Hanuman

Hanuman:

A study I did for Hanuman, the Monkey King, back when I was going to do a comic mash-up of Chinese mythology and New York City. Not sure what I was huffing…

I’ll be spending the rest of this week in DC dealing with family issues, so I’m not sure when or what I’ll post next week. But I should have something eventually...

YAKITORI 14

YAKITORI 14:

Well, you wouldn’t look so good if you were walled up in a yakitori shop for years, either!

nearing the end, now.

all collected posts here.

YAKITORI 13

YAKITORI 13:

all YAKITORI posts being collected here.

Dr Sketchy’s Halifax September 22nd

Dr Sketchy’s Halifax September 22nd:

Drawings from yesterday's Dr Sketchy's Halifax. Kay Licious and Annie Valentina were great models. Where else can you find two people willing to dress up as a sheep and wolf and perform lewd poses?

SPX 2011

SPX 2011:

Being with Tapir Tooth at SPX was a blast! I got some pretty sweet swag including a Fancy Reginald and Beartato signed print, Three Fingers (which blew my face off with awesomeness), and some really fantastic mini comics.

I met up with some amazing people, and picked up their comics, including: Dan Strauss and Ryan Eggensperger's The Young Dissenter's Handbook, Katie McDermont and Kelsey Sunday's K.K. Freebird, Hypnospiral by M. Jacob Alvarez, funny parody Zelda comics and Hot Pot Vol 2, a super-cool Star Wars anthology, 33 Beasties by Drew Weing, Mimolette Bakery by Jen Weber, Birds in the Bushes by Zach Gaillongo, an inked sketch from Raina Telgemeier, and great mini comic by Alabaster. And it was great seeing Sophie Goldstein and meeting Tiny Ghost Stories!

It was my first time at SPX and it was a great con! Everyone was digging into the mini-comics and couldn't wait to read the latest Hark a Vagrant Book or check out Habibi (which is epic and amazing). So many great things to see and do.

Eating at the Chiptole across the street every day was icing on the cake. Can't wait for next year.

The next con I'll be at is the Halifax Zine Fair (part of the Halifax Pop Explosion), Oct 22nd.

THE YOUNG DISSENTER’S HANDBOOK

THE YOUNG DISSENTER’S HANDBOOK:

One of the books I picked up at SPX was THE YOUNG DISSENTER’S HANDBOOK, by these guys:

Ryan Eggensperger (left) and Dan Strauss (right)

Imagine a collection of advice in the vein of How to Seize Control of Your Life, but with absurdity, sympathy and a hilarious sense of humor. It all follows the exploits of an anonymous shirt & tie wearing guy who is at different points gleefully oblivious, painfully self-aware, elated, or deeply distressed.

Ryan says “the genesis for the book was basically when I received a christmas gift one year of a pack of cards entitled 50 Things You Should Do Once in a Lifetime. I flipped through it once, quickly noting the cutesy sentimentality of it (“have a conversation with a hobo!”) and later that day started making my own list . . . a year or two later, I found the notebook and it made me laugh, so I started transcribing the list into my computer, splitting it in two. The first half (which we may turn into a book soon as well) became Shove Your Breakfast Up Your Ass and 99 Other Things You Absolutely Must Do Before You Die, and the latter, sadder half became the first draft of The Young Dissenter’s Handbook.”

I love how the character is both really sincere and foolish.

Dan says, “It changed drastically over the course of several drafts and ways of thinking about it. We worked and re-worked the order using index cards, tiny pieces of paper, and endless lists of entries, which were edited, eliminated, reintroduced, and rearranged countless times. Eventually, we came up with the idea of making it a linear narrative.”

Dan: “I originally thought of this as an interesting way to exercise a certain shared humor I have developed with Ryan during the many years of our friendship. It ended up signifying a lot more to me . . . like a very revealing satire of my personality (and Ryan’s) when we were in our 20′s.

Dan and Ryan can be reached at YoungDissentersHandbook@Gmail.com (and that’s how to get the book too).