Another Sweet Spring Morn...

The rest of the area seems to have been hit with freezing rain and sleet, but we're blessedly dry and sunny this AM. Cool.

Best of all, my drawing space is at last set up and functional in our new home!

Turns out I'm still using my original drawing board -- I wasn't sure which one I ended up with, between the move and Danny claiming one board for himself. I've ended up with the very board my parents bought for me waaaaaaaaaay back in 1971; still has the magic marker spider glyph I 'signed' it with on the back. I had the surface refinished around 1980 (faux-wood-texture formica) since the original board surface was so scarred up, but this is the very board I drew 1941, "Kultz," "A Frog is a Frog," "The Blood Bequest," two issues of the never-published Marvel Science comics series, Swamp Thing, The Fury, N-Man, Tyrant, etc. pages on. It's been mighty good to me, this ol' board.

Oddly enough, I never once drew on this board between my decision to retire from the US comics industry in 1999 and today. No doubt, this was due in large part to my complete indifference to drawing much at all during that stretch of time -- I really didn't care. In all the time Marge and I lived in Marlboro, I never set this puppy up to draw. Any art I did during that period was drawn in my sketchbook(s) or on my laptop board or our dining room table. But this is a different time, a different place, and I'm in a much more creative space, physically and emotionally -- between the shot in the arm my son Dan, my daughter Maia, everyone at CCS and this new phase of life have all cumulatively given me, it's a joy to at last prepare the new studio in our new digs. It's looking nice, it's pretty comfy, and I've got a nice view of the woods behind our house from where I'm sitting when I'm at the board.

I finally sorted out the drawing lamp situation very early this AM, disposing of the one truly unfixable light and prepping two to donate to CCS. After years of holding on to a number of drawing lamps, I'm resorting to the venerable old lamp I used in my Saga of the Swamp Thing days -- it still works fine, though it's a bit crusty, but then again, so am I. Heck, it's even got the ol' alligator-foot gris gris Nancy Collins gave me ages ago still hanging from it. Good gris-gris, and it'll be fun to be drawing on the old board again.

____________

This just in from the Trees & Hills cartooning group omni-inkslinger Colin Tedford.

The group's site is

here;

Colin's site is

here.

The Trees & Hills SPRING TOUR continues this coming weekend (March 24-25) at the Boston Zine Fair

(their website is here).

Dan Barlow, Keith Moriarty & Colin Tedford will be crewing the Trees & Hills table, while E.J. Barnes, Marek Bennett, and Anne Thalheimer will have their own table space. New comics: Marek's Mimi's Doughnuts #10, Colin's Before Sleep #4, and Anne's Booty #20.

The deadline has been extended for the Keene Free Comics TV Turnoff Week Special - all submissions must be in to me by the end of this month. Keep in mind (though I don't think I've mentioned before) that previously-drawn material that fits the theme is acceptable.

The Commons's new comic page debuts in April, featuring strips by Marek Bennett, Jade Harmon, Zach Stephens & Colin Tedford.

Sunday, April 1 Colin & Dan will be tabling at the Comic Book Show in Nashua, NH.

The following weekend on Saturday, April 7, we will have a drawing party at the Center For Cartoon Studies from 1-5 pm. Come on up for drawing, jamming, socializing, snacking, and more! If you plan to go, please RSVP Robyn Chapman (chapman@cartoonstudies.org).

Best, Colin Tedford
__________

Thanks, Colin!

Don't know if I'll be at the CCS powwow, but I hope to be.

More later today...

Have a Great Thursday!