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http://fabricari.com/music/drum-banjo-guitar-1.mp3

So far, the family's been really patient with the drums. (As long as I keep it to the weekends!) :D

I kept the computer recording for about a half hour while I banged away on the drums, feeling out different sets of rhythm. I kinda liked this one and added banjo and guitar to it afterwards. Clearly, one doesn't just take to drums in one week. There's much practice to be done. The 8th beats seems a bit off and awkward, and the playing lacks confidence. Still, I can't get over just how well the drums frame or define the melody.

Click on menu to join in the chat. I'll bump this post whenever I'm on-air drawing.

So I've been lovin' Last.FM, but only just realized I can upload unlimited music and embed playlists! Dang. That's cool. Uploaded a bunch of stuff. Here's a playlist with my most recent stuff. You can download from it as well.

Here's all my early stuff (2007 and earlier, that is)

Been practicing so that I can record a proper banjo track for the Red Eyed Johnny fellahs.

Last week, my buddy Grant Thomas dropped his annual album of b-sides, demos, and alternative takes - The Return of the June Bug. It includes 3 tracks from our collaboration, redeyedjohnny, a few tracks he recorded during the RPMChallenge last February, and assorted music he featured on his blog over the year.



I think my favorite part of this collection is the revelry and humanity sitting in contrast right next to the hymnals and more humble traditional tunes. There's conviction in his vocals.

My only critique is that he opens it up with Cotton Eyed Joe, our first Red Eyed Johnny collaboration. Oh I get a kick out the final mix - his tuba bellowing against my banjo, his inner-drunken-hillbilly harmonizing with my cracking out-of-tune vocals. He mixed that song as well as anyone could, but there's only so much you can do to polish the turd that is my voice. But it does let you know he doesn't take himself so seriously as a musician that it gets stiff. Maybe that's what he was going for - get past that then you'll be ready for an album full of honest fun - for free!

Go download it here!

Then buy some of his other records!

A little while back Alexander Danner and I collaborated on a short story "Lending Can Openers." Turns out that the folks as The Boston Comics Roundtable has printed it up in their first issue of their anthology series, Inbound. There's also a bonus page in there that's not featured online. Can't wait to see it myself. Here's the press-release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INBOUND #1 PUTS BOSTON COMICS ON THE MAP
Boston Comics Roundtable releases its first anthology

BOSTON, MA (JUNE 10, 2008) – The Boston Comics Roundtable is pleased to announce the release of its premiere publication, Inbound, a Boston Comics Anthology (#1). The 60-page book, the first of many installments to come, contains seven comics from Boston artists. Inbound #1 retails for $7.95 and will be available in retail locations throughout the Boston area and online at www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com.

The Boston Comics Roundtable (BCR) is the only organization of its kind in Boston. It was created in 2006 to unite Boston-based comics creators in the spirit of camaraderie and professional development. With a strong grassroots sprit, the group focuses on promoting local talent and supporting local business. Growing steadily since its inception, the group now includes about 25 artists and writers, with roots in both print and web comics.

Inbound #1 contains several stories from a number of creative individuals and writer/ artist teams, including Alexander Danner (author of Character Design for Graphic Novels) and a beautiful full-color cover from Shelli Paroline. The contents includes:

• Lending Can Openers – Alexander Danner (writer) and Steve Harrison (artist)
• The Ragbox, Ch. 1 – Dave Kender (writer) and Mark Hamilton (artist)
• After the Plague – Ryan Wheeler (writer) and Braden Lamb (artist)
• Deconstruction – Hyun Supul (writer & artist)
• Body Blues – Jaime Garmendia (writer) and Justin Mattarocchia (artist)
• The Daytime Sky – Susan Chasen (writer) and Dan Mazur (artist)

The inaugural issue of Inbound marks the start of an exciting new chapter for the BCR. Three times per year, Inbound will be delivering the best of Boston to comics readers everywhere.

Fans should expect issue #2 and #3 in the late summer and fall of this year. Issue #1 of Inbound is available now.

The Boston Comics Roundtable is an independent organization of comics creators in the Greater Boston area. The group meets weekly for workshopping, teaching, and social gathering. Meetings are open to the public. Information regarding publications, artist galleries, and meetings can be found at www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com.

###

For more information or to contact for interview, email Dave Kender at dave@bostoncomicsroundtable.com.

A couple weeks past, my buddy Grant Thomas posted an early take of his song Great Rainbow in the Sky along with chords and lyrics. I'm kinda infatuated with how folks can write songs that don't depend on rhyming and still make it sound like a proper song. I took a crack at it, but still can't hit all the notes right. But it was fun - I got through a couple stanzas.

http://www.fabricari.com/music/great-rainbow-in-the-sky.mp3

http://www.fabricari.com/music/with-gain-2.mp3

OK, forget that last one I posted, this one's a full song and much much better, I think. My arm's killin' me, but I think it was worth the finished product. I'm not really well practiced on the electric guitar, but I tried to apply some of the technique I learned from the banjo to make it work.

http://www.fabricari.com/music/with-gain.mp3

It wasn't long ago my buddy nvonflue commented on all the folksey acoustic shit we'd been grinding out, asking "so, where's the rock?"

After dumping half the contents of my basement, my old electric guitar surfaced. I cleaned it off, tied up some new strings and plugged it into my shitty old amp for a musical sketch with some banjo and acoustic guitar.

Even though all of the technique contained within is cliche, I've always wanted to crank up the gain and record some feedback like some 90's grunge ballad.

As I write this, I'm relaxing to some tunes on a Pandora station seeded with Mark Knopfler's music.

Jeremy finally grew into Guitar Hero this weekend. He learned what it means to rock out and throw the horns. It was hilarious hearing him sing "Story of My Life" - a short story I'll bet. Then again, he's traveled a lot further than the average 6 year old. Still remembers his trips to Malaysia and California.

The old "Fabricari" comics were carried out to the trash and labeled for the recycling truck to pick up. On trash day, there's gonna be a tower of 11 Brenner boxes on the curb. I'm so happy to get rid of them. They were the embodiment of failure. That is, if I define success as making a living off of my comics.

But it was anything but a failure, I just raised the bar too high.

And I've got an awesome career these days. Speaking of which, I spent a few hours starting work coding a new comic system for my site in .NET. It's a great opportunity to apply some of that studying I've been doing over the last 5 months. And I've still been studying! It has been a huge help for the day job, but I really wanna get that cert to have something to show for it. I'm getting really close. I got a 78% on my last practice exam. (Passing is 80%.)

Speaking of studying - I filled up a box full of old computer books, programming books that I'll never need again, and instead of tossing them out too, I dropped 'em off at Half Price Book Store. Heh. I got 12 bucks!

And on selling off my crap - I've more than paid off my new guitar selling my CD collection. And I still have a hundred more to go! I might even pay off a chunk of my banjo too.

Spring cleaning is a bitch when you dig into minutia. Every square inch of my office/studio has been packed with art, comics, book, CDs, art supplies, computer equipment, sheet music, spare parts for my instrument... It feels great to pare this stuff down, but it's exhausting. And it's liberating.

It won't be long until it's time again to fill it back up with new comics, more art, and more crap.

One more thing, I've also been cleaning out my computer files. In doing so, I uploaded the second "season" of the time lapsed movies I made while drawing my book. For a sentimental guy like me it really puts my head in a knot to watch myself drawing comics 2 years ago. Now that they're on YouTube and Archive.org, I feel like they're a digital time capsule floating out there on the Net as a permanent reminder of the delirious stupor I was in drawing "Fabricari: Ad Hoc."

Update: Thanks to everyone who ordered. I shipped 'em out today. Now to go clean out that basement! Yay!

As I mentioned earlier, I'm cleaning house. This means I'll be dumping my Fabricari comic inventory that I've lugged with me for the last 10 years. But before they hit the curb, I wanted to give you a chance to buy 'em fer cheap.

Here's what I'll include:

• Fabricari: Ad Hoc - Written by Adam White, Drawn by Me (130 page graphic novel)
• Fabricari Issues 1-3 - Written/Drawn by Me back in '99. This is all different material than is included in Ad Hoc.
  
• Gumbo Issues 1-2 - Anthology including Fabricari Shorts. (Limited Supply)
• Surplus: A Book of Drawings by Steve "Fabricari" Harrison 2006-2007 (Limited Supply) Out of Stock
  
• Sketches -I'll throw a couple pieces of original art in for the hell of it. If I run out of Gumbo or Surplus, I'll top it off with more sketches.
  
• Includes shipping.

Cost: $10.00 USD

Cover Art:

I may get around to printing up a super-fabricari-omnibus some day, but I'm looking forward to puting "Fabricari" behind me for a long while and working on something fresh. Oh, and these books will probably always be available on lulu: http://www.lulu.com/fabricari/

I'm hesitant to call this my "new" project, but here are some pages never-the-less:


I'll adjust this template to fit the art more efficiently once I figure out what it is I'm really doing. For now, best to click on the images to see the details.