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  March 23, 2006 | A Better Prison « Previous | Current | Next » Comments (3) | Archives | About Email lind at lindtoons.com

I'm finally live with a revamped site, thanks to Photoblogmeister Matt O'Sullivan. Here, you can place advance orders for the Weltschmerz comic book. It will be launched (and delivered) on April 6. This site is still somewhat barebones: The character descriptions and archive (where you can view cartoons by character, theme or date) are still to come. But you can leave comments on the strip above. And I've annotated strips going back into 2005, if you want to browse with the "back" arrow.

I got the idea for this sequence of cartoons while lying in bed with a 39 degree fever, heart racing because of too many asthma drugs. A sequence of events with Raj in Pakistan came into my mind. I had wondered what Raj's fate would be once he was forced on a Pakistan-bound plane by his fellow Canadians in December of last year. That feverish night settled it.

I fleshed out the story line and worked out the individual strips last week. As sometimes happens, events seem to mirror my cartoon. Last week, a Canadian was taken hostage in Palestine -- and released after the captors found out he was Canadian. It makes next week's cartoon seem a riff on that incident, when in fact it won't be. Sometimes I resent reality preempting my cartoon. But then again, it makes the toon more relevant.



  Elsewhere

Lindtoons

You can see a more extensive portfolio of my work at the blog lindtoons.com, including This Bright Future, a distilled and partial continuation of Weltschmerz, Turtle Creek, a daily comic about a turtle and a computer, and Footprint in Mouth, a quarterly cartoon I draw for Alternatives.

Weltschmerz in Print

Weltschmerz ran in Toronto's Eye Weekly from 1997 to 2007. It ran in weekly papers in southwestern Ontario, Ottawa and Edmonton between 1995 and 2008.

Notes on Writing a Comic Strip

I wrote this 17-page, 4 MB PDF document for my workshop at the 2006 Eden Mills Writers' Festival. It details the creation of one strip and gives tips on writing comics.

Politics and Environment

Monbiot | Guardian columnist and Heat author George Monbiot's blog. Not only about global warming, but expect plenty of refutations of the flat-earthers. His writing is witty, incisive and bang-on.

Desmog Blog | An indispensible (and Canadian) resource that "clears the PR pollution that clouds climate science."

Soundtrack

Weltschmerz playlist at CBC Radio 3 | Some of the music I listen to while drawing this comic -- independent and Canadian.

This American Life | Radio documentaries that hit the heart, brain and funny bone.

CBC Podcasts | I don't listen to much live radio. Now, podcasts allow me to catch a lot of what I miss. I listen to The Current, Ideas, Spark and Search Engine while inking.

Comics

Diesel Sweeties by R Stevens | Witty repartee between guys, girls and robots drawn in a pixelated yet surprisingly versatile style.

Scott Pilgrim Manga-style indie-rock romance by Canadian Bryan Lee O'Malley | The most fun I've had in a comic book in recent memory. Highly recommended.

Dykes to Watch Out For | Alison Bechdel's brilliant weekly strip has been ghettoized because of its gay themes but deserves a wider readership.

Doonesbury | Garry Trudeau is still great after all these years.

Kevin Heuzenga | Enviable drawing style and dry wit. Start with Time Travelling.

Graeme MacKay | The editorial cartoonist for the Hamilton Spectator has a distinctive, addictive drawing style. And he makes me chortle.

Friends and Neighbours

Blog Guelph | Hometown photos and events.

The Narrative | Riveting photoblog. Matt O'Sullivan is at the right place at the right shutter speed.

Breast of Canada | A calendar promoting women's health.


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