2006, the year in rumples

2006 was a year that started badly and got better. New years eve 2005 I stayed at home, too upset to leave after a torrent of abuse, threats and screaming from my psychotic lunatic of arrested development man-child downstairs neighbour, Rick, after a campaign of almost daily harassment that had already lasted months. My building managers refused to do anything about it. After another couple of months of such incidents (one in which Rick accused me of picking a fight, in my sleep) he once again lapsed into sullen silence. After months of quiet he started up again in November, but this time I called the police. He’s quiet now.

Early in the year I bought a new bed, queen size, up to this point I was using the twin sized bed I grew up with for forty years. Now there’s room for me and the cat! And other things…

My puss, Lomu the wicked is in good, glossy health and I think at long last she might be getting used to me. She certainly is more affectionate in cold weather. She’s still shy of strangers, although she has become bold enough for people to see her in the fur.

To prove how pedestrian my life has become one of the most thrilling things to happen top me has been the inauguration of a new bus route that goes right past my home, the 84 from VCC to UBC! It’s wonderfully useful for Granville Island, Kits or getting to UBC for the radio show! I think of it as “my bus”, when it began few people rode it so it felt kinda like a private club but now that more people are finding out about it’s getting quite crowded.

The Inkstuds, the radio show about comics on UBC radio I sometimes co-host under the command of Robin McConnell has been really exciting. With interviews with comics creators like Joe Sacco, Evan Dorkin, Peter Bagge, Rick Geary, Spain, Chester Brown and past episodes available as pod casts we’ve been getting quite a bit of attention lately. We’ve also done programs with comics scholar Jeet Heer (on Krazy Kat) and a memorable episode on the Danish Mohammad Cartoon Crisis. Look for more in the new year!

I’m still keeping up with my yoga and Tai-chi, which I call yotchi, although sometimes it’s hard to find the time. I need my peace of mind, damn it!

I was very busy earlier in the year with wargaming, finishing my War of 1812 figures and rules, play-testing the Polemos Napoleonic rules with my Prussians, running a lot of games at the club. I’m doing less now, although I’m well on my way to rebasing figures and painting figures for Age of Reason 25mm French & Indian Wars and a 15mm Russian Army of the Seven Years War.

I started watching CFL & NFL football on TV, but not how you might think. The whole thing is so alien and strange to me that I get so relaxed I fall asleep. I don’t think I’ve made it through an entire game awake. I get more excited by watching curling. I’m sure this is not what the advertisers had in mind.

In February I was stopped by the cops outside the main library downtown on my way to the art gallery. Apparently I matched the description of a child molester who’d been active around Chinatown that morning. Oh spiff… I sleep through most mornings so it’s hard to have an alibi but that day I had breakfast with friends. I heard nothing more about it but it does make me wonder if I’m on a list somewhere.

Creatively it’s been a busy and eclectic year. On several occasions Robin Konstabaris and myself spoke to Julian Lawrence’s night school cartooning classes over at the Emily Carr about our sordid careers in comics. I was commissioned to work on two 3-D card models for Jim Ramsey, a “Grudge” (three wheeled light truck) that I turned into a Canadian Army postal van of WW2 and a “SUV” (Armoured car/zeppelin) which I made into a vehicle of the Don Cossacks in the White Volunteer Army of the Russian Civil War. I treated them not as “art’ pieces but as miniatures. I contributed volume #10 to Jo Cook’s ”Hell Passport” art book project, although mine was once again not so much art as comics. I put out a bumper crop of new mini-comics for Word Under the Street this Year, 2 collections and nine new minis! I started drawing mini’s in front of the TV in a sketchbook, thus making use of otherwise wasted time. I have a story in the new Drippy Comics that was written by my old comrade in noise Gerald X Jupitter-Larsen and did a one pager for the Vancouver review. And all through that I’ve been working on the script and pencils for an autobiographical graphic novel about the car crash my sister Elisabeth was in and the two and half years before she passed away. I’m up to about 85 pages now. I applied for a Canada Council grant to get it done, wish me luck.

At the second Canzine West Small Press Festival I was wedged in behind a table and before the day was over the tin chair I was sitting in collapsed under my weight, but slowly. I sank to the floor, helpless with laughter. Best part of the event that.

In October I was contacted by the Rare Books Branch of the UBC Library, they want copies of everything I’ve done for their archives! I’m a invaluable source for Vancouver comics history! My mini-comics will be there along side the illuminated manuscripts! I’m still looking for stuff to finish their collection!

I’m supposedly in a sorta folk/pirate band, The Creaking Planks, but they never call me to practice. Usually a half hour before they hit the stage they call me and rush over to play the tambourine or something. It’s fun but kinda awkward.

I had to switch blogs from Blogspot (they’ve locked me out) to Livejournal, where I already have friends!

Otherwise my life is a whirl of gallery openings, the monthly Vancouver Comics jams, book & magazine launches, one wedding reception (congratulations Ian & Pia!), occasional movies (Samurai!), the World Cup, plays with the family, tea crawls and the wildest Fall/Winter weather I’ve ever seen here in Vancouver, including a boil water warning! Short on cash, but what’s new about that? I’ve got ongoing projects and a couple of possibilities I’m not suppose to talk about right now but I’ll just say that 2007 is looking promising!

Good luck and best wishes to you all!

My thanks to Bruce Serifen, Ken & Janice, Robin & Rebecca, Robin McConnell, Miranda, Owen & terry, Tom Agnew, Al Sens, Brian Clarke, Don King, Arron at R/X and the R/X gang, Gabe at Lucky’s, Jo Cook, Jim Ramset, Thyrza & Erez, Donna Barr, Roberta Gregory, Edd Vick, David Boswell, mum, Leslie, Lynn and the family over in France and anyone else I may have forgotten off the top of my head for their love and support. Ta!

Colin