Dekpa and Her Aggressive Friends

There's a new, special nine page chapter of my webcomic, Dekpa and Deborah, online to-day. Usually the chapters are just eight pages. Why is this one longer? I miscounted the pages when I was writing the script. Oops. But lucky you.

Happy Birthday to Emperor Go-Komyo (後光明天皇) of Japan; Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Harold Lloyd; Lionel Hampton; Betty Lou Gerson; Tito Puente; George Takei; Peter S. Beagle; Ryan O'Neal; Veronica Cartwright; Luther Vandross; Crispin Glover; and Andy Serkis.

Oh, Archibald!

Here's a comic I made for students last week when I was stuck at my desk during testing:

I didn't do my usual lousy lettering but instead awkwardly inserted computer text so Japanese junior high school students can read it. In this world of astounding if, at times, inappropriately surreal AI art, my poorly formatted font looks like 1999. You're welcome!

AI art's kind of starting to remind me of William Burroughs' cut-up technique (attributed to Brion Gysin). It's interesting when it makes unexpected deviations. That's now but I suppose, sooner or later, someone's going to figure how to make AI reliably do what they want it to do. And all the artists who have a hard enough struggle proving they have value in this world will have an even harder time. I can see it being particularly hard in Japan where artificiality has long been seen as an intrinsically valuable. I see the young artists at the school where I work and can't imagine the insurmountable challenges as they try to make careers for themselves three or four years from now. It's good to keep in mind it's always best for writers to write for themselves first and foremost but that might be pretty cold comfort.

Deborah's Continuing Misfortunes

There's a new chapter of my webcomic, Dekpa and Deborah, now online. It's been almost a year since the previous chapter. What took me so long? I actually finished the first half of the chapter in August and did most of the second half in December and early January. Partly the delay was due to researching Barbary Pirates, which was difficult because it's a topic related to slavery, colonialism, and Islam and it's intensely politically incorrect. Books on the topic written in the past twenty years are vastly different in tone from ones written sixty or a hundred years ago. New books had some interesting facts and helpful perspective but I often had to read between the lines obsessively reminding the reader how bad Europeans are to find confirmation of those terrible things about the Barbary Pirates that were plainly stated in older books. And, of course, I had to do the usual research on ship construction and clothing. I wanted to do a comic that required mountains of research and I sure got my wish. Next year will mark the tenth anniversary since I started working on this thing!

Happy Birthday to Thomas Edison, Philip Dunne, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Eva Gabor, Leslie Nielsen, Tina Louise, Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Aniston, Damian Lewis, and Natalie Dormer.

Deborah Talks

There's a new chapter of my web comic, Dekpa and Deborah, online. It's a Deborah heavy chapter. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Mary Shelley, Evelyn De Morgan, Joan Blondell, Fred MacMurray, Peggy Lipton, Frank Conniff, and Jessica Henwick.

Dekpa and Deborah Attract Admirers

Happy Easter, everyone. Your present is a new chapter of my webcomic, Dekpa and Deborah. I guess you could say the comic, like Christ, has risen from the dead this day. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday to the 17th century playwright John Ford ("'Tis Pity She's a Whore"), William Holden, Olivia Hussey, Roddy Piper, and Sean Bean.

And to-morrow, April 18, is the birthday of Miklos Rozsa, who composed this appropriate song:

Squash Debate

This is the latest comic I made for students. It's the first one I made for third year, 15 year old, students. I was surprised to find they were a little more reluctant to do it than the first and second year students. I guess hormones are starting to make them too cool for this kind of thing.

A few of them did produce some interesting things, once I explained what a squash is. For the third panel, one student wrote, "This is God's food!"

Third year students are supposed to be learning how to debate, a difficult thing to introduce into Japanese culture. Many of the teachers are also reluctant to broach the subject. I thought this might be a fun, very unconfrontational way to at least get them used to some of the language of debate. I was glad some of the students took to it. I had help from one student whom I regularly have long conversations with about horror movies. I tend to have one or two favourite students in every classroom who seem to appoint themselves my lieutenants and who go about making sure people stay on task.

The students finally prevailed upon me to come up with example dialogue so this is what I came up with on the spot.

1. "Eggplants are great!"

2. "An eggplant is like a baby."

3. "And like a king!"

4. "But eggplants are smaller than pumpkins."

5. "Shouldn't the pumpkin be king?"

6. "That's right!"

7. "Eggplants are too small!"

8. "Pumpkins are fat."

9. "You're a bad man!"

10. "Eeeeeuauuugh!"

What Words Have You for a Pie?

Lately I've been making these comics for first year students. They come up with their own English dialogue for the speech bubbles. I received responses for the above comic all last week and I was delighted by how creative the kids could be in English. My favourite has the woman saying that she baked the pie "too big" and the cat in the last panel says, "The pie is too big for them but it is the best size for me." Another kid had the cat praising the pie but remarking its filling shouldn't have been berries but cat food instead.

Twitter Sonnet #1522

The white replaced the powder blue at sea.
Misguided wrecks were filled with data drops.
The silver ones could never add to three.
The shoe alone from feet just barely hops.
A stack of stones reported life beyond.
Arresting clocks, the pieces pummelled grids.
A trillion frogs enriched the tiny pond.
The auction closed to count a trillion bids.
The question broke to three before the drill.
The little face was caught between the clouds.
With knowledge lost, the village lost its will.
But dancing happed when gone were human crowds.
The second bubble burst before the last.
Enlarging soap, they cleaned a paper past.

Deborah by Starlight

A new chapter of my webcomic, Dekpa and Deborah, is finally online. I passed the 200 mark with this one and now the comic stands at 202 pages. And it only took me six years! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Twitter Sonnet #1468

The years in sequence gather thorns and leaves.
The time of curling wind reveals the rock.
A gnarled trunk would seem a face that grieves.
The roots combine to make a wooden lock.
A sooner mass abuts the rooster crow.
Misleading lefts revert the step to right.
Inexpert shafts rebound abaft the bow.
The question fish produced a western kite.
With water thoughts the soap would clean the clothes.
Forever running, pipes conveyed the spark.
A stone was like a door that never closed.
The journey stopped before the starting mark.
The frozen ear detects a fire near.
The darkened ice contains a waiting fear.

Dekpa Finally Goes to Work

It must be a blue moon because there's a new chapter of Dekpa and Deborah to-day, my rarely updated webcomic, the first chapter since September. I hope I can do better than one chapter a year now that I'm more or less settled in Japan. But even if I only do one chapter a decade, I will finish this comic.

To-day's chapter title, "To Guard or to Strike with Edge or Point", comes from John Milton's pamphlet Of Education. I'm proud to say I work at schools now that do teach kyudo and kendo, Japanese forms of archery and fencing, respectively.

Twitter Sonnet #1436

Canary wings support a little flight.
The only ring improves the khaki dress.
A cloud of tea obscures the heavy light.
The weighty game's assumed to copy chess.
A heavy eye contributes weight to see.
Across the sand, a desert builds a line.
Across the water, drops construct a sea.
A heavy rain distributes light to shine.
With divvied pipes, the raiders claim the street.
Required dogs protect the watchful kid.
In cows and moles we find requested meat.
The bucket's full and breaks its flimsy lid.
Repeated songs enhance the pixel game.
Authentic days adopt another name.

Dekpa Looks for Work and Money

There's a new chapter of Dekpa and Deborah online to-day. This is the 21st chapter and the end of Book I. The comic is now grown to a total of 178 pages since I started it in 2015, pretty slow work compared to Venia's Travels, for which I produced over 500 pages in two years, but in the years I've been doing Dekpa and Deborah I've graduated college and held a few jobs, all distractions I didn't have for my previous comics. In addition, I've done a lot more research for Dekpa and Deborah and I'm working on bristol board instead of sketchbook paper now so it's no surprise it's slower going, even when I do have time. I'll be doing more research for Book II and hopefully by the time it comes out I'll have a nice stockpile of chapters so I can update regularly. For now, I hope you'll enjoy reading back over Book I, feel free to look for any clues as to what may lie ahead. I know I will.

To-day I also read the new Sirenia Digest which features a lovely new short little piece by Caitlin R. Kiernan about murder and a body of water sinister for more reasons than for being a dumping ground for a corpse. It's another dialogue piece in which tension is built with wonderful, dreamlike description that may or may not have something to do with the Loch Ness Monster.

Twitter Sonnet #1273

A verdant book demands a dryer eye.
As pages crack for time again to turn.
Behind the stack we hear a shaky sigh.
Another word and something new was learned.
Observers check to see consistent squares.
A tally mark obscures the counted claw.
The cats establish base for fishy wares.
The truth of flannel mice became the law.
Discomfort chose the flaky chair for fame.
A thousand shreds of phony skin abide.
Synthetic snow submits another name.
An arm and leg as limbs at length collide.
In quarter years the clocks divide a pool.
In tests a timid toe decides the rule.

Deborah Looks for Work and Dekpa Remembers Plunder

There's a new chapter of my infrequently updated web comic, Dekpa and Deborah, online to-day. Deborah brings matters between herself and her family to a conclusion, of sorts, and frets about it. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Frank Morgan, Marilyn Monroe, Jonathan Pryce, and, of course, Robert Newton.

Twitter Sonnet #1241

The floating ground was light as packing thoughts.
Surroundings blank as boards contain a drop.
The world resolved from bleeding polka dots.
A helmet changed a store into a shop.
Confusing voices peer betwixt the tie.
To juggle hands the daggers sweetly wait.
A billion fingers spoilt all the pie.
At two the pawn'll stumble home to mate.
Apportioned sand remained exceeding dry.
Tamale boxes hum a flick'ring tune.
Repeated thoughts encourage cats to try.
In ev'ry whisker lives a jelly moon.
The blessed and less assured no less at loss.
The snow supports assorted feet across.

Milton, Milton, and Milton v Milton and Milton

Those interested in canon court matters may be pleased to find my infrequently updated webcomic, Dekpa and Deborah, has its first new chapter since September. Over five months! I'm determined to get the next chapter out much quicker. This one was delayed by a lot of time spent writing a research paper. This particular chapter, and the one before it, required some research though I did most of it in early 2018 and 2017. The two latest chapters of Dekpa and Deborah deal with the true circumstances following John Milton's death, when his brother, Christopher, who was a Royalist and therefore ideologically John's opponent, and Betty Milton, John's wife when he died, filed a nuncupative will--that is, a will spoken rather than written. Since John was blind, he was obliged to do all his writing this way.

There was a bitter and, as some biographers and commentators consider it, embarrassing dispute between Milton's daughters and the team of Christopher and Betty regarding the veracity of this will. The court documents remain in existence and its one of the few direct pieces of information about John Milton's family that didn't come from John himself. So it's a valuable item for me since John's daughter, Deborah, is one of the main characters of my comic. Of all the characters in this new chapter only Dekpa is my invention and presents my interpretation of the events, what I think may have happened in the world outside those documents. So let me take you back to December, 1674 . . .

Twitter Sonnet #1213

An olive rolled between the cobble stones.
A giant's steps were marked in crimson shade.
The strongest house's timbers cracked as bones.
The morning's breath in fog begins to fade.
A diver shaped the air with freezing hands.
As clouds begin to slow they change to damp.
A thirsty story's told in sifting sands.
The message came but late to warn the camp.
Umbrellas gather late to wash the sun.
In careful carried vessels water drips.
In silhouette the crow was like a nun.
Her higher rank was told in godly pips.
Between the words a plantly human grows.
As flower closed apace they changed to toes.

The Milton Sisters, Together Again

There's a new chapter of my infrequently updated webcomic, Dekpa and Deborah, online. We finally meet Mary Milton, Deborah's sister, and Dekpa's English is improved. Happy Labour Day.

Also, Happy Birthday to Kitty Carlisle and Alan Ladd.

Deborah Milton's Supper with Prince Rupert

Happy U.S. Mother's Day, everyone, especially to mothers. To-day also brings a new chapter of my infrequently updated web comic, Dekpa and Deborah. Watch as Deborah tries not to embarrass herself at supper with some very important people in one of the biggest palaces in the world a few decades before it mostly burned down. Which adds some challenge to drawing its interiors, let me tell you. Special thanks to my friend Ada for translating some dialogue to German for me.

Twitter Sonnet #1113

Imposter brands condition houses mute.
A turning wheel presents a faded prize.
A tea deprived of hue has ill repute.
A cake success upsets the winning pies.
A passing cap removes a bottle doubt.
Containing ships and punch the glass redeems.
A single stone defined a spinning route.
The searching clouds would rain success in teams.
A world progressed within an hour's time.
A fancy's brand of chips traversed the thought.
Rebuilding beads begat a spirit climb.
Computers built the deep and cosy cot.
A slice of ill reputed cake arose.
A seal at tea a fish would fain propose.

Dekpa Remembers Dahomey and John Milton

A new chapter of my infrequently updated web comic, Dekpa and Deborah, is now online. Inspiration for this chapter came from literary critic William Empson's 1961 book on Paradise Lost called Milton's God. This bit:

" . . . the poem is not good in spite of but especially because of its moral confusions, which ought to be clear in your mind when feeling its power. I think it horrible and wonderful; I regard it as like Aztec or Benin sculpture, or to come nearer home the novels of Kafka, and am rather suspicious of any critic who claims not to feel anything so obvious."

I came across this while I was reading about both Milton and West African Vodun for my comic. It was a slightly weird coincidence to come across something about Benin sculpture in a book about Milton.

Enjoy.