jackcomics

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Terlingua Ranch "bad rabbit" logo is used without permission. While I believe it to be an inspiration to almost any rabbit, I do not intend to imply that it has or ever would bring him or her into harm's way)

Even for a monthly comic, I've become ridiculously slow. The last two episodes have been delayed by finishing up my Grasshopper Mouse mini-comic, the STAPLE convention in Austin, and an anthology submission. But I have resolved to take on no side projects, other than continued collaborative experimentation with Ellen (see my last couple of posts).

My goal is to speed up enough to finish the story in another year or so. TPB, here I come!!!!

Everyone go check out Austin cartoonist Zach Taylor's new webcomic, Bear Quest! He's 10 episodes in now, so there's not too much of an archive to have to catch up with.



It follows a gleefully ravenous bear in an old atari-style video game, and shows what such a world might actually look like. I'm no gamer, but this took me way back to a few elementary school sleep-overs, playing Activision games all night long.

Jeeeez! I intended to post this image on the day after my last post, which was over a week ago.

But anyways, here's one more picture from the tag-team studio play day. I drew the bird, my wife Ellen colored it, and I cut it out and pasted it on the colored-paper-and-colored-pencil background.

My wife Ellen and I took a Friday off a little while ago and spent the day playing in the studio, something we often want to do, but VERY RARELY actually take the time for.

Part of the time we did some tag-team doodling. One of us would start a page and pass it over to the other, who would work it a bit and pass it back, and so on.

This is the winner for "Most Times Passed Back and Forth":



I think it had a total of 8 different passes in colored pencil (I think 4 different times), acrylic ink with pen and later with brush, white acrylic paint and collage.

Andrew Wales just gave a really nice review of my Night of the Grasshopper Mouse mini-comic on his blog, Panel Discussion.

Well, my comic signing last Friday at the Murphy St. Raspa Co. was an unqualified success!

Fun-loving printmaker Alan Vannoy had a bunch of new work on display while I signed mini-comics and sketched. Here's one of the dozen or so drawings I gave away:



This one was a gift for Vic, Raspa Co. co-proprietor. Many thanks to him and Cristina for inviting me to the event!

There was a really good crowd and delicious eats, and I had solid sales of my t-shirts and mini-comics.

Murphy St. Raspa Co.: a class act, all the way!

I did a comics swap by mail with Colin Panetta recently, and received the first two issues of Dead Man Holiday, his wigged-out sci-fi-mysterious-creeping-horror title.

Here's a mysterious creeping moment from the first issue:



Now, horror is most definitely NOT my thing, but I found Dead Man Holiday to be more intriguing than anything. It didn't hurt that there's no graphic bloodletting in these first issues. The first issue in particular was like reading a puzzle with only a fraction of the pieces available (in a good way!), and I found myself lingering with the introductory pages, pleasantly trying to parse what was going on. Both issues are available in their entirety for a free online read, so I encourage you to give them a try.

But I warn you, if you just skim you'll miss out, so you should probably buy a copy.

On the first page of my copy, Colin drew my rabbit character Jack and the Old Pocket Mouse from my Grasshopper Mouse mini-comic dressed up like his skeleton character:



I reciprocated by doing a version of his mysterious creeping horror. It reminded me of a moth, so I went all out with the moth thing:

Regional news blog West Texas Weekly (westtexasweekly.com) has started "reprinting" Jack: Adventures in Texas' Big Bend!

They will be posting an episode each week, starting from the very beginning.

If any of you happen to be in Alpine, Texas on Friday, May 8, you might consider attending this event at the Murphy St. Raspa Co.:



My good friend Alan Vannoy will be showing some new prints and I'll be sketching and signing copies of Night of the Grasshopper Mouse.

Since printing up my mini-comic, Night of the Grasshopper Mouse, I've had several parents telling me that their kids are really into it!

And now I've been given some pics of the characters by Berkley Baker (age 9) and Fisher Baker (age 7). Quite an honor, let me tell you! Below are takes on Mel in the same pose by both of them:



( Click for more )

Fiona Mae's parents tell me that for several weeks she has insisted on having the Night of the Grasshopper Mouse read at bedtime. One night, she was hopping to her bed, and when asked if she was a bunny, she replied, "No, I'm a killer mouse!"



I also got my first fan art the other day, passed along by another bewildered parent. I'll scan and post it soon. It's much scarier than my stuff.

So that's the end of Coyote, Kokopelli and the Sagebrush Bush.

Here's the botanical drawing of the actual plant from the inside cover, courtesy of my wife, Ellen:



I've also made a pdf of the whole thing with the covers, available here (2.6 MB pdf file)

"Well," said Kokopelli. "Let’s call it Sagebrush then and it can be your very own special plant." Coyote was so excited that he gathered lots of seeds from his Sagebrush bush and started planting them everywhere. That’s why we have so much Sagebrush in Nevada.

Later, when Kokopelli came to see how Coyote was doing growing plants he found Coyote sitting by his bush admiring it. "Coyote, what is this?" asked Kokopelli. "What have you grown here, Coyote?"
Coyote said, "It’s my special Coyote bush. Look it’s all brushy like my tail, it has soft silky fur just like me. It smells wonderful too; kind of like the sage seasoning my mama puts in stew."

In the morning when he woke up the first thing he saw was his plant. It had grown in the night. He could see that it wasn’t a sunflower. It wasn’t corn or melons or beans or squash either. It was a bush with small silvery-green leaves covered with felty fur. The leaves had three little lobes at the tips and when Coyote touched them they smelled wonderful to him with a pungent resin smell, a perfect Coyote smell he thought.
Coyote was so very proud. He had really, really grown a plant. It was different than the plants he had seen Kokopelli grow. It had been grown with Coyote’s own special squeaky, squawky flute song. And it suited him perfectly.

"Oh well," thought Coyote as Crow flew off. "I still have one more seed." So Coyote, once again, poked the hole for the seed, covered it up, asked the rain cloud to come water the seed and the sun to shine down. and he played his squeaky, squawky Coyote flute song.
Coyote played on the flute for a long time and the squeaks and squawks did get a little bit better. Just as he was getting really impatient and tired too, two tiny fuzzy grey leaves poked up through the dirt.
He was so proud! He grew a plant! Would it be a beautiful sunflower? Would it make yummy food like corn or melon or beans or squash? He couldn’t wait to see. He didn’t even want to go home to his comfortable bed. He wanted to stay by his plant and protect it, so he curled up carefully around the little new plant to sleep the night.

"Oh well", said Coyote, "I’ll just plant another seed." And he did. He poked a hole in the ground, dropped in the seed, covered it up, asked the rain cloud to come and the sun to shine. He was just getting ready to play his squeaky, squawky Coyote song when his friend Crow flew up.
Crow landed, shook out his shiny black feathers and asked, "Whatchoodoin’ Coyote, Whatchoodoin’?"
Coyote said, "I’m growing plants from seeds like Kokopelli. Yummy plants like corn, beans and squash."
But all crow heard was "seed" and "yummy".
"Thanks, Coyote", he said as he poked his beak into the hole and gobbled up the seed. "I was ready for a snack".

Coyote was still squeaking and squawking on the flute when Horned Toad came by. He had earmuffs on. "What is that awful noise? Who is making that terrible racket? Oh, It’s you Coyote. I might have known. What do you think you are doing with that flute?"
Coyote proudly said, "I’m making plants grow just like Kokopelli. See, look here." And he reached down with his paw and uncovered the seed for Horned Toad to see.
"Silly Coyote", said Horned Toad. "You dug up the seed before it sprouted. Now it won’t grow. You never do anything right." And he scurried away shaking his head.

Coyote dug a hole and dropped in a seed. He covered it up very carefully and asked the cloud to come and water the seed. Then he asked the sun to shine down and help the seed to grow. But when he picked up the flute to play a growing tune to the little seed. . . Oh, dear! Coyote forgot that he didn’t know how to play the flute at all. He did the best he could but the squeaks and squawks he make were so bad that they gave Jackrabbit a headache and he left.

Huzzah!

I have finally sat down and put in the time to make a store page.

I'm offering my Night of the Grasshopper Mouse mini-comic (with a 5-page preview), T-shirts, and sketches.

Stop by and consume! I dare you!