Whine and Cheese

My mother used to sit for hours and hours crocheting while watching television. Often she was crocheting a new blanket with a new pattern, or just burning through some scrap yarn to make something random. Either way, it was usually amazingly beautiful as my mom had serious creative talents. It kept her mind occupied and her hands busy.

I completely understand that thought process. I often do my comic book for the same reason. Creative outlets are relaxing, especially in stressful times (like now).

I finished the final edit last night and posted Issue 37 today. I love the feeling of getting an issue done. This issue has been oddly fun, as some of the panels turned out far better than I expected, if I do say so myself. I'm happy with the final result, especially the cover. There is something so pleasing about drawing Grizzly and then coloring it.

I hope you enjoy Issue 37 - "Wrestling Demons." You can read the whole issue by clicking the cover below.


Grizzly & The Bear Patrol #37 - Wrestling Demons

Questions, comments, or criticisms? Hit me with them. :)

Last night, I finished up the latest issue of "Grizzly and Bear Patrol." I had tried to upload the issue to the journal, but the system kept locking up after getting a few pages in, so I had to give up.

I've been working on this one for a few months, due to work and other delays, but I will say that I'm pretty happy with the end result. You can read the full issue by clicking on the cover below.

After a LOT of work, I finally got this issue done. It's not that I dreaded working on it, but my day job has been very overwhelming of late. I was lucky to draw or ink or color a single page a night. I'm very pleased how this issue turned out though. Notes about the issue are on the last page. I hope you all enjoy it.



( Issue 33 - Hunting for Bear )

Questions, comments, criticism -- just let me know.

I finally got this issue finished. With my new position at work, my brain has been too frazzled at night to work on this, but I finally got my groove on and finished it last night. I was going to upload this last night, only to have a severe thunderstorm roll through and knock out my internet for the last 18 or so hours. With my internet connection back in action, I got this going again.

I had fun with this and based the story on a cartoon I'd drawn while playing with my iPad a few months back. I included it as a pin-up after the issue notes.

So, enjoy "The Hunger"...



( Issue 31 - The Hunger )

Questions, comments, criticisms - I welcome them all, just send me a reply below or a message privately.

This one was a long time coming, though I seem to say that every time. My work life during the quarantine has actually grown much busier and my downtime seems to be geared more toward relaxation and decompression. I read somewhere that stress actually stifles creativity, so that's probably a big reason why getting this issue finished took so long.

Right now, because of our current political environment and the election, bigoted people are feeling emboldened to make their hate well known. Black people, gay people, and immigrants are all being targeted by people who feel "threatened" by the push for fairness and equality. It obviously influenced the coming story.

Behind the cut below is Issue 29 of "Grizzly and The Bear Patrol" with a story I call "Hoodlum Stains".



( Issue 29 - Hoodlum Stains )

No speaker notes, as they are the last page of the comic now. Questions, comments, criticisms - I welcome them all, just send me a reply below or a message privately.

I've spent a large chunk of my staycation this week working on this issue. With work, work travel, and Mom's passing this summer, I haven't had a lot of time to work on this. So it's been actually pretty nice having a week where I had nothing to do but sleeping in, working on the comic, and putting together my Halloween costume.

I finished the comic book tonight and I thought I'd give the journal folks a limited first jump on it. I do like how this issue turned out, so I hope you enjoy it. Issue notes are now the last comic page.



( Grizzly & The Bear Patrol 27 - Party Animals )

It has taken a LOT longer to get this issue done than I would have liked. It has been since August since the last issue was posted. With holidays, work, and work travel, and other things, the process seemed to drag and get repeatedly interrupted. Eventually, things calmed down enough for me to get this issue completed. Despite a rocky creative start, I am very happy with the end result and I hope you will enjoy it.



( Grizzly and the Bear Patrol - Issue 26 )

Finally! Because of my work schedule, travel, and the fact this was a "Bear-Sized 25th Issue," it took much longer to get this issue done. Still, I'm pretty happy with the end result and the story. This issue concludes last issue, where the Bear Patrol had been captured by a group of unknown super-powered villains, led by the nefarious and half-naked Bear Collector. This issue also has the extended Bear Patrol roster, including mikiedoggie, rootbeer1, and qbear. Something different in this issue is that the "Issue Notes" are now included as the last page of the comic. Enjoy!




( Grizzly and The Bear Patrol 25 - Full Circle )

Any questions, comments, or criticisms? I welcome them all! Thanks!

I didn't do much in terms of social activities yesterday. I was invited to a friend's house, but the weather here has been snowy of late and I didn't feel like fighting it late at night. So, instead, I finished "Luke Cage" on Netflix, watched the first episode of "Iron Fist" on Netflix, wrote a few pages of Issue #24 of "Grizzly and the Bear Patrol," and fell asleep by 11 PM.

Today, I got up, went to the gym and saw a fantastic daddy bear in the weight room, and started burning through an Applebee's gift card for lunch. When I got back home from morning errands, I crashed on the couch and started watching the second season of Fortitude. It seems to be as creepy as the first season and stars American actor Dennis Quaid and a seriously hot Icelandic bear Björn Hlynur Haraldsson.

Tonight, I'm just getting birthday cards out for family and counted up the "found money" total for the year. It is the second highest amount so far at $4.05.

Back to work tomorrow. Ugh. It's going to be a rough morning.

Whenever I work on an issue of my comic book, I tend to fall into "hermit mode," a sort of self-imposed exile from social things while I draw, ink, or color pages. It's not necessarily intentional, but I tend not to seek anything social to do in the same window of time. I felt into hermit mode a couple of weeks back when I started concentrating on the next issue. Taking last Friday off, I had a three-day weekend to color comic pages. I finished coloring the interior pages last night.

After work today, I went for a run. Only two miles done, as my foot felt a bit wonky, so I didn't push it at all. No racing, just two miles at a regular pace. My time was horrible, I'm sure. After a couple of walking laps, I went home and then raked leaves for the next 90 minutes, so every extremity is worn out, along with my shoulders.

I'll sleep really sound tonight.

After eating, I decided to take a break from the comic book, which is hard considering how close I am to getting it done. Tonight was catching up on "American Horror Story: Cult" and LJ.

Luckily, I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow as I'm working from home. I don't take advantage of teleworking as much as I should. It's one of the nicer perks.