The End.

So that is the whole story.
So far.
I promised to share with you my exciting adventures at Cartoon School over two years - and I am amazed at how quickly it passed by!

I hope that you have enjoyed the experience and I thank you for backing my Kickstarters and making this all possible. You ROCK!

Follow me...
If you would like to continue following me... and you're curious what will happen next... you can switch over to my Studio blog - Beez in the Belfry - which has been on hold for the past two years. Just click on the link, and then fill in the form in the right column to be added to the mailing list (it's free!)

This blog will remain for a little while longer if you want to reread any posts.

You can also follow me and all things comics on Facebook on the Bumblebat page.

Glyphs & Glitches Comics Blog
The comic blog is also coming to a close. If you'd like to keep reading comics as I draw them (I have a lot of catching up to do!) AND you would like to continue showing your support for my creative efforts (I LOVE YOU!) Please, please, PLEASE back me on Patreon!

It is very simple and works kind of like a subscription. You can pledge any amount each month and read the comics as they post. You can cancel anytime.

If you join soon (before the end of July) and pledge $5 or more, you'll get a coupon code good for $5 off on my Etsy shop.

Thesis Comics!
If you missed the most recent Kickstarters and would like copies of my AMAZING Thesis Comics
;-) - they are now available, as digital or print copies, in my Etsy store: www.Bumblebat.com - but there are only a few remaining printed issues (with prints, paper dolls and mini-comics!)

I've got an MFA!!

Tons of photos ahead... it's almost like being there!

Before and After?
Seriously!
This picture...

... was taken during orientation - TWO YEARS AGO!

And this picture...

...was taken last Saturday morning just before we headed off to the Northern Stage Theatre to get our diplomas!

On the far left is LINIERS, our Fellow - he's a cartoonist from Argentina. His sweater has his own characters on it!!

And this is a caricature of our class created by Kazimir Lee (class of 2016)...

We marched from the school over to Northern Stage - like little ducklings following our duck parents (actually duck-teachers).

My friend Debbee's sketch of our parade...

 They had photos of us projected onto the screen before the ceremony...

 We had the set from "Mamma Mia" as our background! (Great musical, by the way, go see it!!)

Our commencement speaker was cartoonist Paul Karasik. He's very funny (I love this cartoon...)

Here we are together...





























I was SO excited to have my family here with me! Even my son traveled all day on Friday to get here from college - and then back again after the ceremony. You guys deserve a reward too for helping me survive these two years (and everything that came before, too).

Here's a view of our special diplomas designed by John Martz.

 After the ceremony, we had a reception for the Opening of the Thesis Show.

Here are all the Thesis packets...

My wall in the Show with original pages and all the Comic Magazines hanging around, waiting to be read.

The Fireman gave me a ROSE!

The Fireman! holding an issue of BEGIN AGAIN with a comic ad for HIM.

This next picture was actually from the Reception the evening before - we both have our "grown-up" faces on.

The papers covered the event the next day...

We all went out to eat and then ate chocolates at the Powerhouse Mall and then got very silly...

 And then... I avoided people for three days and sat in my tiny garden!

What the Quo Vadis!?

It's getting near to the end of this blog's run... graduation from CCS is this Saturday! But there's so much going on, I have trouble keeping UP!

 I went home this weekend to see Lilah's performance in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She was the Narrator and an eagle. How was it?... well, it was... short and had a long intermission...

The Fireman took care of me and Minou... (although Minou refused to eat her grapefruit!)

... and he had planted HUNDREDS of tulips in my yard and garden, and they were starting to bloom!

(It's been dark and rainy for a week).

Back in Vermont - I have been assembling my Thesis/Kickstarter comics...

cutting, trimming, stamping, making belly bands...

packaging and mailing! Yowza... only 35 more to go!?

And - on top of that - I am SERIOUSLY stressing about what to do with the rest of my life! Well, fine, I'm focusing on the next six months... hell, I can't even figure out this summer!!

I found this house just outside White River Junction (but REALLY close) in an historic district. It needs a TON of work - but The Fireman was just as smitten as I was and HE can really wield his tools!

A tower, wrap around porch, wood floors, fireplace, big rooms, butler's pantry! There's even a big sunroom space at the back with it's own entrance that could be rebuilt as my studio. It looks out into the forest - like a treehouse! Unfortunately... it needs CASH.

If I can sell my Wingdoodle building... otherwise - I have to move back home. But I don't have any room at home for me... and I really wanted to stay here for at least the summer... and take Animation and Graphic Novel classes...

... even the Magic 8 Balls at the Four Aces Diner weren't able to offer any useful advice. I've been driving everyone around me nuts with my "What if...?" questions. No one understands why I don't want to just move back home... and go back to my previous life. Before Comics. In a tiny... TINY town... near my Ex and his family...

So I did my usual OCD (CDO?) Crazy - and made a Mindmap/Chart of my different options. Where to live and what I could do if I lived in those places...

What do I Want? Like, you know, if someone asked ME - and I didn't have to worry about my kids, my mother, my Ex, the Fireman, or legal weirdness... what do I want?

I want to sell my Wingdoodle building for an excellent price, take my share (Mom owns half) and buy the Tower House for a VERY low price. Use the rest of my share to fix the roof, electric, plumbing, etc. and build my studio on the back. Then I'd move my apartment in there and take a year's sabbatical to work on the books that are sitting, waiting in drawers, and the cool project for the Agent (if she still wants me) and some other projects... The Fireman could renovate the rooms in the house. Meanwhile, I'd sell off as much as I could from my NH house, figure out where my mom can live... and then sell my house (in a year or so).

In this perfect world - I'd get more projects from the Montshire Science Museum, work with the new Graphic Medicine program with CCS and Dartmouth, attend some stuff at CCS, and maybe teach online and at some local galleries and maker spaces. And in my new Studio! :-)

I wonder if I could do a Kickstarter to buy the house and build a studio? I've done crazier things, right?

I welcome any advice or opinions! I should do a Poll. What do YOU think I should DO NEXT?

Graduation and Thesis Exhibit

If you are reading this blog, then you have backed my Kickstarters and helped me get through Cartoon School... you are invited to join me for Graduation and the Opening of the Thesis Exhibition!

Commencement is at the Northern Stage Theatre, May 13th at 10am.

Hope to see you there!

Visiting Artist - Dash Shaw

Our final visiting artist for the year was Dash Shaw. Check out his Amazon Author Page for a list of all his comics!

His lecture at CCS was followed by a premier of his new animated film, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, at Dartmouth College.

Thesis... complete?

It IS quite possible that my head might explode... I am So tired. So hungry... but I admit it.. So excited!!

I dropped off my Thesis package at the school today. It felt a lot like the first day of preschool - saying goodbye to my kiddos!

Here are a few behind-the-scenes pic of what I've been doing this week:

I carved rubber stamps for the packaging front and spines...

I finalized a design for the packaging. It's not so much a "box" as a complicated bellyband...

My thesis seminar teacher, Jason, and Sara, from the Dartmouth Book Arts workshop, helped me cut ten boxes. I stamped them all with pigment ink and let them dry overnight.

 I picked up all my comic magazines from R.C. Brayshaw in West Lebanon. Oooooo! SHINY!

And a big box of the Science comics...

Minou helped to press them flat...

I trimmed, and then used booger glue to stick in each special page and each mini-comic...

Lastly, I taped and assembled each box around all four of the magazine issues...

ooooooo.....

The Committee will review the thesis projects and then we get feedback... and find out if we graduate, in two weeks!

Next project is to repeat all of this, minus the boxes, for all my Kickstarter backers and get those mailed out! I need to set up an assembly line. Once I figure out how many remain after filling those pre-orders, I'll put them up on my Etsy store.

Visiting Artist - Jaime Hernandez

Today's visiting artist was Jaime Hernandez who, with his brother, Gilbert, create the Love and Rockets comic books.

I think the way he draws women is really beautiful. His most devastating quote was "Real artists don't draw with ballpoint pens." Uh-oh!