This self portrait was drawn from my reflection in the window on the night train to Pasco. I want to become a better illustrator so I’ve been trying to do more drawing on this trip. I already posted a few of the more detailed sketches and here are the rest…

With that one I was trying to encourage myself to be a little more free with the ink. None of these sketches have any pencil because I’ve noticed that I rely too much on the eraser to fix my problems.

This message applies more broadly of course, maybe it should be a bigger print someday.

My buddy Wayne Leighty is Davis, CA. It looks nothing like him but it does look like a person.. I’m off to a start here.

The little Chinese tea pot at the soup house in Davis. It teamed up with hot won ton soup to cure my advancing cold.

Trying to draw all the shiny objects in Wayne & Heidi’s apartment. Heidi is creating some nice books these days and her sense of design has blossomed at school.

Whales on the mind. I’m working on a children’s book with Sarah Brooks. I love it. Seems like everyone is working on a children’s book these days, Madonna? Really?

This nice lady let me sketch her while we waited for the train to San Francisco.

More people from the train station… I had lots of time to kill.

Aaron Whitaker sat next to us at the Alternative Press Expo and had a great mini comic called “Future Ghost.” It reminded me of my Bailey Jones Comic but it was longer and told a more interesting story.

Drew these on the way to Los Angeles, they may be people on the plane or things I saw in a magazine.

I decided that if I ever get a tattoo it should just be the word “remember” on the back of my hand, that way I’ll remember things.

Alternate tattoo plans include a yellow Woodstock bird, an anchor, or a life ring. It probably won’t ever happen unless I get loaded on tequila… and that neeeeever happens.

Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson were posing outside the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Marilyn was sour and beautiful in a way that made me kind of sad and M.J. spoke with an accent I couldn’t place. We talked about brush pens and tablet computers.

A park in Portland somewhere near warm squash soup and the best Darth Vader costume in the world.

This Portland street musician reminded me of Little Boy Blue from the Fables comics and made me wish I was a bad ass trumpet player.

Visiting my sister in Pasco we had some drawing time. I asked Brooklyn, my oldest niece what her favorite animal was and she said dinosaur. I guess we’re related.

Kylie, the new baby in the family, she’s adorable.

I like drawing Halloween comics, I’ll try to do another tiny one before I head home from my fall roadtrip adventure.

• Comic – He Loves Me For My Mind

The body of the brainy woman in this comic was inspired by Merryweather, one of the frumpy fairies from Sleeping Beauty.

When Lee Post and I were in San Francisco there was a great Sleeping Beauty exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum and those characters have been bouncing around in my head for a while.

Lee also took me to see the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, a great collection of original work and interviews. The whole building was beautiful and I’d recommend a stop there to anyone passing through San Francisco.

The cracked pavement and uneven handwriting filled me with an unexpected wave of hope and adventure.

Paul Newman shared a spot with his love, JoAnne Woodward, and her orderly stiletto heel prints perfectly balance his playful and crooked bare feet.

Many people left hand prints, John Wayne pounded a single fist into the cement. It made me think of my dad.

After visiting Hollywood, I made my way out to Kazu and Amy’s place in Alhambra where I cooked up a bunch of salmon and halibut. It was a really nice evening with an incredible group of people, like being at home but with less explosives and beer.

The inner courtyard at Kazu’s place had a nice little forest of giant plant jars, it felt like walking through a giant’s garden.

Overall, Los Angeles has been surprisingly refreshing and the public transportation was even pretty good.

I spent last weekend with Lee Post at the Alternative Press Expo, it was simultaneously inspiring and intimidating to be surrounded by such a boiling sea of talented illustrators and storytellers.

• Comic – Drawing Hands

I’m into vacation mode now, hanging out with my old friend Jody MacKinnon and her boyfriend Bill Sneed in Los Angeles.

I’ve just met Bill and he’s an awesome dude going through a lot of the same struggles us Alaska Robotics kids are having with trying to balance commercial and personal projects. I love his work and he’s got some great examples of illustration and animation that are worth checking out.

• Bill Sneed

Hopefully he’ll be able to find a commercial break soon and work on some more of those personal projects.

I’m packing up and heading off to San Francisco with Anchorage illustrator Lee Post for the Alternative Press Expo on October 17th and 18th. We’ll be holding down table 549, just look for the beards.

Come by and say hello, maybe we’ll trade you something for your Capri Sun and Lunchables.

• APE Map – AK Robotics / Your Square Life –> Right Here!

I’ll also be stopping through Los Angeles, Portland, and the Tri-Cities Nuclear Superfund Fallout Zone on this trip so consider yourself warned if you’re along the way. Looking forward to seeing a ton of friends and burning through my PFD.

WALL-E was ok but I was more into Kung-Fu Panda. Can’t type. Must fly. Off to Sannnnnnnnnnnnn Francisco.

• Comic – Getting Old

Front

Back

I began Friday night at 8pm, wrote a script until 8am Saturday and then frantically scribbled out a 24 page comic book while a director and group of actors prepared it for the stage. Sunday I slept and ate pie.

UPDATE — These files are a little wonky. Either give them time to load or right-click (ctrl-click on mac) and save to your local machine.

• Eva Plays Guitar, This is Her Music – Script
• Eva Plays Guitar, This is Her Music – Comic Book

The 24 Hour Miracle
The Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre hosted the 24 Hour Miracle, an annual event where participants attempt to write and stage several short plays in 24 hours.

There were four groups, each with a writer, director and handful of actors. I knew some of the people in my group and others I was meeting for the first time.

Roblyn Davis was our director which was amazing luck, he’s incredibly talented and squeezed some real juice out of the script.

Many of our actors were first time performers but everyone put their heart into the performance. I was most amazed that they could learn their lines in such a short time.

Story
We were given a theme, “Making Contact,” and we talked about it as a group for quite a while before I actually began writing. This gave me the chance to get to know the people I was working with and to begin thinking about ways to spin their personalities into a story.

I wanted this to be primarily a play for them, operating under the theory that if the actors were invested they would draw in the audience. I tried to create something with balance that could be fun but also carry emotional weight. Sometimes it even worked.

I gave all the characters a reason to live, except Eva, I wanted her to be searching for that and I wanted the story to be dark but ultimately hopeful. It’s a simple little journey from depression to realizing you’re a part of a community and that people need you and love you.

Characters

• Eva – A depressed and nearly suicidal young woman with a gift for singing sad and disturbing songs about death. Played by Nicole Church
• Daniel – A hopeful and thoughtful young man in a relationship with Eva. Played by Aaron O.
• Mary – A mother of two boys, Kyle and Daniel. She resents her child monopolizing her time but when it boils down to it, he’s all she truly lives for. Played by Mie Christenson
• Kyle – A young boy enthralled by Spiderman and adventure. Played by Aaron Lopez
• Doris – A whiskey sipping old timer who lives for Eva’s music. Played by Sally Wilson
• Sue – The other whiskey sipping blue hair, she lives for her friendship with Doris. Played by Kate
• Umbrella Man, Pilots, & Convict – These characters were all just Eva’s songs about death.

24 Hour Comics Day
The 24 Hour Comics Day happened to coincide with the 24 Hour Miracle so I figured I’d just sit down and turn my script into a comic book. The first couple pages took waaaay too long to draw and didn’t really do anything for me. I eventually got up to speed and created a few panels and pages that I actually liked. Switching to smaller paper and skipping the penciling really seemed to help scoot along production.

The other illustrators at work were Melissa Griffiths, Dawson Walker, Miguel Rohrbacher, and Pete Morrissette. They all created much more polished work than I did and it was simultaneously inspiring and intimidating to work with them.

Thank You Thank You Thank You to Geoff Kirsch, Juneau Douglas Little Theatre, The Juneau Arts & Humanities Council, and whatever benevolent spirit allowed me to end the night by finding my keys.

Local boy makes good! David Walker claimed the Supreme Prize at the World of Wearable Art Show, a huge event that takes place each year in New Zealand.

It’s always inspiring to see locals take their craft to a world stage and it’s even better when they’re as successful as David. The prize couldn’t have gone to a nicer guy, David and his wife Rene are the reason I have a bike.

Hopefully this means that he’ll somehow end up on an episode of Flight of the Conchords.

• Lady of the Wood wins World of WearableArt crown
• World of Wearable Art
• David’s 2007 trip to the World of Wearable Art Show