Rocketship Saturday

Not that many of you are reading this little blog of mine by now, but if you do happen across this post, you should know that this Saturday, July 29th, Rocketship, that fine little comics shop down in Brooklyn, is holding an event well worth attending.

Jim Campbell, of SYNCOPATED Vol.2 fame, will be featured -- along with three other swell cartoonists -- at Rocketship's second annual CARTOON BROOKLYN show. I plan to be there, and I'm told Rocketship will be stocking plenty of SYNCOPATED wares.

- Brendan

Further Hopelessness

As promised, a bit more on Despondent Duck...

Despondent Duck is sort of an homage to many of the old comic strips that I adore. I continue to love the simple nature of a lot of the old syndicated newspaper comic strips of seventy-five, or even a hundred years ago. Often times, these strips would be able to survive on a very simple premise or variations of that premise. I my case, every Despondent Duck relies on his hopeless outlook on the ins and outs of everyday living.

The piece below is just me addressing the speculation around my creation's possible autobiographical leanings.



I'll try to post more Despondent Duck material in the future, but I don't want it to dominate this blog -- Maybe if it's warranted, good ol' Mr. Duck will get his own home on the web...

- Brendan

Hopeless Jottings

*This isn't really associated with SYNCOPATED in any way (aside form the fact that I'm responsible for it), but I'll post it here anyway, for lack of a better, more familiar venue.

I created this character, Despondent Duck, a while back. Over the past couple of years, I've put together a few mini comics featuring the duck, and hand-sold them at shows. I don't think I need to worry about him eclipsing SYNCOPATED necessarily, but good ol' Despondent Duck has become quite popular in his own right. I think I can attribute this popularity to the instant accessibility of stand-alone, cheap mini comics.

Anyway, the page below originally appeared in the 2005 SPX anthology. I recently colored it and created high-quality Ink-jet prints of it to sell last June at the MoCCA Art Fest.



Further postings on Despondent Duck to follow...

- Brendan

Syncopated?

From time to time, people ask me, "Why Syncopated?" or "What does Syncopated mean?"

Well, it's a musical element that is prominent in a lot f the old jazz music I enjoy listening to -- I guess that's why I picked it. But it sort of makes sense for other reasons, too. Here's what the dictionary has to say regarding syncopation:

syn·co·pa·tion
Pronunciation: "si[ng]-k&-'pA-sh&n
Function: noun
1 : a temporary displacement of the regular metrical accent in music caused typically by stressing the weak beat

So essentially it means a stress of the weak beat, right? Yes, well I said that to someone once, and they said, "Weak? But don't you want people to think that the work you're producing in your magazine is strong, not weak?"

Yes, of course, but not "weak" as in "not strong" -- "weak" as in "ignored" or "unaccented" as the dictionary says... The idea is that first person reportage can reveal something that may have gone unnoticed otherwise.

Sigh... I always feel so compelled to explain myself -- I should've just named it something completely arbitrary with no real meaning. Oh, well, I hope this sets the record straight.

- Brendan

First Jottings

Welcome to the official blog of Syncopated Comics.

For those not initiated, the irregularly published SYNCOPATED is an anthology of reportage, most often in the form of comics.

In the interest providing something to chew on for this first post, I submit the tentative cover to the next volume (vol. 3) of SYNCOPATED. So far, some positive reactions on this one -- The logo across the top may change, but overall I'd say I'm fairly pleased with the way this turned out.




It should be noted that I had no intentions for the book to take on any sort of theme, but independent of any instruction from me, it seems some of the intended contributors have come up with nautically-leaning stories.

More to come...

- Brendan