Self Portrait Through Groceries, and other updates

Food evolution! This is what happens when you raise your kids with good, healthy food, and then they get carte blanche at age 18 to eat all the crap they've never tasted before. There was a disturbing incident in my freshman year, involving a week wherein I ate only marshmallows.

My current rule when grocery shopping is that if the person in front of me in line has a basket that's healthier than mine, I have to take out some of the crap in my own. Grocery superiority! It's usually not an issue though, because a lot of people at my grocery store seem to mistake "actual food" for "health food," and "fat-free low-carb marketed nonsense" for "actual food." I had a genuinely baffling conversation with my checkout person the other day, when he said to me, "Oh, you're a hippie, huh?" I suppose in reference to my brown bread and canvas grocery bag. What.

Hey! I went to Africa!

It was AaaaaAah-mazing. Every moment was like the cover of a Zoobook. Look at those cheetahs under that perfect rainbow! RIDICULOUS. It was an incredible trip. I'm working on a travelogue about my African adventures, so I'll post when it's done.

I realize that my last two travelogues have yet to be seen. I have these gigantic monsters sitting on my desk, pages from completion ("The Age of License"-- about my trip to Europe last fall, and "Displacement"-- about the cruise I took with my elderly grandparents). The cruise comic has ballooned to a ridiculous length (100 pages or so), and License will probably continue to grow beyond it's current 200+ page length to never ever be finished (it was on hold while I finished Relish). But the Africa journal is only going to be around 40 pages! I'm hand-coloring it, just to mess with myself. I'm 22 pages into the pencils for it, which isn't bad for having only a week to work on it so far (no chance to work while I was in Africa. Too many elephants to marvel upon). Keep in mind that I have to pay bills and take illustration jobs as well, so please be patient with me.

I love making longer work like this. I love traveling and making travelogues. I love having all these things in my pocket, waiting to be shared. It's a nice feeling. Anticipation! This next year is gonna be craaaazy. Relish, various travelogues, and some amazing adventures to come!

I'll be at CAKE, back in ol' Chicago on the 16th and 17th of this month. I'm really excited for this show. Not only because I get to go back to Chi for a visit (Chicago pals, call me! Drinks at the Dubs and dogs at Doug's!) but because I spent 8 years in Chicago grousing about there being no indie comics show there, and now there is! I'm so proud and pleased.

Come see me there, and get a preview of my Africa travelogue that I'll be working on.