This was going to be a much more boring comic, a variant on 8 minute dating for families (which was an activity/icebreaker at Great Big Happy Life last week – Sandra Dodd posted a little video of it). I eventually realized that it would be a boring sequence of talking heads and trashed it in favor of this one, which had been simmering for a few days and had some more interesting visual possibilities – plus it was a little funnier.
I can’t say a whole lot more – this comic speaks for itself. I also hope the swearing doesn’t upset too many folks 
Also – a HUGE thank you & hugs aplenty for Jennifer & Chris for making GBHL happen.
Do you wanna know what’s going on? I’ve gotten more and more ideas in the past few months and trying to work on them all AND make money is proving impossible. There’s only so much time in each day and I’m thinking that Trying To Make Money is going to get the boot. I just finished Stephen King’s On Writing and feel strongly that my talents have been waylaid for years. I can only ignore myself for so long (20+ years is enough, no?). So here’s what I have planned:
- Taking some of the ideas & inspiration for this webcomic and turning them into a book (graphic novel).
- A semi-autobiographical webcomic titled Fried Cheese Balls. This will be about growing up in limbo between two cultures, between India & America with the goal of being published as a graphic novel.
- A mythology-inspired graphic novel.
- A family-oriented, unschooling inspired adventure story (graphic novel).
- A picture book kinda/sorta aimed at children but … not quite.
There – it’s all out there. Now I gotta put up or shut up.
I thought I would share a bit about our life at the moment and how it’s affecting Unschoold. As I mentioned in the last page, we spent 14 months in Costa Rica and returned mainly due to the isolation. We are living with my parents until fall, working on building up our income before we move down to Florida since we can’t live without beaches and can easily do without winter. But living here is driving me fucking nuts.
The main issue is that we are car-less, so leaving the house is dependent on the availability of one of my parents’ cars. Free car use is good, being stuck otherwise is not. We’re going to buy a car once I finish up some work & get paid and that can’t happen soon enough. That will alleviate things significantly as my mother has the incredibly irritating habit of saying she needs the car and then not using it.
That’s not all of it, but I don’t feel like going off on rant since it would be pretty long & outrageous. Suffice to say that my parents may have a mild idea what unschooling means, but when it comes to walking the path they are beyond clueless and rather hard-headed about changing their ways. My mood over the past week has been either angry or depressed, and neither state is good for my creativity, me or Trish & the kids.
Since it takes me a solid day to actually draw a page after the script has been written, I chose this week to take a step closer to leaving than to write & draw the comic. It’s a choice that I have to keep making because being here is far from healthy. I’m taking a break until, at least, we have a car and can get out to enjoy life a couple of times a week. Hopefully that will happen within a month.
I grabbed La Perdida (by Jessica Abel) when I saw it on the shelf at the library. It rang a bell (I later remembered that I own her book Drawing Words and Writing Pictures), but it turned out to be GREAT. It was so real that I thought it was autobiographical. It’s about a twenty-something Mexican-American girl, Carla Olivares, who travels to Mexico City to get in touch with her Mexican side. It’s neat how the book is split into two – in the beginning, Spanish is spoken and translated at the bottom of the panels; in the 2nd part, everything is assumed to be in Spanish but is said in English, with anything spoken in English in brackets. You really get to feel her lack of Spanish and how difficult communication was in the beginning and how she’s more comfortable as time goes on.
I found the story – or, really, Abel’s storytelling – to be mesmerizing. Abel is so adept that I really empathized with Carla, though part of it was being able to identify with the expat experience, which is still quite fresh in my mind. This is the first graphic novel I’ve read that I was totally sucked into like a great book – because it is a great book. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
* * *
Persepolis was a recommendation by three of y’all and I found the story nothing short of riveting. It’s about the author’s experience growing up in Iran, mostly in the 80s. I can’t give any sort of critical review as the thought of it turns my mind to mush, so all I can say is that it was riveting. I’m fortunate to have read two exceptional graphic novels in a row and am extremely thankful for the recommendation.
I was, until this reading, almost completely ignorant of the recent history there, and Persepolis brought home what it was really about just like Maus does for the Holocaust. Watching a 60 minute documentary or reading an article does not capture what it was like for an individual or family to go through these horrors & upheavals. Perhaps it’s just me and my response to the medium of sequential arts – tv & movies are cool, but they don’t seem to dig themselves into my brain as much as a graphic novel.
Coincidentally I was just reading today about the outrage in communities at the possibility of a mosque coming to their neighborhood. I wonder if reading Persepolis can quell the fears that all mosques are magnets for terrorism.
Since we returned from Costa Rica I’ve been totally stoked to have proper library access again. It’s nice to see the graphic novel shelves expanding too, and I picked up a couple of things that all of us – adults & kids – enjoyed. This has been especially great for DS7 as he’s extremely visual – and it’s something we can share together.
I attempted to write a proper review but found that I’m not very inclined to articulate stuff about books too well. If I go beyond Good/Bad, it starts sounding like a book report.
First up is the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi, The Stonekeeper (Book 1) and The Stonekeeper’s Curse (Book 2). This was a chance pickup while roaming the stacks as the book DS7 really wanted was unavailable. The story is about a sister and brother (Emily & Navin) who move to an old family home with their mother after the tragic death of their father. Unlike movies I’ve seen with this theme, the death is not alluded to but is how the story begins, and that really creates in a strong, emotional bond with the characters. It is tragic when you see it happen and how the characters respond.
The house itself is old and a little creepy and used to belong to their great-grandfather who disappeared years ago. As you can guess by the title, they find an amulet, as well as a door to … ? I don’t want to say much more as it would spoil the story (and get interminably boring) but DS7 *really* enjoyed these two. He’s a bit disappointed that Book 3 (The Cloud Searchers) isn’t out yet!
I also picked up a graphic novel version of Artemis Fowl, which DS7 also enjoyed very much. It’s about a 12 year old criminal mastermind, with a fresh take on some traditional, um, stuff. Let’s just say it’s cool, I found the subject matter unexpected, I’m looking forward to reading the next graphic novel and I’m interested in reading the actual books as well.
I’m on the lookout now for more graphic novels to read with the kids. Anyone have a suggestion?
My handwriting has been absolute crap for years, likely ruined by Catholic school penmanship “lessons”. Luckily for me, Blambot offers many fonts that can be used for free if the work is either non-profit or totally independent (ie not involving any of the big, mainstream comic publishers). They provide a nice choice of free fonts for dialogue, sound fx and design. The ones I chose to use for the dialogue is Digital Strip 2.0 BB and the logo is SundayComics BB. Thank you Blambot!
