When I started my high school night class I was five months pregnant, but because I was thin normally, I didn't look much bigger until December. I really didn't want the other students to know I was preggers so I tried to disguise my plumpness with big clothes. The last few weeks of my class were tricky, but I made it through til the Christmas holidays, then I had Alex on the 27th of December. I went back to my class about two weeks later, and nobody knew I'd just had a baby!

When I started my high school night class I was five months pregnant, but because I was thin normally, I didn't look much bigger until December. I really didn't want the other students to know I was preggers so I tried to disguise my plumpness with big clothes. The last few weeks of my class were tricky, but I made it through til the Christmas holidays, then I had Alex on the 27th of December. I went back to my class about two weeks later, and nobody knew I'd just had a baby!

I will be posting four pages a week of my second book, with all the word balloons in place. This is from my preview book I presented at TCAF last month. I'll try not to be redundant with the comments I made on the pages I've already posted, but I've done sixty pages so far and I'm curently working on forty more to add to this book. There will be more editing that needs to be done, so if anyone wishes to make suggestions, by all means feel free to do so!

One of the things I miss about Toronto is the snow - ironically that was one of the reasons why we left. You really don't know what you'll miss til you don't have it. A snowflake is a beautiful thing until there are too many of them!! One of the things my McLuhan studies have taught me is that the way you learn about something is to take it away. What is the effect when a new technology apears then disappears? We get used to something when we have it all the time but when it's gone, it becomes precious, as McLuhan observed:

"When the globe becomes a single electronic web, with all its languages and cultures recorded on a single tribal drum, the fixed point of view of print becomes irrelevant - however precious."

Hi everyone!

Sorry I missed a few weeks of posting, but I'm in travel mode and I'll be in Ontario till the end of July - living the nomad life. This picture of me is at TCAF, and the energy there was amazing! Every year it just gets bigger with more artists and more interested people of all ages and backgrounds who are there absorbing all the creativity. 

I loved being part of this event and having interesting conversations with the people stopping by my booth. A BIG thanks to everyone at the show, and to my booth-bunny Ken (my biggest fan!) who's always supportive of my artistic pursuits, and also to Emily who helped me out.

I hope to keep on track with posting pages from my second book, at least once a week. Cheers for now - Joan :^)

This is a reminder about TCAF next weekend! I will be there as an exhibitor with copies of my books and limited additions of the first chapter of book two, AURORA BOREALICE.  If you can't make it to this amazing convention, be sure to check out the TCAF web page for all the other exhibiting artist. Anyone who has been fallowing my blog - I hope to see you there!!!

After the convention I'll be posting a few completed pages a week from my second book, with all the word balloons this time!
:^)

I did this comic in 1980, it was my first crude attempt at sequential narrative using word balloons. We took a trip to BC and then to California. Enjoy! 

These are drawings I did of our trip to NYC back in the late 70s.  The upper left picture at the Marvel office with Tom Orzakowski an amazing comic book letterer and Dean Motter, an amazing artist who collaborated with Ken on many comic projects, he's in my first book. The next picture is at Times Square, the next is at a great restaurant. Next row. we went to a Marx Bros. play then stayed in a creepy hotel. Bottom left we're on the top of the World Trade Centre, then off to Blooming Dales and because we couldn't afford a cab in those days, we took the subway. New York was pretty run down back then but it was still a fascinating city to visit. 

  I 'm  putting these drawings in my graphic novel  to show  my  early  attempt at visual narrative. They were really more like illustrated snapshots of our trip,  in the format of SX70 photos. Ken always took a camera were ever we went but I wanted something different, so this is what I came up with. Pictures without words in my own simple style.