Bang a Left

Calvin, On Friendship.

2012-02-14T09:13:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, when words fail me I look to art to explain the universe.

Thank goodness I've got you Calvin and the ever-brilliant Hobbs.

*******

Have all of you buckled down to simply SURVIVE this February?

I know I have.

Rom-com's on weekends and dates to go dancing and one day at a time, we will get through this.

Today is mom and dad's 32nd wedding anniversary!
YAY! Mom and Dad!

If you are looking for us later try over at Haddad's Seafood Cafe.

Ethan told me this morning he is going to order pizza.

Oh, and for those of you interested in comics (who makes those anymore?) here is a sneak peek of the first Hourlies comic I've ever tried to do.

It's spaced out oddly because I am using the blank spaces to make scripting notes.

If you are wondering what I am reading in the coffee shop it is (or was) The Hunger Games. Oh, Katniss. I plowed through the whole trilogy is 3 days.

More on that later.

And take my advice, you want to get through this month, just read some Calvin and Hobbs comics.

Things will start to feel better.

Black Monday

2012-02-06T10:24:00.002-05:00

This is going to be a Monday you just try to survive. Not to actually participate in.

What an awful feeling.

Here, though are the fun foodstuffs we made for the game.

Danielle and Callie and I displaying our wares

I made a guacamole shaped like a football field with some designs on top.
All the logos and decorations are edible.

The logos are Fruit Roll-Ups cut out with an Xacto knife and assembled on cheese.
Fruit Roll-Ups are a difficult (which here means "sticky") medium to work in.

At half-time the boys go outside and play The Line Game. The Line Game is a game of catch football where everyone lines up and runs a route of their own choosing. An automatic QB throws. If you miss or drop the ball you become a defensive player. Eventually there are way too many defensive players and the last one to make a clean catch wins the game and becomes the next automatic QB.

If you are a defensive player and you make an interception you are back in the game.
early in the football season I would play with the boys but then Brian tackled me against a tree and a fence in one shoulder-to-gut-shot and that was it for my career.

Now I am content to stay inside where it is warm and no one tackles me violently.
Here Jeff looks like a ghost:

Hope you all can make it through your own Black Monday's.
And Wes, stop beating yourself up.
Tom could've thrown it better, you could've caught it.
These things happen.

It's just a game.

Promotion

2012-01-17T09:36:00.003-05:00

Well it has certainly been a busy new year !

Beginning the first of the year I got a promotion at my day job (WooHoo!).

For those you of might not know I spend my daylight hours operating a mechanic's garage (*ahem* an "Independent Repair Facility") in a little town in Massachusetts. We are the best garage around by far! And as such I have been very busy doing not-art.

I figured I'd let you in on some of the not-art that has been keeping me busy.

First, we knocked this wall down:

before

after

And we enlisted the help of both Matt's mini-Whalen's to come and help us paint the back shop. They had a blast. Also his mother chipped in. Washed windows and painted around the light boxes and suchlike.

Wyatt and Andrea scraping and painting

Matt was thrilled to be working with his kids

We moved some sheets of metal that had been laying up against one wall and behind it we discovered a crazy wall weed. It's tendrils had crept into the paint and behind it to the concrete itself. SO CREEPY! Luckily Wyatt took care it for us.

Crazy wall weed!

Get 'em Wy

And all in all it's coming along wonderfully.

Our new open floor plan

Freshly painted

In comics' news I am setting up a home studio so that I can continue making art. I have a book of Autobiographical Short Stories that I would like to debut at Boston Con but that depends on my ability to learn my way around a Mac.

I got an INCREDIBLE new iMac for Christmas/My Birthday and I am bumbling my way through learning it. I have been a PC all my life but I am finally making the switch.

And here is the ever-adorable Wyatt telling us all about how he saved us from the wild plants:

Merry Christmas

2011-12-27T11:02:00.002-05:00

Well, Christmas is over and it when it came to having family time, this year was really the best.

Baby Lila, our Christmas kiddo, turned one on Christmas Eve.

There are some pictures of her face smeared in chocolate cake that are hilarious.

I don't have time to do a proper update as we are slammed at work (I've been here since 6:30am... yikes) but I couldn't resist sharing this video. You know how kids always play with the cardboard boxes that their presents come in, instead of the presents themselves?

Well, in our case, Ethan and Sekiah chose to play with Lila's leftover birthday balloons.
My heart melts when Kye spontaneously sings "you are my precious Sta-AR" to the purple star balloon.

Too sweet those babies.

Who are babies no longer.
They turn FIVE this week.

F-I-V-E!

JingleBell 2011

2011-12-19T08:04:00.006-05:00

I won the race!

Ready for my JingleBell

Not really.

But I did have fun running it.

Meghan Anderson's sister Erin ran it too and good lord that family is fast! She finished the whole 3 miles in just about 20 minutes. Not on my very best day, I tell you...

That is Erin and Me, Carla and Kirsten.

I tried to run with my homemade 'Max' Antler on (from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas movie? You remember) but it wobbled weirdly so I stuffed it in my bag. I have never run a race wearing a bag before and it wasn't terrible but it was a bit distracting. the Santa Clause and 8 inflatable reindeer were back (see last year's post) but there were significantly fewer dudes running in just their underpants. Thank God, though, beacuse it was C O L D Out.

See my 'Max' antler?

Kirsten is one of the fastest Slow Motion to the Ocean (SMO) teammates and I was glad she ran the JingleBell with me. Meghan had come down with a 24-hour stomach bug and had to skip the race. I figured Carla would bag out beacuse a) it was 20 degrees out but it felt even colder and b) Meghan was the only reason she signed up for the race in the first place. But to my very great surprise Carla ran it with us and she was amazing.

Kudos to you ladies!

Kirsten's original outfit was much more sheer and elfin but due to the frigid conditions she opted for some long running pants and a jacket instead. I can't say I blame her but OH! MAN! that original outfit was awesome.

All things considered I ran it at a respectable 9:41 pace.

I have not run in LITERALLY months, I was happy with that. Carla and Kirsten stayed right with me until just after mile two when I always start to lose steam. They kept pace and finished at 9:35 each.

Well done!

Love This

Afterwards, at Tavern, I suffered the disappointment of learning they had removed Big Buckhunter and instead talked to my friends about life and relationships and love and what to do when things go sour. And I got to see some folks I haven't seen in a while. Tina and Robbie, Mister Michael Crane who is my love (big teddy bear that he is) and it was Regan's birthday week so there was cake and singing and cheersing and paper plates featuring Team Edward and Team Jacob.

T Birthday Girl was Team Jacob

That's all from here, today.

And here for your amusement, is me taking a picture of Carla and I that she has to sort of duck into since my arms are so short it was nearly impossible to fit us both in the frame.

Cheese!

Happy Holler-days Everyone!

Football Sunday Final

2011-12-07T12:08:00.002-05:00

Well, the bathroom is 90% done!

Looks pretty nice, right?

I'm proud of how the tile turned out.

Everyone is talking me into sealing the grout and finishing it this way or that way, but you and I both know it'll take about one week of regular use before that floor turns black with oil and boot grease and whoknowswhatallelse those mechanics track in there.

So why get too fussy, am I right?

As I type this the nice carpenters are installing the cabinets in the hallway.

That will look nice.

*****

And here is the final page of the Football Sunday comic.

Read the whole thing for FREE right HERE.

Remember, you can buy my books and donate money.

That'll keep me in pencils for a few more days y'all.

The Tile Is Finished!

2011-12-02T15:15:00.003-05:00

The Tile Is Finished!

Grout? Done.

Here is the video evidence.

I've got that crazy gleam in my eye.

The one that says 'I am almost finished with this damn project!' Rejoice!

Also it was fairly early in the morning and I was ready to go!

Look! No buttcrack!

So, that's done.

Here is the re-done page from the Football comic I am working on:

Pfft!

Girls.

Always talking about their periods during football games.

What's up with that?

Happy Friday everyone!

Mortar? CHECK!

2011-11-30T18:40:00.004-05:00

I am pleased to report Project Bathroom is humming along smoothly.

Finished the mortar today

I was able to mortar all of the entryway and part of the bathroom yesterday and finished everything including the mural in the center of the floor today. It was epic but it was worth it.

Here is a video from when we (the royal we) were in process yesterday:

Wait, does the royal we mean just me?
That's what I mean.
Patrick always says "the royal we" and it occurs to me I don't actually know what that means come to think of it.

I am too lazy to Google it.

The thing about mortar is it really dries out your hands.
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a baby about my hands, so this was annoying for me.
But, other than dry skin and slicing my palm open (CAUTION! Picture below) this project was very cool.

OUCH!

I was tired at the end of yesterday and like an idiot I thought I could just snap this little piece of tile in my bare hands. And when I tried; SLICE.

It was a bit like holding a knife blade and pulling fast with my other hand.
Man that sucker bled.

But in my defense I was tired. Also, it's just a superficial wound and should heal up nicely in a day or two. Next time Tana, don't be lazy. Use the damn tile saw (idiot).

Anyway!

I still have to grout the whole thing but I have let the mortar set up for 24 hours so I wont be absoutely done until Friday. But this gives you a good idea what the final place is going to look like.

Here is what the tile design was originally in the entryway:

And here is what I ended up going with:

I'm much happier with the revised design. It sort of looks like an area rug or something.

Here is a video of the final thing.
Seriously you guys, I am ZERO percent Asian.
I know what you are thinking: But Tana have you seen your own face?
But I am telling you the straight truth.
ZERO Percent.

And with that we can get back to the business of comics!
Adieu.

Bathroom Update

2011-11-28T08:32:00.005-05:00

Let the Tiling Commence!

When last we left our bathroom I was mid-painting, I believe.

In the time since I have laid the floor out.
Up next? Figuring out how to mortar and grout and also make mosaics out of tile that will hold up to foot traffic.

A few years back I was on a bit of a Gaudi kick. For those of you who might not know Antonin Gaudi was a Spanish architect most famous for his work in Barcelona, where Alex and I visited, back in 2001(ish). He used lots of broken tile in his work which often had fantastical elements. I find this interesting because the man himself was a total ascetic and religious fanatic.

Creepy and so beautiful

"From the outside the façade of Casa Batlló looks like it has been made from skulls and bones. The "Skulls" are in fact balconies and the "bones" are supporting pillars."

Anyway, I was on this Gaudi kick so I went up to my local Lowe's hardware store with a little courage and 2 page proposal and asked to see whoever the manager was. I presented my little two-page-printout that was mostly pictures of Gaudi's tile work and asked if I could have any broken tiles they had. I remember having written something about this Lowe's helping their local community (me!) and doing good for the planet. I was offering to reuse what would only wind up in a land fill and all they had to do was throw their broken tiles in my bucket instead of their trash.

I'd come in twice a month and pick up whatever they had.

And they agreed!

Some broken tiles

So, for about a month and half I think I went to the Lowe's to pick up my tiles.
I felt very cool about this.
Then, one day, the same manager told me I had to pay for the broken tiles, since obviously I was using them for something and his bosses told him he should charge me something.

I thanked him and went on my way.

Broken tiles cut into squares, mostly

Truthfully, I had more tile then I knew what to do with at the time and I got busy with other projects and never used the stuff - until NOW!~

*********

Now then, getting back to Gaudi, I do not desire any of the creepier elements of Casa Batlló but I am working towards beauty using broken tile. The plan is to do a logo element in the center of the bathroom floor, then to cut all the shards of shattered tile I collected all those years ago into usable pieces. Mostly, squares and rectangles I can piece together to make a floor.

I laid out the logo element in the center of the bathroom floor before I realized I would have to move the whole thing anyway, when it came time to mortar. I'm such a rookie! That's such a rookie mistake! Gah! Anyway, after a tentative morning spent getting to know the tile saw (borrowed from some unbelievably helpful and sweet construction workers, the same guys who are building the actual bathroom) I got my confidence and started ripping tile like a pro.

Tile Saw Madness!

It turned out the Lowe's folks had hooked me up!

I had marble and slate and beautiful pieces of flooring and all of them were broken or had corners missing but soon they were all nicely cut blocks, ready to be arranged.

Here is a video I took of me cutting the tile with the tile saw. It's a boring angle and you can't really see what I am doing exactly, but it's the only spot I could put my camera where it wouldn't fall. Also, no comments about my amazing posture and dainty handling of such a mean machine.

Also, I have like a thousand layers on because it is cold in the shop.
Hello, it's November!

I spent the whole weekend after thanksgiving cutting and arranging.
I left a space in the center of the floor for the logo mosaic:

I made a design that looks like a rug for where your feet will be when you use the toilet:

And laid out the rest of the tile in a way that I found interesting and effective.

Here is a video of me showing what all I did.
I look exhausted, which is accurate. And perhaps you have noticed I wear the same work clothes everyday? That's intentional. Quit hatin'.

Laying out the tiles took much longer than I expected. And since I was doubled over all day, by the end of Sunday my back was screaming. I used the remaining tiles (the maroon ones were my least favorite but beggars can't be be choosers) to cover the floor in the hallway.

I don't love the design and will probably spend some time today reworking it into something less ugly. The amazing construction workers I mentioned said they are going to bring me whatever tile they have laying around (How awesome are those guys, right) for me to use in the little bit I have left to cover.

Anyway, that's our bathroom update!

Hope you had an excellent turkey day and got to enjoy some time off.

I'll be getting back to the business of comics very soon.

I have an amazing new secret project collaboration going with the amazingly talented Justin Hall and I'm also going to make a birthday comic about that time I turned 21 in Montreal with the lovely Alex.

Can you believe that was 10 years ago already?!

Yeah, me neither!
Catch you later.

Mural & Happy Birthday

2011-11-22T12:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was my 31st birthday!~

Can you believe it?
This time last year I was moped-ing around Greece.

Ah, how time flies.

When we last left our mural it was in this state:

Then I spent the morning taping off the edges:

Here is a detail shot of the edges before I begin painting for the day:

Before

This is so I can create sharp clean lines when I render the panels.
I laying in light and shadow which gave me this effect:

After

This is what the whole wall looks like after I have spent the better part of my birthday painting:

Then I peel off the masking tape and paper borders to reveal this:

Voila!~

Next I will go back in and render the rivets and do some detail art along the edges. Matthew mentioned wanting to put some quotes up. I am thinking "Work is Love Made Visible" by ~Khalil Gibran above the door since that is our unofficial motto here at the garage.

If you've got any good ones, send 'em my way.

Happy almost-Thanksgiving everyone!

Gobble Gobble!

Mural Day Three

2011-11-18T08:56:00.002-05:00

These pictures are all from yesterday's effort.

First I painted in some rivets.
Without shadows or effects they just sort of appear to be floating unanchored to the wall.
I used a warm brown which I hope will "pop" against the backdrop of the blue.

I've got electrician's currently diddling around in the bathroom so I am on hold presently, waiting for them to leave.

Yesterday, I added a bit of texture to the floating rivets .
This part is fun and free flowing.
I let the painting take me where it will.

Today I will paint in the base coat of the steel (or pewter or metal or bronze or whatever it looks like) and I think for that I am going to use a real paint brush, instead of my trusty Iwata Eclipse airbrush.

Fascinating.

Here is a detail shot of the rivets.

Happy Friday everyone!

Football Sunday 2

2011-11-17T17:04:00.002-05:00

As promised (and since when so I keep promises?!) here is another comic page.

Good thing the Pats won this past weekend.
I am OVER losing.

More updates on the bathroom mural tomorrow!

Day One - Layout

2011-11-16T16:50:00.005-05:00

I spent the day yesterday making little gear stencils and mentally mapping out the kind of visuals I wanted to put on the bathroom walls. This morning I was ready to go early.

Here we have the collection of hand cut stencils I plan on using. Gears and belts and things.

And the paints and tools I'll be using. I find it helpful sometimes to see what folks use to make their art. The tools I take for granted might shed some light on what someone else is trying to figure out how to do.

Then I start masking things off and laying some outlines down.

I know I want to make the bathroom look as though certain part are riveted down, like you'd see on sheet metal, and I want some cut away panels that reveal gears in the walls. Mostly I'm hoping to keep the main color of the bathroom bright white (we don't have any windows in there and without natural light the more brightness, the better).

I get a rough outline of laid in.

And then I set about spraying in the gears and starting on some detail work.
Today is all about just roughing it in.

I go back in with a warm gray and start adding texture to the walls.

I drop some shadows in the places where I'm going to paint rivets and trail out some shadows.
This is just the base coat but it'll help give form to the final painting.

And Voila~!

At the end of the day we've got a good start, I think.

Back at it tomorrow.

Bathroom Redo!

2011-11-15T09:13:00.002-05:00

November is the season of bathroom renovation!

Take my word for it.

Here at Matt's Auto Service we are moving our bathroom across the building and, as of this morning, the room has been built, the toilet and sink have been plumbed and the electrician is due in by noon. That means I won't have to use that ghetto lamp to illuminate the place any longer.

After the construction crew installed the baseboard and hung the door, I went and got myself 2 gallons of white paint and went to work coating the strangely half-green room in pure white.

Before

After

The plan from here is paint a mural of automotive themed excellence on the walls and then create a Gaudi-esque mosaic masterpiece on the floor. Doesn't that sound exciting?!

Stay tuned for daily updates!

And I've got another comic on Football Sunday dropping this Thursday.

Alveterzane!

Football Sunday

2011-11-10T15:21:00.003-05:00

Let's do an update a week!

Football Sunday 1

How about Thursdays?

Here's today's installment. It's the first of a short comic about football Sunday!

The Patriots have been having a hard go of it the past couple of weeks. Here's a few observations about such sad, sad things.

Hot Tub 5 (NSFW)

2011-11-03T11:36:00.002-04:00

Page 5

Here it is the last page.

Hope you have enjoyed my little recap of the hot-tub-fight-that-really-happened.

Also, on this night a lilac-colored bra was taken by the wrong party and returned to me (why me?) months later. The rightful owner had kissed that brassiere goodbye when I finally asked around to see if anyone was missing it.

These things amuse me.

I wonder if I should do more hot tub stories.
I have enough of them to fill a book, I'm certain.
You have done the hop-topless-out-of-a-hot-tub-in-a-snowstorm trick right?
Mine was to get the last bottle of wine out of the truck and MAN that ground was cold.
Also I slipped on the snowbank on the return trip.
Good times.

How about the house-sitting when the kid comes home and you are not alone in the hot tub trick? That one involves hopping out quickly and throwing pants on.

Oh, to be young again.

*****************

Are you moving your money on Saturday?

Don't sit still join the movement.

Hot Tub 4 (NSFW!)

2011-11-02T09:27:00.003-04:00

I don't think you can see the whole image on Blogger's new image viewer but you do have options if you actually want to read this thing.

You can go to my DeviantArt account and view it there or open the Blogger image in a new screen. I trust you can figure that out.

Only one more page to go and we are calling this one done!

CAUTION: piercings shown below.

Page 4

As always, feedback would be welcome.

(Drop me a line at duckacomic DOT gmail DoT Commmmm.....)

***********

And here I am about to eat a lion!

Happy Halloweeeeen!

Gr-Chomp!

More Naked!

2011-10-31T09:04:00.003-04:00

Hot tub scene page 3 arrives today.

Caution: Nudity!

Well, boobs. They count don't they?

Or should I say "nipples" beacuse if you've seen a mainstream comic book lately I am sure you have seen more boob in those than any you might find in my pages but since they are covered in skin tight latex (or whatever superhero costumes are made of) and you can't see nipples, they don't count?

I dunno.

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

I'm wearing my now very frayed and messed-up-looking Meg-wig to work today and I'm all bundled up because it's quite cold. Tonight's trick-or-treating will include layers and layers.

Pictures to follow.

In the meantime, enjoy today's page.
Boo!

NSFW -More nudity

2011-10-28T10:48:00.002-04:00

I don't actually think you can see any nipples on this page. But it's still got a couple of topless ladies in the hot tub.

So, enjoy.

I'm still tweaking some nuts and bolts of the conversation but the major points are there. I don't think this page will change too much before it goes to print, but with me you just never know. I always want to pick at things.

Happy Friday!

Pumpkins!

2011-10-26T11:54:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again.

Boo!

Here we are enjoying the fruits of our labors.
Or at least chatting about what to do next:

And here we are carving out pumpkins and generally making a mess:

It was fun.

Oh, Ethan. That face.

The seeds we saved are drying out now and today we'll roast them and salt them for a nice seasonal snack.

They're not the scariest pumpkins in the neighborhood...

NSFW -Hot Tub

2011-10-25T09:51:00.003-04:00

There are nipples shown.

Just a heads up.

And here is the first page from the hot tub scene I've been yapping about.

xt!

I'll also throw it up on my DeviantArt account.

Race for the Cure (to Sobriety)

2011-10-24T10:10:00.004-04:00

This Friday we had the first ever Meghan Anderson Race for the Cure to Sobriety Pub Crawl.

Birthday Cake Shot

It was loads of fun.

I went dressed as Meghan herself (you may not be able to tell us apart, I know). And a ton of people showed up! I made us all race bibs using a secret birthday code. Everyone came dressed up in their best and loudest running outfits. I even had a stuffed bulldog with an 'Oliver' collar on.

All in all it was an extremely fun birthday adventure.

Twinsies!

Some guys at the bar actually thought that wig was my real hair.

Hello?! Plastic!

And you can see my real hair poking out!
Sheesh!

Tomorrow is Meghan's actual 27th birthday.

For those of you art-followers Meg is the person I went to Greece with last year.

You can own a copy of our very own adventures, HERE!

Happy Birthday Meghan!

A Little Bit of Everything

2011-10-18T09:27:00.006-04:00

Today's blog post is going to be a bit all-over-the-place.

Here is a shot of me and Katie back when we were allowed to be goalies in field hockey.
Showing our team spirit (Beat Becker!)

Special Teams Unite

And Bailey had a birthday.
Happy Birthday Bailey.

I was too busy getting for APE and to properly mention anything it seems...

And Patrick's new baby, Henry Ford is a doing well. All shakes and flippy cute bat-ears

He is VERY stingy with kisses, that puppy.

But I will win him over.

Josh with a puppy AND dimples? Cute overload

I am pleased to report that something wonderful happened last night.

Some people I haven't seen in years and lifetimes stopped by my field hockey game and it was so nice and healing and made me think anything is possible and there's hope for the future and everyone is full of rainbows and butterflies that cover the universe.

It was a good day.

Did I post this picture of Pat and I at Brian and Danielle's wedding?
Well, I like it and Pat has been on my mind lately so there you go.

****

I don't want to brag or anything but I was the MVP of The RUSTY SHARKS at Field Hockey last night.

I surprised everyone except myself with my "stick handling skills" and my "ball play." Is that enough sexual innuendo for you guys?

Here is another oldie but goodie from back at Simmons.

I look a bit like the Stay-Puf't Marshmallow man with my sweats under warm ups but it must've been cold that day. We were in the Playoffs.

Steph's on my back, Cait's on the table.

Anyway, last night I made some passes, I saw the field pretty well and I broke up some plays when the opposing team was charging us 3 -to-1. I was trained as a goalie and so have been learning this sport o' Field Hockey as I go.

And I'm starting to get the hang of this.

*******
Have you Read this article yet on our generation? You ought to.

Sucks To Be US.
There's a certain ring to that, I think.
Sad, though
http://nymag.com/news/features/my-generation-2011-10/

"This is not just a rotten moment to be young. It’s a putrid, stinking, several-months-old-stringy-goat-meat moment to be young. "

*****

While we are still in Debby Downer land, do you remember when my tires got slashed?

Here is the proof:

Sad Tire

So, that happened.

*****************

In happy news!

Tonight I might get to see my babies.

Here is a video from this time last year that will make you keel over from too-much-in-love syndrome.

You've been warned:

I don't see them nearly as much since my brother moved down the street with them. Why does it always feel like there is never enough time?

And I was up late quizzing the twin on her grad school homework. Midterms are coming up. Today I am bit like a zombie with a sore back and a bad ankle (took a rocket shot off the heel last night). So, I'll fight my way through the rest of this big ole' coffee and get to drawing.

Want to see a hot tub full of lesbians talk about sex toys and get into a fight?

Such a messy office

Well aren't YOU in luck!
That's exactly what I'm working on now.
It's all going to be part of my collection of short autobiographical(-ish) travel comics.

Back at it.

Happy Tuesday.

Podcast Awards

2011-10-12T09:18:00.005-04:00

Hey all!

Happy October.

Go Pats!

What a cute picture of my dog, eh?

Those of you in New England know that it is has been damn near 80 degrees all weekend and just now, just this morning, it finally cooled off and started to feel a bit more like fall around here.

I haven't even started thinking about Hallowe'en.

*****

Gay Duty Calls!

Stevie D and the awesome gays over at Comic Book Queers would you like ALL OF US to PLEASE vote for their podcast. DO IT! Scroll to Gay Podcasts, find Comic Book Queers and click it. These are the same folks who interviewed me last March.

Here is another page from the Boston Marathon Comic:

Haven't picked it up yet?

You Should.

You should also give my award winning DUCK! a go, too.

Seriously, you won't regret it!

Now we are working on more TRAVEL COMICS. This time WITH NUDITY.

Stay tuned.

Back from APE!

2011-10-04T11:55:00.006-04:00

ToOt! TOoT!

Hello BLOG!

Here's looking at YOU, San Fran.

And we are back from sunny San Francisco. The con went great, I met a TON of amazing folks, made some good art, had some excellent conversations and just enjoyed myself immensely. I also sold almost all the copies of the books I brought with me. So THAT's rad!

Alcatraz, as of Friday Sept. 30th

I spent Friday being a lonely tourist. I missed Matthew and went to all the places we went to last year. Somewhere I have a picture of him sipping a giant fruity cocktail in the middle of the afternoon and it perfectly captures the moment.

Anyway.

There were bears!
and BEARS:

plus me!

and Seals:

and Carousels:

(Well, just the one, really)

And a waterfall sculpture you could walk underneath on those little block in the water there:

The convention was awesome. I ran into my con-boyfriend from last year mister Daniel Touchet. It was love at first sight, again.

It's a cozy little show. We had a mighty fine time.

Here's a shot of my table before the con opened. I managed to unload all the little rubber duckies I came with. Hopefully they live with happy families now. I had plenty of room in my roll-y suitcase for books, books, books. I got some good finds for the flight home and for this weeks read-pile.

And, since I stayed on East Coast time the whole trip their 11pm was my 1am. SO, at 1am on Saturday night exhausted and happy, I took my pilfered white wine (See it in the water bottle? Sneaky, sneaky. Thanks Lief over at Mission Comics - you are awesome!) and my sushi (spicy tuna roll and a tuna/avocado/cucumber roll) to my room in the house I was crashing at and read through a whole stack of comics until I nodded off to sleep.

Until Next year San Fran!!

Now, Back to work!

***If you want to click through the rest of my pics, GO HERE!
peace out, blogosphere.****

En Route to APE!

2011-09-29T15:20:00.005-04:00

The BOSTON MARATHON Comic hereby titled "26.2" is ready in time for its debut!

If you drove past the shop last night you'd have seen that the windows were glowing around the edges as I was furiously finishing up the premiere editions of the latest book. NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE (Click that top button over yonder ---> )

If you'd like to read the 10-page preview then just go HERE, then come on back and order your very own copy.

It's 32 pages, black and white.

Affordably priced at Just $5 bucks (plus shipping)!

Here is a shot of my desk and I hand lettered one million ducks with my website address.

this might be a rag-tag operation but I do put maximum effort into it!

And here is a screen shot from a few days ago. I really need to get myself a Cintiq tablet. That Wacom I'm using just ain't cutting it, these days. (IF you agree, feel free to donate any amount you to my rickety little operation.)

And finally here is a picture of the ACTUAL silver cup from the 1902 marathon that my grandfather won when he came in second.

If I had had time I would've cheesed in a picture with it and incorporated that into my back matter.

Gotta' save that idea for the deluxe edition!

T-Minus 3 hours and counting until my flight leaves for San Fran.

APE should be fun this year.

I'll get to hear all my faves like Craig Thompson, Kate Beaton, Paige Braddock, Dan Cooney, and lots of others talk and tell about their experiences as artists and story tellers. I am quite aflutter.

If you'd like to read the 10-page preview then just go HERE, then come on back and order your very own copy.

Affordably priced at Just $5 bucks (plus shipping)!

Sorry for the whirlwind post, I've still got packing to do!

Adios!

Bees!

2011-09-27T10:04:00.003-04:00

Man.

I am bleary-eyed this morning.

Part of gearing up for conventions is a certain amount of sleeplessness I know but this morning I am luggage. too bad I still have massive amounts of edits to get through.

Field hockey was awesome last night.
We increased our goal scoring by 200%! (which here means we tied at 2-2 whereas last week we lost 0-2). This morning, which is madhouse around here beacuse Matthew has his Tuesday Morning business meeting to go and we are being swarmed by bees.

Yes, bees.

Please do see:

K.C. dropped off some bee hive frames for Matt to freeze and before Matt could return form his meeting every honey bee in the area found the frames and is going to town on them right now.

Hope nobody here is allergic.

(Yipes!)

The Rusty Sharks

2011-09-20T08:59:00.004-04:00

The Rusty Sharks

Last night was the inaugural game of our new team The Rusty Sharks. Formed from the former field hockey faction of my alma mater (Simmons College) we played very well for not-having-played-in-a-long-time.

Most of the team were my fellow college mates. Shanna and Steph and Teressa Brown and Caitlyn and Katie C. of course. This whole thing was her idea.

I'm in the blue bandanna

Katie and I were both goalies in college and I never learned the rules of the game. I know some basics (like you can only hit the ball with the flat side of the stick) but not much else. There are no goalies allowed in this league so Katie and I were totally winging it; crouching and scooting around the field. I think we did pretty well considering.

It was great to catch up with everybody. Afterward we went to a little bar where we had the whole place to ourselves and split a pitcher (or two) of Oktoberfest swapping stories from the good old days. (The fact that everyone knew I went to my junior prom in a purple dress shocked me. It turns out I was passing the picture around for reasons I cannot now fathom.)

************************

In arty news my first anniversary of launching into comics is coming up in two weeks.

I will have a cupcake!

The APE show in sunny San Francisco happens at the end of next week.

You'll remember that is the show where I debuted Duck! A comic, the PRISM grant winning comic and my first foray into sequential story telling.

That was followed up by the comic That Time I Turned 30 in Greece, an autobio gig chronicling my adventures overseas.

If you'd like to help fund my little San Fran trip you can order both those books right away.

Or! If you've already got a copy you can simply donate to the traveling artist in any amount you'd like.

In the meantime I am halfway through lettering the newest Boston Marathon story and ought to get back to it before I run out of time.

GO SHARKS!

Do A Little Reading About Comics

2011-09-07T08:51:00.004-04:00

Justin Hall wrote a nice article in the 2009 Pride magazine HERE. Open it and scroll to the article on Rachel Maddow and after you read that (I love her) go to the pages near the back that he wrote. Comics are disappearing from the gay ghetto. And that's a good thing.

Then there is a great article about making your own comic book here: It Starts with the TMNT and includes the ever-talented Erika Moen. Good reads.

*************

I am missing the peaceful quiet of the great Maine woods this week.

(Sigh)

And we are in the mad dash to finish the boston marathon comic before APE (which happens at the end of this month). I booked my plane tickets yesterday morning so it's officially official!

I'll be in the city by the bay (does anyone call it that?) for a few days in early October.

Here's a page or two to tide you over from the new work:

One page

Another Page

And a last page that if you follow me closely, you'd have seen before.

Back to the ink-stained desk for me.

Winter Harbor

2011-08-27T18:51:00.006-04:00

I've been off the grid all week and it's been marvelous.

I shacked up in a gorgeous cabin in the woods of Northern Maine with Megan. About an hour away from Acadia National Park where I hiked and climbed and breathed deeply every single day. There was no internet and very spotty cell phone service. Also, in my haste to Not-Forget-Anything I didn't pack my camera charger, thinking it would be unnecessary only to discover my camera was dead on arrival.

So all my pictures from the week are cell phone sized and slightly blurry.

My b.

The hikes we chose to do were all rather intense on the way up and gradual wandering paths on the way down. It was the perfect way to do it.

Epic.

Here I am posed next to a sign that says CAUTION this trail is really dangerous, dogs are not allowed and people have died on this path.

Yes, died.

We ate lunch on the top of the mountains, drinking in the epic views.

I don't want to brag or anything but we got a private tour of Little Moose island with the superintendent of Acadia National Park. How's that for fancy?

There was a wonderful garden out behind the house. House? Cabin? Whatever it was.

We had a private little lake:

And a circular garden:

And here is one nights' freshly picked loot:

And the kitchen we cooked it all in:

We also lucked out with a garage full of kayaks and this little baby.

Only 136 miles on her when we fired it up. Meg and I managed to put over 100 miles on this baby in 3 days. Amazing!

We had our share of Maine lobster of course.

Watch out sucka'! Someone's about to lose a claaaw!

Dirty Jersey and the FREE burrito

2011-08-11T10:10:00.005-04:00

CONGRATS DANIELLE & BRIAN!

Such a lovely couple

A few new things to catch you guys up on.

Last weekend was the wedding of Brian and Danielle in dirty Jersey.

Me and Pat

I drove down in my mom's van (since the Jeep doesn't have AC and a 7 hour drive in August with no AC sounded absolutely miserable). I listened to Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire on cassette tapes the whole way down and back. My mom's old Ford only has a cassette deck and when I asked my friends for any old 90s mix tapes they might have kicking around, Kirsten offered up the HP books she found for $3 at a church sale (great buy!) and that made the time fly by.

Jessie is the second in from the left

The boys and their seersucker suits in the sun

Pretty daring with the RED martini, Brian

The wedding was as opulent as any wedding I will likely attend could be. Danielle was stunning. Brian and the boys wore white seersucker suits. There was a photobooth where Jessie and I posed with the bourbon Manhattan she was drinking (straight up) in honor of her nan.

Yes, she's 100% naked in the booth

I got by on the generosity of the Johnson family who let me crash on their couch and shower in their bathroom. The drive there and back was peaceful with just myself and my book on tape.

And now, it is back to work. October 1st and 2nd I'll be in San Francisco for APE. Come out and see me. I am in a dash (not yet mad) to get the Boston Marathon Comic out by then. I'd like to do it all in color but I think that's too lofty a goal for such a rapidly approaching deadline. Perhaps the second printing...

And this weekend is the ANNA's WALQueria!

A half marathon (held for the past 5 years) that goes from one Anna's location to the next with FREE BURRITOS in the first and last stops. does this sound liek my perfect race or what? Detail are:

*******************
ANNA's WALQueria!
What: Burrito-heads travel half a marathon to snack at all six Anna’s Taqueria locations; each stop means $5 per person to The Home for Little Wanderers. Why: Thirteen miles burns 700 calories, which means … oh, just eat. The Anna's Walqueria is an annual WALKING half marathon, bringing participants into all six locations of Anna's Taqueria. Named by Boston Globe Magazine as one of the 10 most influential restaurants in the city, Anna's has locations in Brookline, Beacon Hill, Porter Square, Davis Square and Cambridge.

Through the generosity of Anna's Taqueria, this year’s Walqueria will be held in support of The Home. For each location a participant visits along the walk, Anna’s will donate $5. For everyone who completes the Walqueria, The Home will receive $30! And best of all, free food and drinks will be available at each stop!

Store Order: Beginning at 1412 Beacon Street, Beacon Hill, MIT, Porter Square, Davis Square, Harvard Street

Each walker will receive a pin-up number and punch card

At each stop, walker’s cards will be punched
Each punch is worth $5 to The Home
Cards can be collected throughout - so those that drop out still get to donate their punches!

Burritos will be free at the first and last location
At all other locations, Anna’s will provide chips, salsa, guacamole, quesadillas, lemonade and its signature Jamaica drink

**************************

Does that sound perfect or what?

A pin-up race number to add to my rapidly expanding wall of fame AND a FREE burrito!

See you guys at the starting line.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2011-08-02T12:52:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again. When the family visits from Florida and mom turns 39 again.

Here we are from last night's dinner festivities.

In happy personal news I got myself all the ingredients for making the amazing Ember-inspired pomegranate martini at home. Corinne came over and made us batch after batch. Very delicious.

I want to post new art here but I am too busy making it!

So sit tight.

New things are a-coming!

Oh, and Happy August!

Who else is psyched that (fucking) July is over?

That must've been the hardest month I had all year.

Here's to seeing more beach time and more friend time.

SMO Mountain

2011-07-20T11:04:00.006-04:00

Hulk Smash!

Hello, neglected blog!

My, we've been busy.

Ever have days like these?

I finally have some room to breathe.

I got myself a large format scanner so I can start importing my pages from the new Boston Marathon Comic, which is super exciting. We are on track to debut it at APE this year.

You comic book nerds out there know it's San Diego Comic Con this week out in sunny California.

************

We did the Stowe 8 miler this weekend up in northern Vermont. Many of the Slow Motion to the Ocean (SMO) girls were there. For those of you traveling in Greece right now, and the others that couldn't make it here are some photos of the weekend.

Our Amazing, hot tub house

Race started at 9am and it was already 90 degrees.

Beth showed me how to stretch it out.
She called this one the Traffic Stopper:

Hello Frogger!

Katie and I did the race-walk together. It was my first time ever walking a race. Katie kind of speed-walks which is much faster than I am comfortable striding but slower than I can comfortable jogging. It ended up that I did a few of the miles jogging backwards since at that speed we were pretty evenly matched.

Here we are crossing the line. SMO5-Tunnel!

The house was awesome. Big Meghan and I arrived late (10ish?) and half the ladies were already in bikinis in the hot tub (AH-mazing!) SO after scarfing down some homemade turkey chili (probably organic) and made-from-scratch cornbread I made myself a large tequila-limeade and slid into the tub.

Osa (the dog) had shot gun. We all squished in the back

We bubbled the night away naming ladies we would bang from Hollywood (The Nerd Queen Natalie Portman was of course on my list). Mila Kunis made an appearance, the character Idgie Threadgood (sp?) from Fried green Tomatoes was Beth's first ever girl crush, Kelly has a thing for Rubinoe, that Women's Soccer player? Meghan's was Ariel from the Little Mermaid (Red heads? REALLY? What is it with girls named Meg and red heads?!). We had so much fun.

NO you may not see the pictures.

We hung around, flexed:

Don't let the Nerd Glasses fool you

Cooked, drank, went to the beach. I have never in my life been so unprepared for the beach as I was this weekend. Probably because it was a lake, not a real beach, and probably beacuse I was in 'off-duty' mode, but whatever it was - IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!

All I brought was my little cup full-o' lemonade

We had no sandwiches, no ice, no cooler! no chairs, no books... it was bad.

But the race was fun.
And the weekend was amazing.

So here we are back again, making some comics and sipping Iced Teas.

Watch out guys it's going to be 106 today!

Good thing the Neen made homemade blueberry muffins this morning while it was still sort of cool out.

PEACE!

Big Diggers

2011-07-08T11:07:00.003-04:00

Finally! Some art! I posted this page over at my DeviantArt account which has had the same travel page up for way waaaay too long. the thing is - I have been so happily making art I haven't had time to stop and post cool things.

But we ought to make the time to do these things, ought'n we?

******

It's install a Septic System week here at Matt's Auto!

We could use a fresh coat of paint

The big diggers have been hard at work all week long making holes and filling holes and slicing pavements and being awesome.

Look at those boulders!

Swimming pool?

Sand pit.

This is technically our vacation week, although I have spent precious little time on the beach. that is unusual for me but life got busy. I have no other explanation for it than that. Matthew was off camping in the mountains this week with his kids. They were completely off the grid with no internet or phone reception so of course my truck broke down.

Luckily JC saved the day.

I am luck to have such nice peeps in my life. Willing to take a break from their vacation to rescue me. Gratitude is a nice feeling to have on vacation.

It's a good thing I am here at the shop since the Men At Work need to get into the building to run pipes and cut holes and things. So, I have been able to gawk openly at their equipment (ha! unintentional innuendo!). They use female pronouns for the diggers they use. There's the 'Big Girl' and the really 'Big Girl' (She's a brute) and the little baby one that I like best.

She packs a punch, they tell me.

Anyway, today is Friday and it is raining. The thunder was booming this morning. The plan is to go hiking up in the New Hampshire mountains this weekend then hit up a birthday party. Maybe do the Dr. Sketchy's on Sunday at Great Scott?

If you are in the Boston area and want to draw naked ladies with me come on by.
I'm going to try and get there early.

2:30 - 5:30pm.

PEACE!

Olliver Week

2011-06-28T10:50:00.004-04:00

OLLIE ollie OLLIVER!

Look at that little baby face!

It's Olliver week here at the shop!

My 6-month old godson (who will someday grow into his giant paws) is staying with me while his mom is in St. Louis for work. Bailey would not use the words "thrilled" or "excited" to describe his feelings about this new visit.

"Annoyed," "Irritated," and "Morose" might make it on the list though.

Why do you DO this to me mom?

I am currently immersed in two very awesome projects that are taking up all of my art time. One is the Boston Marathon comic I've mentioned a bit already. I am planning on debuting that at this year's APE con in San Fran. See you guys out there on October 1st & 2nd.

The second is a super secret very awesome project that I don't want to say too much about right now. I will say it's rad, it's looking pretty awesome and it's really fun to work on.

Here are some super secret pages!

Now, to add to the endless supply of videos-starring-pets on the internets (that rhymes!), here is Ollie snoring!

If only Blogger had "Smellivison" capabilities you could get the whole Olliver smells like a trash truck and sounds like one too experience.

(Sigh) If only...

Happy Tuesday, y'all.

********

(I am expanding this post to include some shots from Saturday when Megs and I took Ollivander for a walk around the Jamaica pond.)

First we met up with some enormous dogs.

Really, it was just the one.

JP being dog friendly provides a little dog dish by the water fountain. Good lookin' out JP!

Then we got harassed by the ducks who swam way too close to the sadly non-buoyant Olliver who decided his best approach to dealing with smarmy ducks was to pout.

Who can resist?!

And last night with Johnny's help I took the babies and the doggies to the beach.

Bailey happily ignored Olliver's every attempt to hang out and play and instead barked madly for the yellow tennis ball to be thrown into the ocean over and over again.

I am happy to report that although Olliver can in no way swim he also did not drown.

I'd call that a win.

Back to inking!
~Ciao

Pride 2011

2011-06-20T08:23:00.008-04:00

Pride 2011

We are doing art.

Boston Marathon Comic

Yes, we are doing art.

Boston Marathon Comic

And being June, my favorite of the summer months beacuse it is the BEGINNING of the summer season (and beginnings are my fave) the days are slipping by fast. I am up to my elbows in pages from the Boston Marathon Comic (some poorly pixelated phone pics of some of them here).

And I have another (Very AWESOME! Rather Secret!) book that I am working on currently. The good news is that I WILL be at this year's APE (October 1-2nd) in San Francisco! They opened up more tables and GOT IN> That's GREAT news! I hope to debut the Boston Marathon Comic and some other stuff there as well.

Boston Marathon Comic

In other non-art news I marched in this year's Boston Gay PRIDE Parade with a bunch of buddies of mine. We have a friend who works for UPS and they had a Flaming Gay Truck in the rainy day parade. Two years in a row we've been drizzled on. That's a bummer.

But everything else was awesome!

Why am I in a half-squat? Who knows!

We all met up ahead of time at the Parade staging area. the parade was set to kick off at 12:01pm but we didn't get going until 12:30 or so. I think they were waiting on the rain to let up. (Who knows?)

First we changed into our UPS shirts in the back of the Truck. It was nice to have some shelter from all the wet.

Beth spiked my coffee with a nip of Blackberry Bourbon which made it the best coffee on the planet. Someone had brought bead necklaces and I wound up with two that complimented my outfit nicely.

And we marched!

The route is 2 miles long but it goes by fast. too fast. Even though we were strutting the whole time. Alecia (single for all you ladies out there!) worked the crowd like a champ. We kept shouting all manner of profanity. "We always come on time!" and "What CAN'T Brown do for you?" and "Would you like this package delivered in the rear?" And a thousand other silly things.

The rain was never terrible. Last year it was a monsoon and we were SOAKED. This year everyone was just a bit damp, mostly. With frizzy hair.

Love the gay umbrellas

I had so much damn fun that afternoon.
GO GAYS!

Now, back to work.

Rukus Pictures!

2011-06-10T09:17:00.003-04:00

Killin' It!

Not much of an update today but I do have some pictures from the Rukus race.

I made my hair all messy pre-race beacuse I knew it was going to get effed up and I didn't want to lose any bandanas or headbands I might have worn.

Ready, Set, GO!

Come to think of it, a headband might've been clutch.

Anyway, bask in the glory of my action photos!

And here are photo montages of my brothers.

Patrick:

and Johnny:

I am still knee-deep in comics pages but I am jamming on them so hard I dont want to come up for air and scan them and post them (boring!) and slow down my highly productive stride. so, for art you will just have to wait, my pretties.

also, this weekend is BOSTON PRIDE! and this year I am marching in the parade! (How RAD is that?!)

You remember my friend who had the flash-mob dance party? Well, she has organized a march behind her all-gayed-up UPS truck. Look for me there.

Yes, I will be delivering my big gay packages all day long, baby.

What can Brown do for you?

Flash Mob & The Rukus

2011-06-07T11:31:00.005-04:00

Man! It has been as silent as the grave around this here blog lately hasn't it?

But you know what that means: I've been off doing stuff!

First thing was taking a week long Gay-cation to the Cape.

I'm in the blue tank in the way back row!

Me and a handful of my closest friends made our way to Provincetown for some good old fashioned dancing and drinking and devilry!

While in PTown we prepared a FLASH MOB(!) dance party to celebrate a friend's birthday and she was so surprised it was amazing.

Dancing was, of course, involved.

I can now check "Having Been in a Flash Mob" off the ole Bucket List.

Here's the video evidence.

(A lady keeps getting in the way but look past her and way at the back where you will see me, in the blue tank and sunglasses missing my mark at every turn. SUCH FUN!)

After Ptown was the Rukus Race!

A 4.5 mile obstacle course with mud pits and water pools and monkey bars and crawl nets and cargo nets and 10 foot walls we had to climb over and it was exhausting and so much fun!

My brothers and I all did the race. We had different start times, and Pat finished the fastest but we all had fun. I have the biggest blackest bruise on my thigh behind my knee where I flung my leg up (ungracefully) on the last 10 foot wall.

That's where I think it happened anyway.

Who can tell after so much bumping and scraping.

Action Jackson!

The twins did their own little mini Rukus race, mud and all. They had a blast. Overall it was quite the family affair.

Sekiah fell right FLOP! into the mud at the end and I couldn't have been more proud. My girl isn't afraid to get her hands dirty, literally!

We'll be back again next year fo' sho'.

And although there is a metric TON of artwork I could be posting I just got back from my vacation and you know how hectic life gets once you return. Give me a few days to get my feet -my bruised feet- back under me.

xTana the-flash-mobber.

Off to the CAPE!

2011-05-25T15:25:00.004-04:00

Today is my last day of work and then it's fun in the sun for a whole week solid.

We've rented a great house again this year and I am looking forward to leaving all of my troubles at home. Nothing but love on the other side of the Sagamore bridge!

(Well, that and booze, broads and beaches!)

I have made my list and I am checking it twice.

The forecast (knock on wood) calls for sunshine mostly clear skies.

Here is a link to last years post PTown post (Which I must admit is rather mediocre.)

Here is a link to the year before that in Ptown (am I always this boring?!) At least there is a cute video of the babies-as-babies on that one.

And waaay back in 2008 when I did a guest strip for Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For (which drove a lot of traffic to my poorly kept, ill-maintained little site here).

Who doesn't love Alison Bechdel?

******************

And in perfect The-Universe-is-giving-Tana-the-finger form today everything that can possibly go wrong, IS going wrong.

Someone stole my identity and I had to get a new bank card.

Awesome.

I went home at lunch to help mom unpack the attic and couldn't find half of the things we needed including new beach chairs for the kids and one of the window fans stubbornly refuses to work.

Great.

I stepped right in what I thought was cat-poo-but-really-turns-out-to-be-cat-throw-up in my bare feet!

Stellar, and:

John Michael has decided to claim ownership of our family bicycle and not let me borrow it for the week I'll be in Provincetown.

And my six months of advance planning for this trip is crumbling before my very eyes.

What's that line from the movie What Dreams May Come?

Ah, yes.

"Sometimes, when you win, you lose." ~Annie Neilson.

SUCH a good movie.

Anyway.

Onward and upward and with hopefully less cat poop!
-er "vomit."

Have a marvelous Memorial Day weekend everyone!
Perhaps I will post a non-boring blog post about it when I get back.

Adieu!

Animal Kingdom!

2011-05-24T13:05:00.009-04:00

SO much to report today.

First in OMG Wildlife news! Matt spotted a GREAT BLUE HERON this morning in the park next to our shop!What's up coolest bird in nature?

Here is a picture of a great Blue Heron I pulled off the internets. Looks the same, right?

SO COOL!

I was talking about SERIOUS LIFE ISSUES when he said "Oh My God a Pterodactyl!" and ran outside. I grabbed my camera and took these snaps:

The Great blue Heron is the largest North American Heron, according to the Wikipedia entry.

SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

**********

Next up: Salty Dog day Care!

I have decided that it would be a marvelous thing to take mister Bailey to doggie daycare once a week. He lacks a certain something in the socialization department when it comes to liking other dogs, we have struggled with some submission-aggression issues in the past and (perfect timing!) John Michael works at the Salty Dog Daycare! Now seems like the perfect time.

I will admit I was a little worried when the room full of large wet dogs surrounded us sniffing and wet-muzzled and barkish. But as soon as Bailey wiggled by them and ran into the outdoor play pen everything was fine.

The dogs all got their sniffs in and started playing, chewing each other and peeing on things like big happy dogs do.

Who's a good boy Bailey?? YOU ARE!

Yes, you ARE!

And please do look at my SECOND favorite new puppy!
(You're still my main man Olliver):

I didn't catch her name but what a little black-and-white sweetie!
xoxoxo LOVE.

*******

In other, less animally news, Meghan and I got in some much needed hang out time on Friday evening.

Because I haven't been spending enough time at home lately SuperGirl was ready to prevent me from leaving the house. (Yikes!)

I'll be home all the time once the sun comes out Sekiah!

But leave I did! Meg and I split a plate of (spicy!) Drunken Noodles (Chicken style) and a plate of Chicken Pad Thai (No bean sprouts) and an ice cold bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. The spicy drunken noodles blended with the sweet pad Thai perfectly to create exactly the meal I was craving that night.

Then we had some drinks and shots and played Pop-a-Shot at Mary Ann's (the most ghetto bar in all of Cleveland Circle!) where the nudie photo hunt game was WAY TOO STICKY (ewwww!) and also broken.

Meg can try but she won't win

WINNER = Tana!

And pop-a-shot is actually called HOOP FEVER but doesn't that just sound like the grossest name ever?

I think so.

A I just need to accept the fact that I can never go to CitySide bar. I was there for approximately 5 minutes got confused for a Yankees Fan/New yorker and managed to get a bartender nearly fired for drinking on the job (I didn't know that! I just asked him what was in the shot glass! ...as his boss was walking past. MY BAD!)

*******

In sadder news my cousins grandmother died last week.

Mom, Pat and I went to the services.

It was good for me to be reminded of my mortality and how nothing in this life lasts, not even us. It was also really good for me to get to hold baby TJ during the mass. New life comes in even as we commemorate the passing of other lives.

Mom and Pat playing with Tana Junior at the reception

Pat's making a funny face but look at that tie! (#Superlike)

As a person who did not know their grandmother exceptionally well I would say they honored her life well. I walked away with a real sense of who this woman was and what she meant to her children and grandkids.

***************

A for those of you actually interest in ART RELATED NEWS! I am hard at work at the Boston Marathon Comic about this year's record breaking race. It's part personal history, part race history and 100% awesome.

I don't have time to scan artwork right now but here are some pictures I just took with my phone:

They are a little dark but that's camera phones for you.

Until Next time!

SMO-famous!

2011-05-16T12:29:00.006-04:00

Races, races and MORE races!

I just signed up for this year's RUKUS race which takes place in my home town. Mom told me this morning that BOTH of my little brothers are doing it this year. Last year I went to spectate while Johnny and Caitlyn destroyed it and I had my little niece and nephew register for the kids version.

Muddy and happy, everybody wins

Here they are flexing their muscles (elbows) for me:

Flex! Flex!

And I think this picture of them with their dad is adorbs:

**************
Speaking of ADORBS -Team Captain Alecia wrote about our SMO trek on the City Sports blog!

Cape Relay 2011

And I quote:

Fortunately, I have compiled a list of the top 5 SMO down-time activities:

Decorate your van. Luckily, we had Tana on our team; not only a solid anchor in the Runner 12 position, but an incredibly talented artist to boot!
Stretch. With a physical therapist (Beth) and massage therapist (Amy) on the roster, we had all of our bases covered. Now who was the genius that put them in the same van… oh, right…
Sleep. Let’s be serious, between the 2500+ runners along the course, ambitious neighborhood watch programs and cramped living conditions, no one is getting more than a catnap until this thing is over.
Eat. You must fuel the machine. All the while, keeping in mind that at any time you are never more than 5 hours away from your next run. This led to many of us employing a “grazing” technique. Fortunately, our vans were stocked with the essentials- peanut butter & jelly, pretzels, apples, bananas, Clif Mojo Bars & Shot Bloks, gummy bears, trail mix, GU and plenty of water & Gatorade.
Entertain. I know of many relay teams that recruit members based on their pace, cardio endurance or PR’s. Although there was no shortage of talent on team SMO, personality was the attribute that determined if you made the cut. Between the power mix cd’s, yoga practice, dance off’s, joke telling, story time, hi-5 tunnels, slow clap sessions and making friends with fellow teams I find myself wondering how we had time to run 189 miles.

*****

FINALLY!

I have signed up for the Bikes-NOT-Bombs 25 mile 'race.' A good fun time and a chance to hang out with my besties on bikes all day. For THAT race I need to raise $150 towards Bikes-NOT-bombs -which is a great cause and you should totally go support me.

HERE! Is the link.

What's $5 between friends?

THANKS!

GO SMO!

SCREW x2.0!

2011-05-16T08:26:00.007-04:00

Here is the short version of the interview I gave to SCREW magazine: (Remember, it's a translation.)

******

Meet J.Tana Ford, winner of Prism Comics Annual Queer Press Grant 2010 for her first comic book called “Duck!”. Tana's diversity regarding her interests and abilities as a person is impressive. She has studied Philosophy and Fine Art, she paints, plays the piano, AND runs races. Not to mention that she knows how to air-brush, working out of a mechanic’s garage, and she can do some very cool stuff to your motorcycle helmet. She has had the experience of three comic conventions so far (C2E2, the Boston Con and San Francisco Alternative Press Expo) and she says that her creative tendencies seem to take her in all sorts of directions. Tana has recently concluded her work on her second comic book titled “That time I turned 30 in Greece”.

Anastasia: Was it, perhaps, a dream of yours to visit Greece because of your studies in Philosophy?

Tana: I spent so much time as an undergraduate studying the masters and reading everything from Plato and Socrates, of course going to Greece was a dream of mine. I had no idea the Acropolis would be as HUGE as it is. It was impressive. I came home and my 4 year old niece asked me why I went to the place "where all the buildings fell down." I thought that was cute.

Anastasia: (laughs) Kids are priceless. Any favorite Greek Philosopher?

Tana: I loved Zeno's riddles. And some of Plato's arguments. I was endlessly amused by Socrates thumbing his nose at the establishment: the way he used logic and reason to woo the youth of his generation and went against the norms of the time. I think it is astounding that even now, thousands of years later, we still sit in our classrooms and dissect the merits of these original arguments. What is art? What is beauty? What is virtue? Is something good inherently or is our perception of it that tips the scale one way or another? The act of actually questioning the world around me was my main take-away from all those lessons.

Anastasia: you are lucky to be working with one of your best friends, Matt, at an auto-service, as the office manager. Isn't it hard to be an office person in the morning, an artist in the evening?

Tana : Actually, I am artist during the day! So it's less hard, perhaps. Because I work with my friend, we designed the office to double as a studio. Which means I can draw while I am at work. I do things like answer the phones and book appointments but it leaves plenty of time for drawing as well. I am in a really unique position, I know.

The garage/STUDIO:

Also sometimes a dog-sitting agency.

the waiting room/map room/it's a dictionary-not-a-bible-stand

Anastasia: You actually lost the whole first draft of your work on "Duck!" because of a computer failure and had to start all over again. What happened then?

Tana: It was devastating. I resolved to do two things: 1) learn how to back up my work so it never happens again and 2) start again with a clean slate. I knew what I wanted from “Duck!”. So I started making the second draft the best version I could at the time. I think, ultimately, it is a stronger work because of it.

Anastasia: Back in 2008, still designing "Duck!", you were wondering how universal can a comic book be about lesbians in Boston...What do you think of this today?

Tana : Today I'm not quite sure. What I know is that there is an audience out there I'm just not sure how much of it is women who are looking for a place in comics that they can relate to, or how much of it is lesbians looking for a reflection of their experience. Or where the two overlap. I think it is crucial that more women make comics. Any kind of comics, because it is important that we add our voices to the larger narrative out there. I know, that for my part, having gay characters will always be an important piece of my work. Their 'gayness' isn't necessarily the story but it will inform the decisions they make and how they see the world. I think that is the power of these kinds of stories: their ability to lend the reader a different perspective.

Anastasia : A major part of comic book writing is storytelling. Was it the story you wanted to tell, when you started writing "Duck!", or was it entirely something else?

Tana : Oh, it was entirely something else. The story of “Duck!” is essentially two friends who travel across the country to save a younger brother from jail. It's a bit like On the Road (Kerouac) meets the L Word (Showtime). But when I started “Duck!” I envisioned a Sex and The City kind of comic Lesbians in Boston. What we do, who we are, what we think, how we interact. Because I found that my experience AS a lesbian in Boston was so radically different from, say, either of my younger brother's experiences. I recognized that I had the inside track to a world that was funny and queer and sexy and original. It didn't turn out to be the story I told, however.

Anastasia: Tell us about Duck, the character and how you came up with her. Who is Duck, really? An alter ego, perhaps?

Tana: Perhaps. Duck is a sort of ballsy jerk. She inserts herself into situations, she's crass and a bit of a pest and she made a great foil for my other lead character, Cat. Cat is level-headed and practical and they travel across the USA the way an old married couple might. By bickering sweetly. At least that was the intent. I think I come closer to achieving that in some places than in others. I hope the friendship and the underlying affection between the characters translates to the page.

Anastasia : It does! About the "Greece" comic, I couldn't help but make a list of favorite vs. worst moments. Favorites would be the Sunset in Paros, or the view of the cliff from Meteora, and the least favorite of all, Turkish toilets and “Retsina Malamatina” or the great boat strike. Am I right? Can you give us the best/worst moments of the journey according to you.

Tell me he doesn't look like the Monopoly Man.

Tana : You got it right! The worst part was that AWFUL pine pitch wine! OMG. The Turkish toilets just blew me away. I mean, we were in the official bus stop of the city of Athens! And there is just a hole in the ground?! My first thought was, there must be something wrong with this stall before I realized they were ALL like that! And the donkey. Mister Burrito. He was amazing. The whole island of Paros was outstanding. I felt like I had the place to myself. And the people who lived there were so kind to us. We were there in late November. I was glad to be there during such a quiet time but it made me want to go back during summer and see what it really like when the whole island comes alive. It would be a nice juxtaposition of experiences.

Anastasia: well you can always come back to Greece for your 40th birthday. It would be good for continuity. You could also make another comic about it (laughs).

Tana : yes, and I need to get to the island of Lesvos!

Anastasia : EXACTLY! Now, what is mostly funny for the Greek reader is how you react to first-time experiences of things that the Greeks take for granted. Like waiting in line at the airport, the taste of “Amstel” beer regular, or having to deal with an absolutely bitchy assistant.

Tana : I think both Meg and I had a great sense of humor about the whole experience. But we couldn't relax. If we missed that one flight to Athens than we would be stranded in Greece! A romantic notion but highly inconvenient at the time. But luckily it all worked out. We found ourselves having conversations about capitalism a lot that day. With the boat strike going on and on and the demand for flights increasing, why not add another flight? Or two? But Greeks puzzled us in general. I mean, who strikes in the off season?! Certainly the countries politics are well beyond an American vacationer like myself but still. It made for some funny dinner conversation.

Who has a boat strike in the off season?!

Anastasia: Ah, politics in Greece, we could talk forever about that. But let's not get to that now. Let's move to lesbian comic heroes...Renee Montoya

Vs Kate Kane/Batwoman. What would you choose?

Tana: Batwoman definitely!

Anastasia: Favorite comic-to-film adaptation?

Tana: “Sin City” definitely!

Anastasia: Comic artists that have inspired you through the years?

Tana: Well I am endlessly awed by the art of Sean Murphy. His run on “Hellblazer” is being collected in a trade next month and I am very much looking forward to picking that up. Skottie Young decided a few years ago to loosen up his lines and free his style and it has done wonders for the energy of his work. I love popping over to his daily sketchblog and seeing what crazy things have cropped up in his brain since yesterday. Tony Moore was instrumental in my comics sensibility. Right after “Walking Dead”- the first trade- came out he posted a ton of links to Photoshop tutorials and generally gave advice to young artists that I found instrumental to my development as a comics artist. I drool over Josh Middleton’s artwork. And for those of you who might not know Kate Beaton, you'd be hard pressed to find a funnier cartoonist working today. Her history comics have me laughing out loud.

Anastasia: from a comment on your blog, now. You wrote: "I loved Girls by the Luna Brothers so much and I got so emotionally invested in the story line that I was considering drawing an alternate storyline about it”. I have only read the first issue, but I had a very strong reaction to how the women were depicted in it. It looked to me quite chauvinistic. What do you think?

Tana: It was TOTALLY chauvinistic! And the Luna brothers tried to play both sides of the fence, I think. Kudos to them for having strong female leads, that was a step in the right direction, but most of the women were either controlling and hysterical or panicked and freaking out. OR they were blood thirsty clones hatching out of eggs to rape all the men in town. The take-away message isn't a nice one. But I felt oddly compelled by the story and (as most female comic fans will attest to) when you like comics you've got to get used to a certain (high) level of objectification and misogyny. It sort of comes with the territory. I am hoping that will change as more women and like-minded creators add their stories to the pile.

Anastasia: one of your favorite artists is Ani Difranco. I was in Dublin in 2002 and she was playing live... And I went because I read her poem, "Self - Evident" about 9/11 and it made my hair rise. And in the concert, she narrated it, and I wanted to shout and cry and jump in triumph. So perfect. I kept reading this poem again and again for two years. I taped it on my closet door. Have you ever had such a strong relation to a poem?

Tana: oh, absolutely. And in fact to Ani herself. She was my first great music crush. The first time I saw her perform took my breath away. It was at the Orpheum theater in Boston. Amazing. Currently I have “Choices” by Nikki Giovanni taped to my desk at work. And also “For The Young Who Want To” by Marge Piercy.

Anastasia: Would you like to comment on one of your favorite quotes from Herman Hesse (Demian) "you can't consider prohibited anything that the soul desires" in terms of what it means to be a woman who desires other women?

Tana: I think of that line more in terms of sexual desire. I had a relatively easy coming out. I always knew I liked women in way that I didn't like men and my family didn't take too long to get on board with that. What I see in my community is a lot of people giving women whose sexuality is expressed more fluidly (women who sleep with women and men, for instance) a lot of flak. I think, you love who you love. You desire who you desire. But, if in the bedroom (or wherever) you want to shake things up or try something new, go with it. Don't consider anything prohibited that soul desires.

Anastasia: Last subject ! LESBIAN POP CULTURE. Is there a thing like lesbian pop culture? It's just beginning, maybe? With series like “The L word” etc.

Tana: I am not the authority on lesbian pop culture. “The L Word” annoyed me to no end. I LOVED “Queer as Folk” and hated “L Word”. Meh. What can you do?

Anastasia: What do you miss most from QaF? I totally miss Peter Paige (Emmett Honeycutt).

Tana: Oh my God… he was my total favorite. He was in a different TV Series I just saw playing a tough, drug-dealer kind of guy and the whole time I was like 'you can't fool me Emmett Honeycutt’!

Anastasia: (laughs) thank you for this interview, Tana.

Tana: No problem!

INFO:

http://duckacomic.blogspot.com

http://jt-ford.deviantart.com

*********

SCREW mag

2011-05-11T08:40:00.004-04:00

Kalemera!!

Hello all you Greek readers!!

This month the Greek gay magazine SCREW published an interview with me (Which is AWESOME!)

HERE is a link their website (Sorry - it's all in Greek! I'll post the English version as soon as I get it).

Currently I am working on a BOSTON MARATHON comic:

Woah! Look It's Joan Benoit Samuelson!

And of course my messy desk (How can she work there?!)

And more Joanie

I am currently house-sitting for some very old and extremely adorable lady dogs. In an attempt to take full advantage of the quiet house (you cannot imagine how distracting living with twin 4 year olds can be!) I have been bringing my work home with me.

Last night I watched Sweet Home Alabama - a silly movie that I paused every few scenes or so to draw the characters and it worked remarkably well for life-drawing.

Here is a dude with a beard:

And, beacuse I was roughly half-way through a bottle of a Napa Valley California Cabernet I decided to get artsy and make a couple of self portraits. Being alone in a house does silly things to a girl.

Here is my techno-Magritte: (if I had an iphone the analogy would be better.)

See?

(Get it? iPhone? Apple? Apple over his face? Get it?!)

And then I got all comic-booky:

(How much do I love those HUGE orange sweats? SO MUCH!)

Perhaps I can use that idea (the cartoon face-of-Tana) somewhere in the future.

Now I gotta' get back at it!

Peace!

And welcome all you Greeks!!

SMO 2.0!

2011-05-10T10:37:00.009-04:00

We KILLED IT at the Cape Relay this year!

Slow Motion to the Ocean

I don't know what took us so long last year but this year we finished the 24hour race is roughly 24 hours (natch).

Here is Beth -a newly anointed SMO!- dancing her way around the bend. She destroyed the race. As did everyone on our team, really.

We were up at 4am to pick up our fellow teammates from the designated sleep-over houses, made a Dunkin' run, then headed out to Easton (or Sharon? I was not in charge of directions) for the start of the relay.

Outside Dunks

Alecia was our first runner. The #1 spot is a good location for her. Last year she was the first runner in Van #2 (which meant she had to wait until afternoon to run her first leg) but with her abundant energy and eagerness to sprint to the finish it made sense to have her lead us off. I am also fairly certain this whole 'getting a team together for a huge relay race' was her idea in the first place so as team creator she should go first.

Gu packet in the pink sock. (Gross)

Anyway she killed it.

Lex about to slap the bracelet on her wrist. We lost the bracelet somewhere along the race and resorted to the hand-off high-five instead.

Alecia: Hit ME!

The Race officials held the teams back until certain departure times so it wasn't as relay-ish as I would've liked. At the first exchange our runner came in around 10 am or so, but Van #2 couldn't leave until 12:30pm. Something about Police details or volunteers or something like that. Whatever it was it wasn't a big deal. More time for the vans to hang out with each other.

Waiting on a SMO to come in

Alecia ran first then came Alexis, Allison, Jenna, Fay and Liz:

Van #1 Smomies.

We were allowed to have bikes again this year which was awesome. Here is Jenna displaying our safety gear for the night time run. The officials told me as Beth was handing off to me that I needed to wear the headlamp and reflective vest. Way to be on top of your game, race officials.

Anyway.

As you can see it was still bright daylight out when I came sailing in. Reflective vests and headlamps might have been a bit premature.

Better safe than sorry?

I had SUCH fun with my van mates.

Left to Right: Beth, Amy, Me, Kirsten, Kelly, Meghan.

Our van driver and team photographer Mirta is pictured below in black. Her nickname was 'Bernard' the chauffeur.

waiting for Beth to loop in.

I decorated the vans (of course). We all put our names on the sides along with the mileage of our legs and checked them off as we completed them. My legs were 3.2, 5.3 and 4.6. I also biked all of Meghan's legs alongside her. Those were 10.4 miles (killer, right?) then 3.4 and 1.7 (I think, don't quote me on that).

Kelly ran the whole thing between a 7:30 -8:15 pace with stitches in her knee!

Go SMO!

We warmed up for the final leg by doing some parking lot yoga poses.

Half-pigeon or half-pengiun?

Amy D. who ran something like 3 marathons this year looked great. She had such tremendous energy. Always bubbly and sweet. She's also a masseuse so that was cool. W also had a Physical Trainer int he van (Hey Beth!) who stretched our legs all professional-like.

Looking strong Amy D.

This is me getting ready to bike alongside Meggo. I think this was right before the 10 miler, but I can't be sure. It's all sort of fuzzy in my post-race brain. Also, guess who needs a tan? (I do! I do!)

Up, up and a gay!

I love Beth's excitement in this picture. Look at those ups girl!

She had to start this leg by running through sand. It was our last leg and coming up on the hottest part of the day. I ran the hills of Truro for 4+ miles inthe sweltering heat and wanted to die. My legs felt like blistered sledgehammers. There are some sweet pictures of me hugging my teammates at the end when I'm rocking some back sweat like a fat dude. Sexy, sexy!

****
Mealtimes were fun. This was our breakfast 2/3rds of the way into the race. Awesome breakfast place somewhere on the Cape. My brain wasn't really working properly at this point so I have no idea what town we were in.

Van 2 has the short end of the stick when it comes to relays.

Kirsten and Kelly. Van 2 SMOs!

Last year I was in Van #1, Runner #4 and it was pretty great. This year I was the last SMO running. The anchor. The last one done. Being in van #2 means you don't start the race until afternoon. Alecia kicked us off at 7am and we weren't going to begin our half until 12:30pm. That meant I didn't get my first run until 5:30pm.

Up at 4am. Running by 5pm. That made for a long day.

It also means that we get the small hours of the morning for our second run. It's hard forcing your already tired body into running 5+ miles at 3am. Here are Amy and Kirsten who saved us all by deliriously driving us to the check points in the middle of the night while Bernard the driver took a happy nappy.

Neither of them remember being awake for this

Kelly wanted to make a compilation of everyone's faces so she tooks some snaps with her iphone. When I send everyone our race mix I'll probably use them all as a CD cover.

Did I mention Beth is Katie C's wife? Remember that wedding? They've got an anniversary coming up. Beth's so pretty. And so funny. We reminisced about how I used to introduce Katie to new people all the time by saying "We went to Simmons together!' and Beth would be like "I'm standing right here, Tana. WSe ALSO went to school together."

I'm an a$$hole.

Anyway, I got major props from the veteran SMO's for bringing her onto the team. She KILLED it! Everyone loved her (as naturally they would) and now I get to claim credit for both HER and MEGHAN being on the team. Which is nice since I am still the slowest runner.

Slowest but toughest!

Grar! KaPow!

there's the back sweat!

done and done!

Then, finally I came in and we were done. Check, check, check. Kelly (who is a brewmaster by tade) brought us a keg which we demolished and it was on to the Texas Tequila.

We went to our block of hotel rooms, showered and got dinner. Lorraine's in the West End of Ptown for authentic Mexican food and margaritas! Go SMO!

After that half of us passed out and the rest rallied to take an empty Provincetown by storm! We danced at Pied (being the only people in the whole place) and choreographed a dance-off for a rival van team we knew in town. We headed to the Governor B. for some karaoke and the Celtics game (They won! YAY! Unlike last night, Boo.)

Kelly WHIPS Alecia's Ass

Alecia grimaces in pain

Alecia demands "WA A A A TER!!" of the mortified bartender who was trying not to laugh right at us. Which was polite of him.

And so ends another year of Slow Motion to the Ocean.

Will we run it next year? Who of the original 12 will still remain?! Tune in next year when this and more shall be revealed to you!

In the meantime, my first priority remains getting a sweet, golden tan. This pale-as-a-ghost look just isn't doing it for me.

GO SMO!

Almost Relay Time

2011-05-05T14:41:00.002-04:00

Cape Relay starts (for us) tomorrow at 5am! Tonight is pasta dinner and van decorating and all the last minute hoo-hah.

check out last years race: HERE

and the wrap-up HERE

and wish me luck! I'm running in last place this year, folks.

Yikes

(but did you hear? 70 and sunny tomorrow?! GO SMO!)

Boston Con! (CBQ Interview)

2011-04-28T11:34:00.005-04:00

Fresh off the presses! Check out this INTERVIEW I did with ComicBookQueers back in Chicago at C2E2!!

There are only 2 awkward pauses and I LOVE the song they chose for the intro clip. Patty Boom is the muthafuckin' MAN! (Disclaimer: I ahve a bit of a potty-mouth and I totally swear a coupla' times. Earmuff the kiddos.)

Speaking of!

From 2 different families. Together at last.

Aren't these two just the sweetest little guys on the planet? The Jawa's dad told me that kid made his costume all! by! himself! Dear young Man, how did you make those eyes glow like that? Clever, clever.

So, Boston Con: CHECK!

This past weekend was the fabulous and fantastic Boston Con. My first hometown show, thankyouverymuch and it went splendidly!

Katie C. my amazing Booth Babe

The inimitable Katie C. was my booth babe for almost all of Saturday, helping me to unload at the Hynes Convention Center (we nearly ran over a cop in the loading dock --SORRY!). My mom came to visit along with Corinne and Tae, Josh and little Tana Junior (otherwise known as Lila Noelle).

Little TJ, sweetest baby on the planet

The kids got to shoot some Storm Troopers (and Jedi's) for charity:

I hear they died in dramatic fashion as well, which is awesome.

There were also some sweet Ghostbuster Costumes but I failed at getting pictures of them. their back packs lit up and all sorts of blinky lights were happening. I got to see everything up close when I happened to be behind those guys on the escalator at one point. Legit costumes.

Amy, Ty and Declan all came to visit as well. Declan and Ty recited the Green Lantern oath to me and held up their power rings towards the sky. I died a little bit on the inside from the level of cuteness since Declan is just a little wee one.

My table came out nice. The rubber duckies were a big hit.

Mom's homemade blueberry muffin in the back there, half eaten.

Overhead lighting ISN'T the most flattering

some of the awesome folks who checked out my wares

Working it! But at least I am all smiles

********************
Here are some in-process shots from the sign making night I had earlier last week:

I had an amazing evening post-convention.

The weather was nice enough to eat outside at the Cactus Club.

I got to drink a Raspberry Lime Concoction of some kind or another before that (at Summer Shack) that was AS BIG AS MY HEAD! Then I played Big Buckhunter AND table hockey (I narrowly won Buckhunter - not my BEST performance - then narrowly lost air hockey despite my best cheating efforts) and it was a wonderful overall weekend.

I am thinking I might go on up to Portland's MeCAF (Maine Comics Arts Festival) May 22nd. They are sold out of tables but the city is pretty and I might go just to spectate.

But first!

You know that whole 200-mile relay race?

The one I am NOT prepared far?

That happens in 2 days.

Awesome.

Guess I better go get some running shoes, eh?

Ohio Cop/Short Story

2011-04-22T09:12:00.004-04:00

Hoppy Easter!

Patrick. Still keeping all his eggs in one basket.

I am working on a few things here at the garage/shop and one of them is a book of short stories about travel that's autobiographical.

How fancy!

I just finished a 4-pager from last month's trip to Chicago and thought I'd share it with you.

The words might change a little before it goes to print. I'm not sure it's clear that the cop that pulled me over was clear about not giving me a ticket, he simply wanted to talk about cars for awhile, so I may adjust some of the dialog to better reflect that.

Anyway!

Here we go:

It wasn't until I was the rest of the way through Indiana that I realize OMG that policeman probably just saved my life.

Happy Easter everyone!

Don't forget to thank zombie jesus for rising up out of his cave to save us all from evil.

Toenail Credentials?!

2011-04-20T09:30:00.004-04:00

And also more art:

Dinosaurs at the beach (Thanks Stevie D!)

And mister Boba Fett:

And one more Hellboy beacuse I really like drawing this guy.

Who wears short-shorts?! He wears short-shorts!

And something VERY cool from this morning Rachel Maddow Show (I love her!)

Make your own invisible ink!

Rach enlightens me on how to use things like "common milk," the German formula for making invisible ink (artichoke juice?!) and charcoal dust to expose a spy! Also, toenail engravings! Super Spy!

Please do see:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Boston Con is only 2 weeks away. I have lots to do before then.

Therefore, I'm going to go get to it!

Cheeri-o!

A Boston Marathon for the Record Books

2011-04-19T08:33:00.008-04:00

Wow, what a race.

The course record and indeed the WORLD record for ALL marathons was broken yesterday at the 115th running of the Boston Marathon.

A man from Kenya, a little guy who is quicker than anyone in the world right now, said this:

“When I was coming to Boston, I was not preparing to break a world record. I see it as a gift from God.’’ ~Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai

He ran 26 miles and 385 yards faster than any man in history; a shocking 2:03:02 seconds.

Unbelieveable.

When I saw the elite men race past us at mile 23 they looked hurt.

Ryan Hall, who had been right in the thick of the pack when I popped inside to check the TV and pee, had fallen to 4th place and looked hurt. How was I (or any average spectator) supposed to know he was running the fastest marathon he'd ever run? That he was, in fact, going to shatter the American record for marathon races AND his own personal best?!

"These guys obviously showed us what's possible for the marathon," said Hall, whose 2:04:58 is the fastest ever run by an American. "I was out there running, and I was thinking to myself, 'I can't believe this is happening right now. I'm running a 2:04 pace, and I can't even see the leaders.' It was unreal."

"Mutai, the first man to run a world best here since Korea’s Yun Bok Suh in 1947, definitely got a helping hand from Aeolus, the Greek wind god who provided a 20-mile-per-hour westerly at his back."

Just Outstanding.

Even my girl Kara Goucher (she might be America's Sweetheart but she was my sweetheart first!) ran the fastest marathon she'd ever raced beating her old marathon record by more than a minute! (One whole minute!) Even after taking a break from running last year to pop out a kid!

"Kara Goucher ran a personal best 2:24:52 adding a fifth-place finish to her third-place finish back in 2009. No American — man or woman — has won Boston since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach in 1985."

Go, girl!

And speaking of girls the American Desiree Davila came this close (---> <---) to winning the whole thing! It came down to a sprint to the finish between her and a woman from Kenya. the difference between the winners was only 2 seconds. A whole marathon boiled down to two damn seconds! GAH!

The suspense is killing me!

"Kilel won the women's race to complete the Kenyan sweep, outsprinting American Desiree Davila to win by two seconds in 2:22:36. Davila led as late as the final stretch on Boylston Street and ran the fastest time ever for a U.S. woman, five seconds faster than Benoit, who is now known as Joan Samuelson. “It just went perfect for me — minus not winning,’’ said Davila."

This is what racing is all about.

World records smashed. Course records smashed. American records smashed. And still the "official" running community won't recognize Boston as a record breaking sort of course since it slopes a bit downhill.

"Until yesterday, time never was of the essence on this roller-coaster ride. While the course drops 459 feet in elevation from start to finish (which is why the IAAF won’t recognize Mutai’s record), the ups and downs make for a unique and devilish challenge among the five marathon majors. The constant gear-changing, the accelerating and braking on the hills, make it difficult to switch on the afterburners for very long.

Hall, who had to run almost four minutes faster than he did last year to finish in the same place, likes to say that Boston is a race for the history books. It always will be the oldest and the most renowned. Yesterday, it also became the fastest."

Those hills and the fans that pack the course every year make it one of the hardest and most emotional races in the history of running. One of the greats!

I say it every year but I am going to run this marathon and when I do my great grand-father's silver cup will be waiting for me at the finish line. Mark my words.

********

In the meantime I will watch from the sidelines on Washington Square. This was my first year watching the race from here and I will never go back to my old fighting-the-Kenmore-crowds ways. There is a nice decline so you can see the runners coming all the way down the hill. There's plenty of space to move and cheer and I had a front row seat the entire time. It was lovely.

I had two friends running it this year. Both of whom KILLED it!

Kirsten swung by first, charging ahead and looking elated (how after 23 miles is beyond me!)

you can see me screaming her on in the background there

Then came (and went!) Alexis!

Here she comes!

There she goes!

Both of these ladies are on my Slow Motion to the Ocean Team. Both are phenomenal runners (and damn nice humans). The Boston Herald newspaper did an article on Kirsten, who happens to be a doctor, a survivor and a damn good runner to boot. You should check that out.

Friends came by with letters to spell out A L E X I S. We hopped in behind her and ran along as a support section (for approximately .01 seconds).

I got creative with the letters (and even if this wasn't officially my idea, I am totally taking credit for it).

Mostly we just lounged around, listened to the live band that had set up across the street, sipped our adult beverages out of plastic cups and cheered until we couldn't cheer anymore at waves and waves of runners. It is my favorite day of the year.

Oh, and because one of our friends used to work at a restaurant right across the street we got FREE hamburgers and hot dogs! What could be better than that?!

PUPPIES! Puppies are better than that. Here is my godson looking ENORMOUS! He's going to be between 60lbs - 80lbs according to the vet. To put that in perspective my dog is not even 60lbs and he'll be twice as tall, and Osa, the Burnese Mountain dog is 90lbs!

Who's a little fatty, Ollivander, YOU ARE!

And here I am accosting the ever sweet, ever docile Osa Marie:

All in all it was one fantastic, amazing Patriot's Day. One for the record books.

And who knows, maybe next year I'll be wearing some running shorts and showing off my brand new Boston Marathon Medal.

Until then, happy Tuesday everyone!

********************

(This guy ran it with a flag attached to his back! Pfft. Overachiever.)

U S A!~ U S A!!

(To read the full articles I quoted go HERE. (Thanks Boston Globe!) Or HERE! (Thanks Beaumont Enterprise).)

Doyle's Round 2

2011-04-11T11:59:00.002-04:00

Year number two of the Doyle's 5 mile road race was yesterday and I am happy to report that unlike last year, this year I saw ZERO of my ex-girlfriends (how nice!). Not that I'm bitter but it was certainly a happier Sunday than last year.

Meghan did not run it this year but she did meet me after.

It wouldn't be a Doyle's race without a goofy picture of me. In this years installment I am trying not to drip burrito juice on my godsons head as he snuffles his way into my lap.

This year hurt. I did all 5 miles in 51:01 which they tell me is a 10:20/pace (I don't do math) and those ten+ minute miles hurt. I stayed up all night dancing a (sweaty) storm at the packed Machine. I got absolutely no sleep then poof! It's 9am Sunday morning and I am dragging my ass across Boston to run and run and run.

I swallow some Purple Gatorade and a half rotten banana (I know -so gross!) and my friends make fun of me for the constant oooo and ahhh-ing and then, an hour later, we are done. I have 2 cold beers a Sam Cherry Wheat that has never tasted so good and a Noble Pils and life is good.

I got a little sun-kissed (which here means sunburned on my face) and hung out for the day. Lots of cool JP people showed up. It was nice.

And this is the month of the Cape Relay. Only 4 short weeks until May 6th when we take off for 188 miles on foot. Starting at 7am sharp.

In the meantime here's more artwork. It's all in various stages of almost-finished.

Enjoy!

Frogs jumping on a trampoline.

I was told this was meant as a joke or something since frogs don't need a trampoline to jump. (Shrug).

All My Friends Are Extinct

And Annie-Thing.

For Zan.

More later, there's a ton of them still wet and in process.

(That's what she said?)

xt.

Art Dump!

2011-04-07T11:35:00.004-04:00

I went and got myself some watercolor pencils and have been throwing myself a little drawing party.

I drew some robots...

I drew some Hellboy...

I drew some sparkly vampires....

And a werewolf on a motorcycle...
And a little Invincible action...

And Atom Eve, of course...

And a turtle talking to a blowfish (inflated). Because why not, right?
Do YOU have an idea about what I should draw?

Because I'll totally do it.

Back at it.

xT

BCC

2011-04-06T09:57:00.002-04:00

Boston Comic Con doth approach!

Which means it's pedal to the metal here at my little studio.

I have started making some watercolor (since when do we do THAT?!) pin-ups of characters I like. So far it's Hellboy and Invincible and those kids from the Vampire Movie-Books thing (I don't like them but they seem vaguely popular, so what the hell).

Anyway, things will be quiet here at the blog while I spend all my waking minutes wearing my fingers down to the knuckles drawing cool shit.

Do you like cool drawings?

Then suggest something!
I am a VERY user-0friendly artist and I take direction well.

(Rowr!)

Peace!

LGBT comics on CBR!

2011-04-01T11:46:00.006-04:00

Comic Book Resources did a review of the GREECE comic!

FULL ARTICLE HERE!

The UPDATED Page 6

And happy opening day, everyone else!

Guess who had her own spread on CBR this morning?

That's right, intrepid fans, my very first comic book review! And (Spoiler alert!) it was a good one!

"It is quite impressive just how well Ford gets across the charm and beauty of their trip, including little details that seem minor, but really do add to the story (like their friend, the donkey)."

Here's a link to the whole article: but basically a man named Brian (who is a god among mortals, in my humble opinion) gave That Time I Turned 30 In Greece a stellar first review!

He writes "A good chunk of the comic deals with just “normal” stuff, like having dinner and talking, and yet Ford never lets that feel like the story is coming to a crawl for those parts of the comic. Instead, it seems like an exciting aspect of the book, which is a good sign that you’ve developed your characters well enough for people to actually give a damn about them. "

How about them apples?

I realized too late that the .jpegs I had sent Mister Brian were early versions of the work but the updated (which here mean edited and much improved) versions can all be viewed HERE! at my DeviantArt account.

You can read almost all 47 pages of the final book!

And if you'd like your own version of this wonderful little story (affordably priced at only $5 bucks) Click that little button on the side bar ----->

I, for one, would be very happy you did that.

And if not, than simply enjoy my artwork and spread the news!

The more the merrier!

AND if you are interested in seeing more of my work you could pick up DUCK! the PRISM GRANT 2010 award winning graphic novel (Look at me tooting my own horn. ToOt! tOoT!)

Happy Red Sox Opening Day!

*******

Now for some baseball quotations.

"Things could be worse. Suppose your errors were counted and published every day, like those of a baseball player. " ~Author Unknown

"Don't tell me about the world. Not today. It's springtime and they're knocking baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball. " ~Pete Hamill

"I believe in the Church of Baseball. I tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance." ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988

I love that he mentions Isadora Duncan in that one. Meg always mentions her too, on account of the whole decapitated by a scarf fiasco.

"Baseball is reassuring. It makes me feel as if the world is not going to blow up." ~Sharon Olds, This Sporting Life, 1987

"There have been only two geniuses in the world. Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare." ~Tallulah Bankhead

Aren't they all fantastic? It's hard to pick a favorite one, I think. But this one is my own personal number one:

"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." ~Earl Weaver

Katie keeps a collection of these suckers on her computer and was kind enough to share them with me today.

I'm real glad it's that it's baseball season again, folks.

*************

Today's update was going to be an art dump of some character designs I'm working on for my next (super secret!) project where I get to work alongside the amazingly talented Justin Hall.

See?

But all the excitement of actually having my work reviewed sort of stole the spotlight off my daily doodles.

Did you hear Glamazonia was nominated for a Lambda Award?

So was Teleny & Camille by the ferociously talented Jon Macy, go check those out, if you like.

I can't tell you what the project is about. Sorry.

And for all you new folks welcome aboard!

Remember, I am going to be in artist's alley at this year's Boston Con so come say hello.
April 30th and May 1st, y'all.

(I apologize for any typos)

PEACE!

Ollivander Crebs the III

2011-03-30T09:04:00.005-04:00

Last night we had a snuffling, snorting little visitor (no, not Meghan, the OTHER one!)

My godson came on down to meet the kidzos and make my mother swoon. Success on all counts! Except for a little kerfuffle with Sekiah involving mister Ollie thinking she was a chew toy things went splendidly.

Sekiah was fine. Scared more than anything. (You are such a BULLY mister Ollie). But we put a princess band-aid on her arm anyway. Hilarious.

Meg begins to tell me a story about how Ollie got into the Worm Tea (nasty!) while she was getting his stuff together to come down and visit us. Bad puppy. She was laughing, saying he kept licking loudly like he had a sour taste in his mouth he couldn't get rid of and she was late (Meghan is ALWAYS late) becuase she had to try and clean him up.

I see you peeking Sekiah!

That'll teach him to not mess with the worm farm (Also WHO has a worm farm?! Dear Meghan, you CRAZY!).

It was so, so good to see her.

*******

earlier in the night I skipped my workout to go drink beer with Jessie and get my hairs cut.

While there she told me about this app for her iPhone called fatbooth that... well... makes you look fat!

Here are my own hilarious results:

gross.

I wish I had the picture of Patrick beacuse he still had his stubbly "beard" when she took his picture and he wound up looking like Peter Griffen from Family Guy.

******

In an attempt to tire out mister I-don't-know-how-to-play-nicely-with-other-dogs-Bailey Sekiah and I took him to the beach. Ethan was asleep from one hectic play date they had had at the park so I suited her up and we headed down.

Please do notice the PRINCESS hat. I do not expect it comes in any color other than pink. And here she is playing on the rocks, rocking out to life.

I can't wait until this beach is sunny and 100 degrees. Come on Summer! We need you!

Sunsets are awesome!

Now, back to the drawing board for this little Tana.

Water Wheel & Allagash

2011-03-29T15:38:00.005-04:00

No art updates today, intrepid fans!

Dad carved me a pair of handmade Ducks. Isn't he the sweetest?

Instead we have a few real life-updates.

The first is that the water wheel is being fixed across the pond today.

Patrick noticed it when he came in to pester me this morning.

Truth be told I don't remember the water wheel being taken out of the water before.

Like, ever.

I still think we need to put a generator on that thing.

So that's worth a few snap shots.

*****

I took the original Bailer outside to check it out with me before grabbing some coffee this afternoon, and when I tried to take a picture of his handsomeness on the wall he moved too fast.

Where's Bailey?!

But then I got him to stay still inside the Jeep. So that worked out.

He would like you to please play ball with him.

********

This weekend I went to Portland Maine which boasts no less than 3 breweries! And even though it was cold out the town itself was beautiful. If I had to live in Maine I would totally live there. There is this super cute bakery on the water that made THE! BEST! Raisin, pecan rolls that were to! die! for!

So many exclamation points.

We took a tour of the Allagash brewery and I fell in love with their Curieux brew. It's basically their Tripel beer aged in old Jim Beam bourbon casks which results in a fantastic blend of carbonated bourbon flavored beer. Bourbon beer! Better than everything!

Soaking up some sunshine before the tour got started.

Well, not everything.

The lady who led our tour was really cool. Lots of beer facts and Allagash brewery facts and we talked about Boston and beer-making and Belgian monks.

I have never toured a brewery before and it was quite nice. Right up my alley, as they say.

*******

I found a few more pictures hiding in my phone from the Chicago trip.

Here is Kais doing her impression of the Unabomber in the amazing taco place we hit up on my last day in the city:

And here is a hilarious license plate I saw that says "My Ford" on a Chevy somewhere in middle Illinois:

And that is it for updates right now.

I'm still trying to get everything sorted before my life turns topsy-turvy again in May.

Oh! And I lied there IS going to be art in this blog post, after all!

Here is the SMO 2011 design for this year's 200 mile race!

See how I tipped the HRC logo on its side there, for 2011? Nice touch, right?

And a shot of last year's impromptu SMO design.

We've got our first team meeting this Friday at Fay and Robyn's and I for one am SUPER excited about the food.

Holl-er!

C2E2

2011-03-23T14:27:00.010-04:00

Chicago? CHECK!

Rawr.

So my first comic book convention is officially over.

And what a ride it was!
Literally. I drove halfway across the United States all by my lonesome twice in one week. Talk about traveling!

The Prism booth. Go Gays!

The con itself blew my mind in size and scope.

I rolled up with StevieD to unload some stuff a day before the con opened.
You could see the red carpet they had thrown down for the event almost glowing from the floors below.

When we arrived on the actually opening day (The morning after St. Patty's day, let me just remind you. and I had to be up at 6:30am!) I got Zan and we met Kris Dresden and Tony Breed at the booth and began to set up. Unfortunately Southwest lost one of Zan's bags (actually they sent it to Reno) so we only had half of the items we needed to properly set up the booth.

We did the best we could!

There was a food court on the second floor that overlooked the con which made a great spot for taking photos. The place was huge. According to some con veteran's, though, the size was unimpressively average. Maybe I am just easy to please?

StevieD let me be his shadow for while he roamed the con floor for awhile. He is the host of Comic Book Queers and everyone there knew him. Then he saw an ex-boyfriend of his:

I hear that guy's married now... to some news reporter or something.

There was all kinds of STUFF at this con.

3 different booths that sold swords (really, swords?!) one place that made custom furniture for geeks. Drawers that pulled out and were actually long boxes and custom storage for your game controllers, a dining room table that opens up into a Magic The Gathering table. It was Uber Nerdy and VERY cool. You know that fingerstache thing everyone does? (Everyone being all of my friends.) The Geek carpenters (Geek Chic) also made little wooden mustaches so I got one.

SO FUN!

Who wants a mustache ride?!

Of course there were toys and collectibles.

Booths of comic book retailers selling new comics and golden age/silver age stuff.

The costumes were impressive.

The first guy I saw was Spiderman complete with Web-backpack. Sunday was kids' day and let me tell you, toddlers dressed as superheros warms me to the very soul.

"I'mma back!"

Mario came by our table and we hung out. He showed me a bunch of funny high-fives and fist-bumps. I already knew "The Snail" and the "Turkey" but he had all sorts.

(Don't know what I'm talking about? GOOGLE it)

There were a pack of folks from Mortal Kombat (and of course a Storm Trooper):

Scaaaary!

There were Stormtroopers (Or Clone troopers? Or Sky troopers? I don't know the damn difference, they are all Stormtroopers to me!)

Thumbs up if you love blasters!

The costumes made of foam core were my favorite. The big guys, Thing and Juggernaut and Apocalypse were legit. I was impressed!

He's totally packing.

Big & Beefy plus Dracula?

I did an interview for Comic Book Queers with PattyBoom, my new gay boyfriend.

We went to the hotel bar and just chatted for awhile. I drank Jameson and gingerale (much needed and much loved). I'll post a link when that episode goes up.

Um, they had reverseable corsets. Anyone in the market for one of those?

My book did really well. I got lots of great feedback from fans and fellow creators and I found out that two of the books put out by Northwest Press, Glamazonia! and Teleny and Camille! are up for a Lambda Literary Award! Go check that out y'alls!

I drew a Powergirl sketch in StevieD's Powergirl Sketchbook:

Then the con was over and we all packed in and headed "home".

For me, that meant going to hang out with Kaisa and spending all of my last day sight-seeing in Chicago.

My favorite thing was the Bean:

Watch out Kais! You're slipping!

Kung-fu Awesomes!

Then we went to the top of Hancock Tower for a drink and to see the view. there is some dirty saying about this like Getting a drink at the cock, or something but I forget what it was exactly. You get the idea.

Our drinks were good (which here means adequately alcoholic, yet overpriced) but the view terrified me. We live in a post-9/11 world after all!

And that's the wrap-up I've got for you all from Chicago.

Up next: Boston Con! April 30th and May 1st.

And I promise to try and make this ART blog more about art and less about running all the time.
I caught some flak for that this weekend.

Now, to catch up on some sleep!

16 hours driving across the country really takes it out of a girl!~

(Til we meet next time Chicago!)

Ras PR!

2011-03-14T13:57:00.005-04:00

My 3 year Anniversary of Running!

Just a quick note to say that the Ras na hEireann this weekend was a huge success.

Despite having gone out dancing and drinking the night before AND losing an hour of sleep due to daylight saving time, I still managed to set a personal record in the 5k!

8:45/pace, 27:10 0verall!

No one is more surprised than me.

I owe it to Alecia for snapping her fingers and pointing to the ground beside her saying, "You! Here!" indicating that I would be running beside her. She kept us cruising along until about mile 2 when we caught up with the other folks we came with and Alecia stepped it up a notch passing me off (more or less) into Liz's care.

We commiserated about having our periods, being exhausted, Regan's training sessions kicking our asses and at the end I was actually able to sprint down the bike path to glory.

Will wonders never cease?

I look a little doofy in both these photos but my dogs were barking and my hammies were tight.

(Yeah, I said it!)

Go Team!

*******************************

And here's another page, intrepid fans!

See you in Chicago!

page 39

(Again, I KNOW there are typos -forgetting the F in Family- but I corrected them in the final. Just not in the jpegs. )

Finished! Order Away!

2011-03-12T13:08:00.008-05:00

Page 37 is here!

All of them are, actually, since the book is OFFICIALLY done!

Cover, edits, more edits, printed up a few copies, found more things to edit, and now! A box or two of them are hot off the presses and waiting to be driven to Chicago!

Would you like your own copy of this fancy little volume?

It measures 7" x 8.5"

Well check out that little button in the sidebar (----->)

Now you can click it and (for $2 shipping) you can have your very own copy! Do it now! You know you want to. Why read for free what you can pay good money to own? Click that button. you know you want to.

Would you like to see the most adorable thing on the planet? Well here he is!

Ethan came out of Corinne's living room wearing these last night. I believe Santa brought them for Josh last Christmas so that he and Auntie Marae could box each other and let off stress. He made his "Hulk muscles" which made me laugh and laugh.

Oh, Hulk. How you amuse me.

A here is my little namesake miss Tana Junior, known far and wide as TJ. She's looking more and more like me with every day that passes. That's one lucky girl, right there.

(Her real name remains 'Lila Noelle')

Finally in cuteness-overload news, guess whose little godbaby grew twice his neck size in just one week? That's right! Little mister Olliver Anderson. If his cuteness doesn't get you just imagine the snuffling snoring that is constantly occurring when he sleeps.

Just a little lump of love.

*********************

A few programming notes.

The mad rush before C2E2 is in full swing.

I have a million and one things to do before setting off to the windy city (all by my lonesome! YIKES!). If you pay attention to the Twitter-machine I do that. You can follow me HERE. Or, if that link doesn't work (and it might not, computers aren't really my thing) then just search for "tanaford" and you'll find me.

I plan on actually using it when I am away (unlike now, when I like to pretend it doesn't exist) so if you want trip-updates, here's your chance!

In a perfect world I would know what I am doing and be prepared and have lots of great art and prints and stickers and things ready to go, but well, I'm a noob. Bear with me.

So there it is, intrepid fans!
4 days and counting until I hit a comic book convention near you!
(Provided you are in Illinois, somewhere in the greater Chicago area).

I am ALSO celebrating the 3rd anniversary of my running debut this Sunday at 11am at the (as Alecia calls it) "Ras Na Naa Naaaa." I am very excited despite the fact that this may very well be the slowest most painful race I have ever run since I will have been out dancing all night the night before (tonight) and there is talk about doing PRE-race Irish Car Bombs the morning of the race (provided, I suppose, that bars are even OPEN that early. Any of you alcoholics out there know one way or the other?)

So, there it is. This is the last big update before I make-like-a-baby-and-head-out (ba dum dum ch!)

Happy Weekend Everybody!

Greece page 36

2011-03-08T11:48:00.004-05:00

Like a G-6 here's page Three-Six!
(NOTE! I fixed the typo (it) to (in) on the original. Thanks for looking out Meghan!)

Happy Fat Tuesday everybody!

Party today since tomorrow we fast (or something like that).

Here is Ethan and Kiah all decked out in their Beads. The scally cap was Ethan's own idea.

Doesn't he look so handsome?

*****************

Last night I was listening to Rocketeer by Far east Movement (featuring Ryan Tedder) and at about halfway through the line goes:

"Where we at, only few have known,
Go on the next level, Super Mario!
I hope this works out, Cardio!
Til' then let's fly, Geronimo!"

And it made me laugh and laugh thinking about Meghan and all the times she died as Luigi in Super Mario Brothers.

Ah, hilarious.

Here's the video but you have to suffer through some commercials first.

(Sry.)

Page 35, Ras Reuinion, Bay is Better

2011-03-07T15:06:00.007-05:00

Hello Intrepid Fans!

Page 35

Welcome to another Monday installation of our little blog. Today for your viewing pleasure I present a So You Think You Can Dance clip that a friend just told me about which blew my mind.

Mia Michaels won an Emmy for Best Choergoraphy for this dance which totally deserved it in my opinion. Talk about addiction and power and desire all wrapped up in human expression.

Outstanding!

We also have another page from the now COMPLETED! Greece comic. I am about to hit the panic button since I don't have a title yet and tomorrow I will be drawing the cover which is where the title must go. Please do not think less of me when I call it something lame like "That Time I Turned 30 in Greece"

BAILEY UPDATE: he is doing fine again. That wierd cramping, shaking pain thing he goes through 2 days after a run remains a mystery but he is back to his bouncy, joyful self. The glucosamine seems to really help and whatever the joint pain medication was that my vet gave me for him worked too.

So, still mysterious but no longer in pain. Two thumbs up.

******************

And this weekend is the 3-year anniversary of my very first race, ever!

Here is what my wall of fame looked like 3 years ago:

And here it is as of today!

Lookit all those bibs and medals!

I'll be adding one more orange, white and green bib after Sunday.

There has been some talk of starting the day off with an Irish Carbomb, pre-race style. Which here means I will NOT be PR'ing. It will be a memorable race for other reasons though. And afterward, BUCKHUNTER TOURNAMENT~!!

Here's an old snap-shot of me and Andrea. My heart is with you this week buddy. Love, love, love.

And with that I have to get back to cranking out these here comics. Chicago is only a week and a half away! Whee!!

(Yamas!)

Bay's Limp and OMG Another Page!

2011-03-02T09:27:00.003-05:00

Wow! Another page! (finally!)

page 34

That's the good news.

The bad news is that something is wrong with Mister Bailey Dog.

He's limping and shaking and looking generally morose (poor guy). I took him running this weekend at low tide along the beach and he cut his dew claw on a shell or a sharp rock. That, in itself, is not unusual but a few days' later without fail his whole body locks up and he limps around sort of whimpering.

It breaks my heart.

I have been trying to figure out this phenomenon with the help of my vet for almost a year. I've got him on glucosamine (sp?) chews to ease any muscle soreness he might have and he's got puppy-dog aspirin but beyond that I don't know what to do.

Typically, after 2 days of this sad-eyed, whimpering he's back to his old hyper-active 6-year old self. Magically. Until then, it's hard watching him wince when he leaps into the Jeep every day.

Pray for my little boy, you guys.

If you need me I'll be lettering the rest of the Greece pages.

And just wait until you see what I have up my sleeve for the final product! It should be so COOL you guys!

(Happy hump day!)

Tana Trivia Picture Round

2011-03-01T09:05:00.003-05:00

Meghan Wensleydale Anderson Cooper cracks me up.

My fellow Greece traveler hasn't had an overwhelming amount of *official* work to do lately and as such has been making me snail mail (which I cherish)

Today's installment is Real vs Cartoon images of Yours Truly.

Letter "P" is a shot below the belt though.

(Keep the gloves up, Hegman.)

Back to writing and lettering.

(Which I still hate)

Oh! and I get my long hairs cut tonight! That's good news if I ever heard it.

Peace!

Meet Ollie!

2011-02-28T12:25:00.005-05:00

Meet Ollie!

What a lovely weekend!

I met Meghan's new puppy (currently without a name). We've been calling him Ollie, or Ollivander or Ollie Ollie Oxenfree so I think you get the idea of what direction his name is heading.

Here then is a picture deluge (WARNING: you may die from cuteness overload. Consider yourselves warned):

From this morning, sleeping under Chloe's sweatshirt

Meg's man thighs are really becoming a problem.

He's a back sleeper. It's just about the cutest thing ever

Me and the little man taking a cat nap. (back sleepers)

Love.

He's just so TINY!!

The proud momma

Trying to climb up Meg's legs...

Then giving up and falling asleep right there. Oh, YES he did.

This week is wrap-up the Greece Comic week. I have to do my least favorite part which is the line-editing and lettering part of the story. All the pages are drawn and inked and scanned, now it's just a matter of filling in the words. Sounds easier than it is.

Tedium.

Off to it.

TGIF and page 33

2011-02-25T12:05:00.002-05:00

With the addition of the bathroom scene the actual page numeration will change but let's just call this one page 33.

Not much to report today. It's raining, which is actually good news since that means it's too warm to snow! I am so sick of this damn winter (shudder).

See you turkeys on Monday!