4:15

 

Smoke and Mirrors page 5 (or 6...)

It's funny what you can accomplish when waiting for eight hours for your car's brakes to be fixed -- This page for example. Other than some last minute touch ups, this whole page was drawn in a West Seattle coffee shop. It's amazing how exhausting waiting can be, and I was fried when I got home afterwards, but it's days like this, when I can really dig into my passion for cartooning without interruption, that reminds me how much I absolutely love what I do. Shamanism and Cartooning -- The double helix of my existence, that both shapes and is shaped by who I am and who I become; My twin divinely destined vocational callings which I can not not answer as easily as I can not not breathe. They truly are not just what I do, but who I am -- A Shaman Cartoonist. 

This particular page is the fifth in my Smoke and Mirrors series, recalling my path to becoming a Sacred Pipe Carrier after being challenged by a couple people who questioned what I was doing online. When I started this page, I failed to reference the previous one and so this may become page six because I am realizing the need for a better segue. I also need to fix the bit about my Lakota teacher. After drawing the page I contacted my teacher and, though she was trained in Lakota ways, she is not herself Lakota. To move forward with even a slight inconsistency like that would undermine the integrity of, and the whole purpose and reason for drawing this particular comic.  

To read the entire series thus far, please click on the "Smoke and Mirrors" label below. If you enjoy what you read here, please follow my blog. I do hope you enjoy my comics as much as I enjoy drawing them, and thank you for reading!

By the way, my aforementioned teacher, Kristina Bloom, is amazing and was one of my greatest teachers. You can check out her website at https://kristinabloom.com/.

Blanket Statement

There are two comic artists who really influenced and inspired the direction of my own comics, demonstrating for me the joy, growth, and healing of turning my cartoonist's pencil toward myself, drawing my own life as a comic. They are Craig Thompson, author/illustrator of Blankets, and James Kochalka, author/illustrator of American Elf. 

A few weeks ago, Craig was doing a book signing in Portland and, because of his importance to me, a three hour drive seemed a worthwhile investment to meet him. Though my intuition was on overdrive to get me down there, things did not turn out the way I'd hoped.

The following comic is the result of this seeming wild goose chase. Because I didn't get to meet him in person, the plan is to send him the comic to connect with him and to thank him for being such a huge turning point in my personal approach to my comics. Stay tuned for possible updates! 

 

Narwhals and Library Gods

Here's a couple incidents from my daily life. By the way, the narwhal's name is Carl (which, if you pronounce it correctly "Car-ul" it actually rhymes), and the bespectacled unicorn's name is Nicolaus. 

 

Pipe Song

Another episode from my adventure attending my first Sundance this past summer.

 

Piping Hot

 

Black Panther - Complete

Black Panther recently turned up in a Medicine Card reading for a client, and because of the context of the card spread, I found myself showing my client this comic I'd drawn about my own experience with her. It was a little awkward, though, because I had to keep pulling up the individual post of each individual page, so I decided to post the complete comic (so far -- I have a feeling I'll be drawing an update/continuation at some point) in case that opportunity ever arises again. 

 

Humming Along With Gratitude

I received a huge honor recently when I was invited to my first Lakota Sundance Ceremony. With all the energetic shifts that have taken place in me since then, not only was it an amazing experience, but it was actually life-changing. 

I have other comic pages in the works around my experience there, but this was the first immediate work concerning it. Especially because the song I learned is a Thank You Song, it seemed appropriate to begin with gratitude. 

Here are the lyrics and English translation as best I could gather from various sources:

WOPILA SONG (Thank You Song) 

Wakan Tanka Tunkasila

Great Spirit, Grandfather

Pilamaya yelo he

I thank you

Canunpa wakan cha maya ku welo he

You have given me a sacred pipe

Pilamaya ye, pilamaya yelo he 

Thank you, thank you

Wicozani wa maya ku welo he

You have given me a good healing

Pilamaya ye, pilamaya yelohe

Thank you, thank you

Little Brother - Complete

NOTE: This comic is available for purchase at my Perching Wolf Studios store on Blurb.com, where you can view a preview in book form.

The Oak Bear (excerpt from “Dismem-Boar-ment”) - Complete

St Charles Place - Complete

Bringing It Home

I don't know if  you've noticed, but I have not been posting a lot here lately, mostly because I haven't actually been drawing as much lately. Time I would normally spend creating new comics has been mostly dedicated to putting together a book of some older comics I drew in a blank book many years ago. These comics are a precursor to my Drawing Breath comics, still being a sort of illustrational journal of my life at the time, but rather than drawing myself in the starring role, it's a bit more Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with my comic characters - Gerb, Longleg the dog, and Wormy the worm - commenting on what's happening in my life from the sidelines. I call it Home Gerb Companion ~ Le Chronique de Comique.

 

So I've been spending many afternoons and evenings flipping through this journal and, with Palama the platypus aiding me by holding open the book, photographing each page in turn then cropping and fine tuning them. This is why on some of the pages you can see distortions of the drawings as if they are curving toward the binding of the book. Sometimes Palama couldn't keep the book entirely flat. 

I am not always central to what's happening as my characters come to terms with living inside a book...

...But they do celebrate with me my achievements...

...And they console me through my challenges...

Drawing women has never been my strong suit, which Gerb knows and sometimes exploits by hanging out with the Amazons when he doesn't want to be drawn. At the time of the comic, though, I was married to a fellow artist, Bobbi Blackwell aka Mrs. Cartoonist Dude, and I would just have her draw the necessary panels if needed...

She is not the only guest artist. As it turns out, Longleg is also a cartoonist whose work occasionally ends up on the page, as a comic within a comic, which is always fun...

And sometimes Newmar, Bobbi's teddy bear, would get a hold of the book and attempt to draw his own adventures, seeing as they were so much more adventury than my own... 

The fun thing is that, if it were Newmar drawing, I'd pencil it with my left hand and ink it with my right. If it were Longleg drawing, I'd pencil with my right hand and ink it with my left.

So, as production of new comics experiences a bit of a lull, you can rest assured that I am not idle. Soon this new book will be available for purchase, and meanwhile you can check out my other graphic novels and coloring books here on my Blurb Store.