Lance Tooks' Journal: "Everytime I think I'm out... they pull me back in!"

After a bittersweet visit to the United States, (seeing family and friends was the "sweet" part,

all the rest was Trump and the Aryan hemorrhoids that dangle from his crack)

…I returned to Madrid for (drumroll) an art exhibition!

I'll be forever grateful to Margarita Gokun Silver and Elisabeth Louy for sharing their stage with me and making our show an amazing success. I'm honored to be in the presence of such gracious and talented creators! Click on their names for links to their sites and enjoy for yourselves.

I've been filling up two sketchbooks a year since 1982, my last days as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics, after cartooning legends Marie Severin and John Romita Sr, advised me that I should draw every day if I truly wanted to improve my skills. I've kept those books by my side through my many years of labor and travel, and can chart my own artistic and personal evolution over three and a half decades. Half diary and half "unlimited source of ideas and illustrations," many of which have found their way into my comics work, they've sat on my shelves at home like a numbered encyclopedia and only a few friends have seen them. I'm glad for the opportunity to share them publicly for the first time. I've been asked to donate them to a highly respected curator back home in a few months, and I'll tell you more when the time is right.

There are advantages to exhibiting in a proper museum space over the humble "bar-galleries" where I hung work last year… improved security when it comes to hanging original art and improved resources in the form of display cases and gallery lighting, to name two examples. One drawback is that hours are limited in a government run institution, so you're forced to make do with the time you have. I still shake my head that the place is closed on weekends… but what can you do?

Another first in this show is that I'm selling original art from my various short stories and graphic novels. I've hung originals in the past but wasn't ready to sell back then. I've created images specifically for the show as well, if you're interested 100 euros will get you anything that's on the wall. Have a look.

Also available are several of my graphic novels in Ingles y Castellano… the English books being the four hardcover volumes of Lucifer's Garden of Verses at ten euros each, the full set of four are a bargain at thirty euros. In Spanish are my most popular work Narcissa, and my brand new full color short story collection Sin Miedo, both for the reasonable price of ten euros respectively.

Here are a pair of videos that'll shed a bit of light on what I've been up to in recent years,,, the first is a 2012 interview I did with the incredible Black Tribbles Radio (you owe it to yourself to track them down online) accompanied by a slideshow of my various illustrations over the years and assembled by my gifted nephew, video game designer Sean Tooks.

The other is this quick look at my room at Casa Sefarad, at least until May 16th! There's more

than I'm showing here, so come down and see for yourselves! You won't be disappointed!

Lance Tooks

PS… after the video, have a tiny taste of the available illustrations on the walls at the exhibition, including images from my upcoming Thelonious Monk biography for Duke University Press.