Summertimes is fun times.

So, that thing happened again. The one where the weather starts getting nice and all these fun thing happen, and start thinking "Wow, White River Junction Vermont is a such great place to live! Why would I ever leave?"

Some examples of the fun:

MONTREAL
Took a quick, weekend trip up there with Jess n' Jonch where we were caught in several torrential thunderstorms, worshiped at the feet of a glamorous comedy god, and I forgot to drink coffee and ended up with a migraine.



Montreal was the frenchiest place I've ever been, having never been to France. Or...anywhere really. I discovered pretty quickly that my two years of high school french and one year of college were pretty worthless. I mean, I can still read it okay- or at least well enough to figure out what sandwich I want on the menu and point to it. But I've totally forgotten how to speak it- assuming I ever knew.



The reason for driving three hours towards the frozen, frenchy North, was to attend the annual "Just for Laughs" festival and try to catch a glimpse of Noel Fielding, because I'm still obsessed with the Mighty Boosh and Jess thinks he's pretty.



Hee!

INTO THE WOODS
The weekend after that, a group of us went cabin camping up in the Northeast Kingdom.



Where it was cold, but we endured. Thankfully we had a Texan, Keny, along to take care of the grilling. It was an amazing spread. There was also a lot of drinking games, but wussed out and went to bed at like 11pm.

I know this entry is a little contradictory, because I start off talking about how much fun WRJ is in the summer, but all these good times happened a couple hours' drive away from here. But, all the fun times happened because I live in a town with these cartoonists and creative types who are good at thinking up fun things to do, and WRJ is just a couple hours drive from all sorts of cool places. Future summer plans include a quick jaunt to Maine for a free concert, and a long weekend in Boston with visiting family.

Comics are being drawn too, I swear. There are 2-3 new minis planned for SPX, provided this new printer I'm trying doesn't rip me off (their prices are so low, I'm really afraid they're gonna rip me off). But by then it will be Fall, and I'll start to hate it here again.

Stupid constant threat of snow.

TRULY outrageous?

Time for the weekly update. Spent a lot of time in the studio this weekend, even managed to put in a full eight-hour day on Saturday. But the time was mostly spent on corrections.

One of the big projects was redrawing two pages I'd originally done way back in 2005.

Not sure if I'm allowed to write about this project or not, so here's a panel that doesn't give anything away. The top one was drawn in 2005, and the bottom redone over the weekend. So if nothing else, art school taught me to draw necks


Also been doing more little 4x6 watercolor paintings, because I enjoy them and in turn people seem to enjoy buying them. It's a nice arrangement. Here are three that are already in the mail:

















You can purchase one yourself, if you are so inclined,at my Etsy store.

Okay, enough with the shameless plugs. See you next week.

Summertime is fun times.

It's summer in Vermont! The best time of year. I'm taking as many photos as possible, in hope that the memory of the sun will sustain me through the long, coming winter.

Anyway, we went on a camping trip! The college I work for owns a lot of property, and has several cabins for rent out in the New Hampshire wilderness.



Like most of our events, this one was characterized by everyone worrying that we wouldn't have enough food, then ending up with WAY too much food. Many thanks to the Lamberts, Chuck and Melissa for bringing/preparing the majority of the feast, and for helping with all the planning.



Here's proof I'm having a good time, as Jon berates a smile out of me.

Also been borrowing a lot of DVDs from the library, and started a sketchbook just for movie doodles:




Ponyo was great- I missed it when it was in theaters a while back.



Didn't like Tron so much, but the trailers for the sequel look pretty cool.



Squidbillies is fun. I haven't really enjoyed much of the Unknown Hinson music I've heard so far- I think he might be one of those artist you need to see live.




Ah, bad 80's cartoon memories. Mutant rock star mice things battle it out in the future...sometimes on roller skates?

That's all for this week. Get out and enjoy the summer!

Page 100

I went into the studio this evening, but didn't feel like working on what I'm supposed to be. So instead, I drew a page for Jason Turner's Page 100 Project.

There aren't many prose books in the studio. I had a copy of "Candide", but that doesn't go to a hundred pages, or there's "The Phantom Tollbooth", but that's already illustrated. Ended up grabbing "The Prisoner of Zenda". Here's the page:



It's pretty girlie.



And my interpretation of it. Wasn't happy with how the watercolors turned out, and much Photoshopping took place.

Okay, now I suppose I should do some real work...or maybe not. G'night!

Stuff happened this week.

This was my "hell week" at work. It's always the first week of the semester, when I have to train and schedule all the new student workers at the circulation desk, and tell a hundred other students that I can't hire them. Ended up working a twelve hour day on Wednesday (eeew) and was going nuts by Friday so I left work at noon.

Turned out to be the BEST DECISION EVER, because like an hour later I got an e-mail from Robyn saying that Art Spiegelman was in town, and he was going to give an impromptu lecture at CCS that afternoon!




Due to the crappy week, I was dead tired, and it was like 80 degrees and humid which makes for perfect napping weather. So I ran down the street to get an iced coffee and avoid falling asleep during the lecture. They were out of iced coffee, so the barista was like "let me make you an iced Americano, it's pretty much the same thing."

I took her up on the offer, but NOOO it was not the same thing. I left the lecture both inspired and totally wired from the espresso, ran to the studio, and drew a three-page anthology submission for the next Trees and Hills anthology.



(Yeah, I know ninjas aren't cool anymore, but I always do a ninja comic for the T&H anthologies. It's tradition. And they're real easy to draw).

So yeah, I'm in love with this town again.

Ahem:

Look, it makes sense in the context of the story. OKAY?

Red And Shades of Brown, or, I wish I could draw dancers like Jules Fieffer.

I had a Monday off from work, so I spent it in the studio working on an anthology submission.

Lately I've been doing a few quick watercolor sketches to warm up before I start drawing. They're just little 4x6 deals on a cheap watercolor block that bleeds badly.



Today I was thinking a lot about Danse Apache, because of the anthology piece I was working on because I associate the dance closely with cartoons. Before I did a bit of research and figured out it's real name, I always thought of it as the "Olive Oyl and Bluto Dance".



Like here (starts at about 4:35), or here (starts at about 3:52) and here (starts at about 4:05).



The dance interests me because it tells a story, but the story is just so weird for a cartoon- a woman getting continually beat up by this guy, and then begging for him to come back. In some of the video clips I've seen (live action, not cartoons) the violence gets really disturbing. It's strange how this became such a standard animation gag.

Okay, enough of my dance fascination.

I also went to see a bunch of bands in Burlington this weekend with Jonch and Alec, and one of them was the Screaming Females.

Their set was sandwiched between Jon's favorite band, Pretty & Nice, and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. I was really blown away by the Screaming Females singer/guitarist, and did this quick sketch. It was during this that I figured out I've no idea how to draw a guitar.


Guess what colors I always run out first when I buy a new watercolor set?