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.

So. It’s been quite a busy year for me, some good, some bad, but actually mostly good. Besides the weekly routine of the day job, home maintenance, child-rearing and freelance projects, I’ve actually gotten back on track in updating Dicebox on a regular, nay, weekly basis. (In fact, here have been 15 pages since I last updated this journal.)

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.

Since I last posted to this journal:

• - 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.