Waiting for Toast

UPDATE: The watercolor limit has been reached! Thanks you to everyone who has ordered so far. I decided to do a few extras so EVERYONE WHO ORDERED YESTERDAY, 11-17, WILL RECEIVE A WATERCOLOR.

Last year, at about this time, I gathered all my journal comics, some watercolors and some sketches and bundled it all up into a little volume called Tales from the Bohemian Highway (Hatke Family Adventures volume 1).

This year I’ve put together a second volume of comics and art which I’m calling “Waiting for Toast.” The name was suggested by my wife who said that much of this year felt like “waiting for toast.” Ironically, shortly after she suggested the title our old toaster up and died after years of hard service. Now we make toast in the oven.

Waiting for Toast is available for pre-order right now! Just click on the link below to get your copy at:

MY FUNNY ONLINE BOOKSTORE

The book is 80 pages, 9X7 inches black and white and perfect bound -a matching companion to last year’s book. Here is a little look at the pages:






Every copy will be signed and includes a little original sketch drawn on the title page.

But that’s not all! The first 20 orders will include a small 3X3 inch watercolor picture drawn and painted on arches watercolor board and lovingly tucked into he pages of the book. To give you an idea, here are a few of last years watercolors:


Thanks for another great year of art and comics!

(Proceeds from sale of this book will be put toward a new toaster).

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: Escape from NYCC

Unfortunately I have to end this storyline here. I did go back to OWS after Comic Con, talked to a lot of people, got lost, ended up sandwiched between protesters and police and even saw a Wall Street Journal writer fall into a plastic storage tub. The writer was James Taranto, who wrote this article about his experience in the park. I was sad that he left out the part where he fell in the storage tub and I helped pull him out.

But unfortunately life happens faster than it can be recorded in comics form, and nearly a month later I find that this project is competing with my other (paying) projects to the point that I have to cut it short. But I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading!

Here are a couple closing clips:

Clip 1: “Change yourself”


Clip 2: “Make That Change” (warning: contains accordion sounds)

Drawing Conclusions: Walking to Comic Con

This clip is for Andy, and it's just the announcements in the line outside Comic con:


To anyone still following, thanks for your patience! I'm juggling several little projects right now and I'm beginning to think that life happens more quickly than you can record it in comics form. I returned to OWS the next day, after Comic Con and the best bits of audio came from that second visit to Zuccotti Park. Like, for instance, this awesome song:

Drawing Conclusions: The Photographer

Well this one took me awhile:



(Color version of the photo can be seen here).

Clip: After the Photo


The photographer only gave us his first name, but when I got back home it took me only a couple minutes of poking around online before I found this entry on Boing Boing about a whole set of portraits of the Occupiers. Lo and behold there we were. I highly recommend taking a look at his Flickr set, The Occupiers. It’s a striking set of pictures.

I hope everyone following this little blog has been enjoying this little comics journey! I originally designed this with about thirteen parts in mind, but at this point I’m not sure how many I’ll be able to get through. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. In the meantime...

Links!
Planet Money did a little podcast about OWS. Their audio sounds much better than mine and they somehow found a Ron Paul aficionado down there. (That’s what they call themselves, right? Aficionados?). I've been following Planet Money for a couple years now. It's a genuinely geeky economics podcast that explains things clearly.

The Occupy Movement is growing, and the arrest photos are ubiquitous. Please, please check out these images of, yes, Occupy Sesame Street. I want to high five cookie monster for that sign.

Drawing Conclusions: Walking on Wall Street

Woosh. Took me all day to get this one out!




Clip One: Ben and Anna on Wall Street


Clip Two: The Soothsayer


So next up our first experiences at the actual gathering in Zuccotti Park, plus a fun surprise. Stay tuned!

In the meantime here are a couple links:
1) an article about OWS and good ol' Distributism from the Washington Post.
2)The FIRST episode of the web-based comedy miniseries Fruitcake by my friends at Mirandum pictures. I have a cameo in a later episode!

Now go have fun. I'll see you all on Monday.

Drawing Conclusions: the REAL Part One

This is the real part one. The last installment was the prologue. Because when you start with a prologue you are hoity-toity. Comics!





Clip One: Banjo Man (FYI: this clip may be not safe for work. Adult language.)


Clip Two: Dance to Remember


So as you can see the REAL part one is a whopping four pages about a moment I’ll always remember. I’m starting to worry that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew with this project -there’s so much to tell! I think most entries will be one or two pages.

This is taking me back to my old days as a freelance reporter for the Lafayette Leader newspaper, when I would grab my not-so-trusty mini tape recorder and ride my bike to meetings about a new overpass or a zoo fundraiser. This was a lot more exciting.

Be sure to listen to today’s audio clips where you can get a taste of the banjo Man’s very excellent music and hear his controversial ideas about vandalism, which will have Mr. Andy O’Neill chortling “I told you so.” Andy chortles a lot.

See you in the comments.

Drawing Conclusions: Part One

Alright my friends! Today I’m trying something brand new: man-on-the-street-style comics-reporting with attached audio. It’s a little bit Journal Comic, a little bit editorial, and a little bit mini-Podcast and I don’t know if it will work or not. But as my man Chesterton says "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."

Here’s the scoop:

Over the last weekend I attended the New York Comic Con (the link leads to an article about my friends Dave and Raina). But I also spent a good chunk of time at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in Zuccotti park. I brought a mini audio recorder (thanks Dane!), a camera and a sketchbook and I came away with a couple hours of audio files, songs, conversations ...and a whole lot of experiences that I wanted to share. Better still, bouncing between the Comic Con and the OWS Protests offered interesting points of comparison. For me, each event threw the other into sharp contrast. It made a good story.

So over the next couple weeks I’m going to try to get as much of the story drawn and posted as I am able. This comic is unusual for me because the backdrop is something political. I will eventually draw conclusions and offer some of my own thoughts, but that isn't the point really. Truly my main goal here is to set down, in my own way, some little personal moments.

In other words, the good stuff.

So without further preamble, lets get to the comics:




And for today’s audio, a link to one of my all time favorite travelin’ songs:
I used to listen to this on every long car trip.
(The rest of the audio sections will be from my own tapes. I promise).

Finally, here is a link to some posts by my friend Daniel Nichols: Click here, here and here. This is what touched off the discussion with Andy that lead me to Wall Street.