This week, on a very special episode of "Saturday the Book"...

First off, sorry about the absence of a "Saturday" post last week.  I'll try to make it up to you with this post.

These panels are from pages 14 and 15.  It's Friday afternoon, and Fred and Elizabeth McGreevy have been fighting for most of the week.  They've passed through the angry, frustrating, and awkward phases after their argument.  And now they're each trying to figure out how to make it up to the other.

Elizabeth is doing so from home:

Fred, on the other hand, is doing his cogitating at work (it's hard to be productive when you're distracted):

These panels are from two of my absolute favorite pages of "Saturday".  I love them because we get to see how Fred and Elizabeth's minds work.  India's imagination, after all, had to come from somewhere.  I also like that Fred and Elizabeth clearly like each other.  A lot.  But they're not perfect.  They're humans, prone to the same mistakes and lifelong battles with pride and idiocy as the rest of us.

But mostly I like these pages because of the slightly crazy ideas both Fred and Elizabeth come up with as part of their making-up strategies.  Of course, you'll have to wait for the book in order to see what they come up with.

Hey, speaking of the book: I'm currently working on page 29.  Again, I think there will be 34 pages total.  That's right around 85 percent.  I'll have some editing to do after that.  And the cover.  And probably a laundry list of other elements.  But I'm getting closer to finishing, which means you're closer to reading it.  And I can't wait for both.

Cheers.

Sometimes Fridays never have an end.

It's finally Friday.  The bulk of the week is behind the McGreevy family.  Of course, it didn't exactly pass them by and tip its hat as it did so.  It kind of shoved them down and walked right over top of them.  But now there's only Friday left to get through.  Fridays have a reputation for flying by, but this one is going to drag its feet heavily.  And it's going to start before India even wakes up:

When I'm having a bad day, I know there are at least two things I can look forward to: One of them is that day being over.  The other one is lunch.  Lunch seems like hitting the "pause" button on a bad day.  Granted, I'm a big fan of eating my emotions, but there's more to it than that.  Lunch can feel like a little island of sanity in the middle of a sea of awfulness.

Of course, even on the island, sometimes the waves wash up and soak you:

As far as the timeline for "Saturday" is concerned, I just started page 29.  In fact, I'd better get back to that.  Less talk.  More draw.

Cheers.

Burned Souffle and other indicators

It's now Thursday evening and everyone is back at the McGreevy homestead.  The week has taken its toll on everyone.  You can see it in the distant, deadpan stares and the slouching of the shoulders.  Everyone's a bit...distracted.  And that preoccupation seems to be causing some problems of its own.

 In the words of Baron St. Fontanel: "A woman happily in love, she burns the souffle.  A woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven."  Unfortunately there's no comparable quote for a man in the 1954 classic, "Sabrina", otherwise I would include it.

In terms of the book, these panels take place on page 13.  I'm currently working on page 28 of what will probably be a 33 or 34-page book.  After all this time, I'm still excited to work on the book.  Perhaps even more excited than ever.  But I'm also excited to finish the book and share it.  Those two impulses are a bit contradictory (the former makes me want to take as much time as possible in drawing, the latter makes me want to abridge the process).  The former will probably win out because drawing is totally, like, my favorite thing ever.

Cheers.