Read all about it!

John Seven just wrote an article in the North Adams Transcript about me! He interviewed me last week. I say "really good" and "really great" way too much. But otherwise I like it very much!

Uhhh and I didn't do a strip yet. Christmas is happening and I also babysat for an adorable baby all day today. No time! But if I find time, I'll make a Christmas strip...

other people

I can't stop drawing this duck man. It's just so fun!

Some things:

Chuck just made this video for his newest issue (#3) of TEOTFW. Have I mentioned how inspiring it it to work next to this man? And these comics are really really effing good. He goes to dark places that I don't, which makes us a good balance, I think.

Annie Koyama's Koyama Press has a new website, and it's beautiful!

Joe is putting up sketches again...beeeyooteefullll

José-Luis made a store!

And, I updated my links page to include lots of friends and places. Don't be offended if I forgot you. I still love you very much.

ok now, time to go make some freakin' Christmas presents!!!

Mr. Duck Man

I subbed in my mom's pre-k classroom yesterday. It was so awesome. Too much cuteness. Nathaniel and I drew this comic together. I think it might be the most hilarious comic I've ever seen. I don't know why.

Guest Strip Tuesday by Sam Gaskin!!!

My hilarious cartoonist and musician friend Sam Gaskin drew this strip for me. Babies!

Read Sam's comics! You can buy his books Fatal Faus Pax and 2011 on his blog. He is the funniest man ever.

Thanks Sam Gas Can!

Duck

This guy just showed up in my sketchbook the other day, so I decided he might be a good friend for Freddy. I think I mentioned this before, but I once heard Lynda Barry talk about how we give life to characters the way kids give life to their stuffed animals. I think about that all the time. I love it.

Pie!

Pie!

I got bored with whatever story was happening in those last two strips...maybe I'll pick it up later. Or maybe it'll be a mystery FOREVER. Also, this is a true story, my uncle's dog actually ate the middle out of a pie once.

ALSO my uncle Paul works at a screen-printing place and made me these AWESOME t-shirts with Freddy on them! They are now for sale at the store. They look so good. That handsome rugged man is not included, sorry ladies.

Ssssssnakessss

I think a story is forming...who knows what will happen? Is that a monster? A tree? I don't know. I'm sort of digging myself into a hole with this darkness thing though.

Also I wanted to share this amazing drawing that I got from Joseph Lambert. I am obsessed with the texture of the snake...

Things and Things

Hi, I skipped yesterday. Oops.

BUT yesterday this comic I did went up on At Length Magazine, a really great online literary/art magazine, edited by Dan Kois, who is a really great writer. I had a lot of fun doing it...sometimes it's really fun to think about comics. The other ones are awesome...I really love Noah van Sciver's, it's a hilarious answer to the question we were asked (which was: If you were hired by Classics Illustrated and told to choose a book -- any book! -- to adapt into a comic, what would it be? Why that book? What would it look like?) .

Here's the first panel of mine:

Also, my best friend Zoe who lives in Tel Aviv (which is way too far away) is a really great writer and a genius about food and she started blogging! I totally want to make her cauliflower soup recipe. She's amazing. http://onlytheseataste.wordpress.com/

It's late

whoops.

Honk?

We're getting into the Christmas spirit over here...the house is blinking with festive joy.

And José made these adorable melted snowman cookies. I wish I could see them in person! (See them with my MOUTH)

Freddy 3D

Holy Moses!

Not the greatest quality. I want to try again though, with a better camera, it was fun!

I will have those little Freddy and Frank figurines for sale soon...

OH! And in a couple of hours my friend Alec Longstreth will be cutting off all the hair that he's been growing since...I can't remember how long. It looks like this now as we speak. But he was waiting to cut it until he finished his epic comic, Basewood, which is an amazing story, and I can't wait to read the last part. You can watch him cut his hair live here!

Snow!

Last night was our first snow since Halloween, and we woke up to a magical fairyland. It's so beautiful. So I was trying to figure out how to show the snow on the trees...

I have a gross cold, but sometimes being sick weirdly grounds me. I am so lucky, to be living in this beautiful place, to have an amazing person to live with who is my best friend, and to have a cat that is such a mush that he lets me play with his paws while he sleeps.

xoxo

Jose-Luis!

Jose-Luis Olivares is one of my best buddies. We have the same birthday. Also, he is an amazing cartoonist, and one of my favorite artists in the world. Everything he does has a special playfulness to it that I love. We edited the anthology "Kids" together (talking about a new one right now). His most recent comic, "Hey Fag", starts getting personal, and it's really exciting. You should read it.

AAAAAND He did a Freddy comic! Thanks Jose!!!

SORRY

I know I know...these are supposed to be DAILIES. BUT the time off was well worth it, because I was in Brooklyn at BCGF, spending money on some choice comics, choice food, and hanging out with some choice friends. Seriously, I love my cartoonist friends so much sometimes I think I will explode. There is just something about these people that brings me close to tears just thinking about how awesome they are and how much I admire them for the hard work they do. There is just some common weird trait in cartoonists that makes them the greatest people.

Anyway. I got some comics that I am really excited about.

Hildafolk by Luke Pearson, published by Nobrow. I wish I had spent more time at their table, but I'm so excited I bought this beauty of a comic. There's a hardcover book as well, which is the sequel, but I could only bring myself to spend the 10 bucks. It is SO BEAUTIFUL. The language is a little weird, but the story is really cute, and by the end I accepted that Hilda would talk the way she does. Lately I've been attracted to comics that are a little more animation-y, have good stories, and have strong female leads...

Like Eye of the Majestic Creature by Leslie Ann Mackenzie Stein. I only bought the third one of her minicomics, but now I really want to buy the book...there's something I really love about her stuff. There's something really odd about it that I can't pinpoint, but it's readable and hilarious and straightforward, and I love reading comics by ladies that aren't just about being a lady.

Open Country 1 and 2 by Michael DeForge. (Chuck actually got these. But I read them). I've always loved his stuff, but there's a different kind of creepiness and heartfelt-ness in these.

KING CAT #72 BY JOHN PORCELLINO. John P. is what I mean when I say how much I love cartoonists. There is something magical and heartbreaking about his work. And about him in general.

These are actually just the ones I've read so far. There are a million more that I still have to read. And I didn't even get to see everything that I wanted to see.

xoxo

Big Food

Last night I had a dream about giant boxes of Ritz Crackers and Honeycomb in a huge store. SO I drew a huge box of cereal in today's comic.

Also, I'll be at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this weekend! With my buddies Chuck Forsman, Sean Ford, Joseph Lambert, and Jose-Luis Olivares. It's seriously the best show all year, in my opinion. It's the third year, and it's starting to get bigger so...

I'll be there with Freddy Stories, which incidentally received a lovely review from Rob Clough on the Comics Journal today. He always is so thoughtful and thorough, and I was really excited to get reviewed by him!

I'll also have a little mini of some of the daily strips (in full color!)

AND maybe some tiny Freddy figurines...

The Winner!

The prize goes to Valerie Fleisher, Operations Manager (that's what it said in her email) at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Thanks Val!!!

I loved this idea because it's not too spectacular but it gives a little tiny history to Freddy.

FYI, I don't have a red hoodie of my own but my best friend Becca wears one all the time. I am obsessed with hoodies. But I sadly don't have that one golden gem that I wear all the time like a security blanket.

P.S. I set up a Cafe Press store for the holidays! Richard Thompson has one, and my Uncle Mike told me to do it, so I figured I would. It was way too fun picking all of the stuff that it could be on. I had to cut myself back. But you can get Freddy on a shirt for your dog.

Learnin'

URGENT NEWS:

A CONTEST!

Tomorrow will be the 50th strip!!!! How crazy is that. So. I know this is sort of last minute BUT. I will be taking ideas until tomorrow at 4 pm for what should happen in the 50th strip!

If I choose your idea, win the ORIGINAL strip, and a signed copy of my book!

send your ideas to: mendes.me@gmail.com

ok here's the rest of the blog post:

I've been thinking about these strips and how they really have become a great drawing exercise for me...add watercolor skills to the things I'm learning. It also gives me the opportunity to try to draw Freddy in different ways.

Other things I'm learning:

how to be human

a lot about the band Oasis (because Chuck is obsessed with them right now)

That I love comics. Very much.

Looking back on my Tumblr, (which I've gotten really lazy about) I've noticed that I am drawn to really epic feeling images...like small objects with vast, dramatic backgrounds. I've also noticed that I'm drawn to epic songs and epic singing voices.

Oh! And guess what, Freddy Stories is now also available at the Secret Acres store. What's that? You don't know what Secret Acres is? ONLY one of the most important small press publishers right now. Barry and Leon are very amazing, both as people and as publishers, and I'm so proud to be in their store. They have some excellent other products for purchasing, as well.

Turkey Lurkey

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!

Feeling thankful for some inspiring people, who I drew portraits of today....

Marc Maron and Adele. Maron is an unbelievably awesome comedian and interviewer, and Adele is way overplayed right now, but I've been listening to her albums 19 and 21 obsessively and I love them very much. Also, she's pretty and I like drawing those eyelashes.

I had fun doing this, I think I might make it a regular thing...

I'm also thankful for

Comedy, food, Chuck Forsman, family, the cat, Woody Allen, caterpillars, this computer, comics and all my comics friends, all of my other friends, Drake's coffee cake, flannel shirts, Thanksgiving, Canada (I don't know, I just like it), sparkly things, rainy days, photos of people jumping, and the internet.

And you.

Love

Melissa

Delicious

I'm being serenaded right now. I think.

I can't stop listening to Adele.

A few days ago, a terrible, tragic thing happened to my advisor from CCS and his family. A paypal account has been set up to help them out. In a world where awful things like this happen, at least there are cartoonists supporting and loving other cartoonists.

Here's a link to the paypal: http://www.laurenweinstein.com/2011/11/rosalie-lightning/

Boogers and Snot

This documents one of my favorite things about kids: when they are so in the zone and they get that far away look in their eyes and their finger goes right up their nose. Okay, maybe grown- ups do that too. I remember when I was little, I thought that being an adult meant you didn't pick your nose anymore. And I dreaded that day because I LOVED picking my nose.

Too gross?

ANYWAY Today I video chatted with some of Sam Sharpe's students in Chicago! They all read my book, and we asked each other questions about comics. They asked me if I was married. It was great!

AND Carrie who has a really awesome blog called Try Harder just wrote a great review of Freddy Stories. My favorite part: "Even if your ovaries aren't bursting, Freddy is charming because even though she craves comfort and fun like the rest of us, she knows when yelling is the best policy".

Thanks Carrie! You all should read her blog, it rules.

OVER AND OUT

Have you been watching the Woody Allen documentary on PBS? I can't get enough of that man!

She just wants to be cool

I tried smoking...it didn't ever catch on. (even though I kind of LOVE it). Mostly I just had crushes on boys that smoked so I pretended. I probably wasn't even doing it right.

But I know where my mom keeps her secret cigars. OOPS.

Today I made a tiny log cabin out of clay! Just because.

Rosalie

This strip is dedicated to Rosalie Lightning.

Boring.

Today's strip is boring.

I did do a lot of other stuff today.

It's rainy and dark. Which sucks. BUT at least we have lots of Seinfeld to watch, a cat that sleeps at the foot of our bed, and I just bought a Super 8 camera and a orange rooster statue and more National Geographics at Salvation Army. At least we have THAT. ALSO I love ALL OF YOU.

#43

There's no way Freddy would ever do Ballet unless she got to wear her hoodie while she did it.

Also, I've always been obsessed with old National Geographics, and I've been finding some real gems of photos in some that I got recently at the ol' Salvation Army for 35 cents each. I've been putting them on my Tumblr.

In friend news, My buddy Alec is getting SO CLOSE to finishing his epic comic, Basewood. He has been growing his hair since he started. He looks like this now, and only has ten pages left!!! Go Alec! You can do it!!!

And in boyfriend news, my amazing Charles Forsman just finished part 2 of his minicomic The End of the Fucking World. It's so good, he's amazing, just read it. It's only a dollar! He's been doing this while he's working on a book for Fantagraphics, which I've been seeing the pages for, and they are BEAUTIFUL.

Sam Spina!

Here's a comic that Sam Spina drew, of Freddy and his character Walgreens!

Sick moves, dude.

Sam is great, I met him this past SPX! He received a Xeric at the same time I did, the book's called Fight, and it's hilarious. You can buy it here. Sam does a daily comic too, you can read them on his blog. Our lives are eerily similar, now that I think about it...I also let our cat lick my finger for a long time.

Thanks Sam! I think skateboarding definitely needs to be more prominently featured in Freddy's life.

Fortress

And, an opportunity to support the arts. I hope this doesn't sound like begging. But I think it's a pretty sweet deal. If you buy me one of these art supplies on this list, I'll make you a piece of art, subject of your choosing. If you buy me that fancy watercolor paper, I'll thrown in a signed copy of Freddy too.

And as always, my love.

Puppy Love

Still thinking about dogs.

DOGS DOGS DOGS

WHAT SHOULD I HAVE FOR DINNER

Dogs Forever

Making some pancakes out of old Halloween candy. YUM

It's a full moon! I think. Is that what's making me feel crazy and emotional? Maybe. Or it could be that I've been obsessing over my first dog, Sammy, who died when I was about 10. I'm working on something that is based a lot on Sammy, and how he was pretty much my first love. He kind of looked like a wolf and freaked strangers out with his ferocious bark, but we spent hours together wandering around the woods and watching tv and playing. He was the best. How could you not love this face:

Oh yeah! And Hillary Brown at Paste Magazine gave Freddy Stories a 7.9! Pretty sweet.

My favorite part of her review:

"There’s nothing magical here except for the ordinary rhythms and explorations of childhood, and that is in itself rather wonderful. Mendes can spend four pages sending Freddy to borrow some flour and poke around in her great uncle Sully’s house, including taking a sip of beer, but the panels don’t feel wasted or boring".

Thanks Hillary!

It's a guest!

This one is by longtime Freddy friend Dane Martin. Have you seen Dane's stuff? Because you should. He is an amazing cartoonist who channels all the weirdest parts of disney and old timey-ness into something new and strange and beautiful. This strip makes me very very happy.

Thanks Dane!

Today is warm. I can't do anything because I just want to be outside. When I do go outseide I get covered in ladybugs.

Ol' Sully

He's back! Haven't seen him in a while. Also, never seen him in color before. WEIRD.

In other news, for that holiday I wouldn't tell you about this weekend that my family invented, I received an old chainsaw, a fishing lure shaped like a giant squid, a tiny statue of a bird yelling, a set of plates shaped like blue flowers, a rain poncho, and a lollipop with a terrifying portrait of me taped to it. Best holiday EVER. Also I made a cake shaped like a big pile of dirt with ninjas on it fighting glow-in-the-dark bugs. And we shaved balloons.

I've been listening to too much NPR. And not watching enough Seinfeld.

Tea Party

HI

I'm afraid these strips are going to make me bored of Freddy. I have a couple other projects happening too, though. This weekend is special because it's a special holiday that my family invented. It's too special to tell you about, ACTUALLY.

sorry.

Today's strip is a little inspired by my friend mo, who was my classmate at CCS, and is an incredible artist. Her character Momo drools at the site of delicious sweets. I always wanted Freddy and Momo to hang out. I think it would be incredibly awkward and great. Maybe Momo would try to eat Freddy.

Cats!

Mostly today I just wanted to draw a lion.

Also here is an amazing portrait of us by our friend Emely who was visiting for a couple of days...that drawing of Bruce is spot on! He is such a greedy little butthead.

Safety First

Today's strip is inspired by my mom's blog that she keeps about her pre-school class that she teaches. Have I mentioned that my mom's a genius in the field of 4 year olds? Just looking at the pictures on her blog is a hint of how magical her classroom is. It's all about free-play and exploring, something that a lot of parents under-estimate. I've been talking to her about this lately, how important playing is, and how many parents just look for concrete results proving that their kid is progressing or getting "smarter", when actually, in preschool many kids regress a little, because who gives a crap about writing your name when you have so much imagining and inventing to do!

She told me a funny story about when I was in kindergarten, and I came home with some half-assed scribble on a piece of paper to show her (when I totally was already drawing people and stuff), but then I said "MOM. Guess WHAT. Today we played DOGS under the WATER TABLE."

I want to have kids someday. I think. It would just be so awesome to have that little new brain around that's so fascinated by everything.

Quiet

I feel kind of grumpy, maybe I ate too much candy corn!

Also, made cupcakes with gross looking gray frosting on them. And we watched Dawn of the Dead, and our buddy Emely is visiting. And I had a dream last night that Beyonce was teaching me dance, and she lifted me up in the air. Perfect.

Teenagers and BOOKS

I took the weekend off! Of drawing the strips, I mean. It was nice. I read Smile and Skim, and really loved both of them, especially Skim...really makes me want to draw something about teenagers. ANGST. Remember being a teenager and how EVERYTHING is SUPER meaningful and important and you think you know everything? Way more than adults? Yeah. It's kind of great when I think about it now, even though it SUCKED most of the time being in it.

So here's today's strip, it's not Halloween themed. SORRY. But it feels like freaking Christmas here with all this snow! I mean COME ON.

Oh yeah, the other thing I did this weekend was start to go through the massive amounts of books in my mom's house that have been here forever. It's a really fun project, actually. Dusty though. I found my senior yearbook, and this stupid book of quotes that I used to collect, and a book I illustrated in 1994 called "Dogs of New York" that is basically all lifted from 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp. SO COOL.

BUT I also found some gems from childhood like the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty MacDonald and illustrated by the amazing Hilary Knight (who drew Eloise). OH MY GOD I love those books. I might just read them again.

(this is from "Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle". And I just found one illustrated by Maurice Sendak? What?!)

I had planned to get rid of most of the books in the house, a lot of them are kind of dumb and will I really ever read them? But now I'm having second thoughts already. I mean, what if Chuck and I really do own a bookstore someday? HAHA more like a moldy RV full of old books that nobody wants. Maybe now every time I send someone a Freddy I'll also send them a random used paperback.

love

me

Dogs

I actually made a very similar costume to this for myself when I was like 11. It was probably the worst costume ever! I was obsessed with dogs. I think Freddy is supposed to be more of a wolf but whatever.

Doing a reading/talky thing tonight at Water St. Books in Williamstown! I'm not that nervous. Should I be more nervous? It'll be fun! What should I wear!!??

Also did you watch the World Series last night? Our internet went out so we listened to the end of it on the radio, I got chills when that incredible home run happened! That is sports movie material! Go Cardinals! I admit to not being a follower of baseball, I just pretty much piggyback on whoever Chuck is rooting for, but it's fun. I love baseball either way.

Halloween is coming!

I started drawing with a brush again...I think I like it. Nibs are cool but I think they make me draw in a way that I'm not sure I like. Helen is starting to be suspiciously similar to Alice from Cul de Sac. Only because I love that strip so much, probably. Can you guess all of the things that Helen is? Hulk Hogan, Kermit, a ballerina....and more....

I don't know what I'm going to be for Halloween, I think we are going to sit on my sister's porch and yell at children. Maybe I'll just wear a giant sweater and hide in it. Then pop out and scare kids. Or like my sister said, maybe I should just wear a sweater for pants and pants for a sweater and call myself stupid. My sister's a genius.

How I am

today this is me

Dos

Two today, to make up for this weekend when we had family visiting. We went to Mass Moca, saw the Sol Lewitt exhibit again. It's amazing. Makes me want to draw all over the walls. We also went to the Dreamaway Lodge in Becket. Holy Moly, that place is incredible, it's exactly what I'd want my restaurant to be like, if I had one.

Thanks to Gigi Devlin and her mom Peggy Burns for this quote and idea!

The other night I had crazy dreams, and in one part this boy with those 60's looking glasses was being really mean to me, so I took his hand and made him go swimming with me.

lalalaaaa

also I've been collaging a little.