It being Christmas Eve and all, I was thinking of this Christmas story and drew it up. I meant to draw it nicer, but didn't get time.  It's about family.

( under the cut, because it's big )


If it helps to understand it better, I am the second oldest of four girls.

Merry Christmas, everyone! To you and yours.

So as some of you may already know, I've been in the market for a banjo. After being on the Punchbuggy Tour back in October and getting the chance to mess around with Gabby's banjo, I could not wait to get one for myself. Something about the way it felt in my hands and the way it sounded even when I just barely touched it, I loved it. I wanted one SO BAD. But I didn't have any money, so I knew I'd have to wait until Christmas came around when I knew I would have some extra Christmas cash to throw around on a decent banjo. I didn't want to get some cheap crap from Fender or something, I wanted something that looked and sounded formidable, not like a piece of shit you'd buy for your 14 year old cousin for his birthday with unplayably high action (which for some reason, seems to be the norm on any cheap stringed instrument).

ANYWAY.

I was super busy leading up to Christmas and I knew I'd be in Jersey for four days right after Christmas (for the Bouncing Souls Home for the Holidays shows) and that I'd be super busy again in January and February, so it seemed like those four days would be the perfect time to sit around my hotel room learning to play the banjo! I just had to find a decent one right before Christmas. Yeah, good luck with that, right? For the past few days I've been trolling the internet for places that sold decent new or used banjos in the NYC area at a decent price and it was harder than you'd think. Earlier today I stooped to the level of even trying GUITAR CENTER, which while a fine place to buy your strings, picks, straps, etc. is no place to buy a banjo, and I knew that. Naturally, they only had two banjos in stock, one of which was 6-string (not what I wanted) and the other one too expensive for the piece of crap that it was.

I tried one more small store, they were open but all they had was a left-handed banjo. I am right handed. I was ready to give up entirely, until I returned home and got a text message from MK frantically informing me of a shop called Retrofret which was not only walking distance from the train, but had, in her words "a shit ton of banjos." I was not expecting anyone to be there when I called at 4:30pm on Christmas Eve. I wasn't expecting anything. But I called anyway.

I was surprised to find a kind voice on the other end of the line, informing me that they were "just about closed" but then asked what I was looking for. I explained my situation, my budget, and what I was looking for and they said they had a banjo in my price range! A decent one too! I told them I would be there in half an hour and he said "Well, we're just wrapping some Christmas presents over here, and I've got nowhere to be, so come on over!" After I thanked him profusely, he exclaimed "It's a Christmas Eve banjo miracle!"

Indeed it was. After trekking through the snow and ice through a dubious neighborhood full of warehouses and taxi garages, I wasn't sure I was in the right place, but then I got there. I buzzed up, and they let me in. "Come up to the right and then to the left" was the message I received through the intercom, so I did.

Once I got to the top of the stairs, a slightly older gentleman opened the door and introduced himself, as I did in turn. As he opened the door further I realized we were outside, on the roof. There was a boardwalk that led from that door to the door of the store, which was situated in a little roof-house type of a structure. Pretty incredible.

I went inside and the guy who opened the door for me directed me to their EXTENSIVE banjo selection, and then picked up the one I was planning on buying and played a bit for me, then let me sit and hold it for a bit next to a little table covered in leftover wrapping paper (from the aforementioned Christmas gifts, I'm guessing). I told them I'd never played banjo, I pretty much only play ukulele, and it turned out one of the other guys there was a uke player as well! 

I fell in love with the thing as soon as I touched it, so of course I bought it. Turns out it was one of many banjos the shop had acquired from Ray Alden after his death in September. He was the mentor of the gentleman who sold me the banjo, and after some Googling upon returning home, I've discovered he was a rather influential figure in the old time music scene! Wow. I was told he gave the banjos to the shop hoping they would be made affordable to banjo players, and there I was, a brand new banjo player going home with one of them! So cool.

Anyway, they gave me a gig bag for the banjo and a free set of spare strings and sent me on my way! I couldn't have asked for a cooler banjo-buying experience with more character than the one I got. If you are in the market for a unique stringed instrument I highly recommend you give the guys at Retrofret a call!



Here's a little video I found after some more Googling trying to learn about the man whose banjo I've inherited. He's the gentleman playing banjo, of course:

Man I have really fallen off the wagon of mentioning something other than myself in these reminder posts. Um... lemme think a minute.

Oh I have an idea. Okay well I have this habit of getting into certain music about five years after it's already become uncool to like, and the most recent thing I've been getting into which has been very popular for some time already is Defiance, Ohio. It's a situation similar to the one where everyone and their mom told me ever since I started drawing comics that I had to read Love & Rockets, but I ignored them for about six years and when I finally hunkered down and read it I was like, whaaaaaat. Actually I tend to do the same thing with movies, books, TV shows, you name it.

Anyway, I used to really really like a band called Against Me! back around 2001-3ish when they had more of an acoustic guy-yelling-into-lo-fi-equipment sound but at some point their sound changed a lot and got a lot cleaner and I got a lot less interested in them. Probably their signing to a major label had something to do with it, but either way I stopped caring about anything they did after their second album. This is one of their early early songs which is still probably one of my favorites (though I prefer the Acoustic EP version):




So after I lost interest in Against Me! I was really sad because I couldn't find anything else that really sounded like that that I could get into. But then! Lo, recently I started listening to Defiance, Ohio, which is basically EVERYTHING I used to love about early Against Me! PLUS some really a lot better stuff! They have a banjo! A standup bass! A violin! And yes, much like early Against Me! they are just so sincere that it makes you a little uncomfortable (my favorite thing). God, I love it already! Here's a song which I can't stop listening to lately:




If you like that sort of thing, you can actually get pretty much all their music for free on their website! The end.

Check out this review of Four Squares at the Comics Journal, that is, if you like to read that sorta thing.

A Scottish cartoon, since I am back home for the holidays.

I'm well acquainted with the tune "Lord Lovat's Lament," since you hear it around these parts every time anyone has to pick up a fiddle and learn something. But you know, it's one of those tunes you know so well, you pay no attention to it, it's just there in the back of your head.

Then one day, I was looking up a bunch of works by Hogarth (the best) and came upon this portrait of 'Lord Lovat'. The lovely old tune and that devily face, they didn't match. So I wanted to learn more about him!

Lovat (Simon Fraser, born 1697 - there are about a million Simon Fraser Lord Lovats) really epitomizes how reading Scottish history can make you want to tear your eyeballs out, or laugh because it's nearly a farce it's so nutty. Either the people involved are disastrously loyal, or disastrously duplicitous. Everything is a disaster, but it's a hell of a ride.

I was missing my grandma really hard today for some reason. Once in a while I just miss her really, really hard. I drew a comic about it. I did it really quick, so don't judge.

( blah blah blah )

( Story contiues behind this customary cut )

This is the first part of a bigger story that hopefully I'll find time to draw. Hey, it's Christmas soon, I'm cooking beef.

I'm guessing you already looked at those new comics I've got on top shelf, eh?

CARL'S LARGE STORY PAGE 201!!

201! Holidaze!

Jamie’s out on her own and it’s getting dark! I have a feeling she doesn’t totally know where she is. And where’s that voice coming from? Things begin to unfold on Thursday! Think of it as my Christmas Eve gift to you! Unless you don’t celebrate Christmas, in which case you can consider it my Regular Thursday gift to you!

Don’t forget – the Freewheel: Volume One Fundraising Campout is still going strong! I have until the end of February to raise the $2500 required to print Freewheel: Volume One and so far, I’ve managed to raise $508! Just $1992 left to raise!

Check out the Freewheel: Volume One Fundraising Campout page and see all the different funding levels and what you can get for various amounts, anywhere from $8 to $500! There are a variety of funding gifts, ranging from signed copies of the book once it’s printed, to original pages from the book, to the ability to name a hobo or even see your own face on a background character! And EVERY funder, no matter how large or small, will be thanked by name in the book!

Two months left to go! Here's the thermometer as of right now (10am EST Tuesday morning):

Okay, wow. 2009 was crazy. When I think back on everything that happened this year, it feels like some of it was so long ago, but it was just March or June or October. I had so many amazing, life-altering experiences, but there was an equal amount of terribleness to balance it out. Let's review, shall we?

( Let's start with the bad and get that out of the way so we can appreciate the good. )

So I poked fun at naniiebim  a while bit cause she draws such great petite ladies. I wondered if she was ever going to draw any fat girls. So she did, so in retaliation so did I. I went for a colouring cross between ashley woods world war robot paintings and the amazing colours on the covers of Vikings (out through image at the mo). Knocking this off gave me a little breather and another character design for the sketch comic and finally named it. Heck I also like the logo for it too. Also with the end of the year coming it means I get more holiday to book for the coming year. Which I'm heavily thinking about going for a weekend in paris and buying my weight in comics.

CARL'S LARGE STORY PAGE 200!!

Big page two hundred!

Here's a few pages from my sketch comic. I'm just pooting this out in bits of spare time. I probably knuckle down properly and work on it after christmas day when I've still got sometime off work. The next page features their ride which is inspired by a landmark in Bristol... Also after christmas I'm planning of working on a pitch for a graphic novel set in my Flower Eaters setting. I'm working out the synopsis for the story and characters. hen I'll work on 5 sample pages to try sending to companies. I really want to try and make 2010 my year to make something happen. If any of you amazing people out there have any tips then please let me know! Edit: Poop I also forgot to mention that apparently I'm in the running for the manga jiman comp (touch wood) I got an email on Tuesday saying that my stuff will be on show at the Japanese embassy in February! 

A new page of Freewheel is up! Jamie is all packed up and ready to leave home, but where will she go?



Also, some big news on the Freewheel: Volume One Fundraising Campout, which is a little Kickstarter-style pre-order-with-benefits program thing I just started to raise money for the first and very expensive printing of Freewheel: Volume One, which will collect the first five chapters. After I announced the Campout on Tuesday, it's already gone over the $100 just this morning! In fact, it's at $148 as I type this! We've got a Can of Beanz, two Can Openers and two Matches. Who will bring the Firewood and put us over the $200 mark?



In other news, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Jen Vaughn (the slammin' cartoonist behind such comics about menstruation as Menstruation Station and Don't Hate, Menstruate!) has started a new webcomic called Mermaid Hostel, which is about an underwater world not unlike our own in which mermaids exist and run a hostel in what I am assuming is the ocean. She updates it on Fridays and it is pretty neat. You should check it out! If you are a squeamish person, it is not about periods in any way (so far). I don't imagine that mermaids get periods but who knows?

Some holiday comics! The Kiss Elves return.

Oh and I am posting journal type comics on twitter sometimes. If you are on twitter I am @beatonna

Oh hey, you know what would be awesome for Xmas? Being the Mayor of Hobo Town. Not only do you get to be a mayor for significantly cheaper than the cost of a real mayoral campaign, you support awesome independent artist/superbabe/superbro Liz Baillie. There are other smaller, more awesome levels of support too.

Hey Guys! If you haven't ordered a holiday card from my webstore yet, there's still time! I'll also do New Year's cards!





Here is a new comic for you:

CARL'S LARGE STORY PAGE 199!!



I'm selling the above watercolor in the store. Check it out!