So I’ve been drawing the fat pony every week, and this week I got an urge to throw in another to instead. Kids are fickle; why not? So this week Katie is playing with Flora the chicken, from Templar, AZ. Spike (who draws Templar) just had a bunch of plush Flora dolls made up, and she sold a whole bunch at San Diego Comicon. They look like this.

I did not go to SDCC, for a handful of reasons. I wanted to go, but in many ways it was just too complicated. One complication: I’m at a conference right now. A professional conference: An Event Apart in Minneapolis, which is really a great conference. So… if you’re reading this and you are a web designer or developer or whatever and you are the conference, I’m somewhere in the audience with you. Everyone else, sorry, I’m not wherever you are, though I’m sure it’s lovely.

In the meantime, I’m realizing it’s time to redesign this site. It could be a whole hell of a lot nicer. So as I embark on this, I’d love some feedback. Is there anything you love or hate about the site and the way it works? Do you read it on a computer or a smart phone or what? Leave a comment below. You can be honest, I won’t be offended. Unless you’re going to, say, get angry that I won’t massage your toes for you. Because frankly I’ve seen your toes and you should be ashamed.

When I started this series a few weeks ago, I didn’t know where it was going to take me. I didn’t expect to be drawing fat ponies every week, yet here we are.

APOLOGIES, KATE, I’M NOT TRYING TO STEAL YOUR PONY.

This weekend I was at the Pitchfork Music Festival, which was fun but exhausting. I tried to draw a picture of Ken and Kurt at the festival, but didn’t get very far. But with some prodding I bet I’d finish it…

Things I learned today: if you search for pictures of women’s expressions while having Braxton-Hicks contractions, you will not find much. Which if you think about it, isn’t surprising. It’s not the sort of thing you whip the camera out for.

I really enjoy drawing Katie horsing around. But today when I was inking, I had to white-out Finn’s eyes and re-draw them shut, lest it look like he was staring down at the toddler’s bottom. I thought that might be distracting for some people.

We’ll see what next week brings…

Hey cats and kittens (and turkeys), I hope those of you who are so inclined had a nice 4th of July.

Today’s comic includes a cameo of sorts by Kate Beaton’s fat pony. (Fat Pony even made it into Beaton’s most recent New Yorker cartoon.)

Speaking of Ms. Beaton, she recently directed me (and everyone) to go read a comic called The Meek, and I’d like to second that recommendation. Also, if you are interested in making comics yourself, you might read the tutorials the author, D. Helmer, has posted on DeviantArt. They are very good and pretty funny.

This is more or less based on a true conversation. With many liberties taken.

That’s what writing fiction is all about.

Hello. Happy solstice!

Did you know that it’s bike to work week here in the US?  This week everyone in encouraged to try biking to work. It’s healthy for you and for the environment!  More or less. (Maybe it’s not so healthy to bike through smog, for example, or on the highway.)

Last week I was biking to work and a squirrel darted out in front of me, as they do.  I didn’t hit it, but the comic was born from that incident — and from the time many years ago when I did run over a squirrel in my car. (Same story: he darted out, and before I could react, he was under me.)  That was sort of horrible.  Well.  I won’t go into it.

Hey, do you bike to work? Regularly?  This week only?

This is the last of the beard jokes.  For now.

Hey folks, I did a guest strip for Abel Boddy. You can go over there and read it, along with other guest strips. It’s Guest Week over there chez Abel.

The very first Finn and Charlie cartoon I drew involved Charlie shaving while Finn read a book in bed.  So I suppose this kind of revisits that cartoon.  Only in a different way. Or something.

Hi!  So for about 7 years I taught English as a foreign language to adults.  Because of this I still have a good sense, in my head, of how people sound when they are at various levels of English.  (Today’s comic: roughly halfway through book one.)  I read an except of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated, and I couldn’t take it.  Maybe the book had other merits, but the voice of the Russian guide just rang false to me.  It really bugged me.

Anyway.

So meanwhile Prism Comics just published this analysis of comics on the Apple iPad and problems with censorship. It’s worth reading.  Pass it on. (And it’s not just about gay comics; it’s about double standards with the major comic publishers and independent comic publishers.) Go read.