Beets, bad memory and cutlery.

OK get ready for it: big honkin' post. First up, I've rekindled an old flame: BEETS. Joe won't eat them because he thinks they taste like "curdled blood", but I (a long with Liz) think that they are divine! Here's the meal they co-starred in last week:
After the beets had cooked, I pressed them into my sketchbook before I peeled them. This is what happened:
Then, for the next three days:

So when I made made my epic SPX post, I neglected to mention that I WON A NERDLINGER!!!!
Specifically, it is the Nerdlinger for "Most Random Informative Facts About Invertebrates & Best All-Around Drawing Session Chatter". I drank it, and it was awesome. Thank you Nerdlinger Committee!
Oh, yeah. This also happened: MK - Joe apologizes through his KICKED IN FACE. heh heh

Now about that cutlery (featuring Lucy, Nelly, Joe and me):
Let me backtrack and mention that last weekend, Joe and I went to upstate New York to do many things:

-visit his family
-peep some foliage
-go to book event/presentation about French Milk by Lucy Knisley
-rock out in carbie (hmmm...mystery songs...)

We accomplished all these things and more (the fork! the fork!). Joe and I took a new way to get to his folks house and we passed that fork. It immediately reminded me of that part in the Muppet Movie...The fork is actually 100 times bigger than a for-reals fork (or, at least that's what it said on the plaque).

Lucy's book event was awesome; I bought French Milk, as well as The War of the Worlds (with illustrations by Edward Gorey). French Milk made me yearn for some travel...Joe and I had planned to go to Europe after school, but it's five years later and it's still on the back burner. Well, better on the back burner than behind the stove I guess.

On Sunday, we got hang out with Lucy and meet her friend Nelly, and pillage the Rhinebeck farmer's market of all it's tasties (apple, tamalés and pumpkins, oh my), and drink coffee, and eat amazing chocolates (um, dark chocolate lavender sea salt carmels anyone? OMG PLZ YES!!!!), and maybe draw a little jam comic, hmmm:
Good times. I had only met Lucy twice (at the past two MoCCAs); it was great to hang with her and Nelly (who is now officially part of the "Maris and Joe Carpool Hall of Fame"!!). Joe and I like making new friends! (OK, I sound like I'm FOUR).

I think that's it...sorry about another LONG post.

-m

Summer reading...

(click on comic to enlarge)

Class: Cephalopod

OK, so that's an octopus up there.

I've spent the past two days dissecting squids with kids (well, junior high and high schoolers). Stinky, but AWESOME:
You should be thankful you don't ride the subway with me.


And, yes, this actually happened:

Time to shower...whewwwEEE!!!

Comics from...

...the summer?

Ok, there's still a major back log of comics from the past few months. These ones were focused around my trips to Maine. I miss living there terribly, and I take any chance I get to visit. Luckily my folks moved up there about a year ago; now I can get my fix and visit the family. I managed to go up for both work and play a few times:

This was right before I left on the Maine Coastal Route bus (thank you, Concord Trailways) for a sea kayak trip (which deserves a comic unto itself...more about that later):



True story, Liz was my witness...


With great frogs comes great mosquito-bility:


And this is what Joe had to put up with every time I returned to Boston:


::sigh:: I love pine trees...

When you wish upon a blog...

If only I could post through telepathy. Then this blog would be updated daily, if not hourly. Instead I choose to binge and purge my entries. (see below)

But really, I've been working on a better schedule for myself (and seeking much wisdom from Mr. Alec Longstreth). Trying to manage my time between comics, invertebrates and feeding my face shouldn't be that hard, but I end each day wishing that there were AT LEAST 5 more hours to go before bedtime (29-hour day, anyone? it'd be good times, I promise you). In addition to my inability to make a schedule, autumn has always been a time of transition for me. Transitions = fatigue, unrest, inability to do things (like make schedules):


I find myself going in several different directions with projects I'm excited about, but this often results in huge amounts of spent energy, and little to show for lots of work. So I prioritize, but sometimes making a list of all the things to do and which things need to be done first can be AGONIZING. With that said, I'm doing lots of work...it's just not seeing the light of day on ye ol' blog (yet). OK ENOUGH OF MY RAMBLING.

SPX was good this year. I had some new stuff:


This comic debuted at MoCCA, but I originally drew it as an online installment for Ballyhoo Stories. (Click on "COPING" under "Online Comics"; be warned: there are swears and good old cartoon violence!)

Then, this past July, Mr. Joe, Ms. Liz, Mr. Tim and I did a journal comic everyday for the month of July and then packed them into a mini-comic dubbed "Four Squares":


Here's the first page:

We then drew ourselves in crayon (not in the book):


It ended up being 64 pages - whew! Joe has it for sale on his Etsy...I should have an Etsy site up soon (but, you know, IT'S ON MY LIST OF THINGS TO DO!!!)

I drew a few comics while down in the DC area for SPX:
On the road...


What better way to eat a Happy Meal than to the sweet, sweet cacophony that was the vice presidential debate?


SPX generally consists of eating, and selling stuff, and buying stuff, but mostly eating stuff:


And then just when you thought I was dead, I return from the grave to EAT YOUR FACE!!!


One could understand why I looked like this at the end of the weekend:


I also saw the exhibit "Jim Henson's Fantastic World" at the Smithsonian International Gallery. Though I was sleep depraved after 9 hours in the car, it was well worth it. Having grown up addicted to PBS (and some might claim that I still am...thanks a lot, NOVA), I was a huge fan of Sesame Street (uh, I watched it through junior high and high school). My mom was gracious enough to tape things like "Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas" off of TV (so I could watch it until the VHS tape snapped), so like many of my generation, I grew up with all sorts of Jim Henson influences. But I digress; this is a traveling exhibit, so if it comes near you, GO SEE IT!!!

OK, so SPX was good. Saw lots of peeps; I wish everyone lived closer; it'd be great to be around so many amazing artists and just hang out and draw more often. Oh, speaking of drawing, this was one of the jam comics from SPX:


So I, Joe, Kaz, and Liz did the first four panels, but then I sent my sketchbook around, so I'm not sure exactly who did what after that...here's some of the folks (I think) who drew on this: Robyn Chapman, Laura Park, Nate Doyle, Austin English...If you drew a panel, let me know. If you didn't draw a panel, and I put your name, I'm sorry.

So after SPX, Joe and I returned to a pretty messy house and decided to clean for, let's see, I don't know...FOUR DAYS. That sucked, but now the apartment is absolutely SPARKLING (well, I might not go that far, but it's relatively clean). Not that this has anything to do with cleaning, but on an end note, here are some whales (and perhaps a few dolphins thrown into the mix):



Oh, and I haven't forgot about these two...



p.s. I proofread as best that I could, but some of this post is poorly written...apologies!

-m