Portlanders, I’ll be missing the Stumptown Comics Fest event, because I’m joining my
Menomena buddies on tour in Europe. If you live in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan,
or Barcelona — there’s a chance we can meet.

29 September ~ Paris, Nouveau Casino
02 October ~ Brussels, Botanique
03 October ~ Amsterdam, Paradiso (also with Jeffrey Lewis!)
09 October ~ Milan, Casa 139
11 October ~ Barcelona, Apollo

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be scrawling huge drawings on stage while Menomena rocks.
This happened once before with Tracker and the Blankets soundtrack and it seemed to work,
but I’ve no photos to prove this event exists. (Andy Wong, do you?)
Here’s the promotional poster however.

We’re not promoting myself on the upcoming Menomena bills, because I’ve no clue of the layout
of these Euro clubs. If the space suits it, you’ll find me drawing on stage ~ otherwise I’ll be
dancing along in the audience and signing posters at the merch table.

Here’s world-renown illustrator Carson Ellis and Danny from Menomena backstage at
the recent Decemberists/Menomena show at the Portland Edgefield.

C U n the E U

Above is a birthday drawing for my buddy Billy. He’s responsible for getting me hooked on
the Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro manga of Shigeru Mizuki. Mizuki lost his drawing hand/arm thanks to an
attack by Allied Forces during World War II. Afterwards, he taught himself to draw with his other hand
and poured forth prodigious pages of nutty/spooky, monster-laden manga. I’m a big dork for his work.

Thanks to the DRAWN! blog for endorsing dootdootblog. That site is juicy-full of goodness. Russel, I’m taking a break from
interviews/promotion so that I can be productive with HABIBI (this blog is an indulgence) - but it’s always good to check in
with my agent PJ, because he may urge for exceptions. Thank you, everyone, for posting comments and continual patience!

Mostly I’ve been working, but a couple of days ago, I visited my friends Dan and Azure on the river,
and we tore down the highway on Dan’s blaze orange Harley trike. Overhead, some skywriting was
dissipating in the clouds, and all that was still legible was the word “ICECREAM” with an “M” the
length of a few football fields. The trike used to have deer antlers attached to the front, and I’ve
fond memories of riding it shirtless to the ol’ swimming hole last summer. (Dan can be seen in
that community college art scholarship link from twelve years ago.)

In recent comments, Tita asked if I’d attended the Haarlem festival. That photo with Hansje and
Charles Berberian is from Haarlem 2004, in fact. Afterwards, I traveled with Seth and Chris Ware
to a comics event in London at the Institute for Contemporary Art. Benoit (who I met in Brussels?)
asked about the “poo shirt” featured in that photo. The design is by my dear buddy Bwana Spoons
- a prolific and inspired painter, cartoonist, toy-making gnome. He has his own shop/gallery/studio
now called GRASS HUT CORPS where you can find other fancy shirt designs. Here’s a feeble drawing
I made this Tuesday of Bwana and my other dear friend Lark Pien at breakfast.

Lark has further descriptions of our breakfast and Bwana’s store at her blog. She, too, is a
brilliant painter, cartoonist, and sometimes toy-maker. Her visit was quite inspiring. Concerning
portraits of friends, you definitely have my permission to include my Aaron drawing on your site, Rama.

Finally, Jimmy asked about tattoos. Here’s a few that you kind fans have sent my way.
Jocelyn, Tawner, Amanda, Liz, and Ciera. Please remind me who that intense and
impressive leg tattoo belongs to. I know there’s more out there, from skin flashed
at signings and conventions, so feel free to send links to motivate Jimmy.

Dear blog-readers, Thank you for all the amazing comments. My apologies for not getting around to responding, but I’ve been focused on the new book. As even my best friends know, I’m lousy with correspondence, but maybe at some point I’ll get a handle on that aspect of blog-managing. Today, I leave for a cousin’s wedding in Ohio for four days, so I wanted to leave you with something — a handful of photos from that high school era, approximately 1993 in rural Wisconsin.

From left to right, top to bottom: My brother and I traversing the highway near our home. The view from the backyard skate-ramp (which I chose to omit from the book). (Note: yoda shirt.) My bro, our neighbor Shawn (aforementioned paper-provider), and me with cow-themed fashion. The sign for my hometown: population 1,200 at the time. An angst-ridden portrait (taken at church).

In high school, I had a falling out with comics — trying to replace my nerdy junior high obsessions of comicbooks ands rpgs and star wars with skateboarding and girls and Christianity. At age 16, I met Kurt Halsey at art camp - the snarkiest skater of the bunch - and he made comics cool for me again. Upon graduating, Kurt and I collaborated on my first official mini-comic - TWO-WAY COMIC MACHINE - it was one of those flippy dealies, half his work / half mine. He drew my cover, I drew his. I worked at the local newspaper as a low-level ad stylist and used the small “brochure” press to print it. We couldn’t sell the things at the time … I remember driving through the streets of Milwaukee, tossing handfuls out the window — proselytizing or littering depending how you look at it. Excerpted here is the story of Lionel Piglet.
1 2 3

4 5 6

The photo on the left is the oldest I could find — 1997 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — the two of us looking respectively baggy-trousered and limp-wristed. Somewhere off Humboldt Street. At the time, I worked as a laser light show animator at Discovery World children’s museum. The second photo is just short of ten years later — the small gang that gathered to celebrate my 31st birthday — Vinh, myself, Kurt, Taizo from the nearby okonomiyaki place, and Alena displaying the amazing memoir “A Weasel in my Meatsafe”.

Aaron Renier is one of my bestest of buddies. He’s a Wisconsin homeboy raised on brautwurst and fried cheese curds just like me. (Now he eats tofurkey brautwurst). He’s also one talented, brushtastic cartoonist with a great book — Spiralbound. The French edition was released this January on Delcourt’s Shampooing imprint (rodeoed by the brilliant Lewis Trondheim); and Aaron and I flew to Angoulême (Europe’s premier comics festival) to celebrate. I documented some of it in my sketchbook, but then Aaron and my trip drifted separate directions and the diary sort of disintegrated. Oh well, here’s a glimpse of it anyway.

And just for proof, here’s a photo of Aaron’s ’stache when we first hopped a train from Paris in our grubby jetlagged splendour. The second photo is in Paris along with Alban Rautenstrauch and Alex Holden. The third photo is me getting horrifically ill at Charles Berberian’s place. Charles is one of the most charming human beings in the comics industry and a true inspiration, but I defiled his bathroom in a number of ways with my food poisoning. I couldn’t eat for four days, lost ten pounds, missed my plane back to the states, and was diagnosed upon returning as host to three varieties of parasites! Merci to Myléne for looking after me.

Also, just so Aaron isn’t embarrassed by this advertisement of his ol’ soup-strainer, here’s me rockin’ four of my own.

PS - please, excuse the obsessive “links”.