Hi, Drawing Book readers! Today, I just have a short story for you: a four-page comic from back in 2001, when I was experimenting with turning my sketchbook journal series into a web comic.
At this time, I was a twenty-something flight attendant based in Calgary. I lived in an apartment in the Beltline, and I was in the process of inheriting the full-time care of my family’s two dogs. I was also dating someone new, after recovering from a heartbreak in 2000.
I’ve always been a night owl! But back in 2001, I was almost completely nocturnal, thanks to my usual weekly work shift on a Calgary-Frankfurt flight (described in this episode) - a night flight. So here’s a short tale about “a day in the life,” back then - although it would have been more accurate to call it “a night.”
In the collection of comics pages I put together for this web comic in 2001, there’s one page I forgot to include earlier. I made this page to promote an upcoming event: the book launch for a comics anthology called “9-11 Emergency Relief.” I helped organize a Calgary launch (in the lobby of the Jack Singer Concert Hall!!) for this book, published by Alternative Comics.
In the anthology, comics creators shared their responses to the events of September 11, 2001, in a way that reminds me of the recent #iceoutcomics movement, kickstarted by cartoonist K. Woodman-Maynard. You can read the piece I wrote for “9-11: Emergency Relief,” and find out how I came to be involved in that project, here.
In a recent Drawing Book episode, I shared how I travelled to San Francisco to join a panel discussion about this book. Later, I went to a couple of other book launch events in the US. In the early 2000s, I was hardly ever at home in Calgary. So I’m glad I wrote this little story about what things were like on the occasional nights when I was in town.
Hope you find time to do what you like these days - or nights, as the case may be! Thanks for reading.