The online home of Adventure Cartoonist Lucy Bellwood
I had the immense pleasure of returning to the Happy Go Lucky Podcast this week to talk about my time away in the Grand Canyon. Our theme was “Escape” which led to a lot of talk about how we can create space for making things in our day-to-day routine without running away to the woods. Or maybe you’ve gotta run away to the woods. Or Ireland. There are lots of options on the table.
Anyway, tune in here for an hour of titillating discussion about the creative process and, as always, boats.
In accordance with the Universal Law of My Rubbish Immune System, I’ve come down with a nasty post-CAKE illness, but at least I made it through the first leg of convention season with my health intact!
The trip to Chicago was an absolute blast. Not only was the show full of lovely comics and new friends, I got to go out dancing twice* and catch so much sweet live blues. There were also rooftop BBQ parties and thunderstorms and it was splendid.
*There are rumors I won a booty-shaking competition, but I can neither confirm nor deny the fact.
Here’s a big ol’ photodump of images from the trip — including a pilgrimage to Myopic Books, the ACTUAL CAKE they provided for exhibitors, Mr. Sam Alden, my lovely table mate, Ms. Rachel Foss, my new partner in cross-country comics crime, getting a peek at the new issue of Symbolia, selling out of True Believer, various doodles, and the fabulous kale and pulled pork I had for lunch on the last day. More news as soon as I stop feeling like someone shoved a couple golf balls down my throat!
What ho, blog friends! Just wanted to let you know I’ll be appearing on a panel in Portland tomorrow as part of this neat event called The Wild. If you have an interest in print goodness, why not stop by to hear Sarah Mirk, Zack Soto, Francois Vigneault, and yours truly discuss the state of comics and independent publishing in the digital age? The panel will be moderated by Justin Hocking and it’s absolutely free! It all goes down tomorrow (Tuesday) from 7pm to 8:30pm at the Independent Publishing Resource Center (1001 SE Division St). More details on the event site.
See you there!
Okay gang, sorry for the suuuuper short notice, but it looks like I’ll be tabling at Emerald City Comicon this weekend! The show runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and boasts the biggest attendance of comics and pop culture stars in the Pacific Northwest. To give you an idea of just how massive this party’s gonna be, here’s a map of the Periscope Studio table block, where I’ll be squished in between Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett and Jonathan Case.
Yeah, that’s right. You have to cross a SKY BRIDGE to get to us. How cool is that?
Tickets are actually sold out, so if you’re already planning to go to the show, be sure to stop by table 2621 and say hi! I’ll have Baggywrinkles 1, 2, and 3, True Believer, Tales from the Fragment, Ladies’ FIGHT FOR YOUR ART shirts (sorry dudes, sold out of yours), button packs, mini prints, monkey’s fists, and some crazy little animal watercolors for your perusal, purchase, and enjoyment.
Hope to see you there!
Busy times, everyone! I’ve got a recap of the last couple weeks (including the awesomeness that was VanCAF) up over on the Kickstarter blog, and since I’ll be bum deep in fulfilling rewards for the next lifetime I’m going to let that speak for itself for now.
In the meantime I’ve been buzzing around Portland getting my draw on — most recently with the excellent folks at Live Wire! Radio, who were kind enough to invite me over to live sketch one of their shows. For those of you unfamiliar with Live Wire!, they make audio-based delights to enrich the mind and tickle the fancy of any discerning radio listener. I strongly suggest you check them out. This particular taping featured rock star guests like Lizz Winstead, Ted Rall, Daniel H. Wilson, Mike Russell, Star Anna, and Kasey Anderson, as well as Faces For Radio Theater, the house team of actors and entertainers responsible for keeping things real on stage. And here, in all their messy glory from my much-the-worse-for-wear sketchbook, they are!
Sadly, this was the last show of the season, but I’m looking forward to more of these in September. Keep an eye out!
I’ll leave you all with a couple Vancouver-themed pages from my sketchbook…
Until next time!
As I work on compiling all the color and ink files today, I thought I’d throw up a finished preview page so you guys can get a feel for how things are shaping up. More to come soon!
So, you guys may’ve noticed that things have been a little quiet here on the comics front. Fear not! Things are happening and this post will hopefully clear up a few questions about where my energy’s going these days and when you can expect to see some new sequential work.
I’m currently neck deep in my 34-page thesis comic (tentatively titled “True Believer”), which should be out in time for Stumptown this year. I wrapped up the pencils last week after a grueling page-a-day push through February, and am now taking the opportunity for a little downtime over Spring Break. I’ll begin inking in the next few days, then do color, layout, and printing in April. This is, of course, on top of full-time school commitments and a few freelance jobs, so there may be delays, but the progress in February was really encouraging. I’ll be posting some more pictures as I start inking so you can get a sense of what it’ll look like.
In the meantime, the blog will be featuring (surprise, surprise) more illustrations! I’m making the shift from my little Pentel Pocket Brush to the real deal Windsor & Newton Series 7 for this project, so I’m trying to do as much freelance work as possible with the W&N to get the feel of it.
Thanks for hanging in there, everyone! I’m getting really excited to share this new work with you. So excited, in fact, that I’ve taken to walking around like this:
And with that burst of absurdism, I bid you adieu.
A couple quick comics from the past few weeks to keep you all entertained while I scrabble around for scans and photos to put in the big Fragment wrap-up post. Also: submitted my registration info for Stumptown this year! Trepidation! Nobody hears back until December, but that’s no reason not to use it as impetus for producing lots and lots of goodies.
Anyway…on to the art!
I occasionally resent the fact that Portland remains relatively habitable in the winter, since Vermont seems to have a lot going for it in the “soul-crushing cold as impetus for cartoons and nothing else forever” department. However, the onset of fall generally leads to an inclination to stay indoors and slave away over a hot drawing board, which is a fine substitute in my book.
Also: Hoo boy. Sleeping in! Am I right?
Keep yer eyes peeled for more excitement soon.
As promised, here are the panels for the wrapper portion of Tales from the Fragment, my latest book/comic project. The prompt was to make a low-budget piece dealing with the term “mapping.” It’ll be printed in an edition of 15 for the class, but I’m inclined to adapt it for further production when that’s finished. We’ll see. Anyway, in order for the orientation and layout to make sense, I’ve included a quick n’ dirty photo walk-through of what the final project will look like below the illustrations.
Cover – Interior
The WalkthroughSo, not the most glamorous photography in the world, and the choices for what goes where have also shifted somewhat, but the basic premise is the same. The illustrations above will be printed onto each side of the wrapper so that every step of unfolding it brings a new panel into view. The folded piece of 8.5″x11″ found inside the wrapper works on a similar system, ultimately leaving the reader with a full-page illustration of the map fragment that’s been stolen by our intrepid hero.
That’s all for now! Stay tuned for, uh, more of this? Also: gag panels for this week’s IPRC session! Woo-hoo!