See you this weekend at the Opera House!

ATTENTION CALIFORNIANS!

Do you live in LA, Ventura, Santa Barbara or Kern County? Willing to drive to Thousand Oaks, CA this Sunday afternoon (Aug 14)?

I’ve got a difficult page coming up that requires an unusual crowd shot and I’ve decided I need photo reference. Aiming for 2-3pm. If you’d like to participate, please email me and I’ll send more details.

Thanks and hope to see you this weekend!

Lucy Knisley knows how it feels.

My family and I are still unpacking from our recent move. I’ve spent a big chunk of my adult life in a sea of partially unpacked boxes. And worst of all is my email inbox.

I’m going to be updating this blog a bit more infrequently moving forward as I chip away at that inbox and continue work on my GN, but you can always follow me via rss, and be sure to keep an eye on my Google+ and Twitter accounts.

• Motorcycle Dealers

Haha, look who I’m tied with. Also being on this more personal list made me smile.

Been looking for an excuse to link to Cameron Stewart’s beautifully rendered Sin Titulo. This news seems reason enough.

Finally, in keeping with last week’s post (and Google+ mini-meme) on art we did when we were 15 years-old, here’s an interview with talented cartoonist and entrepreneur, 14 year-old Emma Capps. The girl’s reading Asterios Polyp, People. This next generation will be something to see.

Okay, this has nothing to do with comics, but it’s on my mind, so…

Sky and I have noticed a difference between bands of my generation, and more recent bands we like.

Whereas old bands like Boston, Chicago, and Kansas all formed in the city or state they’re named for, check out these geographically baffling examples from recent years…

Of Montreal: From Athens, Georgia.

Architecture in Helsinki: From Australia.

The Middle East: Also from Australia!

Beirut: From Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I’m From Barcelona: From Sweden.

So what’s up, global music scene? Why are you messing with our heads??

My old pal, Steve Bissette lays down the law after the recent Kirby heirs court decision.

I’m too busy with my GN to look deeply into the specifics of this case, but I did offer a brief general comment on Google+.

Jack and Roz Kirby are buried just a few miles from here. Maybe I’ll swing by this week to pay my respects.

Like so many of his generation, “the King” deserved better than he got.

…because they got more help than anyone expected!

(Though you’re welcome to buy the book when it comes out, of course.)

In the Independent Pavillion at San Diego, one of my former workshop students, the talented Jean Kang, told me about Womanthology and how their Kickstarter had rocketed past its goal.

Phenomena like Kickstarter are among the many reasons I understand and support Peter Laird’s decision to wind down the Xeric Foundation grants. This massive network of talent that we interact with on a daily basis has plenty of homegrown solutions for hungry artists up its sleeve. The days are gone when lone cartoonists had to turn to a lone source for help in entering a single door.

I’m glad Xeric was there all these years, but I’m happier still that there’s still so much more potential on the horizon.

—

Update: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WINTER! Our little girl is 16 years-old today, and visiting NYC with her Mom (Sky got Shanghai with Dad, so Winter asked for Broadway and there’s no way Ivy would pass up that trip!). They’ve already seen Catch Me if You Can and Billy Elliot. Wicked and The Fantastics, still to come.

Drawn when I was 15 years-old [larger version] with an obvious Neal Adams influence (though the borderline disco pose was my unfortunate invention).

Kurt and I made these comic book character drawings in high-school for a role-playing game we never really finished.

I’d been drawing these things for exactly three months (Feb 16, 1976; yes I dated them) but wouldn’t do any actual comics pages until that summer.

…this is the most nonsensical product name ever.

Another thing that happened while the blog was asleep: I joined Google Plus.

I don’t spend much time on social networks. My life is broken down roughly into a hierarchy of Work, Family, Food, Sleep, Friends, and Recreation and that last one usually involves family if possible. Also the first one takes up a huge part of each day.

Still, I’ve found my Twitter account useful for short bursts sent out to many people (about 230,000 followers as of this morning, though that seems to include more than my share of bots), and Facebook, well… you kinda have to have Facebook. So I do. But I’ve never been a fan.

Yesterday, I asked on all three a hypothetical question: If you had to get rid of either Google+ or Facebook forever, which would it be.

Despite being only a few weeks old, G+ users (in 142 responses, as of this morning) were nearly unanimous that they’d nuke FB without batting an eyelash. My Facebook fan page followers (my personal page is pretty small and hard to link to) offered 34 responses, with less enthusiasm, but mostly stood by the service. Twitter… well, take a look.

Google paid me to do the Chrome comic a few years ago, so I can’t ever claim to be 100% impartial, but the truth is I kinda love Google Plus so far, and will probably shift my attention there much more than Facebook as the service grows.

What little attention I can spare for these things anyway. Still have a book to draw!