Comics, As Promised!

So here are the highlights from my "Father's Day Weekend Sketchbook". Not that great a name because the only things I left out were unfinished/abandoned pages, rough sketches, some abstract pattern drawings and a terrible drawing of Captain Canuck. Also a bad name because 10 pages is a pathetic amount for a sketchbook. Maybe not bad for a weekend, though.

ON WITH THE COMICS ALREADY!

Let me be perfectly clear: this is a drawing of actual events. On the way to the lake, there was a point where I was responsible for both keeping the truck in the proper lane, and for keeping Menina from falling out the wide-open window. It was brief, though.

And most of the drive was far more relaxing. Check out this chilled-out sketch of my Dad and Menina, two of my favourite people there are:


Dad's mouth was open because he was singing to Amy Winehouse. I was going to write the lyrics in, but I forgot them, and I didn't want to put any old lyrics in because they would be "close enough". I don't stand for that kind of sloppy approximation!

AND NOW FOR SOME SLOPPY APPROXIMATION!

Look closely, or skim the page briefly, and you'll notice some truly sloppy text work. Totally ran out of room for the word 'boats'. And as for the bottom line, I guess I momentarily forgot how to spell 'mean'.

This is the introduction page of a two-page comic about how Menina- the supposed "water dog"- get this! Fell in the water and hated it! Classic! that page is basically planned out and if I ever feel like it maybe I'll ink it and post it.

"Well, that's all for now", he said, bowing awkwardly before an audience of... one? Maybe?

Welcome to the Internet, James!

FIRST POST!!! Oh yeah, I said it first. So don't even try to say it in the comments, or in any other comment on any other thing on the internet. Seriously, that shit drivel is annoying.

This past weekend was the third Sunday of June, so it was time for a very special celebration:

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, DAD'S NEW SMOKER!!!

If it doesn't look particularly enthused about its birthday, maybe it's just moping a little because it hasn't been set up yet. Maybe it's looking back on the first year of its life, and wondering what it means to smoke meat, and trying to imagine what that might be like.

As if to add insult to injury an entire year of insult, we barbequed some viddles on Sunday, not 3 meters from said smoker:


I refuse to personify them because conscious meat is creepy when it's all chopped up (conscious meat is just fine, by the way, if it's an intact pig or human), but if I did personify them, I'd say they were maybe a little disappointed to have to be half-assedly smoked on a barbeque, and I was certainly not too happy with the results of this method myself.

I really did have an enjoyable weekend, despite the impression you might have gleaned from all this whining. For Father's Day, I went canoeing with my Dad and my Dog in a SECRET FISHING SPOT! It was relaxing and sunny and mosquitos ahoy.

Here is evidence of that claim. It's also evidence that after a weekend apart from civilization, sometimes one forgets not to do really embarassing things like wear glasses and sunglasses at the same time.

Nice one, six eyes!

Did I mention this blog is supposed to be about comics? I'm getting to them, but first, an amazing creature we caught accidentally! My dad left his hook in the water overnight with a worm on it, and look, dear reader, what we found the next morning!

When I first saw it, I thought it was some kind of AXOLOTL, a creature I'd seen in the Aquarium of Niagara Falls in New York State. But of course, those live in Mexico, don't they? And the one I saw there was white.

So I did some research when I got home, and it looks like this guy is not unrelated to the exotic Axolotl. The Common Mudpuppy is also an aquatic salamander. And yes, those flappy ear-like things are gills! The entire species, like the Axolotl, has sort of given up on puberty, or at least the stage in their development where they get the ability to breathe on land. This sort of thing is known as Neoteny, and you can read a delightful comic about Axolotls and Neoteny here.


In closing, though, I'm glad it wasn't some rare breed of salamander, because he had totally swallowed that hook, and... killing rare animals is worse than killing common ones? But killing common ones is brutal too, and my Dad and I felt super guilty about having probably caused this cute guy's demise. My guilt, however, might be overwhelmed by how lucky I feel to have seen this amazing creature that I had no previous knowledge of. Yeah, that probably makes me a bad person.

MOVING ON!

This is where I would show you my drawings from that weekend, but I forgot to bring my book with me, so I can't scan them right now! So.... comics coming next post!

Enjoy your week, and take some kind of comfort in the fact that tomorrow is my birthday and I will be totally drunk. What do you mean, you don't find that comforting in any way? You wouldn't know comfort if it sawed your arm off.