July...

So ... the first issue of the second volume of Miranda Mercury is penciled.  Getting inked and colored as I type.

Meanwhile?  I'm pretty busy, but enjoying what I do.  Thumbnailing the next issue of MM2, while also working on a children's book that I'm pretty excited about (if you take a look at my recent additions, you might get a clue just who the children's book features .  Not only that, but I will be doing a short story for the Flash Gordon Annual that's coming in the fall ... which is a childhood dream.  I've always been a huge, huge Flash Gordon fan, which probably won't surprise any Miranda Mercury readers out there...

Otherwise ... after a lot of gnashing of teeth and hard fought resistance ... I finally set up a Facebook page.  Yes, really.  It's right here, if you're interested:

Lee really is on Facebook...

I'm also really, really enjoying the collaborative process in general right now.  While there is a special thrill in creating something completely on your own, and seeing it through from beginning to end, working with somebody else scratches a completely different itch, and I'm having a blast.  I love getting the newest script pages for MM2 and having to work it all out.  There are always a million ways to 'solve' a script, some better than others, but there's a real joy in finding a way you haven't tried before.  I'm sort of making that my mission right now ... to never approach a problem the same way twice.  It makes all this ... less easy.  But more rewarding.  And let's face it ... if you want to do things the easy way, you're not drawing comics, right?

But storytelling is what is driving me more and more.  I love a pretty drawing as much as the next guy, and appreciate the work it takes ... but man, it's the storytelling that I am falling in love with all over again.

In that vein, there's a book that I am rereading for the fifth or sixth time.  It's called Framed Ink, by Marcos Mateu-Mestre, and it's glorious.  Some of it is stuff that, if you draw comics at all, you may already do on a subconscious level, but some of it?  Some of it is just so simple, and so easy that I feel stupid for never working it out before.  It's a great, great book, and well worth whatever they're charging.

Hey, I think I've blabbed enough.  Dunno what that was all about.  Strong coffee?