A Little Help from My Friends

Yesterday, there was a big yellow envelope from my lawyer in the mailbox when I got back to the apartment. I have learned not to look to that form of communication as life-affirming.

Today, as I came out of class - it was pitch black and freezing cold. Part of me was hoping my Fireman would be leaning against the building (freezing his ass off) and take me out for garlic fries at The Tip Top Cafe... and part of me just wanted to flee to my warm apartment and fleecey pajamas and draw comics.

No, he wasn't there and I walked home shivering, pulled the mail out of the box and threw it on the kitchen island. There was a handwritten envelope. Not from a law firm.

My Fireman had sent me a card. A CARD!?! Who does that anymore?
Just to say he missed me. Wow. That warmed me up nicely.

Combined with hoola hooping while doing homework, a red velvet cupcake in class (Laura's birthday), and 3 hours of watching cartoons...
Yep - a pretty, freaking GREAT day!

Steve Bissette picked up where he'd left off a few weeks ago with Winsor McKay and Comics that have been adapted into movies. So, of course, he had to show us lots of clips of these movies. I have tons of notes, here's one page:

Col. Heeza Liar, Detective from 1923 was really fun and rather bizarre - live-action, silent film actors interacting with a drawn cartoon detective, and a weird scene with a rooster (roasted and being devoured by tramps) reassembled into a live rooster!Felix the Cat Comes Back (1922) by Otto Mesmer (claimed by Pat Sullivan) was the first animated character to interact with the emanata... the "!" and "?" that appeared over his head. There was no talking, speech balloons would appear as in a comic strip. Felix would use the type to solve his dilemma. For example... a bird thinks Felix's tail is a worm, and eats it! Felix thinks "?", then reaches up, grabs the "?" and sticks it on to his bum as a new tail! In another scene, he's running on ice from a polar bear - he thinks "!!" reaches up, grabs the "!!" and uses them as ice skates. Very clever and funny.We watched lots of clips from comic-adapted serial shows (with sound) like Flash Gordon Space Soldier (1936) which influenced George Lucas' Star Wars. He took lots of great ideas directly from Flash, such as the floating city.

Tonight, Steve is showing a few hours worth of "Turkeys of Film" in honor of Thanksgiving. These are the worst movies ever made. I couldn't get myself to go back out into the cold to watch terrible movies!

Speaking of Thanksgiving - that day is also my daughter's 9th birthday! I decided to draw her a big "card"...

Then colored it...

Then got other classmates to add to it...

I'll bring it to class tomorrow too and see if I can get some more drawings. Here are a few close-ups...

(Above) James was dressed as the Captain from TinTin for Halloween and Lilah tortured him with the red laser, making him spin around chasing it until he really seemed drunk (like his character). It was very funny, but it obviously traumatized poor James!

Jared made the cupcake and Kelly (the librarian) did the Charlie Brown Book...

Laura drew the puppy...

I have also been trying to get my homework done. Man - I get distracted easily!
Here is my lettering homework for this week. We were to draw lettering sound effects for one whole day - in chronological order.
That was fun!
See if you can figure them out?