How Taran stole the April fish

Man, I was all set to do a joke update today, sketched out the art and everything. And then, about 3 weeks back, our four month old daughter who used to sleep through til morning began waking once or twice during the night. (I feel sucker punched, here.)*

Sigh.

I really enjoy April Fool’s, look forward to smirking through out the day (example, our IT guy announced a way to reduce costs and energy usage through limited email access: Last names starting A through M will have email access 6:30 AM through 1:00 PM. Last names starting N through Z will have email access 1:00 PM through 7:30 PM.) And I was totally stoked that this year’s was on a Wednesday, my regular update day. But between the day job, freelance, baby care** and the 5 hours of sleep per night AND baby’s first shoulder dislocation this past Friday AND AND a sudden computer upgrade… just not meant to be. Not with me enjoying it, which is the whole point.

I was contemplating going with a simple “screw comics” post, but I already did that and caused unintended heartburn for some folks. And I don’t think I’m in the right mental space to pull that off, all things considered.

And I told Patrick I got this week so no update from him either, I’m afraid. Entertainingly enough, my original April Fool’s prank was to present a slick, hyper stylized, action and boob packed comic as Dicebox’s new direction. Kinda redundant now.

As penance, and a way to rev back up into Dicebox as I complete other obligations*** I will be attempting to post something in the Dicebox Process Journal at least six times a week for the month of April. I will start tonight with a one of the cleaned up and colorized sketches. And this weekend I’ll share some concept art for Book 2 that I was originally planning to share today a balm for goofiness.

Oh, and updates to Dicebox here on out: Patrick and I will be alternating every other week until he’s finished, allowing me time to ramp up fully as well for hime to wrap up this epic. And they’ll be truly Wednesday updates again! With as much material as we can manage in two weeks time.

See you on April 15th with the beginning of Dicebox Book 1: Part 9: Out of a Molehill. No fooling.

*What she really wants is to sleep in the bed with Kip and me, something I gave her a taste for when traveling–hated the crib arrangement, room temperature and we were in a king sized bed. It’s also part of her biggest growth spurt yet, not just size but mental activity and physical ability. And it’s the fact that she can now roll and hoist herself along and over things that has me firmly vetoing her sharing the bed with us. Which means a good couple of hours every night getting her to settle and go back to sleep. In her own bed/bassinet.

**By which I mean breast feeding. I produce at least a quart everyday for our little monkey girl and, man, what a time consuming, exhausting enterprise that is. Looking forward to weaning, tantrums and all. I’ve seen it compared to a part time job, seven days a week and boy they’re not kidding.

***And wean the Kid.

Licks butter off of door posts

I usually do some sort of drawing for the winter solstice on the solstice itself and what’s above is this year’s. This is my first piece of color in a couple of months; I literally dusted off the Cintiq to do it.

Instead of the typical Celtic/Wiccan/Robert Graves solstice theme, I thought I might see what other imagery I could play with and found this courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Saami, indigenous people of Finland, Sweden and Norway, worship Beiwe, the sun-goddess of fertility and sanity. She travels through the sky in a structure made of reindeer bones with her daughter, Beiwe-Neia, to herald back the greenery on which the reindeer feed. On the winter solstice, her worshipers sacrifice white female animals, and with the meat, thread and sticks, bed into rings with ribbons [sic]. They also cover their doorposts with butter so Beiwe can eat it and begin her journey once again.

Though I didn’t get it done for the solstice proper, I still thought it appropriate to share given the current snow bound state of Portland, Oregon. There is a truly impressive amount of snow on the ground for Portland, mostly unspoiled by plowing or shoveling. Something which I got to experience first hand during a foraging trek to the grocery store earlier today, where I happened to have bought butter among other things. Though we’ll be using it to put on pancakes, I think.

Cause comics makes everything better!

Mike Russell filed his report on Michael and Margo’s (Fake) Wedding over at Culture Pulp. He did a good job at capturing some choice highlights.

By the way, there’s another press report from “Lyle Dashwood, the columnist from The Oregonian’s little-known society pages” over on Alas.

My, what a busy week it was

First, yes, there will be another installment of Patrick Farley’s Dicebox Aside: “Don’t Look Back” at some point today, in fact. It’s been a busy week for Patrick and that’s partly my fault, other parts belonging to the Spouse and Dylan. And maybe Barry too. And, heck, Taran as well.

Patrick gamely assisted in clearing out basements, hauling fallen air conditioners, wrangling cats, cleaning house, picking up and dropping off folks at the airport, shopping, cooking, co-hosting a baby shower, getting food for pregnant ladies with headcolds and participating in a faux wedding as ceremony DJ. Nevermind breaking in the new computer that he got gratis to replace his clearly defective one this past weekend. I’m actually pleased he found time to get the bitchin’ tattoo he had planned on months ago.

So, yes, Kip’s Baby Shower happened this past weekend. Here’s the guest of honor himself:

It was a very nice shower, organized by Dylan and co-hosted by Patrick. I think the most notable thing was how most everyone showed up precisely at 1 o’clock–unknown to me after 12 years of having parties in Portland where I calculate the fact that folks will arrive about an hour after the start time. My only regret was being unable to chat with everyone (I guess it was kinda my shower too)

We had all just about recovered from the shower when we had to get prepped for a LARP wedding Tuesday evening in which I got to play the bride thanks to Taran. A very awkward and dumpy bride to boot. Here’s a lovely photo of Dylan in her role in Barry’s dream wedding:

She’s my second favorite groom ever.

Actually, thanks to Brenna, there’s a nice contrast between my ring exchange with Kip and the one with Dylan.

Kip and Jenn’s ring exchange:

Michael and Margo’s ring exchange:

That’s Brad officiating at Kip’s and my wedding up top; he’s also onstage at Michael and Margo’s wedding as Best Man and brother to the groom.

Barry, in who’s honor this was all put together, has a post about his impression of the faux wedding that include links to other folks entries and pictures. I imagine Dylan will add her two cents after she returns from her trip for work. I certainly hope so.

I have been doing things…

Some of the things I’ve been doing and not mentioning here are Dicebox updates. Though I’ve actually had help in that department: here is Billy Mudron’s The Illustrated Dicebox. And my updates, including today’s, can be found here. (Note: all of the above is NSFW)

But what’s been keeping me really busy these past few weeks (besides the day job) is my work as part of the Stumptown Comics Fest organizing committee.

As you all probably know, Stumptown was this past weekend and it went really swell. I’ve added my photos to the Stumptown Comics Festival 2008 Pool but have no real report to make. Instead, I direct you to the observations of others: Dylan’s, Ivy’s, Bill’s, Sara’s, Barry’s and Brenna’s - part 1, part 2 and part 3. More reports are appearing about the web, you can find some press reviews right here.

I was actually out of it most of the weekend and missed a lot of great things, including most of what was offer in the exhibit hall. One of the events I deeply regret having missed was the Comics Art Battle at Cosmic Monkey Comics Saturday night.

Photo by stutefish

Above is a great picture of Team Web: Christopher Baldwin, Dylan Meconis, Barry Deutsch and Bill Mudron. Or, as I like to call them, my people. Actually these folks really are my people, I have shared residence (and a bathroom) with all of them at one point or another. Nevermind than Dylan, Barry and I all updates our comics on Wednesday and take part in the same “collective storytelling experience” (aka, a role playing game) Oh, hey, and all four have done Dicebox fill-ins for me. Crazy.