Ice sculpting at BU Winterfest next Saturday (Jan 28)

I will be ice sculpting at BU Winterfest next Saturday (Jan 28)

http://www.bu.edu/winterfest/

I don't think I'm in the video on the page, but at 0:38 you can see m'friend Julia Abrams hacking away at what I think was a version of Cerberus we were sculpting.




Also if you are in Hartford, CT in the week of Feb 14 - 17, you should go see my cousin Tom perform in William H Hall High School's "Cheaper by the Dozen".

Comfortable chair in Harvard Square

It was by the bus stop too. How convenient!





Then the owners came back. Ah well.

(Thanks to Tom for taking the photos.)

Strawberries

What part of the weekend was about.

Back from Cousinpalooza

Back from Cousinpalooza! Rockband was played, meat and bread and vegetables were eaten, the dog was petted and sympathetically coo'd over, the back of the legs were repeatedly shanked by the dog's cone, the walk was walked, the marshmallows were eaten and the Russian palace was puzzled together. And Alex dug holes. With spoons. Back in the day.

And now, some questions.


So if ____ were a bird, he/she would be…
1) an eagle
2) a crow
3) a sparrow
4) a vulture
5) a peacock
6) a chicken

If shoes began raining from the sky, ____ would…..

1) Scream.
2) Use the falling shoes as batting practice.
3) Take the shoes and sell them, only to discover the market was flooded.
4) Eat them.
5) Sleep through the event.
6) Dance among the shoes with an umbrella.

If ____ were to choose a number, that number would be….
1) 5
2) 3
3) 2
4) 6
5) 4
6) 1
7) Gravel

Gingerbread houses and Spore critters

Back from visiting Kate and the cousins. The tree was bought; the gingerbread house was a triumphant and yet oddly tame victory; and the dog was (briefly) decked with bells and ribbons.




Here's some comparison photo from last year, to explain what I mean:



Two hours of battling bad gingerbread architecture, paste, bonbons and gravity.... The second photo shows our expressions only 20 min into it. Needless to say, the fate of the gingerbread house was doomed, as you can tell from the closeup of the house and its already gently tilting wall.

Since this year's gingerbread house is in fact decorating the dining room, as opposed to getting thrown off the deck, I suppose it wins in something.



And here is the dog.





Also, Alex showed me how to mess around in "Spore". Below is the critter I designed.












Here, the larger creature is playing around with its young. Or... Her young? Since the larger creature laid an egg?

Cousin Collaboration Comics

I have added a few updates to my website, including a handful of daily cartoons and oddball cartoons; the albatross graphic and other things from blog entries; and miscellaneous touch ups.

And now . . . a collaboration-doodle-comic thing with cousins! (click for larger view)

Also a doodle-jam page from the Boston Comics Roundtable. Available in two orientations for easy viewing.

Doodlers include Lindsey, James, Dan and me. (In the corner, some brush marker test scrawl left by Gareth)

Albatross Process

My cousin asked me to create a graphic for his new business, "Albatross Process".

(click here for Albatross Process website and the final logo Alan created.)

Given the nature of the business and the choice of animal as a symbol . . . . rather cheerful logo on the website, isn't it? It's a deliberate entrepreneurial decision by Alan and his partner, to stand out from the other New York City legal processing services. They had several clients in their first week of business, so it seems to be working.

*****

Also -- yesterday was my birthday, huzzah!

MoCCA and Improv Story

I am going to the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art Festival (MoCCA) next weekend! I will be part of the Boston Comics Roundtable. Apparently we have a table in the corner on the second floor.


And now, a (typical) story by Alex and me....

The Mouse and the Pickle: A Cautionary Tale

Once upon a Crowned Pickle there lived a tiny mouse. The mouse ate bits of the Crowned Pickle. The Crowned pickle did not like this. He went to the racetrack where he hired a seedy jockey to get rid of the mouse.
The mouse took action, and went to the blue forest, which was the natural homeland of the pickles. The mouse took hostage the pickle ambassador. The mouse negotiated to live among his own kind, while still enjoying delicious crown pickle.
“But how will you do that?” asked the ambassador.
“Tofu,” replied the mouse. “Crowned-Pickle-Flavored tofu.”
And so they lived sort-of-maybe-kind-of-possibly happily ever after.

The End.

(In case you couldn’t tell, this was an impromptu spoken story, with each person adding three words at a time.)