Plenty of Nothing

Yellow Plastic Karnak Temple, Clyde Avenue

Blue Bike Rack, Unfooted

Evangeline Brandt

One of the things that came out of Anne and me taking Cricket to MoCCA was our realization of the glaring need for covers.  A story without a cover is basically just a xerox.  So I've been thinking about comic book covers, though more about the inside covers than the outside.  A lot of imaginary comics get mentioned in Shaolin Cricket and Wonderful Hell, and the inside covers would be an excellent place to show them.  So I have a couple of Little Miss Canadas worked out.  And the picture of Hoer sweeping the Escher staircase demands a space. This train of thought led me back to Cathy Deirdre Zinck, the comic-book reviewer from Wonderful Hell and what she would have drawn as an undergrad at Mount Allison in the late '90s.  And in the course of a day a sixteen-page comic called Evangeline Brandt sprang into existence, which I guess will have to be its own book.  This is a pencil sketch of a page.  I'm pretty happy with it, especially the panel where she's pulling on the big sweater, probably because I haven't really settled on her face yet.  There's a whole story arc about her coat which I won't get into here.  When I showed it to Heather she yelled, "She's barfing in the sink!"  Man, you haven't lived till you've barfed in the sink.  Douglas

Lumière Festival by Lillian Chan

I've been trying to find a clean copy of this poster since I first saw it, but they all seem to have been taped to telephone poles, so here's a picture of it in situ.  The artist is Lillian Chan of Toronto (not to be confused with Lillian Chan of Boston).  Here's her website, including the Lumière Festival design.  Douglas

Electrical Box

Snowshoeing in High Park, 1910

Another snowshoer to speed the winter.  This is young Harold Hammond, photographed while tromping around in High Park, Toronto, in 1910.  More vintage photos can be found here at the Archives of Ontario site.

Douglas

Snowshoeing in St. John's

Uh huh, yes, I know it's just August, but I want to snowshoe now.  In the interim here's a photo from the archives of Memorial University of Newfoundland showing a party on the grounds of Government House c.1890.  Douglas

Japanese Word of the Day: Bōzenjishitsu

bōzenjishitsu, n. state of being dumbfounded or petrified.  Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary

Scottish Word of the Day: Dozie

dozie adj stupid 20-, local Fif-Rox.  Concise Scots Dictionary

Soapine

SHE: "For washing and cleaning everything, no matter what, Soapine works quicker, easier, cheaper and better than soap or anything else."

HE (to himself): "What in blue blazes is she driving at?"