So, I’m sitting at home, kicking back, congratulating myself on being ready for the Word Under The Street (hey, can I get a ride from anybody?) days earlier than expected, back from the radio show, got the kitty litter and I’m looking forward to a NICE CUPPA TEA when…

There’s a reason they call them bird brains. For some reason the chickadees have taken to playing chicken on my balcony railing with the cat. One landed on the railing in full view of Lomu who was quietly preening herself on the lawn chair, about two feet from the bird. So of course Lomu did what cats do and with a mad scramble caught the bird and ran inside. Oh no, what do I do? If the birds too badly injured I’ll have to get it away from the cat to put it out of it’s misery and of course whenever I got close to the bird Lomu picks it up and carries it to another room. It just seems cruel they way she kept it alive just to play with but perhaps that’s not what she had in mind at all. I’m told sometimes cats bring live prey to their humans because they’re trying to teach their human companions how to hunt! She’s done this sort of thing with mice before. So, we’re in the kitchen, the bird sits frozen on the floor with the cat looking on and I’m thinking “That bird looks like it’s not badly injured…” when it takes off like a rocket, zips pass my head, through the bedroom and living room and out the patio door to freedom, with the cat ineffectually chasing after it! I hope it’ll be okay. It did leave a lot of feathers strewn around the place, hard to vacuum something so light. Lomu was no doubt disappointed in me, but she got over it. To be fair, the crows were screeching at her earlier from a safe distance earlier, not something to endear her to their feathery brethren.

On the Inkstuds Show today we reviewed recent books that impressed us, we both brought along Alison Bechdel’s “Fun House”, one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in awhile. I brought in a Joe Sacco, I’m really looking forward to interviewing him later in the week for the radio show, and the new Scott McCloud book, “Making Comics“! Now a new Scott McCloud book is an event in comics publishing, Scott has done more to promote serious discussion of comics and graphic arts than anyone else in North America. “making Comics” is a graphic novel on how-to well, make comics, a genre I collect (you never know, might learn something) so it is more practical then his academic ground-breaking “Understanding Comics“, although I think you‘d do well to read them together. (I admit I wasn’t as pleased with “Reinventing Comics”, I’m not a big fan of the God Machine (although it does have it’s place) and found the tone a bit millennial. So far in Making Comics the computer is a choice, it’s about comics delivery and more about fundamental principles. I’ve read about a 100 pages so far, it’s remarkable for me to think of all the decisions I make as a cartoonist without even thinking about it. So much creativity comes from intuition and reading comics all your life. I hope that making Comics will help me think more deeply about drawing comics, even at a subconscious level. Making Comics is meant to be a textbook so all you aspiring cartoonists and even some comics veterans seeking a deeper understanding of the craft there’s much to learn from “Making Comics.” I’ve been told that Scott will be be on tour with the book to Vancouver, I’ll see about getting an interview for inkstuds!

When I got my copy of “Making Comics” home I noticed with dissappointment that one of the corners was dinged. Then I remembered when I had Scott sign my beaten-to-rat-shit copy of “Understanding Comics” to be signed at San Diego years ago he was pleased to see I had obviously been reading my copy over and over again. So, I’ll have to see how beat up I can get my copy of “Making Comics” before he comes to town…