December, 1997, pt. 3

Still tracking my Christmas vacation during my first year of grad school; still at my Dad's place. The bird is Popeye, an Eclectus parrot. My father has quite a few parrots. They all hate me. Popeye here once climbed out of his cage, walked on his little bird feet in a straight line through three rooms, climbed up the side of a couch, across the couch to where I was reading, and bit my thumb. It is a resolute hate.

This was, apparently, the year I took up the foolish notion of learning the recorder, even though no one of the entire planet likes music played on a recorder. I practiced diligently for months, until I was defeated by "Short'nin' Bread."

Holy Moly! We're just getting to dinner? This may be the single sketchiest of day of my whole sketching life.

Uhm... and old lantern?

And me looking emo-tastic in a window's reflection that night when I can't sleep.

Wondering About Wondering About Wonder Woman

Project Rooftop has just posted the winners and finalists of the Wonder Woman Wardrobe War, featuring special guest commentator Gail Simone! There's some really nice stuff over there. Joe Quinones' piece just may make you swear off drawing forever, but that's okay, because Maris' will have you reaching for the pens to make up some rootin'-tootin' adventures for her adorable Wonder Woman. And, of course, Ming Doyle just rocks it.

In other news, I was just interviewed by the Associate Press (Cincinnati) about comics in colleges. I don't know when the article will run, and one never knows how widely an AP story will carry, and, geez I don't even take a paper, so if anyone sees this article, I'd appreciate you bringing it to my attention. Always good to have things like that in the job file.

December, 1997, pt. 2

Continuing the look back through an old sketchbook filled up during a ten-day Christmas vacation, here's some more of my day out at my father's place.

I received this book as a Christmas present, a book I was inordinately fond of. It was stolen from my studio within the year. Ah, art students.

Bric-a-brac.

Chicken coop.

Hoss.

Forbidden Sins Deleted Scene

By amazing coincidence, just after friend-of-the-blog, Stephen Eidson, requested a sketch from Forbidden Sins, even though I explicitly stated that I had already documented every second in which I appeared in the movie, I just happened to remember a little extra footage of me from later in the movie.

Funny how memory works, huh? Anyway, not my most dignified moment, but I think it ties up the Polygraph Technician's arc nicely.

More Reasons to Fear My Power

What do Darkseid, Dr. Doom, Galactus, and I have in common? Exquisite fashion sense? Unquenched and unquenchable thirst for power? Being created by Jack Kirby? Yes, yes, but also: we have all been listed by CBR as among the 365 reasons to love comics! Nice!

While I'm checking through my blog hits, here's some other points of interest:

PopMatters has reviewed the latest issue of Ballyhoo Stories, which is my first issue as the magazine's comics editor. I'm proud of the line-up of cartoonists who contributed, and delighted by their work, and it's nice to see that some other folks liked it, too.

A strip from this very blog is assigned reading for a comics writing workshop at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.

And from the always amusing realm of Google search phrases: while most Googlers swing by the blog looking for good deals on beeswax, or information on encaustic painting, there's still a steady stream of disappointed folks searching for "Supergirl upskirt" and "how to draw Ironhide" (the transforming robot, not the cursing sailor). But the hot news is the sudden increase in Shannon Tweed fans and searches for "porn movie mistakes."

Ah, geeky, horny internet, you're so delightfully predicatble. Which is why I'm changing the name of this blog to "Supergirl and Catwoman making out in a Gundam."