Photo Round-Up:
The Last Five Weeks in Photos.
Finally catching up on the my photo-posting! Below are images from November 6 onward; covering our stays in Upstate New York, England, New York City, a Boston Thanksgiving, and three great colleges in Pennsylvania. I didn't get photos of everything by any stretch of the imagination (the wedding of Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier, for example, wound up on Windy's camera) but seeing as there are 69 photos in this report, maybe it's just as well!
We're in Halifax, Nova Scotia as I write this, having visited Nova Scotia's premiere comics shop, Strange Adventures. Next stop: Montreal, Quebec and Millenium. Details on the Tour Page as always.
Today was Day 100 of the Making Comics Tour. 265 days to go!
November 6
Irvington, New York
Returning to Ivy's old apartment in Irvington, New York where she lived in until she was about 8 years old.
When I lived in nearby Tarrytown in the mid-'80s while working on my first comic, Zot!, I'd go for a long, long walk once a week to a comics store in Dobbs Ferry, and once or twice I'd stop by at this development and look at the Hudson River from the fence behind the development.
It wasn't until we were dating a few years later that I found out that I had actually been standing in Ivy's old back yard. At the time, I'd been secretly in love with her for several years, so there was a real chance that at least on one of those occasions -- standing at the fence, gazing at the river -- I'd been thinking of her.
The swing set where, I am told, certain traumatic incidents once occurred long ago.
Autumn!
There were several big piles of leaves near Ivy's old apartments. We made good use of them.
Our October trip to Vermont might have been the quintessential Autumn experience, but it wasn't until Ivy and I came back to New York and Massachussets that we saw the exact kind of Autumn we each grew up with. I just wish they still allowed the burning of leaves in our old stomping grounds. It would be great to smell that one more time.
November 7-14
London, U.K.
There's no way I can report on everything we saw the U.K. during our 8 days there, but here are a few images.
We figured we'd have to do at least some touristy things, so we checked out the Tower of London. Our guide had a lot of enthusiasm for the tower's gory history.
Sky who-does-not-smile-for-pictures was joined in her stone-face by Winter.
Here it works, however.
Jetlag.
I really like this picture. My kids suffer well.
Our first event was an informal signing at the iCA, graciously put together at the last minute by "the man at the crossroads" Mr. Paul Gravett. I stupidly failed to get any pictures of the signing or dinner afterward, but I did catch this shot of mad webcomics inventor Daniel Merlin Goodbrey who came out to join us.
Here we are, crossing the Thames River on our way to meet my old friend Ted Dewan and visit the Tate Modern.
Below us boats passed under the bridge in both directions. To our left, on another bridge, you could see both cars and bicycles. Above us and to the right, a blimp slowly glided by and a helicopter hovered, while two different jets could be seen in the distant sky. I don't recall if there was train on another bridge (I think there may have been) but I distinctly remember feeling like every type of transportation from the 20th century -- including walking! -- had been laid out for us to see like some vast, futuristic diorama.
My first U.K. speaking engagement was a private affair at London's Art Worker's Guild which Ivy wrote about at some length. Here, Winter and I stop to get a snap with Stephen Gottlieb, lute maker and Master Elect of the Guild. It was a grand old room that I spoke in, filled with portraits, busts and names of past masters including William Morris and Arthur Rackham. I had the pleasure of meeting Posy Simmonds there and many others.
(My other official job while in London was a full-day workshop for the Nielsen Norman group on Friday. No pictures of that, unfortunately.)
Sunday, we hooked up with Dave McKean and his glorious family for an outing. Here they are with the girls -- arranged by height! -- in front of the National Portrait Gallery. The David Hockney exhibit creeped Winter out (which is reasonable, I suppose) but we still managed to have a great time wandering the city afterward, doing nothing in particular.
Yolanda and Liam McKean demonstrate their superpower: getting Sky to smile for photos.
Oh, look! What city are we in again?
November 11
Nottingham, U.K.
Saturday (yeah, these are a bit out of order), Ivy's friend Kate joined us for a trip to Nottingham to visit the U.K.'s best comics shop Page 45.
Here we are on the underground, heading for the train station where I will famously fail to mind the gap resulting in the loss of my jacket as previously reported.
Mishaps aside, I have to say that I'm a big fan of the London Underground and its masterfully clear, well-designed map. If I lived there long enough, I think I'd actually enjoy getting to know each stop and honing my own mental map of the city.
Once again, I stupidly failed to get any photos of the glory that is Page 45, but here's co-founder Stephen Holland stopping for a photo with us on the way back to our train. I had some books in a Page 45 bag when I stopped into buy some snacks at the station's shop and the clerk, a young woman, saw the bag and said "Oh, I see that you've found Nottingham's best comic shop!" So there you go.
November 12
London, U.K.
Monday, we visited where Ivy lived when she was part of Syracuse's London program during her Junior year.
Giganitic Leaves everywhere!
41 Sutherland Street.
Second floor.
The walk back.
From the upper deck. You might think from this picture that we travelled fast, but it was actually excrutiatingly slow as our bus crawled down narrow crowded streets like a kidney stone.
November 13-14
Oxford, U.K.
Finally, we visited my oldest friend on the planet, Ted Dewan, at his home in Oxford, where many a baffling, provocative happening has been staged in recent years thanks to Ted.
This in not a painting. This is Ted's actual backyard.
Ted holds The Covenant of the Shed.
I couldn't possibly do the story justice, but suffice it to say that there were candles, a dead mouse in a tiny coffin, and various illustrious Oxford residents nearly plunged to their doom.
The shed had belonged to Philip Pullman, whom we had the great pleasure of meeting at dinner with publisher David Fickling and their lovely wives Jude and Caro. I once again failed to get any photos, so you'll have to take my word for it, but it was a magical evening.
Also not pictured are Ted's wife and daughter, because I'm an idiot who frequently forgets he even has a camera. Helen and Pandora are two of the most charming people on Earth though, and Helen was a very gracious host.
There are two Oxfords, Ted informs us: The Kingdom of Oxford and the People's Republic of Oxford. The illustrious Pitt Rivers Museum presumably belongs to the former. It's a stunning, intoxicating, slightly creepy collection of the many spoils of British colonial adventures. Not to be missed if you ever visit the area.
Ted generously offered us a ride to the airport and off we flew back to New York.
November 17-18
Side Trip: Nashville, TN
Shortly after returning to New York, I had a brief, solo side trip to Nashville where I spoke at a Teacher's Conference and met with about a dozen people at the mighty Ingram Book Group. The conference hotel was the most preposterously huge, overblown thing I've ever seen. I can only begin to hint at the madness that is The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.
November 18-22
New York City
Back in New York, we were joined by the girls' good friend Shara (left) who came all the way from California to join us for a couple of weeks. Also pictured at right, is our old friend Caroline, from our years living in Boston together in the late '80s early '90s, who joined us for a day on the town.
Winter needed a new, warmer coat, which we got at Macy's. I call it her Zsa Zsa Gabor coat -- and no that is definitely not real fur.
I also bought a new jacket, since, as previously noted, I had failed to mind the gap in London. Walking north on 7th avenue from Macy's, with our new coats, holding hands with Winter felt very Christmassy indeed.
Here are the girls at the "Top of the Rock", the observatory at Rockefeller Center.
...and here at the Apple Store at 58th Street, a giant glass cube with the glowing Apple Logo on it, which leads to a huge subterranean Apple store below that never closes.
At NYU. Hey look, it's Kyle Baker!
And Tracy White, Calvin Reid and Douglas Rushkoff!
The NYU lecture had a great, sold out, standing room only crowd. It was, in many ways, the perfect venue, though I was a little sad that I was actually a bit off that night during my presentation. Ivy assures me that nobody noticed, but I just felt that I could have done a better job.
The next day, we were treated to some wonderful gadgets and expermients at NYU's ITP. Special thanks to Marianne Petit, PW and Calvin for a terrific visit to NYU.
While in New York, we finally did the ultimate touristy thing, visiting the Statue of Liberty! Here are Winter and Shara walking along the water in lower Manhattan on the way to the pier (we stayed at the Embassy Suites in Battery Park this time).
On line for the cruise, I caught Ivy and Winter comparing the purple in their hair and hair extensions. I like this photo a lot.
Give us your tired, your poor, your digital cameras, your Dr. Pepper bottles, your stuffed animals...
I liked how at one point along the path, you could look at Lady Liberty welcoming you, then turn 180° to see a short fenced-off pier, pointing to all of Manhattan, and a sign saying "No Trespassing." Hmmm.
Seagulls everywhere!
Off to Ellis Island, which I think Winter got some cool pictures of, but none from me, sorry.
November 23 - Thanksgiving!
Peabody, MA
The cousins and Shara hang out at my Mom's apartment in the gigantic, sprawling retirement Xanadu called Brooksby. We had Thanksgiving at Brooksby with Mom, and a pretty big chunk of our extended families. Barely any pictures, but a grand time was had by all.
Shara and Winter at an ice cream place in Massachussets that's virtually impossible to actually find unless you're a native.
We were joined by our old friend Alice! Hi Alice!
No, we didn't stay here, I just liked the desolate look of it.
Birds, gathering for their imminent attack on humankind.
Winter's radiant smile convinces the birds that humankind is worth saving and they fly south.
November 29 - December 1
Philadelphia, PA
Drexel University was wonderful! Thanks to the tireless efforts of Ted Artz and his gang at Westphal, who apparently put big posters up all over the University and two neighboring schools, we had 340 people in a standing room only crowd for our talk there. Shout out to Ted's right-hand man, the omniscient Chester (lower right).
Dude, it's Cereality!
December 2
Queens, NY
Okay, that's actually Manhattan in the photo, but once again, I didn't get any pictures of one of the coolest things we got to do on the whole trip: Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier's fabulous wedding!
Winter did get pictures however, including some good ones, so we'll see if we can get her to post some.
December 4
Pittsburgh, PA
We actually visited two schools in the Pittsburgh area. University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg was lots of fun, and a shout out to Jason Downey for making that lecture happen and for making us feel so welcome there. No pictures, but a great time was had by all.
A few pictures from Carnegie Mellon follow.
Winter playing with KidPix at the Apple store.
And OMG SNOW!!
Now seeing Autumn leaves for the kids was a treat, but for two girls raised in Southern California, snow is a whole other level of awesome. I'm writing this from Halifax, but it was Pittsburgh that had the honor of showing us our first falling snow of the tour.
Our hotel while at CMU.
Art major Theresa Chen who masterminded my visit to CMU posing in front of that great building they used in Batman Begins.
One of the cool things about my "job" is that when I get invited to a University, it could be any of several departments doing the inviting. When we arranged for class visits the day after the lecture, Theresa arranged for me to visit an art class in the morning. Then in the early afternoon, the technologically innovative ETC got me. Then it was off to speak to drama majors!
I don't have photos of the wonderful art and drama students I talked to (or our gracious and patient host in the Drama dept Joe Pino) but here are some shots or our visit to the ETC by photographer Charles Palmer:
After our three Pennsylvania stops, we headed North for our 3 day drive to Halifax, Nova Scotia (where I'm now writing this report, and about which I'll post shortly).
Stopping at a rest stop, Winter made and threw her very first snowball...
-- and made her first snow angel.
Winter, meet Winter.