Well, I participated in my first comic-con today...which wasn't really a comic-con it was the comic room at the Word On The Street book and magazine festival. It was nice, because it was small and there were a lot of people that don't really read comics, coming around to check out everything. When you're at a big, popular con, there's so much density of material, it's nearly impossible to look at everything. I kept my hopes pretty low for today, I expected to sell about ten comics, (five of them being to people I know) and the FIRST PERSON that came to my table bought something! I tried to keep a tally of how much of everything I sold, but I often forgot to write it down. I sold at least 20 comics, and gave away a pile of free cards with prints of our rock posters on them. it's definatly a start. I know now, bring a table cloth, and lots of free stuff to give away, and everyone likes cute animals. Dear Diaryahh 2 with Sweatpants on the cover definatly got the most "traffic", and funnily enough, there is not a single drawing of a guinea pig in that comic. Today was also the debut of my new comic, "THE FINGER- part one, My Right Hand" I was going to call the whole comic My Right Hand, but Colin and I decided that The Finger was more catchy, and funny. Here's what the cover looks like:

here's another page of my comic...not the photoshopped version. Of course, in the actual hard copy it will be all shiny and perfect. I've decided to change the name of the comic to "THE FINGER" because I think it's catchier and funny. Any imput on the matter would be appreciated. On september the 26th, I am going to be hawking my stuff at The Word on the Street festival at the library in downtown vancouver! It'll be my comicker coming-out...my comic cotillion. my first festival. come by and buy some stuff. you can check out the fest at www.thewordonthestreet.ca/vancouver
there isn't any mention of my name, I'm listed as candcdrawingfactory, which is what colin and I call ourselves together. Im going to be showing our poster art as well. we are planning on going to APE convention in san franscisco in october as well. BIG TIME!! but not as me, as companions to our friend Robin McConnell, who hosts Inkstuds radio on CITR. I really hope it works out because it would be a nerd festival to bandage the salve of my Stumptown fiasco, whom still haven't given me my money back!

here's another little poster I've drawn...it didn't get posted up anywhere but It did get used on the internets...and I think it turned out cute.

more pages of art....I've been working very well ever since I downloaded an app for This American Life, which is a great chicago radio show on NPR. Every episode has a theme, like "bad friends" or "Moving" and a series of stories and interviews and radio documentry. Nice girly human drama stuff that I like. For some reason when I'm captivated by the radio stories I am less likely to roll my rolly chair over to Ed's bookshelf and start flipping through the comics, or go, "hmmm, I'm kind of a tiny bit peckish" and go buy a Budgies Burrito. Snacking also seems to help me concentrate,...I try and keep a kings ransom of rice cakes and apple sauce on hand.

this page isn't photoshopped yet.

and this post you can actually click to embiggen!! for my blind aunties.

So in this 2 month absence from posting about comics, I have actually been working on My Right Hand. I've got about 8 pages completed, and I just finished photoshopping 4 of them...except for page 4 itself...that one's not done yet....I still have one panel to draw that's daunting. That page is basically a seguay from the 5th inning were I broke my finger, to the seventh inning on page 5.

Last night was the CD release partaayy for Shiloh Lindsey's new CD, "Western Violence and Brief Sensuality", featuring cover art by yours truly! I was so excited and proud, and sad, since I had to leave early in order to work the next day...BOO-URNS. I missed Shiloh's performance, unfortunately, but I listened to the CD when I got home, and like everyone was saying, it is quite awesome...and so were the performances I saw, El Dorado and a bit of Swank. For an urban yoga pants city that used to be a hippy enclave, we certainly have some great old-fashioned alt-country music here in Vancouver.

Here is a picture of me with my first real CD cover!

Here's an interesting tidbit for you: I am a member of the Vancouver Desert Plant Society, which is as it sounds, a garden club for people (old people) who like cacti, succulents and other desert- climate plants like Mesquite, which I quite like. I know I posted some comics earlier about when my friend Andria, (who is the Vice President of the DPS) and I took a road trip to Joshua Tree National Park to see the plants there. What's interesting is that I kind of joined the club on a lark. Andria wanted to join but didn't want to do it by herself, and I was thinking, "okay, whatever!" Now, five years later, I have windows and windows full of cacti. I have made lots of friends in the club that I would NEVER have made friends with on a normal basis, like Charles and his wife Nettie, who have a great property on Saturna Island that Andria and I have visited twice now. We've seen so many beautiful houses and gardens, which is really inspirational to me to become an eccentric old retired person with a really extensive, anal retentive hobby. The reason I am saying all this is because in July we have our annual DPS show and sale, where you can come and see all our most prized, rare and valuable plants under careful supervision, and you can also purchase rare and valuable desert plants for truly reasonable prices! Also, I made the poster for the sale, and here it is....all of the photos were taken by either Andria or myself. I think one of those plants is mine, but most of them belong to Andria. the main photo is from our trip to Joshua Tree...it's the field of Opuntia Bigelovii....yeah!

so come to the show and sale. see some plants...buy some plants.

I've been working on a new book about the crazy summer I had last year, because of one tiny bone in my right middle finger. I only have about 7 pages laid out so far but I am invisioning a grandiose graphic novel. we'll see how interesting it actually is. Here are the first two pages.

So I just got the news that there isn't going to be a Green Mountain this year. James, the organizer, won't have the time to devote to it this summer since his rehab has been ramped up. If you didn't know, James was in a terrible car accident last fall, while on tour with his band, The Hotel Lobbyists. He had a brain injury from a crushed skull, and spent 6 months in the hospital. Although James has been out of the hospital for about a year now, he is still working on getting a normal life together. We were all shocked and delighted when James decided to do Green Mountain last year, but he had a lot of help from his family and this year he'll be doing more job skill training and stuff like that.
I'm pretty dissapointed, but I hope that we can do it again next year. I think I might continue to work on the poster anyway and save it for later.
I probably should be focusing on my comic books anyway, even though I still haven't heared anything from Stumptown!!! you have my money, you jerks!

Here is day two of the New York sketch diary.....I sent a couple copies to family members as thank yous for Christmas and birthday gifts and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. I'm pretty sure they've got them now, so here's what's inside!

I just finished putting together a little booklet of the sketches from our last Christmas trip to NYC, and here is the cover I made up; It's from a photo I took of Colin just outside of his sister's apartment building.

I got a reply today from Narduar the Human Serviette! I'm pleased because I wasn't sure what to expect...it was just an email (possibly from an intern?) but it means someone got my letter, opened it, read the comic and then went online and typed my address in their email account. I was concerned because I sent an actual letter, that means a little bit more work on his part if he wanted to reply.

He said "Have a Nice Breakfast!"

Colin and I also sent in our application to the Stumptown Comic Fest!!! April 24-25 in Portland, Oregon. I've only got 3 lousy mini-comics ready, but we'll see what I can get done during spring break. I'm working on a little comic about breaking my finger this summer....excitement!

here's another page from the narduar comic, to jog your memory!

I've been working on finishing up the comic diary I did of my trip to NYC with Colin this past Christmas, in the tradition of travel diary comics.

Here's my latest rock poster!! Again, for my favorite customers, the Hotel Lobbyists! This poster was pulled out of my arse in a matter of days. It features Bette, the French bulldog belonging to James, the lead singer of the Lobbyists. Bette is really a girl, but graphically it worked better with her in the traditionally male role in this stereotypical scene....unless Bette maybe swings that way....(or the poodle is maybe a hustler if you know what I mean)....
all the colours besides that on the dogs was done with Photoshop....not as pretty but FAST. Note the date on the poster, I had to get er done.

Check it out.....the finished cover for Shiloh Lindsey's album, "Western Violence and Breif Sensuality"

I am Also working on an album cover for David Chenery and the Lonesome Valley Singers...it will also be terrifying sepia with lots of gore.

So, I've finally managed to assemble the last couple of comic pages that I've been posting into a mini-comic collection called Dear Diaryahh 3. If you are one of my loyal follower(s), you might remember my first mini comic, which I assembled pretty much this same time last year. That mini comic was called Dear Diaryahh. What happened to Dear Diaryahh 2? you may ask. Well, I began editing the comic strips that follow Dear Diaryahh, but got side tracked with how awesome I though some of these longer comics I've been drawing have been, and one thing lead to another. so anyway, this contains a few strips that would have been in Dear Diaryahh 2, so they will be cronological....except for a few things....anyway, whatever. I will reissue them all in a new, remastered unabridged graphic novel format when I am famous. Here is the title page of Dear Diaryahh 3, AND 2, for your viewing pleasure.

If you find yourself admiring the beutiful perspective, they are all traced off photos...all three title pages...oh, and colin drew the first two. So there.

here are page 4 and 5

page seven!

Hello, gentle reader(s)



The month of October has been kind of wacky, art-wise. My trusty laptop, which is three years old (about 90 in computer years) got some kind of computer swine flu and wouldn't even boot up. At this time my Dad, who is my computer guru, had just gone to Montreal for a week or so. I was still working on the CD art for Shiloh Lindsey, so I prepared to start scanning it onto Colin's PC. While over on his computer I decided to update his versions of Adobe, and then plugged in the scanner, which knocked out the internet. This happened before, all I had to do was restart the computer... which then revealed some other kind of computer swine flu.

Great.

So there I was with two defunct expensive paper weights. I need to use the internet to check on stuff for work, and Colin and I need to keep in touch with "clients", so this was kind of bad. Miraculously, a mysterious free wireless signal had been creeping into our place, which would only work if the apartment door was open. I could still access the internet with my iTouch, which was kind of novel.

I decided to change gears and focus on Halloween, my personal Christmas. I spent the week sewing and paper mache-ing. After Halloween my returned Dad managed with great focus to recover all my data and lo, there she was, the finished, unpublished page 6 of my epic Rock Show comic, mistakenly labeled as page 7...