My friends, my friends.

Here we are again, with a State of the Encyclopedia Address, where I unload all the news I’ve been saving up over the past month.

Internet!

As I’ve spread out across the internet, I’ve kind of put this blog on auto-pilot, setting up a funnel to catch all the other content that I was actively pushing in other spaces. Writing a weekly something-or-other over at the Comix Cube does sap a lot of the energy I’ve set aside for doing that sort of thing, and otherwise my schedule is pretty packed. So many irons in the fire. I feel like I’ve made progress in my never-ending quest to be good at comics this year, and I’ve really been heating things up in the past month or two.For the whole month of June, I made almost daily updates to my Tumblr account (which was then funneled here) with a lot of illustration stuff from the past several months. I pretty much tapped everything I’ve done, except for a small handful I can’t show just yet. If you want to check them out here, go to the Bloggin archive and see the Tumblr category, otherwise, you can peep em at the source. I’m also trying out Google Plus…

Vacation

This flurry of activity was all leading up to a wonderful paid vacation down the my hometown in VA and then a couple days of pure relaxation down at Emerald Isle. While in Virginia, I caught up with some old friends, hung out in DC (one of my favorite cities) taking pictures for an upcoming project and realizing that all my favorite shops in Georgetown are no longer there (although Big Planet still is… for now at least).

The highlight (as it should be) was getting to spend some quality time with Liz Suburbia, most of which we spent drawing in our sketchbooks. I’ve found that hanging out with other comics dudes is good incentive to test your sketching stamina. I doubt I would ever sketch aimlessly for three plus hours by myself. But forget all that, look what Liz drew me!! So fucking cool. If you’re wondering, pictured is my fictional band the Emperors of New Skete from my webcomic Spoilers.

This is totally cover photo for their album, man. Not as cool, but still fucking amazing, I was able to find the first issue of King City at the Laughing Ogre, completing my collection. I’m so grateful for Brandon Graham being all up in this comics game, he’s one of the best teachers. I kept flipping through this comic just letting my enthusiasm for comics ramp up til it was radiating out through my skin. I’m happy to report that this positive feeling lasted all through the week and continues even now.

The beach was great. I haven’t had that much leisure time in so long. I sat around and read most of the time, alternating between the heady political/philosophical book One-Dimensional Man and picking up where I left off on the heady Cerebus (I’m on Mothers and Daughters). Beside that, I was napping’, walkin’ around and playing Pokemon Black which I haven’t had the time to touch for at least a month. Unfortunately, the effect of this is that Black City is a ghost town, and I never got to enjoy any of the battling that was supposed to go down there.

On the way back up, I stopped in Pittsburgh to check out the Biennial and to snag one of Frank Santoro‘s “Blast Furnace Funnies”. Plenty nice. Also got to wander around the modern/contemporary gallery for a few to get blown away by fucking art, man, before meeting up with my favorite Pittsburgh resident.

Back to the Hustle

The time off was just what I needed to freshen me up before heading back into the grind at full bore. I’m racing to get a new color comic all finished so I can debut it at the Philly Alternative Comics Convention on August 14th. I really suggest you guys make a trip out there. I’ve been quite impressed with how much comics activity has been going on in Philly (and PA in general) and I’m excited to go check it out. I hope to see you there. PACC will be the first in my Fall East Coast Tour, followed by SPX in September and then (I presume) PIX in October and Genghis Con in November. I’m hoping to visit some other shows in between those as an attendee, including APE and MIX. Feet don’t fail me now.

Left of the Dial

I am beyond excited to be able to say I am going to be on my favorite radio show this weekend. Local college station WRUW is one of the best, and my week is made complete every Saturday morning by Stone Cold Bikini, hosted by the wonderful Christine. Specializing in indie rock and pop, Stone Cold Bikini has been known to veer off in punkier directions as well as make frequent visits to the land of garagey girl rock which I LOVE. Anyway, being mutual fans of each other, Christine offered me the opportunity to come on and spin some records for y’all. Do check it out — if you’re in the area, it’s 91.1 FM and you can also listen to it wherever you may be by livestreaming it at wruw.org. If you miss it, the site retains a week-long archive so you can download it Monday, Wednesday, whenevs. I’ll also do my best to post the audio here when all is said and done.

Most Importantly, SALE

Gang, have I got good news for you. From now until August 12th (right before PACC, keep in mind) there is a crazy PUPPYTEETH sale going on. Originally $10, the second issue — 52 pages of big, full-color comics — is only 8 bucks. AND, to sweeten the deal, you have the option of getting the first issue for straight nothing. Yeah, you heard me. Both issues of PUPPYTEETH, originally $13, can now be yours for just 8 bucks. If you haven’t gotten these comics yet, this is the time to do it.

That’s all I got

At least, that I can tell you now with a clear conscience. Catch you birds on the flip slide.