It seems my first book GOOD-BYE, CHUNKY RICE has been underrepresented on the blog, yet this summer happens
to be the ten year anniversary of my move to Portland and beginning that book; so here’s a few snippets of the process.
For the first half year, I was miserable in Portland: stocking shelves in the hardware department at Fred Meyer,
cohabiting with drum-circle hippies, assaulted at a bus stop by six drunken rednecks, suffering from stolen checkbooks
bounced across the nation, and worst of all, missing my friends back in Milwaukee, WI. So I used it all as fuel.
Below are thumbnail roughs of pages 73 and 89. Ballpoint pen, baby. Below that are a couple of finished pages that never made it to the final book.
A sad detail is that I never saw the Oregon coast until the book was completed, nearly two years after moving here, for lack of time and funds.
Now I go almost weekly. Better yet, I was so hard up for money at the time, that when I received my printer’s comps of the third printing of CHUNKY, I took the whole box of them to Powell’s Books to sell. I specified that they were fresh from the printer and that I was the author, so the Powell’s buyer asked that I sign each copy and then bought them from me for three bucks a pop. That $150 saved me from a month of starvation.
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July 5th, 2007 at 12:58 am
I can’t buy “Chuny Rice” in Spain. I’d really like to own it.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
wow. the illustration on the left corner of the second page describes what I found in Portland perfectly.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I love this comic!
July 6th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Thank you!
July 6th, 2007 at 8:29 am
What a treasure. Thank you.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:35 am
ohhh, chunky rice. Your inking makes me weep.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:30 am
I’m not really sure if you read these or not, but if you do, I’ve been thinking of getting a tattoo with a design of yours on it.
The one from Blankets that you use as a sort of halo. It’s also on the Tracker CD.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:38 am
hey, liz, i have that!
July 6th, 2007 at 11:39 am
oh goodness i tried to add a picture and FAILED.
here it is:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v20/oof23/?action=view¤t=Library-2765.jpg
i think that will work anyway. if not, sorry!
July 6th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Heh heh, white asses.
“Tan fat looks better than white fat,” as the old proverb goes.
Asses aside, these are great. Always a thrill to see the process.
July 6th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
I have a tattoo of that too (slightly modified to be more cicular with hollow dots)! But it’s going to be covered up and reworked into a backpiece
July 7th, 2007 at 11:54 am
You’ve got a great style! I check out your website and is awesome. I love your works.
July 8th, 2007 at 10:35 am
I just got mine, so it’s kinda red, but:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v297/xLishx/?action=view¤t=tat.jpg
July 8th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
liz, it’s lovely! now we’re tattoo twins!
July 8th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Hi Craig Thompson!
I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, your work… Your work is a blessing and a source of inspiration for my own work. A big Thank You from Portugal
July 9th, 2007 at 10:52 am
just saw some Picasso pieces at Chicago institute and noticed how much the noses looked like the main character’s nose in blankets. just interesting.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Ah yes… a friend of mine bought one of those signed copies.
These sketches are just beautiful. As an Oregon native, I spent most of my childhood on the coast. I remember collecting and steaming muscles and poking at deer brains, for the most part. It’s so lovely there. It’s too bad that it eluded you at first.
Thank you for taking the time to share all of this.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
CHunky Rice has been the first masterpiece that made it into my skin (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=469968572&size=o for details)
Kesher, if you want a copy in spanish, I’ve been told that this year the book it’s going to be reprinted by another publisher (la factoria de ideas hasn’t the rights this time) ask in your local comic shop.
September 23rd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I love chunky rice. He’s my soul mate. I can truly relate to the hard time you were going through while creating him, because that’s what makes him adorable. Back in the day, I wrote a review for it: http://sol.pupazzo.org/?p=78
Thank you from the heart.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Howdy. My Grandpa is an eyeball. Sob*