September recap – Utown launch, teaching, children’s book.

Hello world! Welcome to fall! Everyone in Montreal suddenly becomes fashion models this time around, with classy jackets, scarves and boots and everything. And there’s me, in a 5$ thrift store jacket that was shat on by a crow in Japan. Fancy!!

If I had one word for September, it would be ” apprehension”. It’s a daunting word to describe one’s state of mind but if there are a lot of changes coming up and me no like stepping into the unknown. So yeah, it’s been a challenging few weeks mental-health wise but I managed!

Late this month, I announced the official launch of Utown as a webcomic. Having done a good amount of pages, I felt ready to make it official. On the span of two days, I frantically designed a poster for the announcement and posted it everywhere. Making comics is fun, sure, but… designing posters or covers is honestly what I love the most. Add the fact that it depicts my characters and voila! One my favorite piece of the year. All that to say, Utown will launch in December, on Patreon! There will be more details later, promise!

In August, after much deliberation, I took on a basic Photoshop teaching job at a newly-opened animation school in the Mile-End. Since then, I’ve been slowly driving myself insane with disaster scenarios, like I always do when faced with an unfamiliar situation. Thank God, a few friends chimed in, providing much appreciated advice and comfort. Classes start next week and even though I’m still very nervous, I really want this to work. Sharing knowledge is such a core value for me that I simply couldn’t turn this offer down. I wasn’t expecting the ensuing insomnia though. We’ll see how it goes!

Finally, after ten years of sluggish but faithful services, I’m retiring my old, old Macbook Pro. I wrote, thumbnailed and and partly colored every single one of my comic projects on this laptop. It taught me patience, and that despite their reputation, Apple makes (or at least used to) long lasting machines. I mean, ten years, geezus. And it’s still working! But I decided to make a technological leap and get a Surface Pro for home. We’ll see if I can layout the rest of Utown on it!

So that’s it for September. It lasted for what seems 40 years. Oh and don’t forget: next month is INKTOBER!! This year, I’m drawing the ol’ Nuclear Winter crew, as a final goodbye to all the characters and their universe. As usual, I’ll follow the official prompts so head on over Instagram, where I’ll be posting a drawing a day, until I finish or collapse. Should be fun!

Here what got me excited this month.

Reading: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up With me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell. I’m just a quarter in but wow, it’s a class in layout and cute girls.
Watching: All the fantasy shows. I binged Disenchantment‘s 2nd season in 3 days. I love the writing, the clever, not too in-you-face humor, the artwork, everything. I also got sucked into the Dark Crystal series, which is as geeky, earnest and unapologetic as fantasy gets. Plus, the level of craft behind this show is mind-boggling.
Listening: Old CDs. Yup, while I still have an ancient computer with an optical drive.
Artist: I’m thinking a lot about design lately so I revisited some of Paula Scher‘s pieces. Her body of work is beyond impressive and keeps on blowing my mind.