http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:willymj&section=today deviantART RSS for by:willymj en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:56:00 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/28171084/ http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/28171084/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:19:36 PST floor going in next week... then who knows! I'm in Zen space about it now.

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]]> ~willymj http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/25117037/ http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/25117037/ Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:19:46 PDT hope to be in soon. Bristol went well and we made lots of friends, sold lots of comics and had some very exciting news (more on that soon). Been pushing on with commercial work to pay for the building! Eekeemoo part 3 is coming up a storm... I am working on the back cover today. Other news my Granny died she was 98 and a wonderful woman... I'll miss her... a lot!

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I now have a roof!... so windows and electricity next!!! Maybe We'll be in for Christmas

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]]> ~willymj http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/21494024/ http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/21494024/ Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:25:40 PST so had a bit of a delay with that one... coming soon I promise. I'm on a mission to finish eekeemoo and the singing stone ans Sonar Vischacha by the end of the year... Need to have a clear desk for next year. The house now has walls!

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The first issue of Eekeemoo in the Cloud City is printed. It comes as a limited edition with a signed print (£4.00) or a standard edition (£2.60). You can get it online from...

[link]


Talk again soon

Willy MJ

--------

My Drawing Homies




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]]> ~willymj http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/17889241/ http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/17889241/ Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:12:52 PDT
I saw the first roughs for the new eekeemoo and yum yum plushies this week in fleece. The real ones are made in felt (hand felted in the Scottish islands and made in Wales). Evie (now four) has kidnapped them and has them held hostage in her bed!

All this energy is for the Bristol comic convention on the 10th of May. If any of you are around drop by and say hi. You'll find me at the Hotel where they do talks and portfolio reviews.

Other comic news is that I did an hour long interview for the new WCN/Comic space site... not sure when its out but I'll let you know when I know. Thanks for looking! Cheers Willy

]]> ~willymj http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/16589927/ http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/16589927/ Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:42:51 PST
Butternut interviews
Willy MJ about eekeemoo

Butternut : Why did you decide to do a Sketch Book Adventure?
Willy MJ : ""Any comic artist will tell you that the most frustrating thing about making comics is the amount of creative time they consume. With Kiboko it's been two years and I am about two thirds of the way through the project. It's always at this point in the process that I begin to feel overwhelmed by the task. The knowledge that I have at least another year of drawing and colouring until the project is completed starts to dawn on me and depression begins to set in! With three year production periods, you begin to ask yourself how many stories can I tell in my life ? 10 maybe? So when the opportunity came to do a Sketch Book Adventure I jumped at it."

Butternut : Why eekeemoo?
Willy MJ : " Um... well, I don't want to say why or I'll give the game away. But... I will say that I wanted my Sketch Book Adventure to take me to another place creatively. There was no point in doing another Kiboko. I wanted my Sketch Book Adventure to be quirky and light and eekeemoo and yum yum are definitely quirky and light!"

Butternut : OK, then why choose to tell a story this way?
Willy MJ : "I came up with the idea for eekeemoo when I was travelling in South America a few years back. While I was on one of those really, really painfully switch backing train rides through Peru. I put down it's plot, where it was going to be set and how the narrative was going to be told (silent and symbolic). But that was it!

So when I chose eekeemoo as my Sketch Book Adventure and began to draw it. I knew where I was going and how I was travelling there, but not what I was going to see. That's what makes eekeemoo so refreshing for me as a comic artist. It is a real stream of conscious piece and I don't know where the incidentals of the story will take me."

Butternut : Your style in eekeemoo is different from your other work. Why?
Willy MJ : "Well, I guess I wanted to try something different. Create a story around a character that I might doodle. I think that is key . You see my work within my creative partnership (Liz 'n' Will) is very important to me and I have developed a visual style and language that has become my signature and I am very happy with that. However, there are times when I find other styles creeping into my head when I'm doodling. I am a terrible doodler. I have telephone conversation doodles, departure lounge doodles, general waiting around doodles I doodle everywhere. Eekeemoo was a doodled character that I thought I would give a life."

Butternut : Is that why you created it under the Willy MJ moniker?
Willy MJ : "Well... (pause) I guess that this is my homage to Fernando Pessoa. I always thought it was cool that he wrote under 4 different pseudonyms (he called them heteronyms) and had a different style & life for each! I suppose Willy MJ is my doodling pseudonym!"

Butternut : How does the eekeemoo creative process compaire to other projects?
Willy MJ : "With eekeemoo I make a coffee, sit down with my sketch book, pencil, brush pen, roller ball and a rubber and begin. Three hours later I finish, scan the pages, place them in a photoshop file, adjust the contrast and save it as a jpg. I then upload it to the server. The whole thing takes no more than five hours.

On Kiboko I spent a year researching and developing characters before I even began drawing! As I said before three years is the typical production period for a story . I might even spend a week on one image. So the comparison is extreme, in fact too extreme to really compare."

Butternut : Digital v's print. What do you think?
Willy MJ : "On one level that's a no brainer Digital. You just do it and it's there and you can change it at moments notice, and whats more no trees have to die! which is cool.

However, I love the feel of a book. I really believe that touch and feel is all part of the story telling process. The weight of the paper, the smell of the ink, the process of opening the packaging, it's integral to the reading experience. Beautiful print verges on addiction for me. I feel myself go weak at the knees just talking about it.

If I was pushed I would have to say 80% digital and 20% physical."

Butternut : Will you do another Sketch Book Adventure?
Willy MJ : "Ask me when I've finished this one!"

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[link]

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]]> ~willymj http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/14773461/ http://willymj.deviantart.com/journal/14773461/ Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:12:47 PDT
Just a little note on eekeemoo.

As a comic maker I find I spend my time refining and crafting my work so that it is as visually strong as possible. This means I turn out comics every three years. Which is a bit pants if you want to tell stories. So I decided in January to sketch/scribble a story/adventure in my spare time (like I have any!). I set three rules (1) It must be done in a night. (2) No redraws. (3) The story is king.

Here at Deviant Art I have posted part two. You can find part one and an interview with me about my sketch book work at :

[link]

I hope you enjoy the story.

]]> ~willymj