Tag Archives: Chatting
I met my Barcelonian friend Elena in Tokyo of all places. We were both studying at Sophia University for a year.
We met through a mutual acquaintance and the three of us ended up on a three day trip to Okinawa. Both Elena and I share an enthusiasm for Okinawan culture and were so excited to go. We managed to see everything on our checklist and had an overall wonderful time there.
As it turned out, a few weeks later, Elena ended up moving into the same dorm as me. We ended up spending memorable times together, staying up to the wee hours of the morning chatting and eating candy.
Now, having only recently moved to San Francisco, we live on practically opposite sides of the globe. But we still Facebook and tweet at each other. And, most excitingly, we send packages through snail mail to each other, back and forth from Spain to the States.
While we were friends in Tokyo, Elena had no idea I drew at all. This was during my college phase of not having time to draw. Boy, was she surprised when she learned I was working on my graphic novel The Poet and the Flea. And, quickly, she became my #1 fan!
Elena became smitten by the rose from page 27 of The Flea (as seen on Part 4 of Behind the Scenes). So, for the winter holiday, I sent her the following ink and watercolor rose.

In return, at the end of January, I received a wonderful little New Year’s present from Elena (see photos below)! She sent me a delightfully long handwritten letter, a bag of candy, and a flyer of a favorite Japanese band called exist†trace (which I believe Elena was handed by the lead singer named Jyou after a The GazettE concert).


I would love for Elena to come visit San Francisco one day, or for me to visit her in Barcelona (when I’m not an unpaid intern making absolutely no money). Elena is really the only person I keep in touch with from my year abroad and I’m proud to have such an awesome friend! Maybe someday we’ll even return to Japan and even Okinawa together.
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
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Copyright 2013 by G. E. Gallas
8 comments | tags: #1 Fan, Acquaintance, Awesome, Bag, band, Barcelona, Barcelonian, Behind the Scenes, Both, California, Candy, Chatting, Checklist, Christmas, Color, Colour, Comic book, Comics, Contert, Culture, December, Diary, Doodle, Doodles, Dorm, Dormitory, Drawing, Drawings, Eating, Elena, Enthusiasm, Enthusiastic, Exist Trace, exist†trace, Facebook, Fan, Favorite, Flower, Flyer, Friend, Friends, Gift, Globe, Graphic Novel, Graphic Novelist, Handmade, Handwritten, Holiday, Hours, Illustration, Illustrator, Image, Ink, Intern, International, Internship, Island, J-Rock, January, Japan, Japanese, Journal, Jyou, Language, Lead Singer, Letter, Live, Mail, Memorable, Memories, Memory, Money, Music, Mutual, New Years, Okinawa, Okinawan, Package, Packages, Pen, Pen and Ink, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Photos, Picture, Pink, Plane, Poor, Present, Proud, Quickly, Red, Return, Rose, San Francisco, Scan, Singer, Sketch, Sketchbook, Sketches, Smitten, Snail Mail, Sophia University, Spain, Spanish, Study, Studying, The GazettE, The Poet and the Flea, Together, Tokyo, Travel, Trip, Tropical, Tweet, Twitter, Unpaid, Visit, Vocalist, Watercolor, Watercolour, William Blake, Winter, Wonderful, World, Writer, Writing, Year, Year Abroad | posted in Illustration/Design, Travel
On December 8th, I attended the EBABZ (East Bay Alternative Book & Zine) Fest in Berkeley.
I found out about the EBABZ when I picked up a postcard about it at APE (Alternative Press Expo) in October.
EBABZ was a small but interesting Fest and I enjoyed walking around, checking out what other people were up to, chatting, building my zine library, and getting some advice.
* Milk & Carrots #2


Milk & Carrots is an anthology featuring a number of artists with vastly different styles of illustration and storytelling. I think this is a good start for anyone who’s just getting into the world of zines! Printed by Keness.com. For more information about Milk & Carrots, please visit www.ebbandflood.net.
* Between Here and Here by Brendan Monroe.


This zine is a dream-like abstraction filled with science, sexuality, and emotion. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but anyone can see that Brendan Monroe is insanely gifted. Check out his amazing paintings, sculptures, and comics/zines on his Tumblr!
* Murder Dollhouse No. 1 by Teppei Ando

Murder Dollhouse is a completely bizarre but wonderful little zine! This volume includes The Man Who Lived In Their Attic (part 1 & part 2), the full-color and delightful short She Made Me Feel Four Inches Tall, and a number of fun extras. If you like a good pulp fiction, then this is the zine for you!
* Melancholy Rainbow: A Sitcom, “Tastes Like July” Issue One by Nina Kim

Melancholy Rainbow feels to me like a mix between Daria and The Book of Bunny Suicides – a perfect blend of sarcasm and sadism. This is an autobiographical affair and, judging by my brief interaction with the artist, a pretty accurate one at that. Read Melancholy Rainbow for yourself at www.melancholyrainbow.com.
* 1984 Printing

Also, I discovered this wonderful local printer. Their products are really beautiful, high quality, and fairly priced. They gave me their very useful pricing list as well as a cute free notebook. I’m seriously considering using them down the line, whether for a small zine or possibly a bigger project.
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After stopping by the EBABZ, Wes and I ended up at this great soba restaurant called Ippuku. The whole experience was very authentic and I’d love to go back sometime.
Then, somehow, we ended up in Haight-Ashbury. We visited some of Wes’s favorite stores like Super 7, Kidrobot, and Amoeba Music, which were all a lot of fun.We also went to The Booksmith and proceeded to drool over all the gorgeous Penguin Classics hardcovers.
So, all in all, it was a very exciting day!
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
***
Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas
8 comments | tags: 1984, Abstract, Abstraction, Accurate, Advice, Alternative, Alternative Book, Alternative Press Expo, Amoeba Music, Anthology, APE, Art, Artist, Artists, Authentic, Autobiographical, Autobiography, Beautiful, Berkley, Between Here and Here, Bizarre, Blend, Brendan Monroe, Brian Herrick, Bussan 33, Buy, Chatting, Christopher Gray, Comic book, Comics, Creative, Creativity, Cute, Daria, December, Delightful, Different, Discover, Discovered, Dream, Dream-like, Drool, East Bay, EBABZ, Ebb and Flood, Emotion, Endeavor, Exciting, Experience, Extras, Featuring, Fest, Free, Full-Color, Fun, Gifted, Gorgeous, Graphic Novel, Haight-Ashbury, Hardcover, Hardcovers, High Quality, Illustration, Illustrator, Independent, Insane, Interaction, Interesting, Ippuku, Issue, James The Stanton, Jen Oaks, Josh Birdsall, Keness.com, Kidrobot, Library, Local, Malachi Ward, Matthew Sheean, Melancholy Rainbow, Melissa Geppert, Milk & Carrots, Mix, Murder Dollhouse, Nina Kim, Notebook, October, Paintings, Part, Penguin Classics, Postcard, Price, Pricing, Pricing List, Print, Printed, Printer, Product, Products, Project, Publish, Publisher, Pulp, Pulp Fiction, Read, Restaurant, Sadism, San Francisco, Sarcasm, Science, Sculpture, Sexuality, She Made Me Feel Four Inches Tall, Short, Sitcom, Small, Soba, Story, Storytelling, Strange, Super 7, Tastes Like July, Teppei Ando, The Book of Bunny Suicides, The Booksmith, The Man Who Lived In Their Attic, True, Useful, Volume, Wonderful, Writer, Writing, Zine, Zines | posted in Graphic Novel, Illustration/Design, Links
Today, I wanted to share the work of the extremely talented Ryan Thompson.
I befriended Ryan back in July through Twitter — I followed him, he followed me back, and then we got to chatting a bit. He told me how he’d learned a lot from the first webcomic he did and was starting a new project “from the ground up.”
And that new project turned out to be a fantastic webcomic named Frolic.
In short, Frolic is a fairy tale about an animated doll who finds herself in a nightmarish world. Frolic just recently premiered (only 10 pages up online so far), but anyone can tell Ryan has invested a lot of time and effort into this project. And his dedication is clearly paying off! Frolic has a wonderfully unique and quirky style, set (at least so far) is beautiful shades of pink and blue to compliment its intriguing premise.
Meanwhile, you can catch up on Ryan’s first webcomic called Fajita. Fajita is fun and action-packed, following the adventures of a strange girl named Widow and a possibly stranger girl named Shea. There’s a whopping total of 448 pages thus far, so you’ll have a lot to read while waiting for a new page of Frolic each Monday.
Below are a number of my favorite images/pages from Frolic.
The following images belong to Ryan Thompson.



For more from Ryan Thompson, please check out the following websites…
Frolic
Fajita
Ryan Thompson
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
***
Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas
Leave a comment | tags: Action-Packed, Admiration, Admire, Adventures, Animated, Art, Artist, Beautiful, Befriended, Blue, Chat, Chatting, Comic, Comic book, Creative, Creativity, Dark Star Studios, Dedication, deviantART, Doll, Drawing, Drawings, Effort, Facebook, Fairy Tale, Favorite, First, Follow, Friend, Frolic, From The Ground Up, Fun, Girl, Graphic Novel, Handmade, Illustration, Illustrator, Images, Intriguing, Invested, Investment, Learn, Link, Monday, My Coffee Black, New, Nightmare, Nightmarish, Online, Pages, Pink, premiere, Premise, Project, Promote, Promotion, Publish, Publisher, Quirky, Read, Recent, Ryan Thompson, Scan, Scenic, Shades, Shea, Strange, Stranger, Style, Time, Tumblr, Twitter, Unique, Wait, Waiting, Web Comic, Webcomic, Whopping, Widow, Wonderful, World, Writer, Writing | posted in Links, Graphic Novel, Illustration/Design