Monday, September 17, 2001

JOHNNY PUBLIC UPDATE
I mostly picked at the work this weekend, partly because I forgot to print out some photoreferences and take them with me, partly because it just felt good to be home. Which, of course, means I have to fly from now until the end of the month. Officially, the first two panels have the pencilling finished, and the third panel is started.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 8:52 AM

Gerry Alanguilan, a wonderful artist from the Philipines, made this tribute over the weekend:

http://www.alanguilan.com/sanpablo/realhero1.jpg

You can see more of his work at http://www.alanguilan.com. The picture is also posted on his blog, listed to the right.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 8:50 AM

Another old kitty scare
Touper tried to jump into the bed around 11:45 PM last night. She didn't quite make it and wound up caught and dangling by one arm. Sean heard her whimpering meow and after I flipped the lights on, I found her, flat on her back, mostly under the bed. I rescued her and curled up next to her. She slept on me the rest of the night.

Today I call the vet and get some eyedrops for her, and go to Petco to get some new nail trimmers, because I can't find my old ones. We've got to make her less snaggable.

Wildwood
I finally got to see the three acres by the lake that my parents are purchasing. It's beautiful, and I can't believe how much work they've already got done. Kris has already admonished me for not taking pictures, but they haven't yet either. Mom talked about wanting to get some done. They missed the beginning of the work, but they can track it from here on out. I had no idea how big three acres was until I walked around it. It's nestled in a curve of the road, and a farmer's unused field butts it on one side, and a five acre woods on the other. Our right of way to the lake is just across the road from the middle of the property, and the lake doesn't look too horribly mucky there.

We also watched as my dad and Unlce Frank got Frank's dock out for the season. I think the quote of the afternoon was, "Once it's past your left testicle, it's okay after that." (In reference to the rather bracing lake water at mid-September, of course.) We also fed Frank's swans. I've never been that close to swans before, and they're amazing birds. After listening to them talk to one another, it's easy to see where Speilberg got the inspiration for how the dinosaurs sounded in his Jurassic Park movies. It was just amazing.

It was a relaxing weekend, which is just what we needed.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 8:42 AM

Friday, September 14, 2001

HU-FREAKIN'-ZAH!
My ODBC drivers are installed and showing up on my plug-in menu!
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 4:28 PM

It's working...
Last week, I would have gone off on a volatile rant heaping loads of verbal abuse on the below 'christian gentlemen'. Now I can just shake my head, realize that they're nothing more than sad, old farts, and know that the more they shoot themselves in the foot like this, the less feet they'll have to stand on. (And while I doubt Mr. Falwell himself reads this account, if you're so inclined, you can send your own editorial comments to jerry@falwell.com.)

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang "God Bless America" and said "let the ACLU be hanged"? In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time - calling upon God.

PAT ROBERTSON: Amen

Doesn't that just warm your heart and make you want to become 'born again' all over? I know I sure do.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 3:34 PM

I feel an inner calm coming over me. At the very least, an inner numb that I hope to prefabricate into an inner calm. I've been very angry with a lot of different people the last two weeks, and the more I think about it, the more I just don't care. From now on, I'm going to ask myself, 'how would I feel, were I on the receiving end of this?' I plan on answering that question before I move on into anything.

If you view the world from a moral high ground, you can see more of it. <-- That's mostly snark, btw.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 3:05 PM

Bad computer, bad!
Now, keep in mind that I am neither a fan of PCs or Windows OS, but after having run Windows ME for awhile, I really wouldn't recommend it. Unless you have a lot of patience, of course, because everying takes l o n g e r than it really needs to. Plus, three times out of ten, ME refuses to open install disks. And of course, the printing problem I was having before yesterday, of not being able to print MS Word from the N drive, that didn't happen yesterday when the tech guy was here, is now happening again.

I'm creating a folder so I can feed it to 'Mr. PC-is-the-only-god-you-should-worship' normal IT guy when he gets back from his honeymoon. Then I'm gonna toss his smarmy ass down the stairs and send the PC after him.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 1:19 PM

Feeling slightly more industrious today, as you can tell by the rearrangement, I'm sure. Looking forward to visiting my parents this weekend.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 10:45 AM

Thursday, September 13, 2001

Haven't been sleeping much this week, so we popped in "The Howling" after Sean got back from the auction. He picked up a neato magazine wrack for print/mini display, and a wooden lock box with a slot in the top. For 75 cents, I wouldn't have been able to resist it either.

Still despondent. Still getting choked up. Getting the TV out of the office today helped. It was on when I walked in, but I shut it off shortly after. Not being on the forums anymore is also helping.

JOHNNY PUBLIC UPDATE
The first panel is pencilled. (Sad, I know.) But I'm too tired to work effectively. I do more erasing than pencilling, which is not good.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 10:29 PM

Today has been a wretched day. And then in an instant, it pales in comparison.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 3:24 PM

I tried to work after my last post last night, but all I could do was cry.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 8:57 AM

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

JOHNNY PUBLIC UPDATE
Well, the lettering and the layouts are now done. I hesitate to start the pencilling. I've woken up insanely early the past two mornings, and it's starting to take it's toll. Maybe I'll drag the pages downstairs and just put on another layer of detail while I help Sean watch old, bad horror movies...
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 8:28 PM

PC's still suck
Back to fighting with the ODBC and Postscript drivers. I so wish I had a Mac to work on...
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 11:07 AM

I've begun my hermitage
With the exception of CMA (and that's tenative right now) and Brother Matthew, I'm signing off the forum airwaves. Our nation's tragedy has brought the best and worst out of people, but on the forums, it's mostly brought out the annoying. For the sake of my blood pressure, I quit. There are just too many annoying shits out there to put up with.

And on the plus side, I'll now have more time for making comics.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 11:05 AM

JOHNNY PUBLIC UPDATE
In the spirit of carrying on...

I couldn't work last night, but since I was up at 5 AM this morning, I crawled into the studio and got back to work. I miscounted yesterday; I actually had two panels and *two* pages left. After this morning's work, I have one page left to letter and layout, then I can move on to the actual pencilling.

In other news, the EXPO was cancelled this weekend. I know that's trivial in comparision, but I had a lot of e-friends who were really looking forward to it. I'm sorry you guys can't go.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 6:44 AM

Processing
You always hear that you'll remember where you were and what you were doing when you hear big news. For example, I remember that I was walking down the hall to my fifth period art class in high school when I'd heard that the Challenger had blown up. Yesterday, Sean and I were working on my office computer trying to get the PageMaker 7.0 ODBC drivers to install. We got a call from Patty, George's wife. She said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center...

We followed the news as we could on the internet, but the CNN site wouldn't load. Denise finally found a radio station that was reporting, and Howard, who's never ever offered to even go get the office lunch, even though we get him lunch just about every day, flew down to George's house to get an extra TV. Until then, I pulled what news I could from the Warren Ellis Forum on Delphi.

Once that was set up in my office, we were in the loop. All day people would wander in and just watch for awhile. I got to listen to it all day long. What wasn't real before became real with taped footage. I nearly cried when I saw the second plane crash into the tower, and again when both towers collapsed. I finally did cry when I got an email from my friend Ian, who works in NYC. He was fine.

The scope of this is unreal. How could it be real? Nothing like this has ever happened before. There was an odd charge that ran through me all day. I got a little work done, but mostly I watched, listened and waited. It was the personal stories that got me. News of the cell phone calls from the doomed planes made me cry. Hearing flight 11's captain's brother speak, that got me too. People jumping from over 80 stories up...

It's just so very unreal. I couldn't really talk about it yesterday. I read everyone's posts, but I just couldn't reply. This morning, my voice returned. I hope we keep our heads during this, and that no other innocent lives are added to the already horrendous tole. But at the same time, I want the people responsible for this found and killed. And I hope that this is the beginning of the end for terrorism, just for a little meaning in all of those lives lost.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 6:37 AM

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Words fail
I found this in my studio this evening. My heart goes out to all who have lost today.

posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 10:09 PM

The world has changed forever today
As one woman said on the news, "I don't see buildings, I see people." I don't often cry for strangers, but today I am.
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 12:46 PM

JOHNNY PUBLIC UPDATE
The forwarding function now works! You can type in either johnny-public.com or johnnypublic.com and you'll wind up at the same place. That's just cool. :)

I got a good hour of laying out/lettering done last night. I've got a page and two panels left, so I should be able to finish it up tonight. About 8:30 PM I had the urge to do some character sketches. Since that so rarely happens to me, I went downstairs to doodle. Four awful attempts and a cat combing later (Touper is getting very demanding in her old age), here's what I wound up with:

Yeah, I know he looks a little like Jay from Jay and Silent Bob, but he's not as potty mouthed and he's FAR more destructive. ;)
posted by Wendi Strang-Frost 6:35 AM