no regrets. I will miss seeing all the rad zines at the symposium, but maybe next time.
  In other news, I made a mixtape...  I'm not sure why I ended up putting so much effort into illustrating a track listing for a tape so short.

MRR Review

In the new issue of Maximum RocknRoll (#364) Dreams of Donuts #17 gets a pretty nice review! 

Dreams of Donuts #17
This cute little comic-zine really amused me.  Heather is currently living in Sacramento, but used to live in the Bay.  Part of this issue is about a visit she recently made back to Oakland.  It was interesting to see places I've been to mentioned.  This girl is a pretty talented artist, as well.  While her artwork is relatively simple, sequential art is really hard to do and despite this, her stories were very coherent and readable.  Props!  She also interviewed a friend of hers about his walking-trip from Reno Nevada to Seattle Washington.  I really appretiated that this story isn't a Crimethinc. tale- no one's life problem's get fixed forever by having an amazing adventure.  The dude does this amazing thing and is still kind of sad and miserable afterwards.  However, based on the kinds of things this guy says in the interview, I don't think I really like him as a person and that made it hard for me to appreciate this particular part of the zine.  Overall, I'd say this is a really cute perzine that reps local Cali shit.  I'd like to keep my eye on it.  It doesn't hurt that Heather mentions people I know in her acknowledgments sections.  I love to see my buddies get props!  (AR)

See, it's nice!  Thanks AR!  Also I got in the zine top 10!!!

P.S. Sacto's own RAD get's an interview in this issue too by Sacto's own Ken Fury.

Flyer

Drinking beers and drawing skulls

I think I'm going to make this say "Dead Men Don't Catcall"

Just cuz...

I did the thing I always said I wouldn't do...I started a facebook.  And, I found a bunch of photo's of me that I didn't know existed, but also we're total babes!

Portland, I've been stapling zines all day!  See ya soon!

Slingshot Organizer and No Gods No Mattress #19

Finished my month at a glance for the Organizer (finally) and mailed it out today.  The Organizers will probably be up for sale sometime in the winter.

Also, I recently hosted the New Happiness after a really chaotic house show that ended up getting moved twice in one night, and Enola gave me her new (really good!) zine, that I get featured on both covers!  The front is a drawing I did for her a while ago, and the back is a pic from Portland of Enola, Ari, and I, all totally babes.

Slingshot Organizer week 4

Slingshot Organizer week 3

Flyer

I did this flyer as a favor for my mixtape penpal Chadwick (who does the solo project Andy Cigarettes, you should check it out).  So that means this flyer is for a show in Portland.

Hideaway Art Show

Is up til mid-August!

Week Two for the Slingshot Organizer

Slingshot Organizer 2014

I week down, three to go.  I really have artists block today, I stared at this paper for what felt like hours before I came up with this, which I'm not really stoked about but FUCK ITTTT.