Past, present & future books, sketches & related artwork
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Hangin' in there... and you?
As I write it’s twenty one years to the day from the first time I stumbled off that plane at Barajas Airport and into gorgeous Madrid for the first time. This led to that and the rest is herstory; it’s both the best and worst decision I ever made, but I’d fall into this hole again in a heartbeat!
So what have I been up to the past two years while actively neglecting this modest page of mine? Here as always, in no coherent order is a whooole mess of stuff that happened… it faithfully mirrors the orderless state of my affairs.
Let’s start in my other favorite city, New York, New York. I rented a table two years back at the Schomburg Library in Harlem, to sell and promote my work at the 5th annual Black Comic Book Festival. I was happy to see cartooning luminaries like Jerry Craft, Alex Simmons and John Jennings and Damian Duffy, as well as friends, fans and (especially) family. My sister Kim drove us to and from Atlanta, and we hit the road way too soon, mostly to avoid the Maga Morlocks running loose during King Trumpanzee’s inauguration. I’m trying to get back home for a visit soon as funds permit, but just before I left, Al Cayne interviewed me for his webpage. (I'd rather be an artsit than an artist any day!) Most of the works in progress I described there didn’t happen, simply because other things did, as you will see.
I was extremely fortunate soon after, to be included in the BLACK COMIX RETURNS coffee table book, edited by the aforementioned John Jennings and Damian Duffy. More info here… it’s available now, online and wherever finer books are sold. (No idea where that may be, as I’m a dinosaur in a tiny apartment, who hasn’t purchased a real book in this century.)
I returned to Spain, and after sharing an exhibition at Madrid’s beautiful Casa Seferad with fine artists Margarita Gokun Silver and Elisabeth Louy (see previous blog entry) I was invited to participate in a very popular show at La Casa Encendida with artworld sensation DIS Collective. I’d met them in Harlem months earlier, which led to a fun collaboration with them in the massive cultural space mere blocks from my doorstep. I’m planning a small event with Encendida soon, and would love to work with DIS again someday.
Next stop, the isle of Gibraltar, where I was invited two years in a row to participate in their first and second ever Comics Conventions! (Can't say I was ever a Motion Capture artist, but I've done my share of rotoscoping, back when that was a thing.) I met the nicest folks; the cheekiest Rock monkeys and amazing actors from Game of Thrones and various Stars projects (both Wars and Trek). I can’t wait to return soon. CLICK HERE...
I contributed character designs to the amazing Ace and Sons animated short for the StoryCorps Project, in which visual artists assist real people in bringing to life their personal stories. It was a joy to be a part of an animation crew for the first time since… well, the twenty years I spent doing it back home in New York City. Thanks Richard O’Connor, for remembering me.
Black Panthers for Beginners, my comic book history of the Civil Rights organization (written by historian Herb Boyd) is back in print. A must read historical Graphic Novel, there’s more about it here… CLICK HERE...
Herb Boyd was kind enough to ask me to be a part of a new critical essay collection which debates the cultural significance of the popular Marvel blockbuster. (The OTHER Black Panther!) I modeled the art after my cover for the previous Panther book, and it marks the first time in my life I was ever paid to draw a superhero! Being that February of this year also marked the fortieth anniversary of the day that a sixteen year old Lance Tooks was hired as an intern at Marvel Comics itself, it personally feels a bit overdue. The less incendiary actual title of the book is Black Panther… Paradigm Shift, or Not? (Edited by Herb Boyd and Haki R. Madhubuti)
Here’s a left field link… Infinite Variety, a short five page romance comics piece I wrote and illustrated, only to see it rejected by the pretentious arthouse publication that commissioned it, only in turn to have it swiftly rescued by the mighty Cry For Dawn creator and publisher Joseph Michael Linsner for his own classic series over two decades ago… has been turned into of all things, a heartfelt spoken word podcast by a group of fine people I’ve never met. You can listen to it here…
Shalom, a long gestating original Graphic Novel project is dear to my heart. Like all of my stories, it’s a hard book to sell but I’m still trying. You can read an excerpt here, on my friend and Narcissa editor Deborah Cowell’s Medium page…
Meanwhile, here’s a chapter from my NBM Graphic Novel Lucifer’s Garden of Verses volume four - Between the Devil and Miles Davis. I retell a true story I heard first hand about one of the most loathsome wretches to ever walk this earth. (…and it sure AINT Miles Davis.)
My life in Madrid isn’t just relegated to creating comic book art. In addition to acting in short films and tv spots, doing studio voice overs and testing the sound systems (and audience members’ ears) in various karaoke bars, I’ve been a member of several local writing and poetry groups. One of the most enjoyable events for me have been the open mics, where I get to read aloud my comics, poetry and prose.
Here’s my piece Six Single Mothers, interpreted in public by yours truly, just last week. Originally published in Fantagraphics’ Girl Talk anthology (Edited by Sabrina Jones, Ann Decker and Isabella Bannerman) the piece has had a life of it’s own, having been cited in a book by Trina Robbins on Women’s Comics, feted at an event celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues and included in the Resist! Anthology (Edited by Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman) which was created for the Women’s March in DC.
(Thanks again to Amelie Yan-Gouiffes for shooting the video beautifully without my realizing it!)
I just turned 57 on September 15th. One of the best birthday presents I got this year was a kind writeup acknowledging my work from cartoonist and peer Samax Amen. I appreciate it!
A few weeks ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger held his European Arnold Bodybuilding Classic in Barcelona and various Spanish cartoonists were asked by the Asociacion Espanola de Amigos del Comic to participate in an art exhibition there, paying homage to his first big film success, Conan the Barbarian. I guess I’ve been here so long I’m a Spanish cartoonist now! What an honor to be included alongside Esteban Maroto and the like. (Gracias, Emilio Gonzalo Mayo)
So… you see why I haven’t been around these parts much lately. These are the things that happened, like the Walrus said, while I was making plans. I’m involved in a few other things as well, which I’ll share with you next time. But truth be told, the last couple of years have been complicated/ exhausting. It was a lot easier making funny books back when palefaced fiends weren’t trying to destroy this world on a daily basis… but when exactly was that ever not the case? The best I can hope for is to enjoy the love of my friends and family and hope that some small trace of the Tooks family’s life’s work survives the radiation. Of course I hope you do too!
Lance Tooks
Hey! Here’s my Instagram page to keep you company!
Lance Tooks has been drawing all his life. A former assistant editor at Marvel Comics, his artwork has since appeared in more than 100 television commercials, films and music videos. He has self-published the comic books "Danger Funnies" (co-published with Cry For Dawn), Divided by Infinity and Muthafucka. He also illustrated The Black Panthers for Beginners, written by Herb Boyd. He has contributed to a Hurricane Katrina benefit comic, as well as to the Graphic Classics line of books, adapting the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson and Ambrose Bierce. He recently completed "Narcissa", his first graphic novel for Random House/Doubleday (recently translated for publication in Spain) and a four volume series entitled "Lucifer's Garden of Verses" for NBM. He has also contributed to the Graphic Novel anthologies, The Beats (Hill and Wang) in collaboration with author Harvey Pekar, Studs Terkel’s Working (the New Press) and The Graphic Canon (7 Stories).
Lance Tooks lives in New York and Madrid. He merely exists everywhere else.
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