Picture taken from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
— Neil Armstrong
There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.
— Carl Sagan
My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.
— Edgar Mitchel
This stunning picture of the earth was taken from NASA’s newest earth observing satellite, the Suomi NPP. Click to embiggen.
Spielburg Valley from Quest for Glory: So You want to be a Hero
Certainly, not as good as last weeks. Someone on Talking Time pointed out this Tumblr blog called, Mapstalgia where people draw their recollections of maps from video games and submit them. I thought it was a neat idea and sketched out the Spielburg Valley. Makes sense I’m doing a Let’s Play of it right now. I submitted it and then looked through their backlog and saw that four or five other people have too (doh!) Oh, well. Hopefully I’ll have something better next week?
For shame! How can you not know how King Ghidorah is?!
One of my goals for 2012 was to draw/doodle/sketch something every week. This is the first of 52. I think if you click on the image you’ll see the full image? Maybe? I never know how these things are going to turn out until they go up publically.
It's like Comicon but no comics about people in tights...
I attended APE this year in San Francisco. APE is a lot like Comicon down in San Diego except that the artists and writers at APE don’t have a deal with a big named publisher and/or they don’t write comics about men who wear capes and women who fight crime in their panties. From walking the floor and browsing tables it appears that comics can be, and are, about just anything! There were comics set in the past, present, and future. There were funny comics, serious comics, comics drawn well and comics drawn poorly. There was even a guy there who was selling every Jack Chick publication?!
The crowded west hall at APE
I hadn’t intended to purchase anything at APE, but once I met up with internet friend, Nich Maragos, who knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, was only too happy to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for the art with me which lead to some purchases. Which by itself isn’t a bad thing seeing as the holidays are coming up and I know a number of people who would appreciate some good graphic novels. I also had the opportunity to meet and talk to several artist/writers: Craig Thompson, Kate Beaton, Shaenon K. Garrity, Jason Thompson, Shannon Wheeler, Elle Skinner, Scott Campbell and so many more who’s names have slipped my mind or cards I’ve lost.
Craig Thompson signing copies of HabibiShannon Wheeler at a discussion talking about his like alternative comics
What else? Oh, I ran into Tim Schafer at the Double Fine booth and he was nice enough to hit me in the chest with his yo-yo, while we were there we also lamented the fact that they couldn’t market anything with a muppet on it due to Sesame Street’s strict licensing agreements. Shannon Wheeler was more than happy to share with those who talked to him original pieces of Too Much Coffee Man panels as well as endless humorous anecdotes about his time in the industry. I especially enjoyed his story about how in the 90’s when every comic was selling with some gimmick (foil or holograms) they wanted to do something but wanted to keep costs way down and so went out with guns and shot a bunch of comics, the larger the caliber of bullet the more damage done to and cost of the comic =P
A panelboard for Too Much Coffee Man the Comic
Finally, and this might be the best part of APE is that when you purchase a comic or book after talking to the author they’re more than happy to personalize it for you!
Craig Thompson's HabibiMystery Solving Teen graces the title page of my copy of Kate Beaton's Hark a Vagrant bookPaige Braddock draws Batman into my copy of Martian Confedercy #1
All in all I had wonderful time at the Expo and I’m hoping I can make it to next year’s.
PS – again, I want to thank Nich for letting me taglong at APE and Shivam for hosting us and many other friends afterwards.
