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.

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

Thursday, February 4th

Friday, February 5th

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!