Back in June, Caitlin and I made this birthday card for our dear Devon. Cait collaged some old screen prints, some rock rabbits (cute, right?) from Wild Life the World Over (1950), and money. Then I drew the Queen Rock Rabbit. Fun in different media, you guys! That’s the theme. Now hold on tight because I’m about to gush.

Remember how I said this was gonna be the Summer of Collaboration? Well, I did. And well, it has been, and actually still is. Just as I started to feel like I’d taken on too many projects, some started to finished, and I’ve realized that this was exactly how I wanted to follow up two years of intensive cartooning study and practice. I got what I wished for! At times, I felt anxious, or like I wasn’t doing any of my own work, but with some distance–and some time spent with family and with old friends–I realized that it’s worked out perfectly, and in many ways better than I could have hoped.

For one, I’ve been a color assistant for Joe Lambert, whose work (posted on Drawn!) got me to take CCS seriously in the first place. Last year, after some discussion that included my offering to be the Center for Cartoon Studies’ indentured servant, James Sturm offered me the gig. Oh, what? Work with my friend, a cartoonist whose work I continue to whole-heartedly admire and aspire to? Yes, please.

Joe’s written and drawn the latest in the Cartoon Studies Presents series of biographies published by Hyperion. It’s about Helen Keller and her mentor Annie Sullivan, but it’s a whole lot more than The Miracle Worker. I’ve tried to treat this project like any other work, which means striving to do it as fast and as well as I can (productivity! America!). So, my read so far has been only cursory, and has focused on finding clues to help my coloring. Even still, it made me cry twice. I can’t wait to sit down and read the finished book.

Jess Abston as Tibby Bonet as Paradisa in Nymphonomena. Photo by Colleen Frakes.

Doing the first pass of colors (Joe has been revising them, and our pal Dakota has co-assisted on the last leg of the project), I felt like a cinematographer, trying to help establish mood or location with lighting and set colors. For the swelter and hazy humidity of a Southern summer, I pushed up the atmospheric perspective. For certain scenes, I aimed at romanticism, or grim drudgery, or shock. I don’t know how much of this Joe has chosen to use, but he’s the director, you know? He doesn’t have to take every suggestion I throw at him.

Speaking of movies, this summer the Nymphonomenauts have been taking our little collaboration about a gender-bending space rock opera in new, exciting directions. More on that later.

In the meantime, I’ve mostly taken a break from drawing comics. I think I needed it. I’ve been doodling idly in my sketchbook, making new oddities, and thinking vaguely about character designs. I’ve been building Legos and coloring/printing some of my comics from the past year. I’ve been reading comics like crazy, and devouring anything I can find about comics online and in the Schulz Library. And now, I miss drawing them! I can’t wait! Sure, I’ve still been making a new Farmy strip every three weeks (and I think this running collaboration is going to better and better places), but I’m truly excited to make some new little comedies, and I’m starting to think that maybe I won’t give up on Petrified Girlfriend, even.

—- ++++ —-

As things turned out, we became close friends, and he and his wife Becca are one no-foolin aspect of what makes a prolonged stay in White River Junction appealing. Did I mention that Caitlin and I are sticking it out in Vermont for another year? Well, we are. [BACK]

If you didn’t go to art school, that means making things grayer/lighter/bluer as they recede into the distance. Aren’tcha glad you know now?? [BACK]

Here’s one I’ve been sitting on for a while. For, like a year. This was when my ex-roommate, my ex-ex!-EX!-rooommate Todd was updating a blog every once in a while. Which was before Dan McCool and I (he hatching ideas from his six heads like Scylla, and I sucking wayfaring cartoonists into a depthless cavity of deadlines and despair as Charybdis) pulled him into the spiraling vortex of Farmy Acres. Now Todd McArthur’s after-work creative time is mine! ALL MINE!*

As I was saying, Todd drew that on the subway in his Moleskine. I said I’d love to see it in color, he said, “So why don’tcha color it?? Neener-nyaaa-nya!!” So I did. I limited myself to the colors (if not the style) of classic comics. This is something I keep doing to myself.

The image is apropos, readers, it’s apropos. And yes, I’ve been looking for an excuse to write “apropos.” Isn’t it so weird that it ends with an “s”? It’s apropos because this is the summer of collaboration. Right now I’m in the process of assisting the acclaimed Joe Lambert as a colorist on an up-coming book. I’m also on a top secret mission with the Nymphonomena crew, as well as some…other stuff…which we’ll get to. Because, I’m trying to get my blog posts back down to a reasonable length. I figure they will as I get back into the habit of writing em.

Speaking of which, the Party Time I alluded to when last we spoke, well, it ended pretty quick. I’ve been running back and forth between Vermont and New York, working long days, fretting, taking meetings, all of it. Real life started again. Just like that! Again I’m starting to see what things I can live without. I want to simplify. I wanna get rid of some stuff. I’m having my lump looked at before I turn 26 and rejoin the legions of uninsured Americans.

Look forward to more regular updates this summer, precious reader. There is much to talk about, and I’ve scanned a buncha sketchbook pages, too.

*As it was once before, in a dream…
–Punctilious Pat

And then! I came home, and there was an order for some comics from stores in the United Freaking Kingdom!! It’s my first order over seas and I’m pumped! (And don’t forget the shop.)

The night ended with drawing and drinking with friends, and martinis in honor of Alec’s Pop. It was a bittersweet note to go out on, but how better to end a glorious day than by toasting the life of a guy who sounded like both a lot of fun and a profound influence on a great cartoonist. And I’ve got things to share, like a new song. I did the Big-Bopper-on-the-phone segments of Chantilly Lace for my pal Dan “Friend Savage” McCool.

And speaking of projects with Dan, here’s a glimpse of what I’m working on. This will either hit the internets in August or never at all.

She’s a groundhog, and she’s Catholic. That’s all I’m saying. (So click it; yuh’ll big it!)

Before our tearful goodbyes, Dan McCool and I had two days of serious brotimes. On Monday we got stoned, we walked all over the Village, we were this close to getting matching T-shirts at Uniqlo, but there was nothing good in Dan’s size, although we did get cool sunglasses on the street and we also looked at this sweet mural at Houston and the Bowery. As we were chomping down on some falafel, I got called to duty making corrections on not one, but two, illustration jobs. This was a big disappointment because it cut our broday short. We were hoping to have an afternoon Drawing Adventure, but had to go home instead. We made up for it by jammin’ on some comics, one of which is below, the other of which is on Dan’s blog. If you can’t tell (again, that probably makes you not my friend), I kicked this one off, Dan continued it, and backsy-forthsy all the way. We did the two simultaneously so we could both be drawing at once. (If you click it, you’ll enlarge it.)