thrift store finds: another round of rejects!

Let’s end the year with some rejected Thrift Store Finds. These are things I picked up at our local St. Vincent de Paul store which, for whatever reason, I couldn’t figure out a way to dedicate a whole entry to ’em.

sketchbook: x-mas loot 2011

So here’s my haul:

I got lazy and just typed stuff on these doodles. Here’s a snapshot of the rest of my loot:

I was really really lucky this year and if you’re jealous I totally understand. Here’s a video of those Doctor Who micro figures. It’s cute:

our trip to disney world in comic form

As some of you may remember, my family took a trip to Disney World this past summer. “How,” you may ask, “did you afford such an extravagant vacation, Chris? Aren’t you a public school teacher?”

Yes, you have a good memory my friend. Our going on this vacation was entirely the result of my awesome parents, who decided they wanted to take their grandkids to the House of Mouse for a week of fun.

If your memory is THAT sharp, you may also remember that while I was posting journal comics about my family over the summer, I eschewed any strips about the trip. At the time I put it off to laziness. In actuality, I had decided I wanted to condense our trip into one, big mosaic comic I would gift my parents this Christmas.

Seeing as yesterday was Christmas, I thought I’d share:

I was working MUCH bigger than usual with this comic, which was a lot of fun. Most of my comics are done on 8.5 x 11 inch Bristol, the easier to accommodate my chintzy scanner. Here, I was working with 11 x 14 inch paper.

This was also a challenge in that I didn’t want to make any mistakes. I’ve become pretty lazy with the teaching strips lately, making inking errors and messing stuff up. It’s so easy to fix in Photoshop! Since this will live behind glass at my parents’ house for a long time, I needed to make sure there weren’t any really huge noticeable errors. I think I did OK on this score

Behind the cut, I took some closer pictures of my favorite panels.

odds and ends: my christmas decorations

Seeing as it’s the last Friday before Christmas, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share with you some of my holiday decorations.

Please note the possessive pronoun “my” in the last sentence. While the family has many nutcrackers and ornaments that are shared throughout the house, the decorations I’m going to show you are emphatically mine. Indeed, I am sure Ellen is more than happy to let me take full responsibility for the following. Most of them are Christmas themed action figures I’ve collected over the years. There seemed to be a moment in time in the early ’00’s when EVERY Christmas special ever created received a high-quality line of toys. This was probably not a great idea, as evidenced by my admission that almost all of these were picked up at some kind of After-Christmas closeout sale for 75% off.

At any rate, you’ll find my collection behind the cut. If you’re a fan of 30 year old men blathering on about action figures, you’re in for a treat. Please enjoy and have a happy holiday!

2011-2012 school year: go home

Despite the fact I am the one dispensing it, this is good, solid advice. Teachers need to go home more.

On that note… at this rolling time of the year, I take a few weeks off from posting comics about my job.

I’ve got some sketchbook pages, non-teacher comics, and student work to show ya… but teacher comics will resume in 2012.

2011-2012 school year: cheetos and rollos

Truth time: this comic has been sitting in my sketchbook for about two years. The vending machine in our teacher’s lounge is pretty pathetic and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to work the problem into the strip for about that long a time.

What I’m saying is, this might not be great, but it’s been well-aged. That has to count for something.

2011-2012 school year: protective gear

I honestly have no idea why some jackets have elbow patches. I guess functionally, the elbow takes a lot of wear and tear, but is there another reason? Enlighten me, folks. I’m clueless.

2011-2012 school year: the difference between knowing and KNOWING

This comic is somewhat a response to the strips from this week, or at least the tail-end  of the week.

chalkboard drawings: the “end of the holidays” edition

christmas comics cavalcade: ant man’s big christmas

Today we’re looking at Ant Man’s Big Christmas, a one shot from Marvel Comics‘ Marvel Knights imprint, published in 2000. It’s a square bound, prestige format book with a $5.95 price tag.