John Boyega (Star Wars/Pacific Rim) ,
Lena Waithe (Ready Player One/Master Of None),
Eric Dean Seaton (Legend of The Mantamaji)
Check it out HERE
Greetings Dieselfunkateers! BLACK METROPOLIS RETURNS! It’s looks like its gonna be one of those days. Back in 2016 I had the privilege of presenting a career retrospective of my work at Gallatin Galleries curated by Keith Miller. This show has formed one of the pillars of my present efforts, which is to SHOW THE WORLD MY WORK!
With that, I am proud to announce at the prestigious Hammonds House Museum…
The Hammonds House Museum is very clear:
Our mission, “to preserve, exhibit, interpret and increase public awareness about the contributions that visual artists of African descent have made to world culture” is the underpinning of the of the institution’s ongoing work. 
Presently, the Legendary Carrie Mae Weems is exhibiting with as well as amazing artists such as Felton Eaddy. Also please note: Hammonds House is presently celebrating their 30th year anniversary. BLACK METROPOLIS will be the GRAND FINALE for this Celebration taking place during the final quarter of the year. More NEWS to Come! Check out the news link HERE http://artsatl.com/tag/hammonds-house-museum/
For you folks who didn’t get around to it before now you’ve got another chance. You’d best believe Daddy is gonna be putting on a show and drawing portraits. You betta dressup and whatnot:-)
Founded by the Magnificent Deirdre Hollman, (who also happens to be a Co-founder of The Schomburg Black Comic Book Day) has started up trouble again with:
Their Motto: CREATORS + COMMUNITY = THE BLACK COMICS COLLECTIVE
Dieselfunk Studios will be selling Matty’s Rocket Book One. This 120 page Graphic Novel, Created, Written and illustrated by Tim Fielder, is a true labor of love. The story tells the tale of Matty Watty; space pilot, adventurer, and southern girl next door. Matty’s Rocket features a drama filled narrative that will have you on the edge of your seat, there are special surprises for young and old to enjoy.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 515 Malcolm X Boulevard New York, NY 10037 View Map
See You There!!!!
Greetings Dieselfunkateeers! 2017 has been a BANNER YEAR. While the two prior years were all about being visible, this year continued that trend buttressed with a lot of behind the scene work. We began the year capturing footage for The Dieselfunk Show at The Women’s March and Inauguration of Donald Trump. Diametrically opposed activities I assure you.
Then we would go into a bout of travel. We quickly moved into working with Professor Reynaldo Anderson’s BSAM at Texas’ Prairie View University COMM Week sponsored by the wonderful Professor Toniesha Taylor. We joined BSAM again at Harris Stowe University in St. Louis. We would close out the first half of the year at The Electrik Revival at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center. The Motherbox/Black Kirby Crew was in full effect.
The Dieselfunk Show, featuring our Glogging technique , would premiere on Youtube! High John Conqueror, the Comatic, would closely follow.
Summer hit, and it was off to the races. The Dieselfunk Show Road tour begin in Jackson Mississippi, moving to New Orleans, then to Los Angeles, then up to Seattle, Tacoma, down to Portland, then to San Francisco. We made a quick dash back down to San Diego for SDCC, then back to Los Angeles. Our travels had us interviewing folks such as Ben Caldwell, our sponsor Isaiah Coberly of New Pencil, maker of the FLIPSTEADY, and the kind souls at Wacom Technologies.
During that entire period, time was found to work with the writer Brandon Easton on a short story for George Takei’s NEW FRONTIERS, whom we also had the chance to Glogg as well. We would end the summer at Blerd City and Afropunk in NYC.
The fall was spent focusing on the completion of ‘Matty’s Rocket: Book One’ which came out in November. It’s 120 pages of hard work, pure heart, and focused joy. Writers, Junot Díaz, Valerie Boyd, Comic Gods John Jennings, Joyce Brabner, and Dawud Anyabwile and more graced us with contributions to the book. This was all made possible by the setup of our own in-house PRINT ON DEMAND operation.
Here is wishing you all the Happiest of Holidays and the brightest of New Years.
If you think 2017 was nuts, just wait till 2018!
Greetings Dieselfunkateers! LIGHTS, CAMERA, REFERENCE! Lighting in film and videogames is essential to storytelling. Meaning it’s a requirement for entry. But in comics, lighting is often a victim of technical limitations and time. Of course, masters like Eisner, Steranko, Gulacy, and Miller, have used cinematic techniques that derive from film. Lighting, what you can see and what you cannot, is all about communication.
Can you imagine Citizen Kane without the cinematography of Greg Toland?
Or more recently, Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Arrival’ would not have worked without Bradford Young’s lensing (Hey, cat’s on Ron Howard’s ‘Solo: A Starwars Story so don’t sleep on em).
This even extends to videogames. Take for instance the cut scenes from the Starwars: OLD REPUBLIC games. The level of detail, and to be frank complexity of story, largely dwarf the actual movies.
But for the monthly comics schedule deep lighting is a difficult task to do. Which is why I have a preference for the more methodical intricacy of Graphic novels. Take the beautiful example of Canales and Guarnido’s ‘Blacksad’.
Comics and graphic novels are all sequential art of course and, oddly enough, it’s where all of the mediums of animation, storyboarding and film meet. In fact, I’ve had film students that have limited drawing skills, who refuse to believe a rough stick figure or crude image can reveal all sorts of dramatic information. In the climax of those lessons, I take their “crude” drawings and add simple coloring overlays to demonstrate that any image is capable of evoking emotion through light. Photoshop MAGIC Baby!
ARTISTS!, Don’t let ANYONE tell you your work has no value or style, regardless of polish or crudeness. The fact is, light can illuminate even the most mundane of drawing.
Furthermore, I cannot state the importance that reference has played in my work as of late. This can be in the form of a photo shoot, images from the internet, or even stills from advertisements and film stills. You see a cool lighting scheme in a photo, steal…err, USE it. Also, consider using newer online tools that are utilized by photographers to bring dramatic narratives to form. I’ll speak on those tools in the future.
I try my best to take advantage of light. YOU should too.
Check out Matty’s Rocket here
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