I’ve been reading Forming for quite a while now, and I absolutely love it. It’s not only gorgeous and fun — I think it’s also capital-I-Important in the way that something truly new can be. The physical copies of Forming I and II are absolutely stunning to behold. So excited for what’s to come!

I’ve been looking forward to Forming III, and the occasional other things that pop up in the mean-time have been great to see too.
Social media seems to work well as a signal repeater, a way to wave ‘hi’ and remind the people who don’t use RSS or check pages regularly that you’re alive. Some artists I follow on Twitter make a point of announcing that they’re going radio silent when they start working on a project in earnest, which seems a good way to whet curiosity and to help them focus.

As a retired English major, glimpses into the creative process are gold. I find gestures to inspiration or remarks on process to be fascinating, and in the case of comics they’ve really strengthened my appreciation for the medium.

Just reread volumes 1 & 2 in print, still in awe of the art and the story.

Dude I can’t emphasize how amazing your stuff has been. That being said If we lived in a dimension that hearing it’s amazing no matter what you do can get pretty frustrating fast, and make your “good stuff” whatever that means have no meaning at all whatever “meaning” means. But i really dug what you said in that adventure time artists panel about peeps making stuff and changed their style, and having less commercial appeal(at least to you) rather than create a model for how your stuff will be forever. Which is rad, i really dig your comics that I can’t read, like I do forming. Or I think a great example of this is Only God Forgive, where Nicholas Windig Refn didn’t make another Drive, because Drive already exists and that’s the only Drive we need. Another Drive what totally undermine the rad existence of Drive. Everyone was expecting another Drive with Only God Forgives, and I think It was Jodorosky who said that he needed to do something different. And alot of people hate it. But like Nicholas said “art is their to create a reaction wether “positive or negative”. You probably already know this anyway. You know about art more than i do.

Take your time. Do some comic shows next year plz!

Well I can’t relate to the desire to Master one’s innerlife and material ego, but to the question of what to do after completing a project I can relate. I return to past incomplete projects with new discipline and vision, looking for a new place to resume drawing.

“What voices to let in:” Listen to anyone.
“When to explain work:” When requested, when relevent to conversation.
“Who to address and give agency to:” The one’s whose opinions you value, who you like to hear more from, and who could learn something themselves from your response.
“Which resources are vampires:” Anyone can act like a vampire or like a troll on any site. There are good, sweet people everywhere. The thing about vampires is they need to be invited in to get to you.

I hope you value my voice– I certainly have come to value yours.

What I do when I slack really helps give structure to what I create through hard work. I’ve been really into the mythological crossovers and pop culture in comics. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World has really been my jump off point. And your work has a really great cohesion between these different cultures and cosmic significance. This kind of stuff helps ground me when I get all bamboozled by responsibilities and distractions.

By the way my name is Zach “Boaz” Bair. I am acting President of the University of Akron’s Student Art League. We’re an under graduate student-run organization that coordinate artist visits and other interactive opportunities to provide students with a wider range of artists. If you would be interested we would love to organize a visit this coming spring. If you are interested in discussing details let me know whats the best means of communication. Hope to hear from you in the near future.

Well I’m sorry to hear that. Thank you for your quick response. Best wishes.

sure

Yesssss, so excited to hear this! I can’t wait to see what you come up with, I know it’s going to be fucking incredible.

Trust yourself. Your skill with your art and story has kept me interested and anxiously awaiting the third part. Imo with forming you have redefined and added to the countless mythos and opened a new dialog to some classic tales. You are an adept storyteller.

Positive vibes

Facebook twitter and all that truly are nothing but trash that absorbs peoples’ time and inflates peoples’ egos. i tired off all that a long time ago. Forming, however, is amazing. Even though you said it wouldn’t be updated til the new year I check back every few days (its actually my homepage) to find some reassurance that it will continue. I impatiently, yet politely, await the continuation/conclusion/further works. thank you again sir.

I appreciate your art teacher

I think both Backwards Folding Mirror issues are available through Alternative Comics http://indyworld.com/

Follow Me is a little harder to get. I only have a personal copy at my house. I think Zack Soto at Study Group might have a box of them. You could try hitting him up about it.

I hope too see what turns up after you deal with these questions and apply the learnt experience into your story. I know it will be interesting whatever you do, because you have the care and conviction to drive into your creativity, whatever the product or outlet is.
I believe everything can be analyzed, and I believe when these difficulties have been worked through in thorough time, that the product will reflect your psyche that much more, in experiences Internal, observed, and predicted.
That is what I am excited for. Take your time. Do not rush art, though be sure to keep your fire lit regularly enough to not lose motivation. A hiatus can be helpful, but I always hate to see an artist stop producing entirely.

To further coerce you, reading stories by artists I enjoy is good to spark my own creations into a beginning. “For the children.”

I still looking and still spreading.
I really love your work, especially forming.

Thanks!

Sorry for being part of the beast.

Let in the voices that speak the truth, you’ll know, whether it’s something you like or not- the truth. If someone asks about your work might as well tell them, especially if there is a clear intention of your work, I don’t get why people feel like it should be left for interpretation, regardless people are going to project themselves into your work, so if you have something you personally want to say, say it. Art is your creation, so what ever you think really matters, you don’t need feedback, unless you literally are looking for the help, then someone who knows their stuff and you’d be able to recoginze that. The internet is a vampire (immortal, life sucking, hypnotic, seductive, shape shifting, etc. ps I like that you used that I can see it like that too) so screwed there lol, clearly I’m not all knowing but I tried to answer these nonetheless, maybe you’ll find some use or just think I’m being pretentious if those where inteneded to be rhetorical (then sorry I have alot of opinions), I’m fairly naive so I don’t understand the first 2 questions, why would you feel like there’s something to do? maybe your ambition is pulling you to one side and a more hollistic approach is being called for, so doing something opposite to art for a few hours or what evs, I don’t know you have the answers somewhere amoungst that immense imagination of yours… I hope you’re well, take your time, I appreciate your art, keep feelin the power of your ideas! lastly you’re awesome, rock on. Nevermind, I have a question if you don’t mind, would you consider internet as being immortal?

Are you still going to be at locust moon next week?

Gotcha

Hey man I don’t have any prints for sale at the moment. I do have t-shirts here http://skreened.com/jmoyns

I’m not doing any commissions or selling any art at the moment either. I’m sort of in a gestating stage. The brain and spirit have to relax for a time.

The Internet is either a phase of human development or it will be forgotten when we die out as a species. Either way the internet is mortal.

Justin did write the music for Breezy and the lyrics. We did work on Manly together. Not sure what the future is for Manly, but we’ll see. And yeah we have a band together.

Yes I wrote the song Marceline sings in Marceline’s Closet. Thanks for enjoying man!

Hey thanks for the vote of confidence. I appreciate your observation about withholding answers. It’s a tightrope I have to cross over and over. I don’t think I’m always successful, but yeah I think about it in a pretty hardcore way.

I get writer’s block from time to time – and depending on what kind of mood I’m in, it can be really hard to get the juices flowing. My normal solution for this is to just keep my pen moving, while trying to relax my brain. I don’t worry to much about whether it’ll be good or not. Usually if I can get my pen moving on the page, after an hour or so, I’ll get pretty immersed and the flow will come back to me. If it still feels like shit, I don’t stop. I just keep plowing through. The primary way I’ve found to overcome writer’s block, is to forcibly chip away at it until it comes loose. I find that, the more I step away from it, the more intimidating it gets to return to it. So I try to stay right next to it, every day. The other thing is, I don’t put the burden of creating completely on myself. I believe I share the burden with some kind of greater storytelling force. So a lot of my process is sublimating myself to that force. This is what happens when I relax my brain. I’m giving in to a higher creative intelligence.