New Pages

Leading up to introductions of Lumbering Jack and, later, Woolf:

 

 

This week

Just had a great time tabling at Olympia Comics Festival yesterday.  OCF was the first fest I tabled at (last year), and so it holds a special place for me.  The organizers (Chelser Baker, Casey Bruce, and Frank Hussey) of this community-driven and -oriented fest put their hearts into the planning and the day and it shows.  For me, the best part of the festival has been the chance it provides to meet and reconnect with area artists/friends.  There are some ridiculous talents in the Pacific Northwest—Seattle, Portland, Olympia, Bellingham.  It feels energizing to be around them—and I feel lucky to be a part of this community.  Here is some of the stash I came away with:

Featuring Chelsea Baker, Intruder Comics, David Lasky, Reid Psaltis, Joel Skavdahl, Kelly Froh, Eroyn Franklin, Tom Van Deusen/Poochie Press, and Robyn Jordan.

Next up!  I leave for Chicago on Thursday!!  That evening (June 13th), I’ll be presenting at Laydeez do Comics Chicago, hosted at Quimby’s (amazing comics bookstore—of the kid-in-a-candy-store variety).  The festivities begin at 7 p.m.

Over the weekend (June 15th and 16th), I’ll be tabling at CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo)!  If you’re around, please come say hi.  I’ll be at Table 57—with a copy of this new book (big thanks to Mandolin Brassaw for being on the binding assembly line): 

I’m very excited to be back in Chicago.  Thank you to MK, Cindy, and pup-Alice for hosting me.

From there, it’s off to the UK for more adventures …

Woolf

I’ve almost finished assembling the cast of characters that Tree Girl will encounter in the woods:  Woolf (seen below), King Yeti, Lumbering Jack, and a few others.  Woolf is not a big bad wolf, but, as the “wool” of his name may suggest, a sheep in wolf’s clothing (probably people think more of Virginia Woolf …).  Make no mistake; sheepish as he is on the inside, he does pose a threat.

Here he is, with TG, in process:

Tree Girl completed (the “non” on her neck was coincidental, but perhaps is fitting): 
Body.  The grey comes from a photograph that accompanied an article about North Korea.

  Tracing paper for the arms and tail:Coming together:

And here is an exercise in the importance of eyebrows.  Without a telling eyebrow, Woolf looks like an eager puppy!With the addition of the eyebrow, he’s turned sinister.  I like how well the lowercase L worked.
  Finished piece:

And now I’m off to prepare stuff for printing.  I’ll be tabling at Stumptown at the end of the month!  Excited.

Olympia Comics Festival

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything, the main reason being that I’ve been preparing for the Olympia Comics Festival!  The exhibition is this Saturday from 1:30-6:30.  If you’re in the area, I would love to see you there!  Check out the other events, too!

Preparing for my very first festival has been a huge learning experience for me.  Trying to figure out which of my materials make for good “stand-alones,” how/where to print (my god who knew what a trick pagination was!), pricing (thank you M.K.!), etc. etc.  But I feel excited (though nervous) about the event now that it is here.  Getting my work out there is one thing—but I’m especially excited to meet other comics people in the area. The festival feels like a big step on this new path I’m on (though I am trying also not to get my expectations high—big steps, but slow steps; slow but determined steps).

One of the biggest issues that I’ve encountered over the last couple weeks has revolved around a small comic that I made specifically for the event.  The story went through a number of iterations (at one point, it was about a robot!).  What I realized was that I was making the comic to be sold rather than allowing it to come out of me because it was something that I needed to put on paper and needed to process.  I decided not to make it (to stick with the two I already had) and, as often is the case, once I turned my mind away from it, a new story appeared.  One that I believe in strongly.

I’m still not sure about how the story maps out.  I was convinced that I was going to sit on it, reconsider, and not bring it with me tomorrow.  But after talking it through yesterday evening with good friend Mandolin over chocolate-battered peanut butter cups, I’ve decided otherwise.  Yes, they were delicious!  Here it is:

More comics coming soon.  <3

Moving moving moving on

I haven’t had the chance to work too much on These Frames Are Hiding Places material over the last week or two.  I’ve moved into a new place (just a few blocks from my old one) and have been devoting most days to packing and loading and unloading and unpacking.  But now that’s all done, so I’m excited to get back to it.

Here is my lovely new workspace, complete with feline “helper”:

While packing up the old place, I encountered several of the trees that brought me to the collage-oriented work I’m doing here.  Most of them had nothing directly to do with my mom or my relationship with her.  They were more the outgrowth of a general feeling, emotion, sadness that her death had caused and that bled into other areas of my life.  I thought I would share a few photos:

More comics soon!

 

 

Drawing Lines

I originally made a version of this set of pages back in October.  As I’m thinking about printing a few of my strips (possibly for a regional comics festival/expo in June!), I returned to this one since it works well on its own.  What do you think?  The printed version will be small … pages measuring probably 4 x 5 inches or so.  I did a pretty crappy/haphazard scan job here (there should be more shading in some of the drawings, for instance).  Sorry!  :-)

Also … this drawing emerged while I was revising the strip.  A little self-portrait that I kind of like.