Portfolio Review

Making pictures while getting long in the tooth

THIS WEEK:

• Measuring past work and considering the work yet to come

• WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Seinfeld LEGOs

• WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND? Entrances and Exits by Michael Richards

• BEHIND THE PAY WALL: Artist struggles

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I experienced a momentous day recently. One of those days that comes around once every ten years when your age changes to a number with a zero. It felt like any other day but one can’t help but zoom out and evaluate how they’ve spent their time here so far.

Real Buddy and I are less than a month apart and are now, as always, in the same boat wondering whether or not we’re supposed to feel (or act) older.

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Nah. We both got LEGOs for our birthdays.

This year.

More on that later.

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I’ve been looking at my life (past, present, future) and, inevitably, the art I’ve produced. There have been thousands of comics both strips and single panels but moving forward, I’d like to focus primarily on books.

After the Buddy and Romeo: Alone for the Holidays comic book, we’re going to start preparing and submitting children’s books for publication. We want to tell meaningful stories with charming artwork that families can enjoy night after night, year after year. We’ll still make cartoons but at this stage in life, children’s books feel more impactful, meaningful, and permanent than a cartoon that someone scrolls by on social media or sighs “Hmph!” at in print. Maybe “permanent” is the wrong word. I just mean something that makes a lasting impression. It stays with you longer than the time it takes to eat a bite sized chocolate bar. Something you experience and then carry with you for the rest of your life.

Like dental work.

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Leave a tip in the Tip Jar!

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Playing LEGOs, of course. Just like when we were seven. Look what Real Buddy and Real Romeo recently built together:

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Back in June, we posted our summer reading lists. I’m proud to say that for [probably] the first time in over 20 years, I (DiPerri) finished my summer reading.

I highly recommend Michael Richards’ memoir Entrances and Exits. I was both shocked and moved by his revelations and I found his writing to be honest, reflective, accessible, and entertaining. Check it out.

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