What I did on my Thanksgiving Vacation - Part Two

I'm thinking maybe the time constraint on these blog-comics and the size I have to draw them is putting a cramp on the device I'm playing with. The visuals carry the weight and I think they have to be used in just the right way for it to work. Not sure i'm pulling it off.

Still, I'm feeling better about this one than I did the first part. The lettering is more legible (which is good - the dialogue is slightly more important her than in part one). The panels are a little less muddy. I started to get into a working groove toward the end of this strip.

One more to go.

What I did on my Thanksgiving Vacation - Part One

Back from Illinois where we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, food, fun, and food. Gonna take a little bit tpo get back into the swing of things.

This here's part one of my vacation report. I'm playing a bit with a kind of narrative device. Not sure how well it'll work.

Hey! While I was away Steve Harrison and Adam White finished off their long-running story arc at Fabricari. Now you can read the whole shebang in one sitting (or two) from the beginning. Congratulations, guys!

Sometimes space = space, dammit

Don't strain your eyes too much on this. It basically amounts to a thumbnail for an infinite canvas comic I'll draw some day (maybe). It's a sketch comic that just got out of hand - needs some refinement...
Not all that bad, really. I figured It might give you a little more something to chew on as I'll be out of town, after tomorrow, for the Thanksgiving holiday and won't be posting anything elsefor a little while.

I hope you enjoy these tiny pictures.

Now, I'm not a big fan of the space=time equation that some use as shorthand for "comics," but I see where these people are coming from. Linear narrative defined through spatial relationship (panel to panel) is the primary focus of so much comics storytelling. This comic uses the linear-narrative, space/time relation quite a bit (though there are some "cheats" to that rule) but the thing I find more interesting, here, is the straight-on spatial relationships the narrative uses. This is one thing that I believe the infinite canvas concept could excel at - using relative spatial relationships to tell a story as much as panel to panel narration. Not to say this kind of thing isn't possible in fixed-ratio, page-through storytelling (some do it very well - Chris Ware, Tom Gauld... you know, the design-y, artsy types. Some of the old newspapermen, too; Herriman, McCay, King... but I digress ). I just think the expanded space give more opportunity to explore that relationship. I'm not saying that it's always been put to good use - PoCom UK, once you get past the novelty and all the pretty pictures (some by Ware and Gauld, actually), is a pretty boring way to use the space - it just brings up some interesting possibilities. Sometimes space can be used as just space, and an infinite canvas has plenty to spare.

But, oh wait... nobody even cares about infinite canvas anymore.

oh crap...


If you want something else to chew on, go check out the newly ressurrected Webcomics Examiner. Nobody does webcomics review like the Examiner, and it's return has been a long time coming.
Go welcome it back.

more stupid cat

I tried to check out a Mountain Goats cd from the library, and got They Might Be Giants instead.
I'm sure that this is some type of omen, I'm just not sure of what.

Two Nights, Two Shows

I have kind of mixed feelings on the Joanna Newsom show. Her performance was amazing - and I would definitely recommend seeing her live - but their were a lot of little annoying things to deal with that night (waiting forever for the show to start, sound problems at the beginning of the set, and I'm ashamed of the audiences behavior - especially toward opening act Billy Birdman)
I was already a huge fan of Joanna Newsom's music, however, and I found her performance worth muddling through the other stuff for. Really amazing, with the orchestration. Her new album is out now too. Incredible. Cannot recommend it enough.

Cloud Cult's show, on the other hand, was the kind of show that would make you a fan - even if you had never heard of them (and I suspect that was just the experience many in the audience that night had.) It was a near perfect show - the band was great, the sound was great in that little room (I hear that room is magic, or something), and it was just an excellent experience. Cloud Cult has 4 albums available and they said a new one is coming soon. I heard some of their new stuff at the show and it sounds pretty good!

All in all, it made for a memorable weekend. The whole thing was well worth all the shit I got at work for not coming in this weekend when everyone else had to.

Some days you got it, and some days you don't

Today I don't.


Yeah, so i went to two concerts this weekend. Cloud Cult and Joanna Newsom.
Both were excellent. I was working up a comic thing on them for my post today but, well...

Maybe for Wednesday.

Stupid Cat

Comics are capable of some pretty complex symbolic and narrative expression, but there's something satisfying about the simplest articulation of relative motion in sequence.

or something...



I saw Cloud Cult in Columbus last night. It was awesome.

New, Blue Ohio

Eraserhead?

I miss the comics

Hi. How are you?

Just playing around with a micron brushpen (what I had on me at the time). This is all I've drawn today so far. I think I may be coming down with something.

Now, look at some pictures of my cute kid: