A recent comment on Square Dance #5:

Hi there,

Just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed this article. It’s obvious that you know dancing. Your site really is awesome.

Thank you for your efforts!

I’m glad that my dance power is so amazing it shines through even in totally unrelated endeavors! I’m less glad that this commenter (whose name linked to an online dance school) enjoyed the shop listing but enough enough to buy : ‘ (

At least my efforts are appreciated.

Sorry I’ve been away, Internet! I thought things would calm down after Water, which they did but only relatively; I immediately had to throw myself into preparations for the next anthology Woods, then the summer cluster of birthdays, then at some point  I started having really productive brainstorms.

Current projects:

• Pursue drawn journalism – I want to draw more nonfiction but haven’t, mainly because it’s more work. Enter “comics journalism” and bushels of excitement!
• “Community Comics” presentation & comic (& maybe workshop).
• Trees & Hills logo (finally)!
• Trees & Hills anthology #11, Woods.
• A new Halloween Comics project.
• Make comics templates.
• Overhaul the Trees & Hills website. Among other exciting changes, we’re gonna have a wiki!
• Overhaul this website (again). The software’s outdated & I have a sneaky spam problem, plus I want to change some things anyway.
• Trees & Hills reorganization.
• Prepare for the next Offshore Comix anthology.
• “Get organized” (ongoing, recently reinvigorated)
• Transition from Windows to Linux. I think I can finally relegate Windows to its proper place on a dusty shelf, but I have to set up & test some stuff first.
• Go back “on tour” – so far I have a couple events lined up this month and one in September. I expect to start doing more once the Community Comics presentation is ready.
• Fix sleep schedule (ongoing) – more daylight hours would make all of this a lot easier! At least now when I’m up too late I’m usually accomplishing a lot instead of just reading the internet (enriching though that may be).
• So many comics to draw!

So despite the lack of drawing, I’m plenty busy. Despite which, I promise new comics soon!

A fellow cartoonist writes, “I’ve walked around telling people I’m a cartoonist, but how many comics have I really done? Whole comic books, mini-comics, strips all together? Fifty full pages of comics? Eighty?” I’ve had similar thoughts on occasion, so reading this made me wonder just how many pages I’ve drawn and published.

It turns out the answer is around 290 (using a 5.5″ x 8.5″ page as a standard unit).

• 5 issues of Square Dance = 104 pages.
• 5 issues of Before Sleep = 80 pages (I’m counting each page as half a page because they’re only 5.5″ x 4.25″. Note also that I only printed half of the strips I drew for Before Sleep).
• Entries in 9 Trees & Hills anthologies = 38 pages (12 of them written by other people).
• Entries in other anthologies (Always Comix, Big Sexy, Candy or Medicine (small pages counted as half), High Maintenance Machine guest strip (small counted as half), and Secrets & Lies (large page counted as double) = 14 pages.
• 24 hour comics = 48 pages (not counting the second one, part of which I used in an issue of Square Dance & the rest of which remains unpublished. The first one had 8.5″ x 11″ pages, but I’m still counting it as just 24).
• Minicomics not yet reprinted in Square Dance = 6 (all small pages counted as half or less).

If I counted comics I’ve published online but not on paper, it would add another 90 or so pages.

Those 290 pages are spread over the seven or so years(!) since I decided to “be a cartoonist”, averaging about 40 pages (or about two zines) a year. That’s less than my current goal of 100+ pages a year, and I know people’s who’ve drawn my seven-year total in much less time, but I still find it a comforting number. It’s not bad for someone who works a day job and devotes a lot of time to non-drawing comics activities (ie, co-organizing Trees & Hills),  and I hadn’t realized I’d drawn & published so many pages.

Here’s to many more!

Sorry I haven’t been posting comics lately. I got caught up in last-minute anthology production rush and the touring season. The new Trees & Hills anthology Water is out and coming soon to an online shop near you!