I brought my wife and daughter to the airport yesterday. Saying goodbye was startlingly difficult -- it will be the longest I have been away from them both. It left me emotionally raw, so that when I turned on the radio on my drive home, I felt ripped open. I landed right in the middle of the coverage of the Montreal shooting. At first, I couldn't figure out what had actually happened and thought it had taken place in Dawson City. When horrific events like this happen, there's always this weird state of suspended reality when I first hear about them. I can't imagine what it would be like to experience it.

I'm home alone for the next two weeks and have more ideas than I have time to pencil and ink. I like to think of this as a creative sabbatical -- no parental responsibilities to hold me back. For the first time in ages, I wish Weltschmerz appeared more often, since I'm afraid my ideas will get staledated before I can run them.

I was at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival last weekend. The Saturday seminar was sparsely attended, but it was inspiring to exchange ideas with other writers and to think about universal aspects of telling stories, whether orally, visually or in books. Because there were only a few people at my little workshop, and I did so much preparation, I thought I'd share my handout, a 17-page, 4 MB PDF document called Notes on Writing a Comic Strip, with anyone who is interested in the process behind Weltschmerz. The first 8 pages shows how the above comic strip was created. Then there are another six pages of notes about writing comics, using my strips as examples. I hope you find it useful. Leave any feedback on my comments board; I'd love to hear from you.



Attack of the Same-Sex Sleeper Cells Retailers:

Toronto:
Pages, 256 Queen Street West (at John). On the graphic novels table.
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street (near Bloor and Bathurst)
Book City, three locations - 501 Bloor St. West, 348 Danforth Ave., 663 Yonge St.
Hairy Tarantula, 354 Yonge Street (near Dundas).
David Mirvish Books, 596 Markham St.

Guelph:
The Bookshelf, 41 Quebec Street.
Macondo Books, 18 Wilson Street

Waterloo: Words Worth Books, 100 King Street South

Kitchener: KW Bookstore, 308 King Street West

Hamilton: Bryan Prince Bookseller, 1060 King Street West

Ottawa: Collected Works, 1242 Wellington Street West (at Holland)