Lance Tooks' Journal

New in comics shops this winter:

ROUGH STUFF #7
Take a fascinating look into the creative process of comic art with interviews, articles, never-before-seen penciled pages, sketches, layouts, roughs, and unused inked pages from throughout comics history! This issue features an in-depth interview and cover painting by X-Men inker Tim Townsend! Also, Craig Hamilton, Dan Jurgens, and Howard Porter all contribute their preliminary art, with detailed commentaries to explain its evolution into finished form. Plus, we spotlight legendary Marvel artist Marie Severin with a career-spanning retrospective, and also present a feature on graphic novels, with art and comments by Dawn Brown, Tomer Hanuka, Ben Templesmith, and Lance Tooks! (Twomorrows Publishing) (C: 0-1-2)
Magazine, 100pgs, B&W SRP: $6.95

UVC MAGAZINE #5
The new Public Enemy comic book has excited comics and hip hop fans, and UVC Magazine takes an in-depth look! Also, Denys Cowan talks about the new animated shows on BET and his comi…

Here's a look (Thanks, Patri) at my work on display at La Boca Del Lobo. It might aesthetically be far from the Prado, but geographically it aint!





You shoulda' been there!
Lance Tooks

A couple of weeks ago I auditioned for Steven Soderbergh’s new pair of films based on the life of Che Guevara. A friend had tipped me off that they were casting here in Madrid, and even though I hadn’t given acting a second thought in ages, I thought, “Where’s the harm?” I soon found the answer while doing my first cold reading in almost thirty (cough!) years. The role was a very small one, an African American military officer between 35 & 40, and my lines consisted of scowling into a video camera about how “we’ll turn those Bolivians into US grade Special Forces,” while bragging that “we’ve got the best chopper pilot in Nam.” I did three takes, and the last one being the best, was forwarded to Mr. Soderbergh. A few days later the casting agent very politely called to tell me what I already knew… that the part had gone to someone else. Someone more worthy, I’m sure, because my reading was so mechanical it surprised even me! Let’s forget for a moment that I’m roughly 75 pounds too…

From 2002, Brooklyn, New York, before the war.
(click images to enlarge)



Lance Tooks

For the entire month of September I've got 26 pieces hanging in La Boca del Lobo (http://www.labocadellobo.com/), a terrific dance club in the center of Madrid. They're open Wednesday through Saturdays after ten, the address is Calle Echegaray 11 & their information number is 914 297 013.

The first weekend was terrific! There was a tribute to Fela Kuti last Saturday & the music (as always in that spot) was fantastic... if you like James Brown, P-Funk and company... and I know you do. The artwork was culled from a ten year period, from the 1990's til' about 2001, my pre-computer days.
Here's a brief sample of what you'll see:




I'll be looking for you!
Best, Lance Tooks

Been plenty busy preparing for a September solo show of my black & white comics work at LA BOCA DEL LOBO in Madrid...
more news later...
Working simultaneously on RAPPACCINI'S DAUGHTER for GRAPHIC CLASSICS, STUDS TURKEL'S WORKING for HILL & WANG, and ANANSI'S DREAMBOOK for NBM. Hope life's treating you well.
Lance Tooks

Ed Tooks, my father would've turned seventy today. He died in 1996, a fact I actually had to look up on the internet because I've never felt the need to remember that date. But every year on the 27th of June I celebrate the old man and the many gifts he left me. (pictured below left to right George Tooks, Ed Tooks & the rest of the Genies crooning their way across Canada in the very early 60's)

He was a true renaissance guy; a painter, writer, photographer, musician, singer, composer, poet, video artist, audio-tech, screenwriter, dancer, theatre producer & award-winning playwright. He created much of this work in collaboration with his brother George Tooks, an equally impressive creator who continues to inspire and entertain folks across America with his various projects, including an ongoing lecture series on Black & Native American history. (below, Lenga Tooks, 'LenGa being an abbreviation of Lawrence E 'aNd' George A Tooks, & only bill collect…

Condolences to the family of Dan Epstein, a good writer who honored me with an interview about my work. I used to hunt down his interviews all over the internet.

Remembered here:
And here:

Our interview here:

Lance Tooks

Have a look at my character sketches from Harvey Pekar's upcoming comic about the Beat Poets. More 'white negroes' than you can shake a stick at! Coming soon:


I'm only contributing a page or two, but glad to be included.
Lance Tooks

...falls mainly on my internet provider, meaning that everytime it rains in Madrid, I lose web service for a couple of days. All my very special thanks to the brains at Telefonica (Pictured above).
NEW REVIEW:
Comicbookbin on Lucifer's Garden Vol. 4: Between The Devil & Miles Davis

Another month has raced by, and this weekly journal continues to be updated monthly. Not that anyone’s noticed, of course. In any event it’s been a busy time in Tooksworld. I taught school for a week at the Universidad Europea de Madrid: the theme being “Creativity, Comics & Animation” and the students being extraordinary. Then I shuffled down to Granada for a wedding, where much food, drink & dance was enjoyed.
Besides the good fortune of having work displayed in last month’s Other Heroes gallery show in Mississippi, I’ve forwarded drawings to my own New York City for inclusion in the Museum of Comics & Cartoon Art’s May exposition. I’ve been tagged as “Legendary” by the terrific Big Beautiful Wonder Woman site… they meant “a legend in my own mind”, I’m sure. As for my drawing board, I’ve got work on it that should last me till the end of the year… not bad for "the world's fattest starving artist."
Lance Tooks

America’s favorites are here! Collect ‘em all!
From my 2002 Doubleday Graphic Novel NARCISSA I give you a rogue’s gallery of the most beloved Black archetypes in American film. Can anyone name one actor or actress who hasn’t played these roles at least once? Some make a career of it! And these characters won’t be leaving screens any day soon, because YOU love them!
Lance Tooks


(We regret that one of your faves, HOT-ASS The HOOCHIE-HO couldn't make it due to space considerations... if you must find her right away we suggest you try any Hip-Hop music video. The Management.)

My work will be included in OTHER HEROES, an upcoming exhibition of African American cartoonists at Jackson State University in Mississippi from April 5-25, 2007. A $50 catalog surveying the history of Blacks in comics and featuring an astounding variety of artists is being sold to raise money for Katrina relief.
More news HERE:

A few recent words on my Lucifer’s Garden series of books
HERE at Lit Kicks:

The OTHER HEROES show includes a piece I created for the groundbreaking Jackie Ormes Society site, founded to honor the first Black woman cartoonist.
Join them HERE:


Thanks again for stopping by,
Lance Tooks

Amo Tanzer, the protagonist of Lucifer's Garden of Verses, Book 4:
Between the Devil & Miles Davis (pictured above with an atypically shaven head) has just been nominated for a 2007 GLYPH Award
I'm currently working on multiple projects, but I'll be taking a
much welcomed break next week to attend the latest Salon de Comics in Granada, Spain
See you there,
Lance Tooks
(PS... yesterday was the forteenth anniversary of Danger Funnies One. And what was that, you might ask? We'll talk about it later. LT)

... in 2007, I'm creating ANANSI's DREAMBOOK, an original Graphic Novel for NBM...
plus, I'm a contributing cartoonist in Harvey Pekar's upcoming anthology about the Beat poets...
plus, I'm adapting an Oscar Wilde piece for Graphic Classics...
plus, I'm adapting a Nathaniel Hawthorne piece for Graphic Classics.
"Que Aproveche!"
Lance Tooks