sketchbook: blood, teeth, and tummy

To say Elliot had a healthy curiosity about my recent oral surgery would be an understatement. He was RELENTLESS, asking questions about my blood and teeth and stomach.

sketchbook: new kids for the new year

A sketchbook page I did a few days ago.

I was really happy with a lot of the character designs in my last run of comics and I want to work some of what I learned from t hose strips into this year’s batch.

family drawings by my best friend

Some longtime readers might remember Melissa. Melissa used to pop up in the comic all the time when we were living together in Boston… and then when we were both living in Brooklyn. Miss also used to be kind enough to draw guest strips for me, whenever I’d be out of town or on an extended break from scratching out comics.

By a wide margin, Melissa’s comics were always FAR better than mine. You can check some of them out here.

Well, Melissa and my friend Mary came for a visit this past week and Miss took a couple of minutes to doodle these on a napkin. This is the first napkin, with the boys, Ellen and myself.

…and this is the second napkin, drawn for Mary to commemorate the visit. Melissa’s been my best friend for almost fifteen years and I wouldn’t be married to Ellen if it wasn’t for Mary… so these are very special to me.

summer journal comics: a little leftover

I pencilled this one panel and got distracted before I could finish the second. When I finally got back around to my sketchbook, I had forgotten what the hell this comic was supposed to be about! I inked the first panel when during some writer’s block and figured I’d slap it up here. It’s a nicer note to go out on than yesterday’s comic, I suppose.

sketchbook: agorafabulous

I picked up Sara Benincasa’s Agorafabulous: Dispatches from my Bedroom from the library a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed the book. A memoir detailing Benincasa’s struggles with depression and agoraphobia, Agorafabulous is often funny and occasionally moving. As someone who dealt with depression in my teenage years, Sara’s observations come from a candid, compelling place.

Some of the later chapters read like short stories unto themselves; as a teacher, I was particularly enchanted by the author’s rough appraisal of working with… well, I guess I’ll say “inner city” students although I don’t believe Sara was working near a major metropolitan area.

I picked up the book as I’ve been a fan of Benincasa’s Sex and Other Human Activities podcast, wherein Sara and her co-host Marcus Parks answer questions about… well, pretty much anything, despite the specificity of the show’s name. On one of their earlier shows, Benincasa tells a story about a disastrous one night stand which made my wife and I howl with laughter on a drive somewhere or another. As a response to that, I drew this picture in my sketchbook, depicting one of the scenes described in that woeful tale:

I drew the thing and Ellen liked it enough to encourage me to send it over to Ms. Benincasa… which I did. She liked it enough to mention it on her podcast, which was a very nice thing and thoroughly impressed Ellen, so thanks for that Sara.

At any rate, the book is great, the story I drew this little sketchbook illustration for is included, and you should go out and read it.

sketchbook: the last page

This is the last page of that sketchbook, I mean. Not the last page of sketches ever. I wasn’t even going to bother scanning the thing… but considering I’m going to start posting comics out of my new sketchbook sometime next week, I figured I might as well.

sketchbook: eggtown

A few weeks ago, I was in a professional development and (I know you won’t believe this, but I’m going to come right out and say it) was getting bored. A colleague of mine was doodling on her notebook and she drew this… thing. It sort of looked like a viking egg. I kept it up in my notebook.

It sort of snowballed into a menagerie of breakfast-related characters. That later snowballed into this…

…and then I did this later.

It’s pretty stupid, but I have to admit- I kind of like the designs! They’re cutesy and kind of kid-friendly. I might do a couple of comics this summer with them.

sketchbook: aborted comics!

Here are the first couple of panels for a story I started last year about grad school.

I will never finish this.

sketchbook: why comic dealers don’t like me

I’m always looking for stupid stuff. Like…

To be fair, I don’t think Santa and Superman ever actually FIGHT in DC Comics’ Presents #67… they just team-up or something. Still, I want it and the comic yet eludes me. However, I DID manage to find this on Sunday:

Marvel Team-Up #74, with Spidey teaming up with the cast of SNL (well, mostly John Belushi) to fight the Silver Samurai. GENIUS!

sketchbook: happy meal

I did this doodle in my sketchbook a few months ago while I was at a professional development. I wanted to try to draw off-brand versions of the McDonaldland characters I remember from when I was a kid. I guess I got a little lazy at the end there because I just straight-up draw Grimace in the background there at the end.