Sketching my way through a year full of changes

Hello, drawing book readers! I made it back to share some more comics from my old sketchbook journal series. I usually find time to do this on the weekends, but these days, it seems that even the weekends are busy. Here I am finishing this episode at midnight on Sunday night!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been making our way through my early attempt at some web comics, which meant I’d draw pictures, scan them, and publish them on my old website every few weeks. There are still a few more of those. But for now, let’s get back to some sketchbook pages.

When I started drawing the web comics, I stopped keeping a sketchbook. But after a while, I started to feel like I needed a sketchbook again! And so, near the end of 2002, I started a new one. The first page was drawn at my favourite eatery in Mainz.

Every week, I used to pick up delicious food to go from this Lebanese restaurant every week, back when I was a flight attendant on the Frankfurt route. Once, when I was talking with the folks who worked there, it came out that I lived in Canada. They couldn’t believe it. One of them said: “How can you live in Canada? You come here every week!!”

The comic about outer space was the one I wrote for the Project: Telstar anthology. I wrote about it here.

As for the music playing in the truck about a guy who climbed into a box… I don’t know - it sounds like a Tom Waits song, maybe?!

I feel like I have written quite a bit about that old family house - for example, in this previous episode. But when I look at this drawing, I remember one funny thing that happened. Many years before, as we sat on our back deck, someone had dropped a china saucer off the railing. It fell down into the bushes and brambles on the other side of our back yard. We forgot about it - but when it was time to pack everything up, I remembered the saucer! I climbed down to find it, and sure enough, there it was still lying under the snow. I still have it! Here it is in 2026, along with a historic photo of its recovery.

“The stuff I drew” in that last page, refers to a bunch of comics I drew for the last episode of my web comics, but I think I’ll share those another time. For now, here are the next three pages from the sketchbook.

My dad had a second-hand Mercedes, and when I finished university, I bought it from him. But, in 2003, I couldn’t afford to repair it, so I sold it. I wish I had done a better job maintaining that car, but I didn’t know anything about cars! That’s one thing I would do better, if I had a second chance. Anyway, “now I’m towing my car” is a line from the well-known Crowded House song “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” And “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away” is a weird but great song by Richard Thompson. (And “& I must be from thence” is a line from Macbeth, of course.)

My dog Corbu always got really excited when it was time to get in that car. I always wondered: did she just like driving? Or was there somewhere she was always hoping we’d go? I could never ask her.

I like putting together this online archive of my old comics, just for myself. It is fun to remember all those places and friends. But in the past few days, I talked with a couple of people who told me that they actually read these posts every week, which is just so nice to hear. It makes me happy to share these old stories that have been sitting on my bookshelf for so many years! Thanks for reading!