I kinda like this drawing. It’s one of the few that I smile at when i look at it. The people there are the East River String Band — check them out if you haven’t for absolutely fabulous covers of blues songs from the ’20’s and early ’30’s, back when recorded music was all a crazy new thing for most folks — and sitting in with them is none other than R. Crumb. Crumb being such an admired artist of mine, and him having drawn himself so many times in his comics, it was a really strange notion for me to draw him to begin with. I did it anyway, though, ’cause I love him and I love the band, and, figuring I was about to embarrass myself, I sent the drawing to John and Eden. Instead of hating it, they said all sorts of very kind things about how much they liked it, and put it up on their website next to drawings that Crumb had done of them (!). As if that wasn’t cool enough, they asked for a higher resolution scan so they could, they said, print out a copy and send it to Crumb himself. So, that thought makes me smile when I see the drawing.
Anyway, here I go again with another gallery for y’all on my comicspace . If it’s not obvious enough to negate the necessity of an explanation, I’ll mention that I’m doing these galleries as a bit of a time saver because I haven’t had much time to get to the comics that come next in the current storyline. Between the cold I mentioned earlier and the fact that I’m drastically, pathetically behind on the pages that I should be illustrating for Dave Baxter (Part of that’s ’cause of the cold, too, as long as I’m giving my excuses…), I just haven’t done a new strip for a little bit. But there will be more story to come soon, and even when I don’t post exactly on time there will be updates soon-ish, so check back. Actually, that “ish” is good. Just add an “ish” to any temporal reference that comes from me, and you’ll be less surprised by the final results of my actions. Somewhere in L.A., Dave will be nodding while he reads this.
In the meantime, if anybody wants to, you should follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/bloodoftheland (Bonus free* cookie to anybody who can tell me where the name comes from, ’cause I think most people who have read it think I’m just being eccentric, which of course I am, but still, it’s not just random words….) , ‘Cause I’m trying to make it a point to update that with any new news about comics I’m doing, or other projects, live shows, signings, what have you, as well as occasional minutiae about my life, which I know must be absolutely enthralling. And speaking of which, this weekend is my very first San Francisco Pride… I can feel it in the air already, the city humming with a high, tremulous vibrato of excitement, like an agitated tuning fork…. It must be thousands of gay boys who never need an excuse to get drunk, high, and slutty being given an excuse to get drunk, high, and slutty! Yes, it should be quite an occasion. So, for occasional glimpses into my personal showing of community pride by the sacrifice of my personal self-respect and dignity, check my tweets. Yes, i just said that. No, I don’t like me very much right now either.
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