This has nothing to do with the strip — As a proud sis, I’d like to give my brother a plug for his wonderful new photography book featuring his home state of NH (yes, he beat me to the publishing punch). Brad has been capturing nature imagery all his adult life; before that he enjoyed torturing his siblings. For more detailed info and a comprehensive look at his work, check out Brad’s website .

Now Available to order: “SIGHTS UNSCENE: NEW HAMPSHIRE” !!!136 pages, 123 images, 9 1/2 X 9 1/2 inches.Interspersed with quotes from Philosophers, Artists, and Scientists.Divided into Rural, Scenic, and Urban sections.Soon to be available through Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.Com, etc

To order, send $39.95 for each book plus $8 shipping to:

Sights Unscene
PO Box 5445
Weirs Beach, NH 03246

OR call for more information or credit card transactions at: 603-366-7700 (Mondays and Thursdays)
OR for even more information, send email to: brad@sightsunscene.com or call 603-491-3297

“New England is a special place, ripe with treasures for an artist in any medium. Brad’s work provides us the pleasure of experiencing these places through his distinct perspective and, whether traveling with him 1000 feet above the landscape or following him along a seldom traveled back road, we are allowed to see moments that are all too often missed.

Brad journeys through the bounty of New Hampshire’s four seasons and graciously allows us to walk or even fly beside him then stop and consider that unique moment: a page pulled from his visual journals. It is a harvest of personal insight and an adventure well worth taking.”

by David Mendelsohn (”Among his many awards and honors, [David] has recently been declared a Nikon Legend.” Foto Magazine)

Poor Nanci. Poor, poor Nanci. She’s a mess, people. At the end of September her husband left her and now she’s picking up the pieces.

I’d been toying around with the side character, Lisa’s, relationship for a while. No huge story line, just small teasers here and there. She and her business-travelling hubby have had issues and are seeing a marriage counselor. But Nanci’s marital woes seemed to come from thin air.

I did this intentionally – partly for the surprise factor, and partly because Nanci is meant to be a proud person, afraid of showing her vulnerabilities. So with her, bad news is dealt with at the last second.

It also shows a side of Jill that’s unique …her judgmental side. Not the everyday domestic variety, but a holier-than-thou attitude with her friends. Usually she’s the vulnerable, indecisive one in the crowd. Now she’s starting to feel a little superior when it comes to doling out relationship advice. Thankfully, her friends keep her in check:

Stay tuned for more Nanci drama. We’ll see what the new year holds…

Ah, the start of school in the Cleveland suburbs. The charged atmosphere. The nervous kids. The relieved parents. The nerve-racked decision-making of whether or not to send a nearly 6-year-old to kindergarten or first grade. As you’ve probably guessed, this series is based on our actual decision-making process.

To non-parents, this problem probably seems irrelevant, but to those with “fall babies” (kids who missed last year’s Kindergarten cut-off date), this is an agonizing, life-or-death situation (at least to neurotics like me).

Our child is academically ready for first grade. She can read, write, and knows preliminary math. She already conquered private kindergarten (which acts as a pre-K if necessary). But socially… that’s another story.

My daughter loves to play the “baby.” That is, she looks up to older kids and her maturity level is on par with preschoolers. She’s also on the small side for her age and in group situations can have the attention span of a gnat.

So…we’re holding her back. Better to have a head start than fall behind, I think. My husband disagrees. He wants her to forge ahead and challenge herself. But he graciously took the backseat on this one. That is, until Kindergarten screening takes place and she beats the training pants off the other rugrats. Or so he thinks.

If you’re a habitual Pajama Diaries reader, you’ll notice this is a subject I periodically focus on (in fact, the term’s so familiar to me, I just call it SR). Our kids, who are so sweet-natured alone, become the spawns of Satan anytime they’re around each other for more than 3 seconds. Okay, I’m exaggerating. In actuality, it’s about 50% best of friends, 50% hatin’ on each other.

We had a reprieve in the fall/early winter when they joined forces and decided to become roommates. We pushed our younger daughter’s bed into the older child’s bedroom. It seemed perfect: they kept each other company and also kept each other from getting scared at night. Then came the spring chill. Like the effects of an exorcism, the winter reprieve served to keep the demons temporarily at bay; now those demons are back and more spiteful than ever.

We’re taking steps to calm the storm again. I’m reading everything I can get my hands on about SR, and we’re trying to get the kids to work things out themselves. The one ray of light is that when they DO get along, they’re extremely close. ‘Course, that’s usually when they’re conspiring against us…

Thankfully SR makes for terrific comic fodder…

I’ve created more on this subject…be on the lookout in July and August.

Normally this blog centers around the creation of a particular PD strip or strip series. But as my husband, Mike, and I gear up to go to the Reuben Awards (Oscars of cartooning) this Memorial Day weekend in New Orleans, I thought it’d be fun to backtrack and share some musings on the first and only Reubens we attended in Chicago, ’06.

With my strip barely launched – it had only been syndicated for two months – this event was intimidating to say the least. Surrounded by some of the greats, I relied on my outgoing husband to do much of the meeting and greeting while I stood there, open-mouthed, as he launched into conversations about the field of cartooning (mind you, he’s an I.T. guy) with giants like Jerry Scott, his wife, half the King Features executives, and countless other bigwigs. Most people outside King assumed he was the cartoonist and I was along for the ride.

Barely into the weekend, I started attending the seminars alone while Mike explored downtown Chicago. This forced me to introduce myself to other cartoonists and industry folks. Normally shy under these circumstances, I started to make friends and acquaintances. By the time the big awards show was underway, we were having a grand old time. The one hiccup was my choosing a long turquoise dress which stuck out like a sore thumb among the (mostly) black-clad attendees. Luckily a few glasses of wine got me over it.

One of the fun highlights was meeting some of Lynn Johnston’s posse (also known as her professional staff) in the ladies room. They were so lovely and friendly, and invited Mike and I up to a private “after party” somewhere in the depths of the luxury hotel. Unfortunately, the famed cartoonist was nowhere to be seen. But earlier, they managed to snap a quick photo of me with Ms. Johnston.

Here are a few photos from the event…the only photos I have, in fact:

This year, Mike and I look forward to meeting some new faces and greeting some familiar ones. I’m sure it’ll be a weekend to remember, and something to post about.

Of course, anyone who follows cartooning and comic strips understands that a creator’s drawing style usually changes throughout the years (just look at old Peanuts or Bloom County cartoons). Even PD, which is still relatively new, has undergone character transformations. Some of this has been unconscious, some completely predetermined.

The unconscious part was due to my being out of drawing practice when the strip launched. As I regained my skills, my drawings simply improved. Also, in the beginning, I had attempted to caricaturize the people in PD (i.e. making arms and legs rubbery, bodies shortened). This went against my inherent nature of naturalizing figures…that is, making their bodies/gestures a bit more realistic-looking like they are now.

Earlier I used thicker Micron pens, so the line quality was heavier. The colors I selected were also brighter. I seem to prefer a more  subdued palette these days…still love the gradation, though.

The predetermined part stems from the characters aging…especially the kids. The girls are taller, more mature-looking. All the characters’ eyes/noses are a little larger and bulbous, the adults’ faces slightly elongated. As for editing, I scrapped Amy’s baby talk early on (yep, you’re welcome).

Samples from early 2006:

Samples from 2008:

This May, readers who look closely may notice one very subtle change…hair. Amy and Jess’s hair will start growing a little longer. My older daughter always had short, kinky curls that tended to grow “up” rather than down. Gravity is just now starting to overtake it, which inspired the characters’ hair revolution. Anyway, I like the idea of toying with the characters’ hair a bit – short of sticking a thousand clips and bows in it like my kids do.

As for future parallels and whether Jill’s hips will someday expand and Rob’s hair will completely fall out (my husband shaves his head, so who knows what’s left), that’s yet to be determined. For now, I’m still in denial.

(PS New strips on the samples page coming soon. Stay tuned…)

I’ve never had a typical “girly” sense of humor. I hate “chick lit” and – other than Lynda Barry – was never particularly influenced by female cartoonists. Not that I don’t admire or read comic strips by other women. I absolutely do and I have…but I don’t necessarily seek them out over other ones.

An interesting fact: before Pajama Diaries, most of the cartoon protagonists I developed were men. They were always alter egos of myself and weren’t overtly feminine (other than displaying a few of my klutzy/neurotic tendencies). For some reason, on paper I used to feel more comfortable in the “male” mind. Obviously, this has changed. I’m glad it has; I think the world needs more women delivering the punchlines.

Still…I was happy to take a vacation from the female mindset and introduce a two-week series from Rob’s (the husband) standpoint. This series lasts until March 15th. I did it as an homage to my own long-suffering husband whose alter ego frequently plays the “straight man” in PD. In reality, he’s actually used to being more of the source of entertainment.

This was a fun series to write…as well as a much-needed break from my feminine side. Thanks for the inspiration, Honey!

(New Year’s Resolution Update: I’ve been workin’ my tailbone off and am now FIVE days ahead…on top of the regular five-week lead time for turning in strips. This is monumental, especially since my kids have had a couple of snow days recently. Yay, me!! Let’s hope this trend lasts…)

I just had an interview with a writer from my college alumni magazine (Wahington U, St Louis). While chatting with her, I mentioned an old, irreverent college strip that I tried to get syndicated after graduation, called “Zero.” Since it was a college-based strip, editors weren’t too keen on publishing it (although many wrote nice things in their rejection letters).

I’ve always had an affinity for this cartoon. I even showed it to the King Features editor, Jay Kennedy, during the PD launch just as a fun diversion. I also whipped out his glowing rejection letter.

Thought I’d post some of those early strips, drawn back in ‘92-ish. Figured they might inspire some younger cartoonists who are hoping to get syndicated, or provide them with an excuse to say, “Man, I can do sooo much better than this s**t!”

To read more about Zero click on the image

I recently came up with a new character, a specter of Jill’s former self from her teenage years who occasionally turns up in the bathroom mirror.

This character, whom I refer to as “80’s Jill,” serves several purposes. She’s there to remind Jill of earlier ideologies she sometimes forgets in her hectic, here-and-now mentality. Sometimes, she brings out former insecurities which Jill has tried to deny or forget. Other times, she’s just there to show off her gnarly hair roll.

80’s Jill creepily resembles my own high school yearbook photo minus the chubbier cheeks I sported back then (if I ever get the nerve, maybe I’ll post the photo). I like her so much, I decided to make her a reoccurring character in the strip.

On a different note…

New Year’s Resolution Update! :
I’ve managed to get ahead 2 days now.  I’m tempted to waste away one of those days due to the sniffles, but unless I have the plague, it’s back to the drawing board.

It’s been a hectic season. One nice thing: Hanukkah came early this year, so I was able to do most of the family
shopping before the mad rush. The cartoon character fared slightly differently:

Against better judgment, I bought my kids a big-ticket “educational” toy…one of those “Smart Globes” that you can update with online information. Normally the girls ignore the educational stuff, but I learned a trick…I didn’t force the toy on them but kept it sitting on our family room table like an odd little centerpiece. After a few days they began gravitating toward it. Once Mollie found the country named after her (“Mali”…close enough), she was hooked.

Meanwhile, I also gave them some much-desired Webkinz. While the globe was initially ignored, they were comforted by toys they really wanted. And never underestimate the lure of gift boxes…

Most of “our” family vacation (mine was about a day and a half long) was spent relaxing at home. At one point I became stir-crazy and forced an afternoon of culture onto my husband and kids. I dragged them semi-enthusiastically through the History Museum and then downright comatose through an Impressionism exhibit at the art museum. I think that gave them their fill for the year.

We also joined some other families at an indoor water park during a fun Xmas Day (yes, there actually is something else to do besides eat Chinese food) and spent another day volunteering at our synagogue. We helped make soup packages, artwork for hospice folk, and – I love this – “goody bags” for dogs and cats in animal shelters. Because I’m such a pack rat, the day inspired me to sort through the girls’ vast artwork collection and see about donating some to a kids’ hospital ward.

Yep, it was a jam-packed December-slash-early-January. Most of the time I was working, but it felt good to sleep in a little and enjoy the freedom of not having to coax the kids onto the bus or get them to do homework. A little relief goes a long way!

As for my New Year’s resolution (by the way, this was also an unmet resolution for ’07), I’m going to do my darnest to start earning myself some time off by working ahead. Believe it or not (if you’re a cartoonist you can believe it), this is an amazing feat. My initial cartoon launch was supposed to be Mother’s Day, 2006. It was pushed up to March, and what was supposed to be nice extra padding of a two-month lead forced me to barely meet my deadlines. I’ve never quite caught up and have been lucky so far not to have any emergency setbacks (oh yeah…I just jinxed myself).

Anyway, if I make it a goal of gaining two days each month, it is possible I could earn some substantial emergency/sick (me or kids) /vacation/personal/sanity/need to watch an 8-hour “Scrubs” marathon… time. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Happy New Year!