Hark! A Vagrant

You remember my younger self, right? It's been a while. The younger self comics aren't around much because they're so uh, different. They're odd, I write them as I go.

I spent two days working on a comic that I ended up not liking. Maybe I will fix it later and post it sometime, it happens! Expect another update soon. But for now, not wanting to wait any more days to update, I just made a comic about frustration. Poor little self, I don't always treat her well! And I felt so bad about the broken telescope, I kept it until I was in university.

I still like advent calendars, though.

ha ha! I put a drawing there to get your attention! It's of the Food Emporium on Gottingen, so it is related geographically at least.

The details for the signing at Strange Adventures next Friday in Halifax are up! All the info is on this facebook event. See you there! (ps, dudes, don't add me on facebook, I don't add people I don't know and neither should you!)

Didn't I say he'd be back? I read that famous rant by Verne about how Wells was full of it for making up spaceships etc without explicitly showing how they functioned and powering them with steam or coal or what have you, things that made sense in 1899.

But listen to this interview between H.G. Wells and Orson Welles. Who could EVER stay mad at someone so adorable? I ask you!



stoorree

PS: Are you in Halifax? I'll be doing a signing at Strange Adventures on the 11th, details to come!

and also: My friends, it appears Bad Machinery is kicking it up a notch, if you haven't gotten into it yet I think now is the time.

dudes I have Riker'd it up, perhaps you should too:

Riker Town

My fave episode still is the one where everyone is falling on the bridge. I think I have only seen like four episodes of TNG, perhaps I should nerd up and watch more. They're pretty amazing.

I think the CBC blew half its budget on The Tudors because the whole time that I lived in Toronto, every bus and every subway car was plastered with Jonathan Rhys Meyers' pouting face and ten yards of cleavage. I believe we've all learned a valuable lesson here, and that is William Cecil may have been a crack statesman, but if he wants to me to give a shit about him he better start hitting the gym.


stoorree

As promised, here is Part 2.

The Incroyables and Merveilleuses are my favorites, gosh I tell ya. What they wore was once a political statement, but then they gave up on making statements, and that was a statement. Or some such.


stoorree

I think it's funny when people complain super loud about how 'hipsters ruined' this or that as though if hipsters would just go away the problem is solved and you can go back to wearing plaid shirts too or something. Because I mean, directionless youths have always appropriated things and made them annoying! You have it easy, oh reader! The Beats had walking caricatures to deal with and Goethe had suicidal poet dandies on his doorstep.

Anyway! I wrote a few, so I split them into parts.

Dudes, these Santa Cards I made are available at Topatoco! He is in the festive spirit wink wink.

Remember, Montreal! I'm going to be at Expozine this weekend! You should come.

I realized today that the comic I was working on was going to take longer than I thought, so I made these up real quick before I take off for Montreal! You go to one of these things, and it's four days gone like a flash. Not that anyone checks the internet on the weekend, but still. In any case, I like the Kiss elves.

Store!

I got a comment about my last comic saying that it condoned smoking, but I don't, that is nonsense! You should also not lasso cats out of trees, if that doesn't go without saying. Historical smoking is another matter, go ahead and have a smoke in the trench, but I advise against lighting three cigarettes at night.

Remembrance Day always makes me ruminative about the place of history in our current consciences, because it is one of the few holidays where we are explicitly told listen you have to remember this thing that happened ok and, one, people pay attention, two, there is nothing jamming the line like bbq's or parties or football games or chocolate eggs or presents. History: You should give a shit, who knew.

Just so we are clear though, I don't really care about Queen Victoria's birthday either so go ahead and slam it back on May 24 weekend, fireworks and the whole bit. Honestly we should all get free corgis on Victoria Day.

Requests aren't done, they will be popping up as we go, but honestly I do not need annnyymooreee! I was looking at the Wonder Women that I drew last year and started drawing her again, because she's pretty fun to draw, and surly Wonder Woman here came out. Don't settle for being a tits and tits heroine ladies, be yourself! Poor Nibbles.


Hey Montreal! I'm going to be at Expozine this weekend! You should come.

Store!

Well, I used a lot of the suggestions that came my way from that post the other day! I was pretty pleased with the turnout of readers for that question, I must admit. I guess it's because you hear a lot that people don't give a darn about history in this country, if depressing yearly polls from the Dominion Institute mean anything, but it's clearly not the case among my livejournal followers. You guys are great!

I had to do a general sweep that involved a good range of places, professions, backgrounds and time periods, so you know, not everyone's favorite author is going to be in there but I sure did like the range in suggestions. Looking at it now I wish I had someone from the NWT (not one! for shame) and New Brunswick. Stompin Tom is from New Brunswick but he's also sort of from everywhere.  I could have put the Irvings in there, I think they control history in NB as well as anything else.

I was all crazed out with strep throat while I did this, but listening to Radiolab shows and a burning passion for Canada I guess(?) kept me going.  You can find the image in today's National Post, along with an article about the Historica/Dominion merger! Interesting stuff.


( picture is under the cut because it's huge )


Here is the legend, the rows are sort of wonky but you'll figure it out:

Row One (bottom):
James Wolfe, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, David Suzuki, Louis-Joseph Papineau, John A. Macdonald, Terry Fox
Row Two
Emily Carr, Joseph Howe, Joey Smallwood, Robert Bartlett, Louis Riel, Joy Kogawa
Row Three
Marshall McLuhan, Samuel de Champlain, Marilyn Bell, Wayne Gretzky, Emily Murphy
Row Four
Rene Levesque, Sam Steele, Farley Mowat, L.M. Montgomery, Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail, John McCrae
Row Five
Pitikwahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker), Oscar Peterson, Rush, Pierre Berton
Row Six
Les Filles du Roi, Mary Pickford, Skookum Jim Mason
Row Seven
Charles Best, Frederick Banting, Pauline Johnson, Mordecai Richler, Tecumseh, Stompin’ Tom Connors
Row Eight
William Hall, Tommy Douglas, Marc Garneau, Roberta Bondar, Rosemary Brown, John Diefenbaker
Row Nine
Shanawdithit, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, David Thompson, William Shatner

More to come, later

What a week! Strep throat, broken website, a commission that took like eighty days (in one week!) to complete, jeepers.

Well it can only mean one thing.


It's quick comics time again, and done by request as is custom (it's about the only time I formally take requests anymore and only on livejournal, you are my special little guys!), so ante up all yous

edit!

Whoa I should mention, I think some people have the idea that I will do all the requests! There are always way too many, that is impossible, I just do some. But I read them all, and some of them will be turned into bigger comics, you never know.

Dear readers, let us combine our knowledge!

I am to do a big picture, for a newspaper, that features an assembly of characters from Canadian History. So as not to walk down the path of Terrible Bias, I'd like to have suggestions from you! Otherwise, I might end up just drawing Arthur Currie and Robert Borden sitting on a love seat.

So, a healthy dose of suggestions is in order, including (if you please) Arts, Science, Politics, Sports, Military, etc etc

Plus an impromptu, ah, history lesson. They're on the job, but we don't know what for. Does it matter?

Anyway, nothin says Hallowe'en like teens being punks and throwing shit.

I'm directing you to my store now because I still don't do that enough in comic posts.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Buddies, I have been booted off my hosting because of how much traffic I have! Do I even have that much traffic? How much is a lot? I have no idea!

If anyone knows a nice new home for my website, I am all ears. The poor little guy, out there in the cold and all alone!

well well

This was a uh, contest entry of sorts on that ol' Twitter feed and I gotta say, everyone who made something made me laugh a lot! I'm not really the best at comics, but I am going to take this opportunity to say that because of comics I have met some of the best people I have ever known, and feel very lucky! I like you guys, you guys are the best.

Plus I got two commissions done while using this whole bit as a welcome distraction, most useful!

speaking of people I like, I swear to god I'm putting a links section on my website soon

So! When I mentioned that I would like to read Hector Plasm: Totentanz by Benito Cereno and Nate Bellegarde, man didn't Benito just send me a copy! What a good dude. So I drew him this picture!

Check out their livejournals at fetorpse and benitocereno for some - holy shit - rad art, and of course the comic itself! I love spooky stuff like that.

Also check out Jess Fink's post, because she has some art in this one too along with John Campbell and a bunch more! Yowza.

ps

do you like how he's doing the Ben Franklin bit? I can't put him on a shirt though, he's not mine. Speaking of which, this is the same reason I can't put Star Treks on a shirt, stop asking!

I have no idea why I made them talk so funny, but that is what happens sometimes in this crazy comics world. Mostly it's because this is a comic about a couple of weirdos! Anyway:

I heard this rhyme once when I was a teenager, it is common in some places but not where I grew up:

Up the close and down the stair,
In the house with Burke and Hare.
Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief,
And Knox the man who buys the beef.

And wondered about it now and then (in the days before google) until I stumbled across the three gentlemen it belonged to some years later. And what a bunch! Here we meet Burke and Hare towards the end of their killing spree, a period which may be described as "unbelievably sloppy" and also "lazy." Still, they had an impact on medical history, and perhaps not every harebrained criminal may lay claim to this.

If you'd like to hear their story summed up in a jaunty but bizarre and inaccurate song, click here. If you want to hear their story summed up in a jaunty bizarre AND accurate song, click here.