Utopia Moment sketches and writing by Jack Ruttan and friends

After missing a couple of nights, I finally made it to the monthly Montreal Comic Jam. Took pictures, but now I’m lazy, and put them into a slide show. You can actually click on photos as they pass by above to read info about who’s in them, etc.

Enthused about watercolour, I brought my set of paints, forked bamboo brushes and grubby bottle of water, and badgered people to do a watercolour jam. I left them alone, and they performed a stellar job:

Starting from the top, that’s me, Richard Gagnon, Francis Paquette, me again, Kurt Beaulieu, and Jeff LeBlanc.

I did a sketch of these guys, who are the English-speaking division of the jam (except for me):

These are, clockwise from left: Jeff LeBlanc, Michael Arsenault, Brad Doucet, Shane Simmons.

The scrawl in the upper corner is the title of a science fiction anthology from Tor Books Michael has a story in. Pretty cool, but I can’t find it on the web, so perhaps it hasn’t been released yet. More on this when I know.

You don’t want me for your childrens’ face painter.

There’s a community thing happening in a week or two at Parc Mederic Martin, a neglected little park a block or two east of here. It’s based on a sort of Parisian model of the park with the long centre walk, but left to seed. The trees on either side have overgrown; their shade has not allowed the grass to flourish, and the whole thing has the feeling of a dark tunnel. The kind of thing you see in horror films. Also a tiled fountain which must not have been turned on since the 1970s.

Anyhow, I might be there. And I’m hoping one of my talented pals, who are good face painters, show up. Caro Caron has a website with her group les feés des artifices, which is very charming, and good promotion. For you clunky anglos out there, that’s a play on “feu d’artifice” or “fireworks,” with the word “fairies.”

Didn’t want to go on so long to set up this old cartoon of mine about face painting, but there it is at top, courtesy of Richard Gagnon’s little comic mag, What the F***? Nowadays, you’d suspect the asterisks are standing in for a dirty word, but that’s the actual title of the mag.

The last Thursday in May means the Monthly Montreal Comic Jam. I actually worked on some pages of comics, but it’s more of a get-together for local artists, to share and show off, and also collaborate on things.

I got my bud Rick Gagnon to colour this picture of mine above, which turned out swell. He also inked over my pencillings for the character below:

Another of my pals works at the studio that produces the cartoon Arthur. All the animation is done with computer now, but there were boxes of old-school cels and backgrounds nobody was using, so we got these as gifts:

Here’s just the background, without the cel on top:

It was done in transparent inks, against a background of yellow underpainting to make the greens show up better.

I like the idea of yellow under, because it gives the picture warmness and its own light. I tired the same technique in a sketch I did of a couple of personalities who died this weekend:

The Skinny Nameless Punk is a great cartoon character I created with collaborator Rick Gagnon, and now he has his own site. http://mruttan.ca/punk

The strips were printed in Mensuhell, the Quebec monthly fanzine that shut down last year. One of the few features in that mag that ran in English, by the way.

A few of the strips were also up on Geocities. Now that that’s gone down, there’s no place to read them. So, I decided to build a WordPress site, and upload all of the strips gradually, maybe two a week. That’s so I can get some experience producing a webcomic.

It’s really fine work I think, thanks in large part to Rick’s meticulous inks. He took way more care on them than I see in most strips, making each one a work of art. Anyways, I hope you stick around, and check in on the Punk regularly.

…Was better attended than you would think, considering the icy weather.

Still, stacks of comics have been drawn, but people (yours truly included) haven’t gotten it together to scan them, or try to print them in a zine.

I bet that that zine would have some sort of currency, since we’re a fixture at L’Escalier bar, once every month.

Here’s a shot of the gang. Our numbers only got greater as the night drew on:

I drew a surreptitious picture of one of the jamsters, and she seemed pretty happy with it.

Off to the Monthly Montreal Comic Jam the other night. But first there was a big event happening across the street. I took some video with my little camera:

Got one of the volunteers in the information booth to explain what was going on. Nice siren in the background, which fits with the name of the festival.
Unfortunately, I held the camera sideways, thinking, I guess, that this was like a still photo you could “rotate” right side up. No such luck, so you’re going to have to turn your monitor on its side, or have a very flexible neck:

Off then to the jam, which was upstairs at a bar called L’Utopik. Nice crowd at the table.

That’s Éric Theriault, centre, Richard Gagnon, right, and I’ll get the name of the guy on the left, I promise.

Sirkowski, far left, Nicolas Plamondon, centre, and that guy again.

Marr, and Jeff Leblanc.

Éric had found, under the bed, or something, a pile of finished cartoons no one had seen for years. I’m hoping that these get published in a book soon, with the rest of the cartoons we do at the jam. Maybe someone can scan them, and put them up for all to enjoy.

I drew a bunch of little things. Wish I’d made a record of them, somehow. Well, still fun to hobnob with one’s fellow cartoonists.

Needed a day to recover, but I’m finally doing a post with images from our street session on Tuesday for the Metropolitan Transport Agency (AMT) to honour Car Free Day. Slide show of pictures is below. Click on one for information, or visit the flickr site to see the names of people, credits, etc. Remember, the artwork is copyright by the people who produced it!

This is our gang of four:

Bruno Rouyere, Siris, Eric Theriault, and me, Jack Ruttan

It rained most of the morning, dampening our paper, but not our spirits:

Here’s Bruno’s finished page (click for my English translation):

Siris’ page (ditto on the translation):

Eric’s page (he didn’t get so far in his story, but had the right idea: this was more of a demonstration than a race to produce finished art. He actually attracted some interest and business cards from lovers of vintage cars):

And finally mine. I did two pages, and ended up racing to the finish, as the street was being packed up around me. Think 2/3 of the second page was done in about 20 minutes, with my Chinese brush and ink. I also kind of jumped between English and French words, at times.

Page 1

Page 2

Then, if all that drawing wasn’t enough, Siris and I, plus artist Kurt Beaulieu (who showed up at the end), retired to the pub for a beer. Siris drew me the portrait below of one of the bar’s rough denizens.

All in all, it was a tough (we were all drawing standing up), but rewarding day.

Here’s a nifty article on the event, by Denis Giguere (sorry for leaving out everyone’s accents) from a French-language comics website: [link]

Wild people. Drawing by me, inks by Rick.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my blog. I can express stuff here and gas on about things, and look at my funny sketches. Who cares that only about 30 people a day visit the thing.

But busy computer-related work (websites and writing) takes its toll of how long I want to stay in front of this glowing screen. And twitter has taken a bite, too. Oh blog, don’t get upset!

So, I’ve got some funny drawings, and a couple of posts to write. I’m going to try and spread them out a little, just to enhance the bloggy goodness. Or, put them out all at once. These usually just happen. I’m not big on planning.

Right now, these are drawings from my most recent Friday afternoon bar session with Rick Gagnon. Not too many, because I had only brought one book for the both of us to draw in. I was looking on forlornly as he was inking the pic that goes up on the head of this piece. Then I got my book back, and drew various cats (one suffering from the heat, as my guys are at the moment), plus a polar bear from a beer ad (a few of those on the walls, no surprise).

Then a loud bachelors party moved in next to us. They were taking whacks at the groom to be with a paddle, and offering the paddle to pretty girls passing by. Surprisingly, there were few takers. But what these passers-by probably saw was a bunch of guys waving their arms, yelling incoherently. Of course, that was just Rick and I having a political discussion. The wedding party was loud, too!

I’m hoping that Rick sends me a couple of the shots he took of this. Good, if somewhat loutish times!

It’s been too long, but last night I was drinking with my friend Richard Gagnon, and doing silly drawings. He usually inks things that I’ve drawn. Gives me new ideas about where to place black and whites, etc.

I’m feeling a little burnt at the moment, so am just going to post these, to get them out there.

This is a turnabout — Rick’s drawing, which I did inks on:

These guys above were tourists, who were too loud, and we were complaining loudly about them. But as they were leaving, we chatted with them and shook hands. Who would figure it? I think in Montreal, people are always nice to tourists, no matter what. I wonder if that’s really true?

Below, Rick liked the hint of messiness in the stripes of an otherwise (relatively) crisp drawing.

Shots from last night’s Monthly Montreal Comic Jam. This time at a new location: the L’Escalier bar (actually, former site of l’Utopik, where there had been a few jams before).

R. Gagnon (in saffron here, like the walls) did a great job of setting it up. Thanks, Rick!

I didn’t get everyone’s name, so I’m not going to bother identifying.

Also, there was another table, but I mainly took pictures of this one:

Even though I didn’t stay that long, it was a very pleasant evening, with a lot of comics done by interesting and fun people. Sorry, none of those to post. Maybe they’ll make a book of them someday.

UPDATE: More photos here, from Rockin’ Rick Gagnon (on facebook)! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2537498&id=662345842&ref=nf

Even though it’s a Monday (lots happening on the weekend, so this post got pushed back), I’m very happy that R. Gagnon and I had a chance last Friday afternoon to meet at a bar again, for drinks and drawing. He did very serious, illustrator-y treatments of my drawings, as with the above.

The drawing below is a little deceptive. First of all, we weren’t at the Cock and Bull pub, but rather a new place, east of downtown. Whether it becomes a regular place will be seen, but it has a good stock of strange characters. Secondly, no one really yells “Hey, Tony!” at the Cock N’ Bull pub. He just appears behind you, when you’re not expecting him, to take away your empty glass.

Another picture by me, vividly inked by Rick:

After hiatus of a couple of weeks, met with my friend Rick Gagnon, but at a different bar this time. Different vibe, too. Above are his inks over an old man I drew. Below is a whiffle jet of mine, which I drew in pencil on the back of a printed sheet of paper (because Rick had the sketchbook), and then fooled around with in photoshop.

Sadly, my weekly meet with R. Gagnon was not to be. So I was flying solo. Still, Rick had his effect, because he’s been lending me these great Criterion DVDs of films such as this one, the 1954 French gangster film Touchez pas au grisbi (“Hands off the loot”), from which I drew this very serious pic of star Jean Gabin.

Fear of a pandemic grips the planet. Economic collapse has put millions out of work. Outside the window of the Cock and Bull Bar, an angry throng marches down the street for May Day, carrying red and black flags, shouting for justice and revolution. I feel suddenly like I’m in Paris, 1968.

I tried to nod at what my friend Rick was saying, and look sympathetic, but it wasn’t working.

So, he inked for me my pencil drawing of the lovely Illeana Douglas. This helped:

Next he did a couple of cowboys, slightly mirroring the mood at the table:

I think that’s Warren Oates and Jake Busey.

Things were better. Then another friend Marr showed up (yay!), and we finished our beers, and headed to a much more expensive bar. There, an artist friend of ours who has shown up in these pages, Jeff Leblanc, was having a birthday celebration:

That’s him with the always sympathetic Eric Theriault, who is nodding and trying to look interested.

Because this is a sketch blog, and this is how I roll, I drew a sketch of Jeff:

He would do the same for me. Only it would take about 2 hours, and be much better.

Beers here cost about as much as a whole pitcher at the other place. But I bought a pint in honour of Jeff, blowing my weekend savings. Rick meanwhile had onion rings, which he photographed lovingly:

Later that night as I was heading home on my bike via rue Rene Levesque, I happened upon the protesters. They had camped in front of the government building, and were apparently having a tam-tam party.

I, meanwhile, remain optimistic about things, despite bouts of panic. For no reason at all, here’s a picture of my cat, Mr. Boggedy, looking silly: