Review in Storming The Tower

Lauren Davis of Storming The Tower has written perhaps my favorite review of "Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales" yet (click to read it). Maybe it's because she doesn't even mention the cover art. Maybe it's because it's insightful and extremely flattering. Until the next review, I'll savor having my ego stoked just a bit!

Interview in Newsarama

Henry Chamberlain interviewed me for the Newsarama comic blog. See if you got a shout-out (click to read it)!

There's also a review of the book here (no mention of that polarizing cover!).

Review in Brews and Books

Josh Christie of the 'Brews and Books' blog wrote a kind review of "Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales" (click to read it). To add confusion to my informal poll, he simultaneously liked and disliked the cover!

Zygote Seagoat?

Karen got her first (internal) baby photo today. We each immediately drew our interpretations of the ultrasound, but hopefully the baby won't turn out to look like either options.

She's in her 9th week, and the due date is December 21st, which is the last day of Sagittarius. Both my brother and father are Capricorns, so if she's one day late or more we may be adding another sea-goat to the mix. As much as I love my brother & dad, the descriptions of Capricorns sound like Alex P. Keaton from 'Family Ties'...hardworking, serious, conservative, humorless, prone to depression, etc., so we're kinda hoping for Sagittarius for the kid's sake!

Review in BeacoupKevin.com

A new review of "Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales" on Kevin Church's BeacoupKevin.com blog (click to read it).

Short and semi-sweet. He seems to like most of it, but O.D.s on the animal-welfare theme. Chalk another vote up for "hates the cover".

I got a table at the MoCCA festival (Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art), so I'll be at both MoCCA and SPX (Small Press Expo) this year. This will be my first time as a publisher rather than a customer. I'm desperately trying to get my Snoop Dogg mini finished in time for MoCCA in three weeks. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

Review in I Love Rob Liefeld

A new review of Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales on the I Love Rob Liefeld blog(click link to read it).

I did worry about the legibility of the title on my cover illustration, but ultimately I wanted the old man in a dirty hectic city setting, so graffiti seemed the natural choice for typography.

I'm making progress on the Snoop Dogg themed mini (just finished inking the third page out of the six I have sketched out so far. The first three two-page comics will depict three different dreams I've had guest-starring Snoop Doggy Dogg. The other comic will probably be something less whimsical to balance things out. I've been constructing the story in my mind each night (which makes it harder to fall asleep!) using some actual experiences from when I was a teenager. I'm hoping to work on telling a subtle yet compelling story with a focus on character development.

Karen's got some pretty horrifying morning/noon/night sickness from the fava-bean sized foetus we like to call "LuLi" ("Lulu" if it's a girl, "Eli" if it's a boy), so I've taken on all dishwashing, cooking and errand running duties. This hasn't left a whole lot of time for drawing, but I'm doing my best. Speaking of, what am I doing wasting my precious time?

1 + 1 = 3

I know you're not supposed to spill the beans until around 3 months in case (knock on wood) something bad happens, but apparently Karen has shared the news on her blog (god, I still hate that word, "blog"). Yep, there's another little Yost brewing.

Karen's words of joy upon showing me the positive pee-stick test were, "What have we done?".

We just watched "The Business of Being Born" documentary, and it scared the bejezus out of me. For those of you who haven't seen it, it basically exposes the simple fact that OB/GYNs in hospitals know absolutely nothing about natural child-birth, and that they invariably force women in labor into using drugs that cause a cascade of problems (leading to the use of even more drugs) usually leading to a C-Section.

Interestingly enough, we have doctor appointments booked with a doctor at The Roosevelt Hospital (which is featured in the movie!) on recommendation from one of Karen's friends. They have a natural birthing center within the hospital. If anything should go wrong (knock on wood again) during the delivery, they just take you upstairs to the regular hospital.

Anyhow, to answer your questions:
- We think she's around 8 weeks pregnant, but haven't been to a doctor yet.
- She's got really intense morning/noon/night sickness that has pretty much kept her on the couch permanently
- "Eli" if it's a boy, "LuLu" if it's a girl
- Yes, you can get xerox copies of the "Placenta Print"
- Yes, Karen will be eating the placenta

Review in Comix Talk

Xavier Xerexes (what an amazing name!) just reviewed "Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales" on the Comix Talk blog (click on the link to read it).

He really liked the title story, but panned most of the others. Comics are subjective, so everyone's opinion is valid. I know that not everyone is going to like all of my comics (hell, even I don't!), but I do appreciate honest reactions. Criticism helps me improve my work.

His main beef seemed to be that the comics dealing with animal-welfare issues were not complex enough...not enough of a narrative or character development. This is actually something that I worry about greatly. All of those stories had to fit certain parameters assigned by the comic publisher (Young American Comics, not the publisher of the Old Man Winter collection) including length and other aspects (for instance, "All is Forgiven" had to include six comic icons: a bunny, an insect, a zombie, a monkey, an alien and a robot!). Those early stories could definitely have been better, and since the Old Man Winter story is my most recent, I figure I'm on the right path.

I've gotten quite a few very positive reactions on the "Roadtrip" story and supposedly "Circus" made at least one person cry, so I don't feel like they were a total failure.

In any case, I do appreciate Xavier's criticism and will strive to make the next animal-welfare comic better.