So yeah, that really happened. Many years ago, sitting on the floor with my best friend and my sketchbook, trying to come up with a love interest for Alice…

My cat Calvin passed away last weekend. If it weren’t for him, there would be no Jim, and no Cat People. He lived a good many years and helped me through a lot of rough times. He also inspired a lot of artwork and will probably continue to do so. He was my best buddy and I miss him lots.

If anyone has been wondering where I am, I’ve been very busy lately with my new job and my new house! I work at a company called RocketOwl and we’re making our first social game for Facebook called GreenSpace™. It’s pretty cool because the style of this game is a bit more cartoony looking than other games out there. The game is free to play on Facebook right now if you sign up through the Facebook page. It’s given me the opportunity to do some cool design work (like the female character below, and the title, above), and I even get to do some fun comic-style character stuff, and paint nice backgrounds! It’s been pretty sweet so far.

For anyone in the Toronto area May 7-9, Svetlana and I will be at TCAF that weekend representing Bento Comics! And if you’ve been missing my work, check out my new Sherlock Holmes comic, on Bento right now!. While you’re there, check out the other amazing Sherlock Holmes comics by some awesome artists!

I’ll be selling some copies of OTE: Tales from the Therapists Couch there, as well as some of my other work, and doing sketches and whatever else I can do to make a dollar – woo hoo!

Hope to see you there!

Here is an interview I recently did with Sketch Maven sharing some thoughts on Pixies and On The Edge.
Hope you enjoy!

Pokes head from under the dirt….

Hey folks, guess what? I just finished a whole graphic novel! Crazy! I always wondered why people I know seemed to get buried away for months when they have to draw a whole book, and now I know. Now I’ve emerged shaken, burned out, significantly less in shape, with a sore back and hands. And it was a very fun, challenging, and rewarding experience.

Over the holidays I thought a lot about On The Edge, and one of the things I realized was that it was time to move on. I’ve been doing this comic, on and off, since 2003! That’s a loooong time to be doing something that isn’t really successful. Yes, it started out just for fun, and I tried hard to keep it that way for a long time, but as my readership grew I think my expectations became bigger and it was just a little too much for me. I have other ideas and things I would like to do, and frankly, webcomics have changed so much! And I’ve grown so much! I’m 8 years older than when I started (oh now I just feel old ).

I had a plan late last year that I would try to finish Wonderland and at least have another book to put out… but I started it so long ago, that now I just feel like I’m trying to finish something that I’m not fully satisfied with. If I could start over now I’d probably change so much, and that’s not really a good way to work. I also had an end story in mind for OTE, which I may do someday… who knows? But I’d like to be in the right frame of mind for it and now just isn’t the time. Other short tales may turn up somewhere, most likely over at Bento Comics!

So with all that, I hope you had fun with me and thanks so much to the hard core fans for supporting me and continuing to come back!

I will be in Toronto at TCAF this year, as part of Bento Comics, and I will perhaps do a post on Pixies and whatever else I’m working on this year!

For now here’s a picture of some messy, messy thumbnails I did while working on Pixies, for Arcana and HarperCollins. They’re oh so tiny and messy… but I guess that’s ok… as long as I know what it means right???