MOST EPIC […] OF 2010
1. PHOTOGRAPHY
In 2010 I didn’t take very EPIC photos (I’m still struggling to get my camera to do what I want it to do), but I guess to me this is the most EPIC one:
When I saw this room, and when I had taken the photo (three shots with different settings, of which this was the best), I knew it was a picture I would be very happy with. Nothing special on a global scale, but I guess the most special photo I took in 2010.
The circumstances were quite EPIC too. We were in Leipzig on a very hot summer day. We wanted to see the Last Match comics exhibition, but the gallery had closed early because of the football world championships (Germany was playing one of their final games that day). So our plan B was to explore this big abandoned printing shop in central Leipzig.
2. ARTS AND CRAFTS
I am very partial to the Charles Bronson shirt, although the Torrent de Bites kilts (link 1, link 2) were pretty cool too.
3. COMICS
Eh heh heh … I know exactly what comics sequence is the most EPIC one that I’ve drawn in 2010, but I can’t post it here yet because that would be a major spoiler. It’s something I’ve been waiting 14 years and six months to draw. :3
As we speak I have only sketched it, and I don’t know if I’ll have time to ink it before 2011 is upon us, but THAT DOES NOT MATTER
// Edit:
Okay, now I can link to it …
It is Driftwood chapter 8, page 33. (And that’s only the begnning – I haven’t spent all these long, tedious hours studying James McAvoy films for nothing! V`(oo)´V) //
4. DAY JOB PROJECTS
I’m kind of jaded about my work, but sometimes I can still get a bit excited about the amazing comics I actually get paid to letter and/or do the graphic design for. This year I guess the shared first prize for the most EPIC day job projects I did goes to Peplum by Blutch and Der König der Fliegen #1 by Mezzo and Pirus, both for avant-verlag.
They are both really incredibly amazing comics and the work was very fast and smooth. V^(oo)^V
Instead Also, I’ll give you a bonus category:
5. FACEBOOK POSTS (that I’ve commented on)
2010
At first I felt a bit silly filling out this questionnaire, but then I saw that Mikael Sol had done it, too, so why not me.
1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Lots of stuff — the nicest being starting to rent a garden outside the city and renovating the construction trailer that is there. That place makes me very happy.
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No and no. (Maybe I should remove the boring questions from this questionnaire, but I’m too lazy.)
(Continue reading all the juicy details of my personal life …)
NERDINESS ASSESSED
In July 2007 I counted how many pages and panels of comics I had drawn in my life. In December 2009 I counted how much I had drawn since then, and pledged to double my yearly average and draw 87 pages until the next December 9th.
(I’m a couple of days late with the last page and the assessment, because my mum came to visit for a week and I could barely draw anything while she was here.)
Number of pages and panels I have drawn since December 9th 2009:
Driftwood ch. 7 (from page 25): 17/92
Driftwood ch. 8: 29/192
International Women’s Day: 1/1
Russian Names: 2/13
On the Swedish child pornography laws: 1/1
White Nights: 25/54
Hourly comic day comic: 10/23
This Is My Home: 2/10
____________________________________
87 pages / 386 panels
(All-time total as of today: 618 / 3180)
In July 2007–December 2009 I drew by average 43,6 pages and 217,2 panels a year. Now I’ve indeed doubled the yearly average of pages, but not quite regarding panels, probably because I’ve only drawn hourly comics and 24 h comics, both of which tend to have less panels per page due to their quick nature, since 2009.
Okay, let’s face it — 87 pages a year is still really lame. I could get away with just one page a week most of the time. I can do much better than that! (Especially now that I live alone again, at last.)
Sooo … until December 9th 2011, let’s double it again and draw 174 pages of comics!!!
V`(oo)´V
I’m almost 30 and I still don’t know how to act like an adult person
Last Sunday night I tried to bike home from the countryside. But it was $§%&ing cold, the wind was in my face, and my new bike has this really annoying thing that I haven’t fixed yet, that the saddle keeps slipping down into a lower position. So about one quarter down the road I caught the train anyway.
There was me and my bike, a guy about my age and his bike, and an 11 year old boy in the wagon. The train hung around on the platform for a bit before leaving, and an older man in a stupid skipper hat (popular among older German men) who reeked of alcohol also came on. He started asking us when the train was leaving, and if we were “okay”, and “joked” that he was from the police. “Ookay”, I said, and the young man tried to ignore him. Then the old guy started asking about what trains he should transfer to, since the U2 line is not in service right now and for some reason he couldn’t ride the buses that cover the route in the meantime. I explained to him how to get to his destination, but apparently my information wasn’t good enough, as he asked the guy the same thing again, and then the boy.
The boy got up to show him what route to take on the subway map above the doors, and the old guy realised that he was just a little boy, all alone on the train late at night, and for some reason he had a problem with that, and started asking him where he was going, how old he was and where his parents were. The kid gave him very smart answers – that he didn’t have to tell him that, etc. He went back to his seat, and the old guy went back to bothering me and the young guy instead. After a while he turned to the boy again and demanded to know where he was going again, claiming to be from the police (which didn’t impress the boy the least). The old guy really pissed me off, and I wanted to tell him to stop it and leave the boy alone, but at some point he stopped anyway. I still hated myself because I didn’t say anything while he was still bothering the boy.
I once more told the old guy what transfers he needed to make, and this time it seemed like he actually got it. Then my stop came, and I got up to get off. The young man also got up to leave, and something was scratching at my brain at that moment, but I didn’t get it. While I waited for the elevator on the platform I saw that the boy, of course, also had gotten off the train. It clearly wasn’t his stop, but obviously he didn’t want to be alone in the car with that drunk old man. And I again kicked myself mentally, because when I saw that the young man was getting off, too, I should of course have stayed with the boy for another stop until the old guy got off.
I don’t know if the young man ever even got that far in his thought process (he was a man, after all), so maybe I should be glad that I actually happened to be on that particular train to begin with, and could at least distract the old guy much more than the young man would have. It still makes me really angry at myself that I didn’t stand up for the boy more. But since he was riding the train late at night all alone at his age, he probably already knows that all adults are assholes and that the only one he can rely on is himself.
Current obsession
Wouldn’t it be fun to build something like this:
(Photo by Anguskirk)
But I probably don’t have the money, skill, space or time to do that. However, I suspect it would be fully feasible if I compromised and started out with something like this:
(Photo by stbeck)
You can get those used for just a couple hundred euros, and if the structure is otherwise sound, all you have to do is painting, insulation, lining, and installing a stove and furniture. Then if all else failed, I could live the rest of my life in camping grounds and communes. Though I’d have to hire a driver any time it needed to be moved.
I have already decided that I would put a samovar above the sink for “running” water.
