I can do this, cartoon transcript
Thing 1 and 2 are armless legless creatures of enormous kindness and integrity.
Thing 1: I can do this
Thing 1 pauses to be in that moment. Then they shake.
Thing 1: Or at least try.
Thing 2: And I’ll be cheering for you regardless
Thing 1 and 2: Adventures!
 

I can do this (comic #800)

If this year has taught me anything, it’s do the thing. Be brave, be persistent, talk to people, take emotional risks, journal (a lot), turn up with integrity and consistency, and do the thing.

And also, wow, cartoon number 800. Talk about turning up again and again. There have been times when I drew a comic every day. Times when I scarcely drew on a month.

Because of visa and then health, I've only ever sold comics at a handful of conventions, but I've loved each and every experience. So I've only ever met a handful of the folks who've read my work. Whether I've met folks or not, my readers are dear to my heart. The folks drawn to my comics are a terrific bunch of people.

My life is nothing like what I thought it would be like in so many ways, but the heart of the intention, the underlying drive is the same. I'm so grateful I have the opportunity to draw comics. Grateful I have opportunities to be heard. I hope I can do my bit to help others be heard, and I have some pretty cool ideas on how to do that that would be premature to share!

Good things,

Liz

I can do this, cartoon transcript

Thing 1 and 2 are armless legless creatures of enormous kindness and integrity.

Thing 1: I can do this

Thing 1 pauses to be in that moment. Then they shake.

Thing 1: Or at least try.

Thing 2: And I’ll be cheering for you regardless

Thing 1 and 2: Adventures!

Pumpkin Cat

Eee! Pumpkin pumpkin. Thanks IR. Based on feedback I will add a fourth leg. I wanted to experiment with a more stylized shape with open space, but it will age better with an extra pumpkiny support.
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PUMPKIN STENCILS FOR YOU!!!!

Yesterday I asked folks what sort of costumes they would like to see characters dressed in AND I asked folks to send carved pumpkin pictures, any carved pumpkin, I really like carved pumpkins. IR (let me know if I can write your full name!) e-mailed me and asked if I had a pumpkin cat stencil. What a fantastic question. I spent Thursday designing  Bunson, Things and Pumpkin Cat stencils for anyone to use. The grey means remove some skin, but don’t remove all the meat, so you get a sort of half glow. I can’t wait to see how they turn out. This idea was so much fun. If you send me carved pumpkin pics (Things or otherwise) I shall put together a gallery of them here at the Things. Yay for making! Click on each thumbnail to get full size image. Send your pics to [email protected]   pumpkinstencil_cat pumpkinstencilbunson pumpkinstencilthings

Halloween costume funtimes!!!

halloweenbunnyLiving in the northern hemisphere, living in Americaland has made me love Halloween. Up here it is the arts and crafts festival. It’s a festival where everyone can make things, everyone can carve a pumpkin. At halloween the gates are flung open and along with the spooktacular, everyone can be a maker.  

Request One: Send me costume requests for the Things!

It’s fun to play dress ups, as previous comics have shown. Send me your request. Or send me your own clever Halloween interpretations of the Things! Send them to [email protected]  

Request Two: PUMPKINS

pumpkinheadSend me your carved pumpkin photos. Carved pumpkins fill my heart with joy and I think Pumpkin Cat gets lonely sometimes. If you carve a Pumpkin Cat and a Bunson Cat hanging out together I don’t know if there is a limit to my joy and I will send you Things temporary tattoos (and that tattoo paper is not cheap!). Send pumpkin pics (or picts) to [email protected]

Shrinky Dink test a success (oww)

Although it turns out that I find shrinking Things characters emotionally exhausting. I get really scared they’re going to get hurt and interfere in ill thought out ways that burn my fingers. I made myself not interfere while Bunson was shrinking, but it made me sick to my stomach to see him curl up and shrivel!

IMG_2209-0.JPG After the Things and Bunson shrank I did the love hearts and thank you. I do not enjoy sliding things around on the foil, but not worrying that someone would get hurt made it so much easier. I don’t think I’ll shrink Things without someone to keep me company and they will be extremely limited edition! I’m pleased with the end results 🙂

IMG_2210-0.JPG

Tattoos and Shrinky Dinks

For Uncanny Magazine I promised two wonderful supporters a pack of mini-comics, temporary tattoos and Shrinky Dinks. Here’s what I’ve laid out for the temporary tattoos, just waiting for the special paper to arrive (actual image will be inverted before printing). IMG_2204.JPG And here’s my test sheet for Shrinky Dinks. I’ve decided hand drawing them would make them the most special, so I want to do a test run to make sure the sharpie comes out nicely. IMG_2205.JPG

Guest comics from Andy Romine ALL NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!

Andy (Andrew Penn) Romine has just finished working on Disney’s Big Hero 6 and next week you get to see his take on the Things. Andy’s generally a 3D animator guy, so we’re excited about seeing his take on some folks that are pretty two dimensional! Andy did Clarion West in Seattle 2010 (Liz is Clarion at UCSD in 2009) and they both went to Launchpad Astronomy Workshop in 2013. He’s a super nice guy with nifty brains too and he makes excellent beverages. Andy’s fiction appears online at Lightspeed Magazine, Paizo and Crossed Genres as well as in the anthologies Fungi, What Fates Impose, By Faerie Light and the forthcoming Coins of Chaos. You can find his full list of publications at the Bibliography link. He’s also contributed articles to Lightspeed Magazine and Fantasy Magazine and blogs at Inkpunks and at Functional Nerds (as the Booze Nerd). You can also follow his day-to-day adventures on Twitter: @inkgorilla. A lot of this info was stolen from his About page, go check out his website.

321: J is for Jealous

For some reason I’ve been feeling really self conscious about my alphabet book. Step one, do all the letters. Step TWO refine, redraw, renew and come up with better ideas. Poor jellyfish!

Transcript

J is for jealous jellyfish Jellyfish thought: I can be cute! Why do Octopuses get all the love?
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