Atomic Robo & The Flying She-Devils

When Scott Wegener asked me to be one of the Flying She-Devils in the latest volume of ATOMIC ROBO, I fell out of my chair.

And I'm in the best of company too, since the models for the other She-Devils are also extremely amazing female comic book artists! (Lauren Pettapiece, Lindsay Small, Yuko and more (my infinite apologies about forgetting names)

Supremely flattered, thank you again, Scott!

That's me!

→ Get the digital issue here

→ ATOMIC ROBO Wiki page here

→ Read She-Devils review here

→ ATOMIC ROBO news site here

→ Scott's She-Devil Tumblr posts

You may remember a long time ago I posted model sheets I made for him.

At the time I drew these I had fairly long hair 

- now it's much shorter - I forgot I had it like this!

my costume being a nod to my own Air-Pirate comic darling, 

Capt. Victoria Lovelace (Pirates of Mars)

I really like Lindsay's stripe shirt + head wrap :)

Hello summer!

Allie Oop says hi

breakfast of champions

angel food cake, kiwi, red grapes + strawberries (thanks, Mom!)

mini kalanchoe from Trader Joe's

we finally have a kitchen table! Woohoo!

on the window sill this week

Billee and I made light tiramisu this week!

It was amaaaazing!  (Not to mention only 150 calories a serving!)

► Here's another variation using instant pudding mix
 - posted to my Livestrong recipes

Light Tiramisu 

what you need

2tbs

Instant Coffee

1tbs

sugar

1c

cup boiling water

2pkg

(3 oz. each) ladyfingers 

2pkg

(8 oz. each) Fat Free cream cheese, softened

1/2c

 sugar

2c

thawed light Whipped Topping

1tsp

unsweetened cocoa powder

DISSOLVE combined coffee granules and 1 Tbsp. sugar in boiling water. Arrange 1 pkg. ladyfingers on bottom of 13x9-inch dish; brush with 1/2 cup coffee.

make it

BEAT cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar; mix well. Whisk in COOL WHIP.

SPREAD half the cream cheese mixture over ladyfingers in dish; top with remaining ladyfingers. Brush with remaining coffee mixture; cover with remaining cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle with cocoa powder. Refrigerate 3 hours.

SPECIAL EXTRA

Add 2 Tbsp. almond-flavored liqueur or brandy to cream cheese along with the 1/2 cup sugar.

servings

total:
12 servings

nutritional info per serving

Calories

 150

Total fat

 3 g

Saturated fat

 2 g

Cholesterol

 55 mg

Sodium

 250 mg

Carbohydrate

 24 g

Dietary fiber

 0 g

Sugars

 21 g

Protein

 7 g

Vitamin A

 15 %DV

Vitamin C

 0 %DV

Calcium

 20 %DV

I'm Batgirl

After many years of bickering, a quarrel has been finally settled.

I'm not Robin in this relationship.

Okay, so Andy insists he's Batman (and I won't argue with that) but there is NO WAY I'm Robin. 

- Just because I'm afraid of our basement, and 

- just because I cried when our car broke down 

(I was convinced there were "killers" in the woods) 

doesn't mean I'm this:

And anyway we'd be more like Sue Storm and Mr. Fantastic since they are married anyway, but Mr. Fantastic kind of has a lame power and he's not nearly as cool.

Speaking of which, she (+ The Thing) are on eBay this week:

And could Robin make a sweet lemon coconut cake??  NO.

(Alexa and I baked on Monday, using Ina Garten's recipe from Barefoot Contessa)

Flowers on the porch really brighten up the space, 

and Pop's yellow roses are in full bloom!

Ramblings + more Birthdays

Recent, random cell phone pics from the week.

Went to the Quiet Corner in Connecticut to eat at the Vanilla Bean Cafe, Victoria Station, check out the antique center, Wonderland Comics (ran into Paul and Mike!), had amaaaazing tuna tostadas, and found another chair for our new kitchen table

the humble abode:

Jeremiah's Antiques

And also: 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!

(Who was born on Father's Day)

Fifty Shades of Grey

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Ha!  Fooled you, didn't I?

Examples of adding grey to enhance black and white artwork.  Used these as a teaching aid for a university class, thought I'd share them.  {Pieces from my upcoming "Frankenstein" graphic novel.}

Leftovers

Cake for breakfast.

The best part of being an adult.

Thank you guys 

so much 

for the lovely 

birthday wishes!

❤  much appreciated ❤ 

...........................

Allie Oop didn't help at all.  She is useless at making cakes.

ta da!

angel food cake with peach puree whip cream, and summer fruit

Andy got me this amazing succulent!

And he found out Crown Bakery in Worcester sent one of their pastry chefs to France to learn how to make macarons!

They were amazing - raspberry and blueberry cream - so incredibly good!

They have a deli too, and really good coffee.  I think we're going there for lunch tomorrow.

We try to have one day a week where we stop what we're doing and have lunch together.

It's important to take advantage of this freelance lifestyle, right!

On Birthdays and The fear of growing old

So today I'm 27!  Woo!

The peonies in the garden have blossomed! ⚘ 

I've been picking them all week, since their life span is so short 

- they fill the house with their perfume.

I've decided pretty steadfastly that I'll never be one of those people that makes sarcastic remarks about how awful it is to get old.

If you can't stop getting older why be afraid of the process?

That used to drive me crazy when women would say "Oh I don't celebrate my birthday anymore - nothing to celebrate when you're a dinosaur like me!" (This is coming from someone who was 38 at the time) Or "Well that's fine for you, you're young."

I can't understand that kind of rationale.

We don't know how long we're going to live so what is "old" or "young"?

All I know is, just like Dorian Corey says in "Paris is Burning" :

"Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you've made a mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you've left a mark. You don't have to bend the whole world. I think it's better to just enjoy it."

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The craziest of weeks

So I consider myself a fairly busy person.  I teach at the Worcester Art Museum, work in my studio on various client projects, finishing up the lettering on Frankenstein, blah blah blah.  But man, this was a rough week I can tell you that.

June 1 - 2 : Andy and I were mentors at Art All State - a straight, 36 hr event.
June 3 : packing, cleaning house, going to a Bon Voyage party, visiting family.
June 4 - 5 : Andy and I lectured some students at Marblehead Middle School on graphic novels, picked up our kitchen table (finally! we eat at a table like real people!)
June 6 : I assembled/stained table, moving refrigerator all by my lonesome (I feel like Big Barda) and dinner with Aunt Faith.
June 7 : Having a consultation with a surgeon (don't worry, it's optional surgery) and trying to weasel in questions for Frankenstein research.

And now today, it's time to get back to client projects and other work.

I wasn't able to get much sleep this week and it really took a toll on my mood.  When I don't get at least 6 hours of sleep, I think my brain stops working right.

I'm surprised my speech made any sense to the 7th graders at Marblehead, because in my mind I was just rambling "Waaah wa hwaaaa wahh ga gaga"

apologies for the terrible cell phone photography

at Honee's Bon Voyage

our peonies have blossomed!

pickled horseradish makes it

in Salem on business

chai at Gulu Gulu Cafe

the Breakfast part of Bed & Breakfast

Marblehead, MA

So it occurred to me that my husband and I have the same initials as my parents (A&V).  I don't know why that bothers me?

Anyway, lots more artwork coming, I promise, just need some sleep and studio time!