People watching en route to and around Leeds

 It wasn't that long ago, I guess. But everything is relative.

Lots of amazing people watching between the airports, the local, and the comic con!

And Xavier got his dig in about my hair, too.

The Doctor and Me

Here's the Twelfth Doctor and Me in her highwayman garb. I did like Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, and I did like Me as a character. This drawing doesn't hold up to my First Doctor with Susan, Barbara, and Ian, my Second Doctor and Jamie, or my Third Doctor with Sarah Jane. But here it is.

 

 

Stucky

I can't recall exactly--perhaps Monica drew a Stucky (Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes homoerotic coupling) commission. But it was clear she likes Stucky art! So I drew one for her at the New York Comic Con when were tabled side by side. Then, just a few weeks later, we were at Thought Bubble in Leeds. So a second Stucky drawing appeared. It's become something of a tradition.

    

Untitled Protest

And, the fourth significant reason for my distraction: the 2016 election.

I wasn't sure what I could do aside from making a few contributions to organizations that promote LGBT+ rights. And I knew I didn't want to run a comic directly critical of elected politicians--since obviously the people voting is where the issue lay. But I settled on my Untitled Protest series, posted to Instagram and Tumblr.

In the series, which lasted with 50-sih installments, white people were treated as black people are in the US; women were granted the same entitled behavior of straight white men, bathrooms were arbitrarily regulated, and immigration laws changed on the fly, trapping American tourists at the airport.

I need to take proper scans of the whole series to collect it. Along with the short stories "Balloons by Golly" and "Balloons Over Ballots," this series is among my most overt political statements.

        

 

(Abandoned) Projects

This brings me to the third reason I was distracted: new projects that were abandoned.

At the time, Greg and I were busy, busy, busy brainstorming pitch ideas. In 2015, we'd finally finished "RE-INFINITY" and we'd also collaborated on a ghost story, putting them out there as Poison Press Presents #s 1 and 3. The first of two ideas stemmed from drawing I made (and posted, apparently, according to the note on the sketch) in 2009. It was a love triangle story.

 

The second idea we were brainstorming was rather dear to my heart. Let's long story short it and say seven teenagers find themselves embroiled in some mysterious goings-on. 

Though neither project made it to the stage of pilot mini comics, both were great exercises in us collaborating... paving the way for the short stories "Star Players" and "Liebestraße." The latter, of course, we developed as a graphic novel for ComiXology as Liebestrasse.

The connoisseur

Oddly not tagged, since headache drawings are in nearly every sketchbook of mine and must have made it to the blog in the past. But let's say Reason #2 I took a break from here: perpetual headaches. In fact, I am a headache connoisseur. Cataloging areas of my brain that hurt, trying to determine how deep the pain is, and the nature of it, from stabbing to stinging to dull to heavy. So much more. Doctors have never really figured out why, despite lots of effort. But sometimes, I just need to let something go...

I do like this drawing, though I can't remember what 48|52 means. But this would have been about six months after our beloved boss resigned.

 

Testing one, two

 Ahoy! I've not been here for a while, and for lots of reasons, many of which I will be sharing with you over the next weeks. Let's start with the first reason: Instagram.

Just prior to stepping away from this blog, I started posting to Instagram, which is fun and quick. But lacks the commentary I always added here at Blogger (or is it Blogspot?). 

This blue line pencil version of this sketch, based on Monica Gallagher's comic series Lipstick and Malice, was posted to Insta. But after, I inked it. So here you go! Blogger exclusive!

Over the years, I keep sneaking sketches in featuring the assassin-model star of the series. I came up with the tagline "She's hot... you're DEAD!" which has become a running joke with us.

I'll be back tomorrow with the second reason.