Thanks to Fred, again, for all the help writing science that kinda makes sense over the next few strips.
Ugh. My brain is a bit fried. Just spent the day laying out pages for the Little Dee novel. It’s like playing Tetris, now I’m seeing squares and word balloons and rearranging them in front of my eyelids when I close my eyes. Wouldn’t trade it for anything though. 🙂
Yay! One of my favorite graphic novel, Hicksville, made it on Rolling Stone’s list of 50 best non-superhero comic strips. Read his ongoing webcomic Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen. Fun!
Did I mention that when my friend Cedra came to visit that my sweetie and I went with her to the Secret Caverns, just west of Albany? Anyhow, we did. It’s not a well preserved cave, which means two things: one is that it’s cool that you can touch EVERYTHING, and the other is that the delicate ecosystem of the cave is pretty dead. But it was pretty, and amazing, and the 100 foot underground waterfall was pretty fantastic.
Phew. What a couple of weeks. After Toronto, then a good friend came to visit, and then my sister and mom. It was so lovely to see them all, but it’ll also be so lovely to get back in my normal groove. Oh, but I did finish up the painting for my mom of my siblings and I. I still might tweak it over the next month, but essentially, here it is (in the last two stages of painting). I’m amazed at what a difference putting in the background did to the colors and feel. Fun! 🙂
Oh, and I must say, I’m REALLy impressed with the idea and vision of SOLAR FREAKIN’ ROADWAYS! I don’t know if this is the future, but I’m convinced it has potential to be. (here’s a link to their Indiegogo campaign)
Brushing up (and learning more) on drawing backgrounds, this one done by studying the works of Walt Kelly — tools which I might use to little-or-very-great-degree with the “Little Dee” graphic novel (script approved, layout has begun).
“One Way” has been added to the roster of Comic Chameleon! The best (and feee) comic reading app for the iPhone.
My friend Cedra is visiting. That’s my blog today! Have a great weekend. 🙂
Apologies for server issues earlier this week. Should be mostly taken care of.
TCAF was fun. Got to hang out with Don Ahé of Road Apples Almanac, Jeff Couturier of Hordes of Neurons, and Kate Citron of katecitrin.com, (and Brian!). Audra of Nemu*Nemu stopped by to say hello (hi!). Chatted with Jess Fink, (of NSFW Chester 5000, among other projects) and who lives so close, its embarrassing we haven’t hung out. Got to sit between Nicholas Gurewitch of Perry Bible Fellowship, and Sam Logan of Sam And Fuzzy, which was delightful.
The most exciting thing was to get to spend some time talking with Christophe Blain, whose art and story pacing have been a huge influence of my work (especially Spacetrawler). Check out Isaac the Pirate Set Vols.1-2
Oh, and he drew me a sketch. Not only is it always a thrill to watch other people illustrate, but what a lovely drawing. Thank you, Christophe!
Apologies! The server died, but my web-host guy, Corey (and minions) have totally been saving the day! <3Â <3Â <3Â <3
Back up! There may be hiccups over the next day or so while everything is tweaked, but, yay! We’re back up!
I’m writing this post on May 6th, a day before leaving to TCAF. But it’s posting after the TCAF weekend. So, we’ll assume I had a wonderful time with good friends and met a lot of amazing people, as is usually the case.
Oh, and I haven’t yet posted the update to my self-portrait, which I think I worked on May 2nd. i think I added the wall color, the lamp post, and the pussy willow stems. Oil painting is such a slow process. Paint some, wait a week for it to dry, paint some more. Fun! 🙂
Yes, I will be at TCAF Comic Fest, in Toronto this weekend. You’ll find me with the TopatoCo people, with Little Dee and Spacetrawler books for sale. If you can’t make it, know that all of my books and merch are also for sale online at TopatoCo. See you there!
