First comic done in the new office!

And we’re back from the break! The house is mine, it’s (mostly) unpacked, and while carving out serious drawing time is still a bit of a challenge, I’m actually at the point where I can work on comics again.

So, what you’ve all been waiting for–more cat and bird jokes!

As if the truth of this needed any more proof than it’s going up a week after New Year’s–a week after the unmarked second anniversary of the site. Personally, I feel like I hit a serious sophomore slump last year in terms of artistic output and progress, and it would only be further disheartening to look back at last year’s goals and see how many continue to dance beyond the horizon.

But even aside from the real life stresses and busy-ness eating up my life, there’s also the logistical problems of moving–the part where things go into boxes and become inaccessible, the part where maybe the office needs a touch of paint before being set up, the part where the internet may or may not be handily available right away–that impinge on updating the site.

So, for this year, I do expect more better things, particularly if my work schedule changes as I anticipate. Though the drought will continue for the immediate future, we’ll be coming back strong soon.

See you in February.

Alternately titled: “Me to DC Comics: GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!”

So, to this point, I have largely avoided commenting on DC’s reboot of the DCU (the “new 52” initiative, or DCnU). Too many negative feelings, life’s short enough as it is, the blog-o-sphere’s doing plenty enough spleen venting without my unseen whinging being added. And I don’t imagine that my readers much care. But this is my platform, I will use it as I please, and in light of their latest announcements, some things must be said.

Because I am breaking up with DC.

I’ve been kicking the metaphor around in my head for a while, but still there was still something to hold out for, or some other character likely to pop back up, and while my buying might be way down (so, one DCU title a month, down from about 6-8 a couple years ago, before Rucka left), we weren’t totally on the outs. And I’ve loved your characters for so long. And you’re the only reason I give the slightest fuck about superheroes. And… And…

But between talking to Casey at the comic shop and DC’s announcements this week, it finally became clear to me that I already have broken up with DC. 2000(ish)-2011 is my DCU era, never to be seen again. They changed, too much, unforgivably, and now I must go. True, for the time being I still continue to give them money for exactly two titles–Batwoman, which I’ve been waiting years for and is essentially a coda to the aforementioned era, with a few irritating detail changes, and The Unwritten, which is a Vertigo title (and so, not actually DCU) by the awesome creative team behind Lucifer, one of my favorite books ever, and which I’ll be riding out–but it is very much the “giving back the books and CD’s” part of the post-relationship.

But since every messy break-up needs a bloody post-mortem, let’s dig into what hurt the most:

Huntress — GONE! Never existed. And I mean my Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, not whoever Paul Levitz used to write and wants to write again.

Oracle — GONE! Might as well not have existed. Don’t care if you do put one of my favorite writers on the book–I will never read a title that has Barbara Gordon de-aged and demoted to being Batgirl.

Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown — GONE! Oh, I’m sorry, “MIA.” But let’s face it, Didio hates them, and they’re not Silver Age, so Morrison doesn’t give a crap about them and won’t stick his neck out to save them. I’m not holding my breath.

Secret Six (and the character’s therein) — GONE! Right, they’re also “MIA,” but aside from the cameo-est of cameos, or as easy death-fodder for some BS cross-over “event,” I don’t expect to see any of these characters I loved ever again.

Deadshot’s mustache — GONE! Which is perhaps the nicest bit of all the things that are HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY WRONG with the godawful Suicide Squad reboot.

Savant and Creote — Speaking of the cameo-est of cameos, I heard tell the Savant got summarily offed at the start of SS. Way to not hate on the gays, DC–unless I’m mistaken in that detail, in which case I still expect to never see either of these guys again. What a waste.

Manhunter (Kate Spencer) — MIA. She’s got a slim shot for a cameo in Batwoman, maybe. Or maybe they’ll let Andreyko go play in a corner again and she’ll reappear. Again, not holding my breath.

The Question (Renee Montoya) — If not my absolute favorite fictional character, then pretty goddamn close, so this almost hurts too much to type. MIA, with the narrowest of chances she’ll reappear in Batwoman with her accumulated character growth intact. But really, let’s face it, unless you know the character as well as or better than I do (and I think few people who are not Greg Rucka do), I’m not terribly interested in what you have to say about her anyway. The way DC’s going, she’ll show up as a clueless beat cop again, but either way, I don’t think I can bring myself to read whatever pale simulacrum they might try and pass off as her. She lives in my head, and in my old trades, and she’s joining Babs and Helena off in the sunset there, too good to hang around and endure this crap.

And there’s so many more, we could go on all day, from god awful creative teams, to employing Rob Leifeld in any capacity, to tone-deaf management, to everything Titans related (oh wait, that’s been terrible for years), to the hatchet jobs done on Selina, Kory, Harley, Waller… I just don’t have anymore fucks to give. I give up, DC. Like I said, I’ll honor my remaining commitments as long as you do–but then we both walk away.

And the worst part is, you won’t even notice.

For the better part of the last six months I have been grappling with Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. (With nearly 3.5 more tomes to go–it is an undertaking to say the least.) I’ve become mildly obsessed with it, and the doodles in my sketchbook are starting to tell. I’m not sure why, but, as I was telling one of my friends, more than just about anything I’ve read before, these books make me want to draw.

This scene came to me, appropriate for the gift-giving holidays: a happy family moment in Omtose Phellack, if Jaghut were into family get togethers or holidays. Another scanned sketch, this one, with some bits coming through darker than I’d like for no discernible reason, but such is the way of the scanner.

For some nebulous reason, I’ve found this thought to be one of the funniest I’ve had all last week. I thought I would share it with you. Memes: For a surefire hit when you can’t come up with anything more original.

Still packing, and more packing, and trying to get rid of crap (preferably for cash monies).

But that set me to thinking: Have there truly been no decent new Xmas (or hell, holiday songs generally) songs written since the early 70’s? (Note: This time-frame rules out Lennon’s tiresome “Happy Xmas/War is Over,” which gets some radio love on occasion.) And for a song to be decent, it’s at least got to be something A) enjoyable enough to listen to, even to far as to invite repeat listening, B) catchy, the sort of thing that might get stuck in your head and hummed under your breath, which lead to C) singable.

The answer: No, but I can’t think of many.

The best candidate has to be “Fairytale of New York” (1987). It’s somber and bittersweet, but as a song I’d put above any number of disposable frothy bits of nonsense, and I think it’s enduring popularity speaks to that.

For sheer fun and punky exuberance, I’d also stick “Oi to the World” (1996) on my list, and FWIW I’ve heard the No Doubt cover pop up occasionally on radio stations that are already predisposed to play No Doubt.

And, while it is in no way a Christmas song, I’d argue that “The Chanukah Song” (1994)–while perhaps not one for the ages–has had some surprising staying power. (Hilariously to my mind, it got the Neil Diamond holiday CD yanked out of rotation at our store once corporate realized it had a pot reference.)

So here’s where you come in, intrepid readers who have borne with me thus far. Can you think of any decent (see definition above, and yes, it’s still a subjective quality) holiday songs written since 1975? If so, please share them with the class.

Edited to add: And how could I forget, but perhaps the greatest Christmas song of all time: “Let’s Have a Partick Swayze Christmas”–because there’s no tradition like a new tradition.

It has easily been a week since I’ve drawn anything at all. These spates of business and preoccupation are particularly dire, as they create their own vortex of continuing unproductivity. Suddenly when a goofy but rough thing you started to dash off just for fun between “real” updates becomes your sole artistic output, it becomes ever more daunting to show it to anyone. So, to break the cycle and enjoy myself in a productive (rather than Skyrim- or Malazan-related) fashion, I tried to capture some of the feelings I’ve been having and some of the pressures I’m facing. This is hardly the complete laundry list–I could not think of a good way to truly capture the DoL, falling stock prices, scheduling SNAFUs, class registration, and the sheer joy of working a retail Xmas with not enough people (because our sales are weak–not “in danger of going out of business” weak, more like “CEO wants a nicer vacation” weak).

Only two weeks left in this year…

In other news, I’ve just renewed my hosting for next year, so have no fear that the current dry spell means we’re going anywhere.

Pretty much exactly what it says. I’ve long wanted to see Darkseid in a Utilikilt, so I made this marker sketch. Fun!

There’s definitely something to be said for a Galactic Overlord and self-proclaimed God of Evil who can pull off the mini-dress, gloves, and thigh-high leather boots look. (Including that his sartorial choices are rather understated for a Kirby creation.) I think his latest redesign has opted instead for some tiresome power armor ensemble, but I think tradition will come through in the end.

Another quick little sketch comic, outlining an all-too-often problem I run into. I’m not sure that the soul-sucking allure of idly surfing the internet can shoulder all the blame, but it’s one of those lazy distractions that just always…there. (Completed this one while at work–rather to point.)