Category Archives for post-trip

Photos from Rabbit’s home town

After many comments & responses to our recent comics about Slovak-Roma situation, I have been thinking about my own hometown background and experience.  It is true that Rabbit likes to explore and ask questions, and it is also true that Rabbit does not always fully address complexity of race and ethnicity in his own country (USA).  Perhaps if we look briefly at some small piece of that background, it will add some perspective to Rabbit’s current adventures in Slovakia.

Many small towns in rural New England (USA) put up historical markers such as these, less than one mile down river from my home (shown full-view and close-up):

 

 

Every now and then you will come across one such as this (also nearby):

 

What does this kind of official historical statement mean?  What does it say about Continue reading →

Surprise building in Maine, USA

This is not komiks post (obviously), but perhaps Slovak readers will be surprised by this building found during recent pleasant walk along waterfront in Portland, Maine, USA:

SMRT’ means “death” in Slovak.  It clearly belongs in WRDS collection of Slovak words with no (or few) vowels!

(Photo taken during trip to MECAF 2012) 

C+D+K in school… and now back to work

Over the past two weeks I’ve been super busy with school residencies and evening comics events — that’s why I haven’t been posting much new material here.  This week I’m getting back to work on some new Slovakia stories, with an eye to wrapping up the book as soon as possible!

Even though the daily posts may have slacked off a bit lately, good progress has continued on the Komiks front.  I recently had the opportunity to read several of these Coffee+Dumpling+Komiks stories with students in a nearby school, and they gave me lots of great advice for revising and improving my work.

  • 5th graders were drawing comics about ancient Greek myths, so we looked into the mythic & historical research that went into the LIVES OF THE SAINTS series.

One of my favorite features of the comics medium is the fact that even neophytes and very young (even pre-literate) readers can give useful advice to us old full-time artists (and even teach us a thing or two when they draw their stories!).

Working on this book

This strip pretty much sums up a lot of my experience working on this book.  I mean, it’s been a GREAT process, but … it has a lot of moments like this, too.

Actually, to get the REAL experience, you can do the following:

  1. Print out the comic (3+ copies).
  2. Cut out each panel (so they’re all like little single-panel cards).
  3. Shuffle all the resulting little cards together (tossing them in the air is allowed).
  4. Read.

The road ahead

TIME FOR A QUICK PROJECT UPDATE:

TRAVEL PHASE: COMPLETE!
After three amazing months of travel, adventure, study, art, and exploration in Slovakia, I have finally returned to my home in New Hampshire, USA.  I am so grateful to my family and friends (new and old) in Slovakia who made this project so awesomely possible!

I am also grateful to the readers and friends I’ve met through this blog.  It’s been an immense help to get your feedback, ideas, comments, and support along the way.

So now the work can really get started…

BOOK PHASE: BEGIN!
Over the next month, I will be drawing out all the adventures I have NOT yet posted on this blog… and somehow hammering all these experiences into the shape of a graphic novel.  That means I’ll post a lot of comics (and links to other sites, resources, stories, etc.) right here, so I appreciate ALL THE MORE your continued readership, comments, sharing, critiquing, etc. etc. ….

Yes, the cartoonist is hard at work in NH, but that darn rabbit is still out there in Slovakia… Stay tuned for updates!