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

Wahey, I just finished the cover image for my tenth book with Strategic Coach!!

When Dan told me he wanted us to do 100 books over the next 25 years, it was easy to say yes, because a) it was a great prospect, getting to just do this for the rest of my career, and b) it seemed like a crazy moonshot of an idea. Sure, why not?

But here we are, 1/10 of the way already — in less than two years. Now that’s crazy. I imagine most conventional publishers would aim to produce an illustrated book in a year, not 90 days.

The one thing I miss from theatre is the camaraderie and celebration over doing a big thing together. I do feel like I want to celebrate this.

This time of year, I still get that old “back-to-school” feeling and want to refresh my stuff. The prospect of new starts, making progress, and learning new things still motivates me.

My project folder was starting to come apart, so I started with that.

In other news, Mister Chicken has perished.

I can’t express how much I love going to Comics Club every Thursday night. I love the crazy banter, the generous sharing of resources and help, and the really diverse talent among the group.

Lately we’ve been starting off with an exercise in which we pick a random phrase on a slip of paper, then draw a four-panel comic based on it in just half an hour.

I love my work-work, but I find this exercise such a good challenge — and really liberating, too, because the result doesn’t matter. There’s room to be goofy, weird, or rude.

(After the exercise, we get on with whatever personal projects we’re working on, chatting all the while — which you can do while drawing. I couldn’t do that when I was writing copy!)

Here are my random comix from the last two weeks:

And this was just me purging something that had been in my head:

And today, this — following my gut instinct that I need to start writing more about stuff that happens instead of constantly barfing out my feelings in comic form.

Upshot: Maybe it’s living in a world where there’s a constant tsunami of opinion, and I don’t want to contribute any more to that, because I believe it’s pointless, though it often comes in a gift basket of self-importance.

Talking is talking, and doing is doing.