Montreal Sketchbook

Ithaca Sketchbook

Brains at Cornell University

Ithaca

Road trip to Ithaca.  A road trip I really like since apart from being a nice small city with some good book and record shops and restaurants has some beautiful parks and gorge hikes with plenty of  Impressive waterfalls.

View from hotel in downtown Ithaca

My snoozing niece Sabrine

View from Cornell University Hotel Window

Vampire Sketchbook

Vampire Sketchbook

Vampire Sketchbook

Ferris Wheel

Post ferris wheel funnel cake with my niece…

Vampire Sketchbook

I'm enjoying doing these in my Andy Warhol Idea Book…

Vampire Sketchbook

Fest

A bit of the south on Canada Day weekend..

A b

Mountain

From Centipede press in July comes this mammoth collection of contemporary Lovecraft inspired weird fiction A MOUNTAIN WALKS. Its amazing to be included in a book of authors I've admired for so many years like Ramsey Campbell,  Thomas Ligotti and Patrick McGrath. I"m happy to have a small part in this Lovecraft celebration since he's always been an inspiration to me.

Oysters

Last night Swans played outdoors and managed to create a monstrously loud and intense atmosphere at Y and D square and put a typically awesome performance . Met up with a friend for oysters before hand. Enjoying some Hitchcock books with my coffee this morning and some german spooky tunes. Also some Frazetta street chalk art.

Reading

I finished Simon Strantzas great new book for his reading last night at Kensington Markets Round bar for the monthly Chizine reading series. Tho I wanted to yell out my favorites, Simon read a story from somewhere else. He was even gracious enough to sign my copy after a physically draining reading . I also picked up Michael Kelly's new SHADOWS AND TALL TREES anthology which I'm looking forward to reading.. I tried out a new fountain pen which I'm not happy with on the subway as well.

Kreeps

KREEPS goodies came today….

The Mask

The Mask is considered Canada's first horror film and its a great one. Seeing this in a theatre and being told to "put on the Mask now!" for the trippy 3d bits is awesome and something I've been able to enjoy twice. Would love to own a pair of those original glasses to go with my lobby cards and one sheet. The Mask itself has been on display at the Tiff theatre and it looks great.

Friends

I confess I don't really follow awards or enter competitions but nonetheless its nice to know that Revolutionary Friends, which I did illustrations for has received some positive mentions including a Booklist top ten Biography for Youth and starred review, a Bank Street best children's book of the year, a Eureka! California Association Honor Book and an International Librarians Honor Book. My editor Carolyn and Selena were both wonderful to work with so its always nice when then send some good news:-)

I received a order from Dom Kreep for  Happy Undertaker prints  and really dig his band Kreeps. We worked out a trade for more stuff so I'm looking forward to my goodies in the mail. I've said it before but all the cool people I meet and those doing stuff I really enjoy is one of the best things about doing The Happy Undertaker.

Burnt

I'm halfway through Simon Strantzas new book and its a highly recommended read. Simon is one of my favorite contemporary horror writers and despite having met him in person,:-), my enthusiasm for his work is undiminished. I'll be trying to catch him do a reading next week.

Breakfast

Treated myself to some home made crepes with Ferrero chocolate in them this morning.

Nuphonia Must Fall

Some pics after the Kid Koala show last night directed by K.K. Barrett. A terrific performance of the cinematic translation of the graphic novel by puppets onto a screen with live musical accompaniment. The string quarter was pretty awesome. And I got to hang out with old friends.

Egg Rolls

This weekend was the annual surf battle at the Cadillac lounge. Great music and masked go go dancers.
Egg rolls for breakfast. Today I'm going to see the new Kid Koala show directed by production designer K.K. Barrett which looks really great.