Our Friend, the Follicle Mite

This comic was written by my wife. She was challenged to create an "infomercial" as part of her Mary Kay business group. We thought it would be fun to include artwork. I told her it would have to be in comic form, "'cuz that's how I roll!" Anyway, it was fun to research the follicle mite and imagine their lives.

Sleepy Saturday

This is another of my "slice of life" comics - meaning, this really happened. I just read it to Nathan and he got a big chuckle out of it!

Teaching with the Power of Comics

Tonight I had a privilege to be the guest speaker at a class for future educators at Elmira College. It was a really great group of about 30 college students. My presentation included information about how teachers can use comics to teach and reinforce essential skills.

Activities included:

• Comics reading "Round Robin" style
• Comic Book Reader's theater
• Comic Strip conversions to teach students to write prose style dialogue using comics as inspiration
• Book Reports in comic style
  
• How to teach students to create their own original characters
• Using speech balloons and thought balloons
• and much more!

They're proud of their creations!

Here are some of the participants original characters. If tomorrow's
educators can draw this well, our children are in good hands!

Beautiful Noise

I had this idea for a comic a while ago, when Nathan was going through the Terrible Two's. It's been in my head for a long time. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to drawing it. When I finished, it just seemed like this one needed to be shaded with pencil and blending stump, so that you can tell when the lights are off, I guess.

I think comics don't always have to be funny. Sometimes they can be touching or even sad. To me this one is about how bad things do sometimes happen, but they can help you to become more patient.

"45"

I had the idea for this comic after doing a similar one last year called "44". It's a little experimental for me. I wanted to do some more realistic backgrounds, so after getting the idea, I took my daughter with me to photograph some scenes in the setting I had in mind. I also did more crosshatching than usual.

ABC #26: "Let's Put our Heads Together"

ABC Comics are something I do each month as part of the Art by Committee sketch game sponsored by the best artist website around, The Gurney Journey. Each month we're provided with a random line or scene from an unknown science fiction novel. Each artist who participates creates their interpretation of the scene.

I try to use each challenge in a comic story that is in progress in which The Mighty Andar is held captive in an alien prison on Planet X. I literally have no idea what will happen next, so it's kind of like real life. If you want to get caught up, click here -- but if you want to read them in order, you have to buy my comics, because I don't always create them in chronological order. If you think you're confused, you should try making them!

Our assignment this month is to imagine who is having the conversation below:


And, here is the comic I created to illustrate it!

A Drawing for 2010

Scaling the Ivory Tower in 2010 (Crayola Marker Sketch)

The drawing above is a sketch I made to represent my major goal for the year 2010. I've been working on my doctorate in Curriculum & Teaching for a long time, but this will be the year I finish. I was inspired to make this drawing after doing a similar one (below) for the year 2009. I noticed that every single goal I noted in the '09 drawing I either accomplished, or made a conscious decision to save for later. This year I only put one goal because I'm thinking I may need to set some things aside for a time and really knuckle down and finish.

They say that many successful people write down their goals or visualize themselves being successful before attempting difficult objectives. I guess these drawings are my way of doing that. At any rate, you can read more of the rationale behind that here.