While you were sleeping...

Uh -- hi!

While You Were Sleeping is about the most Sandra Bullock movie there ever was. Sandy B. is a transit worker who rescues Bill Pullman’s brother and then pretends to be his fiancée while he’s in a coma as a result of the accident. This movie came out after I had moved from Chicago to New York, and the effect it had on me is the same as the effect it has on me now. It fills me with nostalgia for a town and a time that I miss very much. Working on this newsletter, I feel like I’m waking up from a coma…

While ONE of us was sleeping, here’s what has transpired —

Rice University constructed a new building for my department, designed by Charles Renfro. The new building includes bespoke spaces (plural) for the Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop, the space and program that I founded here. It’s been a tough semester — moving in, unpacking, getting everything set up, and suffering through the endless “punch list” of things not done or done wrong. All the while, teaching, making work, planning for the future, going to Prague for a week, and attending seemingly endless meetings about mostly trivial things.

Renfro worked closely with the faculty to develop the facilities. I suggested that the front wall of the CATS Workshop could be a glass-walled display case, and he agreed. Prints, hot off the press, can go right on display. Folks can swing by CATS whenever the building is open and see the show, even if the space itself is closed.

The suite of spaces includes the workshop which has a more expanded book production capacity, the center of which is our Risograph printer — in addition to a wall lined with books and flat files full of art, a clean drawing room with flat tables, and an overflow workspace that doubles as a lounge / reception area with a panoramic view of the Houston skyline — it’s the best view in the building. Around the corner is a twenty-seat computer lab with a laser printer and a scanner. If you’re at all familiar with our former facilities, this all feels like science fiction. Downstairs, we have a small annex space for letterpress in our new print shop. It honestly feels like I woke up and a lot has happened while I was sleeping.

Our comics collection has ballooned. This fall, we received gifts of new Blondie comic strip art, spanning the early 1930s through the late 1960s. The Saul Steinberg Foundation provided us with a trove of drawings, prints, and intaglio plates by Saul Steinberg. The appraised value of the works is up over a half a million! We’ve just finished writing a small book about the collection and how it’s used as a teaching tool. This FREE book, titled Teaching the Collection, is scheduled to be released in February. 

We will launch the book at a one-day comics symposium focusing on comics in the classroom, called Teaching Comics. It’s scheduled for Friday, February 20, so save the date! If you attended our conference last March, this will be a bit smaller, but much more hands-on with fun workshops and tours of the new spaces and exhibitions. Although aimed at an audience of high school art teachers, the tours and workshops should be engaging for any adult interested in art, printing and comics.

It’s not been announced publicly yet, but our keynote speaker will be Sue Coe. Sue is a national treasure. She will spend the week with us at CATS, and we’ll produce an edition of one of her linoleum block prints. We’re still planning the festival, so check cats.rice.edu for times and to register.

Finally, I’m doing a couple of things.

If you’ve ever wanted my slipcased graphic novel trilogy — 288-pages of four-color fun, (Broken Pencil calls it madcap and a pleasure to read) AND one of my ink drawings from Instagram, you can get this combo if you are one of the first ten people to send me an email and let me know you’re interested. The drawings are ink and watercolor and were all used on my Instagram last year. Use the word “BUNDLE” in the subject line. The slipcase of books and the drawing bundle is $125 postage-paid, but only within the US. You need to get on the list by Sunday evening, as I will be sending everything by priority mail on Monday. Paypal or Venmo only. There are only a few left, so don’t sleep on it.

The other thing I’m doing is giving away FREE copies of a two-color 2025 “holiday” riso poster, but only to people who donate at least $50 to their local food bank. $50 will provide more than 150 meals. The sale of 10 posters will feed 1,500 people — that’s almost as many people as the small town where I grew up. E-mail me the receipt with the delicate bits blacked out by Sunday night, along with your address, and I’ll send you a rolled-up poster on Monday. Use the phrase “POSTER ME BRO” in the subject line. Also, available only in the US, via priority mail. I’ll throw in stickers with in either case. I’ll sign the poster — on the front — and I’ll do a goofy little drawing on it. Super fun!

I owe a pen review to Fountain Pen Revolution. They sent me some of their pens to review, and I’ve been remiss in doing so. It’s at the top of my list to put the pens they sent me through their paces. I’m expecting good things. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a pen, they have them!

One last plug. Instagram has their foot on my neck again. Less than 7% of followers now see my posts. When you’re on Instagram, go to my profile and click on the little bell icon on the top right and say that you want to be notified of my posts. I typically only post once a day, around 9AM eastern time, so I’m not going to spam your feed. Otherwise, you might never see my posts. You also might want to check and see that you’re still following my account.

In the meantime, try not to fall onto any elevated train tracks and go into a coma, and I promise to do the same. 

Final note: I’m one of those people who experiences pain during the holidays. Many of us are white-knuckling it until January 2. Celebrate your hearts out but take pity on the rest of us who cringe at holiday music and don’t feel all that jolly. See you in January!