Tuesday, March 30, 2010

People of Korea... and otherwise.

Hey guys. This week hasn't been very rich for lighthearted autobiographical material so instead here are some sketches. First and foremost: a drawing I did of my friend Hyun Ja, who is featured so much in these strips.

Hyun Ja

She looks pretty focused here but that's because she was trouble-shooting some computer problem when I was drawing her. Normally she is very animated. Anyway, I though some of you might like to see what one of my stick-figure people looks like in real life.

I've also been doing a fun little side-project this past week drawing ridiculous hipsters off LATFH.com (it stands for "Look At his F*cking Hipster"). My webcomic is set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn so I like to keep up to date with hipster fashion. It doesn't really pertain to this blog but maybe some of you will enjoy them:

Spiderhipsterriflehipstergameboyhipster

Click for a larger view.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Principals with Principles: Some Puns are no Fun

March26_2010EPIKAD

I should probably add that "Dynamic Korea" was the catchphrase most frequently thrown about during our orientation by the organizers. I think it was meant to encapsulate the vibrant culture and rapid development of Korea but among the new teachers it quickly became a euphemism for everything illogical and confusing about our lives here.

Example: "At orientation I was told I would be teaching grades 3 through 6 elementary but now I'm also teaching kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade as well. Dynamic Korea!"

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Happy Birthday to me.

When better for some self-pitying autobiographical comics, then on my birthday? Enjoy! I know I did.

March22_2010_1

March22_2010_2

March22_2010_3

March22_2010_4

March22_2010_5

Thursday, March 18, 2010

March 11th Hourlies, 2010

More hourly comics for 2010. They were such a good drawing exercise before that I made myself do them again. Sorry for the bad quality of the scans. It's really hard to work with copy paper, I've found.

Anyway, enjoy. Or suffer. Your choice.

Notes: I somehow gave David Foster Wallace's initials as "DSW" instead of "DFW". And I mixed up am and pm several times. Argh.

March11_2010_1
March11_2010_2
March11_2010_3
March11_2010_4
March11_2010_5

For more hourlies, check out my flickr set here.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Land of the Morning Sun

There is something about long-distance air travel that I enjoy. I's practically axiomatic that planes are stressful, uncomfortable, and in a word, awful. My flight to Korea had all the hallmarks of such a flight- fourteen hours in the air, roughly 6,000,000,000 screaming babies, and someone in the seat behind me with some kind of epilepsy of the legs, as I deduced from the spastic and repeated drumming of knees and feet on the back of my chair, especially when I was trying to go to sleep.

And yet, the trip was thoroughly enjoyable. I had the good luck to be sitting next to a large family all heading to Korea for the same reason as I was- to visit a loved one who works there- and they made for excellent company.

On top of that, the views we saw crossing over the Arctic were completely mind-blowing. I woke up from fitful airplane-sleep to see a bright red sun rising over a desert horizon, and I looked down and saw a desolate landscape of endless ice, scored by deep canyons and cracks. It was like being on another planet. Going over Russian Siberia a few hours later offered a similar experience.

On top of that, the in-flight movie was "The Incredibles."

I arrived in South Korea at 4:30 Seoul time yesterday. To my internal clock, it was 2 in the morning, and despite that I've already had a pleasant walk around the arts district, which is full of self-consciously Western coffee shops and galleries, and through Ijtaewon, with it's packs of roving drunken GIs and it's infamour Hooker Hill.

Weird Korean fact of the day: Korea as a country does not name it's roads. One navigates entirely by landmarks. This is probably a side-effect of the Korean city planning method which seemed to consist only of taking the medieval streets of Seoul and paving over the mud and chickens with a thick layer of asphalt and calling it a day. The neighborhood we are staying in is a labyrinth of small shops, countless traditional restaurants, and cheap hotels, mixed in with mysterious, walled compounds with the roofs of pagodas peeking up.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Hourlies, 2010

Hey people, I did some hourlies for February 3, 4, and part of 5. To avoid confusion, I should clarify that currently school is currently not in session, so right now that involves a lot of desk warming. There, you have been briefed:

((Edit: I posted a slightly larger easier-to-scan version of the comics on the Hourly Comics 2010 forum here. Go there if the following seems too small to you.))


Wednesday, February 3rd

HourliesFeb3_2010_1
HourliesFeb3_2010_2
HourliesFeb3_2010_3
HourliesFeb3_2010_4
HourliesFeb3_2010_5



Thursday, February 4th

HourliesFeb4_2010_1
HourliesFeb4_2010_2
HourliesFeb4_2010_3
HourliesFeb4_2010_4



Friday, February 5th


HourliesFeb5_2010_1
HourliesFeb5_2010_2


I had a lot of fun working on these. Autobiographical comics have always made me nervous to it was good to jump into it full-throttle instead of the tentative attempts I've been making in my notebooks. Feedback, questions and general commentary is encouraged and appreciated!