What it really is

IT'S ALL AT

WWW.SEANWARD.NET

Check it out.

'ello 'ello!

Just a test, everyone.

Performance Tonight!

A quick note for the local peeps:

Catch me on stage tonight for the Off The Radar Urban Showcase at the Annex Wreckroom. I'll be on at like ten or ten-thirty.

Casting

When are Dane Cook and Drew Barrymore going to be in a movie together? I wish it was today.

Sean Ward the Stunt-Man

Very late at the hotel during Wizard World Chicago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MuxKvLWHaU

Blog TO coverage of Benny Bunny On Wheels

This is what I woke up to this morning.

http://www.blogto.com/arts/2008/07/sean_ward_is_torontos_comic_book_superhero/

What a way to get the day started! Thanks so much to everyone who made it a hit, and thanks to Roger Cullman for covering the event!

I love this picture:


And I re-enabled comments on this blog if you get the itch to tell me something.

Benny Bunny On Wheels release!

From last weekend: The Benny Bunny On Wheels release event!

Extra super very special thanks to the Silver Snail for letting us have the event at their store!!

Check out some of the philosophy I'm laying on the children:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vCyg5E7--E


How do you like my super-suit?






Mo' pictures: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=718204&l=d28ac&id=514079365

Wallet Update!

Got a call on the weekend, only just checked the message today. It was someone at the gym, calling to tell me that someone named Bajan had called them because they found my wallet and he was holding on to it at his french fry truck. I went down to retrieve it today and it was all intact, minus the cash and metropass (but that's to be expected, really). Thanks Bajan, thanks gym, and thanks God/Jesus/the universe!

Wizard World Chicago '08

At long last, the in-depth report of our trip to Chicago!



The personnel: me, Mars, Divvy, and Zen.

We started on the road at 4 AM on Thursday morning. We got to Chicago in the afternoon, checked into the hotel, and got the table set up in the Artist Alley of the convention in time for it to open for Preview Night.

Here is the view of our aisle from our table:


And here is our table once it was all set up:


We didn't do many sales on Preview Night, nor on the Friday for that matter. Our aisle was a dud. Low energy, our neighbors sneering at us for being silly, there's a million and one reasons why we weren't doing so hot at first.

Later in the day on Friday I was wandering the convention hall and bumped into my buddy Mike Holman from Jackass. He asked how we were doing, and I explained that we are not doing the numbers I would have liked, and that I was thinking about taking over one of the small press or Autograph Area tables that look unclaimed or abandoned. He pointed at one such booth and said "Well I don't have anything to sell! Take mine!"

I quickly ran back to the Artist Alley and explained our good fortune to the rest of our party. We packed up the table and made like a Beatles cartoon running from one end of the hall to the other to get set back up as quickly as possible.

Here is our 2nd table, before the back wall got covered in balloons:


We were using Mike Holman's table, and our neighbors included The Honky Tonk Man, The Iron Sheik, Johnny Fairplay, and Gail Kim.









We were had our booth decorated like a children's birthday party, and we were giving away loot bag toys as sales premiums. As the Honky Tonk Man explained above, these were a big hit and turned our aisle into a big party.



On the Friday night, we were invited to go with Mike Holman and Johnny Fairplay to see a Vanilla Ice concert at a bar called Cans. They had the street beside the bar shut down with a stage set up out there. The crowd overflowed the whole area.

Free Jagermeister shots for everyone in the front row:


Then we hung out backstage....



And after backstage we went up to the afterparty where, upon finding out we were from Canada, everyone wanted to ask us questions and test our trivia knowledge.



We even got serenaded with a rousing rendition of O Canada from the Americans!

Zen is not used to playing with the big kids, but he was keeping up with us. shotgunning beers, doing shots, the whole thing. But when we got back to the hotel and Mars, Divvy and I kept the party rockin' in the lobby of the hotel (the lobby of the hotel is overrun with a huge party every night of the convention), Zen went straight to the room to collapse into bed without even saying good night.



Saturday was the first good day for business. We were selling the "Party Pack", in which you would receive pretty much one of everything Zen and I were selling.

We even came up with a theme song for the Party Pack:


The Honky Tonk Man came to the convention with a suitcase full of beer on the Sunday, which he shared with us. Then we left to go home on Monday, with a stop for Breakfast at IHOP.



And then we got back to Toronto in time to party for Canada Day!

For more photos from the trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30621&l=31bc8&id=514079365

And for more crazy videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/seanward

Too Much Information

And now we begin a new one-part series called Too Much Information, in which I lay out insight into the various ways in which I am loopy.

After awaking from a long and refreshing slumber, and a morning spent lazily watching youtube videos and surfing the web in bed, I got myself together and started my trip downtown. I would make two stops: I would go to the Silver Snail to pick up my stuff from last night's party there, and I would stop by the bank to deposit the cash we made at that party. As I gathered my things together to leave (ipod, keys, wallet, sunglasses, etc.), I put the sales money in my front pocket instead of in my wallet. I thought of putting it in my wallet, but didn't.

Right now I am experimenting with a diet by which you limit your intake of certain kinds of foods but eat whatever you want one day per week. My day is Saturday so I treated myself to an order of fries from one of the trucks in front of City Hall. I am quite a connoisseur of those fries and these were some of the best I've ever had. I continued my walk west and as I was passing Osgoode Hall, I passed an old man playing acoustic guitar for change. Earlier this week, I passed him going the other way on the other side of the street and he was playing the Law & Order theme song. I really wished that I had been on his side of the street so I could give him money. Now that he was right here, I thought "I should give him five bucks!" as I passed. Then I shifted my focus to the pocket in which I carry my wallet. It felt I little light. I reached into it. Empty. I dug through the rest of my pockets. Nothing. I raced back to the chip truck to see if I had left it there. No dice. The truck operator suggests it may have fallen under the truck. Of course it didn't fall under the truck but I crouch down and look any way, even though I know I won't find it there. I pace around some, looking all over the ground, zig-zagging as I try to retrace my steps.

By the time the realization set in that it was gone, I was reaching the same old man playing guitar. I asked myself what I'm supposed to be learning from a bum deal like this and the answer that came from the ether was that I needed to backtrack so that I would pass the man with the guitar again because I really need to give him five bucks. So I reached into the pocket containing the money from yesterday's comic book sales, pulled a fiver out of it, and laid it into the old man's guitar case.

And that felt pretty good.

Benny Bunny On Wheels comes out today!

Today is the Benny Bunny On Wheels release!

Come by The Silver Snail in Toronto (367 Queen Street West)

from 5 to 8. Drop by after work, or swing through on your way back out to party! We'll be partyin' so come hang out with us!

Another successful ebay auction

Because there is no such thing as too many Spider-man t-shirts.

A little get-to-know-you

This was a video response to some other thing on YouTube.

The quality is shit because I recorded it right from the YouTube website.



And here is the photo I took of you:

Over-complicating Things Unnecessarily

You know what I always (and I mean ALWAYS) get fucked up over? How much to put in here. I mean, I want to blog about every exciting thing that comes up but then I get self-conscious about stuff if it's not set in stone yet. Like how I was asked if I want to host a show, for example. Now, of course I want to host a show. But do I come on here all "Hey everyone! Guess what! Maybe I'm hosting a show!"? Because it's not a done deal and I don't want to later come on and go "Yeah, I'm actually not hosting a show" if it doesn't work out. If I talk about every little thing that's even a maybe in here, am I getting everyone's power of visualization working for me? Or am I jinxing stuff? Or do I just over-complicate things for myself unnecessarily?

Here are some pictures taken at my cousin's wedding.

This is me and my siblings and their lovers. We party.


This is me having just finished eating. It was good.

Party Mode

Remember in the last post when I said I wasn't going to go into party mode? Well I did go into party mode. But what could I do?? It was open bar!!

Big milestone finished! (Benny Bunny On Wheels production blog)

As I type this, not five minutes ago I laid down the last page of the main story for Benny Bunny On Wheels. I even got myself back on track after getting two days behind! So I still have corrections to make on it, but the story is DONE!!! You won't believe the drama, the laughter, the tears, or the rage.

Going to an MMVA party tonight so I am very glad that I am back on schedule. No going into party mode tonight though! But you should have seen me yesterday. It was my cousin Adam and his woman Sarah's Canadian wedding party. They're living in Brooklyn New York and got married down there last winter or something. While they're in town, they're playing a show at the Whippersnapper Gallery next weekend, Saturday the 21st. Between that and Hip Hop Karaoke, it's going to be a big weekend.

New Facebook Page

Howdy y'all. I just put up a Facebook Page to advertise and promote myself, even though for the most part I'll probably get other people to do the heavy lifting. I've got comics pages to draw!

Anyways...

Click on this hyperlinke sentence to go to it and then click on BECOME A FAN to get on the inner circle!

Benny Bunny On Wheels production blog... sort of

Instead of working at a big ass drafting table with brushes and reference books everywhere, I'm drawing this comic book atop a piece of masonite in my lap. Pages are drawn on letter-sized laser paper. And this all means that I can draw comics in my backyard. Word!

Check out my Nas review

Hey! Check out my, I mean my cousin's, review of the Nas concert.

http://dopealot.com/2008/05/29/nas-kool-haus/#more-63

Sunset Davies is my cousin. I am not Sunset Davies!!!

The Nothing Mixtape

1. Nothin' to Roll With - Devin the Dude
2. Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New - The Roots
3. All or Nothing - Milli Vanilli
4. Never Done Nothing Like That Before - Supergrass
5. Nothing to Do - The Donnas
6. Ain't Nothin' Ta Fuck Wit - Wu-Tang Clan
7. Nothing of Value - The Pattern
8. Nothing To Do With Me - Stereolab
9. Can't Tell Me Nothing - Kanye West

Benny Bunny Production Blog

I remember somewhere I once read Chris Ware saying that when he's drawing comics pages, he turns off everything. He isolates himself from all outside stimuli because he doesn't want any of it creeping in and influencing the work. Me, I go the other way. I want the entirety of the outside world rushing into it. I want my comics to be pop art that way. When I'm drawing comics, I've typically got a movie on the TV with the volume off (just for the pictures), music or an audio seminar on my iTunes, and stopping frequently to play a video game.

There's some magic thing that happens when I draw a comics page. It's as though I'm charging each line with some mystical force that turns it into a time capsule so that when I look at it later, whatever was going on around me and even what I was thinking just then all comes rushing back to me. I hope that you get some of that sensation when you look at the book after it's done.

Sean on the Radio

Hey! Be in a car or at home this Saturday afternoon so you can hear me get interviewed on the radio by Barry Taylor on Edge 102.1 FM. That's a Toronto radio station, but you international cats & kittens can tune in via www.edge.ca

I'll be on at 3:45 PM talking about the new record, the new comic book, and the new lease on life.

Dig it!

On the Air... over wires.

Check it out! It's like returning home! Tomorrow night (Thursday, May 1) I'll be appearing on Carlito's Mad House to talk about the new record and perform some prank calls.

The show is on at 10 PM Eastern at www.madhouselive.com (LISTEN NOW is the second link in the main menu) and simulcast on 98.6 The Mouth FM.

What is Paid to Party about?

This Paid to Party record is the culmination of a big research project I undertook for a comic book. You know that I have a cartoon band that I create stories around, and I've got this huge story for them that I have been working on for... oh, it's got to be four years or more. This is going to be a huge thing about love, art, friendship, loyalty, creative vision, and the nature of reality. Sound like a big undertaking, hey? But when I would sit down to write it, I would realize that I still had more living to do.

I like my comics to be silly, but I think that what people respond to about them is the fact that there's a stream of truth that runs through them. Even though the story is going to be over-the-top, the portrayal of the music business has to be believable, being that the mechanics of The Changing Color's business are so central to the story. I have been front-row-centre to the entertainment industry for a long time, thanks to my connections in the Beatle world. I'd read lots and talked to a lot of movers and shakers. I'd even been in the inner circle of a few people who were negotiating record contracts with major labels. But I had to have the direct experience from the band's point of view. I had to know how it all comes together. I had to know about recording, playing shows, going on tour. I had to bridge that knowledge gap between the artist and the label.

At this point, I feel pretty confident that I could manage a band quite successfully if I wasn't so busy being an Artist. And at the end of the day, that's why I don't go be a manager, even though I know I could do it well. I have a calling, I am compelled to do the work that I do, and that right there is the crux of this big story that I'm going to tell with The Changing Color. And Mr. Lollipop. And the Queen, and Arthur Puctenbowler, and maybe even Benny Bunny.

And speaking of Benny Bunny, I am up to page 22 on Benny Bunny On Wheels. I think that the main story is going to be about 36 pages, and the book will be about 48. Man, if this was one of my series books, I would be finished already because those were only twenty pages!

PAID TO PARTY might sound like something boastful, but really it's a statement about how we're naturally supposed to live. We're supposed to experience joy every day and we're supposed to get money from doing what we would have been happy to do for free. I'm just doing my part for this movement that's afoot right now. I have hidden a success manual in the songs on PAID TO PARTY. Some of it was me recollecting struggles that I've been through, and some of it was me setting an intention, much of which has come to pass since I laid it down. The lay-person will enjoy rocking their party with this record. And those who watch The Secret or What the Bleep Do We Know over and over again, who know who Esther Hicks is, or who still believe in Santa Claus will find something special for them woven into it.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE RECORD!!!!!!

Benny Bunny On Wheels production blog

I once listened to a Tony Robbins seminar where he was talking about how you have to understand that you're always going to have problems. So the trick is not to try to eliminate problems, it's to improve the quality of your problems.

On that note, I'm trying to work on this new comic book while maintaining my responsibilities to the TV work that's keeping the bills paid. I get to thinking about how much I would love to not have to worry about anything else aside from getting this book done, and I get nostalgic for the days when I was hustling comic books on the street. But even then, my attention was distracted elsewhere by the fact that I didn't know where the rent was coming from and the fact that I had to interupt the creative flow to go out and sell. It's all challenges, just now it's a higher quality of challenge.

Funny how something as simple as drawing a hand a certain way can make my whole day.

Sean Ward the architect

I love drawing buildings. I draw in a loose style but every so often, for dramatic effect, I need to draw a really detailed skyline or cityscape. It takes a long time, but I love it. I would call myself an architecture enthusiast, and when I draw a city I get to play architect without actually having to know anything about structure. When I'm drawing building, my head starts to swim with made-up histories for them. I'll draw two skyscrapers side-by-side and my head fills with the audio from a fictional newsreel about the rivalry between the two to be the tallest building in the city.

But because I draw these buildings so detailed, coloring them is a pain in the ass!

Benny Bunny On Wheels - production blog

I have reached the point at which creating a comic book is the most joyful. I've reached the point where the gears are well greased and the drawing is flowing effortlessly, and the pages have stacked up in such a quantity that it's fully a book as opposed to a few scattered pages. Every page I draw, I want to scan it and put it up for you to see right away. It takes serious effort to keep them under wraps and not spoil any surprises.

I am having so much fun making this comic book. I'm reminded of the afternoons I used to spend in the house on Bathurst Street, when I was working feverishly to build a series but hadn't started selling on the street yet. Back then it was more important for the work to be fun than to be good. I really got distracted away from the point with the last few comic books I made, and I think that's why I had to take a hiatus from comics for a while. I'm having so much fun making this one, and I just get more and more excited to put it out there and see what you fans, especially the ones who have been patiently waiting all this time, have to say about it.

I remember a girl named Erika I used to spend a lot of time with. When I would come out with a new comic book, she would always compliment me on "the animation". I never corrected her, and in fact I took her choice of that word as high praise. I assumed that what she meant was that when she looked at the pages, they came to life in her head and that there was a real feeling of action and life and vitality in them. I think that Erika would really love the animation in Benny Buny On Wheels.

How to not make shitty comics when you mean to

I'm looking at the pages I'm drawing for Benny Bunny On Wheels and I notice that I get so caught up in what I'm drawing that I forget that it's supposed to be in my quick, bad-art style. A page should take no longer than three hours, but the last couple have taken upwards of six. I keep forgetting that although this comic book is supposed to be silly, fun, and ridiculous, it's not supposed to be good!

Early '08 accomplishments

So I guess things are starting to ramp up.

The rating just came out and Ed & Red's Night Party is back up up at #1 in its timeslot with men and - for the first time in the 14 year history of the show - with women as well. I'm not saying that's because of my contribution, but I'll just privately believe that's the case.

The video of my rap performance on the show is up to 90,000+ views on YouTube, and was recently featured as the video of the day.

I'm looking very forward to a packed travel itinerary over the next few months, and I just found out that I am adding Spring Break in Panama City, Florida to my list of destinations.

And Benny Bunny On Wheels is turning out awesome.

Many thanks to all of my fans and supporters. This is all a lot of fun!

Benny Bunny On Wheels production blog

I have been sitting at my desk all day, save for an hour that I went out to run some errands. Even when I'm only going up to the corner to get some lunch and pick up a couple of things from Shopper's Drug Mart, I still need to put on a tie. I was thinking that I was going to go to the gym tonight but I'm too in the groove to stop. I've been twice this week already, so I'll be OK to go tomorrow and Thursday.

I had other work that I should have been doing today, and I've chipped away at it in momentary spurts, but basically I woke up today and got started on inking a page and couldn't stop. And then started on the next page and couldn't stop. I am starting to put too much effort into the drawing, this book is supposed to be in my 'bad art' style.

The next couple of pages after this one are going to be a fun challenge because I'm going back to ones I have not laid out. As I've said before, I want this book to have the feel that it was made up as I went along so I have only laid out key, complicated sequences. I don't even know what the page count is going to be on this book, that will reveal itself to me.

I remember an interview with Chris Ware I once read in which he was talking about how when he draws comics pages, he turns off radios and TVs, and does his best to block out all stimuli so that the drawings are purely what's in his head. I go the other way. I've got music playing, movies on the go, and frequent breaks to play Wii Tennis. I want all of that stimuli to find it's way into the work. My whole thing is to take the world around me as I see it, and twist & mangle it and that's what the work is made out of.

As the world awaits B.B.O.W.

It's crazy how the streets are fiending for this new comic book. I think I've already blogged about how as soon as I started feeling like I had a story I needed to tell in the comic book form, people started to stop me in the streets to ask when I was going to put a new comic book out. I even go into the Silver Snail and the clerk is telling me that people come in and ask them when a new Sean Ward book is coming out. Today I went to the gym and as I'm opening a locker, a voice behind me asks if I'm still making comics. I turn around and it's some guy who used to buy comics on the street from me. He recognized me, even though he hasn't seen me in years and hasn't followed my exploits in other media. We chatted a bit and I gave him the run-down of what I've been up to. And with any luck, I got him hype for Benny Bunny On Wheels. Then when I got home, I found a Facebook add from a girl who used to be one of my biggest supporters all through when I was putting out new comics, but who also hasn't been around since then. And now she's asking me about it. This goes on constantly, almost daily. It would almost be eerie if it wasn't so cool!

It's funny, the weird cycles that things go in. I haven't made a new comic book in over two years because of how burned out I was on the whole thing. I grew to dislike the qualities that trying to compete in the comic book scene was bringing out of me. But now, the more I get back into putting out a new comic book, the more I feel like the real me is flourishing for the first time in ages. I think that's because I am reconnecting with the spirit in which I was creating comics when I first started doing it seriously. In the beginning, I wasn't concerned about getting mentioned on the comics websites. I didn't care about attending the conventions. I was just making something I thought was cool and trying to show it to people. And that's how I feel now about this new one. For a long time, my output was too much about trying to prove something. That's when the motivation is coming from an egocentric place. And nothing that comes from an egocentric place ever works out well in the long run.

Finished the Benny Bunny script

Today I finished the Benny Bunny script. I actually finished it last night, but formatted it and edited it today. It feels like a milestone. This is going to be the first comic book work that I have released since November of 2005.

I've already got nine pages drawn, that's how I started the thing. It was going to be in the same style as my last Benny Bunny book, how I just made it up as I went along with no underdrawing or pre-planning of any kind. It started like that, but then I got so into the story that I wanted to present it in a slightly more polished form. By that point I was nine pages in on the first go, so I re-drew those pages. Then I needed to finish the story so I put those pages away and started on a real script. And that's all the pre-planning that's going into this thing. The page layouts are all in my head. The under-drawing is very light, and even then only for figures.

I am very excited to get this story out. It's going to have "based on several true stories" under the title on the inside of the cover. The comic book scene in Toronto is bogged down by a strange triangle of political B.S. This comic book is based on many such things I've seen go on in this city between stores, events, and people.

Now that the script is finished, I can get back to the fun job: finish drawing the pages. I'm aiming to release this thing in April so I'd better get motoring.

A messy adventure in time for a meeting

A few days ago, I had a meeting at one of the cable networks. I took the subway out to their offices, way out in the eastern-most part of the city. I arrived to the destination station (in a mall) with 40 minutes before I had to be at the meeting so I had some time to kill. I got a bagel and a coffee, and decided that instead of getting on a bus to go maybe two stops, I would just walk across the bridge over the highway.

I exited the mall through the north-east exit and walked across the parking lot. By the time I ran out of parking lot, I had a small patch of grass to cross to get to the sidewalk. I took a step onto the grass. With my second step, my feet flew out from under me and I landed on my ass. It was a mild day and the grass was wet and slick from the melting snow so I slid down a little hill like a water slide and landed in a puddle at the bottom, spilling my coffee all over myself - and my favorite t-shirt - as I went. I climbed up out of the puddle with my entire right side covered in mud, and my pants and shoes soaking wet.

I crossed the bridge, arrived to the building, and got an interesting look from the security guard who let me through. I checked in at the front desk and asked to use the restroom to clean myself up before my meeting as "I took a terrible tumble." The receptionist, bless her, stood up with concern and made sure I was OK. I explained that it was more funny than anything else, and she gave me the key to the restroom where I scraped the mud and grass off of my coat and pants as best I could. Actually cleaning myself would prove impossible. I got the mud off and dried myself as best as I could, and then checked in for my meeting. When the TV executive I was meeting with arrived, she asked how I was doing. I told her to take a look at me to see how I was doing.

The happy news is that my favorite t-shirt, the retro-looking Spider-Man one with "Amazing" written in Japanese, survived. the coffee came out after soaking it in a sink full of hot water and dish soap.