Cherry's and bears, kibbles and bits

posting from my personal side:
hey all, been busy with the non-comics. in a couple weeks i will be going to the woods for a month and from there, moving to someplace hotter than white river. in short, just trying to get my life together to go, which includes working on my auto.



i did take a break from that this weekend, though. yesterday was the four-year mark since cherry-o died. for those who don't know, she is/was a big love in my life and she had cancer and i was almost constantly by her side in her last months. anniversaries are funny. there are certain things i do for this day. one is go to the water. this year was queechee gorge.

i inherited a camera from my roommate so i started a flickr account. you can see photos of the swimmin hole i found and i also went to a peony festival yesterday.

so, although i've been having almost too much anxiety to draw, or much else, i have started a comic for submission to the funny aminals anthology. yay! i guess i can still draw (kinda) after all! here's a preview cuz i kinda like using the camera intead of a scanner for a non-finished work:



also, it has been raining a bunch and the lilies out front finally opened:

back in the junc-yard

hello lovelies,
i'm back in white river from a weekend down in new york. i had a great weekend.

and yes indeed, i held the dummy for snappy's book in my very hands!!! i don't know if i can adequately express the excitement of that, but i am going to love the final object, all properly bound and on the proper stock. it was really refreshing to talk shop (book-making business) with someone who doesn't do comics but still doing the same thing in a way.

MoCCA:
i scanned the internet and plenty of folks had a few grips about the whole thing. i had a worthwhile time. i guess i didn't realize how hot it was. it was hot, but hey, even though i've been up here in vermont the past two-ish years, i've spent time in the south and have done outdoor labor and such which i think lends to more tolerance of conditions that are out of your hands than sitting around in offices. and i really, really don't mean that to sound bad toward those who do that. i do a fair share of sitting around these days.
the times i realized it was hot and stuffy was when i went to panel discussions, and that was a bit in hindsight. i thought my passing out no matter how interesting the panel was due to sitting still.
i also went into the weekend knowing i would have a loss of funds, and i was okay with that. i did sell a couple books and i did some tradsies. some folks are not into that, depending on their product, but heck--it's people-magick to trade!! that said, i feel like i had some good interactions considering the compression of it all.
here is my mocca booty:



i haven't looked through it all, but here is some info and/or excitement:
fagelhjarta by sofia falkenhem
crooked teeth and the archer by nate doyle i had seen his work at mecaf, but didn't really pick anything up from anyone while i was there.
jin and jam by hellen jo YES!
will play for food by pat woodruff (it's the cardboard book) the presentation of this book is better than many of the minis i saw. it was at the sva table, which i can say i appreciated much as most of their minis were $1 or $2, an honest price, especially compared to some of the $4-$5 minis i saw. little pieces of paper stapled together should be cheap.
the first book of hope and the second book of hope by tommi musturi,these editions through bries
the hookah girl and other true stories vol 1 by marguerite dabaie
keha by tiitu takalo
lillian the legend by kerry byrne available from conundrum press
i also want to check out the new sundays, but i thought that could wait until i was back here in the junction.

i could keep going, but that's enough for now.

HAPPY JUNE!

and i am figuring out how the links work, please be patient.
i'm going to mocca!



this'll be my first time there! i'll be volunteering at the center for cartoon studies (ccs) table, #804. on their display i will have beauty patrol, and perhaps something else if space permits. another gem i am bringing along will be the indelible collection, which i coedited with c. frakes and is a fundraiser for scholarships for CCS. two incoming freshwomen next year will be recieving scholarships in which sales of this book helped contribute to that fund! that's really exciting! the price is $10-15 and can also be ordered from ikjk. also, the cover was one of my earlier screenprinting experiments(and there is a print on the back as well):



i will also be found wandering around, with a satchel of comics to hopefully power a couple tradsies, including but not limited to the ugly place and a reprint of pocket porn #1, written by the clever pilou and drawn by myself. there are a couple of the panel discussions i want to check out, descriptions here:
http://moccany.org/artfest-09-program.html

i am also excited about non-comics aspects of the trip. one is the physical act of travelling and the headspace that comes with it. this is probably crazy-sounding to most folks who find travelling a headache. i have a strange love of roads, those great scars cast upon our land and the beauty and ugliness that landscapes provide. i will also be travelling with these folks, so check them out at mocca too! table 510.
i am also looking forward to seeing some pals! one of them is snappy, a supersweetheart photographer, who has a new documentary photography book called welcome home in the works and will be out VERY soon. perhaps you've seen some of her work in a plethora of other places, but check out her website.

by the way, have you checked out the shulz library? amongst the bounty of ever-new entries beauty patrol got a review here. books by my buddy brandon and myself are pictured here. unfortunately, the computer screen doesn't show the colors of the screen prints too well. anyway, if i am able to get my hands on some copies of brandon's lusty tales, i'll bring them to new york too. lusty tales: densely filled four-panel grid story about the west and other bonuses like a hiawatha story. there is also a project that we are collaborating that may or may not be ready by the time i leave or ever. i know it's a vague mention, but i only want it to be a small blip on the radar for now.