Two things!

Hello! I know things have been pretty quiet here in critterland. The past year has been a whirl, and let’s be honest, the present day is still a whirl. But I have some news.

First, new strips will be coming this month! The exact schedule is still tbd, but there will be new comics ahead, including some changes that I’m pretty stoked about.

Second, today is the anniversary of the first ever Dog and Bird comic. I remember sketching out my early ideas for a webcomic, all the way back in 2015. Even with the breaks, that’s still a long time to have worked on a project. I’m excited to give the critters a fresh chapter and to invent more stories about interspecies friendship and silliness.

So if you’ve enjoyed the critters in the past or you just happen to be stumbling onto the site now, have a look through the archives! There’s some funny stuff in there! And stay tuned for more from Dog and Bird.

<3

Taking My Time

Hi critter fans! I’m here to let you know about a scheduling update for the comic. It’ll be switching from a standard update every Tuesday to a more sporadic, post-when-I-can plan. There’s enough going on with my professional and personal life right now that I just can’t keep up with the regular weekly strips.

But I refuse to let the sun set on my lovely furry and feathered friends! I have lots of job explorations ahead for Bird! Lots of terribad puns and dopey wordplay! And of course, there’s still the squirrel conspiracy to be uncovered. 

As I’ve worked on this project over the years, occasionally I go back and re-read old arcs. There have been a lot of them! The comic has been going for four years now, so seriously, lots of arcs. I talked about making a zine in the past, and I think that format will wind up being the best way to experience Dog and Bird’s adventures. I’m still thinking over what that will look like, but it will happen.

Your best bet for staying in touch is to follow the comic on the socials. I’ll be sharing the new comics there as they go up, and also posting updates when I have a clearer vision for physical copies. That’s Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr available for your following.

Spring break!

Dedicated critter fans may have noticed an absence of furry and feathered friends appearing on the Internet over the past few weeks. Quite frankly, there’s a lot on my plate right now and thus the comic will be taking a pause. It’ll be a lot funnier and more consistent if I come back to the project after a few time-sensitive commitments get wrapped up. Expect strips to resume in May! Thanks for your patience, and have a lovely springtime!

Where’s My Thursday Comic?

It’s Thursday, and yet no comic appears. Is this yet another break? Is this the end of Dog and Bird? Will the critters return?

No, no, and yes!

Dog and Bird is shifting to a weekly schedule. Going forward, all new comics will post on Tuesdays. I have no desire to stop writing about interspecies friendship and silliness. In fact, it was a real treat to get back to it after this most recent break. But across work, life, and other hobbies, I simply have too many projects to juggle and maintain the twice-a-week pace.

I love this comic, and I know it’s at its best when I give it some time and attention. Some TLC. So my hope is that with a cut in volume, the quality will go up and stay up.

Thanks as always for reading, and I’ll see you all on Tuesday!

Mini-Vacation

Hi folks, just a quick note to say that the comic is taking a little vacation this week. I need a couple days to recover from ten days on the road and get life things in order before I can return to delighting you with terri-bad puns. Regular strips will most likely resume on October 2.

Want something to read in the meantime? Perhaps something combining cute animals and silliness? Then I highly recommend revisiting The Fluffington Post. I’m quite pleased to say that I wrote for them once upon a time. (Look! I have proof!) Even though the site’s on hiatus now, it’s still a top-notch source of furry funniness.

An Ode To Poetry

I’ve let my inner Weird Al out to play a few times for the comic. Sadly, the first several cases were rush jobs to be used as filler, not something I actually put more than 10 minutes of thought into. That turned around with the caroling mini-arc in December (which begins here at #191 and still makes me chuckle). I wanted to do more strips in a similar vein, because I am a firm believer that a more Weird Al-esque life is a better life.

The grand scheme was to spend much more time crafting clever avian pop song parodies. The reality is that strip #255 also came together in not much more than 10 minutes, an irony which I can’t help but appreciate. I’d had the nugget that Bird would go ahead and do the Bird thing of Bird-ifying a song, but then Dog would respond and take the one-off into a discussion about poetry.

(Side note: this isn’t the critters’ first brush with poetry. Eagle-eyed observers may recall some verses at the very very beginning of Bird’s job hunt way back in #62. Normally I wouldn’t retread prior ground, but it’s just too fun to write limericks.)

Because poetry is great! Really!

It’s an art form that still seems to carry a bad rap. Maybe it’s a holdover from our days of writing terrible, angst-ridden rhymes when we were teenagers. (Don’t lie. You know you penned some godawful stuff back in the day.) Or it’s something our English teachers mishandled over the years. Or maybe some of us, like Bird, just haven’t found the poets who’ll speak to us.

I can’t say what the reasons are for each reader, but what I can say is that poetry isn’t something you need to fear or deride. It isn’t even something you need to overthink. You can just enjoy it for enjoyment’s sake.

That’s how I landed on the poem for #256. I had a few ideas about what Dog might recite as I started the arc last week, and while I was working on the bookending panels, I was totally convinced that it’d be Shakespeare. Classic, reasonably familiar Shakespeare, an easy entry into the poetry world. But the best comedy usually stems from honesty in the unexpected, right? So as I was researching sonnets, I had a eureka moment of the poem I should use.

It’s called Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

I love that it’s a poem about beauty, about freckles, and about flaws that are not flaws. I love every word, how they’re both aurally and visually vivid as each one flows into the next. I love how it upends the expected structure, taking out a whole line and a half because that’s the kind of reverence you give divinity. I love how my heart swells when I read it, every single time.

Seriously, the right poem will literally move you to wax poetic. And yes, it might seem very ridiculous but my reaction there is also deeply true and real. I think poetry is about that emotional reaction, how a handful of words creates so much nuanced feeling.

Want a poetry suggestion? Hit up Dog and Bird on Facebook or on Twitter and I’ll happily yammer about something I love.

Tl;dr – the world needs more poetry. Also more Weird Al. Get on that, world.

Art Imitates Life

Fun fact: the story arc of strips 219-229 (begins here) was inspired by real-life events.

It all started when my car flooded. I had no idea what to do, and I’m about the least car-savvy person to have a drivers’ license. It would not be an exaggeration to say I lost my shit. Was the car ruined? How expensive would it be to fix? How the hell did I fix it? Could I drive it to a mechanic safely or would I get shocked and die when I turned the ignition?

After multiple panicked freak-outs, I reached out to a few people who all managed to calm me down in their own ways. They gave me their time, their patience, and their knowledge of what parts of cars have electrical wiring.

A waterlogged car isn’t usually the end of the world. But a flooded home might be. In a few years that seemed to see a surreal number of natural disasters, I watched countless efforts for aid. Some were structured and expected, like Direct Relief, but others seemed to materialize out of thin air by sheer force of compassion.

Games Done Quick is one of my favorite charitable organizations. It’s one of the most joyous things the Internet has ever seen and each event is a highlight of my year. The biannual marathons benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation and Doctors Without Borders, but the team mobilized a near-instant disaster relief marathon to help the recovery effort after hurricanes in Texas. It also wasn’t the first time people banded together in the name of charity and playing video games really, really fast.

One of the core ideas behind Dog and Bird is that while the critters are studying (and frequently misunderstanding) humans, they’re unknowingly exemplifying the best of humanity. When someone needs help, you give it. That’s just as true to be whether it’s a single person who needs a sympathetic ear in a bout of anxiety or a whole population trying to fight against centuries of oppression.

Few things give me as much hope as humans’ ability to care for each other. So here’s your reminder to care.

Not So Much Visibility (Of Critters)

Sorry folks, but the comic must go on a bit of a hiatus. When duty calls, even the most devoted purveyor of puns must leave the joking aside to answer it.

In the mean time, go check out #VisibleWomen and the related hashtags as mentioned in the prior blog post. Or maybe just revisit some old story arcs of the critters! Remember that whole squirrel conspiracy thing? (It’s totally real. Just wait.) And the Winter Olympics ones, while recent, were pretty fun. Or go way retro and re-live Dog’s discovery of human dating habits. Marvel at the in-jokes about The Bachelor and try to ignore the lack of speech bubbles!

Strips should resume again on April 5. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter with your best puns in the meantime. Inspiration is always welcome. Til then, my friends!

Visibility

I know it’s unusual, but there will be no new comics this week. Things are going to be a little wild over the next few weeks for my various works, so I’ll need a little extra time to get the next arc written and finished up. Normally I’d keep posting the cute fourth-wall fillers, but I think I just need one fewer thing on the ol’ to-do list right now.

But I wouldn’t leave you hanging with nothing happy to look at! So instead of anthropology and puns, I’m sending you to one of the best things I’ve seen on Twitter. It’s the #VisibleWomen hashtag. The campaign started as a way to promote women working in comics, and the latest wave just happened last month. Check out the hashtag for piles of portfolios by wildly talented individuals. I guarantee you will find something that inspires you. And who knows, maybe you’ll stumble on a new favorite comic too.

There have also been similar efforts to get more eyes on other less-represented populations in the field, including both gender and racial identities. #VisibleWomen was the first I saw, but I’m in favor of any moves to improve representation in creative work. So keep both your eyes and your mind open. Who knows what fresh awesomeness you’ll see.

Regularly scheduled critter cuteness will ideally resume on March 13. Til then!

PyeongChang 2018

Aren’t the Olympics wonderful? I’ve been marathoning pretty much any and all the events ‘round the clock. Thank goodness for vods, or I’d look just as zonked as Dog.

My favorite part of this Winter Games has definitely been the halfpipe snowboarding. The whole sport seems to have a refreshing amount of camaraderie. The riders usually had hugs for each other and smiles for the camera after their runs, good or bad. Even the commentary duo (at least the pair on the event stream) had kind things to say about each and every athlete. It was exciting to see the whole international crowd being so driven to perform their best while still keeping that bright attitude. Besides, it seems to be an unspoken prerequisite that all snowboarders are total cuties. What’s not to love?

I’m happy to have Dog and Bird learning about this unique event. I think the comic was running during the 2016 games in Rio, but I was in the middle of the critters’ most narrative story arc and so they never got to talk about them. Given what a fascinating slice of humanity they reveal, expect a few more strips putting an anthropological lens on the Olympics. I promise there won’t be any more quips about competitive guacamole eating. (Unless the IOC gets back to me…)