All apologies

Where is this afternoon going? Super-sorry. I know I’ve been poo about posting up the usual shenanigans today — no Blake, no Girl of Summer, no Batman, like practically nothing at all yet — but I was fully absorbed in a project this morning. Must’ve been all this Vietnam talk lately, but I basically woke up today with only one goal on my mind:

Draw Beetle Bailey with a necklace of human ears.

Reference image.

Not in a funny way. In a dark and serious, satirical but sad way, like to make a point.

Way harder than it sounds, as it turns out. Reminds me of this great idea I had a few months back for a single-panel comic of a rat in hawaiian shirt and boater hat with a little cane and tiny specs, standing upright, top legs like arms spread grandly, saying, “Welcome — to Thoracic Park!” And the rat-John Hammond saying this was to be inside a rotting human rib cage along with little precious mousey-rat versions of Doctors Sattler, Grant, and Malcolm, and it would have been wonderful (is there a name for what’s wrong with me?) but for the ass-huge stumbling block of my complete inability to transfer the idea in as effective a way as I’d hoped from mind to paper. Blocked it fifteen different ways and it never gelled.

It’s the end of the world as we know it. Did You Know?

Looks like that’s going to be the story with Beetle going Apocalypse Now-style native. Another for the Fail tray. I’m going to try a little more later today. Keep you posted.

I hate it when my ambition oustrips my art skills. Blarg.

Daily Batman: Smells like bat spirit edition

Smells like bat spirit.

Vintage shot of perfumiere and freakstyle lovin’ Hélène Rochas, photographed by André Ostier at a masquerade ball in Paris, 1946. The event was called “Nuit du Pré Catelan” and was held on the bois de Boulogne. (thanks to Alecia Reddick photography blog for this credit!)

Found this picture via a June review of Rochas Paris’s 2009 perfume release, Eau Sensuelle, at mimifroufrou. Don’t be fooled by their french name and their claims of truthiness to the Rochas house’s roots. They are owned by Procter and Gamble now. Everyone Sells Out.

Advice from a patron saint

Aside from the actual Christ, Kurt is my second personal Jesus.

“You know, a person can say a lot of stupid things when they’re going through stressful times in their life. I don’t regret the majority of things I was trying to convey, but they didn’t really translate right.” –Kurt Cobain

You can go track down the article this quote came from at Rolling Stone or whatever, but remember that Kurt made a shirt to wear to an interview with them once that said, “Corporate magazines still suck.” Actually, this might’ve been from Melody Maker so that would make my slander inoperative, but I am too lazy to google it.

Point is, the right words can be tough to come by. I am in a Place with some Things and have been on break, just trying to hold on to rocks, and I have found a few, and they know who they are, so thank you to everyone I spent time with this weekend and who on the larger scale has been in touch with me lately. I’m sorry that my lame attempts at expressing my gratitude are probably not accurately translating. I don’t have better words to articulate how spirit-renewing you are and how much it means to me to have good people in my life. Thank you.

Advice: Come as you are

“I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.” –Kurt Cobain