Experience of the EBABZ Fest

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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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Brief Update

Here is a brief update on my current creative projects and endeavors…!

★ “The Poet and the Flea 100 Day Countdown to the Premiere” is underway!! Join us on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook!

Wednesday, October 24th

1. Uploaded portfolio to this blog.
2. Requested invite from DreamUp.com (not at all sure how this will turn out…).
3. Did some online research about zines, printers, etc.

Thursday, October 25th

1. Working on submission to Fantagraphics.
2. Continuing to work on some upcoming blog posts and project ideas.

Friday, October 26th

1. Meeting with Gabe went very well as always. Gabe took the time to cut and paste his entire story, Elias & The City of Cats, into a children’s book format to give me a better idea of what I need to illustrate. From this prototype, I’ll start working on a rough sketch storyboard!
2. Applied to the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival Screenwriters Competition. Information updated on “Applications” post, here.
3. Completed submissions package for Fantagraphics. Now, I just have to put in the mail!
4. Scanned character preliminary design for Elias and Ignis of Elias & The City of Cats. With this design, I was just experimenting with some Commedia dell’Arte (Pierrot & Harlequin) costumes which most likely won’t appear in the final children’s book. But Gabe seems to really like this image and wants to make some t-shirts. Any interest?

Saturday, October 27th

1. Last night and today, working on rough sketch storyboard for Elias & The City of Cats.
2. Did some experimenting with animation app on iPad.

Sunday, October 28th

1. Worked on figuring out the crazy California ballot (so many props!) so that I can vote early tomorrow.
2. Had a wonderful time with Wes today! Ate dinner at The Corner Store — both had these amazing “Grasshoppers” (crème de menthe, absinthe, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream). Can’t wait to see him again on Halloween! （○゜ε＾○）

Monday, October 29th

1. I voted today!!
2. Dropped submissions package for Fantagraphics in the mail!
3. Applied for a part-time writing job. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, October 30th

1.  Working on rough sketch storyboard for Elias & The City of Cats.
2. Discovered that my short screenplay Death Is No Bad Friend made it to the Kaos Films British Short Screenplay Competition 2nd Round Qualifiers (announced earlier this month). I have no idea how many rounds this competition is, but does that mean that judge Sir Kenneth Branagh has read my screenplay?  (｡♥‿♥｡)
3. Responded to a film director on Craigslist looking for a short screenplay, and got an almost immediate response of interest. Hoping this will be successful!
4. Sent an e-mail to Scout Books enquiring about collaboration and their Good Ink’s literary line.

Wednesday, October 31st

1. Completed rough sketch storyboard for Elias & The City of Cats.
2. Happy Halloween!!!  I had a great time at Wes’s house’s pretty dorky party, even though I don’t think anyone recognized my Daria costume (even though Shannon Woodward and Katy Perry dressed as Daria and Jane without my prior knowledge). Plus, Wes gave me a belated birthday present — meet Charles, the British alpaca!!

Thursday, November 1st

1. Recovering from last night!
2. Ran some errands…
3. Also, my mom’s (Irene Zweig) new postcards (see below) came in the mail!

Etcetera

• The Poet and the Flea: 49 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 36 pages (1-24, 27-30 completed, and 25-26, 31-36 in progress) of illustrated work.
• The First Reich: Began work on the first few pages…!

To Do:

• Continue adding blog content to The First Reich.
• Continue to work on The First Reich.
• Continue to work on Elias & The City of Cats.
• November 2nd: meet with Gabe at 11 a.m.
• November 7th: Scary Cow Information Session with Shannon.
• November 9th: Cinema by the Bay with Wes at 7 p.m.
• Sign up with Top Web Comics: Comic Rankings.
• Sign up with OnlineComics.net.

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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Plans for Halloween

I have always loved Halloween. Dressing up, trick-or-treating, jack-o’-lanterns, et cetera, et cetera. Perhaps that’s because I would watch Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas on VHS over and over and over again as an impressionable 6-year-old.

I believe my all-time best Halloween costume as a child was The Patchwork Girl of Oz. I read L. Frank Baum’s book that summer — I think I was most impressed by the idea of the “Square Meal Tablet.” For the costume, I just remember my mom helping me stitch “doll seams” into pink stockings — a bit like Sally from Nightmare.

I love Halloween so much that, in high school, I wrote a graphic novel called Every Day Should Be Halloween. The basic premise was about a high schooler plagued not only metaphorically but literally by a monkey on his back. I never finished the series… But I completed the written script, the character designs, the costume designs, and a rough sketch outline (see above) of every last page (a little over a hundred in total).

Disclaimer: I do not own this image!!

Now, my default costume is Daria Morgendorffer, as in MTV’s animated series Daria (see above). I label this “default” since I just pull from my closet a number of articles from my high school days and voilà!!! This year, it’s a particularly fortunate costume since Wes told me his very first crush was on Daria (´∀｀)♡ (okay, I admit it — I totally had a crush on Trent; and Wes does an uncanny impression of the Mystik Spiral vocalist).

Anyway, here’s a sneak peak of my costume…

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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Brainstorming: Web Series, Etc.

This list was originally intended for web series ideas, but has gotten off track a bit. So it’s more of just a brainstorming list intended for various mediums.

(This is just a rough list of ideas for my personal use. In no particular order!)

• My short story entitled “Inside the Display Case,” about a Siberian pit viper named Peter.
• Crime/mystery/thriller genre: perhaps a modern version of “Bluebeard” or “How the Devil Married Three Sisters“…?
• Supernatural/Vampire/Werewolf: not my favorite topic in the universe, but I would like a chance to completely reinvent it.
• Perhaps a quirky series with a cynical heroine like Daria or Ghost World…?
• “The Chronic Argonauts” (1888), Tono-Bungay (1909), etc. by H. G. Wells.
• “The Modern Prometheus,” more widely known as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
• The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe and/or The Poe Toaster.
• San Francisco history [Found SF].
• Cliff House and the Sutro Baths.
• Oscar Wilde in San Francisco.
• A story about a bored widow…?
• Tchaikovsky’s Voice: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Julius Block, and Thomas Edison.
• “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me.” — “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
• Exquisite corpse and other parlour games [Victorian Parlour Games]: Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (百物語怪談会), Wink Murder (Vampire), Snap-dragon, etc.
• Kaidan (怪談) [Hyakumonogatari]: Yotsuya Kaidan, Botan Dōrō, etc.
• The Japanese Village in Knightsbridge, London.
• The Devil’s Trill Sonata by Giuseppe Tartini.
• “Victorian Funeral Customs and Superstitions”
• The ancient Greek goddess Melinoe.
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
• The Plague Doctor and his costume.
• 「…夢が現実の領域（りょういき）にまで溢れ出し、夢の氾濫（はんらん）が起ってしまったのだと。」” ‘…[My dream-world has] spilled over into reality. They’re a flood that’s sweeping me away.’ ” Quote from “Spring Snow” by Yukio Mishima.
• The Demon, an opera by Russian composer Anton Rubinstein.
• The works of Mikhail Lermontov, including Demon and “Death of the Poet.”
• “The Earl of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to travel, seven years. On his return the Queen welcomed him home and said, ‘My Lord, I had forgot the Fart’” –Aubrey’s Brief Lives.
• “A Visit to the Haunted Chamber,” painting by William Frederick Yeames.
• …?

To be continued…

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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas