Flowers

It's Saint Patrick's Day! Have a comic with a Patrick in it. Also, Christmas comics in March, because I've been sitting on these for awhile, so bear with me.

If you're into marine biology, science and funny stuff, Patrick runs a mean-looking video and photo inventory of the marine wildlife in the Bay Area, when he's not doing voiceovers of sea anemones or giving Tatiana Maslany a run for her money in his own eco-comedy films. He's also pretty dang funny.

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Great news!!  The fine folks at Patreon have announced that they will handle the collection, filing and remittance of VAT in the EU on behalf of their creators. Thus, after a couple months of uneasy sleep, my Patreon is now back in action and outfitted with brand-new reward tiers. As was my plan back in January, updates on this blog will now be weekly, and you can pledge anywhere upwards of a dollar for every new comic I post.

For $2 per comic, you get access to penciled pages, script notes, partial inks and personal updates on my goings-on, AND the warm fuzzy knowledge that you are directly contributing to the creation of new autobio comics and the writing of Noémie (which I plan to devote my early morning comic time to once Comic Invasion is over). $5 or more gets you all of this goodness, PLUS cool exclusive things like a monthly postcard (currently 8 of 10 left) or a monthly digital sketchbook.

The more money I make per comic post, the easier it will be for me to pay for things like art supplies, tabling at conventions and finally working out of a space that is not my tiny bedroom in my tiny 3-person apartment. If you want to help me make these plans a reality, I highly advise you to get thee hence and check it out!

[ Queens of The Stone Age - I Sat By The Ocean ]

Fiat Lux

We borrowed a sun lamp for a couple weeks. It's been a serious game changer.
(If you want to read what Squeak is all about, it updates weekly at RealmsofRyan.com!)

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I'm hard at work on the material for the bonus content volume of Master of Survival, which I have cleverly named The Third Degree! In addition to a handful of pages either still undrawn or hiding away in a folder, I've also scripted what seems to be a six-page epilogue comic, which may or may not turn out to actually be six pages long (Edit: it's seven. Haha. Hahaha)

In order for me to draw this and have it ready in time for Comic Invasion Berlin 2015, updates here will be kept to about two per month until the end of April. Speaking of CIB15, you should totally drop by. It will be epic.

I'm also researching a few options in terms of supporting this blog while my Patreon is on hold (see this post). More on that as it unfolds. In the meantime,  I've just spent a buttload of money on plane tickets to Lyon and London (again!!), in case you want to throw some money in the Traveling Tip Jar on the sidebar! (Edit 13/3/2015: Patreon have announced that they will handle the collection, filing and remittance of VAT in the EU on behalf of their creators!!! More about my Patreon next week. But you can still throw money in the Tip Jar, because I still just spent a buttload of money on plane tickets.)

[ Night Terrors of 1927 - Novocaine ]

S.A.D. (again)

[ Death Cab For Cutie - Black Sun ]

Things About The US

[ Taylor Swift - Shake It Off ]

5 Jahre

I moved to Berlin five years ago today. I'm very happy that I stuck around.

[ Matchbox Twenty - Parade ]

Role Models

[ Tegan and Sara - When I Get Up/Umbrella (Live) ]

> Patreon! < 

Mixtape Monday: Car Drive 2014 + Yearly Recap

Today's Mixtape Monday features the newest instalment of my yearly mix series, Car Drive - initially just something I put together to listen to in the family car, now pretty much a chronicle of the past year told through songs. If you had a year full of transitions, professional ambitions and the occasional instance of suckiness, this mix just might be for you! I got to give it a spin while driving up and down the coast of Northern California, which was pretty cool and didn't alienate too many family members.

You can listen to it (minus Cooper's "This Year") on Spotify.

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Also, due to time constraints, I'm not doing a recap comic this year, BUT below you will find an unsorted recap of stuff I did and enjoyed. Read on below the cut, if you are so inclined!

7/1/2015

Pariser Platz, Berlin, 11.01.2015

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I'm back from the US and (thanks to jet-lag) have been working on this at hours where no sane person should be awake.

California was great, don't get me wrong - I chilled a lot, wrote a lot, drew a lot, watched a lot of TV, got that precious Vitamin D, reconnected with family and my NorCal roots. There'll be more about my trip in awhile.

For now, these are pretty much all of the words I've got. See you next week.

[ Thrice - In Exile ]

Finished Art

Or Grey's Anatomy, or Downton Abbey, or whatever keeps my brain focused enough on the task at hand. So maybe containing less abs and fight scenes? Shhh.

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Hey, if you want to come talk, read and make comics in a cool café as depicted above, tomorrow is the special Xmas edition of Panel Up, Berlin's monthly English-language comics meetup at Sankt Oberholz! Bring your fave comics, buy a beer, draw a thing - it's awesome.

And as for this blog, this is the last thing I post before I take off to spend time at home in California (yes, I know, whatever) for three weeks. Want a piece of the action? The Traveling Tip Jar is still open through tomorrow!

 See you in 2015! Don't trip on the way out.

P.S. If you are able, search for and feast your eyes on the video for the song below - it's probably my favorite video of the year.

[ Night Terrors of 1927 (feat. Tegan and Sara) - When You Were Mine ]

MOS #16 - The End

[ Soundtrack: U2 - Every Breaking Wave (Live in Helsinki, 2010) ]

Version française.

The End.

Funnily enough, as I was putting the final touches on this I happened to be in the exact same place at the exact same time of year as during the scenes depicted in the two bottom panels - namely Lyon, France, explaining to friends where I was and what I was doing, not unlike the visit that came after my thesis defense in October 2010. I even slept in the bedroom where I can be seen hiding out and being completely wiped out from life. Life is a cycle, and autobio just brings that out, it would seem.

This is the final instalment of Master of Survival #2 and therefore of Master of Survival itself. So what happens next? I realize this brings the story to a fairly harsh stop - which on the other hand is how it felt graduating after two years of moving and a grueling thesis - but fear not, there is still more to come!

I originally wrote a short epilogue for the story, which didn't make it into Vol. 2 due to time constraints. There are also a few bonus comics, episodes that didn't make it into the main story for timing/storytelling/flow reasons, plus a couple that were drawn in 2010 and that I just didn't want to put online at the time. And I've got notes down for a longer epilogue as well that brings us a bit more up to speed on what moving to Germany has been like since my grad student days.

All of this should tie up the main story quite nicely and fill in any holes remaining in my comic archival of my transitional period in Berlin, 2010-2014. They are currently planned for a bonus, final MOS mini to be debuted in the spring.

In the meantime, if you want a hard copy of these comics, they are as always available in my store.

Bis bald...