… and on the drawing board today …

Here’s three scribble doodles from my pocket-sized travel sketchbook. I’m partial to the sleeping nuns.

The shark plane idea worked its way into an homage I drew for LITTLE NEMO: Un Siécle de Rêves published by Les Impressions Nouvelles.

Safe travels, folks!

Work on HABIBI is progressing, but recent pages feel like spoilers, so it seemed like a nice time to reflect on my first book
~ GOOD-BYE, CHUNKY RICE. Below is a page I drew a decade ago — on December 9th, 1998 to be exact.

(The page preceding it was drawn November 20th, but I liked this one more. To account for the three weeks between pages,
I’d been working on graphic design work for Top Shelf, a collaborative pitch with Phil Amara, gag cartoons and a monthly comic strip
proposal for NICKELODEON magazine.) Anyways, here’s the ballpoint pen thumbnails for pages 104 and 86.

And here’s a photo of me taken approximately the same time — my first trip to the Oregon coast. Look, I was just a boy (23 years old)!
with a bad haircut! Sandwiched between covers of the first printing and current printing of CHUNKY – now available from Pantheon Books.

Often I worry I draw too small and confined. Compare these recent panels with a brush, my hand, an autumn leaf.

It was a really pretty day in Portland the day Barack Obama came to town, and thanks to my pals the Decemberists
I got to watch from the best seats in the house – the stage alongside his podium.

Thank you continually for all the comments and support. I disagree with the sentiment from this recent HABIBI panel below.

When I’m not drawing comics, I’m a flying lumberjack.

Two days ago was Leonard Cohen’s birthday. He started his musical career at age 33. And two days ago I turned 33!
Here’s something I jotted in my sketchbook that morning – from Javier Marías.

As one would guess, none of the point&click photos capture the chaos that was Paintallica.
In retrospect, I wish I’d drawn a real-time carnet to document the rowdiness rather than pathetically slather cardboard with house paint.

Here’s a little review of the “pleasing mess”.

I don’t know how to describe things except as an extreme sports version of craft night. We worked with the theme “War Party”. 8pm until dawn for two nights. I felt pretty useless the first night as everyone buzzed about with 2x4s and powertools and strung cables between 30 foot pillars. But the second night I happily busied myself with cartoony details. There were no lights so we brought our own halogens making for eerie illumination (also strobes and smoke machines). There was also no bathroom so we peed (Dan pooped) in a five gallon pail. There was a lot of beer and spray paint fumes.

The new website Bill set up acknowledges the participants: Jesse, Dan, Gordon, Jamie, Cece, Shelby, Jeff, Bill, David, Jay, Greta, Jeremy, and Posie. My role was minor, but I was grateful to be along for the experience.