Dry and Meaningless.

I'm currently giving comics workshops to the kids at the Keleketla library in JHB. One of the kids copied a panel from a comic of mine that was lying around. The result is pretty surreal.

EDIT:

Here is the original comic:

Insects.

A scientist friend of mine tells me that very soon in the evolutionary trajectory of insects they will notice, as we have long ago, that in the sky there is a giant ball of fire. They will one by one give up their daily routines of digging and eating dirt and they will begin moving towards it. The ones with wings will carry those without. Some of these combinations will move very quickly, traversing large portions of the distance between them and the sun.

by Sebastian

Here are some drawings that I did in August/September.

Clicking on the images takes you to the higher resolution versions.

Evolution - Birds.

We have a handful of strategies that we use to understand the evolution of humans. It is a difficult art in which we can easily make mistakes. Because of this we tread cautiously: only a tiny fraction more of the steps that are taken aren’t steps backwards. So far we’ve found that the structure of our mind is outward-layered with newer developments built on top of older ones.

In the same way that the newer physical components of our brain rely on the infrastructure of the older ones, so it could be true of our personal experience. It could be that our everyday interactions with each other have as their far far removed base ancient survival mechanisms wholly irrelevant to our modern lives (the terror of birds, our once-predators, comes to mind). Perhaps our decisions in dealing with those we love are secretly influenced by an ancient fear of being swooped up while exposed. Perhaps the strange ability to dwell on a moment and expand from it an overwhelming sense of inspiration, perhaps this is caused by some still extant older infrastructure trying to connect to a now extinct cousin and attempting to use the newer machinery to perform the same function.

When I was a bird I was once, while attempting to court a particularly beautiful female, overwhelmed by the memory of a bizarre and terrifying sound. I had heard it in the human camp: a powerfully loud sound with very little melodic complexity. I flew away terrified, in a state of shock.

On my return I relived the excitement of the original terror by mimicking the sound. I and the particularly beautiful female and a few of the other males who were also attempting to court her flew around up and down and around each other. I cried out the sound and the others tried to mimic me, but could not generate the excitement that my cries did.  

by sebastian

Two compilations.

A while ago I made a compilation of South African music. Some links: http://electricjive.blogspot.com/; http://freedomblues.blogspot.com/; http://soulsafari.wordpress.com/; http://matsuli.blogspot.com/

The last song is a sample that I took from a documentary called 'The Hunters' by John Marshall. 'The Hunters' is an amazing documentary. Marshall was only 21 when he filmed it.

You can download the compilation here.

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I also made this one a while ago, for a friend's birthday. It is a compilation made from the tape compilations that Mississippi Records has been putting out.

Download it here.

Comics about comics.

I've made a new booklet of comics. This one is titled Comics about People and Things. Here is one of the comics from the booklet. I made it in time to sell at Grahamstown Arts Festival. I approached festivalgoers and read them the following comic. Most people bought it and I ended up selling-out the batch. Thank you.

I am a dog.

I am a dog and can hear most things.
I walked into the room and was convinced that you had gotten things wrong.

I sat next to you and thought about how it is that I know things are wrong, but I became tired and fell asleep. When I woke up you had lit a fire in the fireplace and were putting out some food for me.
I tried again later, but this time I sat close to the fire. The warmth made me drowsy and I fell asleep again.

The next day you went for a walk to the forest and took me with you. It was cold so you wore a large coat. I do not need clothes because I have a coat of fur. I ran ahead of you many times to look out for other things. In the forest we stopped briefly and you peed. I peed too.

When we got back home I remembered that I was trying to work out what was wrong. You lit a fire earlier in the day than the last time, which is good because it was a colder than the day before. I fell asleep again and woke up later. You were putting food into a bowl. I ate it.

The next day you went to the forest and I went with you. We came back and you lit a fire. It's good because it is cold outside. I ate food from a bowl and I was warm from the fire. It made me happy. It is good.

Some comics.

I drew a small batch of comics in November 2009 I think it was. I'm a big fan of them, especially these two:

Bertha, The Child-Flower (also: Jakob Von Gunten)

I entered the illustration contest at Journey Round My Skull. This was my entry:





The Journey Round My Skull site is really quite excellent. Will scans in illustrations and book covers from back when things were well designed. I read Robert Walser's Jakob Von Gunten after reading about Robert Walser on the site. It's a pretty gosh damn brilliant book. Sticking to tradition, I'm posting the cover of my university's copy:

Beatboxing.

I spent a month in Berlin in 2009, which is when the two comics that I've posted were drawn. Some people that I met there ran a weekly open mic night at a club called Madame Claude in Kreuzberg. On my last night night in Berlin I revealed to them my secret ability to beatbox. It was an "Open Mike Tyson" on that particular Sunday, which meant that there were three judges who critiqued your stuff. It was all quite friendly except for one musician from New Zealand to whom Tory, one of the organizers, seemed to have a lot to say.

On my trip I had with me a Talkgirl (the female version of the talkboy from Home Alone) that a friend of mine, Michaela, lent to me so that I would capture what exactly it is that is going on over there. I used it to record my 'set'. The recording clips at times when my sounds become too intense. Also, I think I sound helluva smug when I talked, but it's just that I was quite nervous.

Beatboxing.mp3

Circles Are Lines: a series of bland comics

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THE END

Professor Stevens gave me a ... to write.

I drew this comic in July last year. It was based on a dream that I had soon after writing some university exams. I forgot to care for it and it got rained on, which resulted in a psychedelic purple seeping out of the ink towards that bottom of the page. I've uploaded them in black and white to make it easier to read.










Also, welcome to my weblog!

a note on the sky and birds

In Xhosa the phrase "Izulu limathumb' antaka" means that it is overcast and will soon rain. The literal translation of the phrase is "The sky is the entrails of birds."