Drawn when I was 15 years-old [larger version] with an obvious Neal Adams influence (though the borderline disco pose was my unfortunate invention).

Kurt and I made these comic book character drawings in high-school for a role-playing game we never really finished.

I’d been drawing these things for exactly three months (Feb 16, 1976; yes I dated them) but wouldn’t do any actual comics pages until that summer.

…this is the most nonsensical product name ever.

Another thing that happened while the blog was asleep: I joined Google Plus.

I don’t spend much time on social networks. My life is broken down roughly into a hierarchy of Work, Family, Food, Sleep, Friends, and Recreation and that last one usually involves family if possible. Also the first one takes up a huge part of each day.

Still, I’ve found my Twitter account useful for short bursts sent out to many people (about 230,000 followers as of this morning, though that seems to include more than my share of bots), and Facebook, well… you kinda have to have Facebook. So I do. But I’ve never been a fan.

Yesterday, I asked on all three a hypothetical question: If you had to get rid of either Google+ or Facebook forever, which would it be.

Despite being only a few weeks old, G+ users (in 142 responses, as of this morning) were nearly unanimous that they’d nuke FB without batting an eyelash. My Facebook fan page followers (my personal page is pretty small and hard to link to) offered 34 responses, with less enthusiasm, but mostly stood by the service. Twitter… well, take a look.

Google paid me to do the Chrome comic a few years ago, so I can’t ever claim to be 100% impartial, but the truth is I kinda love Google Plus so far, and will probably shift my attention there much more than Facebook as the service grows.

What little attention I can spare for these things anyway. Still have a book to draw!

Okay, we’ve moved apartments and gone to Comic-Con and back. Let’s get back to babbling about random comics news.

By far the coolest thing to happen in comics while I was on break these last few weeks was the debut of Derek Kirk Kim’s new video series Mythomania.

I have a cameo in the first episode but I’d be highly recommending these wonderful videos even if I wasn’t in it (oh Hell, especially if I wasn’t in it).

It’s a wonderful and funny portrait of aspiring young cartoonists so dead-on, it feels to me like I’ve known them for years.

Watch the first three episodes right now, and see if you don’t fall in love.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us at Con, and to all our friends for filling our days with happy reunions and crazy conversations. It’s my family’s Thanksgiving (complete with the eating too much) and the year wouldn’t feel complete without it.

We’re moving apartments this month right before Comic-Con, so to devote as much time to drawing as I can, I’m taking a little vacation from blogging until after the big show (and the big move) is done.

I have two Comic-Con panels scheduled at this time:

Thursday, July 21, 3:30 – 4:30. True Stories. Panelists Chester Brown (Paying for It), Tom Devlin (Art Director of D&Q), Peter Kuper (Stop Forgetting to Remember), Leland Myrick (Feynman), and Thomas LeBien (Publisher of Hill & Wang’s Novel Graphics line) discuss the ins and outs of non-fiction graphic novel stories. What are the lines between truth and fiction when images are involved in a story? Moderated by Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics). Room 26AB

And…

Saturday, July 23, 11:00 – Noon. Will Eisner: Visionary. Will Eisner — artist, storyteller, entrepreneur — played a central role in comics from the Golden Age to the Computer Age. During his career, Eisner reinvented sequential art and himself to overcome obstacles and create new media. A combination of idealist and realist, he led the way and helped create the comics and graphic novels that we know today. Learn about Will Eisner from those who personally knew and worked with him. Join moderator Charles Brownstein (executive director of the CBLDF, author of Eisner/Miller), Denis Kitchen (artist, author, publisher, Eisner’s agent and longtime friend), Paul Levitz (writer, former president/publisher of DC Comics), Scott McCloud (artist, author, theoretician about comics and sequential art), Diana Schutz (executive editor, Dark Horse Comics), and Jeff Smith (writer/cartoonist, Bone, Rasl) to learn more about the “Father of the Graphic Novel.” Room 9

I’ll update this post as details become available including any new panels or signings.

And as always, I highly recommend Tom Spurgeon’s excellent Comic-Con Guide, especially if this is your first time.

Enjoy the month of July! Back to blogging July 26.

Happy 4th of July to all my, um… fellow Americans.

And happy just another day to the rest of the world!

Favorite comment this morning: “Thomas Jefferson” was a trending topic on Twitter, so Bill Corbett responded, “Did he die?!”

…but I’m grateful to be on the list.

I’m sure most of you have already seen both, but just in case, this and this are not to be missed (and are very different kinds of wonderful).

[via nearly Everybody]

Hans Rickheit just began serializing a new comic called Cochlea and Eustachia. Looks weird and fascinating. No surprise there!

He also recently contributed his distinctive line art to Paul Slade’s Attenborough-inspired story of insect horror Mother’s Day. Rickheit’s intricate art always seemed a bit insectoid to me, style-wise, so it’s a good match.

Rickheit had some financial problems lately and could always use a little help. It’s never been easy to push the boundaries of your chosen art form, but we should be grateful for those willing to do so.

The premiere mad scientist of webcomics Daniel Merlin Goodbrey has released a new comic for the Android Market called Jack’s Abstraction.

I’m in the iOS walled garden for now, so I can’t comment much beyond that, but if you’ve got an Android device, I’m sure it’ll be worth it (and hey, it’s free).

And for those of you who do read comics on Android devices, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the market’s potential.

Oh! And sort of on topic: It occurs to me that though I tweeted it while in Norway at EuroVis, I don’t think I linked from the blog to Google’s latest comics adventure, a fun little explanation of Google Correlate.