How They Met, page one

This is the first page of a three page comic Justin DeCarlo and I are working on for the anthology Always Comics. It's a somewhat fictionalized account of our friendship. I know there are some glaring mistakes, and the title lettering is noticeably absent, but I was anxious to get it up here, since I haven't updated this blog in over a month. I promise weekly updates from now on, with the last two pages of this story following shortly. Enjoy.

Mastodudes

Anyone who's hung out with me in the last few weeks is totally sick of hearing me talk about the new Mastodon record, and how excited I was to see them at the Great American Music Hall. The show was last night and, as predicted, it was one of the defining experiences of my adult life. I woke up this morning fully intending to continue thumbnailing the next Trackrabbit, but found myself incapable of thinking un-Mastodonly thoughts. The solution: listen to 'Crack the Skye' and draw the dudes themselves. All wardrobe choices and outrageous facial hair were recreated from memory, so purists will forgive if they're not 100% accurate.

Neocurtilla hexadactyla

I've been hard at work on preparatory material for the new Trackrabbit. Buoyed by the achievement of usurping the last available table from an aging yuppy couple, I finished writing the plot yesterday in a cafe in Hayes Valley. Then I went home, drew some bugs and got drunk. I'll start posting finished pages next week. Until then, make friends with these guys.

Character Designs for Trackrabbit #4

Here are some character designs for the next issue of Trackrabbit. The story centers around a scientist named Beanie Boylan who quits his job as a robotics engineer to move to a farm and lead a pastoral life with his new bride, Deborah. The shackles of robot-ology do not prove so easily cast off, however, as Beanie builds a new robot out of old boiler parts to help him around the homestead. The robot, Ponchito, seems sweet enough at first, but he doesn't like having to compete with Beanie's wife for attention, or deal with the sneering derision of their neo-hillbilly neighbor Brian. Also, the farm is infested with mysterious alien insects. Hilarity and chemical warfare ensue.

Visually, Beanie (center) is sort of a cuddly version of Steve Albini; Deborah is sort of an amalgam of Beverly D'Angelo and Goldie Hawn; Brian is based on my ex-girlfriend's dad, a rugged, out-doorsey type who once bought me a head-lamp for Christmas. The Robots Poncho (right) and Ponchito are based on a cylinder and a sphere, respectively.

A Knight in Shining Denim

Many claim that I come off as a cad in my work, and their criticisms are not unfounded. There are, however, moments like this, when I can be the very picture of chivalry.

There's Only Room in this Panel for One Success Story

Here we have another excerpt from my next comic for auto-bio anthology Not My Small Diary, the first page of which I put up earlier this week. Watch as I roll my eyes bemusedly while discussing my retail career with a future New Yorker cover artist. Who's laughing now? Nobody.

Showing the Hemlock the Scars of Your Recent Break-Up

Hey kids. I know you were all crushed when there was no new panel here at 12 am last Monday, so here's a whole page by way of reparations. Don't get used to this. I know you'll go to conventions and buy Fart Party books after reading it all for free online, but that's because you're a creep and you'll take any excuse you can to talk to that cute Wertz girl. Dudes gotta work a little harder to drum up attention at those sausage fests.

This one takes us all the way back to the halcyon days of 2003. Skinny jeans were just for gutter punks, Damon Che still had a few shreds of credibility, and people remembered Andrew Bird as the violinist from the Squirrel Nut Zippers (if at all). See if you can guess the identity of my chubby male co-star in this anecdotal buddy comedy. I'm not great with likenesses, so I'll give you a hint: if you're female, live in San Francisco's Mission district and were linked here from my MySpace page, you've probably slept with him.