So Robert Goodin asked me to do something for the Covered art show going on this month in Los Angeles, at Secret Headquarters. Before I get into all the boring art talk, I should say that you should go; I wish I could afford to go, but Los Angeles is a long drive for me. Hopefully less long for you. You can also see all the pieces in the show on their Flickr page, along with prices and info on how you can buy them, regardless of your location.

If you don’t know, Covered is a blog Rob started around a year or two ago, which is basically artists re-interpreting classic or favorite or just weird comics covers. It’s cool. Rob gets a lot of big names, and a lot of small names, and the takes run from faithful to weird and back again. I love it.

But I had a really hard time thinking of something to do, I came down to either “The Ark” (one of the Jack Chick “Crusaders” line of comics); or the Frazetta cover to Weird Science-Fantasy, the famous one with the spaceman fighting the cavemen; or the one I did. Honestly I was about to pull out of the show; I just didn’t have any time, and I’m trying not to do non-paying work, especially since I have undone commissions for some very patient clients.

But I’m glad I did now–drawing Richie Rich was so pleasant, I can’t even tell you. Weirdly, it made me feel really grown-up–I still have most of my comics from when I was a kid, and most of them are Richie Rich comics. So the cover above is something I’ve been seeing–something that’s a part of my inner visual lexicon–for the last 25-30 years. Richie Rich might be one of the single biggest influences on my own approach to cartooning, but this was the first time in my entire life including childhood, that I ever tried to actually draw him. In effect I was using adult skills to really look deeply at something from my childhood. It felt strange and great and sad.

The thing about Richie Rich–leaving the weirdness of the comics themselves out–is his design: it’s nuts. His head is nearly as big as the entire rest of his body, he’s got these kooky cankle legs that actually seem to get larger the closer you get to his feet, and he wears an insane black suit/blue shorts/white boots combo, that’s set off jauntily by his massive red bow tie. But what really makes his design is the shape of his head, specifically the way the line of his forehead-to-cheek swoops in and out expressively. You could always tell a crummy Richie Rich artist by this line–if that line doesn’t work, the whole face falls apart. Oops I’m digressing.

Okay so anyway I started drawing Richie Rich #141. I’m pretty anal, and didn’t have a lot of time, so I did a lot of measuring and mathematizing to make sure I could fit everything in–instead of, say, having to cram in the last couple of letters in the title or squoosh the bike wheel a little to keep them in frame. Or getting most of the way done and then having to start over. I draw small, so I made it 5.75″ x 8.5″, which is around 30% smaller than the original. Then I just took measurements and divided them by 1.325 to transfer them to the smaller paper.

I basically mapped out where the different title elements would go, as well as the top and sides of the figure, assuming the bottom dimension would just naturally work fine, since there was so much negative space in the composition and I was leaving out the “detectives” subtitle. I actually ended up with too much negative space at the bottom, but by the time I realized this, I had a set of pencils I was pretty happy with, so I just decided to say eff it and go ahead.

I have a weird approach to drawing, and not at all a healthy one–when I draw things I draw their component pieces one at a time, in relation to each other, rather than sketching out the whole thing and then firming up proportions as I go. So a lot of times when I draw from some reference, whether it’s life or another sketch or something like this where I’m straight-up copying, everything looks perfect but there’s an unsettling element somewhere, like the person’s legs are double long or short or the roof of the house is pitched nearly vertical.

In this case it fortunately manifested itself as drawing Richie bigger in ratio to his bike–both the bike and Richie are more or less correct, just not in relation to one another. But that’s not the sort of thing people notice, and for some reason I liked it anyway–it fits the way I’ve skewed the point of the original cover. So, a narrow miss!

I was happy enough with the pencils, in fact, that I was terrified to ink them; I was pretty certain I’d screw them up. Especially since I’ve been using nibs for the last few months, and am way out of practice with my trusty Kuretake brush pen.

The big lines for me are the tricky ones; I always draw them first, and they always looks terrible until you start filling in the other lines around them.

Like so. This is something I wish someone who knows about it would just sit down and teach me, this thick-to-thin ration that makes certain cartoons work. For instance, the cartooning math that decrees that Richie’s head should have a big chunky “holding” line–but that nearly every other line should be of a single weight, and pretty fine at that. I drew all the non-weighted lines with a .005 black Micron pen, which is the smallest one; even as small as I draw the idea of using the Micron for the actual basic lines in a cartoon is crazy.

Anyway, I know there is some cartooning science to this, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. But I want to. I want to put my finger on that science! Because Warren Kremer, who was either the original or one of the original Richie Rich artists, and very likely the artist I’m ripping off paying homage to here, has definitely got it. In spades.

It’s like the fat lines are bringing forms out of the more mundane shapes in the background almost. But that’s not quite it either. Heck I don’t know. But it was awfully fun to ink, maybe one of the most fun things I’ve ever inked. If someone gets the license to Richie Rich and wants to pay me to ink them, I will take that money. You’ll have to get a good artist to draw them though.

Figure’s all done, next up: lettering! Surprisingly, most of my mistakes on this are in the lettering, which I got a little overconfident on. I like lettering and enjoy making it, and just sort of assumed that lettering the small stuff wouldn’t be nearly as hard as getting the big line around Richie’s head right.

Still, much as you reduce art for print to smooth out visible errors, by drawing pretty small it makes errors hard to see sometimes, because they are after all tiny.

I spent  a long time trying to puzzle out how best to approximate the original colors, but ended up ditching the blue background. I couldn’t get a Copic marker to match, and all my blending attempts were either too dull or too bright; the closest one would have meant I hatched the whole background with a blue Micron over a gray marker underlayer. I ended up just doing the underlayer and leaving it at that. Why screw it up just for the dropped background?

And there you go! I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed making this, it was the best. Seriously, someone get that Richie Rich license and pay me to do something with it. I don’t think I could compose new Richie’s in this smooth style, but I would love to be involved with something nevertheless with someone who could.

One $12 Target frame later, and it’s ready to be packed up and shipped off to Sunny California! The show starts this Friday, March 6, and will last throughout the month. Rob is putting up a new piece from the show each day on the Covered blog, so you can see them there, or if you’d like a sneak peek (and/or to purchase one OR EVEN MINE AHEM AHEM, you can check out the Secret Headquarters Flickr set devoted to the show! Okay time for bed it’s late!

Okay! This Saturday, March 6, I’ll be beginning a new 8-week class at Charlotte’s Central Piedmont Community College, and I want you or someone you know to take it. The class is titled “Constructing Visual Narratives;” if you know me you know I did not come up with that class title. I think if I were to call it something, it would be “MAKE COMICS.”

Which is what we will be doing. The Advertising and Graphic Design department, who oversee this particular Continuing Education series of courses, has generously granted me carte blanche to do whatever I like, so I’m excited about this particular class. Basically what I’m planning is to make comics every week, both in class and as homework. We’ll use the comics we make to discuss some of the basic precepts of comics theory and application; but more importantly we’ll just make a ton of comics. There is no better way to learn comics than to make them. Practice practice practice as they say.

So! There is a link to the class listing here–it will take place in Room 255 in the Central Campus’s Overcash building. The cost is $225, and I will do my best to make sure that you get your money’s worth. All you need to bring to the class is some regular ole paper and some sort of mark-making device, a pencil or pen or whatever. THAT’S IT.

Alright! I, with the kind assistance of random.org, have selected a winner to my little self-promotion contest. Hats off to Mr “@EthanEde“, who was the 13th to retweet and/or post a link to my original contest posting. For his troubles, Mr @ede will receive the original concept drawing for my Under-Achiever strip–not technically the art for the strip itself, which was pieced together from a lot of drawings, but a nice pinup nonetheless, and far larger than what I ended up doing anyway.

Additional kudos to Mr Henry Eudy, who also travels the Twitterways as @OhTheHumanatee, and who was the very first person to enter; as well as someone who bought a page of art from me last week, and who has patiently endured my continued forgetfulness in actually transmitting said art to him. Henry is a cartoonist of no small talent himself, so it’s a double pleasure to get his money. Which is not to say I don’t want your money, just to be clear. Because I do. I want it. I need it.

Okay, so thanks to everyone very much, not only to those who participated, but also to those who endured it. I’m a little embarassed about doing something like this, as it’s precisely the sort of thing I hate myself. But what can you do, we’re all our best employees in this hardscrabble world, you’ve got to get out there and beat those streets!

Hey guys! I will be a guest at this Saturday’s Charlotte Minicon, which will occur literally almost within sight of my house. I have been stressing lately about the various travel costs I’ll have to wrestle with to do the other cons I’m planning (TCAF, SPX, maybe Stumptown, APE), so having one I can wheel a little dolly to is pretty convenient. I mean, real luxury at a con is being able to walk home to use the bathroom if you need to.

ANYWAY. The show happens this Saturday from 11 to 5 pm, at The Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall. I know that sounds confusing, but for you Charlotte residents it’s what used to be the fireman training facility at the corner of 7th Street and 5th Street, practically across the street from Lupie’s. The address is 2601 E. 7th St, Charlotte NC, 28204, so Google that shizz if you dare!

While I am gainfully employed by Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find (we put on the Minicon), this is the first time I’ve ever set up at a Heroes event as a cartoonist, so I’m kinda excited. I would be even more excited to see you guys come out and say hello. I’ll be selling stuff, comics, t-shirts, originals, all that. Even most excited to take your money, I assure you.

Also excited to see you will be my pards J. Chris Campbell and Rich Barrett, who I’ll be sitting somewhere near. Plus there are a bunch of other local superhero dudes, plus South American Francesco Francavilla, who is exactly as entertaining as his name sounds. Tons of info right here!

ALSO, for those of you wondering why my strip is late this week, I am working on it! I am coloring my 8-page strip from J. Chris’s Ancient Age book last year, and it is taking way longer than I thought (why is that always a surprise?). But: soon. For now, you can read it for free!

Continued from Part 02

Oh man, SPX Day 2 (my trip Day 3)! We were seasoned veterans by this time, we got up early and went down to the hotel restaurant to enjoy the sumptuous breakfast buffet. GOOD GRAVY! There were dudes chopping roast beef for you, two different dudes ready to make you omelets, all sorts of meat, cheeses, a waffle iron, shrimp and crab (for breakfast??) and a million other things. And they didn’t taste bad either, it was not bad more or less.

WAIT DID I FORGET to mention it came with your choice of a Mimosa or Bloody Mary? So we toasted each other again and packed our malnourished bellies with victuals. Then nearly fainted when we got to the register: $26 apiece! But listen, but listen: you can’t put a price on how good we felt going into the show. I don’t think I even got hungry again until like 4 or something.

Colleen AF Venable came by with one of the Lumberjack mini’s she’d made, which have a little illo by me in. Not only did this earn me a comp copy, but a comp felt beard! Check out how good I looked–I would have worn this thing all day, but it kept steaming up my glasses.

I think I made more actual bucks on the Saturday of the show, but it was a near thing. I got more custom from other cartoonists on Sunday, so I was actually pretty busy most of the day. I doodled in sketchbooks, especially Alvin Buenaventura’s incredible book (starts with R.Crumb!!), and Rickey Purdin’s Watchmen-themed book, which I did my best sketch in. I’ll link that piece up once Old Slowcoach posts the new pages. Supposedly the rest of SPX was super icy, but once again we lucked up–our little corner was perfectly comfy. But yeah–whenever I’d walk around, the temperature was like 15 degrees cooler. I was talking to Lamar Abrams and nearly fell asleep–Lamar had to slap me back awake, screaming “NEVER LEAVE A MAN BEHIND NEVER LEAV–” Anyway, you get the idea.

I did the only real buying of the weekend on Sunday, and only quickly — we were busy at our table, and I knew the longer I walked around the more money I’d spend. The most amazing thing I got was something I bought weeks ago from Ken Dahl/Gabby Schulz and which I picked up at SPX: his original page from Julia Wertz’s “I Missed Saw You” Craig’s List personals anthology. Dang! I can’t find a link to that either! It’s pretty amazing though. Also purchased was one of John Allison’s Scary Go Round books, the new Driven By Lemons by Josh Cotter, Masterpiece Comics by Bob Sikoryak, and Monsters by Gabby.

Did I say John Allison? This dude is a tie with Steve Wolfhard for “favorite new friend” at SPX; he was a scream. Just a sweet dude with a bottomless arsenal of quips and witticisms, all delivered in a voice better suited to a public country club reading of an Agatha Christie novel than a grubby indie comics convention. Ladies ladies ladies: if you want to become one of John’s “brides,” space is limited, apply now!

After the show closed and we had some dinner, we repaired back to our room for the final night of hotel partying. We thought we’d take it easy, but of course a bunch of awesome people showed up. For my part, it was great to see Joe and Becca Lambert, Alexis Frederick-Frost, and JP Coovert, even if it was only for like half-an-hour before they split again (there was nowhere to sit!). I love these guys, I want to go to CCS super-bad, but that money simply does not exist. Next convention I go to, my mission will be to love these guys better.

Anyway, once we GOT RID of the CCS guys and endured another noise complaint, our party receded to the small group above, and we pulled out the cards to play some “shush” -style cards. David Malki is a good guy to have in your hotel party, he’s aggressive without being aggressive, he can get things done. Phil McAndrew, while a peerlessly excellent fellow, has a voice like Great Neptune himself, and is such a fun guy he couldn’t help ratcheting up the volume all the time, bringing on our shushes. I’m just letting you know for whenever you’re planning your own hotel party for the future. Although listen: I got dibs on these guys. This is my team.

Monday morning there was delicious breakfast and then it was off to get my tire fixed. I wish I’d taken a picture of the woman behind the counter at “Just Tires”; she looked like she was pushing 60 but was all gooed up with makeup and had a sandy blonde wig that would have made Lady Godiva jealous. She clucked and told me that I needed four new tires or I would never get back to North Carolina, but I was too wily for her captive salesmanship. Plus I am the sort of person who will simply wish his tires to stay together for 7 hours of 70 mph highway driving in the rain.

But look, it worked! Optimism = its own reward, my friends.

Part 01
Part 02
Flickr photoset

CONTINUED FROM HERE 

So the next morning we dragged out of bed and down to the convention center, where we wisely decided not to eat breakfast until like 4pm or so. By “wisely” I mean “super-stupidly”, at least in my case. My little skinny body starts eating itself 20 minutes after my last meal, and having the residue of a previous night’s party in there doesn’t help. But anyway.

Guys let me tell you: Scott Campbell is a joy to sit next to at a convention. I don’t want to turn this into a Scott C. lovefest or anything, but hey would that be so bad? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say a bad thing about anyone, he’s just uniformly sweet to every single person in the world, it’s incredible. Being around him, you just want to be sweet too, y’know? Like “how can I let this dumb stuff bother me when Scott is over there grinning like a lunatic and calling everyone ‘my bro’?”

And all sorts of people would come up to our table to meet him, from hot ladies to giggling schoolgirls to worshipping video game types to people with ideas for how Scott could make them money–he treated every one of them as if they were the only person at the convention, as if it were the first time someone had complimented his work. My favorite time was when this beauuuuuuuutiful girl named “Ariel” (when I signed a sketch to her she said “like the Disney Princess” and I was quick to point out that I was no authority on Disney Princesses), went up to Scott and said “Hi I’m Ariel I basically Internet-stalk you.” Without hesitation Scott says “Oh awesome, that’s great my bro!” I love him.

It didn’t hurt that so many people would come up to meet him and have to wait sometimes, allowing me to proselytize them to my own dark ends. I’m sure that about 1/3 of the money I made at SPX is directly related to Scott. Do I feel guilty? No way my bro, no way.

After a semi-delicious but fully fun dinner, we just barely missed the Ignatz Awards, but were just in time for all the merrymaking afterwards. Drink tickets are the best tickets, my friends, oh yes. Me and Scott and Kate hooked up with new bro David Huyck, forming the nucleus of another adventuresome evening. Our buddy Jah Furry told us about some legendary hotel suite party, which sounded pretty exciting, like it must be the big fancy brother of our own previous night’s hotel room party. But it was not–as soon as we showed up, we were immediately shushed, like “Hi, my name is Dusti*SSSHHHHHHHH!!*” Super lame, but as the rest of our group bailed, me and Matt Wiegle were just having delicious beverages poured by Jah/Jeff, and it would have been lame to bail with our new drinks. So we hung out for a little bit, enduring shushes every time the conversation hit half the decibel level of a ladyfart. Heidi MacDonald was there and I chatted with her for a little about con gossip, and then we beat feet as soon as we could. Guess what was going on back in our room, shushless?

Super good night, for sure. Chris Duffy introduced me to Bob Sikoryak, he of Masterpiece Comics fame, and in my late-night state I’m afraid I might have gushed a little bit (a lot) about his comics. He’s probably the best comics technician working today, and I’m super psyched to read his book. The Saturday night party did draw two noise complaints, which isn’t so bad considering that at one point there were probably between 20 and 25 people in the room, including Heidi, who snuck out of the shush party in disguise:

Around 2am, Kate announced she was going to take “a little nap”, and curled up on the bed where she lay unmoving for the next two hours of party. She is like Rip Van Beaton for sure, let me tell you, because that party got loud. But the cool thing about it was that–again–the group was so good that you could go to sleep there and not worry about anything. No one was macking on anyone, no one was stealing anything, it was just a bunch of good friends happy to see each other and meet more new good friends. Definitely the vibe of the show if you ask me; and if you’ve read to the bottom of this, then you basically have. Haw! Tricked you!

Okay, just one more installment to go for tomorrow, and then all doneski. I’ll be trying to whip up a related comic this weekend, but we’ll see how that goes. Past experience says I’ll be late. SO WHAT?!

Complete Flickr photoset
Report Part 01

Oh man, holy mackerel, SPX was amazing, my best experience ever at a convention as a cartoonist.  Also a great kickoff for my new “full-time” cartoonist status, a real confidence-builder.  Speaking of which, I’m super behind on that this week, not only from recovering from SPX, but last night I hosted Liz Baillie, MK Reed, and Gabby Schulz, who stayed in my house en route to Asheville as part of their Punchbuggy Tour. Super fun, those guys, we had a good time talking and making breakfast, and they were very kind about the fact that my dog kept sneaking into their bags and noshing on their noshables. 

Anyway, I say all that just to point out that I’m going to break my SPX report up into three chunks–I have a bunch of stuff to catch up on, plus stuff for Heroes, answering email, and more.  One of the side effects of an amazing SPX is a bajillion new readers and emails and Facebook requests and Twitter followers. And a lot of blushing! But I love it, don’t let me fool you.

Anyway! So I left about 3 hours later than planned on Friday, which means that I rolled into the DC area just as rush hour was beginning. Dummy. But I finally got to the hotel, got hotel room supplies (hotel food/drinks are wildly expensive, and I’m on a budget these days), and met up with my superbro Scott Campbell. I love that guy so much. THEN the two of us met up with Kate Beaton–I love her too! The weekend was already off to a good start, so much loving and laughing! We were all going to drive over to the Nerdlinger Awards, along with new friends Meredith Gran and Steve Wolfhard, but destiny was keeping us at the hotel!  Good thing too, cos as it turns out I had run over two nails en route to DC on my bald tires, so we would have surely ended up on the side of the freeway putting my half-flat spare on. But regardless, Steve showed up late and it turned out there was no way we could get there in time, as it was about an hour away.

Which sucked because our fivesome was composed of two past recipients/present awarders (Nerdlinger recipients choose the next year’s recipients), and three present recipients! Kate had picked Meredith for an award, although I’m not sure what it was, and I had picked Steve. Holy cow, if you haven’t read Cat Rackham, it is so amazing, super nuanced, just a well-made, well-conceived little comic. Anyway, so we didn’t go to the Nerdlingers. But:

We did have a brief modern dance party in the hotel bar, beginning with this little number, then progressing through a medley of favorites, including Kate’s own “The Shower”, and my “Washing My Hands In The Public Restroom But There Are No Paper Towels”, which dance was created by Matt Fraction way back in the day. We met up with a bunch of friendly people, including past buds Jeff Newelt and Brian Heater, and together we retired to our hotel room for the first of three nights of hotel room parties.

I haven’t been to a lot of hotel room parties; I’d always assumed that they’d be too crowded, too insular, too weird for me. And they probably would be, truthfully. But the quality of the cast throughout the weekend was SO INCREDIBLE there was never a chance for anything to get lame! It was just a bunch of new and old friends relaxing and ripping it up, to the chagrin of the rest of the hotel (judging by the noise complaints we received).

Here I am enjoying the party, while Kate looks on. You can’t imagine how hard it is to hold that face for an entire hotel-room party, but I am a trooper, oh yes, a veritable Spartan. Katie ended up missing Liz and MK (they were all supposed to share a room), because of the Nerdlinger thing, so Scott and I welcomed her to our bro-nest, gallantly giving her one bed and arranging ourselves in the other. Guess how many of us were snorers? NONE! I know, I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before, so pleasant, I slept all the way until it was time to stop sleeping, which was too early considering our 4am party breakup. Why do you think the party broke up, I wonder?

Anyway. You can click on any of those pics to go to the Flickr photoset, where I’ll be adding more pictures over the next couple of days (there’s like 8 or something now.

Part 02

This Friday is SPX, one of my favorite indie shows of the year, second only to TCAF. I’ll be appearing for the second time as a cartoonist, as opposed to a conventioneer or a retailer.  SPX is also great because a TON of my comics friends will be there, so it will for sure be a vast party, spreading all across the Marriott hotel lobbies, conference rooms, bars, and out into the streets, the cartoonist-littered streets. 

THINGS THAT WILL BE HAPPENING:

I will have two new books, sort of–one is all mine, a teeny minicomic version of my “8 Different Ways To Get Nutted” comic, printed in full color. Did you know that printing in full color is super expensive? Well it is. I need to get a publisher for these things, because WHOA NELLIE.

Oh but that’s not the half of it! SPX will also see the debut of Papercutter #11 from Tugboat Press, which I have a one-page strip in. Do you like copyright infringement? Well then you’re gonna love this strip! Papercutter #11 also includes longer (better? sniff) strips by Amy Adoyzie, Jon Sukarangsan, and Lisa Eisenberg. So what I’m saying is, you need to buy this thing.

Let’s see, what else? Oh yes, the Nerdlingers! Last year I was awarded a Nerdlinger Award (For “Greatest Gentleman/Greatest Smile in Indie Comics”, natch!) and so this year I get to award someone else one. I won’t say who yet, but they’re super awesome, I thought really hard about it. Double sweet–I got to design the actual award label (the award is a label affixed to a bottle of REAL BEER), which was fun–I need to do more lettering design, I love it, I could do that stuff all day no problem. Here’s some early versions from my sketchbook, but the final looks a little better:

Those badboys will be given out Friday night at Atomic Books in Baltimore, and I will be there. I believe some different people are reading their comics there as well? You can find out more right here (scroll down a little).

I think that’s all for now–I’m super excited. I’ll maybe have a t-shirt too, but we’ll have to see on that one. I’ll be set up with my bro Scott Campbell at table D-1, right next to Partyka bros Matt Wiegle and Shawn Cheng, and pretty close to AdHouse bros Chris Pitzer, Lamar Abrams, and Josh Cotter. This will for sure be a brodown of legend, and all of us will be accepting free drinks all weekend with no hassle. Bring it on!

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!

Well good Monday morning to all of you–my strip this week will be late; see above a little snippet from my sketchbook. I’m trying out a new style that I’m enjoying drawing in, AND tackling one of the greatest social ills our civilization has ever faced: THE NUTSHOT. Look for the finished strip midweek or so.

I’m thinking lately of changing my weekly strip format–I could have knocked this one out yesterday and had it done in time to post now, but I would have had to rush it and I feel like I’ve been going too fast on strips lately. I mean yeah, those autobio strips were supposed to be fast and everything, but part of the point of doing a weekly strip was to learn stuff about composition and pacing, and there really isn’t much of those things in my quick strips.

On the other hand, the autobio strips are super easy to do, right? As anyone who’s ever spoken to me for more than 5 minutes will tell you, I have no shortage of things to say about myself. So I may start doing those regularly as my “weeklies,” giving myself more time to work on more serious/finished stuff, for instance a strip all about getting racked. I mean, that’s IMPORTANT, you know?

Let’s see, what else is going on lately? In lieu of a strip, even a quickly drawn one, how about some useless facts about my recent life? OKAY DEAL:

1) I have been drawing like crazy, but strangely not getting anything done. Wait that’s not news.

2) I have also been playing this video game BIOSHOCK, which I heard was the most amazing immersive incredible experience. I heard wrong! If you live around Charlotte and want my copy of Bioshock, I would love to trade it for Halo 2 or 3 or some other really awesome game I can play on my Xbox 360. Oh man I just realized this boring game is why I’m not finishing more comics. BECAUSE THAT WAS SUCH A MYSTERY!

3) Did I mention I bought an iPhone? Wow what an amazing little machine. I can almost write to this blog from it, but for some reason it won’t load my blog to my iPhone. But the thing can do pretty much everything else except parallel park my car.

4) I’m thinking of having a little DUNE book-club discussion right here on my blog, as I’m due to reread this amazing AMAZING novel, probably my favorite book ever, and I could talk about it forever. It seems like a fun thing to do, right? Let’s do it, let’s read Dune together okay? Post a comment below if you’re into it.

5) Iced coffee is really good, although kind of a headache to make. But WHOA it sure is strong.

6) “She Belongs To Me” is my new favorite Bob Dylan song.  “You will start out standing/proud to steal her anything she sees/but you’ll wind up peeking through her keyhole/down upon your knees.” That guy, I swear, so amazing.

7) Oh yeah this Saturday I’m doing a talk at the Mt. Pleasant library on comics, but it’s for teens I think so most of you guys are going to have to make do with me talking here.

8) Oh double yeah, coming up in September on my birthday I’ll be doing my first poetry reading in over 10 years. I know BORING but no actually it will be amazing and most likely change your life forever! More details before too terribly long. 

Okay! Until I get that finished strip up, keep those crotches covered just in case!