This week’s two page update of Dicebox completes Book 1: Wander, which clocks in at 289 pages.

This’ll be the last Dicebox update of the year as I will be using the next couple of months to work on the rewrites to Book 1. This will entail creating 6 additional pages of story (and perhaps the elimination of ten existing pages) along with other art and word tweaks throughout. I’ll also be redesigning Dicebox.net in preparation of Book 2, rebuilding the archive with ComicPress which will hopefully be easier to maintain as well as offer more flexibility in navigating pages and so on.

Completing Book 1 took twice as long as I anticipated. But then, Book 1 ended up 90 pages longer than what I reckoned on. And there was that whole getting pregnant and having a baby episode. Book 2 should go much quicker as it’s a tighter story and there will be no more offspring for me (I’m a “one and done” kinda mom). Also, I think I have a handle on cartooning and where I want to go with it, the source of much fumbling early on.

Book 2 : Chase will begin on January 11th 2011, which is a Tuesday, the new update day for Dicebox. January 11th will also be the day I’ll open up pre-orders for the print edition of Book 1.

I’ve also been actually to get out and do things, like see live music preformed by Jecsa Hoop, Robyn Hitchcock and Janelle Monáe (not on the same night). My most recent musical outing was earlier this week to see and sketch a dress rehearsal of the Portland Opera’s current production of “Hansel and Gretel.”

For the past two productions, Portland Opera has invited a gaggle of cartoonists to come watch the Monday dress rehearsal before opening night and create art from their impressions of the same. Mike Russel has posted a summary of the first one, a production of “Paliacci” & “Carmina Burana” (which I couldn’t attend, alas) which includes links to reports of cartoonists as well as his live sketch blogging previous operas.

Below are my expanded sketches from the visual “notes” I took during the dress rehearsal of a very frenetic performance.

Sandman comes

Gretel in the woods

These are actually executed digitally in Photoshop, using brushes to mimic the colored pencil and pastel on colored paper I brought to draw on during the rehearsal. I tried to keep the execution expressive and loose, reminiscent of my approach to life drawing.

Below are examples of the sketches I did during the performance, including the gesture drawing I built the expanded sketches on. (click on thumbnail for a larger view)

Other cartoonists who attended include Barry Deutsch, Jonathan Case, Indigo Kelleigh, Emi Lenox,Adrian Wallace, Tally Nouriget, Trixie Biltmore and about eight others whose “Hansel and Gretel” art can be viewed on the Portland Opera website itself.

So since the last time I’ve updated this journal, there’s been 6 pages of Dicebox. Um, yeah, sorry about that to all those that use this journal to know about such updates. Life’s been crazy busy and exhausting but not in anyway that’s interesting, I’m afraid. Except that I managed to update this week’s page precisely on time, I was very excited about that.

Now next week’s page might be a bit tardy due to the Stumptown Comics Fest happening this weekend. I’ll be sharing a table with Kip Manley and Barry Deutsch with not much to sell myself but happy to say "Hi!" (If I’m not walking the Kid or forced to strangle Bill Mudron sitting behind us)

Another thing I’d like to bring to your attention is Patrick Farley’s Kickstarter bid to relaunch E-Sheep Comics. If you have a couple bucks to spare, I urge you to donate to the cause as this will allow him to be in a position to complete Spiders, Apocamon not to mention "Don’t Look Back." I, for one, am eager to see how all these tales wind up.

Here I am, doing weekly updates again! This week with page 13 of part 9 : Out of a Molehill. After reading it I’ll bet you’ll figure out why I wish I could’ve uploaded this page last week.

Then there’s the fact that I wrote this and the next scene years ago. There are some shifts and changes, naturally, but the essence is the same. which makes the timing of this page even funnier for me. And, oddly, really drives home how damn close I am to finally being done with this first Book of Dicebox.

The inspiration came from the spectacular lunar eclipse I witnessed on February 21, 2008—which is also when I got my first hint I might be pregnant. My last cycle had begun right before the full moon in January, And as my cycle is a fairly regular 26 days and I’m more likely to start early than late… Well, let’s just say that five days later I bought my first and only pregnancy test.

A quick explanation of the symbolism: the hare helps identify the red disk as the moon, but also happens to be our family’s totem animal. As for the four cloud birds —I happened to see the eclipse with clouds—they reference to the ol’ folk augury rhyme, “four is for birth.”

(Tattoo done by Matt Reed of TigerLily Tattoo, designed by me.)

• - I’ve posted 10 pages of Dicebox, the latest, page 11 of Part 9 : Out of a Molehill, having gone up today.
• -Patrick has posted 18 pages to the bring his epic Dicebox guest comic, “Don’t Look Back” to a whopping 52 pages (and it’s still not done).
• -Kip has added three chapters to City of Roses.
• -Taran mastered crawling and has started walking.
• -I took part in two group art shows.
• -I gave JennManleyLee.com a complete overhaul.
• -Lived through off-and-on house renovation and repair.
• -And did many other things I can’t talk about yet or are too boring to recount.

Next up, after opening the Store at jennmanleylee.com and fixing some broken things at dicebox.net, I plan to try to use this journal once a week. We’ll see how I do.

If you are so inclined, please hie thee hence and give this design a score. Another one of mine should be appearing in a day or so on the Threadless site for scoring as well. Fun fact: these first two design aren’t actually the original idea I has for a Threadless t-shirt; I’m still tinkering with it.

Finally began the last part of Book 1 of Dicebox with this action packed page(permalink).

Forgive me father/mother/sister/brother it has been 43 weeks since my last update.

…

I just died a little there calculating the time lapse.

I actually drew 62 pages of comics during that time–just not Dicebox. Work for hire stuff, babies cost money and all that. But those pages don’t count, somehow. (I try not to think about how if they were all Dicebox pages I’d be done with Part 1 of Book 2. Nope, not thinking about it. Not me.)

All’s this to say it feels good to be actually doing updates on Diceboxagain. It feels right, even with all my dissatisfactions with this page* Actually, that feels right too.

Now as I’m still in a time of chaos and upheaval,** I will be alternating weeks with Patrick until “Don’t Look Back” finishes. I’m hoping my updates will become multipage affairs soon. Truth be told, I was hoping to make this update 4 pages in length as this is a slow passage even for me and will be more sensible and purposeful with the next three pages. Oh well, best laid plans and all that.

To sum up: I MISSED TORMENTING MY LADIES. Glad to be back to it. I feel like a whole person again.

*If you subscribe to the RSS feed, it’ll update after I correct one faux pas when I get off work)

**Not just the Kid, but some home repair that has currently left an office nomad. I can make art just about anywhere, but my work flow gets seriously disrupted which makes me less efficient.

I’m actually talking about me and my lack of posts for, um…

…a month and a half.

Huh. Didn’t actually realize it had been that long.

I should have at least made note of new Dicebox Aside pages by Patrick Farley. Well, if you depend on this journal for update notices, you now have 5 pages of “Don’t Look Back” to enjoy, starting right here.

And as for my starting up Dicebox proper again on March 4th… yeah, that didn’t happen. Combination of workload and lingering carpal tunnel complications among other things. Though I will resume doing Dicebox beginning in April. Dammit.

Across town from me, at this moment, my daughter is wearing this very ensemble. That thought pleases me. (Note the stylish R. Stevens original onesie she’s sporting.)

Who else has been rocking it is Patrick Farley in his Dicebox saga “Don’t Look Back.” I realize that I’ve neglected mentioning it here for the past couple of weeks. If you depend on this journal for update notices, you’ll wanna go back to page 27 for the last three pages.

But back to talking about my daughter. Taran is 13 weeks old as of today and is indeed rocking my world. And shaking it, rearranging it, spitting up on it…

I never really sought to be a mother but I have to say it’s actually kinda awesome. There’s nothing like watching the person she is and is becoming emerge each day. This past Sunday, she invented her first game.

Here’s how it goes: while I hold her against my shoulder, she looks at and engages the person sitting next to us. Then she squeals in delight and hides her face against my neck. Then turns back to the the person and begins again. She did this most recently with Bill; both seemed to enjoy it immensely.

Of course this whole motherhood thing has been very challenging for me, especially since returning to the day job a couple weeks ago. And frustrating in regards to getting art done. However, I’m managing and have actually figured out when I’ll be resuming Dicebox: March 4th. I might be splitting updates with Patrick as he finishes his mini retro epic, but the show will (finally) go on.