Alec Longstreth's Blog, page 26

May 29, 2011

My Parents' New Dog...

IS THE CUTEST THING ON EARTH!!! My Mom sent me this photo yesterday of my parents' new dog, which just about melted my face off with its cuteness.


Then today, my parents called me to say that when our family friend David Engelberg saw this photo, he remarked that the dog was so cute, it looked like an Ewok. So they wanted to know the names of some Ewoks. I rattled off "Paploo" "Logray" and "Teebo" but the one that stuck was "Wicket" which I guess is now the dog's name. My parents are awesome.


Wicket is an eight week-old Corgi. I'm a little bummed I won't get to see him in his ULTRA-cute puppy phase, but Claire and I will be back in Seattle later this summer so we'll get to play with him then, when he's a bit bigger.


AHHHHHHHHHH, I can't wait!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on May 29, 2011 18:26

May 23, 2011

24-hour comic #11!

Claire and I are back from a great trip to Montréal! We got to see Max and Thalie and one of next year's CCS fellows, Julie Delporte, was kind enough to put us up in her beautiful apartment.


We lucked out on the weather, and spent our first two days wandering all over the city, admiring the architecture and looking at all the people. It's always crazy going to a big city after spending some time in little old White River Junction. Claire took some photos, which are over in her Flickr if you want to check them out.


Although it was great seeing friends and exploring a new city, the MAIN reason why we came up this particular weekend, was to participate in the 24-Hour Comic event that was organized by Grandpapier.org. There were about 150 artists all over the world who were all drawing at the same time, some in Belgium, some in France, us in Montréal and other places too. For us, it started at about 8am.


This was my first time doing a 24-hour comic in a big group, and also the first one I did that started at a time OTHER than midnight. I must admit, it was pretty nice getting a good night's sleep before starting the project, and it ended up not being too bad, because we finished by about 2am the next morning.


I say "we" because Claire and I collaborated on this one! The 2011 Blog Archive Image that I posted last week was actually like a little warm-up that we did together. Since Claire hasn't drawn a ton of comics, she wasn't quite ready to draw 24 pages of her own in 24 hours, so instead, she let me do the drawing and she then colored all of the pages with watercolors. I'm really happy with how it all turned out!


You can read the whole comic over at Grandpapier.org


I do a 24-Hour Comic every year, and every year it's really hard, but also REALLY rewarding. This one was so much FUN to draw, which was a really nice break from all the drudgery of Basewood. I just got to go crazy with a G-nib and I didn't have to worry about how everything was going to turn out. This one's also all about my childhood, growing up in the Pacific Northwest, so it was really fun to think about that area and to draw some of my favorite places. I'm not sure if the story is anything mind blowing, but the process of making it was extremely enjoyable. And Claire's watercolors made the whole thing sing. Hopefully we can collaborate on more stuff in the future!


Well, thanks to everyone for showing us such a good time in Montréal this weekend and I hope some of you readers will enjoy the comic. Now it's time for me to get back to work!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on May 23, 2011 14:58

May 19, 2011

2011 Blog Archive Image!

Well, I know the year is almost half over... but I FINALLY have an image for the 2011 Blog Archive page of this site!


Each year I try to come up with an image that documents what's going on in my life, or my hopes and aspirations for that year. Obviously this year, the biggest change in my life is that Claire has moved in with me (along with her two bunnies Patty and Selma) so it seemed only fitting that the image for this year should be of our little family.


For this piece, Claire and I each drew ourselves and the bunny that the other person is holding. Then Claire watercolored the heck out of this thing, coloring herself, Selma and all the background stuff. Then all I had to do was color myself, Patty and the "2011." Sadly, it took me this long just to have enough time to do this! It has been a busy school year.


To celebrate the start of my summer break, Claire and I are going to go up to Montréal for a few days, to see Max one last time before he goes back to Belgium. While in Montréal, we will also be participating in the giant 24-Hour comic event which is being organized by Grandpapier.org. It'll be my eleventh 24-Hour comic, but the first that I've ever drawn in a big room with a bunch of other cartoonists. As ever, I will post it here when it's all done. I'm scheming on some cool plans for this one... you'll see!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on May 19, 2011 00:41

May 10, 2011

Frunchy in Vermont!

Frunch is randomly on the east coast this week for two hydrology conferences, and on Saturday, he drove four hours out of his way to hang out with me and Claire up here in Vermont.


Frunch is one of my best friends from Oberlin, though I suspect most of you know him as one-third of team Dvorak.


I remember when I was growing up, my parents' college friends would come to visit, and it was so confusing. My parents would try to explain how COOL this person was, and how close they were to them, even though this person was never around in our day to day lives, like my parents' other friends.


Now I get it. Sadly, I only get to see Frunch about once a year these days. But when I do, it's just like old times. There is so much history between us, and behind us, it is instantly comfortable. And because our interactions are so few these days, I am always hungry for news of his and Gwyn's current life together.


Frunch is, without a doubt, the smartest person I have ever met. If you worry about the future - the way I sometimes do - like, "Oh god, we're going to run out of water someday!" all I can say is, there is hope. His name is Frunch, and he's on the case!


Tomorrow I'm on the thesis review board all day, and then CCS graduation is on Saturday. The commencement speaker this year is Françoise Mouly, and the event is open to the public, so if you're in the area, swing on by! It'll be a day to celebrate for sure!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on May 10, 2011 15:16

May 5, 2011

Free Comic Book Day is TOMORROW!

I just wanted to post a quick reminder, that Free Comic Book Day is TOMORROW, May 7th, at comic book stores all across the country. DRAGONS! will be at the following stores, if you want to go pick up a copy:


Atomic Books - Baltimore, MD

Bridge City Comics - Portland, OR

Copacetic Comics - Pittsburgh, PA

Cosmic Monkey Comics - Portland, OR

Escapist Comics - Berkeley, CA

Guapo Comics - Portland, OR

Hub Comics - Somerville, MA

Quimby's - Chicago


Also, a BUNCH of CCS students will be selling and signing their work over at the West Lebanon branch of Newbury Comics. They'll be there all day, so if you're in the area, swing by and say hi.


I'll be back here at home, trying to get through some of my massive stack of senior thesis projects. I've got hundreds of pages yet to read, so I better get back to it. Have a great weekend everyone!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on May 05, 2011 14:35

May 3, 2011

The Basewood Beard muse SHAVES!

Oh man, Nate just sent me a link about this high school science teacher who vowed to not shave his beard until Osama Bin Laden was killed or captured. His name is Gary Weddle.


I actually saw a news report about Weddle in 2001 or 2002? And then like three years later, there was a follow up story about him on NPR. It was Weddle's beard challenge that gave me the idea to not shave until Basewood was done, when I moved to Vermont in 2008. I never realized that his goal was so specifically focused on Bin Laden, I thought it was more general, like, whenever the troops come back home, but anyway, he's done now.


It is not surprising to read in the article that Weddle has endured years of ridicule and jokes about his beard, and that most people did not understand what he was doing. It's also not surprising to read that he is relieved it's over, and happy to be clean-shaven again. I look forward to joining him in the clean-shaven club! And I'm glad that I will get to celebrate being done with a big creative project, instead of the murder of a human being.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on May 03, 2011 21:26

April 29, 2011

Twitter(!?!) and some site updates

Well, as some of you have already seen, I've joined Twitter. It's @AlecLongstreth if you're into that kind of thing, but if you ARE into that kind of thing, I would implore you to not get too excited about this.


You know that RSS feed I'm always going on about, that updates the homepage of this site? Well, it's run by a service called FriendFeed, which allows you to dump all of your scattered RSS feeds into it, and it then spits out one RSS feed with links to all the various blog posts, photos, etc. And well, with the click of one little button, FriendFeed can repost that very same information into a Twitter account. So that's what I'm doing.


I'm hoping twitter it will make it easier for people to see what I'm posting around the web, and make it easier to share that stuff with other folks. But I'm not sure how much actual tweeting I'll do, beyond the automatically posted stuff. It's taken me quite a bit of effort to get my personal internet use down to about an hour a day (STEP 1: Delete Facebook) and I don't care much to increase that amount of time. Anyway, we'll see how it goes!


Back here in web 1.0 land, if anyone is actually still visiting the site, Nate added a cool SEARCH field on the blog page (and all the archive pages as well). This is great, because I've now been blogging with this version of the site for seven years and with more than 600 entries, it's sometimes hard for me to find a blog post I need to link to or whatever. Or, you know, you could like punch in "Weezer" and get all of my Weezer entries. The search results load up in a Google window, but do not be confused, those are all blog entries from this site. You blog readers are smart, you'll figure it out.


Also, I updated a few other random things around the site:



I updated the Bibliography page (I'm up to 1184 pages of comics!)
I posted a few new interviews on the Interviews page
I also added links to my Twitter and the Drop Target blog over on the miscellaneous page

Okay, phew! I think that's it. The first-years turned in their final projects yesterday, so I have a couple hundred pages of new comics to read this weekend, and then the seniors have to turn their thesis projects in on Monday at 5pm, so it's getting down to the wire! I'm on the thesis committee again this year, so I'll get to read and weigh in on half of the thesis projects. I can't wait!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on April 29, 2011 03:52

April 27, 2011

Canadian Invasion!

We had some visitors from Canada down here in White River Junction last weekend. The leader of their pack was none other than Max de Radiguès, who, along with his girlfriend Thalie, is staying in Montréal for a few months this Spring.


Max and Thalie were joined by two Montréalers, Julie Delporte (who is one of our fellows for next year at CCS!) and Vincent Giard, as well as another visiting Belgian, Emilie Séron.


Needless to say, it was great to see Max again. It felt just like old times. And as always, it was fun to be surrounded by a bunch of cool, young cartoonists speaking rapid French all around me. Max posted some photos from the trip on his blog if you want to check them out. We played a lot of pinball!


Max will also be wandering around TCAF on May 7th and 8th in Toronto. I won't be at that show this year, but hopefully I'll get to see him once more before he heads back to Belgium. Safe travels, Max!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on April 27, 2011 21:24

April 21, 2011

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Okay, PHEW! Claire and I are finally back from Portland, where we had an awesome time at the Stumptown Comics Festival, tabling with Greg and Nicole Georges.


This was Claire's first time tabling with her Fluff Engine Patterns, which did really well. She also sold a few of the handmade plush animals that she brought, which was great.


The highlight of the show for me was once again the DRAGONS! book. It was so amazing handing it to kids and then watching a big old grin appear on their faces as they started reading the comics. Some parents even came by on the second day to say how much their kid had enjoyed the book the night before. Kids reading comics - HUZZAH! I can't wait to get copies out to everyone this summer so you all can see how much fun it is.


During the show, I did an interview with Drew Anderson, which he has posted on YouTube. It's worth watching just to see his crazy camera mount in action. We talk about comics and pinball and all kinds of other stuff, and you can see how crazy the show was.


Of course, I also played tons of pinball in Portland and even found some time on our various plane and train rides to write some poetry.


It was a fun trip, but it feels really REALLY good to be home. It was kind of intense doing two back-to-back shows. I feel like I haven't had a moment to catch my breath in about three weeks. And unfortunately, things are SUPER busy around here, so it'll most likely be another few weeks before I finally CAN catch my breath! All the CCS final projects are due very soon, and so I will be reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of student comics and then giving feedback in class and on the final thesis review committee. I also need to get back to work on the final chapter of Basewood!


Well, I better get to it. Thanks so much to all the people who swung by our table or hung out with us in Portland, and especially to Greg - the most gracious host a traveler could ever have!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on April 21, 2011 15:11

April 12, 2011

DRAGONS! Comics and Activities for KIDS!

Oh man, I had a great time at the MoCCA Arts Fest this weekend. It was a great trip for so many reasons. Here, I'll LIST some of those reasons, right here:



It felt good to get out of White River Junction.
Claire and I wandered all over New York on Friday. We saw great works of art, ate yummy food, walked a lot and saw a funny movie.
FRIENDS! I saw so many friends at MoCCA that I only get to see a few times a year. My friends are so cool.
COMICS!!! I did a ton of trading and ended up with a big bag chock-full of awesome comics.
I also sold or traded or gave away a bunch of my comics, which is a really great feeling.
At night, I played a bunch of pinball!

As if all of that wasn't enough, Greg also brought hot-off-the-press copies of DRAGONS! which is the top secret project I have been hinting at for a some time now. Having that book at the show was probably the BEST part of the whole weekend.


DRAGONS! is comics and activity book for KIDS, that Greg and I put together for Free Comic Book Day, which is May 7th this year. It's got a brand new 16-page Isle of Elsi story and all this other cool stuff too:



A super-playful back cover by Dan Moynihan, who was the FIRST person we asked to be in the book, but somehow we forgot to put his information on the inside. Sorry Dan!
Dragon-themed endpapers by Jon Chad
A two-page, multi-level maze by Kaz Strzepek
Dragon gags by Karen Sneider
Dragon-libs by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill
A dragon shadow puppet activity page by Claire Sanders
Six ways to draw a dragon by Marek Bennett
A water dragon connect-the-dot by Maris Wicks
A dragon poem by my sister, Galen Longstreth, illustrated by Aron Nels Steinke
Francis the dragon comic strips by Joey Alison Sayers
A two-page dragon picture find by Aaron Renier
Four "Dragons of the World" pages, written by me and illustrated by Andrice Arp, Nate Beaty, JP Coovert and Alexis Fredrick-Frost.
Nogard the Dragon's recommended dragon reading!
Did I mention the stunning back cover by Dan Moynihan???

Also, it's FREE. Doesn't that sound EPIC??? Well, I think it is. It was so fun handing it out to kids this weekend and watching their faces light up. Comics for kids! This is how it should be.


Greg and I will have copies of DRAGONS! at the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon next weekend (April 16th and 17th), and I will take a big stack of them back with me to Vermont. All Phase 7 subscribers will get a copy this summer when I send out P7 #016. Greg will probably have some at other shows this year, but you should also check your local comics shop on Free Comic Book Day to see if they'll have it!


Okay, I better wrap this up. Lynda Barry is coming to CCS tomorrow, and I get to do one day of her writing workshop before I have to hit the road again for Stumptown. I hope I'll get to see some of you in PDX!

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on April 12, 2011 02:28