Well this isn’t this awkward, not the Charles Hamilton Cd but like actually awkward. I haven’t said anything in a good few month since the season 2 finale. This isn’t public speaking, but damn I legit don’t know how to start this off.
Legit just heard a voice that said TAKE YA TIME PASTOR!!
For me that means I’ll just word vomit as Friday Night Plans plays in the background. OMG I love her so much.I do.
A lot has happened since the last issue. When I say a lot I mean a lot. This is my first Saturday when I have not left the house in fucking months. I will start off by saying I didn’t go speak at my homegirls daughters school like i was asked to, things got busy on my end. Maybe next time on DBZ I’ll get to inspire the youth with my JRPG level art journey. Now that will beyond awkward, for me at least. Spoiler Alert, I am not a role model ya’ll, I’m not….at least I don’t think so. But it is possible that I inspire someone the way anime and comics inspired me, and still do.
Money also inspires me, and not having to work at bullshit cotton fields.My toxic treat is that I hope the cotton field I shuck and jive at closes down and I’m not too tired to work on my comic series. And there ya have it folks the segue to what this issue is about.
Heavy Yeet.
I just finished an issue, so by Yeet Gawd logic I release an issue. It makes sense right? Side note, I legit finished this issue in 2017. Again I say I don’t know why I took so long to release it, but it prob was a good thing. One of my friends has been reviewing my grammar since I’m not smarter than 5th grader. See kids when you work bullshit jobs that don’t involve grammatical skills, you forget simple things like where do you insert a comma. I wish i was lying but NOPE.
As of right now she has reviewed issues 1-13. The next batch i send her will be issues 14-20, but that is when I’m completely done with this epic. I just finished issue 15 and as of right now I have 240 pages. Here is hoping the last 5 will feel like doing the first 5.
I hope.
My goal is to abstain from doing art shows and being a merchant as much as I can, because this past year I was really on tour. I can be satiated being out of the public eye to work on my magnum opus. Doing shows is a lot, a lot my nigga. We can talk about that next time tho. But once I finish this series in its entirety I prob will release issues in a faster method.
Did anyone go yay? Or is that feeling of ain’t no one checking for me correct.
Hey Google play Feel by Kendrick Lamar.
Sorry existential September is on the way and that wave has been washing over my ankles lately and my socks are drenched.
Shit.
At any rate issue 5 is here and thus the end of Act 1 of this JRPG level story.
Synopsis time.
Watatsumi and Kagutsuchi arrive and time to stop Abyssals rampage. But now they must face the one who is responsible for this ordeal. Secrets will finally be revealed as emotions fly high on the battlefield.
That is it for now. The next issue will be ummmm Idk. I can’t say for certain when Season 3 will start, but at least you have 2 seasons to re read to hold ya over until then.
Kinda the way DBZ took forever to get to season 3 with the fight with the remain Ginyu Force members and Freeza.
Yea y’all read that correctly this is a season finale. A 4 part season finale IN Black History Month.
But Jano what do you mean a 4 part season finale?
Excellent question. In case you forgot the point of my photo portion of my JRPG Bizarre Art Journey was to get more experience working with models since I’ve mostly done events. However as of now I reached that point i was at in January of the trying times of 2020, where I have no more shoots to talk about. Well I do but they are all events which I legit disassociate while doing.
I phase out and don’t’ get attached while being there. Like I’m the Watcher from Marvel Comics or something.
And since I feel like I will be doing filler issues for the next 4 months and literally have no patience for that. Today I give you a rare treat of 4 a part season finale, kinda like 90s cartoon. Prime example, the X-men episodes when Apocalypse was at the nexus of time and we saw Psylocke for the first time and a slew of random team ups.
This isn’t that epic, but you get the point. The only real comparison is that they came back with new episodes even thought that finale was supposed to be the final arc.
As if.
At least we will get a new X-Men series continuing from the episodes that followed the aforementioned arc.You may want to get a book mark to help you along with the entirety of this issue.
A Quinceañera….with no subtitles
This part of the issue if brought to you by Cotton field 10, the place that inadvertently gave me more than a lumped out throat. Not enough to fully live off,but ya know other things. Case in point even tho I left when the Covid lockdown occurred that accomplished nothing, but pissing off white people. My girlfriend stayed in that hellish landscape and over time made friends. Look at her making friends and shit. One of her friends knew that I was a photographer and also knew someone who was looking one. Ding Ding Ding. This Spanish family needed someone for their daughters Quinceanera and I was the first person they thought of. Have I ever worked a Quinceanera before? Absolutely not. But i was about to. I didn’t make contact with the client but my girlfriend did, and she literally coordinated the whole thing.
Side note we are in July of 2021 and my car is still very much not working. Actually at this point, it is sitting in a shop being ignored and the owners telling me shit that isn’t true.
Anyway.
So the Saturday comes and after she comes home from work and gets ready, we go to the newly appointed location since the initial location they wanted was congested with possible Covid contaminated humans.and we wait….and wait….and wait.
Side note, in case you are wondering why I linked the last sentence twice, it is because I did shoots in the areas this clients wanted, and the current shoot takes place where I shot someone before. Just in case it wasn’t obvious.
We wait for at least 2 hours, because the daughters hair stylist canceled on her or something. I don’t remember. I don’t. It don’t help that I didn’t exactly speak to them, I literally can’t speak Spanish.
At all.
So my Puerto Rican girlfriend was the primary contact with this family. We did some shots in the park, but this portion felt very rushed. They still had to be at the venue at a certain time, despite the 2 hr delay. After the rush job we left and headed to the hotel…and a yo real shit i don’t have a good recollection of events. You know how when you watch something in a foreign language and there is subtitles so you are a little more connected to the event.
Yea, there were no subtitles. No such subtitles exist. It was a fully Spanish event with me being the sole Negro in desperate need of a translator communicating with my brain.
Spoiler Alert.
She told me what was happening and what I needed to get shots that was of significance for this type of event while my photographer instinct helped guide the way. But real shit I was highly detached from this like most events i do.
I can tell you that I realized I had to raise my rate for events.
Why?
Because events are fucking exhausting. That is why. Niggas just be sitting there for elongated periods of time as nothing happens, waiting.
Fucking waiting Janolytes. FUCKING WAITING.
So yeah i raised my rate and realized photo shoots and events are on different levels. On a positive notes besides my amazing ass images with a flash I’ve barely used. The amount of money I got from this helped me repair my car from the problems that were plaguing it since late March. Of course I didn’t get it fixed until October. But you know a win is a win.
Go ahead and read my subtitle less experience and we will fast forward to September.
Mad Monster Expo!
Fall was approaching and I had just started a new cotton field while being on pause from Jeff Bezos slave pit.
Jano how did you pause a slave pit?
Don’t worry about that. Just be happy for me that I found something else that had my body in less pain even though i worked longer hours. Esp since the litany of car repairs that were meaningless had tapped my wallets heart.Plus my trip to New York City wasn’t cheap. Blessed Be for seasonal slave pits that I somehow get kept at. In midst of me readjusting to a new plantation my actress homegirl hit me up asking if i could video panels at Mad Monster Expo.
Ummm videos?
Legit have never done videos, at all. Luckily Google and You tube are a thing. I watch a few and realize maybe I’m over thinking this process. I def have to buy a bigger memory card.
Side note, I’m legit glad how NOW you can get so much space for like $24, its fucking amazing bro.
I tell her I’m down and make arrangements to borrow my girlfriends car, because sadly my car is still not repaired.
Time Out.
My car literally sat at these south of the border niggas shop for 5 weeks and nothing happened. Nothing Happened. I came back from NYC getting a fucking convo full of fuckery. Luckily someone I met Jeff Bezoes slave pit told me about a place, problem was getting my car in said shop because niggas leave their cars there to die. So that was a thing until the end of September.
Legit wasn’t planning on my car repairs to be a part of my Bizarre art Journey, but here we are.
Time in.
I tell my homegirl that I will do Saturday and Sunday. The weekend comes and before I head to the Expo I have to go buy a lens that I think I lost in the woods.
UGH, the irony is I never bought that lens and now a squirrel is using it help fend off its kids from snakes. FUN.
I arrive at the Expo, and man so many white people. So many white people, enough that i play my usual game of count the ethnic folk just in case. I meet with her and then we meet with the organizer who needs a videographer. He seems chill which is good, and explains to me that the people who he had video taping the panels were so starstruck that they forget to hit record.
AYO!!
I have no clue who these niggas are bro, so don’t worry about that. Spoiler Alert, I’ve seen so little movies in life. SO LITTLE. Most of my friends are disappointed in me, and I’m ok with that.
I found out my YouTube crash course in Videography was unnecessary, as fuck. He already had equipment and had a whole methodology for it. A simple method,so fucking simple.
He tells me the process and also that i don’t have to do much other than hit record and make sure the guest stay in the frame. And that the only people I should listen to is another Expo Media member.
Pretty Simple right?
MAN. my first celebrity I was recording was Meatloaf. That nigga who sang that song I would do anything for love but i won’t do that, and if that is being a decent human being he died lonely.
OMG JANO HOW COULD YOU TALK ABOUT MEATLOAF?
Spoiler Alert, that nigga was a rude cunt to me and the media team. I legit don’t’ give a fuck who gets upset from reading that. I don’t give a fuck. Being an old white washed up celebrity does not entitle you to be rude and disregard Covid protocols in a pandemic.
Jano, you really are speaking ill of the dead?
Yes, Yes I am because that is what fucking happened.
Anyway fuck him and his carcass. Can’t do shit for love now huh? Man I ain’t said nothing assholic up here in a while. MAN I feel like a whole fuckin Yeet GAWD again.
Anyway on to the rest of the show.
The bulk of my experience there was me hitting record listening to what they had to say in the process and then hitting stop. Besides dealing with the aforementioned bloated gas bag cunt I saw Shawnee Smith who complimented my hair, legit may watch The Saw movies now. Bonnie Aarons from The Nun, Nick Castle,Will Sanden, and John Michael Graham from Halloween. The Scream Panel was huge with Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich. Matthew Lillard is a koolio dude, he took a picture of me while i was recording him.It was interesting in listening to about the life of an actor and how productions they didn’t think were going to be big become iconic pieces for a generation. There were a few other people but I don’t remember who they were and the program I had isn’t available anymore. Plus there was a Miss Mad Monster pageant which was interesting.
Eh oh well.
Anyway to see the few images I did snap when not filming go here.
Time for another time leap into the semi frigid month of November.
I visited them one weekend to catch up since I hadn’t seen them really since May. While we were chatting he told me about an impromptu skateboard competition. Even though I never skated despite peoples assumption about me, I think its pretty kool. The next day came and I went to the abandoned lot of what use to be Eastland Mall.
MAN the concept of time is terrifying. very. I use to go there when I was a kid and now its demolished. But in its ashes a group of skaters found a new home, which is pretty fucking dope. I got there first and my friend did later.
Bruh, on god. That shit was chill. Niggas were just skating with music blasting from a car with a nice system. I smelled drugs as I practiced my spider sense of knowing when to hit the shutter as I heard the skater approach. Shit was WAKA FLOCKA FIYA FLAME.
Did i fully understand the maneuvers of what they were doing?
Fuck no.
Did I enjoy it?
Fuck yea nigga.
The competition wasn’t long, but it was dope as fuck for me and my home boy. He actually got inspired to start skating again. Thats that yeet bro. It is.
I love the simplicity of life sometimes. I do. Legit the day this happened I was going to go see the new Spiderman movie (which at this point is 2 months old, but i’m late because I hadn’t seen Eternals, Shang Chi, and Black Widow yet) with home boy since high school. But he was busy dealing with internet fuckery…CHILD THE FUCKERY.
WHEWWWW!!!
But we had to reschedule which was fine. In the meantime I saw a post that caught my attention. It was a female concert series at Camp North End. I had texted my art journalist friend I met at my art show in June. He actually was well aware of it and I met him out there. Did I plan on doing photography related things ?
No.
But when your ancestors tell you to go somewhere you go. On Kami.
Eventually I found him. i say eventually because there was a slew of construction that had popped up since my last visit in October when I did my last show. Maneuvering in a newly warped space was a thing.
As if.
It was the first time seeing each other since June, we caught up as I told him journeys are weird and turbulent at times but don’t give up. Artist performed in the background and he went to shoot as I went to appease my stomach.
Yay for dumplings. Yay for fucking dumplings.
He asked would I help interview the musical artist,I was down. Literally all i did was have to hit record on his phone. His first guest was Natalie Carr.
Next was Reecee Raps, her soud was dope too. I was bopping to her in the cotton field today. In the midst of us waiting for her to come to his station for an interview, he ran into another friend he knows who is an artist, named BlackSmith Sundays. He introduced us and told me he did the Toonami Beats albums he told me about when we met last June. I legit fan girled out and was like oh shit. I just listened to him the other day. So fucking shway bro. So shway.
I didn’t say shway,but it is tho.
He interviewed them both in aforementioned order i discussed them, not at that exact moment but maybe an hour later.
Shout out to these local artist that make shit i can listen to while on my art journey.
YEET TO THE GAWDZ.
At any rate to see this yeetful images all you have to do is click this word.
And that is it guys. I don’t know why I thought this would be a short blurb of storied, i really forgot how i talk, my random tangents and me talking shit about dead celebrities.
OOPS.
I literally have been typing for damn near 3 hours and my fingers hurt. I don’t know exactly when my next issue will be, I really don’t. I may be back next month with something, I may let things pile up like I usually do and come back for another season, or I may release issues as I do shoots. I have no clue. I will be releasing issues of my book tho, so there is that at least.
In an ideal world I would have clients and the shoots I’ve been trying to do for the past few years would have happened by now. But nope my JRPG Bizarre Art Adventure is forever full of complication.
But I know I need to step back to focus on my book.
And non profit things, like finding a staff, and getting us funded so that I can stop working these bullshit cotton fields. FUCK THEM ALL!!!
In the meantime if you want to get your monthly fill of Jano, The Azure Prince. Feel free to buy my books, somemerchandise,or follow me on my social media channels listed in the side menu.
Until next time Janolytes, whenever that will be.
*Rolls credits on Season 2 of Jano’s Bizarre Art Adventure
This week feels so very chaotic, and I’m not sure why. Wait, yes I do. Besides Office Depot fucking up my god damn order. Is there another printing service that can get my images done within a day, but in a correct manner? Please let me know, please let me know. Niggas fucking up when there are no planets in retrograde.
None, no such retrograde exists.
*Deep breathe
My ability to type and have stuff flow out is being damned up by some force that is rather bothersome at the moment. I think its the week, yeah we are blaming it on the week. Wait we are in Mercury Retrograde Shadow period, maybe that is what it is. FUCK IT!!
That is what we will blaming this blah on.
True to my word, I said I would be releasing issues at a faster rate. At least for now.
OMG Jano why?
Well I’m waiting for issues 6-13 to be proof read by one of my homegirls. And since she has real life grad school responsibilities and I am not a cunt, I have no plans to rush her. But lets hope by the time i release issue 5 the other issues will be done and i can have a consistent release schedule.
Lets hope. Hell lets hope I can color the last 295 pages of my JRPG anime level epic.
I really just want to be a regular boy without a million things to do.
NO REALLY!!! OMG, i just wanna chill yo. I did a web diagram of my life and projects.
NIGGAAAASS!!! It is so much shit, so much shit on my plate.
Enough of that though…for now. Its time for the release of Level 4 of my series.
*Prepares to read script.
Abyssal returns to the battlefield with a new source of power no one expected. An alliance forged from the desperate need for survival is formed among those who started off as enemies. The Empress and newly revealed masked ally race to the battlefield, but will they make it in time.
Spoiler Alert, Souls will be crushed…nothing compared to what happens in Level 5
And head on to the publications page to order your copy of Level 4…and the other levels if you haven’t already.
And just like that this is issue over. Now to work on my task list like getting ready to show my work at the high school of my homegirls daughter for Black history month.
Yep, that is a thing I never thought i would say. Any of you ever watch Insecure? When Issa was speaking at school then somehow her broken pussy rap was discovered by tech savvy children?
Yea that may be me by the end of the week.I don’t have a broken pussy video but my mouth is pretty rancid….HA. Legit hoping I piss off the PTA the same way Eminem pissed off parents in the early 2000s but that nigga flourished despite that. Lets hope Janolytes.
Here we are. You and I gazing into an abyss of the internet as I post a new page in my Bizarre Art Journey.
Nigga What???
I don’t know, i didn’t really have an actual opening plan so I just started spouting words.
As if.
Tonight we have a special occasion. I am releasing a new issue of comic series.
YEEEEEEET.
Small confession, I have literally been done with Issues 1-5 since Summer 2017.
But Jano why haven’t you been releasing them at a faster rate?
Legitly there is no real reason. Although I am glad I didn’t because just recently a friend went through the aforementioned issues and pointed out my grammatical errors. So much gringe. This is what happens when you work bullshit slave jobs after graduating, your sense of grammar and proper sentence structure dies.
So just in case you ever wondered why these issues have so many run on sentences and what not that is why.
As I was saying I don’t have an exact reason why I haven’t been releasing them, I don’t. Part of me wanted to have the whole series done, another part wanted to have a certain gap between issues. Now I literally have a ten issue gap seeing that i just finished coloring issue 13. As of right now I have only seven issues left with a total of 319 pages.
Spoiler Alert, this is only going to be a 20 issue series. If you wanted a new Naruto, DBZ, Sailormoon, Bleach or One piece this def isn’t it.
But i’m legit looking forward to finally coloring the next 7 issues, especially considering I did issues 11-20 in the summer of 2018.
Yea…So in case you haven’t figured it out coloring has been a journey. I blame cotton field fatigue for it all. What I hoped to finish in 4 years from the fall of 2016 has not manifested.
Issues 1-5 were done by spring 2017, issue 6 June 2019, Issue 7-10 summer 2020 (thanks lockdown), Issues 11-13 Fall 2020-Fall 2021.
Ugh. So much fucking ugh.
But since I actually have my book in a local bookstore and I just did the QC Zine fest, where people actually expressed interest in my book. I may actually try to release these in a faster rate. Maybe 1 every 2 months? Maybe, no promises. Hopefully I’ll be done with this JRPG saga before the releases catch up.
*does math…2025, that is if i drop an issue every 2 months from this point on. On kami if i’m not done with this saga by then I’m trash, legit trash.
Hey Google, play Charles Hamilton Loser.
Side note, if you are wondering what the final villain is gonna look like. Head towards my boutique and look at the current tshirt and prints I have for sale.
Super Final Battle JRPG Vibes bro.
With all that out of the way I present Level 3 of my comic book series Azure Ascendance.
*starts narrator voice
A battle royal begins. Coco, Boumei, Raiken, Coral and Kuchihige battle fiercely as Princess Yosei is still passed out from her recent ordeal. Meanwhile Watatsumi finds out the true identity of her masked savior. Truths are revealed as a battle rages on in another part of Azure while a new foe waits to ravage bodies indiscriminately.
*ends narrator voice
The intensity continues to build in this story my ancestors told me to write in a medium I was fond of growing up. At usual I have a preview page so that you can view.
And as usual you can find this issue on my publications page along with the back issues. I have the full witches intent to put an issue out every 2 months, especially since now this little hermit has people who are interested in this saga I’ve created. I need to do another show to keep this momentum growing.
As Namie Amuro…This is for all my fans.
Maaaan if I get people cosplaying my characters and get this animated I will yeet so hard I may cum.
First off, let us talk about something. I legit have never feared for a group of Anime Protagonist the way I do for the Straw Hat pirates as the assassination attempt on Big Mom has failed MISERABLY.
Holy fucking fuck.
Not even Team Toguro had me this shook. The next 50 episodes will be interesting…as fuck.
Anyway. How goes it? Was your October as exhausting as mine? When I was at UNCG I had periods in my semesters were it was just periods of Academic rape for at least a month.
On Kami October 2021 felt like an retro 2000 academic rape session.
OMG Jano, did you just say Academic Rape? You’re canceled.
Eh, ok. Spoiler Alert, I coined that phrase between 2002-2009. I just haven’t had a reason to say since graduating it in 2009….until now.
At any rate, if September was emotionally exhausting then October was just fucking taxing in the sense of having too much to fucking do. It has been the culmination of events I started back in March of this year.
Er before all the car dilemmas that plagued my spirit and my wallet.
Let me explain.
At some point in Jeff Bezo’s slave pit I thought maybe I should heed the psychics advice in December of starting my own business. It has something that has teetered in my head for random parts of the last decade, but i never fully pursued it. But when a psychic who is speaking with your ancestors tells you that you will be successful at something you have been too timid to do, you say fuck it and fuck it raw with big black mega meat. BOOM BOOM.
I met with my non profit boss and thus the laying of a foundation began. We discussed products, vendors, and all that other businessy stuff. Transitioning my brain from coloring to mathematical shit is a transition, especially all your jobs have been basic slave nigga shit. A week later while at an art show, i drafted up some designs for keychains and pins. The goal was to keep it as simple as possible since i’m literally still working on a comic series. I had to figure out I was going to make said keychains and pins, yeet to the gawdz for youtube.
YEET.
Shortly after I found out from a friend where I could get stickers made. And a friend who I made via my girlfriend helped me get some shirts. At this point I think we are in May when I wasn’t driving my car because the stalling and starting was taking its toll and was a safety issue.
Spoiler Alert, the creation of these products probably was as complicated as my mermaid and candy queen shoots. As the late great DMX Said “I wish it was a lie, but everything I said meant it.”
June came and I finally was able to get some of the supplies I need, but of course there were complications. Complications in the sense of ink cartridges disappearing and reappearing (no really, like really fucking really), and buying the fucking wrong type of shrink paper. Fun. Things hit a halt until July when I had money to spare to buy the things I need. But didn’t really get going again til September a few weeks later after starting this new cottonfield after coming back from New York City.
*deep breath*
Ya’ll, I’m tired just from explaining all this.
I bought my stickers, had to do trial and error with the shrink paper, and various other supplies i needed. I finally got the tshirt press machine from a friend I use to pick cotton with, the goal was to get the machine in the spring but her and I were both having issues in our life. Even making the shirts were a problem.
YO I PROMISE ALL THESE RETROGRADES CHOSE VIOLENCE AGAINST ME, MY SPIRIT AND MY PEACE!!!! THE ENEMY DID NOT WANT ME TO SUCCEED!! ON KAMI!!!!
I just heard a church organ play in my head. SMH.
But here i am with all my products ready finally. I told my non profit college friend boss that I wanted to have my store up and running either before the art show I had last week, or the QC city zine fest I will be this saturday. I didn’t have it up last week, but now it is finally up and running.
Oh, yea I had an art show last Saturday. I was going to make a whole other issue regarding it and the pieces I make for said shows, but since you are here now. I have a gallery for you to check out. Go ahead and take a look then come back when you are done.
Did you check it out? You did and you came back? Yeet.
Even though my store wasn’t ready, i did take some merchandise to be sold in the forms of prints and stickers.
YA’LL PEOPLE ACTUALLY BOUGHT MY SHIT!!!!
It all happened so fast, literally. Within 20 mins of each other I made four sales. I was so floored.
Am I one step closer to becoming a pretty art idol like i want? EXTOL ME MEAT SACK HOES!!!
Excuse me my Vegeta level Narcissism was flaring up again. Pardon me humans.
But in short my store is finally up, and at the moment i don’t think I need to buy anything else…right now. Side note, I got my table banner for art shows. I looked at it and I feel like a One Piece pirate.
Def part of the Worst Generation.
Anyway. Without any more delays or awkward side rants I present to you
I plan on adding more items as time goes on, but right now this is my starting point. And as I have told you I still want to finish my comic series, so please be patient. I’ll make announcements as usual if I had anything new. I’m still navigating through this business owner space. As I navigate remember to sign up for updates on my site.
Also if you reside in Charlotte, like zines, comics and other printed materials. Come to the Queen City Zine Fest to check out me selling copies of my comic series.
Real shit, if you were to tell me my awkward shy ass I would be doing shows, with colored hair, looking kooler than usual to promote my book to get an idol fanbase I wouldn’t have believed you.
MAN, I want to have one month this year without car problems. Actually no, not just one. Several months. My car has been stalling on me faithfully, and It hurts.
Oh how it hurts so much.
UGH, so much fucking UGH. At least this time I was in my driveway and not on the highway.
Yea that was a thing. A horrible fucking thing.
2021 is almost making me miss 2020. At least in 2020 there wasn’t this reoccurring issue.
Anyway Its adventure time. C’mon tell a friend.
Side note, I’m hoping the next issue will be a more joyful intro. The ironic thing is I actually have really good news to share.
Spoiler Alert, that may get its own issue.
So back in the fall of 2018, I started working at what I call Cotton field 10. When I started it was ok I guess, but then ya know the whole throat swelling up because I was allergic to the actual job thing happened. Fuckers.
*Ahem
At some point I saw this guy and I literally thought….this nigga is dressed like a black Dracula. My nigga had on something that looked like Velvet, ole smooth as looking nigga. At some point him and I ended up working on the same shift and we became friends. Side note, he is one of the reasons I ended up being in my first art show.
AWWW tender moments.
Fast forward to fall 2020 I hit up said Dracula looking nigga asking would he be down to model for me, and he was.
YEET.
Ok, so I forgot to mention this is actually another chill issue with no type of drama what so ever. This like what the 5th one this year. This is so odd for me. Is this what peace feels like? Or at least a semblance of peace? Nevermind the projects I still have to do.
MAAAAAN.
At any rate we coordinated our schedules between our new different cotton fields. He told me he would need me to pick him up, which was fine considering he is helping with a random artist vision of mine of a nigga in the woods.
No really, thats was the vision.
I went to go pick him up on a not so cold as fuck December day. It was nice to see him again, it was. The last time I saw him was during super slave season when he quit that raggedy ass cotton field. I drove up to the location where I did the mermaid saga, but on the other side. I had walked the other side a few times during the unemployed summer of 2018. It was a bit difference from the other side, the key difference of having a well, a bridge, and some type of camp site that may or may not have been haunted.
Fun.
We jumped right into it. Now equipped with new knowledge of how my fucking lens worked, I found myself switching between all 3 of my lens. It is nice to be loaded with new information, but the lens switching process became tedious after a while as we traversed through the dead leaf trail.
Honestly that may be the most conflict in this whole issue, and I’m ok with that.
Wait no, at some point I saw that the fucking well was no longer there. Aggravated, aggravated as fuck. That was so key in my mind. Nigga I was bothered. Like angry Vegeta yelling bothered. UGGGGH.
As if.
Niggas out here really taking the time to disassemble a well. There is a whole ass super virus fucking up humanity and you raggedy motha fuckas wanna break a well. Bitch go buy some legos and do some other shit.
Ok, I’m done.
As we walked to the other side he started to tell me about his love life. The crushes, the heartbreaks, the emotions felt and the cascade of sorrow that swept him under at times. It was very touching, and the emotions he felt as he told his story translated on his face as he shot him.
You never really know someone until you walk with them in the woods and take their pictures for an artistic vision of yours.
Spoiler Alert.
When it was all done I drove him back home, said our goodbyes, and laid the fuck down. At this time Masta had me shucking and jiving at 4 fucking am. NIGGAS ARE TIIIIIED.
That is actually the last photoshoot of the trying times of 2020. WOOOOOOO, lucky I survived it. Legit lucky I survived it, shit was a long ass black mirror episode no one asked to be part of.
Speaking of photoshoots (of the sorts), I had my fourth art show today. Man a nigga yeeted today. Literally as we were about to leave a swarm of bikers came toward the end, just to get pictures of us.\
ON KAMI.
ON KAMI NIGGA. I’ve never felt so flabbergasted in my life. A literal group of people I’ve never met in my life came to support me and my 2 friends who are local artist. Shit is pretty dope. I need to get better in being in front of the camera. I’m use to being behind it in case you haven’t noticed.
I guess I we are at the point in the JRPG journey were I need to level up my in front of camera stats.
I don’t know if thats a thing, but right now in this moment we are going to make it a thing.
Wait what was the last issue about? Wait…oh yea….Whale Sharks….right literally almost forgot. Sorry having Corona kinda fucked me up.
OMG JANO!!!???!!!
Yea, I had it. The past 2 weeks were an unnecessary adventure. Do you remember in YuYu Hakusho when Genkai gave Yusuke her spirit orb and he had to absorb it in his body. Some moments he was fine and the next his whole body was on fire, as he laid there cationic.
Yea it was a lot like that, for me. I wish I had a fucking spirit animal to fucking flap around bringing me water. But as if. What would really make up for it would be walking into my old cotton field and murdering the person who caused this fiasco. But ya know murder is problematic (esp if you are black) and my throat lumps up even with allergy meds and a mask.
Ugh, so much fucking As if.
At least I lived, thats important.
*deep sigh.
Anyway.
Hi everyone.
Man I don’t know why I am having an issue with words this month. It’s annoying.
Fuck the segue then.
Today on Jano’s Bizarre Art Adventure, it is cosplay time. Come on tell a friend. Meh, that was trash.
As if.
It is now fall of the trying times of 2020. I just restarted working at a cotton field I hoped to never to return to. But desperation creates strange bed fellows. Desperation is honestly an over simplification of things. I legit hate job searching, so much. So fucking much but considering how I never got unemployment from the last slave pit, it was 6 months of no income, and I know it doesn’t take much or long to get hired figured I might as well.
Anyway around November I was scrolling through one of my social people timelines and I asked myself.
Why haven’t I asked my homeboy to model for me as Luke Cage?
We didn’t really come up with an answer, so I hit up my friend and asked would he be down. He was in fact down and we chose a date to do this.
Spoiler Alert, this is actually a really simple issue…and so are the next few too actually. This is kinda odd, but welcome all things considered.
So we chose a date, that wasn’t that hard. It just had to be after I woke up from a slave based nap. Side note the first few months I was working 4am to 8am (830 am, 9am depending how much Masta wanted us to pick.Fun) The place I chose was Camp North End, I had been here a few times, but for him it was his first time. Our GPS’s decided to send us in two different directions, and since I semi know the place I went to the area he was at. Probably for the best because the park situation was not the best where I was.
Anyway.
We met up and I said the classic line of I haven’t seen you since before the plague. No really, I hadn’t. Literally the last time was his bday w.end In February when we all partied and got brunch the day after as usual not knowing a month later when everything would be shut down and fucked with a big corona laced penis that would kill oh so many like a Thanos snap.
Tell me I’m lying.
We chatted as he got his gear, and I looked around as to where I wanted to shoot him first. Side note, aside from the Netflix show I know nothing about Luke Cage, I don’t. I had googled some Pinterest images of additional ways for him to pose, but I was literally assuming since he had been the character he would know about him.
And he did.
We shot for at least 2 hrs. It would have been more BUT there was a literal sea of people between us and the other side of where wanted to go. Some of them weren’t wearing mask either, in a pandemic….nah its time to go. So we did. we picked another date and met up ironically enough the day of my 2nd art show.
WOOT WOOT, I did another art show. which I prob won’t be doing an issue about. *shrugs*. I had thought about it, but meh idk. I’ve done 3 at this point, side note.
Anyway.
The 2nd half went the same as the first, the only difference was now I knew the capabilities of my lenses. Something I honestly should have known for years, but I didn’t. Probably would have helped out in some scenarios, but whatever we are here now.
Spoiler Alert, I was trained in photography the same way Goku was trained in martial arts. That nigga just met people and they thought him shit. Literally thats how I learned. Imagine if I actually went to class, I’d be so much better a yeet gawd.
Curious about this 2 part issue, haha comic pun. Click here.
I’m gonna go enjoy my last night of not working and work on my book. Ugh I don’t wanna go back, I don’t. I have to take a survey before I go back, it’d be a shame if I chose answers that gave me another week off.
OMG Jano, are you still sick?
Nah, but do they know that? Do I talk to anyone at that cotton field on a level that they know about my nickname, or my website? Do motha fuckas even read fully?
First and fucking foremost, I Miss DMX. HOLY FUCK His death hurt. FUCK. Fuck Prince Phillip, that nigga did nothing for my life like DMX. Shit.
DAMN!!
So….ugh….lets continue.
Man here we are still in a pandemic. Here we are still trying to avoid a super virus. Here we are trying to avoid a super virus and racism.
Well, some of us.
*Deep exasperated sigh*
So fucking exhausting. Meanwhile I am trying to navigate through the aforementioned lanes, and multiple other avenues of life. MAN I wish knew getting my life together was going to be this complicated years ago…wait did I? I don’t know if I would have stuck around for it.
No really. I’m pretty fucked up. Spoiler Alert.
Meh, but I do like JRPG and that is what I am defining this art journey which I roughly started 5 years ago.
FUCK!! The concept of time is wild. Drive slow homie.
Thats right this is a JRPG. if you know what that stands for man I really fuck with you. If not well google it, I’ll still be here.
What started with a simple quest of me wanting to get better with posing people since I had only really done events, has morphed into…whatever the fuck this is. Am I even close to the final boss? Or am I on a string of side quest with no real end sight? Honestly I have no fucking idea.
I did have a realization that the last summer I had where I didn’t obsess over projects was Summer 2016. So the goal is, as surprising as this may sound considering how much I abhorred that year, is to be as free as I was that blasphemous year.
Whew Chile, that was a sentence that really came out of my mouth. Ok, we are here now.
But I legit just miss playing video games without having some sense of guilt and existential dread/ crisis/ ennui….all of the the existentialism I’ve felt it. Deep, DEEP In my chest.
*deep breath*
Hopefully I can consolidate lanes and reach a destination in Jano’s Bizarre Art Adventure.
Yo on Kami, sometimes my metaphors come out so smooth I get a lil moist and juicy.
Anyway, none of that has anything to do with this months issue. None, no such bearing on this issue exist.
This months issue is a peaceful, wholesome issue that occurred during the trying times of 2020. I said fucking wholesome nigga. Translation, nothing to do with my quest to get any of the infinite stones. Yea those things.
Spoiler Alert, It is going to be a while until that guantlet is complete.
Honestly, don’t hold your breath.
This issue is a rare moment where my personal life and my art journey intersect in this Venn diagram, henceforth here we are.
Do you remember the Portal issue? No? Ok go read that if ya didn’t. And if you did well congrats for keeping up with my life. Well her and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary at the tail end of last June.
Awww Jano thats sweet.
Yea tender moments and all that. Well to celebrate we went to Charleston, a place I was going to treat myself when I completed my gauntlet, but ya know that ain’t happened. Plus Charleston is expensive especially when you don’t make shit and you are saving to quit a cottonfield that makes your throat lump up.
Smh fuckin’ horrible bro.
But we went down there on a whim, it felt nice to go esp after I finished coloring Act 2 of my comic series, and it was a legit goal of mine. I went in 2014 as part of a staff retreat but I didn’t get to enjoy it. This time, yea I did.
During our visit we went to an aquarium. YAAAAS to marine life. YAAAAAAS. This lil nigga gets excited about fish, judge me if you want I don’t give a shit. At some point during our visit one of the guides told us that if we liked this one we would enjoy the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. So fast forward to early August we went to Atlanta for her bday.
On kami, that aquarium was huge.Thoughts I had as our hotel was right across from it. Part of the reason it had such girth was because it was the home of whale sharks. Which she made her goal to swim with.
Nigga what?
Yea.Swim with Whale Sharks.
Jano, did you do it too?
If I did, who would have taken the images that you are about to look at? Do you really think I will place someone else art work on MY website. Nigga bye.
Besides
1. I can’t swim
2. Anxiety and terror are a real thing.
3. I still was unemployed at this time, and it wouldn’t be fair to have her spend that large of an amount on something I wasn’t that excited to do. Tickets were at least in the 230-250 range. Sometimes I am decent person, sometimes.
She bought her ticket early on and literally had the entire day until that episode of adventure time aired. Until then we toured the rest of the aquarium. Ya’ll I saw dolphins, turtles, and octopi. Nigga I yeeted.
The time came and she armored up to dive with those behemoths. We were escorted to the top of a tank, meanwhile I chilled in an area designated for those who were accompanying the divers. The experience last for at least an hour. They were told they could no touch the sea spawn as a sign of respect. She told me swimming wasn’t necessary, the gear they was issued out kept you floating without any work on your part.
I still feel like I would have panicked and drowned. As I said anxiety and terror are a very real thing. Very real.
Very.
Fucking.
Real.
Anyway to see this Marine level excursion with whale sharks and manta rays go here.
Like I said , this is a pretty peaceful issue.
Join me next time when…..eh just come back in a month. I’m too tired to do a preview.
No really, I ran errands all day and its now 2:42 am, and I’m supposed to have a shoot tomorrow. Supposed to.
Well here we are March 2021, a whole year into a pandemic.
Fascinating.
Terrifying and sobering as well. I’m glad I gave up hope of going to concerts and anime cons again. At this point wondering when this pandemic is going to end is like how many episodes there are left until Namek explodes. Just long as shit for no valid reason.
Anyway.
Time for another care free issue with less drama than any previous issue, Rpg or anime I’ve watched in general.
Side Quest time.
It is weird typing issues like this. But also, Spoiler alert, I’m still in the search of the last 2 “infinity stones” that I began in 2017.
UGH. We can talk about that whenever the fuck I get there….hopefully soon. Watch me finish my comic series and my infinity gauntlet around the same time…prob next year. This is all I live for. Wait, is that why some of ya’ll are still tuning in each month? Am I your new favorite saga, Jano Bizarre’s Art Adventure.
AWWW SHIT NIGGA!!!
Need a reminder of said stones before I continue? Sure take a gander or reminder depending how often you have been to my website. I should name these stones while I’m at, right?
So here we are summer of the trying times of 2020, corona has crippled the world. Literally. Activities are limited, bodies are crippled and demolished by the fiend known as corona. Meanwhile protest for social justice spread like wild fire, since cops seem to literally get away with murder for killing black people.
STILL.
If this sounds like an intro to a dystopian nightmare it is because it was the trying times of 2020, spoiler alert.
I had finished coloring act 2 of my comic series, and decided that my break needed a break. After months of my back curling up like a snail shell design.I decided to focus on helping the nonprofit I am apart of, called Back to Black.
But Jano what is Back to Black?
WELL, essentially it is a non profit organization whose goal it is to help improve the black community. It was started by my friend who I met at UNC Greensboro. One day in Fall 2019 I was picking up an order from her hair and beauty store, because ya know I need to stay pretty and have my curls flowing.
YAAAAAAAAAS.
We decided to get dinner the next day catch up and talk about things, and she told me about her non profit dreams to help the black community. I told her you need to pursue the vision you were given, because if not there is no point in having them.
A month later when we met up for a college friends bday, I found out she added me to her staff. MAN I was not ready, at all. I have non profit experience from the past decade of cotton field experience, but still.
Moral of the Story, sometimes I can be inspiring when I am not talking shit.
Fast forward to last summer, so I guess we are now just…rewinding….wait how does this work?
Anyway. She had planned to do a photoshoot for the clothing line we were launching. The initial goal was to use our fellow staff members, but life was like nah.
Insert me, and having friends. There is a 90s after school lesson somewhere.
I hit up my friend who helped me get the 90s stone….I really need to think of better name for these stones. I asked her would she, her boyfriend and other friends be willing to model for us. The concept was simple, black people living their best life and be unapologetically black. They agreed luckily, because this literally was a last minute thing. We met up at Camp North End under the scorching summer sun. It was a pretty chill event actually….despite the sun emitting full oppression nigger heat.
Like I said this this isn’t a dramatic thing, no long expose’s, no existential dread.None, no such things exist…
In this issue.
We decided to do another one at another time, but in downtown Charlotte a few weeks later.
And that’s it. Fade to black. End scene.
Wait, not yet. But thats all for the events of this issue. To check out the byproducts from the day the sun enter the group chat go forth here. Also check out the music page and CBD hemp store of one of the models.
First and fucking foremost, I am legit upset that I didn’t get superpowers from this spider bite on my leg. The only thing I got is 1. immense fragging pain 2. probably a huge bill for going to the Emergency Room for the first time in years, and 3. I didn’t get to wear my Vegeta costume that I ordered for Halloween last year, but didn’t arrive until after aforementioned Holiday because I was passed out in pain. NO NIGGA WE AIN’T YEETING HERE.
Maybe later in this issue but at this current point, nope this is a yeet free zone.
Anyway.
So for those who have not been paying attention on any of my social media channels and never clicked on my about me page. The picture above is of me, and I just did my first art show. I know right I am a pretty dude, and thank youuuuuu.
The lead up to this was legit unexpected but deeply appreciated it.
Side note, to avoid the excessive use of pronouns I will be referring to some people by their IG names.
So September day whilst I was picking cotton, well making sure the cotton was up to par before it got sent out to random cunts who I’ll probably never meet. One of the field slaves I shuck and jive with, PurpleKloudz, randomly started talking, ya know about anime, art, dreams to be chased and nigga shit. He was telling me how one of his goals was to be in an art show before the year is over, I was like yooooo go ahead and follow your dreams. As the convo went on,I found out it was an anime and art show that he was going to be in.
Hold up, I like anime and I’m an artist. The voices of my ancestors told me I needed to be part of this. Spoiler Alert, When the voices of your ancestors speak you listen, always.
I asked him for more details and how I could be a part of it, he said he would talk to our other slave we shuck and jive with for the scraps master give us, JohnnyLovely.
Look I get it, I am laying it on thick with the slave cotton field references, but I legit work in a plantation that contains majority cotton so I am allowed to say these things. Hella allowed, especially since this is my damn site.
Anyway.
So at some point after a day of picking cotton, me and both of the aforementioned fellow slaves had a nerd gathering in the parking lot. Thats where it went down. YEET YEET.
JohnnyLovely told me about how this is the second anime and art show that his friend was having. I asked could I show any of my pieces, and he was like ummmm idk. Fuck it, I’ll try anyway and I did. He gave me the information of the person who was orchestrating the event. I sent him the links to all of my galleries, ALL of my galleries. Need a reminder, no problem. Starting from oldest to the most recent we have Miasmic Emancipation, Velvet Sweaters,Numinously Noir, Emerald Evisceration and oh yeah my house party invites just for good measure.
And he said I was in. YEET YEET NIGGA. Actually Yeet didn’t really do justice for how excited I was, especially when you hear people saying you shouldn’t draw the things you draw. Well fuck you naysayers, especially those I am genetically linked to.
The next step was to choose which images I wanted to display. Eventually I chose the 3 below.
Yep that last one was def chosen. Not gonna lie the process was hard. When it was all said and done,I hit up one of my friends I use to pick cotton with at another field a few years ago. I asked him would he mind printing out my images for the show, and he said sure. It was going good but due to the amount of colors I use in my drawings, I kinda killed his blue printhead. Yea, I wasn’t expecting that. So for images 2 and 3, I had to go to Office Max to get those printed out. Pretty sure they were confused and concerned about what I had them make.
As if I give a fuck, Spoiler Alert I don’t.
I got my frames and bam, I was all set.Since I finally got my images printed and frame I could actually start posting ads for it on social media. The last thing I wanted to do was post I was going to be in an art show and not have my stuff ready. The day before I met with the organizer of the show, and briefly dropped off the above pieces along with some small ones I had made when I did the pop art show in 2017. I got home, did my hair because my hair was an arid dry mess, and passed the fuck out.
The day of the show came, and I wish I requested off. I was excited, legit excited as fuck. Me and my girl left the cotton field, grabbed food from Chick Fil A, and went back to my place. I changed first then she did. Joy is when you get to wear a shirt you ordered a month ago for the first time at a kool event that you are in.While she did I meditated, because sometimes you got to do that before something major in your life is about to happen. On the way there I legit was trying to find a song to amp me, this is the bad thing about primary listening to somber music. I did find some pleasure in Rapsody’s Nina and Cleo and J.Cole’s Middle Child. In hindsight I wish I remembered Awerooh’s- Its My turn now, that was my shit, 3 years ago when I was developing my website.
Eh, maybe next time.
We got to Camp North End, did a brief photoshoot before we headed to the event. Yo, real shit I am legit awkward in front of a camera, I am. Yea I take selfies but full body poses aren’t a thing I’m use to doing, even though I tell others what to do when I am behind the lens. The event didn’t start until 7, but I wanted to be there to see the set up process and place flyers for my site, and a copy of my book series for people to view.
The night flew by after that honestly. Lush Lofi flowed in the background,feeling as if I was in an episode of Samurai Champloo. Her and I walked around for a while at some point we saw our fellow slaves who were also having their art exhibited, the one’s told me about the show. As the night went on, I was both the subject and the usual detached observer while I took photos of the event. Its a weird feeling since I am never am the subject of an event.
I promise sometimes I feel like I am the unborn child of Samantha White and Lionel Higgins from Dear White People.
Our other slave friends showed up, and we were all like AWWW SHIT NIGGA. She helped get people to look at book, Yaaaaaaas honey Yaaaaaaas. In case anyone hasn’t noticed I’m shy as shit, so her amping me up defiantly helped my spirit. My friend who printed one of my images came with his wife and daughter, and at some point the 5 of us walked around. Eventually we doubled back to the event and they head out.
Another slave showed up, who I met in an odd way. Well not really odd considered the digital word we live in. We work at the same place, but our first interaction was when she liked a post I did of me starting a book on AfroFuturism by YTasha L. Womack.
I still need to finish that book.
At the time I didn’t know who she was, until one day at work I was stopped and she was like I think I liked your post. Oh shit, wasn’t ready. The convo couldn’t last long because if masta see’s us lil field niggas not picking his cotton we gets in bigs trouble, and we don’t wants no trouble.
But Jano, how is this relevant to the story?
I’m about to get to that, impatient ass.
She showed up with her daughter, and she was thoroughly impressed with the pieces that me and our fellow field slaves had to put up. From the perspective that we had worked hard to create something, and going to the extra effort of making our work being seen to the public something that some people hesitate to do. The fact that the artist space was primarily created by and for black artist thrilled her more. Thrilled her to the point that she felt inspired to do something similar and create an AfroFuturism con here in Charlotte.
Now you get the relevance.
Oh shit, that would be awesome. I’ve been hoping to do shows especially black themed sci fi art shows, it would be an added bonus if there was one here in Charlotte. Hopefully this will manifest into something flourishes, heavily.
The night trickled on, at some point there was a group photo taken of me and the other artist. Still awkward as hell for me to pose, so fucking awkward. After that me and some of the people I pick cotton with went on to go play Cards Against Humanity. I bounced back to the event to get my prints, at some point the dude who organized all this said there would be another one in March. Nigga I’m so down.
And thats it. I was talking with JohnnyLovely a few times before the day of the show. At some point he said a black art renaissance is heading towards Charlotte, and after this I can see it happening. Another conversation, I made reference to Dear White People, how after the Black Face Party there were a series of events that occurred after and it affected everyone differently. My ancestors say that both of our feelings are accurate. Was this event an adequate save point and it will propel me into another direction that will benefit me greatly or will I stagnate and float on in a void of despair?
Spoiler Alert, either result will be chronicled here as usual.
Hopefully this clearing will lead to an oasis that splinters many paths of abundance. In the meantime to see photos from the even go here.
Pretty sure this was a big save point in my art journey. Speaking of save points I’m gonna resume from the one in Final Fantasy 7 and hopefully beat it before the year is over. Also next issue we will go back to the regular flowing timeline. This was an omg I need to talk about it now so my spirit can go back to chill mode, and I have.
