Hello, it’s me again!

Witness above or on my Flickr site another pair of pages from my sketchbook. The drawing in the middle is of good ole Jason Bizzaro, who I drew in a confidence-building 10-15 minutes on the way to Chapel Hill in May, where he, his wife Missy, and myself were headed to enjoy a Polvo reunion show. And enjoy it we did. Although I will say that, in retrospect, I felt the whole time like I was surrounded by jerks; like everyone in the room, excepting the group of 15 or so Charlotteans who met up there, were great big fat jerks and should have been avoided at all costs. I’m not sure why, and no one was anything but nice.

It may just be the vibe that the Cat’s Cradle gives off–I’m not sure I’ve ever REALLY enjoyed a show there, with the exception of The Flaming Lips back in 2000 or so. Could it have been so long ago? Maybe 2002? Doesn’t matter; it’s the only one.

What’s funny is that all my favorite memories of that trip are either from riding up with Jason and Missy, two EXCELLENT people to be in a car with for any amount of time, or tricking Chris Holston back into the back seat on the way back by buying everyone’s late-night breakfast at Waffle House. $40 in exchange for NOT sitting wedged between two people in the backseat of a Saturn for 2.5 hours? A pittance!

Also on this page are some notes I wrote after reading Part 1 of Dash Shaw’s excellent The Bottomless Belly Button, which might be the most interesting book I’ve read all year. I’m not sure if it’s the best or not, but it sure was good. So good that I tried to read it as slowly as I could, even re-reading Part 1 before moving on to Part 2. I couldn’t wait after that though, and just ended up finishing it. I may still write a long review of it for work, but we’ll see. It’s fading in my mind already. The book works on a very strange subliminal level. Though it’s visually strange-looking, all it’s tricks are very subtle, and create a reading experience that’s just a hair out of phase with what you’re used to, so everything is at once surreal and VERY real.

For now, I really enjoyed it. That’s a review, right?

After working on HeroesCon, which is part of my day job, for the last year, and especially for the last two months solid, to the exclusion of pretty much everything else in my life, it’s over and done. It’s been a few days, during which time I have been numb and weary, and sick for the last few days. SUCKS! Pretty down-in-the-dumps, too, truth be told. It’s hard to do all that conventioneering all year and then realize when it’s over that you have to start over on the next one. Essentially you’re a party planner, which is a terrible place for a person to find themselves at the age of–

WHOA! What’s with all this Negative Nancy? I’m sure I’m just tired still. In the meantime, I’m trying to trick myself out of my funk with drawing, which I haven’t done for nearly two months solid, which is nuts. EXCEPT for this drawing which I did in the waiting room of a glacially slow Meineke around the beginning of the month, while waiting for them to inspect my car. I shouldn’t complain–the car’s been out of inspection since I bought it a year and a half ago, so I should be counting my lucky stars that I haven’t gotten a ticket. You can see the drawing and others like it on my Flickr page, which is hot!

But after a few hours of drawing, I do indeed feel better–ah, the solace of aimless doodling! I’m getting back into the swing of daily drawing, as I begin working on what will be the contents of my first ever minicomic, which will debut at this fall’s SPX. Plus, I’ve been so busy that I’ve said nary a word about my first ever PUBLISHED comics, Superior Showcase #3, which came out a few weeks ago from my buddy Chris Pitzer at AdHouse Books. If you’d like to buy one, I’m sure he’d like to sell it to you. Or we have it at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, if you’d like to pick one up here in lovely Charlotte, NC.

Here’s a picture of me, cover artist Roger Langridge, and fellow cartoonists Jim Rugg and Laura Park signing the book at HeroesCon last weekend. My story is the last one in the book, and the only one which prominently features farting as the basis for most of the jokes. People just don’t realize. More on that soon, as well as a more optimistic report from HeroesCon. But I’ll need to do some more drawing first!