Time to Werk

Werk Vacation

Continuing the adventures of real life....

Loon

I've been in Europe now for exactly one month, and so, like most of the posts here, I'll begin with an apology. I thought I could spend a couple days resting and then get back on the horse. That horse which involves me getting on with this life of the mind I've chosen. Or, more specifically a life of the mind on the couch. Not really. I haven't been completely lazy. I've been spending my time reading books I should've read long ago and writing incomplete poems and traveling. I've been to Paris now, and I'd like to go back. Maybe next time with less of a checklist of sights and more time dedicated to nothing but being in Paris. Germany, too has been explored to some degree. The Rhineland, anyway. Where all towns are fairytale towns, all roads are old roads, and all rivers are lazy ones.

This country life is nice. But I can't tell if it's beautiful here because there's something uniquely German about it, or because it looks like all countrysides. Rolling hills thick with trees and great expanses of farmfields, a deafening sense of solitude as the sun goes down. It's the sky that gives it away. The sky here is empty. There are no buildings taller than a tree and no planes fly overhead (all we get is the occasional distant thunder of a C-17 heading in or out of the American airbase east of here - O'Hare it is not). Yes, it's alright. Now, if I could only find something to do with my time. . .

Here is something from the notebook.

Cocktopus. . .in 3D!!!

Put on yer glasses, it's comin' right at ya!*

*Results may vary.

Oaktapus

In other news, will be in Germany starting July 15. Quitting job, life in Chicago, America &c. . . Ann leaves in a week, myself following on the aforementioned date. The town is Hütschenhausen, located in the Rhineland-Palatinate. Will return sometime in the new year.

I have two plans–

1: To get on with the life I thought I'd already have been living, artwise. Heretofore wasted with day jobs and making excuses,

And

2: To utilize this internetual medium for a better display of what's been in my brain for the last 30 years or so. Either on this site or a better one of my own design (re: this one).

Here is a drawing I made at work. (Tip- a pad of paper makes for a good mouse pad/sketch pad!) It concerns my two interests lately- fat, lazy birds and octopi, also lazy.

Furthermore, if anyone has any suggestions for things to see and/or do in Europe, give a holler. There will be some free time. Come visit.

Slow & Steady . . .

Here's some more from the notebook. I've been sort of out of it for strips lately, there's no excuse, I've got a bunch of false starts and bad drawings to show for it. I started this stupid internet experiment so that I'd be more on top of it, but the real truth is I'm lazy and unfocused. Thanks for waiting.

Receipt Cocktopi

Off to Seattle shortly, hoping for some good seafood, maybe eat an octopus. The receipt is from the Dylan Bootleg volume 6 purchased the other day. (thanks to Keith for the discount).

More excuses from my notebooks . . .

Variations on a Scream, or . . .

More Werk, again

Weeks, repeat

I'm pretty sure I've seen this joke before. It's a fairly common feeling that comes with doing the same thing everyday without producing anything worthwhile to show for the progress. Stacks of paper and migraines don't count.

Werk to the X

I've gotten myself into another exciting day job. It's terribly exciting and I hope to tell all of you about it someday.

Werk

A New Day

Art Show, Again

Art show this weekend (Saturday the 25th). Somewhere up in Rogers Park. Details, links. Same stuff as previous for those who couldn't make. There was one last weekend, too, apparently. I'd forgotten.

Paul Bunyan, Democrat

In my effort to remain unfocused and abandon seemingly good ideas left and right, here is a new strip I've been working on. It's called 'Paul Bunyan, Democrat', and concerns the existential crisis of a man alone in a world wary of the progress and moral ambiguity he represents.

You know...

We'll continue with more Werk for the time being.
In other news, the Art show went well. I saw, like, 6 or 7 people there. Not bad, really.

Art Show!!!!!!!

I will be in an art show next weekend with some people I don't know (September the 26-28). Come on by if yer in Chicargo for some reason. It's just one piece (SPOILER ALERT: pictured) and it's all the way down in Pilsen in some alleyway in the back of a truck that some friends of mine own*. It's all pretty legitimate. Devotees will recognize this strip as a reworking of a previous- and much smaller- comic. Dimensionwise, this is 40 x 40 inches (or, two 20 x 40 inch boards (or, for our international friends: 101.6cm x 101.6cm). It is called "Small Talk" and concerns our man Billy Bughead and a cartoon representation of the artist as they discuss the important topics of the day.

Here it is on the bedroom floor:
A detail:


Another:
*read more about that here

Time to Werk

True story:

And again, Werk...