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Monday, September 24, 2007

P.S... My dad is so ridiculously awesome.

The love of pirates is an inherited trait with me. My dad got me hooked on 'em at an extremely early age, and he still loves 'em as much as I do.

In addition his many musical and literary projects, he has also taken to playing with the liturgy of the Episcopal/Anglican church. One of his more recent creations? The Pirate Eucharist.

And guess what. The Archbishop of Canterbury - the HEAD of the Anglican and Episcopal churches - the "pope of the protestants" - a position held by such esteemed historical figures as St. Thomas a'Becket and St. Augustine - will be participating in my dad's service.

Read an article about it here.

My dad is so cool.

Back from the Top Shelf Warehouse; Tampa


Here's a close up of part of the poster I'm doing for 24-hour comics day.

Man! It's been a busy week. I need to be better about updating this...

A week ago me, Hunter, and Allen Spetnagel went to the Top Shelf warehouse to help publisher extraordinare Chris Staros with a big shipment of samplers. Top Shelf is a great publisher and was one of the big reasons I became a cartoonist; I'm sure many of my peers could say the same. We spent a big part of the day stuffing envelopes and packing boxes, etc. Afterwards Staros took us out to dinner and got heaping amounts of delicious Thai food. I'd never eaten Thai before, and loved it. I also got some books - Matt Kindt's 2 Sisters and SuperSpy, and Jeffrey Brown's The Incredible Changebots.

This weekend Liz and I went to Tampa, where I presided over the wedding of my sister Lindy and her now-husband Ryan.


• Me, Ryan, and Lindy at the wedding •

We had a great time, I got to swim in the ocean, we saw a fire-eater, etc.


• Liz and me on the Clearwater Pier •

Ryan's a great guy, and he and my sister seem to make each other very, very happy, so I'm very glad to welcome him into the family.


• Me and my lil' sister •

I also finished Regina Rich! Expect copies at SPX.

Tomorrow is my first "real" lecture with the Introduction to Sequential Art class. It's on character design. I'm expecting it to go well, but cross your fingers for me!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Making more stuff for SPX...

Sorry it's been so very, very long since I last updated the blog. I've had a lot of stuff going on lately -- mostly it's been getting minis printed and assembled for SPX with Liz. I had a week of pretty much no drawing, but it worked out well - I've got twenty copies of Giovanni Potatoe and the Pizzas of Love, eighty portrait books, about a hundred Goodbye Beards, etc. Lots of fun stuff to sell and trade. I've also decided, since I'm so far ahead of what I expected to be, to redraw and color my 24-hour comic from last year. It'll be twenty-four pages, color. I knocked out these pages yesterday - consider it a sneak preview.

*edit: thanks to Sarah Case and Daniel Crawley for pointing out the typo - on page three "you" should be "your." I'm not gonna bother reuploading it here, but it will be fixed in the print edition. Thanks, guys!

















I've also been doing a TON of color sketchbook drawings, but I lost my sketchbook on Friday, so no scans. I'm only cavalier about it because I expect it to turn up; I helped man the Sequential Art table at SCAD's major fair, and left it there. I didn't return until later, when everyone was gone and everything with them. I'm hoping one of the professors took it with them. I forgot to write my name in it anywhere, which was idiotic of me.

I'm currently assistant teaching my first class at SCAD - Introduction to Sequential Art. It seems like a good crop of students - four girls and a guy, which surprises me, considering the traditional gender inequity in the comics field. I'm also taking an advanced inking technique class with veteran inker Roy Richardson, and it's a really good class mix.

Aside from that, not a ton of new stuff. More portraits, new comic ideas, all sorts of fun stuff. Oh, and Liz and I are taking a surprise trip to Tampa on Friday!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Getting the Mini-Comics ready for SPX

First off, my beard turns one month old today!



On the drive back from Chattanooga, Liz gave me all sorts of great ideas with how to prepare for SPX. I always wait until the last minute before shows and subsequently pull a few all-nighters trying to get ready; Liz insisted that I prepare ahead of time this time around, and I'm glad that she did, as stuff is gettin' done!

Part and parcel to this is a sort-of gig with the UPS store. I discovered a while back that the UPS store one block from our apartment is, perhaps, the greatest place for printing on the planet - Megan (the manager) has a lot of print experience and keeps the machines (which have a crisp precision you wouldn't believe) in tip-top shape, not like those over-saturated smudgy monstrosities at Kinko's. Plus, their prices are great, they let you do test proofs without charging, they're just perfect for color jobs. Anyway, I'm in there ALL the time, and somehow I've taken on a position as an occasional-graphic designer/printer, when they need extra help or when I need printing done. I did some training on the wide format printer (gorgeous twelve-color 44 inch thing, prints on canvas and everything!), and next week I'll learn the shipping side. I'm very excited, 'cause I am really passionate about the quality of the place, AND I don't have a set schedule. It's perfect, 'cause I get "paid" in printing -- I got all of my portrait book mini-covers up and ready to go this week.



I also have finally figured out a financially, time-and-labor viable way of doing Giovanni Potatoe. Say hello to the world's longest mini-comic! (316 pages... 'course, I have no idea if that's the world's longest or not):



Yes, indeed. Four paperback-bound tomes in a handsome slipcase. Fits in your pocket! I'm hoping to have twenty or thirty for SPX.

Oh, and Hunter Clark and I are going to Washington, DC by TRAIN! Yeah! Dining car and everything. Liz and I were looking at three hundred dollar plane tickets and then we found that round trip via AMTRAK is only $197, plus buy-one-get-one-free. So Hunter and I are splitting the cost, and are each only paying ninety-something bucks for overnight transportation.