Blog
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A Letter From a Friend
I’ve written many times about toxic fan groups, and one of my oldest friends in fandom wrote me a letter about it. Printed with permission and light edits to remove personal information. Yesterday I got into a twitter-spat with a friend from many years ago. It was really kind of terrifying, but it gave me the opportunity to reflect on one of the things I am most thankful for.: Having known you. That fellow and I were once quite tight. What’s scary is that looking back I was well on my way to ending up like he has. The man I spoke to yesterday was once just like me and…
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When Cartoonists Party!
Rantz Hoseley and Val Trullinger, my much appreciated background assistant and colorist on Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee are out in Lost Angeles attending a party full of glamour and excitement! Look how happy they are! I am home wearing velour sweats, big pink fuzzy slippers that look like pigs, drinking canned Starbucks, and working on a painting. I pity me.
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Why I don’t blog anymore
EDIT: I go into details about time investment in the comments below. Dear Colleen, I bookmarked many posts on your site for information about self publishing and contracts, but when I came back to read the posts later everything was gone. Now I get page after page of broken links and comments without posts. Did you know that most of your website is completely broken? Kelly Dear Kelly, I stopped blogging in public regularly almost 8 years ago, (UPDATE: I now blog on my Patreon behind a paywall, so the 15 million hits this blog once got will now pay me directly instead of an advertising service that pays me…
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Travel with Tezuka Productions
The hardcover edition of the graphic novel adaptation of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast which I drew for the long-defunct Disney Comics. I bought this at the Books Kinokuniya store in Tokyo, and Takayuki Matsutani, president of Tezuka Productions, bought one for his daughter as well, since she was a Disney fan. In this picture, Jeff Smith, creator of BONE and RASL, and his wife/manager Vijaya Iyer and me (in the hat) pose in front of the Tezuka Productions entrance. Here is Takayuki Matsutani of Tezuka Productions, Fred Schodt, author of MANGA! MANGA! The world of Japanese Comics, Oscar and Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer, Cartoonist Denys Cowan, and…
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Hokusai Manga Lecture
Some years back, I lectured at the Smithsonian Institution on Hokusai and manga. Fred Schodt, author of Manga! Manga! kindly recommended me as Artist In Residence. My parents saved the poster and had it framed for me for Christmas. Imagine my surprise! Apparently, they saved other props from the event, but the framer lost them. Bad framer.
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Hal Foster: It’s never too late to be great.
Whipped this up. Hope it is inspiration for you.
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Another great D’mer tattoo from Deven Stephens
Gorgeous! I am going to try to put up a section on the main page for fan art and fan photos again, and I’ll let you know when I do.
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Fan Art: Deven Stephens Gets a D’mer Tattoo
Long time patron Deven Stephens sent me this great photo of his new tattoo from a sketch I made of D’mer in one of his hardcover limited editions. Deven says he also got D’mer’s ritual scars tattood on his arms and chest. I’m amazed and deeply flattered that people enjoy A DISTANT SOIL so much that they make it an important and intimate part of their lives! Thank you!
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Dear Jeff Smith: ALS ice bucket challenge accepted
So Jeff Smith, creator of Bone, doused himself with a big old bucket of water, and passed along the ALS ice bucket challenge to me: either donate $100 to ALS research, or dump a bucket of ice water on your head. Here’s Jeff getting doused. Well, bless your heart. I don’t have a video camera, and even if I did, I have better things to do with cold ice water. Like make a refreshing batch of lemonade with it! Here I am on my deck, like a good southern girl, under my lace parasol and drinking my yummy lemonade. MmmmMMMMMmmmmmm Good. And wearing flannel. In August. Go figure. You can…
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Effective Medical Treatment for Migraines
A migraine is not a headache. It is a neurological condition that affects the central nervous system. Those who do not suffer migraines dismiss them as the whines of malingerers. Those who get them want to put those people in a chair and hit them in the head with a spike so they can see how it feels. Migraine pain is said by many to be worse than natural childbirth. I have been a migraine patient for 25 years (chronic for eight) and gave birth to my first child a year and a half ago. Hands down, a migraine is more painful than labour and birth (including the episiotomy, lateral…