Latest Remake/Remodel Challenge over at Warren Ellis' boards.

Captain America

Revenge of the Sith is on TV for like the billionth time and while watching that scene where Obi Wan and Anakin crash land the giant ship on Coruscant something occurred to me: the ship breaks in half on entry over a planet that is essentially one giant super-city. So while our gleeful Jedi wrench the front half to a grinding halt on a runway, the back half, a massive chunk of metal the size of the Titanic, falls to the surface of a heavily populated area and somehow doesn't create a mile wide crater, wiping out thousands of people, disrupting the economy and the very government that oversees hundreds of planets?

Clearly it doesn't because the politicians are lauding the cocky Jedi, going about their usual business and attending wacky Cirque Du Space Operas.

Whuuut?

Warren Ellis posted his geekiest Remake/Remodel Challenge ever: The Thirteenth Doctor. You can see a larger version here.

I had this image of coloured tile like you see in tube stations or old institutional buildings in the UK so I went for that with the walls. And how could I not include Sally Sparrow?

Had lots of fun drawing this, and now I need to get back to work.

Back from San Diego, we just finished a week of teaching kids how to make comics at VPL's summer book camp, attended the Anime Evolution show at UBC over the weekend and now finally have some time to think and work... except there's this ridiculous heat wave going on that's making it damn near impossible to do anything in the office (the building's ancient electrical system can't handle air conditioners apparently). This is where I have to send thanks to Mayor Robertson and the City of Vancouver for demolishing our neighbourhood pool. It's not like such a thing would have been at all popular what with climate change making each new bout of summer even hotter than the last.

My brain isn't just cooking from the heat but also with plans and schemes and as soon as it cools down a bit I'll be back at the tablet getting those ideas out. Can't wait.

Also, ignore the Japanese spambot in the comments section. I'm trying to figure out how to block him without having to put up annoying security walls.

We're in San Diego! So, the pub quiz was a bit of a bust but we'll try again soon. Currently fighting a bug. I'll be staying in a bit today to try and burn it off. I'll also be finishing commissions. I'll be at the Elephantmen booth today at around 5pm and if your piece isn't done by then I promise it will be over the next couple of days. Bear with me on this. I feel pretty iggy and am doing my best.

My first try with the ipad Sketchbook Pro app last week wasn't very good, so this morning I decided to try again, this time with photo reference. Took about 5 hours. I like it.

And now to bed. More work on commissions and sketch requests tomorrow.

Good news everyone! San Diego Comic Con is coming up and leading up to the big weekend I'll be taking commissions. I'm limiting it to ten right now just to be sure everything will be ready for the show. It's a hundred for an inked piece, and if you're looking for a quick free sketch hopefully I'll be able to do some at a booth to be announced (still working on details). If you're interested, toss me an e-mail at hellkitty3@hotmail.com.

Back to work.

Hey, looks like things are up and running here again. Had a lovely year and some months off. Worked on interesting projects and now getting ready for more. If you're looking for the FAQ and links pages, fear not, they'll be back up shortly. Still fiddling.

In the last post's comment section I was asked to post about our month long stay in London.

London is fun.

The Canadian Content show is doing swimmingly in Leicester Square, getting great reviews and making audiences quite happy. Ian and I have been walking all over town checking out museums and parks. I made it out to Montreal for the Hugo Awards where I lost to the wonderful Phil and Kaja Foglio, met the enormously talented Paul Cornell and ate a lot of egregious food. The weather has been nice, if a bit muggy and hot at times but nowhere near as bad as the crazy heat wave we just missed back home. Had a fantastic overnight trip to Brighton for some sea air. Got to hang out with Tony Lee and his lovely lady Tracy and dished on Doctor Who.

This month has also been very frustrating.

Barely three days into the trip and we get word from Vic that Kinsey is at the vet hospital with another embolism in her leg. After several harrowing days, lots of calls back and forth at odd hours, lots of crying and wringing of hands and what do you know, Kinsey the Wonder Cat pulls through. Only a week to go before we see her again.

Plus there's the sushi withdrawal.

Thursday we're off to Cardiff to visit Mike Collins to talk shop over lunch. It's been an interesting month.

So what exactly am I doing these days?

A few months ago I came to the realization that I needed to take time off from comics. I've been feeling drained of enthusiasm for the work for a while so in order to keep myself from never picking up a pencil again I decided to set the pencils aside and just do other things.

I've been writing, sleeping, walking, swimming, auditioning, picnicking, tending a sick cat, playing and experimenting and it's done a world of good. Those of you who follow the Remake/Remodel threads on Warren Ellis' site may have seen a few of those experiments, all digital. I'm finally trying out a medium I haven't had the time to explore until now... and totally digging it. I may even switch over completely, we'll see how it goes.

As for future stuff, Ian and I are heading out to London for the month of August. Canadian Content is putting on a sketch/improv show in Leicester Square and it's looking awesome. If you're in that neck of the woods check it out.

Where it gets interesting is around mid-August when I fly from London to Montreal to attend Worldcon (where I'll cross my fingers at the Hugo Awards ceremony, hee!) and then fly back to London for the remainder of the month. We're back in Vancouver in September, then out to New Brunswick for the Canadian Comedy Awards in October (Ian's been nominated!)... and I'm sure I'm forgetting things.

Oh yeah, San Diego. It's a bit too much this year so we're skipping. I know, it's killing me not to go (David Tennant is going to be there along with the Mighty Boosh and Miyazaki!) but... there's always next year. And hopefully I'll have a shiny new project to show off then.

For now, it's back to playing and prepping. I'm still working on sketch requests, a couple more went out the door this week (again, thanks for everyone's patience on those).

More soon.

Okay you cheeky monkeys!

I've been working on sketch requests this evening, got a dozen here ready to go out the door, and I'd like to request or reiterate a few things. First, DON'T SEND MONEY. Seriously. I don't do commissions right now and it won't make your request turn up any quicker. Thank you for the thought but I really don't want your 'donation' to get lost en route. Second, can we maybe limit the amount of characters per request to two or three at the very most? I just got one here asking for three sketches, two with doubles and a third with something like 5 characters in a group shot. Maybe I'm just cranky tonight but...nuhhhh. Third, please put in the name of the person the sketch is for. I've had a few requests tonight alone that asked for a sketch for their brother or wife or friend and then there was no name attached. And yeah, part of the reason is so that it doesn't end up on e-bay but the other is because, well if you're making it a gift, why not make it special and have it personalised? And last, for now anyway, if you want your sketch to turn up for a specific date like a birthday please write TIME SENSITIVE on the back of your envelope and in your letter let me know the date it needs to get back to you by. No abusing this now, I'm doing my best to get to all these asap.

Thanks everyone, and now back to the grind...

This made my day.

Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
Uploaded by dwarthy

I'm in a very Raumpatrouille Orion mood today.


More Y goodness!

Last month it was announced that Whys and Wherefores has been nominated for a Hugo Award and I've been in a happy daze ever since.

This week GQ magazine spotlights Y in an article about graphic novels to check out after you've read Watchmen. Coolio!

And the Y cameos continue on the very fun series, Chuck. Captain Awesome was spotted reading the first trade as Chuck lies in bed under a Y poster with a copy of the deluxe edition propped on the headboard. Wow! In another episode there was even more BKV love shown when a copy of Ex Machina was used to hide secret plans. This would be nice on any show but it's especially cool that it's one with such clear geek devotion to classics like Dune, Tron, Gotcha and countless other genre treasures.

Also, how neat was it to hear shout-outs for the book on the Chuck panel at Wondercon? Big hugs to the creators.

Getting ready for Emerald City Comic Con.

A couple of Y sightings this week!

Lost, episode 316, featured Hurley reading a copy of Y El Ultimo Hombre, the spanish translation edition of Y The Last Man and over on Chuck in Chuck vs. the Suburbs we get a glimpse of the new deluxe edition sitting by the infamous Tron poster.  Nice!

Very, very bummed.

Thursday night I had finished packing for our trip to LA, was putting together tickets and insurance documents and noticed that my passport wasn't in the usual spot on the shelf. I looked in my bag, looked around the apartment but no luck. This had happened before, on the night of the Dublin trip and after a few hours of frantic running about we finally found it at the office. I wasn't going to fall into that panic again, it was probably next to the drawing table like before so at around 3am we headed down there to look. No dice.

We returned home to do a more thorough dig, turned the place upside down, but no passport. I kept at it through the rest of the morning, right up to our check in time when I had to admit that it wasn't happening and I called the airline to let them know. They were very nice about it, wished us the best and let us know the next available flight out. After a few hours of sleep we got back to it. Ian returned to the office for another round of searching while I did an umpteenth run at the apartment.

It's looking like it was lost out in the world. On Monday I'll have to apply for a new one.

And Ian and I don't get to have our geeky Valentine's Day amidst Daleks and Cosplayers.

Sucks.

Okay, Wondercon is a go.  I don't have any panels or signings scheduled but as always, feel free to say hi.

Projects: None.  That is, I'm taking some much needed time off.  While I don't mind people e-mailing to see if I'm available for their book/pitches/storyboards etc. I'll let you know right now that I'm not accepting anything until... next year?  This also means I can't read proposals/plot outlines sent with your enquiries.  I'm very sorry about that.

Looking forward to this weekend.

Two things that go together surprisingly well: Buckaroo Banzai and Radiohead's Ok Computer. Try it sometime.

Con schedule so far...

Gallifrey One, Los Angeles, February 13-15 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriot Hotel. Panel info to be posted soon.

Wondercon... No idea yet, maybe?

Emerald City Comic Con. Yep. If I don't have a table I'll be wandering about as a visitor so say hi either way.

San Diego... Very likely, but there may be a conflict. More as it gets sorted.


Sketch requests. More out the door today, more to come. If you've changed your address since sending one out, drop me an e-mail.


A spot on recommendation for anyone in Vancouver: Rekado's Restaurant on Main and King Ed. Awesome Filipino cuisine, friendly service, great prices. Best dishes: Tinikling Chicken, Curry piña Chicken and the Tokwa't Tokwa.

Okay, that was a fantastic trip. Wow. Fantastic.

Yes, it took 7 days until we got our luggage, there was a lot of screaming over phones, angry e-mails and texts and much swearing to the heavens over the absolute suckage of Air Canada's handling of the whole affair. Yes, it was hard to shop for essentials during the boxing week madness of London's high street, yes it was colder than expected, yes the apartment and its management continued to be a huge pain in the ass over the next two weeks, yes we didn't get to see Tennant perform on Boxing Day...

But we did see his Hamlet on January 5th.

And it was incredible.

And we saw several other shows, Avenue Q, The 39 Steps, Bill Bailey in Tinselworm, Spamalot and Wicked (though I passed on those last two). We had a beautiful Christmas dinner complete with crackers, the Queen's address and Doctor Who. On New Year's Eve we got to witness a mind boggling sea of humanity make it's way towards Blackfriars and just missed getting hit by a champagne bottle thrown off the Millenium Bridge. We had a lovely New Year's Day meet up with Tony Lee and his beautiful fiancee Tracey at the Spice of Life. Diana found out her Zipcar membership worked internationally which resulted in a very fun day-trip to Stone Henge and Salisbury.

Vicky jetted off to Rome for 5 days to visit Hilary and see the sights. She came home with many cool stories. Mike hopped a train to Bristol to visit friends there and came back the next day with many photos.

I did stock signings at Gosh and Forbidden Planet (three trolley loads at FP!), visited Orbital and met a lot of nice people at all of them.

And now we're home. Mike and Diana are back in Toronto, Drew is in Thailand. We're getting many updates on their continuing adventures. It was great to see the cats again, Charlie has been glued to my legs since we got in the door. And though we missed most of the city's snow troubles and related outcries, there are still huge piles of leftovers all over the city and the new waves of rain are only adding to the problem. Presently we're dry and getting back to our routines (though Ian is battling a stomach bug, poor thing).

Oh, to those who may be wondering, I've finally started on sketch requests. A bunch will be going out this week.

Happy New Year!

From Lying in the Gutter's Rich Johnston.

Hallelujah!

And here's an update on the Forbidden Planet signing. It's only a stock signing so if you're interested in picking up an autographed copy there will be plenty in the store come the new year. Sorry about that, we're juggling a lot of plans here and information is getting jumbled.

When we get back, time will be all open to tackle the huge sketch request pile in the office. I mean that this time! If you're looking for a personalised copy then check out the FAQ for details.

Still waiting on bags from Air Canada. Christmas dinner is cooking. Friends are all together. It's a great day.

That lovely round of snow we had over a week ago quickly turned into the biggest pain in the ass the city ever saw. Temperatures dipped to crazy low levels, the snow just kept falling and then wouldn't go away as the flight date got closer and closer. We watched the news each morning to see how aiports were handling the snow and it really did not look good at all.

But then, clear skies. For one day. Our departure date.

We missed a turn off on the way to the airport, largely due to the sun bouncing off the snow and blinding us from the signs, we wandered about Richmond's snow packed roads for a bit and made it within the recommended two hours prior to flight.

The terminal was packed with people bumped from flights due to the blizzards back east. Staff were scrambling, the system in place was all wonky and still we made it through check in, baggage drop and security in time for boarding. There were delays at the gate due to a missing flight attendant, but soon one was found and we were off.

We worried that the delay would lead to missing our connection in Calgary but as it turned out, the pilots for the Calgary to Heathrow run were on our plane so we would be alright. We still had a mother of a run to the next building, during which the combination of stress and cold, bone dry air and hauling ass prompted a mild asthma attack, something I don't get very often and didn't have meds for. Ah joy.

So anyway, on the plane, coughing and wheezing, there's an announcement from the pilot that a door indication light was on and had to be dealt with or we couldn't leave. We waited about a half hour until the all clear came through. Then it was de-icing. Then the slow taxi through frozen and freshly plowed runways. And off again.

I managed to sleep through most of the flight (melatonin helped) and despite all those delays we landed only a half hour after our original arrival time.

Breezed through customs, made it to the baggage claim... and no bags.

They never made it out of Calgary. They'd turn up in a day or so depending on the weather.

I had learned from past baggage incidents however and packed a change of clothes. Ha!

We did eventually make it to the apartment, no thanks to the driver assigned by the rental company who dropped us in the middle of a street market and pointed us to a building down the way that wasn't even the proper address. After some meandering without a map we found the place a couple of blocks over and got settled into a very hostel-ish apartment (there's a bunk bed in our room!) with a kitchen sink that immediately up an decided to vomit rank smelling water all over the floor. Alarming sure, but apparently not to the maintenance guy on the phone who said he'd come fix it in the morning.

Oh, and the fire alarm went off at 3am causing an evacuation of the building (management didn't think that was an emergency enough to show up for either, though the fire brigade did appear about a half hour later). One guest, after waiting about 15 minutes ran back in to 'save' a dish of sugar cookies she'd made earlier and passed them around. Delicious.

Back inside the apartment I decided to take a shower to warm up only to find the hot water being iffy on the prospect. It did get warm eventually but only when the cold water was turned all the way off.

I may be getting a bad feeling about this rental...

But we're still in London. Vicky made it from Montreal this morning (despite an actual fire in Laura's apartment building!). The maintenance guy showed up to fix the sink sometime in the afternoon (after a couple more nagging calls). We found a Sainsbury's and got the kitchen stocked for Christmas dinner and the rest of the crew are showing up tomorrow. Tennant is out of Hamlet but Jacobi is doing Twelfth Night *g* and Bill Bailey has a stand up show in town.

Also, I'm told that the Forbidden Planet Signing is on the 30th (Tuesday) but their site doesn't list it, not sure if that means anything. I'll post more info as it comes in.

Time for sleep. Sugarplums and all that.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Lots to do before heading out next week but it's all coming along nicely. Vic, coolest sister in the world and fantastic office manager, is currently finalising details for a signing at Forbidden Planet. I'll post more info as it comes in, so far it looks to be the last week of December.

And we finally found a cat sitter! I can breathe normally again.

The only sour note so far is the news that David Tennant is off Hamlet due to a slipped disc. Now the press release says he won't be able to return 'before Christmas' and our tickets are for Boxing Day so there's still a chance at seeing him perform (albeit a teensy one). If he can't make it, the understudy is getting great reviews and Patrick Stewart is performing as Claudius in one of the best plays ever, it'll be a great evening out. Sending out plenty of good vibes to the Universe for Tennant's speedy recovery all the same. *g*

Last night Ian and I ventured into the first snowfall of the season to buy cookie supplies. It was incredibly beautiful outside, with huge snowflakes clearly defined in the crisp air, making the whole neighbourhood sparkly. When we got home we set to work baking and kept at it till dawn.

We're really looking forward to cooking on the trip. Many discussions on what to make and where to find ingredients. Can't wait.

Dealing with weird sleep again. Bleh.

As happy as last Tuesday was there was a cloud over California called Prop 8.

If you voted for this, if you supported the banning of gay marriage in California and in states where similar proposals made the ballot... well I pity you.

You are hateful and ignorant. You are backwards. You are part of a past that will be remembered with shame and regret and the sooner you disolve into that past the better. Love will always be the future.

Some of you may be wondering why I’m not doing the art for Doctor Who #6 so I’ll clear that up right now. If you’ve read past entries from September you already know that issues 3 and 4 were given to a fill-in artist while we were dealing with a personal crisis. When things had settled somewhat I slowly got back into working with the full intention of completing my commitment to issues 5 and 6. I was told that issue 5 would be due by the end of October and I paced it a bit slow, mostly so as not to hermit up after what happened. I made myself as available to others as possible while still getting pages in here and there knowing that I’d pick it up as I went.

Ian went to Regina for the Comedy Awards at the beginning of the month, lots of errands and distractions but no problem, still okay for time. I produced a handful of pages (tricky ones at that) and then the Scream Awards came up rather unexpectedly and though I was worried about the schedule Ian and I talked it over and decided it was important to go, primarily to promote Y and Doctor Who: The Forgotten, but also to hang out with Brian, something we didn’t get to do at SDCC this year. It was a great weekend, blew off a lot of steam, met some very nice people. I brought/dragged pages to work on but as these things often go there wasn’t a spare moment.

(Did I mention that I promoted the heck out of the Forgotten on the red carpet? Brian got in on it too, his brother loves the book.)

We got home and I hit the drawing table hard. It was going to be a tough slog but I was sure I could do it, maybe I’d go a few days over but not by much. I got an e-mail from the editor on the 22nd demanding a firm date or they’d be giving issue 6 to someone else. I was a bit surprised by this seeing as how the deadline was over a week away but okay, they run things tight and after looking at it realistically I told him “November 4th”, that was four days over the deadline, four days lost due to the Scream Awards. I got an e-mail back saying “…thanks for letting me know in advance that you won’t be finished by the end of the month. That helps us a lot with planning.” And I get back to work, send a few more pages to their server.

A couple of days later I get an e-mail from Tony asking why I wasn’t working on issue 6. What the fuck?! I thought this was sorted out already, but apparently not. I e-mail the editor to find out what the hell happened. Here’s what I get back…

“Pia,

First, I want to apologize that you heard this from Tony and not me. This was just decided yesterday and I'm not sure who he heard this from, but that ultimately falls on me. I'm very sorry for that.

Second, I want you to know that we had no choice.

Even if you were able to finish twelve pages by Tuesday (after taking three weeks for the first 10), this book would be five days AND a month late. That's not including the time it would take to finish inking, coloring and lettering the pages, and getting approval from BBC. That would put us at about five-six weeks late.

As I understand it, we're only at issue 2 on the stands because of your lateness from the start. If we were on schedule, #4 would be out next week. Despite having two fill-in artists working on 3 and 4 at the same time, we were able to recapture only a month on the schedule.

If we continued on the present course, #6 would be so late that it would become returnable. And that would be an unacceptable loss of revenue and likely cause the book to be canceled outright.

So the decision was made to find another artist to finish the series.

It is very unfortunate, but we had no choice.

I hope this doesn't affect your intention to complete issue 5. But if that isn't the case, please let us know.

Best…”

First off, thanks for failing to mention the month late business when telling me the book was due by the end of October. I thought I was producing in a timely manner.

Second, “Even if you were able to finish twelve pages by Tuesday…”

Don’t demand for a firm date, accept the date and then assume I won’t deliver.

Was I pissed? Damn straight. And I promptly locked myself in the office for the next week and did indeed transfer 12 pages into their servers by the 4th. Scanned in the last set while bawling my eyes out with joy over the election results.

And what sweet looking pages they are.

I’m very sorry it ended up like this, even more so for Tony who doesn’t deserve it in the slightest. I hope we get to work on something in the future.

So my vacation/sabbatical starts early. I’ll be spending the next year doing what I should have been doing when Y ended, taking time to learn new skills, play with back burner projects and just think.

Ta.

It's a beautiful day today.

The past week was a bit nuts, things happened in the studio that will be talked about, but for now... it's a beautiful day.

Okay, Los Angeles was a blast and I don't want to spoil things too much so go check out the Scream Awards broadcast on Tuesday if you want to see a certain couple of comics co-creators on a certain stage...

And did you know Ozzy Osbourne smells kinda spicy?

Hee!

I'm going to hole up in the office for the next little while in order to catch up on a LOT of late work. Bear with me y'all.

Tonight I'll be doing laundry, packing, getting work finished on a couple of the McGann pages and with luck there'll be a little time for sleep before we fly out to LA tomorrow.

Oh and check out the gorgeous cover for issue six! By Ben Templesmith!


Lovely!

Also, plans are underway for a trip to London over Christmas. It all started last month when we miraculously snagged tickets to Hamlet (starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart! Gasp!), then we got some friends interested in coming along (can't have Christmas dinner without friends to pull crackers with!). We've just now found a flat to house our group of six and the next challenge will be finding airline tickets. I've even started a scarf for the London weather. Found a nice alpaca yarn, a simple pattern and away it's gone.

Lots to do. Very excited.

Election Day! Don't forget to vote!

This Friday Ian and I are heading off to LA to join Brian and Ruth at the Scream Awards for some goofy, ghoulish fun.

For those who'd like to increase our chances of actually getting onstage to collect a trophy, go over to the Spike website and vote for us! Think of it as a warm up for November 4th (October 14th for all you Canucks).