Since middle-age sleep patterns have come up, I thought this Sunday cartoon from 2007 would be appropriate. Maybe it sheds some light on why so many of us have a hard time sleeping through the night.
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This year, Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay would be 107, and holding up much better than I since 2005, when this cartoon appeared. On to book signings. Eventually, I will post a calendar with all events listed, for perusal at your leisure, but, for now, I can tell you I have scheduled several appearances in late winter and early spring. So far, they are all in the southeastern U.S., but please be patient; we’ll be working outward. As evidence of this strategy, the first announced appearance will be a family affair, although everyone is invited. I will be at The Gnu’s Room in Auburn, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 4, beginning at 4 p.m. The Gnu’s Room is an Auburn institution, an independent bookstore with a distinctive personality. Did you know a gnu and a wildebeest are the same thing? It was gnus to me!
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Remember last week, when I mentioned that I was fortunate enough to be invited, in 2005, for a two-month mini-residency (for lack of a better term) at La Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême, France? Actually, I invited myself, but that’s another story. Anyway, the above cartoon was drawn during my visit there. Notice the window and the side piece in the first panel. The rendering of both was heavily influenced by the architecture and furnishings of my little apartment and that of the other buildings around me. This was not intentional; I just noticed it myself. In country a month, and I was going native! This is the sort of thing that happens to cartoonists and real artists.
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I know some of you have been experiencing severe winter weather the last week or two, particularly in the northeast and midwest, but I can’t escape the feeling it’s going to be a mild winter and an early spring around these parts. The temperature has been normal to mild for the first month of winter, and it’s been uncommonly wet. Today, the tornado sirens are blaring every half hour or so as the latest in a series of warm fronts passes. It’s more like March or April.
As I write this, there’s a tornado warning in effect. I live in a two-story brick house (solid brick!), so the pantry underneath my stairwell is a cozy, indoor storm shelter. An earthquake, however, would be another matter.
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I don’t have much time today, but I did find a tidbit this morning. All weird things must come to an end, I guess. Happy Birthday, Edgar!
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Since I brought it up, some of you will remember that I reported from the 2005 festival international de la bande dessinée. I’ve repeated that coverage here before, but it’s been years since, so I thought I’d post a link to those old pages and let you blunder around the archives. Warning: you’ll be all alone with no one to assist you. Budget cutbacks have forced us to furlough the archives staff. No, I haven’t given you the link yet, because I want you to read this first: go to the bottom of the page, to the last entry, and start with the link that says, “Well, let’s go!” Once you get started, click on the photographs to advance. For the next day’s coverage, start from the second-to-last post (They’re in reverse order!) Well, let’s go!
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When I drew this cartoon in 2005, I was a guest of La Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême, France. “The House of Authors” is sort of a residency program connected to, um, a cartoon school there, that, uh… well, it gets complicated as only French things can. No one associated with the various institutions could explain it all to me exactly. Of course, it didn’t help that I did not speak French, but were they ever good to me! I had a wonderful two months there.
My French friends are, as I write this, gearing up for the 2012 version of The International Comic Strip Festival (loosely translated), one of the world’s best comic festivals, held every January in Angoulême. I wish we were there!
This cartoon actually was inspired by one of my favorite cafes in Angoulême. The original Chat Noir in Paris has been gone for more than 100 years, and today it is remembered more for its iconic black cat logo by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen than anything. We still were selling a ton of those posters when I worked in the college bookstore.
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I’m in the process of lining up book signings. When I have enough finalized, I will include a schedule here on the Web site. I’ve been living with this book project so long, it seems as if it’s gone on for years, and I know it must seem that way to you who visit this site regularly. The truth is, it’s just getting started. At least it’s still fun.
The first used copy I’ve seen showed up on Amazon this weekend; it was advertised as slightly worn and priced $24.95, same as a new copy. Call me silly, but I’d buy a new one if I were you!
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Evidence now suggests there probably is, on average, at least one planet for each of the 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, certain astronomers are saying. While it was not long ago we pondered whether there were any planets outside our solar system at all, it is now being said planets may be as plentiful in the cosmos as grains of sand on the beach. Also this morning, NASA says it has made a mid-course correction which puts its latest Mars probe on course to arrive at its destination in August of this year. Given that Mars is our planetary neighbor, I’m guessing we won’t be exploring all those new planets anytime soon.
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Venturing into international relations, I read this morning that the U.S. Navy went to the rescue of a boatload of Iranian mariners in distress in the Persian Gulf—for the second time in less than a week. The Navy is there, of course, because diplomatic dialog has reached the so’s-your-old-lady stage. I can’t help it. I think it’s great that while our sailors steam back and forth waiting for World War III to erupt, they make time to rescue those in peril on the oldest shipping lanes in the world. It’s the same warm-and-fuzzy feeling I get whenever I am reminded of the unofficial Christmas truce of World War I. Of course, highers-up on both sides put a stop to that.
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