I’ve been remiss in not telling you all about something nifty I did at the onset of the summer. Thanks to the good graces of Mike Churchill, owner of Pulp Nouveau Comix in Canandaigua, NY, and the organizational powers of old teammates Tom Galambos and Greg Lendeck, and awesome newcomer Ben Morey (my cousin, natch), we were able to put together a sequel to the Instances art show we installed at Nazareth College back in February.

Instances 2, which involves another artistic interplay mural–this time painted all over Pulp’s front window space–has been up all summer. I should be up for a little while longer, so if you’re in the area this month, take a drive to Canandaigua, enjoy the changing leaves, and check out Instances 2 at Pulp Nouveau.

Have a look at some in-progress shots of the mural space over at my flickr page.

I’ve been reading The Hobbit to my five year-old son (five and three-quarters, as he prefers to hear it stated) lately, and I had the urge last night to try drawing our old friend, Bilbo Baggins, as though I had no prior concept of him from artwork, cartoons, and movies. I sort of failed–it’s almost impossible for me to divorce Bilbo from the image I have in my mind’s eye spawned by the 1977 Rankin Bass cartoon–but I gave it the old Hobbiton try. Thought I’d share. (Click the thumbnail image for a closer look.) Maybe I’ll do more; it was a fun, if not entirely successful, sort of experiment.

I can’t show too much, because I want these to be a nice surprise for the people who have ordered them, but just to give a taste, here’s a little peek at some of the sketches I’ve drawn in the first batch of Artist Edition books! (Click the thumbnail to embiggenify.)

If you preordered an Artist Edition copy of Odori Park: East Marries West, then know that your book is going in the mail today–so be on the lookout!

My six year-old son has really taken a shine to drawing comic strips lately. My corruption of his impressionable young mind is nearly complete. (Note that he’s even drawing his latest masterpieces on my $1 Target Spider-Man notepad. I’m insidious.)

With his latest work, my boy presented a request for me to again post it to the Web. That’s a habit I’m happy to enable. Please see the latest by clicking the thumbnail. (You’ll note the blocked out byline; we try to keep our l’il ‘uns sheltered from the infamy of the Internet as much as we can.)

You can see by the title that I’d recently been showing him some Baman Piderman cartoons. I had no idea they’d made such an impression. Maybe it’s because we just came out of the perfect season to “hab da pumkin.”

Whoo boy, is that ever a daunting title.
What’s in the works for the year of the dragon?

• More comics, for sure. Hopefully you’re all enjoying them!
• I’m thinking about adding color, although I’m time-pressed as it is, and wondering how to pull it off.
• I’ve toyed with the idea to do a mini podcast (pod-ette?) or video blog-ette (baguette?). Something low impact but high on fun.
• I swear to all that is holy I WILL get prints up for sale. I think I said they’d be on tap a year ago, but what’s a little year between friends?
• Another book is definitely on my agenda (and I’m all ears to thoughts and requests).
• I hope to get my public game face on and do a couple more shows this year. SPX is highest on the list of likelihoods right now, and at the very least, I’m hoping to attend TCAF, if not exhibit there. I’ve heard good things about ConnectiCon for webcomickers, so my feelers are out there, too. I don’t want to overdo the show thing–they can be fun, so it’s easy to overextend–but if you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them! (Maybe some non-comic book, art, or cultural events I’m unaware of?)
• Naturally, I aim to spread the word about Odori Park farther and wider. (Please share the love!)
• It wouldn’t hurt me to get a little faster on the draw, too (and thus, secure a little more sleep!)

Any thoughts about what you’re planning for the new year, or what you think would be fun for O.P.?

No time to waste! Nose to the grindstone. Pip, pip! がんばろう！

PS: Don’t forget, the Comic Creators for Freedom awesome wallpaper donation drive starts on Monday, Jan. 9th!

Today is the launch of the Comic Creators for Freedom donation drive to help combat human trafficking. As I’ve done for the past two years, I participated this year–as did a number of other artists and comickers–to draw attention to the issue, and the drive, and to put together a really fun piece of collaborative artwork. That art, depicting a massive crossover snowball battle between the female characters of a heap of great comics, can be downloaded as a special wallpaper in exchange for a donation on the CCF site. There are more details to share, but Lora Innes, one of the gurus in charge of the whole affair, says it best here:

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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

Wednesday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creators for Freedom– a group of over 100 comic book creators who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the past, what is happening today is happening in secret. It won’t end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here’s what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image! The wallpaper features characters from all over the web, including Girls with Slingshots, The Dreamland Chronicles, Kukuburi, Earthsong Saga, Looking for Group, Love and Capes, The Dreamer, and tons more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper.

The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from Monday January 9th – 20th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love 146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.
To learn more about the CCA visit www.comiccreatorsforfreedom. To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

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So, there you have it. Please go donate. Here’s a peek at the wallpaper to tickle your interests (go on, click it):

I got a sneak peek at the complete epic snowball fight wallpaper from Lora & Crystal at Comic Creators for Freedom, and wanted to share it. It’s just a thumbnail, but maybe enough epicness comes through to encourage you to click over (comiccreatorsforfreedom.com) and make a small donation (See the prior post for more details.)