LuLu Phegley's First Comic

This is my niece LuLu.

LuLu is four, so she can't quite read yet beyond occasionally spelling "MOM" or "OWL" and somehow knowing which letters form to make "Spongebob Squarepants" on the TV's digital guide. But she loves books and magazines and anything with pictures that's made out of paper. She'll cart her copy of "Olivia" around the house with here and take toy catalogues that come in the mail to bed and generally wants to be read to every 38 seconds or so.

I went home to Flint last week for a few days where I discovered my older brother – being the rad dad that he is – had pulled our old "Calvin & Hobbes" collections out of the basement and given them to LuLu. Particularly, she seemed to have Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat or Scientific Progress Goes "Boink" with her whenever I'd turn around.


Two things would happen whenever she was reading these books. 1) LuLu would surmise what was going on from the pictures alone and then run up to me to declare "Calvin ate something yucky!" or 2) LuLu would laugh hysterically at the pages for a few moments and then turn and go, "Uncle Kiel, WHAT ARE THEY DOING?" It was pretty great.

LuLu is also starting to actually draw things of late after that super long period where kids just rub crayons in chaotic fashion all over whichever piece of paper you give them. She's very fond of drawing spiders right now, though sometimes they have nine or eleven legs. At some point in the weekend, she came up and handed me the following drawing, and it kind of blew my mind a little:


COMICS! AHHHHHHHHH!

What a strange, powerful, invisible, awesome art form we follow that a little girl who can't write out a word with two syllables can grok the core of what it takes to make a little comic. It's like the art contains a low level signal that's constantly convincing your brain that these people and bubbles really exist in their own reality made up of so much more than lines and paper and madness. I tell you, there are days I really need to be reminded of how wonderful this stuff is and why I keep doing the job I do. Thanks, LuLu.

Pimping Her Stuff: My Mother's Art

If there's one thing we don't have enough of here at the Cool Kids Table, it's fine art. And by "not enough," I of course mean none.

Well that changes today as my ridiculously talented mother had an open studio this past weekend and I begged her to let me post a few pics of her stuff as well as where she works. My mom's skill and passion for what she does definitely played a major role in getting me into comics and the arts, so it's totally appropriate her work end up here eventually. Plus she's awesome and I love here and I like to brag about how skilled she is every chance I get.

So please, enjoy and if you want to learn more look up Gretchen Morse on the Waltham Mills Art Association homepage. And please please leave comments that she needs to do a super hero cover!

Goodbye, Grandma

Below is a picture of my grandmother, Joan, and my grandfather, Larry, from their wedding day.
Late last night, my grandma passed away peacefully in her sleep, 17 years to the day after she lost her husband. She lived a long, wonderful, fulfilled life and this was not something unexpected, so please understand this is not me asking for pity or even condolences (in fact, I debated even posting this because I don't want it to be misinterpreted as that, but I figured we've got a nuanced audience here at the CKT).

Rather, my grandmother was always a person who loved the field of communication (she worked for the Boston Globe for many years) and enjoyed reaching out to people. I truly believe were my grandma still in her prime, she would have one killer blog. So as a way of celebrating her life and saying goodbye in my own way, I thought I'd post this picture and a few words about it, not really to work through any grief, but because I know she'd get a kick out of it.

Love you, Grandma.