Drawing Strength

Although I've been active on Facebook, I haven't blogged in a while and feel bad for leaving any non-Facebookers who might check in here hanging. Karen and I are doing all right. The Army Corps of Engineers cleared our lot yesterday. There are no more artifacts to recover, no more wondering what I might find in the ashes if I just look one more time.... Now there's no going back; only forward.

People ask if I'll do more "Fire Story." I hope so, but not here and not soon. I'd like it to be published as a graphic novel, and have good reason to believe that could happen. I'm working on a book proposal now.

Meanwhile, here are some photos from last Saturday's "Drawing Strength" benefit at the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center. Three people who worked hard to make the event happen were "Pearls Before Swine" cartoonist Stephan Pastis; Stephan's wife Staci, who really ran the show; and the museum's education director Jessica Ruskin. And of course it couldn't have happened without the enthusiastic support of Jeannie Schulz, whose home was destroyed in the firestorm as well.

The benefit began with a panel on healing through art, moderated by local journalist Chris Smith. It was intended to include me, Pastis, and author Christopher Moore, who called in at the last minute with a horrible case of food poisoning. Moore felt terrible about it, and dispatched his wife to drive boxes of signed books to the museum for anyone disappointed by his absence. Cartoonist, writer, and reality-TV pioneer Judd Winick stepped in at literally the last minute. Judd's terrific graphic novel Pedro and Me, about the death of his "Real World" co-star and friend Pedro Zamora, made him an ideal fit for the theme.

Before the event, Raina, Stephan and I enjoyed a nice dinner of pizza, pasta and salad provided by the museum.

I took along books for Raina, Judd, Dave Eggers, and Christopher Moore to sign. Hey, I have a library to rebuild! I'll catch Moore later.

Stephan, Judd and I waiting in the wings to be introduced before the panel.

I stepped on stage blinded by the light of my own drawing. The museum's Great Hall was packed with 250 to 300 people.

Judd started us off with an excellent impromptu talk about "Pedro and Me" as well as his new work "HiLo" while Stephan and I lurked in the shadows. Judd's done a lot of public speaking and stepped in confidently and smoothly.

The view from my seat as Stephan reads from his comic strips, including more serious ones about Middle East violence and gun deaths. He genuinely choked up. I was touched. Note the full house.

Doing my best. I touched on the fire, Mom's Cancer, graphic medicine, and the fact that when I evacuated my studio I grabbed pieces of original art by Charles Schulz, Walt Kelly and Winsor McCay but left my "Pearls Before Swine" behind. Stephan pretended to be peeved until I explained that I only saved dead guys' work.

Part of my talk included photos I took as I walked into my neighborhood that first morning and the comic panels they inspired/informed.

After the panel and coinciding with a wine and beer reception, the panelists were joined by author Dave Eggers, bestselling cartoonist (and my friend!) Raina Telgemeier, and Pixar animator Andrew Atteberry (who was added to the program too late to make the poster) to sign books and posters, and draw for fans. To help raise funds, people could pay $50 to have any artist draw whatever they wanted within the artist's ability and good nature.

Honestly, I don't like doing sketches for money. I've done it before and I'm not good at it. Too much pressure. Somewhere in the world are a father and son to whom I owe $10 because my drawing of "Chewbacca playing basketball" was so bad. To be fair, I had no reference images (this was inside San Diego Comic-Con, where my phone got no reception) and Chewbacca is really hard to draw. Even his bandolier is hard to draw. I think the basketball turned out OK. But for the Schulz event I stepped up and did my best, and everyone seemed happy with their drawings. 

Books for sale in the lobby, including Mom's Cancer.

I had a good busy line all night. The Schulz Museum printed up little posters of "A Fire Story" and gave them to everyone, which I thought was a real nice thing to do. I signed a lot of those.

Pastis and me at work.

Other signing lines: From foreground right to background left, that's Raina Telgemeier, Judd Winick, Andrew Atteberry, and, standing, Dave Eggers talking to Jeannie Schulz.

What's great about this photo is that someone had asked me to draw a picture of Linus and Snoopy cuddling under Linus's blanket (I'm using the image on her phone as a reference). I joked about this being the worst possible place and time to be caught committing a copyright violation and made a big show of looking over my shoulder. Seconds later, guess who showed up and caught me red-handed.

I really appreciated the chance to meet Andrew Atteberry, gush at Dave Eggers, get to know Judd Winick better, and spend some time with Raina Telegemeier and her dad. Also the many people who stood in line for signings and such, many of them old good friends.

Great people, full house, and overall a really nice night. Thanks to all!