On days like today, I need to trick myself into composing a page of comics. The blank paper looks intimidating, and the panel borders
feel cramped. So I sketch loosely and scattered on a cheap scrap, then scan, and shift things around in Photoshop. It seems contrived,
but sometimes drawing in all those claustrophobic little boxes doesn’t come naturally.

PS As always, it’s a pleasure reading your comments. Thanks!

Just a quick note to say that COMICS TOOLS BLOG interviewed me – along with Erika Moen, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Hope Larson -
about brush techniques. Worth checking out if you’re curious about process. Or compare notes with my previous TOOL TALK posting.
For the record, with today’s page of HABIBI, I’m back on the Raphael 8404s!

Seems like it was an amazing year to be at the Angoulême festival in France. A huge exhibition of presidents
Dupuy & Berberian’s work … plus Blutch won the Grand Prix! Three of the most inspiring/influential cartoonists in the universe.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t in attendance this year. Nipping the travel after my indulgent Hawaii escape to stay focused &
productive on Habibi. Here’s a photo of me vandalizing a page of Charles Berberian’s pencils in his Paris studio, 2005.

Revisit this posting to read more about my “euro influences”. And here’s some peeks on the newest chapter of HABIBI.

After seven months, chapter five of HABIBI is finished. It’s 125 pages long (the entirety of Good-bye, Chunky Rice)
and brings the total page count up to 405 pages. The original art is filed away in portfolio sleeves. Here’s the stack thus far.

And here’s a glimpse inside each one of those portfolios.

I look foolishly smug in that self-timer photo, but really it’s just fatigue. The end of 2008 was frantic – working and
completing pages on both Christmas and New Year’s Day. Now I’m going to take a week off and visit friends in Oahu.
Happy New Year, Fans & Friends. Your comments, as always, are savored!

… and on the drawing board today …

Often I worry I draw too small and confined. Compare these recent panels with a brush, my hand, an autumn leaf.

Thank you continually for all the comments and support. I disagree with the sentiment from this recent HABIBI panel below.

Summers are always a bit chaotic, but I apologize for neglecting blog posting.
Here’s four steps towards a recent page of HABIBI. 1) rough pencils 2) refined pencils 3) half-inked 4) finished.

And below is recent documentation of my rural adventures visiting my sister in Nebraska — paired with an old doodle from my
sketchbooks, referenced from a National Geographic photograph perhaps? (let me know if you recognize it.)

Please note that I don’t wear a helmet while drawing or in everyday life.

I took a couple of days off when my buddy Alessandro visited from Italy. Here’s a doodle from a front porch conversation:

And here’s a little jumble of chapter five progress. It’s coming along!

Thanks, as usual, for the blog comments. And on that last round, lots of useful self-preservation tips.
For those in Portland, I’ll be at my friend Danny’s LACKTHEREOF cd release party at Holocene tonight.