I grew up in a family without any real pets. Definitely no cats. They were considered a bother more than anything, neighborhood annoyances that used our sandbox as a giant litter tray. In fact, my grandfather was said to of gone out of his way to hit cats with his car. I think they got into his chicken coop.

My sisters and I could of had pets, but the rule was that we had to take care of them, and that was enough to dissuade us. When my wife Dawn wanted to get cats, I told her the same thing, and she pressed ahead undaunted, having cared for them in the past.

We went to a shelter down the street from our house, where they had a litter of kittens available. They brought out two of them, gave one to each of us, and I was handed Porter. (I was into beer brewing at the time, and I named her after the dark beer of the same name) She batted at the chin braids I wore back then and my heart melted and it was pretty much all over.

She could be a stinker, and cause trouble, but whenever I would keep to a schedule, she'd be waiting at the bedroom door whenever I woke up. She figured out what doorknobs were and tried to open the door if I didn't come out. Dawn said if I slept in, as soon as Porter heard me wake up she'd purr with excitement and run downstairs to see me. Dawn fed the cats, there wasn't any reason for her to act like this other than that she apparently liked me. Anytime I'd let her, if she was in the same room that I was during her daily migration around the house that cats do, she'd be in my lap, or resting her head against me, or would just sit on a piece of my clothing somewhere near me. I didn't let her sit on my lap as often as she would of liked, as I had work to do and she slowed me down, and now I feel terrible about it.

And now that she's gone, there's no more jiggling of the doorknob when I'm supposed to be up, or purring in my lap, or a black shape in the corner of my eye dropping earplugs next to me for me to throw and play fetch with.

There's an old part of me that says it's just a dumb ol' cat, and I shouldn't be upset, but the rest knows that she was a dear, dear friend, and I'm going to miss her very much.

me: Phil Collins is made of pure Awesome.
Shena: it's true
but I should probably listen to something else at some point
me: he has a large discography. Later stuff not so great, tho.
IMO
I shouldn't judge Disney.
Shena: yeah
it's Disney
it's kind of its own thing
and it has made him a shit-ton of money
me: Which is more comforting than any hipster acclaim.
Sent at 11:18 AM on Tuesday
Shena: I think it probably got him an Oscar, too
surely one of those damn songs won...
me: Did he make a song about magical retarded or black people? Thats always oscar gold.
(pardon my rude language choices)
Shena: he actually won for Tarzan
which...
could be argued...
me: thats kind of both
Shena: yeah.
Sent at 11:22 AM on Tuesday

A friend sent me a link to these old Alan Moore interviews about comics, and one of the points Moore makes is that comics are as good as or better than other art forms due to their accessibility. I haven't finished the series yet, but I would wager that another argument put forth in comic's favor, if not by Moore, than by others, is that comics have a greater cultural impact than other art forms. 

This is all true. But, if people want to use this as a metric for quantifying "quality" for any given media, then get ready to move over for the art that completely dominates the field when it comes to this sort of thing, that being corporate logo design. The accessibility and cultural impact of corporate logos dwarfs any art ever made. If comics, a medium that constantly struggles for intellectual legitimacy, wants to share a bed in a semantic crawl-space with Nike and Disney, then I guess more power to them, but it's not going to bring anyone any closer to the kind of legitimacy that traditional literature or film has. 

As always, comments negative or positive welcome. 

My Official Position On Dogs For Anyone Curious

(Before I get into this, I should note that none of my friends [at least the ones on Twitter] are people who I consider poor dog owners. They all give their dogs a decent amount of care and attention, and I consider them responsible by any metrics I care to use.)

We humans have changed our environment to the point where we frequently find that the habits and desires of our bodies do not dovetail well with our surroundings. IE, we get fat, depressed, etc, due to a lack of the stimulation that existed in the environments we evolved in/were created for. It takes a significant amount of work to overcome this difference and bring us back to a healthy, happy state. 

The same is true for many breeds of dog. They are ill equipped to deal with a static urban environment (a backyard and/or house) without a good deal of work to meet the demands of their mind and body.  Most dogs were bred with the intent of being work animals; either hunting, guarding, shepherding, etc. This work usually occurred in areas where there was a lot of open space, and required the expenditure of a lot of energy. Dogs living in urban areas are frequently fenced in and ignored, cannot expend their energy, and often become bored, aggressive and most likely miserable, much like a human without exercise and mental stimulation can become irritable and depressive. 

It takes a lot of work and dedication on the part of an owner or owners to overcome this disconnect between the dog's body and environment, just as it is required to remedy our own disconnect, and it has been my experience that a lot of dog owners are either unaware of the needs of their dogs, or don't want to put forth the effort required to maintain a healthy, happy animal companion. So their dogs become a public nuisance (excessive barking, undue aggression towards people and other dogs, etc). To add insult to injury, their owners frequently appear to become inured to the symptoms of their dog's maladjustment, and the problem remains untreated.

Due to the number of irresponsible dog owners out there, I wouldn't mind seeing dog ownership become more heavily regulated. Raising a neglected, bored, aggressive animal does neither man nor beast any favors. But I doubt that this would happen in a million years. 

(Should anyone run across this outside of the context of twitter, I have been complaining a lot about neighborhood dogs that are behaving badly, and I wanted to discuss the general topic in more than 140 characters, and to make sure that people don't think that I'm making passive-aggressive comments about their own pets. )  

Comments positive or negative welcome. 

Flu and other viral illness tips.

A lot of people I know are coming down with the flu (and ugh it's nasty), so I've spent some time searching out things that can be done about it. A lot of the following information is in a "gray area" as far as being backed up with specific research goes. As far as I can tell, most of these supplements are being added based on in vitro studies. But, if what you have is viral, there isn't much that can be done with conventional medicine besides waiting it out and treating symptoms, so this stuff at least wont hurt you.

---

7. If you do become ill, start increasing your vitamin C dosage dramatically - your bowel tolerance dose will rise as it is used to detoxify your body from the virus toxins; it may rise to as much as 100,000-200,000 mg (100 to 200 grams) per day (adult dose). Take up to 4000 mg per dose, with increased number of dosages. Start taking 12,000 mg of each of l-lysine, l-proline and l-glycine per day, in divided doses. Take 1000 mg oregano, 4000 mg turmeric, 4000 mg ginger, 4000 mg garlic, 45 mg zinc/3 mg copper, and 2000 mg green tea per day, in divided doses. Increase fluid intake to 3-4 quarts (liters) per day. (These are the adult doses, modify by weight for children.) Eat easily-digestable meals complemented with 1/2-scoop soy protein shakes. Continue this regimen until all signs of illness have subsided. If the illness is not controlled by the regimen, obtain a series (2-3 per week) of 30-gram Vitamin C intravenous infusions at a chelation or alternative health clinic, with higher dosages if necessary for pneumonia or previously compromised immunity (e.g., AIDS or CFIDS). (Important: See note above regarding use of this regimen during pregnancy; do not use oregano oil during pregnancy.)

From: http://www.worldhealth.net/p/avian-influenza-are-you-prepared-2005-10-11.html (for the avian flu, this info should be applicable to the viral bugs going around now.)
-----
More info on megadosing vitamin c:

http://www.doctoryourself.com/cathcart_thirdface.html

I dont know if I buy the "acute induced scurvy" hypothesis, but a lot of people swear by this method. Shortens durations of flu and mono. Having Dawn do it now, as she's coming down with it, apparently. I'll update on her progress to see if if seems to be helping.

--------

best,

steven

Hello interwebs!

I haven't posted in a long time apparently. I've been Twittering, though, since it's less trouble. So if you want to read short snippets of my daily life, (and who doesn't?) go here.

Other than that, THUNDER ROAD launched, we got an AP article and I'm now semi-famous. I think. Now I just need to find a way to turn that into money.

I'm currently in money hoarding mode, taking as much work as GoComics is graciously giving me, and getting my finances back in order, because I kind of drained the savings working on TR and spending more than I should of of misc crap. Will probably end up doing work for TCM again, for their TCM Underground project. Also random work for Propaganda Inc in STL.

If all goes well, my next two comic projects should be with Dan Curtis Johnson and Kieron Gillen. The one with Dan is going to be a traditional inked comic, and the one with Kieron is going to be more of a penciled/painted affair. I think. I havent quite decided yet, but it's going to be something I'm going to take my time with, and really hammer out the art. Gonna get going on those in January.

I think that's about it.

Second digital watercolor method piece as promised. This one has hand painted spot color in addition to the inking.