This is not an answer but a pondering, an in-process sketching. It needs to be different from how I did it in Tangles, I know that. I want the hair to be more successful, for one thing.

I did these drawings around November 29, the seventh anniversary of my mother’s death. Click on them to see them bigger (I know you know that but for some reason I say it anyway.) Starting to use a fountain pen (Lamy Safari) which I like a lot.

You can click on these guys to make them bigger.

I love how Nicola wears fancy frocks to comics events, and then decides to tap dance or pull on a winter hat partway through her presentation. Elegant and playful at the same time. Is that a particularly British quality?

Cartoonist and publisher Corinne Pearlman at her fabulous home. I did not find this article about the house until after we returned to Canada.

This is our new friend Katie; we stayed at her place in Newcastle. She is talking about some of the symptoms of M.E.

Katie changed her surname in her 20s. What’s really cool is that then her mother and sister followed suit. I’d never heard of that before.

As you can see, I’ve been experimenting with styles. Neither of these really looks like Katie, but I had fun doing them. And here is Katie’s dog Jodie.

And last of all, a wee angel. I love all the angels who only have heads and wings. They are all over the cathedrals. Maybe I will do some comics about these body-less angels.

My last event in England was a conversation with Nicola Streeten at Orbital Comics in the West End… The store is awesome, especially the side room full of small press comics and graphic novels where we did our presentation. Thanks to the lovely Camila at Orbital for posting a podcast that includes our slideshow! Watch it below or download the podcast and open it with iTunes or QuickTime to see the accompanying images. Thanks to Paul Gravett, Corinne Pearlman and Camila for making the event happen. And thanks to Donimo, my saviour, for procuring enough cold medication to enable me to hold myself upright and be semi-coherent. (In case you wonder while you’re listening to the podcast, I’m not crying, just congested.)

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Nicola wrote/drew Billy, Me & You, and is also co-creator of Laydeez do Comics. So amazing that I got to meet her and talk to her! And even make fun of her silly version of a Canadian accent. Long live traumatic autobiographical comics by Laydeez!

Donimo captured us being serious artists and total dorks…

I kept wanting to tell everyone in the entire world, but I couldn’t, because the radio documentary hadn’t come out yet, but now it has. So guess what? This is Part 3 of 3 in the amazing series, How I Spent My Summer Vacation: I went to Torngat Mountains National Park! I had the extreme good fortune to be one of five writers chosen by radio icon and all-around awesome lady Shelagh Rogers to join her on this adventure.

You can hear all about it on the podcast at CBC’s The Next Chapter. And here is one of the drawings I did during that magical week: