Muskrat Ramblings
NaNoWriMo? NoNoNoNo
posted by John

So if you follow my Twitter Feed or catch my facebook page, you might have heard tell that I’ll be doing a regular podcast with WEREGEEK’s Alina Pete and GOBLINS‘ Tarol Hunt.

We’re trying to get a few in the can, to work out the bugs and have a bit of a backlog. We’re not announcing what it’ll be called, yet, but I love the name and we’ve grabbed the URL. (Hint: given my Wisconsin residency, it will not be called “Two and a Half Candaians). Thundernerds are GO!

It’s been a far more interesting project than I’d have imagined. And goodness knows, I’m sure adding another “gawrsh what fun!” gig to my schedule that I don’t get paid for thrills the Lovely and Talented Judith no end. But last night was an…odd recording. At least for me: It’s been almost a month since I’ve drawn a Dork Tower comic strip (I was four weeks ahead of the game, for a while there, but spent almost the entire month of October working on Munchkin Zombies – the first full, 164-card Munchkin game in nearly three years). So I was feeling a bit disconnected from my work, as we were discussing it in great, great detail.

Obviously, my life has seen some enormous, and enormously wonderful, changes these past three years, and overall I’ve been quite happy with Dork Tower these last 12 months. For the most part, I’ve kept to the schedule pretty DARNED well, which was one of the goals. Plus, I’ve been mostly happy with the quality of the gags, which was another. But finding time to do it – and to do it well – certainly gets more difficult as Louisa gets older.

Indeed, Louisa is home sick, today, and what little time I’ll have to work on the Dork Tower bible (that some Hollywood folks want – trust me, not NEARLY as glamorous as you’d think) and a new backlog of strips (which I think will be quite good) will come during the Bean’s nap.

DO NOT GET ME WRONG: any time spent with my daughter is magical and memorable, and is to be cherished. Right now, she keeps running into room in as I’m writing this, to hand me pictures of Brobee, Muno and Foofa (from Yo Gabba Gabba) that she’s colored…along with one of Widget (from Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! – my pal Bob Boyle’s show, which is like crystal meth for kids).

For the longest time, if you’d given me one wish, it would have been to develop into the best cartoonist that I could possibly be.

Now, that’s changed. By far my main goal in life is to become the best possible FATHER I can be, to this beautiful little blonde-haired, blue-eyed sprite who keeps running into the room, thrusting crayon drawings at me, and yelling (alternately) “HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY” and “HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEN!” Which is particularly thrilling, as it’s neither my birthday nor halloween.

There are places I want to go, things I want to see. There are cons I want to attend. But there is NO place I’d rather be, than with my wife and daughter. Right now, life is magical, and I don’t ever want to take that for granted.

I just wonder, though…are being the best Dadda I can be, and being the best cartoonist I can be, mutually exclusive?

Probably not.

Maybe I’ll figure that out, sometime.

Possibly one of these days, while Louisa’s napping.

****

It’s National Novel Writing Month (or, as professional authors call it, “November”).

Chris Presta-Valachovic, on my facebook wall, asked “John, by any chance, could you repost your NaNoWriMo strips from a couple years ago? Pretty please? I’ve lost my prints of them…and they gave me impetus to keep going.”

Well, far be it for me to go all Casey Kasem Request Line on your consciousness, and painful as it is for me to look at ANY piece of my work that’s more than a couple of weeks old (srsly)…here you go. From 2007, the Matt Takes On NaNoWriMo series

Muskrat out,

Muskrat Ramblings
I Know What You Did Last Week
posted by John

My week not at Gen Con:

* I helped my pal James win this round of the Cadburys Pocketgame competition. Well, when I say “I,” I really mean you all: the Army of Dorkness. From being down by fifty votes on Friday, the Army of Dorkness swooped in and helped Flick Racer win the thing by a comfortable margin of more than one hundred votes. Just amazing. James will be announcing a really cool “thank you” soon, and, with luck, so will I.

* By the way: “Flick Racer” looks VERY RUDE when typed in caps. Lesson learned.

* I went to see the New Pornographers with my wonderful wife and a slew of good friends, and the show turned out to be utterly EPIC. I was THIS close to Neko Case’s voice! THIS close, I tells ya!

* The lovely and talented Judith and I attended a Madison Mallards “Tribute to Bacon” night at the ballpark, where Judith suggested she’d go for a Bacon Chocolate Sundae, if they had one. They didn’t. But they did have bacon (and lots of it – some even in handy caramelized bacon bit form), and they did serve chocolate sundaes. So I suggested to Mallards VP Vern Stenman that they missed an opportunity here. He agreed, called the head of food service over, and by the fifth inning the Bacon Chocolate Sundae was on the Mallards’ menu. And it was a huge hit – at times, the line was 20 deep. So popular was it that the Mallards are keeping it on their menu. So…go Team Judith and John.

* Lest you worry about me eating too many Bacon Chocolate Sundeas (De-LISH-us, btw), I’m down another couple of pounds. This makes it 16 pounds lost, mostly through eating less (shock! Horror!) and going on long walks and bike rides.

* But the MAIN thing that happened while you were at Gen Con and I wasn’t? Seeing Louisa pedal her tricycle – on her own – for the first time. I started off pushing her, and she put her feet on the pedals. I gave her a bit of a shove, and she went off. Four feet later, I realized it was no longer momentum from the push that was keeping my baby girl going, but those little legs. I was stunned, and outrageously happy. I WAS THERE TO SEE MY DAUGHTER’S FIRST BIKE RIDE. Much like last year, when I skipped Origins, and saw Louisa pull herself up for the first time, I was overcome by a wave of pure Dadda happiness.

I hear Gen Con was great, and I’m glad everyone had such a cool time. Miss you all, and I’ll be back soon.

Me, though? I was busy at home.

——- John

If you hit my Facebook pages, you’ll prolly be quite bored with this. But I don’t think I’ve posted them here, yet. At least not in this form.

Anyway, this coming Friday, Madison is having a Gallery Night. Which has always been a well cool event to begin with. But now that I have a downtown studio, I’m aghast to find I’m actually taking part in it!

I think I’ve bragged about how much I love my studio before. I will most likely do so again in the future. But now, all eight artists who have ever worked in the Suhr building are putting on a show, and it should be a blast. We’re just one of MANY studios having a showing, and all are welcome! I think we’ll be putting on a swell shindig!

I’ll mostly have some Munchkin and Dork Towers original art up. I’ll also have some games going on in My Own Little Room, but oh but and, when it comes to “New” for me, I’ll be exhibiting some paintings I’ve done for Louisa’s room.

These all started after I did a surprise Valentine gift for Judith, of a portrait of Maude, her cat.

This was a 14″ x 14″ acrylic on vinyl painting I did, that inspired me to do some pieces for Louisa’s room. Like pretty much all of my work, it’s whimsical, but I also wanted to try out some stuff playing with Design and Color Theory (something I’m notoriously weak at).

So next, I did a Monkey. This was actually originally for a Sekrit Jonathan Coulton project, but I appropriated it for Louisa’s room.

This was followed by a Lion, that was more Pure Design:

(By the way – at this point, I must apologize to the 5,000 or so folks who subscribe to the Dork Tower feed on LiveJournal: it’s hard for me to put in LJ-cuts without these pages looking screwy for every single other person who sees this. I shall at least endeavor to keep posts this long few and far between)

Anyway, the Lion led (as Lions do) to a Giraffe that I’m quite fond of:

Here are some closeups: I really need to find someone to photograph these proper. An iPhone just don’t cut it…

And but so…also, a piece I call “They Would Never Let Poor Rudolph Join In Any Reindeer Gangs.” It is most emphatically not for Louisa’s room, and based on a card I drew that I just liked werra, werra much.

I know eventually I’ll put some stuff like this up for sale, but I have no idea what to charge…

One thought is to offer unique paintings of Munchkin cards. Ie, if I do a “Gazebo” painting, I’ll never paint it again after that. The person who has it will have the ONLY one in existence.

But that would also mean going back and recreating my old style from 7+ years ago. Am I interested in that? Dunno…

So, anyhoo, yes, by all means…come on down Friday! Art! Cartoons! Art! Did I mention <i>ART</i>? Refreshments! Games! Bohemians! Alcohol! DRUNK Bohemians! Drunk Bohemians who can kick Fanny Garver Gallery’s FANNY! Super happy music friend show (ie, I’ll be playing my mixes in the studio).

John

First, apologies for the not-even-close-to-daily updates on DorkTower.com. As I get in the swing of things, that should change. Right now, my mind’s still very much in a Wake-Up-And-Think-Of-Louisa kind of phase…

Also, I promised some big announcements. I just haven’t had time to sit down and put the thought into writing them that they deserve.

A huge winter storm is on its way to Madison. Perhaps that will be the Stay-At-Home incentive I need to write everything up. Just a shame it took a winter storm to get me to do it.

The Muskrat Mobile sold, by the way. To Steve, the owner of Misty Mountain Games. So it’s got a good home.

The last time I sold a car, it was to Terry, co-owner of Pegasus Games.

John Kovalic: Auto Retailer to the Games Stores.

John

New cartoons up on DorkTower.com next week, starting Monday, November 3.

Plus, an important announcement.

Until then…

****

I grow old. I grow old/I shall make my daughter dress like Ben Folds.

Yes, Paradigm Shift #2072 has been come to pass, in the last week and a half, since fatherhood began.

To wit: I could now care less as to what I’ll wear for Halloween.

From this point on, it’s all about what Louisa will dress like for Halloween.

We’ll spend the night with our good friends, the Witters, watching Trick or Treaters come and go to their downtown Middleton doorstep. In all honesty, that strikes me as a lot more fun than dressing up and hitting State Street, all the while trying to avoid the drunken douchebags – I’m sorry, “revellers” -as has been the Madison tradition lo these many years.

Still, though a palpable sense of change has come over me, vis All Hallow’s Eve, prior years DID provide their moments of enjoyment.

Exhibit A: The “Yes, I’ve Got Medieval Garb, TOO,” years
Striking, verilly, but as original as med students wearing scrubs for Halloween.

Exhibit B: The “Hey, let’s make an EFFORT this year,” years
Judith and I combined as Mitch and Mickey, from “A Mighty Wind.” And it was mighty fun. Despite the fact that I had all of Mitch’s wardrobe, including the glasses, on hand. At least Judith had to buy her Mickey garb…

Exhibit C: The “My Favorite Year,” years
Judith and I did Groucho and Harpo. Groucho Marx has always been a comic hero of mine, so I was overjoyed that we were able to pull this off – nay, channel Uncle Julius…

Goodbye to all that, for the moment at least.

Louisa will spend part of the night as a pumpkin, part as a pussycat.

How long as each, of course, depends on the diaper situation.

Me? I’m going to Halloween as Louisa’s dad, and it’s my favorite costume ever.

Do keep in touch,

John