On A Submarine Mission For You, Baby

HAPPY THIRD ANNIVERSARY TO THE LOVELY WIFE!

Happy First Mother's Day!

Here's to a wonderful wife and mother!

You wanna know just how wonderful the Lovely Wife is? We went on our first date since Skeezix was born, last night. And she was the one who suggested seeing Iron Man!

Nicknames

Beyond his nom de Internet, Skeezix, the Adorable Progeny has picked up a passel of nicknames, a selection of which are presented here:

Action-Baby
Action-Baby demands action!

Schnorfler

Mowgli
Lie still, little frog. O thou Mowgli–for Mowgli the Frog I will call thee...
—Mother Wolf in The Jungle Book

BabyLad
With one-tenth the power of ten ordinary infants!
So nicknamed by Chris and Curt.

Little Goat
I don't quite have the onomontopoeia right on this one, yet.

Thunderpants
The onomontopoeia on this one is very accurate, however.

The Greatest News in the History of Humankind!

Welcome to the world, beautiful baby!

The Adorable Progeny was born on Wednesday. He was 7 lbs. 9 oz., a little under 20 inches long, and a sporting inch-long strawberry blond hair. Geez-o-Pete, but is he good looking.

Skeezix was born by way of an emergency caesarean, which was pretty scary. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and head, and when labor began in earnest his heart rate dropped precipitously. The room was immediately full of people asking questions and issuing orders. Some blue scrubs were thrown at me and the Lovely Wife was whisked away. The twenty minutes or so before I was allowed to join them were awful. The only thing that kept me in one piece was knowing that I needed to look composed when I saw the LW again.

Once in the operating room, things went very quickly. Skee was dark blue when the pulled him out, and the split second it took for my brain to resolve the shape I was seeing as being separate from my wife's anatomy, as actually being a head with a face and features that were familiar but which I'd never seen before, was the most intense experience of my life. I wish I could describe it more specifically than that, but I don't know what I was feeling so much as how much I was feeling.

His color immediately went from blue to pink, and he passed his Apgar's with flying colors. The LW was not in a position to see any of this, and was asking me lots of sensible questions, like "Is he okay? Is he breathing?" But I was such a blubbery mess, I wasn't much help to her. I was blinded by tears and my surgical mask was full of snot, and I couldn't hear a thing that was going on around me. All I was aware of was this incredible little being that was suddenly in the world.

And, well, that hasn't really changed in the past five days.

Let's not have another week like that one, okay?

Things have been a little rough around here, lately. The Lovely Wife and I went to a routine doctor's appointment, and ended up in Labor and Delivery. The good news is that she and the Adorable Progeny are both okay, and that Skeezix is still on the right side of LW's belly (that is to say, the inside), but that was very nearly not the case. Five days later, and considerably worse for the wear, we made it back home.

The Lovely Wife is on bed-rest for the rest of the pregnancy, which, hopefully will be awhile longer. Skeezix is 33 weeks along, today. Seven more to go.

Pack 'em up!

I'm feeling pretty good on the home-front, these days. The Lovely Wife is not only knocked all the hell up, but has returned to her native soil from the wendigo-haunted hinterlands of Darkest Canada (she wears the scars of her year in the maple syrup mines with the quiet dignity of one who has looked into the frozen heart of the beast and did not blink).

But, at least until Apple shows us all how to convert our possessions into digital files and carry them around in a tastefully designed hip-top device, coming home means packing, and packing just ain't no fun.

Meeting Skeezix

So, the Lovely Wife has been puking an awful lot, lately. And, apparently, it's not the bargain-bin clams she prefers for breakfast. The cause of her symptoms has been given the in utero name of Skeezix.

Woo-Hoo!

Two Against The World!

Aw, look at that! December and Elias are zipping around in their Too-Two Twain Engine Mark Two, raisin' ruckus and celebrating the Second Anniversary of my marriage to the Lovely Wife. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, LOVELY WIFE!

For those curious, second anniversary presents break down as follows:
Traditional: Cotton
Modern: Clock
Futuristic: Onctarian Flame Crystal

I ain't saying which way I went.

Sweetie!

In appreciation of the lovely wife, who is celebrating a birthday today, here's an unlettered page from my contribution to AdHouse's forthcoming Project: Romantic, the lovely comic for comics-lovers who love being in love.


How great is the lovely wife? Last night, I was reading some reprints of DC's G.I. Combat comics, I was moved to comment that there couldn't possibly be anything cooler than a WWII Army tank haunted by the ghost of Jeb Stuart fighting a Nazi plane haunted by the ghost of Attila the Hun. Without pause, the lovely wife said, "I think the haunted tank and the haunted plane should have to fight a haunted robot."

Then my brain exploded.

From a lethal overexposure to AWESOME!

Wedding Favor

Okay, this strip may be too cute by half, but it was part of a minicomic the lovely wife and I put together as our wedding favor. We were suppossed to be sappy and disgustingly cute, you loveless bastards. Also, it's completely autobiographical.

The show went up last night, and I think it looks pretty good. It's spare, but, I think, elegantly-so.

Seeing the space at hand, I did some last-minute pruning. We went from 50 books to 37. I feel bad for the people who thought they were going to be in the show and now aren't, but it was a time for ruthless action. I cut friends. I cut not one, but two Ignatz-award winning minis. I even cut myself. It was a mighty harrowing. And the show is tighter and stronger because of it.

Sleep pt. 4

Sleep parts 1 2 3 4

How do I know my wife really, really, REALLY loves me?

She doesn't complain about the terrible job I always do drawing her hair. The picture below is not my worst offense.


The End.

Sleep pt. 3

Sleep parts 1 2 3 4


See that stovetop espresso pot? I love that little thing. It's cheap and easy, and makes a swell cuppa coffee. They're ubiquitous in Europe, but, for some reason, we Americans would rather spend ten times as much on an independent gadget to do the same job. Fortunately, Bialetti has begun marketing their wares in the US a year or two ago, so they're easier to find. Unfortunately, the Bialetti pots are still overpriced and have a doofy cartoon mascot on the side.



To Be Concluded...

Sleep pt. 2

Sleep parts 1 2 3 4


Although these two characters are pretty clearly based on the lovely wife and myself, they're officially named "Herbert and Heloise." I think I've created a total of four strips with them, so far, some in collaboration with said lovely wife. I have notes on many more stories, and I hope to get to them sooner than later.


I was trying to acheive a lighter, faster style with the look of these strips. I don't think it has quite gelled yet. All the more reason to hurry up and do some of those other H&H strips.

To be continued...

Sleep pt. 1

Sleep parts 1 2 3 4


Thus begins the promised mushiness. This is from a micro-mini-comic called Sleep which I made for the express purpose of having something to hand out at SPX two years ago. Later, this and some similar strips were collected as a supermushfest minicomic and handed out as wedding favors.


To be continued...