Eric Orchard's Blog, page 60

Henry Is Three!

[image error] Great birthday yesterday!! 

Where I complain About My Eye

Well, there's nothing a like a medical scare to get you moving in the morning. I woke up Monday morning blind in my left eye. I didn't notice at first because I wake up before dawn and it was dark, but as soon as the sun started to come up I realized I could barely see out of my left eye. After washing my glasses repeatedly and administering that ocular cure all Visine, I decided it was definitely my eye and nothing else and it was now appropriate to panic.

Henry was still asleep and he had to be brought to daycare in some way. Luckily my father in law was around. Unfortunately there's no car-seat in his car. Which means I had to weave my way 10 blocks pushing a stroller. Which gave me plenty of time for panicky consideration. I was even making plans on how to finish my books with one eye. Ugh. So, my father in law met me at the day-care and drove me to emergency. I happened to be reading tom Sawyer that day, which is a fantastic book to have on hand to distract yourself from any terrors. It was the graveyard scene, if you know the book, which is an amazing scene. Spooky and funny and thrilling. I must have looked funny sitting there with a book about two inches from my face with one eye squeezed shut.

Through some amazing fate related thing there happened to be an ophthalmologist on hand to give my eye a thorough look. This all happened in the surgery department so I was expecting that any moment i would be on a gurney and wheeled frantically through the hospital in order to have my eye extracted before it exploded like an appendix.

The very practical Dr Smith (really!) explained to me that I had an ulcer over my eye as a result of an infection and it would clear up after a few days if I'd just put some drops in it.

Dr Smith, it seems, knows what he's talking about, as I lay here watching an Orsen Welles movie on TCM my vision is finally clearing up, instead of foggy Plexiglas it's more like rain on my glasses.

This was a couple of days ago, and things are getting better. Still not great but better. What's pretty amazing is I feel like I've barely missed a step. Who knew I could draw with one eye?

Alphabeasts: A

See more Alphabeasts by amazing artists. 

Comics For Everyone!

Owly is one of the best all ages comics to come along in ages. First published in 2004 Owly is Andy Runton's wonderful series about a gentle, loveable Owl and his little forest world. To me, Owly is the perfect example of what amazing all ages comics can be; it's use of visual language, the world building, the gorgeous art, the warmth and tenderness. The first thing one notices about Owly, after the art, is the fact that it's virtually wordless. The story moves along entirely with pictures. Speech balloons contain images rather than words. I find this makes the world even more immersive. To quote Andy Runton's website "It may seem that a student could read a wordless comic quickly (and without much effort). One soon realizes, however, that he or she must apply further evaluation and observation skills to be able to follow the story line" So much of the story relies on facial expressions and actions. Which isn't to say it's hard to read. In fact every page is a joy. 
One of Mr. Runton's greatest strengths is his capacity to create wonderfully simple characters. It's not exactly minimalist, but everything is very simple. It's also very rich art. The natural world is portrayed with loving detail. It's a friendly world, even the dense black shadows are friendly. 


The stories are about Owly, and his kindness toward other creatures. He is always trying to do the right thing. The stories are hopeful and uplifting, Owly's tenderness balance it out with a note of sadness. 
A definite must have for your all ages shelf. It goes well beside Winnie The Pooh and Beatrix Potter. 
there are several ways to purchase and read Owly, there is both hard and softcover editions which are the perfect size for young people. There is also a Kindle edition. 

What I'm Reading

Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 

A Saturday In Autumn

Well, I quite enjoyed my all business day yesterday. When you're drawing all day all the time there's a certain pleasure in mundane tasks like preparing mail and writing blog posts and doing the dishes. It reminded me how much I love small domestic tasks. Today has been kind of awful so far. Went to the doctors because my eye has been a bit funny and she freezes it and dyes it yellow. It's still yellow. The computer is respondent in glorious medicinal yellow hues. After the dying the doctor left me lying flat for about half an hour by myself. Of course it felt like much longer, long enough for my anxiety to create all sorts of horrifying futures for my poor eye. It turns out to be a small scratch on my cornea, which apparently isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm currently casting about my list of favorite bodily related anxieties to appease my hypochondria. So, it's about 2 PM and I have yet to start working in earnest. Let's see if I can salvage the day. 

I'm All Business

Here's a little peak at something I'm doing with J Torres. It's a tiny side project that is extremely silly and a huge relief after working hard on other projects.

So, today I'm going to do very little drawing and try and get a bunch of business stuff out of the way. I find if I don't devote a full day to this stuff, no matter how minor, it has a tendency to be put off indefinitely. It'll feel great to get this stuff off my list. Sometimes I wish someone else would do this stuff for me. OK, I feel that way all the time.

I picked up Twain's Tom Sawyer for a bus ride yesterday. Such a wonderful book. It's one of those books I've either read half a dozen times or never finished. I won't know until the end. I find Alice in Wonderland and The Vampyr like that as well. I read The Vampyr by John Polidori last week and only realized at the last line that I had read it years ago.

I should get back to full days of drawing soon. Yesterday was another non working day (I tend to only think of drawing as working) , I traipsed from one end of Toronto to the other looking for Henry's requested birthday present; a "Batman" Shockingly, silver Snail had nothing. I ended up at a Toy's R Us and got this:




Which I think might be the very best Batman toy I've ever seen. Probably because this is pretty close to how I'd draw him. 

Half A Day

Here's one of the simpler panels from Maddy Kettle. There are scenes that take place in the desert during the day that are so easy to draw I worry about. But still, I like how visually the story breaths, sometimes dense and frantic and sometimes sparse and quiet.

Taking a half day today, I'm going downtown to buy a present for Henry's third birthday. the only instruction he gave me is "Batman" which I think I can manage.

I started reading Floating Worlds yesterday, a collection of correspondence and art from Edward Gorey. If you're a Gorey fan this is a must have, maybe the best book on him. It's published by Pomegranate and as usual with their books it's beautiful. 


Some links of interest:


The Association of Library Services to children ( ALSC) has published a great, comprehensive list of graphic novels for all ages. Very much worth checking out. I'll be using this as a resource for my Monday Comics For Everyone! posts. 


also, from the Dark Horse blog, a very interesting initiative to get comics to kids. Looking forward to hearing more about this. 


A great New Yorker article on Norton Juster's Phantom Tollbooth. 


Some amazing slippers. 


And viviane Schwartz drew an awesome cat.