One of my Sunday Comix cartoonist buddies, Sam, draws an online comic strip “The Adventures of Chad Cleanly.” Its always great fun hearing her tell me (or see her doodle) ideas for the strip and the next day or so seeing them posted online. (Compared to how my ideas take weeks, sometime months before they see the light of day.)

One idea she told me about when we were on a trip last weekend (or thereabouts) was in regards to Chad dealing with a crisis of journalistic integrity (he’s a news reporter). I was glad to hear she was delving into some character-driven (compared to plot-driven) issues…

…I was also pleased to discover I was going to be a new character in the strip!  I can’t wait to see what happens next!

At the Laughs At Lakeside gallery show, I met quite a few Ohio artists & cartoonists and was lucky enough to have some of them join the cartoonist group, Sunday Comix. One of them was the “newly minted” cartoonist Sue Olcott (that’s her on the left talking with another long-time local artist, Susan Sturgill).

Sue recently began writing & drawing this wonderful, quirky comic Onion City; in the vein of some of the great underground comix artists of the 60s & 70s:

At present, I don’t know how else to get a copy of her book besides you emailing here at optikstix_at_yahoo.com.

Anyway, when I saw her watercolor-styled art, I knew I found someone who could translate my (occasionally overwrought) B&W line work into and elevate it to another realm. So I asked her to color my version of Calvin & Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book; a tribute to Bill Watterson’s phenomenal comic. I think she did a stupendous job:

Cerebus Fangirl (aka Margaret) posted a bunch of photos from this past weekend.  I am so thankful for all the support I got from every one of the Cerebus Yahoo Group members who attended the show!  Below is a photo of all after the yearly post-SPACE-dinner at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus in German Village.  (Maybe someday, I’ll have Blink & Sam eat there…)

Back row (left to right): Eric A, Steve B, Dave S, Jeff S, Lenny, Steve P, and Jason W.

Front row (left to right): Chris W, Larry H, Margaret, Jeff T, and little ol’ me.

-::-

She also managed to take some photos of Dave & me during our “Glamourpussy Debate” (all of which I posted on my Flickr site)…

…as well as one of me working on a sketch for an old time friend & fan from KY. (Hi, Billy!)

My good friend Steve Peters came in from Willow Grove, PA to stay at my place for the weekend. He comes out to Columbus once a year (as many cartoonists do) for the annual Small Press & Alternative Comix Expo. This was the ninth annual show, last year it got “bumped up” to two days (Sat & Sun) and with the Friday night party that PANEL thru at the Monkey’s Retreat comic shop, it ended up being something of a three-day affair.

This year’s turn-out wasn’t as strong as last year’s (probably because of the show being held more than a month earlier than usual)… nevertheless, I did have a great time (and made a profit, to boot)!

I’d have to say one of the highlights of the weekend was giving Dave a framed print I made of Cerebus telling Blink and Sam that they weren’t quite “Glamourpussy” enough to be in Mr. Sim’s new Glamourpuss comic book. I managed to sell quite a few prints at the show– thanks to all the faithful Cerebus Yahoos. (Hopefully, you will get to see a copy of the print in question somewhere in the pages of Glamourpuss #2!)

Although I didn’t get to meet & greet all the cartoonists I wished to, I was able to connect with some old friends and made a few new ones, too. So, thanks to Bob, Dave, Chuck, Sam, Sue, Mike, Michael, Ray, Russell, Kel, Pam, Matt, Margaret, Jeff T., Jeff S., Lenny, Steve, Larry, Jason, J.D., Rafer, Ed, Allen, Eric B., Jerry, Troy, Adam, Dylan, Phil, Tom, Eric A., Pat, Nate, Billy, Shannon and everyone else (there are a few dozen whom I missed) who helped to make this year’s SPACE the best one ever!

Just a quick post…

Whew!  Both gallery shows that I was involved with over this past weekend went great.  (They really wore me out, too!)  Kafe Kerouac’s “Komics @ Kerouac” party was a fun time (casual, intimate, busy, laid-back, and so-much-more!)  and the Laughs At Lakeside exhibit opening at the High Road Gallery was a total blast in a different sort of way.  Because the K@K exhibit was hung in a coffee house (a stone-throw away from OSU campus), the clientèle was far more… mixed and some people just happened into the shindig, not knowing what the heck was going on.  “What’s this?”  “Why are you drawing comics?”  Is this yours?”  “That’s pretty good.” (etc.)  The L@L was more of a “typical” gallery event, albeit with cartoonists and the like… so the typical “snobbery” that I tend to encounter on those rare occasions I attend gallery shows rarely (if at all) surfaced.

Now that I’m “done” with the gallery stuff (until I need to go back & take the stuff down, that is), I’ve got to get ready for S.P.A.C.E.!  I’m working on an advert for the expo’s program book; two actually.  One for Blink and one for Sunday Comix.

The other reason I wanted to post something here was just an excuse to slap these sweet drawings of Blink on the site.  Every time I look at one of my drawing of her (and Sam), I just think how absolutely grateful I am to have managed to create these two wonderful, beautiful people… the fact that I get to create and write and draw their lives and share them with the world… it makes me so very, very happy.

That’s why the girls tend to smile a lot.

Waiting for my ride so that I can hang these photos on the walls at Kafe Kerouac for the Sunday Comix gallery show. I’m so excited!

Maybe you know, maybe you don’t know… I’m a father.

I have three fantastic, wonderful, beautiful teenagers. Two daughters– Gigi & Ashley and my son Aaron (to whom I dedicated “Barefoot in America, Breakfast in the Park.”) Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I don’t live with my children and only get to see them maybe once or twice a month. So it goes. I could bitch and moan about what I wish was different, what choices I would have made in the past (if only I could have made them), how I’d like my life to be different now… etc. etc.

…but I find that it’s better to be grateful for what I do have now and work towards making my life the best that I can.

Whenever I see them or talk with them on the phone or chat with them online, I do everything I can to remind them how much I love them. It will never ever be enough…

Here’s a little doodle I just did in my journal after chatting online with my daughter Gigi (and reminding her about coming to one of my upcoming gallery shows).

I love you, sweetie.

I went to Half Price Books yesterday (there are five in Columbus), specifically looking for some music from the Fruit Bats (Mouthfuls, Spelled in Bones) or maybe a Nada Surf CD (none to be found). I ended up buying “The Raw & The Remix,” a Fine Young Cannibals remix disc from 1990.

Of course, I had to check out their graphic novel selection. So I picked up a few “non-fiction” books: Adrian Tomine’s “Scrapbook” ($10!), “The Essential Guide to World Comics” by Tim Pilcher and Brad Brooks (I borrowed this encyclopedic tome from the Columbus Met Library a few months ago– it’s a good, overall informative comic book resource) and “Does this Cape Make Me Look Fat?” by Chelsea Cain and Marc Mohan (totally fucking hilarious). I also found “The Long Chalkboard and Other Stories” by Jenny Allen and Jules Feiffer (yay!), as well as a smattering of other actual graphic novels. When I walked up to the counter to pay for my haul I had one book on the top of my stack that I was very excited about and couldn’t resist voicing my enthusiasm to the cashier:

“Excuse me, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask you a rather self-centered and potentially pretentious question.”

“Go ahead.”

“If I am one of the authors of this book, do I get a discount?”

“I doubt it sir, but if you’d like, I can ask the manager.”

“No, that’s okay. It’s just not everyday that I see this book in a bookstore.”

“So, you really wrote this?

“Nah, I just drew it.”

“Amoeba Adventures. Sounds fun.”

Yeah, so there I was, in Half Price Books, holding “Amoeba Adventures: Mushrooms and Dinosaurs,” written by the great Nik Dirga and illustrated by yours truly. Nik was the creator of the whole Protoplasm Press universe—writing and illustrating these hilarious, adventurous stories of Prometheus the Amoeba and the rest of the All-Star Spongy Squadron: Rambunny, Ninja Ant, Karate Kactus, Dawn Star and Cyrone Julian Spifinov (formerly “Dr. Spif,” then “Mr. Spif” and eventually just plain Spif). Mr. Dirga began self-publishing Amoeba Adventures on his own in 1990 and I (as of issue #14) became the regular artist on the book in 1994, joining him in the creation of “all things spongy.”

Jeez. We had a hell of a lot of fun back then.

“Mushrooms and Dinosaurs” collected issues 15-19 of the series (there were 27 total issues) and it was my very first published trade paperback comic book (and currently my only one).

As I was having a little nostalgic flashback with my cashier, Gwen, the other nearby cashier overheard us talking. She didn’t have any customers to ring up, so she chimed in: “Amoeba Adventures? What’s that? Oh, this Prometheus looks so cute! Wow, you drew this book? I’d love to read it.”

Long story short, I let the other cashier (Grace) keep the book, gave them both postcard invites (with sketches) to one of my upcoming gallery show (Komics @ Kerouac) and bicycled home beneath a clear, brisk January evening sky.

I invite you to the opening reception on Sunday, February 3rd, for “Laughs at Lakeside” : Cartoon and Graphic Arts by Ohio artists.  I am one of over a dozen artists on display through February at The High Road Gallery at 12 E. Stafford Ave in Worthington, Ohio.  With the cooperation of the National Cartoonists Society Great Lakes Chapter and Steve Boreman, who is chair of the show, cartoonists will exhibit framed or matted originals and prints.  Artists whose work will be on exhibit include Russell Merritt, Ron Hill, Susan Sturgell, Paul Palnik, Judith Vierow, and Sunday Comixers Matt Wyatt & your very own Max Ink. (I’ll be exhibiting three pages from “Space To Breathe.”) The show dates are January 30 through February 23.

The free Artists’ reception on Sunday, February 3rd, will take place from 2-4 PM. The cartoonist group I run, “Sunday Comix”, will head a “cartoonists’ jam session” during the opening in which all artists are invited to a progressive cartoon, adding their skills to the panels as they are drawn. Mike Patrick will select prizes for entries in the show and awards will be given at the reception.

Three dimensional additions to the show are enamel pins by Susan Hunt and felted vessels by Suzanne Pusecker.

The High Road Gallery is located in Worthington at 12 East Stafford Ave, one block north of 161 off High Street. Gallery hours are 12-4 Wednesday through Friday and 11:30 to 4 on Saturday. Gallery phone is 614-781-6454. Visit www.highroadgallery.org for more information.

A few weeks ago, I joined Martin Wagner’s Yahoo! Group. I’d read Mr. Wagner’s Hepcats back in the mid 90’s (during the Sim-Self-Publishing boom) and he quickly became an influence on my drawing style of the time. His detailed rendering and ability to draw so precisely was a trait a desired to call my own. Sometimes I think the work I do today comes close to what he had accomplished over a decade ago, but I still have a long way to go.

Anyhow, both Martin & I love the band Yes. So I ordered a print of one of my favorite pages (that’s Joey wearing the classic Yes t-shirt) along with a sketch. As a token of my esteem for Martin’s work I sent him a couple of Blink books. Well, wasn’t I surprised when I saw this a few days later!

Yesterday, my buddy Slay emails me this review by Comics Worth Reading’s very own Johanna Draper Carlson (who happens to be a member or Mr. Wagner’s Yahoo Group)!

I’d have to say my favorite quote is:

“Not the kind of edgy stuff you might equate with most alt-comix, but a nice counterbalance to that sort of work. They’re like little stories to read when you’re in a foul mood and want a pick-me-up.”

I’m certain to get a lot of mileage out of that one.