In years past, I’ve wanted to do this but have never taken the time. This year, well, why not? And it was a LOT of fun. It’s challenging thinking of something for every hour of the day. I learned a lot about my efficiency under a very tight deadline, too.

Some folks do four panels, two panels, etc. Since it was a busy workday for me, I stuck to single panels. I had them mostly completed before bed yesterday – the last two panels were sketched and were completed this morning and the entire thing can be read below.

I hope you enjoy it!

Ever since creating my mini-comics, the immensely popular Beer! A Pint Sized Guide, and the less-popular-but-more-widely-distributed Craft Markets!, people have been suggesting that I make more, based on other topics I know well… and in particular, the most common one is living with an anxiety disorder.

It was a hard one to come to terms with. I try to be open about having GAD, but I also try to limit my discussion of it for fear of it becoming a large part of my identity. Making a mini-comic about my experiences seemed to be a cathartic balance for me – a way to communicate with my fans through my art and talk about a subject very important to me.

Dresden!

First I must address our hotel room in the Ibis Dresden, which reminded me of Japan.

Dresden was absolutely lovely. Some may not know that Dresden was entirely levelled in WWII – including their centuries-old architecture. The rebuilt buildings are so impressive, you would never know. 

Especially this Frauenkirche, which has dark bricks from the original building.

It was a real treat to see all of the interesting landmarks, like… Ontario restaurant? The only Canadian-themed restaurant we saw on the entire trip, and it didn’t even serve poutine. Or anything remotely Canadian. Just American fare.

I began to realize something neat about Germany – when any of their poignant landmarks need to undergo construction or restoration (which is understandably frequent), they cover the area up with a facade with a picture of the building on the front. You can see it for the main entryway of the Zwinger, below:

We saw our pal King Johann, and some clocktowers.

Marshall went to get us a beer (and failed, but came back with ice cream, so) and while he was gone I captured this… thing that was happening:

After seeing all of the architecture, we enjoyed a boat trip down the Elbe river, and saw a ton of adorable medieval-style hillside towns and palaces.

Our boat dropoff point also had a palace, and it was the end of the day so tourists had gone home. A palace to ourselves!

The boat itself was very cold, and I wasn’t wearing much to keep me warm. Imagine my happiness when I found out I could order a German mulled wine.

Our one night in Dresden ended with a tasty Turkish dinner. The next morning, we checked out and walked the five minutes from our hotel to the train station. It was then that I realized I had a runny nose, sore throat, and skin that was hot to the touch…. no. Oh no.

Leipzig’s train station is the largest in Germany, and was stunning.

Despite starting to feel really ill, I really enjoyed Leipzig. Thankfully, all of the main sights can be seen rather quickly. The town is a hub for arts and culture, especially music. We visited St. Thomas’s Cathedral where Johann Sebastian Bach famously wrote for years. He happens to be entombed at the alter, so we said hello.

And being us, we found a brewery right next to the cathedral… named after the cathedral.

We even found a great brewery built into the old train station that served Gose, the local Leipzig/Saxon beer. A sour, similar to Berliner Weisse. Delicious.

The main opera house had a stunning fountain:

Soon after, we made our way to the hotel, which involved a longish train ride and quite a bit of walking. By the time we got to the hotel (around 5pm) I was dead on my feet with a rising fever.

Needless to say, Marshall went out without me for awhile and explored our area of Leipzig. He brought home a donair for me, which I devoured half-heartedly and fell back into bed.

Sleeping from 5pm until 9am helped me along a little, and I felt well enough that morning to explore the area with Marshall for awhile before catching our train to the next destination. A beautiful art district and an old cotton mill turned into a massive creator’s space. Incredible!

Next stop: Hamburg!

You can see all my photos (with descriptions, so read ’em!) in my Flickr Gallery.

Well, this time there’s an excuse. We were in Germany throughout September!

The trip was a huge one, with many stops. Our ultimate goal was to wind up in Munich for Oktoberfest, but first, many stops were ahead of us. Our first: Three days in Berlin!

Hello, gorgeous.

Berlin is huge, covered almost entirely in street artwork, and full of artistic, musical and otherwise creative events and venues. The city is alive 24 hours of the day. I was thoroughly charmed by it and after seeing all of Germany, it may well be my favourite big city in the country.

We saw many of the typical sights. One of my favourites was the large section of Berlin Wall left standing, with incredible artwork on both sides.

And of course there were the many museums, churches and other building boasting magnificent architecture. I’ve seen photos of many, but to see them in person is truly awe-inspiring.

So, here. Have a photo.

As much as I adored wandering Berlin, my body had other ideas.

I have bad feet. Fallen arches + overpronated ankles, to be precise. I had gotten new orthotics and new shoes well before the trip, and had broken both in rather well. Or so I thought. My day two my feet started becoming covered in blisters, not to mention pounding aches in my arches.

Alas. I was not going to let that slow me down. Mentally. Physically, it slowed me down quite a bit, but Marshall was patient and we took rests as needed.

We found some cool hidden gems in our adventures, such as this bustling artisan food market built into a bunch of old railroad buildings.

And this amazing little video game museum on Karl-Marx Allee!

These adorable statues of fat ladies having fun, that were all over Berlin as an art installment.

And this store entirely dedicated to Ampelmannchen.

I was saving my suitcase space for proper souvenirs, but I still kinda regret not getting a t-shirt there. I love Ampelmann.

We also experiences a LOT of craft beer culture in Berlin – unsurprisingly, there was more of a craft beer scene in Berlin than anywhere else we visited. There was Vagabond Brauerei owned by Americans…

…and Lemke Berlin, which arguably has the best cloudy Hefeweizen I had on the whole trip.

But the best thing about beer in Germany is that you can basically drink it anywhere. On the street, in a park, on castle grounds… anywhere.

It took some getting used to. When we bought our first bottle of beer at a convenience store, the clerk opened it right there was I was walking down the street with an open bottle of beer. I somehow thought people would care.

But it was okay. As it should be. And so we joined a bunch of other Berliners drinking Berliner in the park. It was good.

All in all, Berlin was incredible and a great way to kick off our trip. Next, we were off to Dresden & Leipzig. Stay tuned…

You can see all my photos (with descriptions, so read ’em!) in my Flickr Gallery.

I drew them with my high school chums on printer paper holded in half, usually inked with thin Sharpies and passed around the group. I thought they were so awesome.

They were pretty bad.

I had no idea what I was doing. The punchlines were either too esoteric to be funny, or just not funny at all. Characters looked static and boring in every scene. Bad fonts in the speech bubbles. I’d rather not even share them, they’re just that bad. Trust me on this one.

Despite all of the crap I put forth, I loved the art form of comics. I always have. From reading Archie and Marvel comics growing up, to absorbing manga as a teen, to collecting and devouring graphic novels and indie/web comics as an adult.

If you, dear reader, want to read some incredible comics, I have a few suggestions for you. I’m not affiliated with any of these comics, I just adore them and want to share the love.

Print Stuff

Bone by Jeff Smith – Truly one of my personal all-time favourites. Great sense of epic fantasy with good characters and a plot that’s appealing to kids and adults. The comic is complete, and you can get the entire thing as one B&W volume at any decent bookstore. They’re also releasing full-colour pages one by one on the official website.

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley – Most folks have seen, or at least heard of, the awesome film they made that compliments this even-more-awesome graphic novel series. Every urban video game kid of the 90’s and 2000’s can appreciate this one.

Anything written by Craig Thompson – This guy. This guy here, he hits you. Right in the feels. His works rank among the more emotional that I’ve read (and Habibi, whilst beautiful and spellbinding, is downright gritty, brutal and unforgiving at times) which makes them worth a read, but with caution.

Transmetropolitan – My favourite series from Marvel Comics, and worlds different from what I generally like in comics! A cyberpunk transhumanist comic that takes place in an insane futuristic metropolis known only as “The City” and centres around a certain gonzo journalist named Spider Jerusalem, The City’s own Hunter S. Thompson. Hard to find in print in bookstores in my experience, but so worth a read.

That’s just a small handful of my absolute favorites. There are so many more awesome print comics out there, dear readers – this Goodreads list is a good place to browse for more.

Web Stuff

Hark! A Vagrant – So weird and amazing. A lot of comics make shots at history, namely obscure Canadian history. She is one of my heroes.

Bear Nuts(maybe-nsfw) – Think… adult Care Bears with a Ren and Stimpy twist. I love this mildly insane, well-made comic. Go read it.

The Abominable Charles Christopher – “The Abominable Charles Christopher follows the adventures of a childlike sasquatch through a forest full of colourful animal characters.” Basically. Plus, some of the most beautiful inkwork I’ve seen in comics.

Lunar Baboon – Mostly observations on parenthood with a whole lot of weirdness thrown in. I’ve followed this one for awhile and have really enjoyed it.

All of the comics I listed above also happen to be Canadian. Bear Nuts is Ottawa-made, to boot! We’re a talented bunch, we Canucks.

And as with the print stuff, there’s so much good stuff out on the internet. Here’s some indie stuff from few friends and acquaintances: Title Unrelated, Eth’s Skin(maybe-nsfw) Floraverse, and The Dawn Chapel, to name a few. I’ve also recently dug into about 15 more webcomics that I had missed before. The availability of comics online is endless.

This won’t be the last time I geek out about comics – I promise you. There will likely be reviews in the future. Consider this your first taste. Go forth, and read.

Between my endless love of comics, clients asking me if I’d ever draw comics, and following a lot of comic artists on social media, my surroundings have fueled another go at comic-making. It started with this simple strip about myself and my dog Finnegan, in an average workday interaction:

… which actually followed a bunch of character concepting of our entire little family (which is still a work in progress – Marshall and I won’t have mismatched eye styles):

… to designing a few mock strip panels, namely this one, which is opening a floodgate to a rather grand idea:

The comics have received great feedback so far, and I’m finding that I love the process just as much as before.

Stay tuned blogfolk, I think we’ve got something here.