Incredible remark from 10/30/09 R. Crumb interview

In a brief interview with the San Francisco Chronicle last Friday, Robert Crumb had this to say about the process of creating his new rendering of the book of Genesis into comics:

...I really had to learn how to draw to make this book.

And after reading that statement, I had to pick my eyeballs off the floor, where they'd landed after popping out of their sockets.

Another Halloween Envelope Doodle

Inexplicably—or at least unexplainedly—I got another order for the Satisfactory Comics "Full Run" (now only $20*) a day or two after I posted that little thing about lagniappes last week.

(*That's not a sale price: this month's orders have actually run me out of stock on one of our comics, so I dropped the price.)

Since I'd essentially promised to load in a few bonus treats, I put some more postcards into that envelope (along with every comic I still had in stock), and since I love Halloween almost as much as the next blogger, I adorned the envelope our little werewolf guy from "The Graveyard of Forking Paths."



Hooray for a growing readership, hooray for lagniappes, and hooray for Halloween!

Proof of Concept: Hot Cold Lozenges

I've been having a hell of a time coughing out the dregs of the cold that knocked me down three weeks ago, so I've frequently been fantasizing about trips to the local pho houses and Thai kitchens, where the gunk could be rousted by a nice pepper-induced salubrious lubrication of my lungs and sinuses.

And as I cogitated on the prospect, I got a little Ironic Sans: that is, I came up with an idea, possibly a rather good idea, that I have no power to realize:



Imagine lozenges in your favorite spicy sabor, at a nose-runningly intense degree of heat. Mysteriously potent wasabi, sriracha, chipotle, and vindaloo, in an easily portable form. Wouldn't that be healthful when you had a cold? What better way to dislodge a loogie or make your phlegm less phlegmatic?

Dr. Propter's: they get your juices running!

If anyone from Hall's or Vick's or Altoids or whatever is interested in the idea, I'll sell it for a very reasonable sum.

If any of you poetry fans can tell why I've attributed these pills to Dr. Propter, bonus points for you. Ditto if you're a candy aficionado and identify the origin of those shapes and colors.

Now, enough about salubrious lubrication, and back to my usual lubricious lucubration.

Doodle Penance: "balloon critter"

Apparently we're still having trouble keeping the ol' blog afloat. But we haven't given up yet.

In fact, here's a little bit of "Doodle Penance" for our failure to deliver on our two-posts-a-week promise.

Someone came to the blog last week looking for "balloon critter." I'm pretty sure we know what he or she was looking for...



I welcome any speculation on the cartooning influences and subtexts in the image above.

I Like Lagniappes

Some kind soul just ordered the Satisfactory Comics "Everything" combo—one copy of every minicomic Mike and I have made (except for the Mapjam, which is out of stock)—and I felt like I needed to do a little something extra for the envelope.

Onto the envelope, I doodled this little guy, whom I'd never see again if I hadn't scanned him.



I also tossed a few random postcards into the envelope, since they weren't going to affect the shipping costs. Hopefully, when the envelope arrives, it'll seem like a treasure trove of goodies, chock full of dorky fun. I know that when I get a package in the mail, I'm always psyched to get a little random bonus, even if it's something I'd never have paid for. I like the little lagniappes, so I try to put them into (or onto) every package I send.

Daily Drop Cap: Fun Type Design

have you seen this new(ish) art-and-design blog called "Daily Drop Cap"?





eautifying your blog in the style of a cool old manuscript has never been easier, thanks to Jessica Hische.






lthough the Daily Drop Cap will probably be most useful for most bloggers when Hische gets around to designing the first-person pronoun (which will happen on Monday, if she sticks to her schedule), there are already eight kicky capitals there, ready to dress up plain text as long as it starts with the right letter.




o on over and check it out. Bookmark the site for future inspection. Swipe a letter or two for your next post.








ven someone without a devotion to "display lettering" could have a lot of fun with these letters.






ould I be abusing the graphic possibilities that these fun initial capitals allow?






efinitely. But there's something about these Hische's work that really invites playful participation. And what is that je ne sais quois? ... I think the word for it is:



un.





(In case it's not obvious, those letters are the creation of "Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische.")

Guess the Odosketch: Watch It Closely.

While I was preparing for class tonight, it occurred to me that it might be useful for me to sketch a little something.



Bonus points for you if you can tell me what I'm drawing there.