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doodles

found my brush pen again.




drawing in new places is fun. i met this cat for the first time last week.

party at comic relief

here it is boys and girls. rory root of comic relief is hosting a party. come one come all.

showing through

september 1st through october,
Edward Gorey, Mary Blair and Lark Pien
at the Cartoon Art Museum

i think that all museums are homes, and i'm a guest invited into these homes. it's a sentimental notion, maybe. there is an urgency to it though, so sentimental urgency let's say; like i really need to know that the home i have built for myself isn't the only one i'm welcome to. that there are other homes that i can kick my feet up in. that there is a place, and it's bigger and more awesome than my place (also awesome). whatever the case, i like it that they are bigger than me. they house worlds larger than my own. i can stretch in places like these.

alice is upset, illustrated by mary blair

i never ever thought that i'd ever be in one myself. not only am i in one this month, but in fact two. it's blowing my mind. it's like saying that i'm a guest and a host at the same time. that's just crazy. my worlds are converging upon each other! it sort of gives me goosebumps.

tezuka osama's Astroboy

yoshitoshi's retrospective
at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum
one of the best curated collections i've ever seen

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my brief residency at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum runs fromAugust 9th - 12th, and again on August 30th, 31st and September 2nd, alongside the fabulous works of Yoshitoshi and Tezuka Osamu.

my work is on display at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, showing concurrently with an exhibition of Mary Blair illustrations and Edward Gorey's amazing set designs for the Broadway production of Dracula, from late August and continuing into the winter season.

the best times are now

my trip, my friends

say hello in the morning

i was late to my breakfast appointment because of he-she the squirrel. this is a good picture. this picture says i had fun on my vacation. he-she stayed still for me, so i was happy.

i met with friends. we took walks, saw lots of things together. took pictures of the houses, trees, streets, people, cats. here is a bridal dress. can you see it?

***

i read many great books. comics infact. here is a japanese one. i don't know who the author is. some that i remember off-hand are nick bertozzi's the salon and to dance by cherson siegel and siegel. it was nice to read and do nothing.

here is a hardbound french comic. nicolas de crecy's most recent publication. a story stemming from his travel experiences in japan. i don't think it's out on shelves yet. it also will not be in english for a long time probably. this is craig's copy. lucky craig.

***

i went to a birthday party. it was shawna's birthday. many people love shawna. she is a special girl. i am happy to know her.

shawna and her birthday cake

shawna making blueberry pancakes for everyone
it's her tradition

***

there were some nice trees this time around. they shielded me from the overcast sky. i took pictures of many, many trees. they made me late to a lot of my appointments. luckily, i have friends who are also late.

my wonderful friends. they are the best.

also my wonderful friends. also the best.
but dylan would prefer not to have his picture taken.

not so much my wonderful friends, but i am getting to know them better now.
each time we meet, we play together a little more.

***

i drank a lot of tea in the afternoons. sometimes i had treats with tea. especially tasty were the meringue cookies - lemon and pistachio flavors. i do not remember the type of tea i had this sitting.

my kind of thing

walking was always fun. there was always something to see. i often wish that days are 36 hours long rather than 24. i can't fit everything in.

this paella is memorable. that is, i will remember it pretty much forever, it was that good. however, i have forgotten the name of the restaurant i ate at. maybe it is called toro bravo, but i will have to check. the food was very good.

***

before i went home i got to see bwana. i love bwana. i don't see him very often. this is the second time i've ever had breakfast with him. he did not really eat his potatoes. he says they make him sleepy. i wanted to sleep on my flight back home, so i ate my potatoes.

bwana has his own shop. it is also his painting studio. it is GREAT!!! everyone should go to bwana's shop. he and craig carried very wet driftwood from the beach to help dress this store. they said it was very, very heavy. now all the moisture is gone from the driftwood and bwana claims he can lift it with only one arm!

this is my favorite picture of craig. thank you for everything, craig. you are the bestest. i had fun times in oregon. hope to see you again soon. come and visit when you can.

xo
lp



***

comic-con recap

this kid was a real ham, so i just had to snap a picture of him.

comic-con was crazy this year. we arrived late on wednesday, with only a half-hour left to set up the table. we were suprised to find people had been waiting for us, hoping that we'd be selling already. (wednesday is a "preview night" and in the past years foot traffic for this evening is light. not so this year! i was confounded by how many people there were milling about. serious anticipation buzz was already in the air!) thursday was a frezny from beginning to end, and by friday we were frazzled and needed some serious sleep. but that was the night of the Eisner awards and so we didn't crawl back to the apartment until 2am. it took awhile, but by saturday i had acclimated and felt more comfortable. in the last half hour of sunday TP and i decided to close early so we could run around to buy books and stuff from other vendors and that was very fun. it was still all very overwhelming, but at least it was fun.



i'd hazard a guess that it was about one in every ten people who felt the need to dress up in some kind of costume or cosplay. since i was sitting down at my table, this was the view i had for the majority of the convention. yaaaay.

one of my favorites was this band of zelda fans.
yay, four sword links!

i also liked this little dude. somebody definitely taught him that pose.

overall, it was an demanding show. there were over 120,000 attendees over the course of 5 days. it was definitely nicer to watch my neighbor, the very talented raina telgemeier, doodle in her sketchbook, than to stare out into the relentless masses on the floor. customers were polite and nice for the most part, but the sheer momentum and size of the crowds could be downright scary at times.



here was my table on thursday morning, before the show opened. a bunch of paintings were sold on wednesday, so they are missing from this picture. by sunday i had almost no paintings left and my table looked pretty scrappy. i'm going to have to revise my plans for next year's layout.



here is good friend Spencer (who we stay with every year), a little overly enthused about hanging out with Optimus. i am a little embarrassed for him. but i suppose he is having a lot of fun. that's what people come to comic-con for, of course.



the eisner awards took place on the upper floor of the convention hall. you can take these escalators, or the stairs on the backside of the building. this here is showing some light traffic. we probably took this picture early thursday morning, 'cos it sure didn't look like this later on.



here is gene yang with his sleepy son Kolbe, receiving the Eisner award (yes, American Born Chinese wins for Best new Graphic Album of 2006!) at 1am, four hours into the ceremony. it was long, long, long, but we are happy, happy, happy.



spencer made us a crazy deluxe dinner on sunday evening, this stuff and edamame to snack on, sashimi, octopus, ikura, broiled mackerel and chilean sea bass, and soba. i don't remember eating any of it because i was so tired, but i do recall spencer saying that i did a "good job" on cleaning up my plate. so i must have eaten it after all.


***