• Tag Archives Sean Simmans
  • On Art and Never Arriving

    Prompted by a chat with artist Sean Simmans last night, I got to thinking that it is impossible to ever fully arrive in the arts field.

    You may be doing poorly or extremely well on the scale of subjective success, but wherever you are is only temporary and never stable.

    Any art form is about finding one’s voice, which is different at 30 than it is at 50 than it is at 70. Your style will constantly change, sometimes–and ideally–for the better, but also sometimes not.

    Unfortunately, we have been sold this packaged idea of what success looks like in the art field, genres ripping apart the industry, and marketing madness brainwashing us into what we’re supposed to think art looks like . . . but it’s never accurate.

    Ultimately, art is living and fluid and is like water, always flowing, not a dam in sight.

    Your work might be polished, but even in a polished state, it’s incomplete because there is always that one thing you could have done better or a little bit smarter.

    Art isn’t prefect. It’s not supposed to be. Then it isn’t art. That’s Sean talking and I agree with him.

    Whatever your craft, where you are is where you are. If the art is made, you’re an artist. And, in that context, you have arrived . . . but our work never will.

    It’s all about the journey.


  • Various Bits from the Net – 032420

    Welcome to Various Bits from the Net – 032420.

    This semi-regular segment is about items on the World Wide Web that I found interesting or amusing and thought worth mentioning on a public space like this blog. This was last segment.

    And so . . .

    Been reading Saucetown magazine ever since artist friend Sean Simmans told me he’s working on it and sent me stuff. Go here. It’s a satire thing.

    I loved Star Trek: The Next Generation growing up and got really into it in high school. I remember watching the finale when it originally aired and it marking the end of an era. But, like all things, you can get some humor out of it so watch this:

    Recently, we got treated to a look at the Batmobile Robert Pattinson’s Batman will drive. As a fan of muscle cars, I’m cool with the new design and am glad they are trying something new. Here is an article from when the picture came out.

    A little plug of my own: While the blog was in maintenance mode, my Patreon page was still running and content was still being added, up to including today, which saw the release of the 14th chapter of Gigantigator Death Machine. For just a buck, you get access to the ongoing serial novel and its archives plus patron-only blog posts. Join the story by going here. Every bit of support is appreciated. Thanks.


  • Canister X Book Review #5: Rizzo: Year One by Chris Riseley and Sean Simmans

    Rizzo: Year One by Chris Riseley and Sean Simmans
    Click Here to Order from Amazon.com

    Rizzo: Year One
    by Chris Riseley and Sean Simmans
    5 out of 5

    What do you get when you team up a struggling writer and an artist who wears a dinosaur costume all day long? You get Rizzo, a hilarious collection of the syndicated comic strip.

    Rizzo, the character, writes. W. Bill Czolgosz, the character, draws, and these strips follow them on their adventure of trying to make their mark in a world that doesn’t appreciate them or their “art.”

    The gags are brief, about 3-4 panels long, and you find yourself laughing out loud for most of them and laughing on the inside for all of them.

    This humor, part simple silliness and part commentary, is smart, witty and, to a degree, “observational” ala Seinfeld.

    Rizzo by Chris Riseley and Sean Simmans burst onto the scene a few years back and appears in many newspapers across the country.

    This book is a “best of” collection, chosen from over 900 strips. (There are about 300 strips in the book.)

    Too funny. Read it.

    Go here for more graphic novel reviews.