drew weing dot com

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on May 1, 2006

Well, Doug gave me a “poke,” so I guess I better post something! I really am going to try and make a concentrated effort to post more often.

Lessee… I have been working on a kids’ graphic novel pitch recently! I’ve even got some leads – but no guarantees yet. I just finished nailing down what hopefully will be the final plot. I’ve got ten pages worth of plot synopsis that really needs to get trimmed down to manageable size if I expect anyone to read it. Now I’m working on final designs of the characters.

Here’s some sketches of the first incarnation of some of the major characters. I’m majorly redesigning a lot of them, since these versions are too boring! But if you’re curious:

I’ll post some more up tomorrow.

Eleanor and I are trying to hit every restaurant we’re interested in before we leave town (which isn’t for a while – but that’s a lot of restaurants!) The other day Eleanor, Joey, Michele, David and I all went out to Madras Saravana Bhavan, an “Authentic South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant,” Between the unwieldy name and the very specialized cuisine, it doesn’t seem destined to last very long in pedestrian Savannah – but it was very good! The seem to specialize in huge flat bread things with all sorts of veggies and cheese on top.

Other recent events of note – SCAD had a weekend where they set up a big screen in Forsyth Park and showed free movies, and Eleanor and I managed to catch “North by Northwest.” Besides the uncomfortable flirtatious banter between the leads (sample: “I’m a big girl now.” “Yeah, big in all the right places,”) that had us squirming a bit, it was very entertaining. And I got to check another movie off my big list of “movies we should see some day,” At this rate, we’ll be done shortly before we die. The last movie I checked off the list was Buster Keaton’s “The General,” which we managed to catch a few months back. That showing was actually part of the Savannah Music Festival – the score was provided by a live band in the theatre, who apparently makes their living authentically replicating the soundtracks for old silent films.

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( No Title )

on April 17, 2006

Well! A stapler has been purchased (a saddlestitch, at Robert’s suggestion,) minis have been assembled, and most of the recent orders are winging their way toward their destinations on the winds of the USPS. Eleanor and I holed ourselves up in our room for about three days straight, cutting covers down to size, collating, folding, X-actoing out “diecuts,” and so on. The good part of minicomics assembly is that it only requires part of your brain, so we watched about a season and a half of Simpson’s episodes while we worked. I keep forgetting how sentimental the old Simpsons were. Every other episode seemed to make Eleanor cry. When I was young and callow it seemed pretty sappy, but I think the corny “family” stuff was what grounded the characters – the newer seasons are just cheap laughs, with the characters as props. Though to be honest, I haven’t actually watched a new episode in a year or two. People keep saying the newest episodes are good, but the last time I watched it was pretty painful. Sorry, I’ll shut up about it now – who needs another rant about the Simpsons?

Thanks to everybody who ordered from the Little House shop in the last week or two! (Although it was disconcerting to immediately take such a big chunk out of the books we had just finished making. The dilemma of minicomics: the more you sell, the more you worry about having to make more! )

Also, did you know that you have to pay taxes every year? Once again I had to sit down with a calculator and a manilla envelope full of balled-up receipts, and try and find a way through a tangled briar patch of 1040s, Schedule Cs, and 829s. Being “self-employed” (i.e., broke) means having to personally fill out no fewer than a dozen pages of forms. It’s like taking the world’s worth math test; one where if you get anything lower than an A, you get arrested. Maybe someday I’ll have an accountant to get arrested on my behalf.

Eleanor and I have been enjoying Savannah’s gorgeous weather now that we can, walking down to the coffeeshop in the afternoon and back in the evening. Iced coffees, and drawing all afternoon. The other day we found a five dollar bill in the middle of the sidewalk. I took it as a karmic sign that we’d been living life correctly.

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( No Title )

on April 17, 2006

Howdy y’all. Eleanor and I’ve been spending the last couple days assembling all of the new minicomics we’ve been putting together. Both of us own one of those classic Stanley Bostitch long staplers, which have served well for many years and literally thousands of minicomics. But somehow both of our staplers have simultaneously gone to crap (the staples keep getting bent the wrong way unless you’re very careful.) So we’re trying to figure out if it’s about time to invest in a new stapler, and which one would be best. All the office supply stores seem to only be carrying the Swingline long reach staplers, which are slightly different, but only 23 bucks. We’ve also been considering just going straight for a saddle stitch stapler, which are usually more expensive, but I’ve heard a lot of minicomics dudes recommend. Stanley makes one for about $40.

What’s your favorite mini-making stapler? Anybody got any recommendations?

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Huge Little House MiniComics Update!!!

on April 10, 2006

Eleanor and I are proud to present a total of four brand new mini-comics available now in the Little House site! They comprise some of our newest and best work to date, and each has been lovingly hand-made using a variety of tricks, including silkscreening, die-cuts, fold-out covers and even hand-stiched binding.

In addition, we have reprinted the ever-popular Blar which was sold out for a time.

Finally, we have prints of the Bugbear cover available that are are suitable for hanging!

Please check it all out!

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Fluke 2006 Report!

on April 8, 2006

Hey, what’s up? I’ve been pretty busy in the last week or two. Eleanor and I spent a good amount of time getting some new minicomics together for Fluke… we spent a solid couple of days silkscreening, photocopying, assembling. We had two new minis to debut at the show – Elo’s Mattie and Dodi, and our joint “anthology” mini, Bugbear. Not to mention printing up the official poster. We’re improving our silkscreening technique bit by painful bit – our prints all turned out really well, though we thought the whole thing was going to be a disaster about halfway through. It was the first time we’ve done a three-color print.

All three of the new minis should go on sale over at Little House by early next week! Plus Blar will be back in stock. You can get the Fluke poster right now, though.

With no further adieu, here’s our Fluke 2006 “con report.” All of these photos and more were taken by Antar, who’ll probably have something to say about them on his own blog as well!

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Hey folks! Fluke was awesome as usual! If you didn’t know, Fluke is a minicomics and small press expo that takes place every year in Athens, GA. It’s always at Tasty World, which is a bar. Here’s our belated photos and commentary:

CHECK THIS MOTHER OUT! We made a ton of Fluke posters, and whether you were there and didn’t get one, or want another one, or wish you had been there, or just think it’s a cool poster, YOU CAN BUY ONE FOR YOURSELF FOR A MERE $8! Holy cow! All proceeds go to Fluke!

Here’s me and Drew with the poster. My hair is totally greasy and gross. Also, I am in my pajamas.

Our table at Fluke! Boy, it sure looks a lot less scrappy with the bigger, prettier new books on there!

Drew is handsome.

Mary Jessica is awesome! Also her new issue of Halloween has the cutest cover EVER

Patrick Dean’s new Giant Big Deal is so great! I read the whole thing right away, and then I pretended I hadn’t read it yet and read it all over again! Also: Eloise is the current cutest baby of America. When Mary Jessica and Robert’s baby comes it will have to fight Eloise for the title of #1. WHO WILL WIN?!?!?

Our Savannah buddy David Yoder and Robert Newsome, Fluke organizer extraordinaire.