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.