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9/2/02 - Well, happy labor day and all that (I'm actually writing this thursday night, as I'm taking off straight after work tomorrow). On Mondy I'm sure I'll be laboring to get down that last piece of leftover wedding cake in a vacation park spot in Seattle bay area.
Oh right, so today's strip actually happened to me this spring, btw (yeah, cry me a river and all that). but yeah, one of the many reasons I hate large corporations.
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9/4/02 - So, I missed yesterday's strip. Due to having a lack of proper background references while I was away for the long weekend, and also a confusion on exact pacing which caused me to rewrite is a half dozen times, I never seemed able to get the strip going while lounging about at Fort Worden in Washington, and then I arrived back in Portland late late monday night and was too wiped to do the strip.
I had hoped to get Tuesday AND Wednesday up today, but ended up getting the opportunity to spend a really interesting evening with Madison Clell before she left Portland (moving), who's well known for her comic "Cuckoo" about her own experience dealing with Dissociative Identity Disorder. But yeah, she's really cool and I had a great time and so of course, we ended up talking too late at the Pied Cow, and so I only got one Bruno done once I got home, and now it's really late and I need to get to bed.
I will catch up with all the strips at some point this week, and I may even have an extra strip, which was unplanned but came up with recent local news, of which I suppose I can talk briefly of the topic here. A man has been accused in the Klamath Falls area (near Portland) of beating and raping two nuns on late Sunday night, killing one of them. Which is simply horrible to no end. But, the specific reason to why I wish to mention it here, is that the man was on his way home from a strip club. I, personally, do not feel that this changes my opinions of strip clubs at all, but I would feel irresponsible to not mention it somewhere here. My main argument being that if he came from a slasher film (I hate slasher films, btw) that I would not feel that slasher films should then be banned. It is true, I do support strip clubs being able to exist and to not be so taboo, but my goal with this topic is not to try and convert people, but just to make people think about it. From both sides. Which is why this incident is important to be mentioned, it's a factor, even if not a factor. It makes one think.
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9/5/02 - So I'm caught up. And there's a bonus strip this week, which means three strips today. Not quite sure how i got it all done tonihgt... oh right, sleep deprevation. Life is silly. there you go.
And I forgot to mention yesterday, thanks to Susan for the help regarding the local story concerning the unforunate attack on the nuns.
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9/9/02 - First of all, I'm sure all you botanists are rolling on the floor laughing. For the rest of you, jenn is listing off poisonous flowers.
But also, today I'm again releasing originaly strips for sale. First time I've had the chance to get anything done since San Diego. So not only is it most of the strips from July and August, but I also included the trip out to the gorge which Bruno and Sara took so long ago. So yeah, there's a whole gondola's worth of strips for sale again. Check it out.
But for me, as ever, i am off to bed, up again far too late. :)
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09/10/02 - Okay, I got to get to bed, what to say. Umm.... yeah, what perplexes me about a strip like today, is that it's a silly punchline. Hours of work on theis complex drawing, and yet, it's just silly. For some reason I really like that, maybe the college Existentialist in me, or maybe just the desire to draw pretty things. Hm. It seems so pointless, it reverberates in me. I like it.
What else.... oh right, I've actaully almost finished my San Diego report. I know it's over a month overdue, but my intent has always been to talk about the content I saw, and to provide links. And I've looked at all the links I've recieved from people I've met, and I have a hell of lot to share. You'll love 'em. Or at least some of them. Maybe. Well, i do. Most of them. you'll see. Hopefully I finish it up this weekend.
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9/11/02 - First of all, strength and peace to all you in pain or simply rememberance of last year's tragedy. And special note to those of you in DC who are overlooked so much, but are just as scared as those in NYC. My apologies for neglecting to mention DC in my comic olast week and thanks to Amy for pointing that out to me.
Secondly, just of note, Fort Worden is also where they shot "officer and a gentlemen" although I have not seen it and don't know if any backgrounds (well, so far the ONE actual background I've drawn which you can really see) can be seen in the movie.
Thirdly, just a pat on the back for me, I'm very pleased that i fit four people, so much dialogue with a fair flow, and even a decent grounding background in such a small area. Maybe it's more impressive to me because I saw it in only text/dialogue form to start with, and shook my head in doubt at my task.
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9/13/02 - So I'm past exhaustion here, it's just been one of those weeks. What with plans, sudden-unexpected-plans, the releasing of new drawings for sale (link at top of page), a double-sized strip, it's just been a full week.
And so tonight, I was going to come home, lazily get done tomorrow's strip, and then begin Saturday's, as I plan to go out Friday night and have dinner with friends and see "Sex and Lucia" at Cinema 21. Well, I got Friday's strip done, but didn't even touch Saturday's.
So I was walking an odd way home, in order to return some movies, and while passing by Powells Books, I noticed that tonight, for free, Lynda Barry was speaking. How could I pass this up? So i dropped off the movies, went home, ate a bowl of raison bran and typed out Friday's strip. And then off I went.
And well worth it, she's a great speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed it as well have immense admiration for her work. I was introduced to her work by Melissa (Thanks so much!) a couple years ago, and although I'm actually not well versed in it, simply can't afford it, I've come to love what I've read of bits here and there at libraries and friend's houses, and could definitely recommend "freddie stories" very highly and am very curious myself to read "Cruddy".
Anyhow, to bed, quick my man.....
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9/16/2002 - San-Diego, Aug 1-4, 2002 Report
View the Report
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9/20/02 - you know, I'm not sure if i'm ready to do it, but I really have to get Bruno to go upstairs and start mingling with the customers. Because I've if I have to draw this god-damned checkerboard sticky-paper on the wall one more time, I'm gonna' go nuts.
Right and I should have mentioned it yesterday, But bruno was quoting Dorothy Parker's bit:
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And I am Marie of Romania.
(Bruno misquoted the last line due to a faulty reference I used, i'll try to get to fixing it soon)
And, as per usual, don't forget to vote for a movie if you wish to discuss it on the bulletin board this week: vote here.
Oh and Also, been meaning to link to the two best political strips on the web. The first being Barry's Amptoons and the second being Kevin Moore's In Contempt. So I'm friends with Kevin and acquaintences with Barry, but I swear I'm not biased.
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9/21/02 - Okay, so there's this problem with dialogue. I have three people talking, and adding the "balloon pointers" would have just made it too damned confusing (I sketched it, trust me), and I COULD have made it work if I moved the second to last balloon to the left a bit so I could connect Bruno's last two balloons (the third-to-last and the last) And then moved the cast of three characters directly below the words "yup" and "Big" in the center. But sometimes I wish there was just some way i could do it without "balloon pointers". I mean, if I could write "Ummm..." says bruno, "Extra Shoes, sweater, jacket, tea, yeah. Sean?" Or do a "Sandman" thing, where each character's word balloon has a different font or border so you know who's talking. or how about like in Baker's "Why I hate Saturn", I'd put the dialogue below.
Anyhow, so much to learn and explore, but now, i need to go to bed.
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9/23/02 - Hey, my apologies. Sunday I helped my friends Kevin and Jenn paint the rooms of the house they just bought. And rather than being a light day of painting as aniticipated, it went on to be an 8 hour marathon (which I was happy to do, they's good folk). And Monday's strip.... well, the source photo (as you can see below, as your official teaser) was simply too beautiful to draw as a single-height strip, I couldn't let myself do it, it had to be the double sized. So anyhow, I couldn't quite finish it, and so Both Mondays and hopefully Tuesday's strips will appear on Tuesday. Hopefully worth the wait.
But nonetheless, my apologies. And hope you all had a terrific weekend.
My best,
-christopher
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9/24/2002 - Okay, so I only got Monday's strip done, although in my defense, this one took over 6 hours. but i'll get 'em all up this week, hell or high water.
An issue is brought up by this strip which has come up many times before. In that I used a word that I certainly wouldn't have known if I came across it myself, and certainly don't expect hardly any of you (if any) to know it. And although i have the definition at my fingertips, I have not provided it. Why do I want you all to work? It's certainly not a good marketing strategy. And I'm not sure exactly why I do it. But, there is something exciting in making a reader's life a little difficult. I mean, I think today's strip is pretty damned funny, and I've been carrying this word around for weeks, laughing each time I came across it, waiting for the right moment to spring it. And to get it, you're gonna' have to look it up. I guess i want to challenge you, interest you, give you knowledge rather than sate you with soft cushions of challangeless laughs and gags. but also, know that it is in no way to spite you, or to be all "artsy" and snobby. I hope you look it up, and recall the pages of your dictionary (I LOOOOVE my hardbound dictionary, ragged from when i got it as a junior in high school). And I hope it doesn't piss you off. That would be bad.
Anyhow.... what else of note today. Ummm... oh, pointilism. the gravel/stoney/what-have-you driveway. Again and again it comes up, a place where this pointalism seems like the best idea. And I think it looks fine, but I'm never sold on it, and... heh, it takes ages.
And my pens, my pens have never liked pointilism. I mean, they actually hold out well as far as ink distribution, it doesn't manifest itself that way. The just get.... unhappy. And so I begin to talk to them, re-assure them that I'm miserable too, and that we're doing it because hopefully it will look really good. You gotta' worry when your pen starts talking to you like that, in such tones.
Anyhow. So the rest of the strips, as i said, I'll catch up throughout the week somehow. All's good. And today's strip, it may have taken long, but can I tell you just the amount of happiness or at least peace that drawing brings me. I was miserably on the brink today, it was emotionally one of the worst days I've had in a long while. But in the evening, once I got home and began drawing, it all became okay again. Kudos to that. I'm busting my ass to make this my living, to maybe find a bit more happiness, and I swear I'll make it within the next couple of years, and it'll be on my terms. Just hold my hand.
p.s. - Astoria is on the Pacific Ocean, and Portland is a couple hours inland.
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