A three month recap

I got back into Vancouver a month ago now, and I’ve been using the time since to recuperate. I’ve been off work since the end of June, but I’m only counting the last month as time off. The two month period before that was the most stressful time I can remember. From late June to late August, I:

Quit my job

Pencilled, inked, and coloured 37 full page illustrations for my friend Monika’s children’s book

Travelled to England, Wales, and Spain

Attended two Sikh weddings (harder than it sounds. When it’s family, there’s about five days of pre-wedding festivities. Lots of parties, very little sleeping. Think of it as celebration by ordeal)

Pencilled, inked, lettered, and directed the printing of the 12-page ashcan me and Des gave out when we--

Attended the Wizard World convention in Chicago

Packed everything I own into my car (Yes, this gets its own bullet. Try it sometime)

Drove from Toronto to Vancouver through the U.S. (That’s Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington).

On top of all that, between the travelling, weddings, going aways, coming homes, and my birthday, I count at least 45 days when I was drinking- not necessarily drunk, but at least drinking.

I’m pretty sure I gave myself internal injuries.
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Impressions of Barcelona:

Buildings are shaped so that intersections are octagonal rather than square like they are here

A ridiculous percentage of the women are beautiful, all with tan skin and dark, dark hair. Hola guapa!

The city randomly smells like ass. You’ll be walking down a street, perfectly happy, and out of nowhere you’ll smell the stink of sewage. Me and my brother walked around Barcelona, sporadically calling out, “Ass!” to warn each other, always too late.

Oh, I just remembered I’ve got a good Barcelona story. I’ll share it in a later post.

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Check out those dudes talking to Galactus on the right!

Impressions of Chicago and Wizard World:

The downtown area is really big, and much nicer than I expected, though I only saw a little of it as I zigzagged through the city after dropping Des off at the bus terminal

At the convention I saw Michael Madsen, the blond Cylon girl from Battlestar Galactica, and Lou Ferigno. I didn’t see many comics pros that I wanted to talk to. Overall, I think the big show in Toronto is better.

No one in Illinois wears a motorcycle helmet. The first guy I saw was merging onto the highway, and I thought, “That can’t be right.” But after that every single person I saw on a bike wasn’t wearing one either. With each one all I could think was, “You’re about to die. Yep, and so are you. And you with the passenger on the back, you’re both going to die.” I guess it’s like smoking, where you know it’s dangerous, but you’re doing it because it looks cool. And it does look fucking cool, racing around on a bike with your hair blowing around, but I’m taking it as a given that every motorcycle rider I saw in that state is dead.

Anyways, I think that’s enough of an update from now. More of the usual silliness to follow in short order.