Thoughts
May 12th

I'm posting the last ten or so strips of part 5 of The Miller Sisters without further interruption (God Willing).

I wondered whether I should even mention that I was so exhausted when I drew (and re-wrote) #25 (which appears here as #28) that I saw the panels' composition were poor only afterwards (as in the next day, after they were inked and after I'd rested.)

So I thought 'if I mention it, it might make it all a bigger deal than it is; but if I don't, people might wonder whether I could even see the composition could be way better.' And I thought about this quite a while, wondering what to do -- to say something or say nothing.

I finally decided to mention it if only for the sake of, "learning to see". I do believe I'll have to redraw that one for the website archives, though, I'll be honest.


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What We've Generally Been Up To
Working like crazy.

I'm doing freelance and working on a comics project so I've had to put Darla Vigilant on hiatus, and the schedule for The Miller Sisters is sketchy at best ... though for all our sakes I do promise to finish Part Five by September. Part Five wraps up what I consider to be the entire "prologue" section of Julia's story.

I call it all a prologue since it's really been less story and more like 'character exploration'. I needed time to figure Julia and her cast out ... Plus part of me is fascinated with a person's wrestling with their own potential, which is why the storyline seems so introverted (even to me. I'm figuring the storytelling part out, too)... I think many of us go through that wrestling with our own potential.

With the end of Part Five (& that goes up to #34 or so, I can't remember offhand) I have to re-focus on writing actual short stories for TMS again, and soon, God Willing. I may have to run some kind of an interlude, though. Longer stories on TMS will have to take a back seat while the new project I've been working on (and bumping The Miller Sisters off schedule for) goes online and gets weekly updates starting late this Fall.

(On the other hand, posting the other project will help buy me time to catch up and get ahead! Not to mention you'll be able to see what I've been working on all this time.)

Other Stuff We're Keeping Track Of Meanwhile
I had queued up a 16-page comic our friend Daniel wrote ... scheduling this story in light of the new paying work is tricky. But I haven't forgotten ...

Clearly, I like to keep busy.

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General Stuff About Me
I'm an artist and writer. Been working in comics 20 years so far. I started in retail, then got into production and publishing. Worked on staff at Milestone Media, Broadway Comics, DC Comics and freelanced for Defiant. Back in 2000 I finally got the guts to draw comics again, like I'd really wanted to do. (So here's how you know God has a loving sense of humor: He had to move me 800 miles away from all the comics staff jobs first before I would finally work on my own stuff!)

I've been reading and been a fan of comic strips and comic books since I was a little kid. The first comic I ever started to consciously collect was Baron & Rude's Nexus and the first Marvel comic I ever started to collect was New Mutants, with issue #19 drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz. When I saw the incredible artwork in these two books, THEN I knew I really wanted to make comics, too.

What I Like To Read
I like to read slice-of-life indie graphic novels (like Blankets, Persepolis, Cancer Vixen), comic strips, humorous editorial cartoons (The New Yorker), kids' comics (Harveys and Archies), some manga (Nodame Cantabile!) and some superhero comics (but mostly '70s and '80s stuff as reprints).

Comics I'm Reading When I Can Get Them
Nexus, BPRD, Futurama, Fell, Nodame Cantabile and Buffy Season Eight.

(I also like reading books without pictures, especially non-fiction; I really like the Bryant and May books written by Christopher Fowler. And I also recently started reading (and really enjoy reading) Haruki Murakami short stories.)

Favorite comics creators, writer/artists, artists, and writers
Steve Rude, Will Eisner, Kyle Baker, Marjane Satrapi, Craig Thompson, Tarpe Mills, Rumiko Takahashi, Andy Runton, Jamie Cosley, Patrick McDonnell, Tomoko Ninomiya, M.D. Bright, Dave Gibbons, Darwyn Cooke, Leonard Starr, Ryoichi Ikegami, Stan Drake, Al Williamson, Neil Adams, Tim Sale, Tony DeZuniga, Winsor McCay, Walt Simonson, Guy Davis, Gene Colan, Bernie Wrightson, Terry and Rachel Dodson, Nestor Redondo, Bill Sienkiewicz, Michael W. Kaluta, Rudy Nebres, Barry Winsor Smith, Stuart Immonen, Adam Hughes, Jon J. Muth, Sam Kieth, Jim Holdaway, Cynthia Martin, Marie Severin, Kathleen Webb, Dwayne McDuffie, Dan Slott ... I'll add to the list as I remember ...

I also absolutely LOVE cartoons, starting with Bugs Bunny and friends. I'm also a fan of cartoons by Hayao Miyazaki, Aardman and Pixar. (oh, then let's add to that list Schoolhouse Rock, Futurama, Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes, Kim Possible, & Recess ... others I'll add as I remember.)

(Let's not even start on movies ... !)

The Comics I Draw
My comics are a mixed bag of types of stories, depending on who wrote them. In the Gallery above, the two Fallen Worlds-- 0-A & 0-B -- are the oldest comics up. The newest ones are Darla Vigilant, and the latest installment of The Miller Sisters .

Here are links to comics on our website:

Chris Well wrote:
Penultimate Adventures 1
Penultimate Adventures 2.
These two are both 8 mini-page, goofy superhero stories. Chris also wrote
Fallen World:Small Fortune, Fallen World: Small Load and Que Es Amor above in the gallery. Chris and I co-plotted and he wrote Fallen World: Small Comfort.

Tom Hall wrote:
Billy!
This story is 6 comic strips long, and is bilingual; ie., Billy speaks mostly only Spanish and it's his first day of first grade ...

I wrote:
More Than I Could Count
The Girl Who Could Not Be Touched
and The Den and Dear Us above in the Gallery.

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Our Website and My Blog
here's the comics and stories website I share with my novelist husband, Chris: Studiowell

My blog:Nashville Art & Artists

Thanks for visiting!