It’s Passover and it’s Easter, and Easter includes my favorite exclamation of all, as seen above. I thought I’d switch things up a bit this week and do more showing and less telling. Maybe you’ll like this drawing some stoner kid did in his notebook in highschool…

OK, actually there was a guy on the L train platform playing the blues b’jesus out of Amazing Grace and had me literally on the verge of tears. I didn’t have any dollars, though! Only change! I emptied my pocket, but he totally deserved better. So I guess maybe I thought I could make it up to him by drawing him on the ride home? Annnnd, (that’s the Obama speaking delay) how about this? I don’t know if Cait’s melancholy is rubbing off on me, or maybe I’m just overwhelmingly frustrated right now. I’ve been fighting customers at work and generally going around moping. Anyhow, He is risen!

I’ve broken my covenant with the Internet! A whole week without a post! I’m into regimens and routines right now. At least one blog every week, doing ’shups even after my going clazy day. Also yesterday I got Wii Fit and the talking balance board told me to set goals for myself, with specific deadlines, so I can achieve! I’m a change agent! Speaking of which, I’m serious about the cartoon school thing, at least I think I am. At the very least I’m seriously sending off my materials next week. One of the application requirements is a comic featuring yourself, a robot, a snowman and a piece of fruit. It’s turning out pretty well; two out of three pages are done-zo. Not to brag or anything.

Golly, this might need to be scanned again, but on a real scanner. This green pen never scans well, I guess. Hell, it’s sorta hard to read on the actual paper. Nonetheless, I give you 2 Models:

Yes, it’s true. Every single illustrator/cartoonist/comic book artist/graphic novelist/blogger in New York draws people on the subway. I even hear they do it in Chicago, too.

These guys here are both Mets fans, so I guess we’re all kindred spirits. The one playing something on his PDA was on the 7 out to Shea Stadium, and the guy in the hat was on his way home from work ’round about midnight, just like me. How about that?

This heat wave is serious business. The PATH train is catching fire, the G train is suspending service. The breeze feels like sticking your head in an oven to check on the pizza. Basically, I’ve been coping by sitting around in my underwear all morning. Somehow, around noon I feel the urge to work on something. Wellll, that something is quite often a little frog with a beautiful rainbow.

Yes, loyal bloggers, the famous frog is reaching a point of completion. I’m just not sure if I’m going to go with the gray fill that appeared previously or not. Probably yes.

I’m sick of spelling. I’m sure everybody else in the world is too. Why not make phonics actually work, especially if that’s how we’re going to teach people to read and to write? Wouldn’t it make sense to condense our language a bit? (Wudn’t it maak sens too kondens aur laqwij a bit?)

Nobody needs Q as it is. But, Q looks similar to G, so it can be NG.
X is also useless, but since it’s like a crooked T, it can stand in for TH.
No need for Z either, so turn that backwards S into SH!
C can be replaced by K or S where it makes those sounds, but we need it for CH, so it will do that on its own.
G will always be hard G, J will always be soft J.

Now, I admit the vowels are much harder. This is probably the most imperfect part of my New Spelling, and I admit it could use some work. But I’m trying to avoid accents and letter combinations, and to use only the letters we already have. Then again, the vowels as they stand are pretty freakin’ imperfect.

A alone is hard like cat
AA is long like ate
E is like ebb
EE is like pee
I is like imp
II is like eye
O is like pot (and like walk)
OO is like oar
U is like up (and like what, and at least for now, also like bird)
UU is like poo
Y is a consonant!

Ookaa, yuu kan luk foor moor uv xis in xu fyuucur. Heer’s a kupl droweeqs, boox storted wix xu litl droweeqs of karakturs II’m wurkeeq on and xen II druu giis on xu traan:

It’s about time there were some sketches on this sketchblog. These are both recent drawings. The first is a subway sketch. I usually draw old men, or at least weird-looking men so that people don’t think I’m a perv. I suppose I could have a Weird Old Man perversion…

The second one came from reading Ivan Brunetti’s little lesson plan pamphlet in the most recent Comic Art. He was talking about how, when you draw somebody else’s character fast and without reference, the character maintains her defining characteristics and gains a certain charm. Actually, I drew that blissed-out naked guy first, then Charlie Brown, then Snoopy, and then the fart bubbles and thought bubbles. Man, two posts with Charlie Brown involved, and I’m not even a fan — blah blah blah, some visual blog this is!