Almost done now! I would have already been done, except I keep shooting myself in the foot coming up with extra details and colors and stuff, which goes counter to the whole working-small-in-order-to-work-fast thing. On the other hand, if I were working at a more normal size, I’d still be on page 2 probably. Oh, the humanity! More bloggadociousness coming, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to talk about this week. But right now I have to use the little boys’ room.

Quick blog post before work: a few things I drew yesterday. Above is my main man Rabo Karabekian, elderly star of Kurt Vonnegut’s excellent Bluebeard novel, which I am rereading. The drawing was originally for Steven Gettis’ Hey Oscar Wilde! site, which is basically a bunch of cartoonists doing portraits of authors and literary characters; but then I realized that I was actually supposed to send him the drawing, which is of course in my sketchbook. So I’ll have to do another one of these days? We’ll see.

Then last night me and my friends Dylan Chorneau and Anida Gurlit met at Dylan’s studio for our first figure drawing club, which I keep calling “Sketch Thunderdome.” Dylan and Anida are both trained artists with a ton of experience figure drawing, so it was kind of humbling drawing with them, but also super exciting–they’re pretty good, and it’s hard not to soak up talent hanging out with those guys. 

Okee-dokee, this week’s strip is up! I did a weird thing with the colors that I don’t like much, but it’s not too terrible. I have so little color sense that every decision is literally the first time I’m making that decision. And most of them end with “..well, it worked for Christophe Blain.” The rest of them are me imagining if two colors would go together if someone were wearing them. Science!

In other news, once I get done with this I’ll be showering and brushing my teeth extra good–today’s my appointment at the denture dentist, who I think will (not today, but soon) tear my two front little nubbin teeth out from where they’re fused to the bone, later to replace them with some fakies. My own dentist was pretty open about how much this would hurt, and for how long. “How long, Dr. Roz?” “A long time. It could be a long time.” So I have been very excited about this appointment, very excited indeed.

I just need to figure out a way to schedule this oral insult between my upcoming poetry reading/birthday (September 6, 8.30, Snug Harbor, I’m sure you’re planning to attend) and SPX later the same month. The idea of showing up for either missing my two front teeth and in agony is, well, it’s not for me. Wish me luck!

Oh My Goodness it is true, Lo Verily and Forsooth! That is but a taste of the poetical fancies I will be spinning on September 6, which is also my 35th birthday. Huzzah! Scheduled to begin at 8.30pm, and I believe there will be a scant entry charge. The whole thing ’twill verily be done within an hour or so, which means that even ’twere it excretonious, your pain will be shortlived, I daresay.

But, if you’ve never seen me read poetry before, I assure you it’s actually kinda good. I haven’t done it in about ten years, but people seemed to like it back then, and one presumes that I would have somehow gotten better, right? Or at least smarter? But definitely older! Huzzah!

Topics will include: War, Jane Goodall, Sex, Salt Water, Diplomacy, Poo-Poo, and many other besides! Lo! Excellent for persons looking for something to do that doesn’t involve loud music, although actually I’m opening for (I think) two different bands. Therefore, excellent also for persons who DO like loud music, as there will be some afterwards. I think that covers everyone right? Okay, see you there!

Page 4 is now cold-kicking it right here. This little series is growing on me. The idea of doing something more personal than normal was weird in the beginning, but it’s nice to use the incredible SLOWNESS of making comics as a kind of almost meditation on stuff like this. Even though it only takes a few seconds to read one of these pages, they take most of a day to actually do, and that’s strung out over several days of work. So for better or worse, you end up soaking in whatever idea you’re thinking about for awhile.

This would all be better if the actual idea were of more value, but you gotta crawl before you can walk, so be patient!

Whoa, part three is large and in charge! Yow lady quit yelling at me!

I have been surprised and gratified by the number of people who have responded to this strip, both online and in the “real” world, where people will walk up to me and say “so what IS the thing with beautiful women?” As if I ever knew anyway. But still and all, it’s nice. Especially as it’s mostly girls? BEAUTIFUL girls? Weird–it’s like art macking on life.

It’s also been fun to just throw this together each week; I still have only the blurriest idea of where it will go, and how long it will take to get there. Thanks for your continued patience as I make my way towards some sort of point eventually.

Oh man I thought I was going to have this done a couple of days ago. There go my dreams of catching up a little this week. No matter!

As far as this strip goes, you’re guess is as good as mine as to where it will end up. It’s not like I know what I’m talking about. Still, it’s a fun experiment to just start making these little comics and seeing where they go. Although this “Fun With Autobiography” series was a lot faster to do, even in color, when it was 4″ x 5″. These new guys are a WHOPPING 7″ x 8.5″, although they look much better and now you can buy them if you want to.

I’ll say more later–I have to go to sleep, it’s late. I will write about some other new stuff another day this week, Honest Injun. For now, enjoy this badboy.