Whattaya know, but my alter ego has gone branding-crazy. His thirst for market saturation has taken him so far as to brazenly co-opt a national drinking holiday! Surely, this is a new low for marketing.

I know I said that I wouldn’t blog for a while, but it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and in certain ethnic circles, you get a pass from your Lentin Resolve on St. Patrick’s Day. I’ll probably blog once or twice more before Easter, too, concerning the MoCCA Fest. I’ll be there, April 9th & 10th at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Ave. It’s a good time to mention that location, history fans, because during the Civil War, the New York 69th were known as the Irish Brigade. Remember that, in case Alex Trebek ever asks you about it in the form of an answer. Anyhow, I’ll be there with Beth Hetland, Josh Kramer and Ben Horak. I challenge you to find a lovelier set of young cartoonists.

I’m not normally a fan of St. Patrick’s Day, even though it is my Feast Day. I’ve often felt that it’s too centered on perpetuating a stereotype of the Micks as all-day, fightin-mad, fall-down Drunks. Kiss Me, I’m Irish. Irish for the Day. Yaddayadda, all these beer-branded green T-shirts just so some bros can pregame on the commuter train and get hammered before 10:00 in the morning.

This year, though, for some reason I’m excited. I’m pulling out the Clancy Brothers tunes, and visions of blood pudding are dancing through my head. And so I’ve drawn you another faux-vintage little holiday web card. It’s just for you, The Whole Internet.

This Thursday, March 10, the grand state of Vermont will name James Kochalka as its first Cartoonist Laureate. More information about the position can be found at Vermont’s own Center for Cartoon Studies website. The title was conceived and advocated by CCS’s founder James Sturm. I was lucky enough to be in the right room when he was looking for somebody to design an official seal to accompany the honor.

When somebody is crowned Laureate, an obvious choice of leaf with which to adorn the title is laurel. The freakin root of the friggin word, alright? Cartooning has something to do with ink and with panels, Vermont has something to do with mountains, and above you see some variations on these themes. Before I got to sketching, James and I also talked about incorporating an image of the exhaulted cartoonist honored for each three-year term into the design itself. Some demented version of Kochalka’s American Elf self-portrait therefore found its way into many of these drawings.

Sturm added some information to my first doodle (top-left in the previous image). We discussed replacing the shield at the bottom of the design with just an ink pot. We also decided that we’d make two versions of the crest, one with the descriptive text encircled by the laurels, and one with the Kochalka elf head replacing at least the “Vermont Cartoonist Laureate” language. While we talked, James (Sturm, that is) also recommended some places to eat in Seattle.

I went off and drew this. To me, the graphic needed to feel as if it had all the weight and power of officialdom. I was searching for something Victorian and Protestant-ly New England in the rigor of its details. Perhaps that’s what led me to draw something approaching an actual laurel branch, rather than the iconic version seen on metals, crests, plaques and coins since the Roman Empire.

With some digital tom-foolery, the initial pencil sketch looked like this. We went through several drafts back and forth, redrawing the laurels and the ink, moving the honoree’s name into a banner (and actually spelling it right… and “cartoonist” too, while we were at it).

Most of these changes I made on the computer, so I printed the eventual approved “pencils” in blue ink onto Bristol board so I could move on to the final inks. James (still Sturm) and I agreed that, while the design should suggest historical significance and time-honored government institutions in its staid nature, it should also have it’s heel firmly planted in the world of cartooning, and be drawn by a brush dipped in ink.

To lend the original art a certain touch of being discovered in a forgotten Congressional flat file, I signed the work for both of us in a sort of old-fashioned manor. The finished piece blends elements of nineteenth- and mid-twentieth- century hand-made design, and is hopefully an intriguing blend of fun and stodgy.

The last, delightful touch, of sticking that little James Kochalka elf right on top of his banner, was a Sturm move. It kept the thing from becoming too serious, while balancing the black of the ink well. That’s why he’s James Sturm, and this was how the Vermont Cartoonist Laureate seal came to be.

This is a lidl’ comic I drew almost a year ago, for almost-a-year-old baby Sam. He was born to the Center for Cartoon Studies’ intrepid bursar/registrar/loan councellor/all-around administrator, “Valorous” Val Fleischer. I didn’t want to post it then because I didn’t wanna ruin the surprise, and then I guess I forgot about it. Baby Pat was taller then. At least in the first panel. The simplicity, though, is something I wanna keep going for.

Speaking of CCS, two recent illustration/design jobs for the school are up on my portfolio page: one is for the Visiting Faculty Archive and the Vermont Cartoonist Laureate. And now, I gotta drop Tha Bomb.

I think I’m gonna have to go on a two-month hiatus, folks. There is much to be done by May. I have one post planned for next week, and I know that you’ll have things you’ll want to talk about, and I…will…too.* Socially, I may be a bit of a hermit-monk too. I’m sorry if I’m slow to respond to emails, or have to turn down a killer hangout here and there, but I gotta buckle down and draw comics.

Farmy Acres will still be going, and I’ll try to make at least twice-weekly updates on Facebook/Twitter/Goog Buzz (these updates are also posted on the sidebar, if you’re reading this at my actual website, Dear Reader). They’ll all say the same thing, so it’s up to you which you choose to follow, or if you choose to follow! I can’t tell you what to do!!

Next week! Don’t miss The Vermont Cartoonist Laureate crest: How we dood it!

*Yes, another Mr. Rogers reference. Don’t ask me why. (Another White Album reference in the title, too, you may notice. That’s two in a row!)

Lately I’ve been watching my mega-pal Kevin finishing up what will surely prove to be the sickest comics anthology of 2011. I mentioned it once before, and seeing more work coming in for it, I’m increasingly giddy for its springtime release. Its called Visions of the Aporkalypse, and it features plenty of Swineclopses like that guy up there. Kevin’s been dropping previews on his blog, including two pages from mine own entry. I’m so excited!

Here’s some more piggies. Pot bellies have the most personality and babirusas are even grosser than warthogs (sometimes those upper tusks grow into their heads!!). That’s what I learned.

Yes, it’s another Buchwald sketch. I did it a while ago, and I’m still pining to get going on a Big Buchwald Project that’s looking farther and farther off. This drawing also demonstrates some loose, free, quickness that I seem to have lost for now. Yeah, I know that back leg is a little weird, but I still prefer it to what I’ve been up to lately.

I just keep thinking how much I wanna simplify things when I get to that Next Big Project. Time to Speed Things Up and Get Things Done. None of us is making a career out of comics, so why kill ourselves over it? Oy. I should stop now. Jeeeeeeee-zooey, we haven’t had one o’ these posts in a while, have we??

What’s that I hear? Do you think Mr. McFeely is here with today’s speedy delivery?? Oh boy, neighbors, I hope it’s a video about how they make something we all love! What’ll it be today? Crayons? Maybe rocket ships??

“Aheheh, sorry neighbor, but today I just brought some slides.”

Oh, that’s alright. I’m sure they’ll be very interesting.

“Well, uh Fred, not too interesting. You see, I couldn’t get into a factory this week, and all I got was a tour of one corner of the Telegraph Studio at the Center for Cartoon Studies.”

Telegraph! Cartoons! That does sound interesting!

“You see, Fred, this is Pat Barrett’s corner of the Telegraph Studio. You can see from his wall that things are heating up on Petrified Girlfriend chapter 3: Invasive Species!”

I don’t know what that means, but allllrighty! And what’s that, that daisy chain there?

“Each of the second-year students at the Center for Cartoon Studies (or CCS) has a space at the Telegraph. It’s in the former cafeteria of the town’s original phone company building. Well, one of the students, Josh Kramer, instigated that paper chain. Now it’s making its way through the studio with a lot of help from Beth Hetland.”

OK. I’m sure this is about to get very interesting.

“Here we can see a closer look at some of the pages on Mr. Barrett’s wall. Peaking up at the top-left of his drafting table is a floor plan he made for the imaginary apartment where much of his comic book adventure story takes place. He says it’s really made drawing scenes a whole lot simpler. When he needs to fill in a background, he just looks at the map. Then he’ll draw the furniture as its positioned in his diagram.”

I’m sorry, I fell asleep.

“Oh, that’s OK, Fred. Just one more slide to go.”

That’s fine. Take your time, Mr. McFeely.

“This is a table shared by Mr. Barrett and his dear pal Ben Horak. They lived together last year, and this photo that Mr. Barrett marked up certainly demonstrates who was the Felix and who the Oscar in their relationship! Did you notice that Lego race car sort of pushing into Ben’s half of the desk? And there’s the sex change gun from the hit comic anthology Nymphonomena!”

Gosh, that really is special. Well, thank you, Mr. McFeely, I’m sure we’ll be seeing you again soon.

“Speedy Delivery!”

Bye, neighbor!

Poor Wilma Whistlepig sees Satan lurking around every corner. Who can blame her for hiding out a little longer? Good thing it’s still hot fun in the summer sun down on the farm.

Groundhog Day is one of my favorite holidays, by the way. For one thing, there’s no history of war, or genocide, or human sacrifice involved. There’s just plain old Pagan longing for spring to hurry up and come. It’s also great because nothing really happens, but everybody still talks about it. Sure, you probably forget it’s even coming, but on the second day of February, everybody’s gotta know what Punxsutawney Phil and Staten Island Chuck had to say about their shadows.

And, could the wilds of North America provide us with a more perfectly comedic rodent to act the part of wintry barometer? The way they scurry across the ground, their little fat bodies looking like fuzzy waves cresting and falling, just can’t be beat. And then, once they get to chucking wood, forget about it!

Here’s a throwback: Anyone remember I am the Last VCR?

Folks, we’re all just livin and lovin, lovin and learnin the best we can. Do you know that I walked around in negative-18 degree weather the other day? When I walked into a shadow, ice started to form around my eyes. This was a new one for me. A step beyond the frozen snot in the nostrils. When I got back into the sun, I melted and all this water was dripping off my eyelashes as if I’d been crying.

You guys, I know. It’s been a while. And I was really starting to feel like I was being withholding, but then I noticed a slew of blogs that started out something like, “Oh, I know I’m always apologizing for not posting anything in a while, but anyway, sorry for not posting anything in the while! But, you know. Holidays!” So you won’t hear it here. That’s my sterling guarantee.

Above are some trees and a monster’s bird head that I doodled at an exhibit of Dürer prints at the Clark. It happened a long time ago. Okay, so I might have some blogger’s guilt about not posting these more in-the-moment. You imaginary internet people and your insistence on timeliness! As I was saying, Andy Warner, Kate LaRocca,* Jon Fine and I took a day trip down to Williamstown, Massachusetts back in, I don’t know, November. We saw this lovely, lively show of the Northern Renaissance master’s woodblocks, and a few etchings. We also drove through some spectacular New England scenery, with billowing clouds and shafts of light dappling the hillsides. Yeah, that’s right. I said it. Landscapes!!

I’ve got another page from our drawing adventure that I might or might not post. It also occurred to me that this might qualify as a Drawing Adventure.

*Does anybody have some up to date internet location for her? I’m only finding broken links. <3

It’s “the holidays,” and it’s been lovely, but I wouldn’t want the internet to think I’d forgotten it. So here I am, with another short-term memory-drawing of the north country. It was funny passing by the same spot the next day and realizing how different the construction of the bridge is, and how there are bigger, uglier buildings just past it. But, isn’t that the great part about memory? The relevant parts stick out. I’m really enjoying doing these landscapes in this way. I think it has a lot to do with cartooning, and with only including the pertinent details. If I ever teach a class, I’ll probably make my students do some memory sketching. First I’ll show them Laura Park, who does a lot of it.

In other news, my whirlwind tour of the New York metro-area is drawing to a close, and it makes me sad. Caitlin and I extended our Christmas stay in Connecticut, due to that big snowstorm the entire Eastern Seaboard is talking about. One of my oldest and dearest friends was staying there, with my parents, and blended right in, an extra sibling, just like he used to when we were kids. That was lovely.

The other day a bunch of us took the commuter rail down to Grand Central. It was the day after the storm, and the train was packed. My dad had to go to his bank, my sister to the French Consulate, my Chad (that’s the friend I mentioned) to Brooklyn, along with a friend of his who joined us on the train. Caitlin and I took the subway over to Penn Station, and never emerged to the light of Manhattan. We just got straight onto a New Jersey Transit double decker train and took it to her grandmother’s, where we’ve been the last two days. Upon arriving in New York, neither Caitlin or I felt the Country Mouse sensation that I’ve had when emerging from a day’s travel on Amtrak directly from Vermont. There was none of that “gorsh, there sure are a lotta pretty people…an’ boy do they move fast!” kinda thing. I don’t know if it was the buffer of some days spent in the suburbs, or the familiarity of the commuter line, or what, but it just felt comfortable and right.

I’m looking forward to our approaching weekend stint in Brooklyn. I miss the old borough, and haven’t been back since August. I’m worried that I might never live there again. I can’t stop thinking about what I’ll do, and where I’ll be, after graduating (unless I fail) from CCS this coming May. I know I’ll stick around in Vermont for a while, but I don’t know for how long, or how I’ll be paying my loans. Ah, the future! There’s nothing like the New Year to make you obsess over your plans, is there? Welp, that’s my life. Sorry to get all reflective on yas.