Only two weeks to finish page 2. Page 3 is, for what it’s worth, about half done.

For those curious, this story starts on the 160 bus from Port Moody into downtown Vancouver. Just about every time I take this bus, there’s someone hiding out in the back, trying to sneakily drink a few beer. This night, however, the drinking dude on the back was openly drinking his beer, with little thought to concealing his actions.

All this happened in July 2009. Been meaning to get it down on paper ever since, but it’s not the easiest story to tell.

Also: I’m cracking myself up with how dumbfounded I look throughout the comic.

This is the start of a longer auto-bio story that I’m planning to kick out. The loose plan is 24 pages, updated once a week.

Originally, I’d started drawing this in the same style that I normally do:

At the last moment, I threw the page on a lightbox and traced it back out, knocking back the details and giving everyone animal heads. I did it just as an experiment, to see how thinks would look if I simplified them. I liked it, so at the eleventh hour, I’ve decided to try doing the story in this style.

This is one of those times where I’m not sure if an idea is best left stowed away in the idea drawer or committed to paper.

Also: I have lost the ability to spell “squeeze” properly on the first attempt. I keep leaving out the “u”. Had to work a little photoshop magic to fix it here.

Next up: more serious shit. I promise.

Last Friday, I went to Brian’s 30th birthday and forgot (again) about what happens when I mix booze. It happens to me once every few months, so I’m not sure why it is that I always think it’s going to be ok. It never is.

First two panels are by Jason Turner from a livejournal posting of his. Also contains the simple version of why I changed the site name from I Hate Comics to Things Are Ok.

In my half here, based on what happened when reading his comics, I tried my best to match Jason’s colouring style. Not sure how successful I was, but it was fun regardless.

Janet and I went to a Canucks game the other night for the first time. I don’t watch a whole lot of hockey, I typically jump on the bandwagon during playoffs and then off again once the Cancuks have been bounced. However, watching it live was quite a bit of fun! Didn’t hurt that I’d gotten free tickets to sit in one of the “executive suites” – our own bartender and washroom!

Games I have seen live:

•Blue Jays – 3 times
•The Vancouver Giants – once
•The Harlem Globetrotters – once
•The Vancouver Canucks – once

Alright, it looks like I’ve got everything transferred and updated.

My apologies to those who had subscribed to the ihatecomics.com RSS feed. I don’t think that it will work any longer, although if you are subscribed and are still getting this, please let me know.

A couple quickies from earlier in October.

I’d lost a stack of mini-comics that I’d picked up at SPX. They remained so for about 2-3 weeks, until…

More sketches from the kids book that I’m working on. Close to final designs for the three green monster characters.

This is a test image for a kids book I’m trying to complete for Teagan’s 4th birthday in May. I was trying out illustration on photo backgrounds, which is something that Mo Willem’s uses in his Knuffle Bunny books and that I thought looked pretty good. I was happy with how the above looks, but think that I’m going to stick to full illustration.

Initially, I didn’t want to talk about the book too much, because I have a habit of exhausting things through discussing them, rather than actually working on them. However, I’m hoping that by mentioning it, I will keep myself accountable to the online record/promise.

The story is loosely structured out and I’m in the process of fleshing things out further and hope to have a story draft done sometime in December.