2012

2012-07-11

Jammin’ in Minneapolis

A little over I week ago I rode the bus to Minneapolis to visit friends and do a bunch of other stuff.

Minneapolis skyline

On July 5 I attended the monthly comics jam put on by the founding branch of the International Cartoonist Conspiracy in Minneapolis. I had a good time as we each added panels to the “story”, though I didn’t realize ’til the end that each page was meant to be part of a larger whole – oops. If you dare, you can view the results (PDF, and content warning for occasional cussing, incoherence, & rudeness). I slipped upstairs from the jam for a while to visit Big Time Attic, the studio of Kevin and Zander Cannon (no relation to each other; current project: Double Barrel). Zander was out of town, but Kevin graciously showed me around and chatted with me for a while. When I returned, Conspiracy founder Steven Stwalley had arrived. I met him on my last visit to the Twin Cities in 2009, and it was nice to see him again. I came away from the evening with copies of the Big Funny and Just Add Ink anthologies, and left New England comics in my wake – a veritable cultural exchange!

Before and after the jam I spent my time juggling day-job work (it’s portable!) and the first day of CONvergence, a four-day science-fiction & fantasy convention my hosting friends attend every year (the nominal reason for the trip) – more on that later.

2012-06-21

Midnight Snack p.2

Midnight Snack page 2

Transcript

Girl: “VAMPIRE PICKLE?!” [Noticing her, the vampire pickle pushes the ketchup bottle away and wipes its mouth.]

Girl: “Where’s the garlic?!”

Vampire Pickle: “FOOL! I am a PICKLE! Garlic only makes me STRONGER!” [It leaps onto her chest; she falls back against the kitchen table.] “And daylight is hours away – too late too save you!”

Vampire Pickle: “Ha ha! Prepare to-” [Girl notices a box of toothpicks by her hand, and quickly impales the vampire pickle.] “NAAARRGH!!!”

As the vampire pickle wails and withers away on the toothpick, the girl thinks, “Gotta remember next year – the creepy house gives bad treats!”

Get copies of “Midnight Snack” formatted as a minicomic to give to trick-or-treaters, Halloween party-goers, goblins, etc.!

Assembling the comic is pretty easy! Print the PDF double-sided at 100% (no scaling; don’t let the program “adjust to printer margins” or anything like that). Each copy of the file produces 4 copies of the comic; when you cut them apart, the pages will be in the right order for you to staple & fold. If using scissors instead of a papercutter, you may want to cut after folding. Staple in the center & fold. If you’re using a standard stapler, you may want to fold the comic before stapling or use a ruler to help find the center (at 2 3/4″). If using a long stapler, the measurement marks probably don’t go down to 2 3/4″, so line up a ruler with the one on the stapler to get the added measurement.

2012-06-18

Midnight Snack p.1

Midnight Snack page 1

Transcript

[Scene: moonlit night]

[Voice from inside house] “So how did your trick-or-treating go?”

[Two girls are sorting their Halloween candy – a blonde girl in a grim reaper costume and a black-haired girl in a skeleton costume.]

Blonde girl: “Good – but look what that creepy house gave me.”

Black-haired girl: “A pickle?! That’s weird.”

Blonde girl: “Yeah. I guess I’ll put it in the fridge for now…”

Later…at midnight…[sleepy blonde girl, in her pajamas, opens the fridge – then looks wide-eyed in amazement. A pickle with arms, legs, and a face has been using its fangs to drain the ketchup bottle.]

Blond girl: “WHA-?! V- V- V- V-“

Get copies of “Midnight Snack” formatted as a minicomic to give to trick-or-treaters, Halloween party-goers, goblins, etc.!

Assembling the comic is pretty easy! Print the PDF double-sided at 100% (no scaling; don’t let the program “adjust to printer margins” or anything like that). Each copy of the file produces 4 copies of the comic; when you cut them apart, the pages will be in the right order for you to staple & fold. If using scissors instead of a papercutter, you may want to cut after folding. Staple in the center & fold. If you’re using a standard stapler, you may want to fold the comic before stapling or use a ruler to help find the center (at 2 3/4″). If using a long stapler, the measurement marks probably don’t go down to 2 3/4″, so line up a ruler with the one on the stapler to get the added measurement.

2012-06-13

The Story of Jake Tuesday – 5

The Story of Jake Tuesday page 5

Transcript

With the firefighters out and the rain starting again during the first firehouse dance, they skip the song and the usual jaunt to Pliny Park, returning to the pub to sing other songs.

Singer: “Although I’m not rich and although I’m not poor / I’m as happy as those that’s got thousands or more.”
Group: “Thousands or more / Thousands or more / Thousands or more / I’m as happy as those that’s got thousands or more.”

Geoff Rogers says, “I like these events that mark the passing of the year … We used to have the planting season and they knew when the solstice was coming … when the shortest day was going to happen…”

“And even what that meant!” Jake adds.

“I think nowadays people are so far away from that – so isolated, ” says Geoff.

The evening nears its end as 10:00 PM passes. A departing guest wishes Jake a “Happy You Tuesday!”

Jake says, “Thanks! … I’m always glad to share it with you.”

Six months after his heart attack Jake – for whom math had always come naturally – was unable to do a sixth-grade long division problem.

“I’m a science teacher … I can do [long division] now, so it’s been neat to see the recovery, and there are a bunch of things that have helped me get better – Jake Tuesday being one of them.”

Bonus: watch a video from the very same Jake Tuesday celebration covered in this comic (courtesy of Adroyt)!

Update 2014-06-12: I should’ve mentioned earlier, you can get your own print copy of this comic in Square Dance #6 (a collection of my short comics) and The Cartoon Picayune #4 (an anthology of graphic journalism). You can also peek at my process behind the scenes in The Cartoon Picayune‘s interview with me.

2012-06-12

The Story of Jake Tuesday – 4

The Story of Jake Tuesday page 4

Transcript

Jake brought the dawn tradition to the Putney Morris Men (though they start when it’s light). He no longer dances because of a permanent ankle injury, but he comes to McNeill’s Pub on Jake Tuesday, when Juggler Meadow visits to celebrate his return from death. The eighth Tuesday after Easter, it’s named after their annual “Drake Tuesday”, which is named after and commemorates the long-closed bar they frequented after dance practice in their early days.

Jake says, “There’s a funny awkward element to it, because a lot of the new people on the team I don’t really know – ‘Oh – you’re Jake!’ … But it’s a neat tradition … For me it’s a great chance to see some people I love dearly.”

The tradition now spans generations. Geoff Rogers’ son Angus is here dancing, and Oriel Strong has recently taken her father’s former role as musician. “I’ve been coming to these events since I was in utero,” she says.

“We always go across the street and do a dance or two for the firemen, and we always sing this song for them called ‘The Old Dun Cow’,” says Geoff Rogers. It’s about a pub that catches fire and the patrons who rush to the cellar to drink all the booze. “[The firefighters] all join in the chorus – it’s fun.” (Bystanders: “They’re at a fire.” “No, there’s flooding.”)

2012-06-11

The Story of Jake Tuesday – 3

The Story of Jake Tuesday page 3

Transcript

On June 5, after Jake had come home, Juggler Meadow and the Putney Morris Men came to dance for him. He was still in “pretty bad” physical shape – able to go outside, but not to retain his own memory of the event. “It was definitely a low point in my life, so for me it’s very special to think that these guys all came over and breather a kind of life in me that was different from … CPR.”

Jake’s friend Geoff Rogers dragged him to his first morris practice in the early 1980s. Jake says, “It’s an easy community to like – really nice people, and the dancing is really fun, and building a sense of community.

“The big tradition is dancing in the dawn on May Day. We would go to Juggler Meadow and camp out, and start dancing while it was still dark – and for me that’s where I felt something extraordinary. It was just the sense that I was doing something with other people that other people had been doing for a long time, and I felt like it was really important.

“I’m not a big believer in things that can’t be explained; I really like science … but I definitely had the sense that there was something I couldn’t explain, that it was special and that it was important. It could be as simple as the relationships between people, which I think is really, really important.”

2012-06-08

The Story of Jake Tuesday – 2

The Story of Jake Tuesday page 2

Transcript

Mark Summers found Jake and assumed he’d crashed, realizing when closer that he was dead. He debated going for help, but decided to use the CPR training he’d received years ago. Another driver came, and went for help. The town had just purchased a portable defibrillator, which they put to use on Jake. An ambulance and helicopter ride later Jake was under doctors’ care, but he’d gone so long without oxygen that they expected him to die again. When he seemed to be stabilizing, they said that if he survived he would do so without his memory.

Jake says, “For me it’s a haunting story, that my wife had to sit my little girls down – they were third and fifth grade – and say that Pop might live, but he’s not going to remember you.

“But I just … lucked out … I had enough brain left so that even though there was a lot of damage, I’ve gotten a lot of stuff back.”

He still doesn’t remember the heart attack or the month that followed; he has to rely on his wife Eve’s memories for that. “I think I was feeling pretty isolated, and like my life had changed a lot. My brain didn’t work very well. I’d been very athletic, and it was clear I was never going to be able to do any of that stuff again.”

2012-06-07

The Story of Jake Tuesday – 1

The Story of Jake Tuesday page 1

Transcript

If you passed the fire station in Brattleboro, Vermont the night of May 29, you may have seen an unusual sight – The outfits with bells on the legs mark this as a morris dance, a type of English ritual folk dance that predates Shakespeare and has spread to the U.S. – but why is it here on this Tuesday night?

Geoff Rogers: “We’re called the Juggler Meadow Morris Men; we’re based in Amherst [Massachusetts].” Juggler Meadow is here with local morris team Windham and others for Jake Tuesday, an annual event in honor of former member Jake McDermott, who moved to Putney and in April 2001 had a heart attack. “We have an evening of beer and song and dancing – celebrating life in general and Jake in particular.”

“Jake was not the kind of guy you would ever expect to have something like that happen to him … really an iron man; really, really fantastic shape.” But during an easy bike ride on Kurn Hattin Road in Westminster, he died of a heart attack.

This story marks my return to the pages of The Commons – with a full-length article in comics format! You can pick up a free print copy today through next Tuesday at numerous locations in Brattleboro and the rest of Windham County, VT, or download the paper as a PDF (44 MB) read it at The Commons website. The version in The Commons is laid out differently and in color (provided by The Commons). Here are photos of it in the paper (click to enlarge):

(That’s right – I got a jump page!)

I’m really excited about this one; I’ve been wanting to do stuff like this for a while, and I’m happy with how it came out – and having it in a newspaper makes it even better! Thanks to Commons editor Jeff Potter for devoting space to graphic journalism.

(PS: Sorry for the occasionally jaggy image quality – I’ve started drawing smaller and haven’t yet got the hang of reproducing the thinnest lines at screen resolution.)

Update 2014-06-12: I should’ve mentioned earlier, you can get your own print copy of this comic in Square Dance #6 (a collection of my short comics) and The Cartoon Picayune #4 (an anthology of graphic journalism). You can also peek at my process behind the scenes in The Cartoon Picayune‘s interview with me.

2012-06-04

Winchester School Garden p.2

Winchester School Garden page 2

Transcript

The preschool always plants peas, early enough so they can give them to the families at preschool graduation.

The first grade plants potatoes in the spring, then harvests them as second-graders in the fall.

Third grade has grown some big cabbages!

Fourth grade does a big unit on Native Americans; they planted the Three Sisters garden (corn, beans, squash).

Fifth grade planted “really funky gourds” and did a whole math lesson on measuring them and their growth.

The life skills prgram for cognitively delayed students cooks once a week, using graden produce with great results. Special educator Jane Cardinale chairs the Garden Committee, so the 30% of the school in Special Ed uses the garden a lot. “And that’s been really successful,” she says.

Pat Dorcas uses the garden for seventh-grade science, and does hyrdoponic gardening in his classes and the greenhouse. He teaches about food miles, asking students where their food comes from and how much energy it takes.

Page 2 of 4 of my piece from Sprouts, the new food-themed anthology from Trees & Hills. I’ve been wanting to do more nonfiction comics in general and especially some journalism-type comics, and for this one I finally left my cave to go interview someone – hooray! I’m already busy on another bit of graphic journalism that I hope to share soon.

2012-03-27

3-part comics groove

I’ve realized that to keep a consistent comics-making groove I need to always have one comic to draw, another to write/lay out, and a third to research. I should be able to do that soon, since I recently finished the thumbnails for “Summer in Headville” and started drawing it, have picked out a partially-written piece to finish, and need to research my submission for the next Trees & Hills anthology.

2012-03-05

Experimental Hats

Experimental Hats

Transcript

1. An white-heared, bearded man in vest and glasses uses a wrench to tighten the metal straps around another man’s top hat while an assistant stands by with spare parts.
2. On an airfield, a scruffy-looking man in a jumpsuit points to the ear-flap that detached from his winter hat, while a 1950s-style man in suit & glasses uses a pocket calculator.
3. A woman in a lab coat & glasses with hair pulled into a bun holds a clipboard while looking at a machine; the machine has a large clear class tube full of liquid. A knitted hat with pom-pom floats in the liquid as bubbles percolate.
4. A man and woman in labcoat stand deep in thought, watching a machine. The machine wears a brimmed hat with bow and feather on it’s head-shaped extension and is (by design) vibrating intensely.
5. A man in a windbreaker and cap with small brim runs down a test lane, smiling until the cap suddenly explodes! As he rolls on the ground, a crew member sprays a fire extinguisher at his head while a second crew member runs up with a bucket of water. A scientist dashes over, trailing papers from his clipboard.