Tom Hart is working on a new story and you can watch the creative process in action. Tom is one of my absolute favorite cartoonists and an endless experimenter in comics storytelling. On his blog, he is giving you insight about the writing and plotting of “Barney Banks: Extra Life” as he goes. Warning: he is giving away plot points of the story so if you’d just rather read it normally, you can, but if you’re like me and want to know how he came to his conclusions, Tom’s blog is packed with info.

I recently took a trip to the west coast. First of all, if you are waiting on your word to appear on the Rare Words blog, thank you for your patience. It was my first break in 90 drawings! Drawings have resumed.

During my week I was fortunate enough to be near Santa Rosa, CA, home of the Charles M. Schulz Museum. It’s a comfortably-sized building run by a sweet group of yellow-vested senior citizen volunteers. Not only did I get to see a room full of original pages spanning a 50 year career, but an exhibit was running that showcased other classic strips showing what the cartoon landscape looked like during Schulz’ career. Original pages by: E.C. Segar (Thimble Theatre), George Herriman (Krazy Kat), Walt Kelly (Pogo), Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon), Sy Davis (The Phantom), Frank King (Gasoline Alley), George McManus (Bringing Up Father)… *sigh* including a nearly 3 foot tall Prince Valiant page by Hal Foster.

No archival book edition—no matter the level of quality—can compare with being nose-to-glass next to a 50 year old piece of paper where you can see the erasers, whiteout, and paste-ups. There is a craftsman’s level of draftmanship that is evident in that work. This is pre-”I’ll just erase that once I scan it in.”

This was the closest thing I’ve ever made to a pilgrimage.