There’s so, so much I didn’t capture from our recent trip abroad, but I had a little time this week and wanted to at least do a few sketches — and use ink, because pencil was fine after the accident, but it’s really time to commit to something more finished, even if it’s scarier.
(Sorry, honey, this is a terrible drawing of you.)
(Geez, haven’t done calligraphy in a while. I started in here, and had to continue, even though it looks like a thicket more than letters.)
Craig’s got the cold, so I went on as his understudy for last night’s Playing with Choir.
We had a visitation this morning — not aliens, but social workers from Family Services, continuing their interviews with Craig and me as part of the adoption process.
The conversations are very friendly, and I think we’re doing well — honestly sharing all our ups and downs in life, and our thoughts and concerns about parenting.
(Unfortunately, I drank three cups of coffee, forgetting that it was from the drum of fully caffeinated Tim Horton’s coffee my brother gave us, so now I’ve got the jitters!)
Yesterday in the park, I looked at Doug had the thought, “This is your childhood. I should enjoy it, and make it a good one.” More and more I find myself looking at this house, its rooms, our backyard, the schools nearby and thinking, “This could be where someone’s childhood happens.”
And it doesn’t scare me anymore. I feel compelled to make it a good one for someone.
It helps that my cartooning work keeps flashing me back to my childhood, and being here on the Island with Craig and my parents makes me feel connected to my past, and like part of a family, not just an isolated element.
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The past few weeks in Comics Club, Tyler has been leading us through some exercises that have been a good stretch, and feel like great preparation for any other comics work I’d like to do.
In last night’s session, he had us fold a page into eight panels, draw a story without using any words, then go back and, on a separate piece of paper, tell the story again using only words — just to see how word and image interplay in comics, and where each of them might do the job better.
(Below I’ll include the images I drew, then the text I wrote later to tell the same story.)
The first thing that popped into my mind — the only thing I could think of — was a recent news story, which I told from my memory of glancing quickly at it, filling in the gaps with my imagination.
(In a way, this was a breakthrough, because for once I wasn’t drawing myself — that is, a diary comic.)
Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, a Republican Senator, revealed this week that she was abducted by aliens as a child. [ED: Aguilera is actually running for a seat in Congress.]
One night, when she was seven years old, she saw lights in the yard and went out to investigate. The ship teleported her aboard in a beam of light.
The ship sped off into the night sky.
Bettina, alone and afraid, found herself in a sterile examination room.
One of the aliens introduced himself and showed her around the ship. She was touched by his kindness. [ED: Here I depicted a ‘Grey’ alien; when I read the news article this morning, I learned that she claimed to have been abducted by a Jesus-like ‘White’ alien. Naturally.]
Returned to Earth, Bettina grew into a confident young lady, excelling in her studies, ambitious about the future. Was this because of the alien’s influence?
Through the years, the alien visited her, and they discussed their respective cultures. He convinced Bettina of his world’s success and happiness, which he attributed to free market economics. [ED: I made this part up. The notion has no more proof or credibility than the existence of aliens, yet our whole society is founded on it.]
“And that,” she explained, “is why I’m a Republican!” [As one internet commenter said, “How is believing in aliens and deriving your policy-making from that any more of a stretch than thinking that God is directing you, like other Republicans regularly claim?”
P.S. My sketchbook is nearly full, so I’ve made the next one (along with a protective cereal-box sleeve):
So that was fun: My mom and Craig have been going to a local “recreational singing” group called Playing with Choir, and last night my friend Tina and I joined them for a guest evening.
Last night in Comics Club we did an exercise where we thumbnailed a six- to eight-panel comic (I took Tyler’s suggestion of “just anything from your day”), then drew the comic.
(Photo by Ben Stellino)
I sat in on a Strategic Coach workshop today and took notes in comix form.
I love working with a company that deals in thinking, and it’s always exciting to hear how the entrepreneurs in the room are applying this work, and how much more fun and fulfilled their lives are for it.
And these text messages from Craig tonight:
[IMAGES REDACTED] It occurred to me after the fact that Craig would probably not like me posting his text messages to me here. The gist of them was that Doug was upset and listless yesterday, and kept sniffing around and looking for me.
It feels so wrong to be away from my little buddy. I know we have to integrate him into our real lives, but this hurts!
Charlottetown Comics Club exercise: random phrase 1/2-hour, 4-panels:
“It was a crazy evening in March when the plague broke out.”
~
Diary comix
