Circle the Earth

 Hello my friends. I’ve started a new project, which is both a book and a real-time adventure. I’ve been posting about it across social media but, as always, I seem to be neglecting my own website. No more!

In about ten days I will be setting out from my kitchen door, with just a knapsack and a sketch kit, on a quest to circumnavigate the planet Earth using (to every extent possible) only surface transportation. This means no flying! (Though I know I will have to break that rule in at least one instance). 

I will also be making and sharing art and comics all along the way. 

You can read MUCH more about this project in the Patreon post HERE:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/something-new-3-100871431

And Patreon is where I’ll be posting most of the content. You can sign up as a free member! But if you want to help me bring what I hope will be a beautiful book into the world then by all means sign up for the $3 tier. 

Here are a few photos of the pre-departure comics from the book I’ll be drawing in along the way:

See you out there in the wild,

—Ben

The Promise is the Work II

 

Two years. 

Sometimes you carry on with the work, and it’s a struggle, and then sometimes you realize the work is carrying you. 

The image above is from one of the notebooks I started filling after Ida’s death. There’s a lot in those books. A lot of words and a lot of pictures and most of it is stuff no one will ever see (at least not while I’m still kicking around). 

Or is it?

It’s not lost on me that the book I’m currently working on is an underworld journey. It’s the story of boy with a candle going deeper and deeper into the into the dark, and of what he finds there. It’s a story of ghosts and shadows. It’s about lost things and moving on. 

It’s not the story from my grief journal, not even close, but there are certainly pieces of shared imagery.

Here’s the secret: my published work, my shared work—it’s really only the tip of the iceberg. Most of what I scribble down is just for me. Just because. Because it’s a habit. Because it’s my way of thinking. Because I have pens and pencils and blank pages to fill.

And it brings me peace. Not complete peace, never that. 

But maybe as much as anyone has any right to hope for. 

The Lone Adventurer, and a Commissions and Prints Update

FIRST THE ETSY ORDERS UPDATE: If you ordered ONLY ORIGINAL PAGES from me, you have likely received them by now. Most of those orders have gone out. If you ordered ART PRINTS ...well, I thank you for your patience. Some of the prints did not meet my quality control standard and so those orders are taking a bit longer than expected. I am hoping to have all the prints mailed off this week though.

OKAY ON TO THE FUN STUFF!

I reeeeeeaaally hadn't intended to participate in Inktober this year, but sometimes, unexpectedly, a story just claws its way out of you. I started the Ballad of the Lone Adventurer with a single, loose sketch and no plan. It grew from there with a life of its own.

And the response was just amazing. I'm very, very grateful for the level of engagement, the discussion and comments that surrounded this unexpected little art-child. I haven't had this much fun live-posting a project in a long, long time.

Many of you have been calling for a print version of this story and I am definitely looking into that. It may take me awhile, but eventually I'll make it available in some kind of physical form. For now though, I'm posting the whole thing here in one easy-to-scroll-through post.

Thanks again, my friends, and Happy Hallowe'en!