Ticket : evaporating numbers

Here's a quick Public Service Announcement for Ticket I discovered over on the Portland Blog:


I believe we're down to a box or two -- that makes a couple dozen copies left.

Get your orders in soon, or heck, make your voice heard for a second edition!

"Ticket" at the Portland Studios Store.

Book By It's Cover

Scored a hot mention on Book By It's Cover recently and thought I'd pass that along to you.

Thanks Julia!

LINK-ed! And Greenville News-ed!

Awesome! My skills of an interviewee are finally paying off!

Here's an article that you can have all both ways or either way : online, or in print.

You can't get it any better. Unless it was sky-written maybe.

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Online here at the Greenville News: Local Artist Gets His "Ticket" Punched.

In print, all over the place around here in "Link" magazine.

Illustration Friday: "Sail"

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I had another piece prepared for this morning but the topic being "sail" really makes it difficult not to mention Ticket.

So to change it up a little and provide a some history for the cover I present the little doodle that inspired Ticket. I made this little drawing on a scrap of paper sometime about 5 or 6 years ago.

I called it "He Suddenly Remembered the Ticket."

I think the line came from a story I was writing at the time and it in there was a scrap of paper that you could write one thing on and you would get whatever you wrote. Many bad things happened but the character held on to the paper until the end and when there was nothing left he scrawled "rescue." So, rescue came in the form of a sail boat.

I really don't know what draws me to this picture. But I don't think it'll be the last time I visit. We can all use a little rescue sometimes.

SOLD!

This morning, around 10 AM we sold the last original painting for Ticket.

I wanted to take a moment and thank all of you who supported the book this way.

Maybe if we get some demand going we could run a round of posters? Make your voice heard below!

Thanks again,
Cory

Illustration Friday: "Poof!"

Poof! It's magic.

Can't beat violin for pure making-cool-things-happen type magic.

The above piece is a spread from my book Ticket.

Please see the side bar for more information if you are interested.

I hope you enjoy it!

COMIC-CON 2008

Hey everyone! We're here in San Deigo. The weather's perfect, the food is incredible, and the nerds are here. And I have brought all of my fan-boys t-shirts.

My personal highlight so far was the opening night on Wednesday: I had my nose buried in the three inch thick magazine of Comic-Con (the thing telling you where all everybody is going to be) I wasn't paying attention to the booth when I suddenly became aware of people standing in front of me. I looked up and saw 4 or 5 people standing there. We had nothing set up, no boxes opened or anything. These 4 or 5 people said, "Hi! We're here for Ticket!"

I sort of blanked, "Really? Are you serious?"

They had seen it on Drawn! and found our booth, first thing. Said it was at the top of their list. That was amazing. If you guys find your way to this blog, thank you.

I'll be posting a massive account of all our dealing in a few days.

-Cory

Illustration Friday: "Enough"

Maybe ... enough is enough? I'm not sure.

I've been promoting Ticket (see right sidebar for more info) for an entire week. Maybe it's been enough of constant posting and writing about it. I'm not sure. But maybe enough is enough. I'll leave that to you to decide.


Ticket didn't take off (...that ...might be an unintentional pun) until this piece. When I brought up this picture for Ticket, it was the first one I feel that I really had to knuckle down and improve on to do. The simplest things stump me. I went through half a dozen or more thumbnails for this one. It'd been several nights in a row and I'd made it through the first 4 spreads. I drew everything at about 14x20. This piece has managed to be my favorite one out of the bunch. (I think, it's hard for me to know and harder to pick one) I think it might be though, there's something in it that completes a little half inch by half inch thumbnail I did and tacked up on my desk maybe two years ago.


I don't know. There's always been something that struck me in it. I'd had the idea for sort of Grecian architecture, giant birds landing, they had more Greek architecture on their backs and something. Lights at night, a party. In the end having such regal birds carry something on their backs felt like they were just big winged donkeys and felt demeaning.

There maybe a way to yet make it work. I'm sure I'll be back.

Who knows for sure, but it's nice to think that some ideas are good enough to be mined again for fresh pieces. I love drawing birds. And little flying boats and clock towers. Enough? I don't know, maybe, for a little while.

. . .

No, it's never enough.

TICKET : HOW & WHY

Ticket is here.

Those of you who frequent this blog will likely recognize the protagonist as Lily von Silvie Lenore, someone I've had with me for the past 6 or 7 years.

Lily von Silvie Lenore
Curious Events

Curious Events is a small book I made, printed and simply bound, for my wife (then girlfriend) and is one of my most closely guarded works. Ticket is a continuation of that story.

To me, Ticket is sort of like a postlude to the Curious Events story. There are four stories in my (yet unreleased) "Library of Curious Events."

Not necessarily essential to the overall story but more of a distillation of the tone and feeling of the books. Another enjoyable visit, for me at least. Curious Events in the abstract -- if that makes sense.

From the teaser itself:

Ticket is a story in pictures and a collection of all things Cory loves to draw. From windmills flying above grassy hills to massive birds landing in Grecian vineyards, Ticket follows the story of a girl, her hat, and the curious events which transpire.

* * *

More than a year ago, I made a list of most of the stories and ideas I had going on at the time. I've kept it tacked up on my desk. Here it is:

If you notice at the top there's a doodle of little boat and an idea called "The Ticket"


That was the first idea for Ticket as it is now. But I can trace that idea to this drawing I did the summer between my junior year and senior year of college:

I've loved clock towers and boats for a long time.

* * *

When the time came to start I made a list of everything I wanted to try and include and made notes and thumbnails. I spent several days deciding what I was interested in putting in it, what sort of things I wanted to do. I spent a while. I finally condensed the thumbnails to 13 spreads.

I then took a Saturday and sat on the couch for about 10 hours and went through each thumbnail and made a bigger, more realized thumbnail.

* * *

Once the little story worked and I had everything I wanted in order, I set to work on the drawings.


They took about a two weeks to get through. I was working on a pretty tight deadline. On top of that, I could only work on it all at night. Unfortunately, there wasn't time in my work schedule to do this during the day so all production on Ticket was done at night.

I'd work like crazy at work on these three commercials at work then come home and do Ticket. It never once felt like a chore. Work did, but not Ticket. Ticket is something I've been wanting to do for a long time and I'm just thrilled I get the chance to see it in print.

* * *

Once everything was drawn and scanned,


I set to work on the painting. This is probably the part I live for. I taped all of them down on boards on the floor of my room (not floor boards, boards laying on the floor -- don't be confused) and got to work.

I made a couple all nighters in the production of Ticket. These paintings represent one of them.

* * *

The next night I scanned them all, complied them in Photoshop, and called it good.

I think I took two nights to do the post-production finishing work. I think. Things started to get fuzzy towards the end.

* * *

They put it all together and sent it off. Then the proof came back.

Check out here for my post about the proof.

A few more days of waiting and now it's all done.

* * *

Ticket's here. I'm glad. And I hope you will like it.


* * *

TICKET IS NOW AVAILABLE!
$ 12

at the Portland Studios Store (direct link)

or

https://store.portlandstudios.com/
(link to the main store -- click on the "Publishing" tab at the top)

Check out our little commercial above. It takes you through the book page by page. This is a compilation of all 28 pages of Ticket for you to see. Music written by Matt Silver.

TICKET : NOW AVAILABLE!

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28 pages, color cover, black and white interior.

* * *

A video tour of Ticket I put together.

Available for purchase at the Portland Studios Store here!

And thank you for all the kind words and emails I've received from so many of you today.

Ticket has been a labor of love for me and I'm happy it's been so well received. Better get your orders in soon.

Thanks again.

Cory

Illustration Friday: "Foggy"

This topic could be not be better. Well, maybe a little, but not by much and I'm not sure how. Foggy? Yes.

Ticket is a paperback picture book of my own imagining and making. Color cover, 28 pages black and white interior.

I'll be kind of constantly updating this post throughout the day. Enjoy!

* * *

* * *
TICKET IS NOW AVAILABLE!
$ 12

at the Portland Studios Store
(direct link)

or

https://store.portlandstudios.com/
(link to the main store -- click on the "Publishing" tab at the top)

* * *

Check out our little commercial above. It takes you through the book page by page.

* * *

Ticket has been a labor of love for me. I've spent the last two months worth of nights working towards this goal. Thanks for looking! I hope you like what you see.

TICKET : TOMORROW

Tomorrow, 10 AM Ticket will be available!

https://store.portlandstudios.com/

It would bring a tear of joy to my eye if you could manage to crash our web hosting with so much traffic.

Come on everyone, let's make that tear a reality and go home.

Illustration Friday: "Sour"

I'd be a sour-faced youth, ... were it not for ... painting.

I mean, I enjoy it so.


...

That's a stretch, I know. Man, how else could I make "sour" work? I just don't know.

It'd help if I were more creative. Or better able to think up complex, abstract connections between things.

In the words of the late, great Chris Farley, "We both know that women are attracted to me ... in the same way that ... metaphors describe stuff."

* * *

These painting are for Ticket: a story in pictures. A paperback picture book the studio I work for is releasing this Friday (July 11!) I'm ridiculously excited about it and I hope you'll check back Friday to see my full post about the creation of Ticket, from start to printed finish.

Below is an excerpt:

* * *

I made a couple all nighters in the production of Ticket. These paintings represent one of them.

* * *

The next night I scanned them all, complied them in Photoshop, and called it good.

I think I took two nights to do the post-production finishing work. I think. Things started to get fuzzy towards the end.

* * *

They put it all together and sent it off. Then the proof came back.

Check out here for my post about the proof.

A few more days of waiting and now it'll be all done. July 11.

* * *

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll check back this Friday!

Note: This post is not the surprise I mentioned in the last post, that'll be coming right around 5 PM EST today.

Enjoy!

That's the Ticket!

Here's a fine entry on the Portland blog written by Zach concerning Ticket.

With the eminent release of Ticket (Friday! July 11) I feel it as good a time as any to re-post Zach's entry here. Enjoy!

* * *

This weekend, I got stopped by an officer of the law. He knocked on my window and asked for my license and registration. Then he said, “Mr. Franzen, the speed limit here is 45 miles per hour. You were going 57. Any reason you’re in such a hurry?” I looked at him and said, “Yes, I wanted to open up my ‘99 Taurus just to see what she could do, and I decided to push it to the limit and top things off at the blinding speed of 57 miles per hour. It’s what I’m forced to do if I’m to catch up with destiny!” Of course, I didn’t say that, and instead of getting a ticket, I got a warning.

Suppose I really wanted a ticket? Well I’ll tell you this much, I wouldn’t get one from the fine folks who serve and protect. Instead, I’d get one from Portland Studios.

Ticket by Cory Godbey goes on sale soon. (This Friday! -- editor's note)


Ticket is a passion project from Cory. He did it at night at home after the client work he did after work. Yes that sentence is accurate. It features Lily von Silvie Lenore, a character he introduced in a small book he made for his wife while they were dating. Ticket is its postlude.

Because print costs are so expensive, we only have a limited run. We should be able to sell a few before heading to Comic-Con, where we hope to sell out (In the sense of “selling out of copies” not in the sense of becoming sell-outs). If you think you might be interested in a Ticket of your own, be sure to check back soon for details.

* * *

Here we go. Semi-relatedly, I've got one more surprise before Friday as well. I'll post it shortly.

Nothing huge, huge, but it's enough. Check back periodically, if you like. Überraschung!

but i want to be a paperback writer.

See, when we say "zine" I think we mean more like paperback picture book.

Got the proofs in today of Ticket. I am fantastically excited.

* * *

Color cover, 32 pages black and white interior. It feels as good and hefty as a paperback possibly can.




Pre-orders should be starting up next week after the July 4th holiday.

As always I'll keep you posted.

Illustration Friday: "Fierce"

Fierce winds; high seas.

Yet another piece from Ticket, my forthcoming zine. They all should be printed and ready to order in a week or so.


Ticket is a 32 page paperback picture book. Black and white interior, full color wraparound cover.

To see most of the previous posts concerning Ticket as well as a couple other pieces, click the top banner to go to my blog and scroll down a little.

Enjoy!

Ticket: title page

I was pretty certain with the cover for Ticket, but I'm a little less sure about the title page.

The light text or the darker text? Thoughts?

*Oh, and there's a tiny gray strip across the top of the one on the right. That's not really there, it's a little glitch in the screen cap.

Ticket cover: the early years.

Ticket: cover

Here's the work in progress of the cover for Ticket.

I put this together this afternoon. Any thoughts?

Ticket : update 2

I've the drawings for the first four spreads for Ticket done. Below you'll find the thumbnails and below that some pictures of the drawings for the first four spreads.

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Things are going well. A little slower than I had planned but they're going well. I'm going to paint them with watercolors and gouache. I'm pretty excited about the way this is shaping up.

I like to listen to movies while I work or documentaries or something. Music doesn't always interest me enough.

Here's a link to a previous update with links to explanations for what Ticket is.