I've decided to put together a "Blar" minicomic for SPX. Who is Blar? If you had picked up this year's Fluke anthology you would know. It'll probably have the story from that anthology, plus a new one.
It's been a frantic couple of days. Got the coupon book for this month done - it took a bit more work this time since I finally upgraded from Pagemaker to InDesign, and I'm still learning the ropes. Next month's book should be even more fun as I try and work around SPX, which is at the end of September.
Eleanor's been having a hard time recently - a couple of days ago, she tripped while we were out jogging, and skinned her knees up pretty good. We thought that was the extent of the damage, and even went jogging the next day - but for the past couple days her knees have gotten more and more stiff and painful. Now she can hardly bend them and can't stand up for more than a couple minutes. I'll be trucking her to the doctor come Monday.
I wish they would go ahead and announce the lineup for the SPX anthology already.
I may or may not see "Brothers Grimm" tomorrow.
I also may or may not do that music quiz meme that's been floating around.
Hmm... I actually plotted the complete story of "Set to Sea" out last night (it's only been a rough idea in my head up till now,) and it's looking pretty doubtful that I'll actually be able to get it done by SPX, at least not without cutting a bunch of corners. It came out to more than sixty pages! I've been kinda digging on how it's going, so I think I'd rather do it right than rush it. I thought briefly about splitting it up into two books, but it's not really a two part kind of story.
I'll try to have something new done for SPX though. Though the You Ain't No Dancer anthology should be premiering there - I might have something in the SPX anthology, they still haven't announced the lineup - and I almost forgot about the little minicomic that'll be in our gumball machine. So there's that. Maybe a poster? Or a very small mini?
Our kitten (Detroit) has been an absolute terror today. She knocked over Eleanor's brush-water twice, and then an entire bottle of ink, which got on some library books. We also have been having to feed the two cats separately, because the this tiny little kitten will push big old Mo-Mo out of the way and steal her food, growling when Mo-Mo comes near.
Eleanor and I have been doing nothing but drawing and listening to the Harry Potter audio books, and then we go jogging every night around the park. While we jog, we talk about the subtler plot points of the books. I'm sure if anybody listened to us as we jog night after night, they'd be convinced we were obsessive Harry Potter nerds. Which may be true.
We will figure out which is the Horcrux sooner or later.
I redesigned the website a bit, to reflect the comic I've been working on most recently - which finally has a title! This is only a temporary sort of look for the website - I hope to do an extensive overhaul as soon as I get the time (which probably won't be for months.)
I forgot to actually name the last two pharaohs from the sketches I posted last week. They were Cleopatra (the easy one) and Hatshepsut.
And just as a reminder, the "Pup" archives are available to non-subscribers (for only as long I feel like, so look now.)
I just stayed up way too late working on this website, and probably messed up my schedule, so off to bed with me!
Since there are possibly some NY Times readers wanting to check out "Pup," I went ahead and "unlocked" the archives for the time being - so non-subscribers can read it. I'm not sure you can even reach "Pup" from the main Serializer site (which is still not up to speed after the server crash 4 or 5 months ago,) so you can reach the archives at: http://www.serializer.net/toc.php?name=pup
Ha ha, just kidding! We're only maybe a third of the way through!
"Pup" got a brief mention along with a lot of other cool webcomics in a New York Times online article about the state of webcomics in general. The article in general is pretty negative, though. I must admit that "Pup" (and Modern Tales-related websites) are not very new user friendly in general...
Eleanor and I made a sort of kimchi and tofu stew tonight. Man, does it stink! Kimchi is about the worst-smelling food I've ever eaten. It doesn't taste too bad, though.
We've also been listening to the audio book version of the latest Harry Potter book while we work. The reader does a good job; I think he actually improves on certain characters and scenes... but maybe it's just a failure of imagination on my part. I've been listening to a lot of audio books in the last couple months (they're great to draw to, unless it's a particularly complicated bit of drawing.)
One I just finished was Jaques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence. The version we had was only part of the entire book - the part dealing with the 20th century. I thought the first 3/4ths or so were great... a very informative look at the art and culture of the late 1800s forward. But the last part of the book descended into a sort of screed against modernity, the likes of which can be found in a typical Kenneth Smith TCJ essay. He makes the usual mistakes (like comparing the art and philosophy of the aristocracy of the 1800s to the tastes of today's "common man.") You'd think a guy so well-read and well-informed would be a little more self-aware.
We just got back from a night trip to the beach with , , , , and - about a 30 minute drive from my house. We went for Michele's birthday and to see a meteor shower. Just as we arrived and were walking down the boardwalk, a huge shooting star crossed the sky directly over our heads, so large it seemed to leave a smoking trail behind it. Alas, nobody saw it but me - and they all refused to believe me. We waded around and watched the skies. I never saw another as spectacular as the first, but everyone managed to spot at least one or two. As we kicked around in the surf down by the jetties at the end of the beach, we noticed that as each wave broke on the beach, dozens of tiny sparkles flickered in the water. We spent a while trying to catch them in our hands, before we realized that there must have millions of the tiny things embedded in the sand - raking your fingers through left a trail of quickly fading sparks.
Two more pharaoh sketches! I've already finished the inked, toned versions - check for them in the next issue of the Moo-Cow Fan Club kid's magazine. I've definitely seen if in Books-A-Million, and it's probably at other fine bookstores.
Since nobody guessed both of the last two, they were Tutankhamun and Narmer (the first pharaoh.) Any guesses on these two? (one is easy.)
Speaking of publications, You Ain't No Dancer is no available for preorder, if you're not going to pick it up at SPX or your local comics shoppppe.
In other news:
Congratulations to my friend , who's getting married next month!
Two sketches! These are for some illustrations I've been working for the "Moo Cow Fan Club" kids magazine. The theme for the upcoming issue is Ancient Egypt, and I'm illustrating an article about pharaohs. A No-Prize to the first person who can correctly identify both pharaohs! Hint: They're saying their names!
