Comic Jam Fun

Had fun at the Montreal Comic Jam last night. Not that it's sometimes a drag, but I don't always do my best work at these. The Montreal Comic Jam was started in the 1990s by Rupert Bottenberg, and then revived later in Mile End by Salgood Sam.

It's shrunk down a lot since Salgood was running it, basically turning into a meeting of a few of my friends. We weren't always working on producing collaborative artwork, more talking and sharing things.

Last night was the first Jam at a new location. The Bar Des Pins, which Richard Gagnon and I discovered for one of our own get-togethers. Rick liked the atmosphere (he's nuts about these "old man" bars) and so suggested this as a neat place to hold the jam. The previous location -L'Utopik- closed down, despite being packed every night. The Pine Bar is smelly, but the beer is cheap, especially on nights when the Canadiens are playing on the tele.

Here's our group. Basically the usual suspects:


Click on the pic above to see the names, and a couple more pictures, as well.

Jane Tremblay has been managing the jam. She's usually facing away from the camera, so I made a point of taking a nice picture of her:


Here's a standard Jam page. Not the greatest art, and added to over a period of meetings stretching over months. I had actually forgotten ever drawing the next to last panel. Looked over someone's shoulder thinking, oh, "somebody's doing hatching." Then realised the drawing was mine, from more than a few months back:



For translations, and attributions to the various artists, please click on the image and read the "flickr" page.

One new face at the table was Nicolas Plamondon. A young artist, kind of a kid prodigy. Thankfully he had had his 18th birthday a couple of weeks ago, so it was legal for him to be in the bar.

I showed him my watercolour sketchbook and paints. Asked him to do a sketch for me.

Nico painting:


Here's the result, kind of a riff on the late Heath Ledger as the Joker:



Nicola hadn't done watercolours before, (or hadn't done them for a long time, my French is lousy). But he was so excited by the medium, he spent the whole night filling my sketchbook. Here's another page:



It's such a treat seeing someone so excited about drawing, especially with a new medium. That's what the Jam is all about.

Anyhow, this post is getting long, but there's more I want to show you. Lots more great drawings by Nico, and some more of my own sketches, worked on by others. That will go in another post, tomorrow most likely (They're on flickr right now, if you can't wait, Just click on the images above). In the meantime, there's more beer to drink tonight, and drawings to draw with my friend R. Gagnon, which I'll also put up Saturday. Later!