Category Archives: on-line comic
Fireworks…
…to celebrate the arrival of episode #7.
There has been celebrations, summer is in full swing, kids get to stay up late and the story is trucking ahead.
Last night I stopped by to see the tail end of a talk by my old hero Winston Smith at Pegasus Books in Berkeley. It’s a great book store by the way. After getting to shake his hand and telling him what a great influence on my teenage years and life he was, I was browsing through the comic book/graphic novel section and I stumbled upon another book about a health condition! I actually can’t remember ever seeing a comic dealing with these issues before, but maybe I haven’t been looking hard enough, and since I am doing my story now, I guess my eyes are extra attentive to these types of things. You know like when you’re looking for a toaster and now you seem to see toasters everywhere? Anyway, the book is by and about the great writer, and Robert Crumb collaborator, Harvey Pekar. It’s called “Our Cancer Year”. I have never heard about this book before, which is weird since I am a Crumb fan and like to think that I am keeping an eye on what happens around him creatively, but you live and you learn. I am not sure I am ready to read it yet, but I will for sure eventually.
I also spent some time in the E.R. a few days ago. My swollen foot was bugging me so I went to see the doctor to have it checked out. It’s a good example of how any ailment can turn into a bigger scare since I am a person who had a heart transplant. Since I felt the foot had started swell up after a plane ride, both me and the doc touched upon the possibility of a blood clot (=sitting still for a long time + blood getting stuck in your feet + the air pressure in a plane being different etc, etc.) Since a blood clot can be fatal I was off to the E.R., which, by the way, is a place that will be talked about in next week’s installment.
Anyway, I better stop before this turns into a complete orgy of links (too late!).
Hope you’re all doing well and thanks for stopping by and reading.
Week #7
This story is just growing…
Week #6!
It’s great to have come all the way here.
Last week we cleaned out our garage a bit and some old tidbits from this whole episode surfaced. Some old manuals, hospital forms and thick binders with information on how to survive and how to lead your life in the new health situation. Also, there were some journals from the time before and after the heart failure happened. Of course there were tons of I-have-to-add-this-to-the-story moments, to the point of me feeling like I need to structure this a bit more. Up until now it has been just me doing stick figure storyboarding a few pages ahead from what comes to mind, but as more material shows up in my memory or, for example Christine goes, “remember that funny moment”, I want to organize it all a bit. However, I don’t want to make this all too precious and get perfectionist about it, because like the cartoonist Texan in Tokyo so correctly put it: “finished is better than perfect” (2:49). A large part of the fun is to be able to put stuff together, thrash forward on gut feeling and try different things out.
The garage finds were also a much needed reminder of what a miracle it all is. Life is precious.
This week’s installment ended up having lots of text in it, so it’s basically like a REAL BOOK!
Hope you’re all well and thanks for reading!
Week #6
Still truckin’ and not having ceviche.
Week #5 and still truckin’! This week there’s some more educational stuff about what happened with the heart failure and the difficulties I had dealing with a new reality.
I just got back from a sweet week in Mexico where I basically walked around in swim trunks and relaxed. Having this condition, here are some things I need to do when going on a trip like this (I might just draw this out at a later point):
– wear a lot of sunscreen since I am on immunosuppressants = easier to get skin cancer from that big, yellow ball.
– not eat any ceviche since it’s considered a raw animal product = possible bacteria = possible infection.
– NOT DRINK THE WATER the nurse told me, for the same reason as above.
– wear a mouth mask on the plane since the air is circulated and lots of people exhale whatever they have going on in their bodies. This is more optional now since time has passed since the surgery and I didn’t end up wearing one.
There are still frame problems with the comic that bum me out, but oh well, just a process to figure it out. Thanks all for reading, passing on, commenting and complementing.
Have a great week everyone!
Week #5
On-wards and frames all over the place.
Hi all,
The fourth installment is up. Weee!
I am having some technical difficulties that makes the order of the frames look wonky if you read it on a desktop/laptop machine. I am looking into it and I will figure it out soon (= someone who is into tech-trouble shooting – PLEASE HELP ME!!!).
Hope all are having a good, or at least decent, time.
Week #4
Keep rollin’…
Hi again,
Thanks for all the nice words and for reading. This week’s post deals when my heart failure really went into high gear and I could feel that something was hindering me. I swam just one lap and needed to stop for a breather. I grew up swimming and competing, so that was definitely something that was odd.
After the swim it felt like I had a swollen ball right under my sternum, which I later learned is called the “gastro intestinal area” (any health care people in the house, correct me if I am wrong), and that feeling would be something that would come back again and again.
Thank you so much for reading and have a great week!