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Audubon details

2011-07-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

Audubon detail

2011-07-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Audubon details

2011-07-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Audubon details

2011-07-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

WILD MAN preview - Bering Island 1741

2011-04-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

Bald Eagle Unalaska 6 August 2010

2010-10-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

They are everywhere. Signs along the roadside warn: 'DANGER EAGLES NESTING'. Because they apparently divebomb pedestrians. This one looks like he was thinking about it.

Through the Aleutian Island chain, en route to Homer, Alaska

2010-09-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday August 7 2010
Aboard the MV Tustamena since late afternoon. Proceeding E by SE and arrival in Akutan early evening, through Bering Sea side and now after making our way further south, we will follow an easterly route along the southern (or N Pacific side) of the Aleutian chain. I have the privilege of meeting a young Unangan fisherman named Jeff who is traveling with his Uncle George and his sister Josey, her husband Tim and another young woman, possibly a younger sister. They are the first Unangan people I have met during my trip. Josey tells me that she has just returned from Fairbanks, where she's been attending a class about intertribal affairs as part of a group negotiating the construction of a new road on Akutan. She and Tim tell me about their village, how the library and recreation/community center are powered by a windmill. They talk about the new church, built by seafood processing company, Trident Seafoods, on the island. A large gymnasium is annexed to the church. Tim tells me that there is geothermal and hydroelectric power (from runoff) and informs me that the ferry is carrying a motor for the helicopter used by the geothermal power facility. I talk briefly with George, who disdainfully calls me an 'American' white boy. He has been drinking. I tell him (and a pair of Unangan women who identify themselves as Kua'ling'ing, or 'sea lion people') that I am not as 'white boy' as I may seem. George only laughs. He tells me that when he was 15 years old, he ran away from home with $1300 in his pocket. He arrived in Seattle and saw the train, and when they asked him where he wanted to go, he told them that he intended to go to Montana. They wanted to know where in Montana he would like to be let off the train. Butte, he replied. So, George went to Butte, Montana. Then, he says, he came back home to Akutan. Now he fishes for crab in the Bering Sea. Jeff talks with me about halibut fishing. He says that he operated a boom mic for a documentary film crew two years ago, and he still takes odd jobs in Akutan. But the only money, he says, is in fishing. Jeff shows me the tattoo on his forearm, which says: "UNANGAX', meaning a singular Unangan person.
Josey tells me that the Unangan people across the Aleutian chain are proud of their distinction and that groups are working to havce names and places changed on official maps back to their original native identifications. When we arrive in Akutan, I help them unload several boxes. I watch Jeff and Georg ride on a small cart behind a 4-wheeler off into the village somewhere. Tim and Josey drive off. The Tustumena turns back out into the Pacific. The skies and water become a ghost on the horizon somewhere, and the air is spitting needles of rain at my face. The boat pitches and rolls into the icy breath of a vast gloom. Petrels sweep alongside us and veer across the tilting bow, where attempts to steady oneself are further thwarted by a vicious snap of wind.

Early Sunday A.M., 8 August 2010.
The weather is brutal, the wind merciless. It is the first time I am anxious about traveling on the water. The boat is buffeted by starboard whitecaps, and crests like fists rolling at the stern. Tumbling skies. The weather is too severe for us to dock at our second scheduled stop, False Pass. Later, at 8:05, land is nowhere to be seen. Attempts to dock at Cold Bay are also thwarted by wind later in the morning. The wind is blasting from the northwest. Several humpback whales sighted.

The following photographs are images from the North Pacific side of the Aleutian chain, proceeding from Unalaska Island eastward to Akutan, the Alaskan peninsula, Kodiak and Homer. The MV Tustamena traveled roughly along the same route (though going in the opposite direction) that the St. Peter commanded by Vitus Bering headed on her fateful homeward-vound voyage to Kamchatka in 1741.

Akutan, Aleutians and Alaskan panhandle

2010-09-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

Chignik, False Pass and Aleutian Islands

2010-09-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Monday 9 August 2010.

Early morning arrival in Chignik (an Unangan word for "strong winds") and afterwards following the peninsula east towards Kodiak and Homer. I wish that I wasn't always so easily agitated and I know that it has been because of a lack of drawing time. I will spend time with new work and school will begin soon, too. Time with Amy soon. A new way of living. Very excited about prospects.

Chignik and jellyfish

2010-09-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

Chignik

2010-09-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Chignik, Castle Cape and approach to Kodiak

2010-09-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

Homer and en route via Kodiak

2010-09-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Wild Man Expedition Journal Photos. Juneau, 27-28 July 2010.

2010-08-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 27 July.

A day well-spent in the state historical library. With the gracious assistance of state archivist/Russian translator Tanya Stepanova, a footnote citing Steller correspondence in volume 2 of an 1870 History of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences is located. This work contains biographies of the early Academy members, including Steller and GF Muller.

Wednesday 28 July.

An early evening climb up part of the Roberts Trail just outside of town. A forest bed of lichens and moss, surrounded by hemlock, alder and spruce. A swarm of gnats and mosquitos. An interceding solace. A lone bird's metered keen punctuated by the rapid songburst of another, like the complaint of a rusty bicycle chain tuned to the gurgling twitter of a water whistle. The stream below winding its whisper through spruce needles, corroborating an amplitude of otherwise urgent stillness.

Early morning Juneau

Juneau, from the State Historical Library

The Alaskan Bar, downtown Juneau

Wild Man Expedition Journal 25-26 July, 2010.

2010-08-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday 25 July (continued)

The colder the air, the norther I get. This evening the boat passed through the treacherous Wrangell Narrows on its way to Petersberg. I talked with a woman from the Netherlands named Rita who was once a resident here, but has since returned to Amsterdam and is visiting to celebrate a friend's birthday. Small talk about birds and humpback whales.

Monday 26 July. Juneau.

We arrived and disembarked in Auke Bay, several miles out of town. I shared a cab into Juneau and checked in at the hostel, where I met a fellow traveler who's been working on Admiralty Island, restoring trails through Americorps program. Later he and his girlfriend are heading to the SE Alaska State Fair in Haines. We drank coffee and I told him about my trip. He pointed out hiking opportunities in the area. I'll be heading to the State Historical Library tomorrow. Visited Dee Longenbaugh and caught up with her re: Russian exploration of North American coast. A retired professor of Russian history, Dee introduced me to Lt. Sven Waxell's journal (a primary source for my project) 2 years ago in her incredible bookshop, The Observatory, located at 3rd and Franklin in Juneau, Alaska.

Wild Man Expedition Journal/Photos. 24-26 July 2010.

2010-08-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Views of Inside Passage, SE Alaska aboard M/V Columbia.

Wild Man Expedition Journal. 25 July 2010.

2010-08-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday 25 July. Ketchikan.

Talking with a spry old salt who says he's been fishing the Inside Passage since 1967. Worn as a weatherbeaten knot. Later, after meeting a retired sheriff from Ohio who's aiming to ride his Harley-Davidson motorcycle around Alaska further north - one of about 2 dozen people with whom I am sharing space in the solarium - the ship's second mate offered both of us a ride into Ketchikan, where The Columbia is docked for the morning. This mate is a big wheel in Ketchikan, used to steer one of the big cruise ships, and owns one of the original pilot houses in SE Alaska, a stodgy edifice facing the passage winds against an emerald wall of Sitka spruce and a whisper of a salmon-spawning stream.
Sat down in a coffeeshop with the ex-lawman before he headed off in search of beluga whalebone carvings in town. I made my way back to the ship and stopped to talk with a fellow passenger, John, an 80 year-old schoolteacher who used to be a public elementary school instructor to Eskimo kids in Kotzebue. Lots of sad stories about suicidal, heartbroken native kids. John recently married a woman whom he says is addicted to painkillers.
Watched a gigantic raven shuffle-hopping about in a Ketchikan parking lot. I thought, could this creature's cock-sure gait be the strut our knuckle-dragging ancestors aspired to in their hobbling trajectory skyward?

Once the vessel was under-way again, I took a tour of the engine room with one of the apprentice engineers.

Wild Man Expedition Journal. 23-24 July 2010.

2010-08-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

Friday 23 July.

A long day but finally aboard the M/V Columbia heading north from Bellingham, Washington to Juneau. Nearly missed the Greyhound bus to Seattle/Bellingham this morning.
Returning to Pacific Northwest waters stirs an awe within me, a current whose vents of brine-blood surge through the icy straits of my hardened spirit and cleanse me of impurities and fierceness. I am lulled to peace and at one with the world, I am more than myself upon the sea. The dusk is wrapped around the horizon and in vain we are in the westward pursuit of its wake.
Traditional lore tell us that to embark upon a cruise on Friday is bad luck. But "Fortune favors the bold", as they say. So we shall see. The seas will have the last word, in any case, after all.

Saturday 24 July.

Early morning overcast but clear by noon. Moving northward into Canadian waters towards our first stop, Ketchikan. I began cutting a Steller's Jay linoleum block earlier today. Several humpback sightings, including an impressive breach in our wake (unfortunately, my camera wasn't ready) and plenty of bald eagles. I made an eyeglass strap out of a rubber bicycle tube, which is necessary, as the ship is hauling ass and the wind on deck is severe.

The solarium area where I'm camping out is on the bridge deck facing aft towards the stern; the bow is closed off, unfortunately, but is visible from the forward viewing lounge inside, where passengers who aren't in cabins or beneath the solarium sleep. The bar is located behind the forward lounge, and the purser's deck is located 2 decks below.

Sea Otter

2010-06-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

Enhydra lutris

Steller sea lion

2010-05-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

This large sirenian was one of four marine mammals Georg Steller observed and wrote about while stranded with the crew of the St. Peter on a north Pacific island off the coast of Kamchatka during the winter of 1741-1742.

With a range extending from northern Japan through the Aleutian Island chain and the Alaskan coast into the Gulf of Alaska, Eumetopias jubatus is a pinniped recognized for its extreme sexual dimorphism and territoriality, primarily subsisting on a diet of oily fish found in close proximity to their rookeries and the "haul-outs" where bulls congregate.
Letterpress printed 21 May 2010 at the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Linoleum block w/10 pt Spartan Heavy and 10 pt Spartan Heavy Light.

Summer 2010 preview

2010-05-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Fall 2010 peek

2010-05-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

KICKSTARTER WILD MAN DRAWING EXPEDITION IS GO!

2010-05-10T21:18:00.001-07:00

WILD MAN sample drawings (Siberian map, 2-piece)

2010-04-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

WILD MAN sample drawings

2010-04-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

WILD MAN sample drawings

2010-04-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

"WILD MAN" drawing

2010-04-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

"WILD MAN" drawing

2010-04-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

"WILD MAN" drawing

2010-04-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

"WILD MAN" drawing

2010-04-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

"WILD MAN" drawing 1

2010-04-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

Service Industry - Epilogue (preview)

2010-04-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

proto sneak strange

2010-03-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

Larus heerman

2010-02-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

industrial plastics

2009-12-17T16:12:00.000-08:00

Sea Bird sketches

2009-12-17T16:06:00.000-08:00

Sketches from summer 2008.

Steller sea lions at Inian Islands haulout (top) and Sea Bird in Glacier Bay.

early Steller character design drawing

2009-12-17T15:48:00.000-08:00

This was one of the first drawings I made of Georg Steller while I was working aboard the Sea Bird. The text surrounding him was copied from his journal. No images of Steller exist, so I went with my gut feeling after reading about the shipwreck of the St. Peter, and that is where the idea for his appearance here came from.

highwayman's hitch

2009-12-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

Then-senior deck/now-(I think) 2nd mate John Kolodzieczyk showed me how to tie this knot last summer while I was working aboard the Sea Bird in Alaska. I drew it in my journal so I would remember.

andre

2009-12-17T15:39:00.000-08:00

I met this dude in Montreal after TCAF (2005?) Caro Caron introduced us when I was interviewing people for a Service Industry-related comics project. Hopefully, the people of Quebec aren't offended by this, I just wrote down what he was saying while we imbibed the local beer!

time frame

2009-12-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

electric city

2009-12-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

night life

2009-12-16T22:08:00.000-08:00

counter help

2009-12-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

WHADDAYA MEAN, "NO"?!!

2009-12-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

frequency modulator

2009-12-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

black fire the moon ablaze

2009-12-16T20:10:00.001-08:00

Building pages that look like

2009-12-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

sexy feet

2009-12-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

Mom's new home in Ft. Collins

2009-12-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

Enhydra lutris (letterpress print)

2009-12-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

AKA Sea Otter

Eumatopias jubatus (letterpress print)

2009-12-14T18:52:00.000-08:00

AKA Steller's Sea Lion

midwest winter home (commission)

2009-12-13T16:33:00.000-08:00

Hydrodamalis gigas

2009-12-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

aka Steller's Sea Cow

weirdhaus

2009-11-17T14:44:00.000-08:00

Cyanocitta cristata

2009-11-10T14:21:00.000-08:00

Orcinus orca

2009-11-10T14:07:00.000-08:00

Pacific Nortwest Victorian No. 2

2009-11-10T13:50:00.001-08:00

Pacific Northwest Victorian No. 1

2009-11-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

White River Junction House

2009-11-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

WILD MAN Chapter 2 (preview)

2009-11-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

I write and draw the comic biography "WILD MAN" for the Fantagraphics Books quarterly comics anthology, "Mome". Posted here is part one of Chapter Two. Enjoy.

cease and desist

2009-11-07T13:21:00.000-08:00

night terror

2009-11-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

blackbird tree

2009-11-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

only the beginning

2009-11-06T13:32:00.000-08:00