Maybe no one noticed, but it’s been a while since my last post. We have been terribly busy (does it seem like time is speeding up?), but haven’t been able to write about it since our internet connection has been down. I praise the Lord and thank our wonderful friends that it is back up (you know who you are!), and so this will be a quick post to update you on where we are at now.
Dr. Dumb
Beau has been busy working on his latest comic for a very long time. This issue is the one that normally comes at Christmas time (he is currently inking frantically as I write), and will be in a larger format than the digest from prior years. He is trying something new and we will see how you all like it. It will be a larger size, and I think that makes the pictures more impactful.
We are talking about Dr. Dumb, after all. ”Boom!” somehow seems appropriate! The title of this one is “Dr. Dumb’s Christmas at New Year’s.” He isn’t hosting Christmas this year, but that doesn’t make it any easier on him, poor guy. His sister, Star, makes an appearance once again. She was introduced in the garden issue, “Need for Seed.”
Look for “Dr. Dumb’s Christmas at New Year’s” very soon!
Beau is finishing up his latest comic.
On the other side of the studio, Tony has also been busy. The two projects couldn’t be more different. While Beau has been chuckling and making jokes, Tony has been diving headfirst into one of the most unforgettable (dare I say “haunting?”) children’s books I’ve ever read. He records late in the night when the truck traffic dies down on our street so that he can make the best quality audiobook possible.
At the Back of the North Wind, a novel by Scottish pastor, George MacDonald, (1824 – 1905), is a fantasy story from the era of Charles Dickens (“Have they no prisons? Have they no workhouses?”). It is easy to read if you have a good imagination; however, there is a great deal to visualize, and pictures help. The surface story is easy to understand, but it’ll stick with you a long time. It has deep/difficult concepts, and is quite sad in parts, but will engage any age. George MacDonald said that he did not write for children, but for the child-like. (Did you know he mentored Lewis Carroll, and influenced both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein?)
Little Diamond is the main character, and he meets an interesting person: The North Wind, who can vary her appearance as need be. It is hard to imagine, but thankfully she has been brought to life by famous illustrators (Jessie Wilcox Smith and Arthur Hughes). How hard it would be to recognize a friend who looks different every time!
My “Sunrise Project” is nearing the end with the close of this year. I have been taking pictures of the sunrise every morning since January 1, 2023. I have 10 mornings to go, and have completed 354 photo sessions.
My original plan was just to capture some of the beauty of the skies and emerging sun, but I learned so much and the experience wakened several new interests. I have published a few of the pictures here on this blog, but will be grouping and publishing the photos in various projects in the future.
My brother asked me if I had been careful to stay in one place and take the pictures at the same time every day, but that kind of project isn’t to my liking. My goal was to get the most beautiful, accurate pictures of the rising sun, and also of the changing skies however possible. I have spent considerable time in grave yards and pumpkin fields, access lots and dirt roads this past year, always looking up! I will be writing more about the project in the future.
In 72 hours it’ll be Christmas Eve! We have so much to be thankful for, and we truly have witnessed wonders this year. I have a lot of material to write about; we have had some amazing experiences that have changed us forever. What a beautiful, challenging time it has been!
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17
The Fullers Four 