Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Darryl Ayo Brathwaite's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
2:53 am	Hey look, it's Lucy! Lucy's doesn't need a dramatic introduction. She's named after the devil. Read the full page at my website: "You must be Angela." Or start reading from the first page: "THERE you are!" Webcomics, minicomics, talking shop: I just received the bundle of screentones that I special ordered. I have a pretty solid tool set and I'm not eager to start using digital tones anytime soon. I don't morally object to them or anything (what does that even mean) but it means a great deal to me to do this work by hand. Having originals that look "complete" helps drive me forward. I've been trying to jog my mind by working in a more focused manner in my sketchbook. I've come up with some fun ideas, but so far, I haven't achieved the kind of looseness and freedom that one usually wants to explore in a sketchbook. I'm just getting back into keeping a book after years of sketchbooks that I treated like pre-bound junior art boards. Drawing from life is harder than you'd think. My potential human subjects are people with lives and a right not to be art-stalked for the purposes of my own artistic "growth." Maybe I should learn to be more sneaky about wanting to draw strangers in public places. On that note, I share my sketchbook. No, I do not smoke: ever. Love, darrylayo. Current Mood: artistic (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
2:19 am	Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? First page, everyone! Start reading from here. King Con 2009: Time Magazine video report L. Nichols just sent me the link to this. You can see me for a second, talking with Ananth and Yuko in fast-forward. The Shirelles <3 Ayo. Current Music: The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
11:22 pm	Twenty-eight years and running Same strip, just on the main site. Good evening! Today is my birthday and I'm pretty excited about it. It's been one of the best birthdays I've had in years! Last year, I got dumped the day before my birthday (it's all good now) and years past have been pretty lamesville as well. Through the sunshine or the fog, I've been committed to drawing comics for my birthday. I take the day off of work, go to my favorite coffee place (Breadstuy in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint, respective to the years) and draw a fresh new page. I think the best way to celebrate the anniversary of one's birth is to dedicate oneself to one's life's work (one!) This isn't a comic directly related to my main story because that wouldn't be quite special enough for such an occasion. If I were behind on Little Garden, I'd do the next page, but I have a couple pages in the queue so I did a little side strip. SOMETHING TO CONSIDER Since my birthday is a day to celebrate comics, I printed up some fresh copies of my last Little Garden minicomic.This would be after the original 120 image series of vignettes. It's a twenty-page silent story set in Little Garden-land. Some of you who've been to the last two MoCCA Art Festivals or the most recent Small Press Expo may have picked it up already. I LIKE OTHER COMICS Meredith's Gran Octopus Pie. This is the first piece of actual "fan art" I've made. granulac Octopus Pie And the comic series that had me at the edge of my seat for years: Brandon Graham's King City. royalboiler Brandon just posted this which reminded me that I never did. But seriously, you already read Brandon's blog (RIGHT?!) NEW LITTLE GARDEN What, whoa, wait, what is happening here? Click here for the first page of the storyline! The regular site updated. We're onto a new scene and here's Angela's official introduction within this storyline. I hope you like it! Go back to Little Garden Comics dot com on Tuesday for the next page! THANK YOU FOR READING! My birthday may be almost over but I've always got more comics to work on. I'll be back next week! <3 Darryl Ayo! Current Mood: creative Current Music: The Shangri-Las (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
6:39 am	Oh man, drawing comics is crazy fun. The first page: CLICK MEEEE DAYS OF OUR YOUTH So tomorrow, November 25th, is my birthday. I turn 28! It's going to be a lot of fun, I am going to take the day off of work and draw, draw, draw some comics! I think that it should be illegal to work on one's birthday. Unless you have a reeeeally fun job like ice cream tester or comic book artist. However, if comics were my main job, I'd spend my birthday playing Final Fantasy Tactics and riding my bike. Note to self: get bike repaired one day. All? All! -Ayo. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
10:58 pm	Comic wasn't late, blog post was. First page! I like this comic so much. I don't know what else to say. Lizzie and Iris are fun to write and draw! Housekeeping I'm taking a few days to work on my sketchbook. I have been beating myself up, trying to work on these Little Garden pages. I feel that the primary problem with it is that I plop down with my blank comic paper and then expect the story to just flow forth. In reality, I have scarcely finished a page in two weeks. So, I'm changing my focus for a little bit, just spewing out ideas in my sketchbook, trying to free my thought process a little bit. I'm naturally uptight, to be honest, and it's been a long time since I let myself work in a stream of consciousness fashion. The comic is unaffected for the time being. Just need to do more training, I suppose. In any case, I hope you all enjoy this page. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
8:03 pm	Godspeed This is where the fun starts! I've been working on Little Garden again. I really went to a bad place with the previous "Beautiful Monster" story and had to cut it off. I felt energized at SPX and came home to do "Taco Town" and "Enemies with Benefits." I feel that earned me back my footing. I've been tinkering on this pages in private for the last month, I guess and I feel pretty good about setting it free to run wild and play with the other comics. I really hope that you like this new "Beautiful Monster" sequence better because I sure do. I kept the title of the last story, but the rest is basically scrap heap material. We have entered a new era Liz Baillie halted her Freewheel comic to re-release it (and continue it) as a webcomic. I think that webcomics are the new minicomics, or at least, we're seeing minicomics folks approach webcomics as a tool and a method. I used to get discouraged by my peers who'd draw distinctions between webcomics and non-webcomics. Many webcomics DO have stylistic elements in common, sure, but they don't HAVE to! Just like any other method of distribution or creation, one can make any kind of comic in this format. It's just a matter of doing it. I like my traditional webcomics, but I'm enjoying the idea of seeing some more of the traditional minicomics people enter my RSS feed reader. There's room for everybody aboard the comic train, move to the center of the car and STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS, PLEASE Liz Baillie rocks your face off I'm also happy that one Jen Vaughn's joined Team Webcomics recently. She does Mermaid Hostel and I've enjoyed the first few pages! More on Friday. Sorry, I don't know how to copy-paste her banner, it's not letting me copy the image URL; but yeah, just click the link, dudes. ALL IN ALL I have some more fun things to share, but I don't want to go to far off topic. Read comics, everybody! -Darryl Ayo (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
10:37 pm	King Con 2009, Day 1 Hey everyone, I'm home from the first day of Brooklyn's own alternative comics show, King Con. For those keeping score, I put out the first issue of my minicomic anyANYway and it goes a little something like this: The issue contains the stories "Taco Town" and "Enemies with Benefits" from my website LetsGoAyo.com I'm so exhausted, I passed out at my desk, writing this. Thoughts, feelings so far New York is officially OH MY GOD, I CANNOT EVEN KEEP MY EYELIDS OPEN, GOODNIGHT (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
6:29 pm	Book of Ruth, Page 4 If you don't know what's going on, here's the first page: The Book of Ruth, Page 1 This page is very late and I apologize for the delay. This is kind of the end of the joke, but I may carry on for another couple of pages. The future of this comic strip really depends on how I feel tomorrow. <3 Ayo. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
2:12 pm	The Saturday Post (Halloween Edition) New minicomic/King Con As some of you already know, on Wednesday I printed up the first copies of my new minicomic, anyANYway # 1. I hate posting covers so I won't. A bunch of people have seen it already and at least one person owns a copy already. The comic contains the short stories that I've been posting to my new website LetsGoAyo.com. I am going to be debuting this mini at next weekend's King Con, a Brooklyn, comics show. They will be two dollars each at the show. If you plan to ask to trade comics at King Con, please wait until Sunday, the second day. I only made a few of these and I need lunch money something serious. On the other hand, if you buy me a sandwich, the comic is yours. I will be sharing a table with my friend wormulus who is one of the baddest, most hardcore comickers this side of the East River. Visit her website every single day, you will see brand new stuff. Manga I have been operating like a chicken whose head has been recently removed. My process piggybacks on the popularity of manga in the United States. I really like their conveniently-sized A4 comic boards and I love this particular kind of burnish-only screentones. All of the tones that you see in my work are made with the rub-on screentones. I can't imagine working another way. At any rate, I am on the verge of placing a special order for a bunch of these to use on my upcoming comics project. As manga's popularity fades from North American culture, it becomes harder for me to do cool things like this, but for now, I'm going to comics-party like it's 2005! Minicomics I heard that I was at a comics party recently? I totally wasn't though, what? I have been thinking about minicomics a lot lately since I just finally returned to making them. I'm done with the world of putting minis out just because I've marked enough pieces of paper. I am finished with the world of putting every thing I do into print. Every day, I stumble across older minis of mine which look like bad homework--just produced in order to have something new for a show. I like doing silly, dumb comics, but there's no need to actually publish each and every one of them. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to leave on the cutting room floor. I like to go to Forbidden Planet in New York City and just go through the Wall Of Minis one by one. It's quite an experience every time and I always learn something new. I spent about an hour there yesterday, flipping through stuff, chatting with Austin English, and just absorbing comics culture. I go to the Wall Of Minis whenever I need to seek guidance in my own minicomics endeavors (often). Sex. Media preoccupation re-reading Kio Shimoku's Genshiken re-reading Liz Baillie's My Brain Hurts reading MK Reed's Cross Country re-discovering Nate Powell's Tiny Giants exploring Brian Ralph's Daybreak exploring Nate Neal's Sanctuary re-reading Lauren Weinstein's Goddess of War Have a Happy Halloween, all! -Darryl Ayo. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
1:33 am	The Book of Ruth continues The Book of Ruth, Page ONE! We'll pick up from there on Monday. HOUSE KEEPING I deleted all of the pages of "Taco Town" and "Enemies with Benefits" from LittleGardenComics.com. So now, the Little Garden site is back to being ONLY the Little Garden site and the short stories that I've been doing are on their own site which is LetsGoAyo.com. anyANYway I am almost ready for Brooklyn's first of two new indie comics conventions, King Con. I am splitting a table with my friend, wormulus who will have copies of her fantastic Sky Cat Posters for sale. I will be premiering my new minicomic anyANYway #1 and dealing in my stock-in-trade, Little Garden as well. More to follow, but until then, take it easy. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
12:44 am	Yay comics! Start from the first page in case you missed it. I was going to post a preview panel for this page, but I wanted to give a heads up to those of you who are just skimming. This is the second page in a six-page short story. Well, I hope you're enjoying the program so far! Now on with the show. -Darryl Ayo (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
2:24 am	LET'S GO AYO! NEW STORY STARTS HERE! (This one is safe for work) I have finally set to work on a concept that I've had in an old sketchbook from a couple of years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out in the end! Have a great day! -Darryl Ayo. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
7:13 pm	All of the Letters Except for "P" More about the Protomen below, under the cut. Most of the time I really like drawing these doodles: They are drawn on a quartered sheet of 8.5"x11" copy paper. I do this instead of a sketchbook most of the time because I do them at work. I just rip up the pieces of paper that are bound for the recycling bins and turn them into my makeshift sketchbook. My recent comic strips "Taco Town" and "Enemies with Benefits" began their lives as doodles in this format. I decided to expand them into the short stories that you're now familiar with later. Most of these doodles are just doodles. They don't always yield actual comic ideas and they're not intended to. They're just intended to sooth my restless mind at my boring job. That said, I recently acquired two proper sketchbooks so I'm excited to start carrying a bound book (or two) around to do some field studies and things of that nature. Idle hands: ( Fight alongside The Protomen ) Current Music: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" - The Shirelles (Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
2:43 am	"ENEMIES WITH BENEFITS," PAGE 6, THE END! REMEMBER, THIS THING'S UP ON THE NEW WEBSITE OH, OKAY, YOU MAY VIEW IT ON LITTLEGARDEN AS WELL Okay, so this is the end of "Enemies with Benefits." I hope that you enjoyed it and if you didn't, you don't have to worry because I'll be drawing a new comic story next week! Everybody wins! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND -Darryl Ayo. Current Music: Spike + Matt on UStream (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
7:12 am	Not Safe For Work..."Enemies with Benefits" Page 5 We're almost there! Page 5 up at Little Garden Comics. Guys!!!! I started my NEW WEBSITE, so do remember to check out the further adventures of Non-Little Garden Comics at LetsGoAyo.com! Same page, different website Don't click at work! Have a great one! Darryl (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 19th, 2009
12:09 am	"Enemies with Benefits," Page 4. Now we hear the other side of the story. Click for the rest of the page. I keep looking at this page and I have to say that I'm surprised at how it came out. I wish the drawings were tighter all around (both figure work and background details), but it came out better than I expected based on my initial pencils. There's only two pages left in the story. "Enemies with Benefits" (page one: NSFW) -Ayo (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 16th, 2009
1:34 am	These are definitely my "early days." Keep your enemies closer. I feel that as I draw these comics, I'm in what future people will look back upon as being my "early work" period. That's cool because I'm learning a whole lot about comics as I draw. I may have mentioned this priorly, but a big part of my daily regimen is actually reading comics directly before I go into drawing them. Not to swipe ideas or styles, but just to get myself thinking in a cartoon state of mind, I suppose. It's hard to explain. I've been drawing more slowly this week, I haven't drawn anything new in a couple of days. I don't want to deteriorate, I want this burst of productivity to be sustainable! Hopefully I'll get to post this illustration that I've been working on soon. I did it for "Illustration Friday," but I did not submit it. I want to tweak it and ad some shading to it, so looks like I miss that particular "deadline." Not concerned, by any stretch of the imagination. anyANYway I drew this the other day when Twitter was down: -Ayo. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
9:22 pm	Do you read the same comic books over and over? I watch the same movies over and over: -Reservoir Dogs -Run Lola Run -Go I listen to the same albums/songs over and over: -Float -"Master" (Yeahyeahyeah EP) -Postal Service LP -Liquid Swords -Doolittle But for some reason, I don't seem to re-read comic books as much. I did when I was a kid. When I'd get the latest issue of X-Force (don't hate), I'd re-read it and study it and obsess over it until the next issue came out (last Wednesday of every month, just like clockwork!). Since I stopped attending Xavier's School and started attending college, I don't know if it was time constraints or just the fact that having a job allowed me to flood my brain with too many comic books, but I feel like for the last ten years (TEN YEARS), I've purchased comics, read them and set them aside forever. "Now I know what THAT is, the end." I'm sorry, I'm not being too clear here. I DO re-read a number of comic books on a somewhat regular basis, but I feel that I do so a disproportionately low amount versus my interest in comics. I have a greater number of albums in my regular, semiregular and once-in-a-blue-moon rotation than I have comics that I will re-read EVER. The most re-read comics of mine are the first two Preacher books, Uncanny X-Men's Dark Phoenix collection and possibly Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together. I have an assortment of minicomics that I pour over but don't really re-read. I just stare at them on the train, I think. anyANYway: Enemies with Benefits, Page 2 is in the house Well, as you can see from the preview panel, it's actually OUT of the house at this point. Quibble, quibble. Read the full page in the link! First page: NSFW, sorry! In general, I just like to draw I saw this lady yesterday and made a thing about it. I guess I'll make a thing about the lady I saw today. Or I won't, it's late. Greenpoint, New York I think I saw Katie this afternoon, I'm 90% sure, so shout out to her. POST MORE. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 12th, 2009
12:44 am	comic about sex and how boys and girls hate each other Do they? Do boys and girls hate each other? Sometimes it sure feels that way, I'll tell you. The following comic is the first page of a new six-page short story that I'm working on that attempts to look at the strange behavior of people involved in that sick enterprise called "interpersonal relationships." Full page, but warning: NSFW, just saying. In another top story today, it was just Harvey Pekar's 70th birthday I participated in the "Harvey Heads" project from Smith Magazine. Come check out the full gallery of portraits of Pekar drawn by some of your favorite cartoonists. It was a lot of fun, to say the least! Now I've been bitten by the fan art bug, I'm thinking of which comics I want to do fan art for next. I sort of started a list. I have a list for everything. Soon I'll need a list of my lists! I'm working on a piece of fan art which is rocking my socks off right now. If it comes out okay, I think it'll be a fun thing to show folks. Before I forget: Punchbuggy Tour! Congratulations to beeblism lizbaillie mkreed on completing their Punchbuggy Tour! Liz and MK live in Brooklyn, so it was natural that the last stop be here in BK. The reading at Bergen Street Comics was a whole lot of fun. I always get so energized for comics after these things! So let's do some comics! You don't have to tell ME twice! Let's GO! -Ayo! (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
10:57 am	Wake up! It's Saturday and we haven't a moment to lose! Hey guys, I am just posting because I want to tell you about my friends. First of all, my good friend L wormulus has completely overhauled the design of her comics+art website; I mean it's a complete facelift. Link to the first page of "ANGEL!" The MOST RECENT page of "ANGEL." As anybody who knows KNOWS, L. Nichols is a comics MACHINE and one of the nicest people in New York. Read Angel Monday through Friday and then stop back on the weekend for illustrations and art posting. Second of all, my roommate is apparently riding his bike alongside a big longboard race in Manhattan today. He's videotaping his friend for said friend's website. The friend is running some kind of company, but the video of the event should be cool. I'll try to link a copy of it, it should be some pretty sweet skateboarding action. Then, last night I met a guy at Verb Cafe who draws comics. The dude's name is Jason Estrin and his art+comix blog is at This location. We talked as he rolled out a bamboo thing with paintbrushes. He brough a full watercolor set to the coffeehouse and started painting the comic page that he's working on. He's on some Picturebox/Buenaventura type of style. I don't know when his book is going to be completed, but you're going to want it (badly) when it is. On a personal note: I'm working on my new six-page short story. I am enjoying the work a whole lot, but I must warn that it is more risque than any of the Little Garden stuff. I don't have the new website built yet so here's what I'm going to do: I will post the new story to Little Garden anyway. THEN: I will repost it to the new website when that site is ready and clean up the Little Garden site. Then Little Garden will return to being a single-subject website, fair enough? Okay, story begins on Monday. Thanks for understanding and no clicky at worky. -Darryl Ayo Current Music: Jeffrey Brown's Inkstuds mixtape, "There are Things." (Comment on this)