On being liberal

It was one of those days...


It's old news, but i learned today that one of the co-founders and current(?) CEO of Anthropologie, Free People et al has been a major political backer for Rick Santorum. I try not to get political on this blog, but i find his anti-gay/anti-women campaign pretty sickening, and as much as i love those stores i can't shop there in good conscience anymore. I would encourage those who feel similarly to do the same.

Sometimes it's hard to be a politically conscious liberal (WHINE). All the things i like are apparently distributed by bastards. I guess it's time to find new things, and continue practicing my brand of low-investment soft activism.
(still shopping at Whole Foods because i like their sushi, damnit!)

First world problems: EXTREME HOME EDITION

On my day off I took my car in to get fixed (LIKE A GROWNUP!), walked home from the car place (didn't plan that out super well, but at least the weather was great today!), baked some bread and... this happened:


I gave that ornery wine bottle what-for by chugging the rest of what didn't wind up in my carpet.
The experience has taught me that you can fit approximately one whole bottle of wine into a roll of paper towels.

Havin' some problems :)

F'in Derby! (some language)

Some friends and i went to a roller derby bout this weekend! Roller derby is a super fun thing, possibly the coolest spectator sport. There are teams in cities all over the country, but here in LA we have the Derby Dolls! Saturday's bout was an all-star match between the L.A. Ri-ettes (get it?) and the San Diego Wildfires. It was also the last 21+ bout to be hosted at the Doll Factory, so the announcers decided to play it blue while they still could.


So much fun! Those girls are way tough.

Return of the King comics

I got The Lord of the Rings trilogy on blue-ray a while back and i finally started watching them before christmas. Last night i finished it off with Return of the King. I grew up with my dad reading those books to me, and the movies were a pretty big part of the backdrop of my high school/early college years. Every time i watch those movies it's like a nice, warm, nostalgia blanket.

I made some comics!
I'd forgotten about that wave of skulls.

And then the cursed ghosts help them win a war. Hooray!
If this comic was a lesson in drawing Aragorn's mustache (or composing things in comics panels) i'm not sure how much i really learned.

I feel like this was one of the jokes my nerd crew and i had. We have a lot of jokes about Lord of the Rings. Now this joke is a comic.

(i may have chopped the wrong finger off the wrong hand here. OOPS)

Who's excited about The Hobbit! I know i am.
I'll leave you with this gem:

Don't get attached. (Spoilers, maybe)

I'm mostly through Storm of Swords, the third book in the Song of Ice and Fire series ("the game of throne books" to most people). Jason's started on Game of Thrones (the first book) and he likes to make jokes, but he hasn't gotten that far. He doesn't even know...
(Cropped for minor spoilers, click for full comic)


I drew myself holding a book, even though i'm reading it on the Kindle. I figured it would be a nicer graphical read. How weird is it, though, that in a few generations a tablet is going to be the recognized icon for reading material? KIDS TODAY.

Scarf Cat and Wolf Girl

We had our Winter Micro Gallery show at work earlier this week. There were holiday themed decorations and treats! Oh yeah, and art.
I did these! First, it's Quincy in winter gear!

He doesn't actually have winter gear because he doesn't need it in LA. Also he's got layers of fat. I don't think he'd be too thrilled about it anyway.

This second one happened because i've been reading a lot of Song of Ice and Fire (currently on Storm of Swords), although this isn't supposed to be any character in particular. But hey, what's more wintery than Winterfell?:


Thought i'd post some process stuff for this, cause i actually like it :)
Here's my mock-up sketch, plus a practice wolf drawing. I have learned... that wolves are fluffy.


I sometimes wind up taking photos of my paintings as i do them, mostly because i think paint set-ups look really cool and there's something about seeing a painting in the context of colorful splattered paint palettes. In this case i also wanted to get pictures of the ink work before i painted it (i was too lazy to scan it).

I've started to get into Paul Pope's work. I've got a couple of his comics that i need to start reading, but mostly i love the way he draws. It's really raw-looking inky brush lines, but he's got amazing control with it and knows how to throw in just the right amount of detail. So i've been playing with that, trying to get better with a brush pen. If nothing else it's a lot of fun... and is teaching me patience, waiting for ink to dry.

And the finished version (ooooh aaaaah)