TCAF was amazing!!!
Just thought I’d get that out of the way. To all of you who came out to see me, it was a pleasure. That show is my favourite of the year, filled with interesting, creative people – and I’m not just talking about the exhibitors. The attendees are always well-read and pointing me in the direction of interesting new things to check out. Can’t wait ’til next year’s show.
I was a late addition to the guest list, so many didn’t know I was even there, but if you follow me on Twitter or the Abominable Facebook group, I try to post dates and info there to keep everyone informed. AND it helps spread the word about the comic, which is also nice.
That’s all for now! Tune in next week as the wild boar hunt continues…

Hi all! Just a quick heads-up to say I’ll be at TCAF (the Toronto Comic Arts festival) this weekend. If you can make it out to say hi, please do! Details below…

This should be interesting. I hope he fares better in his hunt than Robert Baratheon, right everybody? Ha ha!
That’s some Game of Thrones humour for y’all right there.
ahem.
 
Anyway, here’s a Book Update: if you were one of the many people who ordered a Sketch Edition of Abominable Book One, know that I am almost finished drawing in them and they’ll ship very soon. I already did a big shipment a couple of weeks ago, but if you’ve been waiting, hang tight. It won’t be much longer.
 
Until next week…

Look, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m sure this girl is perfectly nice.

Every time I do one of these Father Bird strips now, I have to text my wife and tell her that it is not a reflection of my feelings about our marriage. Just in case she reads it and becomes concerned. I should probably just post a formal disclaimer on the fridge stating this.
It’s an interesting question, though – how much of any character is a reflection of his or her author? All of it reflects the author’s experience in the world but none of it may reflect their actual beliefs. That’s why it’s always exciting for me to meet my favourite authors/artists; it’s fun to see which of their characters is the most prominent in their demeanor and presence.
If I had to guess, I’d say I’m probably mostly the fat raccoon.
 
AND: Big thanks to everyone who ordered books last week! I’m now up to my ears in book sketches, but they’ll start shipping soon. Maybe I’ll video stream the drawing of a few of them.

I’ve wrapped up work on the new Assassin’s Creed book I’ve been writing and drawing with Cameron Stewart! That means that I’m out from under the deadline guillotine and I have more time to devote to webcomics!
For starters, I’m bringing back the Sketch Editions of Book One! They’re available in the store now.
And I’ll be able to devote more time to the production of Book Two. So there’ll be more news on that front later this year.
 
Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mass Effect 3 is waiting…

You know how writers always talk about characters ‘writing themselves’?
 
This is one of those examples of a character who was originally just a piece of set dressing in a previous episode forcing his way into the spotlight. I had no plans for this rat other than to be a potential owl dinner. Now he has a voice and a point of view and will probably be around for a while and I had nothing to do with it.
 
He probably has a name and will tell me when the time is right.

Guess what day it is!
 
Now that I’ve read this strip again, I think it works best to the tune of ‘Fraggle Rock’. Specifically, the end of the song where Boober repeats the last line with a deadpan delivery.

I always thought of wood-chucking as the act of taking down trees, beaver-style. But that is not the case.

From Wikipedia:

The etymology of the name woodchuck is unrelated to wood or chucking. It stems from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak. The similarity between the words has led to the common tongue-twister.

Which pretty much renders this comic inaccurate. But oh well. It still makes me laugh.