finds
while i've been brainstorming these past few months for blue canary, i've been finding little snippets of books that have been inspiring me. i thought i'd write a few of these down, not only for my reference, but because i want to share. 8^)P
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i discovered this while looking through a book of poems. the first thing i thought of after i read it was Amelia and Ferdinand.

Hope

Hope is a thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings a tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb a me.
-Emily Dickenson

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These also caught my eye while re-reading Madeleine L'Engle's "Time Quartet". The quotes are from the second book, A Wind in the Door.

"Then he rose up into the night like a great, flapping bird, flew, screaming across the sky, became a rent, an emptiness, a slash of nothingness-"
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" 'You say he was like a dark bird, but a bird that was nothingness, and that he tore the sky?' "

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If Ferdinand to Amelia is not just happiness, but hope and light as well, then if he is protecting her, then surely there would be an opposite, something to protect her from...birds of darkness, shadow and void. 8^) brainstorming is fun!

normally, i would be in a little pocket of guilt and shame located under a rock somewhere for letting my comic go so long without a true update, but as i delve into who these characters are and brainstorm on their histories, i'm glad i stopped when i did. now, i can restart the comic and put in little hints and foreshadowing of these things as i go along. i can actually tell a story instead of just trying to continue an adventure and make it funny every week. not, that i'm going to stop the humor, but..well, you understand.
don't get me wrong, i still feel like a poser, a fake and a big flake for stopping my comic and just vanishing like i did; like i have no right to even call myself a cartoonist, but now i have a sense a purpose as to where i'm leading the characters, and they have more a say in how they go there.

i've started writing a script for the first chapter. this time when i start drawing, i will know where i'm going.

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oh, btw-thanks jo, kellie and everyone else for the prayers. i'm sorry i worried you guys, but i am feeling back to my normal self, except now i'm dreading the 7th. 9.9 oy.