bob pendarvis: bob's ramblings

yay! with the oh-so-timely assistance of former student
gally articola, i was able to FINALLY finish editing
the second volume of my all-girls anthology, SUGAR
NINJAS! There are two books, just like last year's:
SWEET (family-friendly and fairly girly) and SPICY
(containing some material rated 18-and-up). i am
very proud of these latest books and i hope you'll
check them out for yourself by clicking on our lulu.com
storefront:

http://stores.lulu.com/sugarninjas

tonight is the last episode of LOST, easily one of the
high points in the history of episodic television. if
you have been living in a cave (or maybe a hatch) you
might have an excuse for missing out on the unique
pleasures this show provided audiences for the last six
years, but you sure did miss out!

i won't even bother trying to sum it up in a paragraph
or two, but i did have to mark the conclusion of such
an epic, tour de force.

namaste...and vaya con dios.

yay! i'll be a guest again at this year's DRAGON CON! i'm hoping to have copies of my new graphic novel, A GIRL CALLED ANA TEACHES KITTENS HOW TO DRAW. of course, i'll also be promoting my SUGAR NINJAS all-girls sequential art anthologies (volume one premiered at last year's DRAGON CON and this year we'll be showcasing volume two). if you're planning on being in the atlanta area labor day weekend, you HAVE to check out DRAGON CON...and while you're there, come by my table and see me, too!

i'll be premiering my new musical/comedy/variety show, MIDNITE GARDEN PARTY, in just one more month! there will be one show on saturday, may 1st...at midnight!! it will be held at the INDIGO ARTS STATION, which is located at 703D Louisville Road in Savannah, Ga.

what's it about? well, i'll be performing a bunch of my songs, including ROBOT BOY, BRAND NEW PANTS, and SUGAR COOKIES. there will also be guests like DR. MITTENS and COUNT CHRYSANTHEMUM, as well as a puppet show and more.

our plan is to videotape the proceedings and possibly even livecast on the net. wish us luck!

just wanted to give a shout out to all the people who came to see my presentation at momocon this year. i hadn't expected such a HUGE crowd...wow! and i really appreciated all the positive energy in the room, especially all the kids wanting to know if i'd be teaching again next year (yay). just a great, great time...except for my having to miss out on reviewing people's portfolios the next day (thanks to the atlanta marathon that screwed up traffic around georgia tech for hours...sigh.

thanks again, momocon!

Well, what do you know? i've been added as a guest for this year's MOMO CON, held in Atlanta, Ga. I've heard about this con for years, but until now I was never able to make the time to attend. I'll be making up for lost time this year by doing a presentation for the SUGAR NINJAS, my all-girls sequential art anthology. A large number of my former SCAD students will be there and I'm looking forward to having a heck of a great time this March. Here's the e-dress for the MOMO CON site...hope to see you there:

http://momocon.moonfruit.com/#/comics/4534818980

it's 2010 and i plan to make this a very happy, productive year indeed. SUGAR NINJAS (volume two) will be ready just before summer. for more info, go to www.sugarninjas.org and read all about it. i'm also hoping to finalize plans for a stageshow, a new textbook or two, a graphic novel or two...and a few surprises thrown in for good measure. keep watching the skies and i'll be seeing you.

what a year, eh? soooo glad it's finally coming to a close. i'd like to take this opportunity to say how very grateful i am to all my friends who made an effort to show how much i am loved and supported...you will never know how truly dear you are to me. thank you all! here's hoping next year finds us
all in much happier circumstances.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

well, both DRAGON CON and AWA were amazingly fun experiences this year. the SUGAR NINJAS books were very well received and so were my latest hello kitty outfits! i actually had two other outfits ready to go, but i had problems with the actual head, namely that the ears were messed up and i had to wear a hat over one of them. i used a witch's hat and went with a witchy kitty look, rather fetchingly, in both black and white numbers. next year i promise to have the ears fixed and i promise to have brand new outfits, too.

i'm busily slaving away on a number of projects these days, including the SUGAR NINJAS website and anthologies (both the SWEET and SPICY books should be available at lulu.com by this time next week).

in addition to the SUGAR NINJAS, i'm also working on four novels, two art textbooks, a children's picture book, and a musical comedy theater piece.
i might also try actually turning on my playstation 3 again (which has been dormant since last march...right in the middle of RESIDENT EVIL 5). in my spare time i'm DEFINITELY looking forward to the new season of VENTURE BROTHERS.

well, that's what's going on with me these days. oh, and the amazingly rewarding experience of listening to all those remastered beatles cds, both in stereo and mono....sweeeeeet!!!

dragon con 2009 was, to put it mildly, a total blast. saw tons of old/not-so-old friends; the sugar ninjas anthology test copy was a big hit; the return of hello kitty was greeted with a zillion requests for photo opportunities; and even my panel appearance went great. all in all, despite the potentially disastrous incident on I-16 just outside of atlanta (waaah), dragon con 2009 did not disappoint and i'm already looking forward to next year!!!

meanwhile, awa is up next weekend (anime weekend atlanta) and it promises to be pretty special, also. soooo many girls i'm looking forward to seeing again. i'll have a table this year, shared with ms. squeaks herself, but that's mainly to promote the upcoming unveiling of the sugar ninjas books. the spicy volume won't be ready until a week after awa, but i'm hoping to have copies of the finalized version of the sweet book (and if not, i'll just have to show off the same test copies i used at dragon con).

here's hoping the trucks on the highway can manage to keep their tires from breaking off and smashing into my front bumper...

so, i'm putting the finishing touches on the SUGAR NINJAS (all-girl comics/illustration collections) and i should FINALLY be ready to premiere them at this year's DRAGON CON in atlanta, ga. yes, i'll be there this year and this time i should have a table again (come find me in the artist's alley, peoples).

these books will also be available from lulu.com the first week in september. each book has over 50 female artist/writers and about 400 landscape format pages packed with manga and western-style comic book stories, comic strips, web comics, children's picture book stories, illustrations, character designs, concept art, and even a surprise or two.

dragon con is coming up soon (there's less than fifty days left), so i'd better hurry up and get my new hello kitty costume ready...i didn't have one last year and i felt horribly underdressed the whole weekend!

the fates, as they say, were not kind to me after all in 2009. at least, not yet.

there's still time to change things for the better, though.
i'm hoping for some fun, happy times very soon (pie, of course, included).

to be continued.

today is sarah's birthday (yay), tomorrow is whitney's birthday (yay).

as for me, after meeting with one of my dearest friends this afternoon, i feel reborn and ready to take on the world. thank you, pam (hugs).

i keep forgetting to pop by my own danged website and post something. as it happens, i AM working on a couple of additional projects, including a new art textbook. the idea just hit me one day during a particularly brutal class critique (some of my students at SCAD are more...er..."resistant to constructive observations" than others). i've been laying out the pages for a few weeks now and plan to start drawing the book over the spring break. i'd love to have the book ready by mid-summer and hope to premiere it at this year's DRAGON CON in atlanta (assuming i'm a guest and have a table). if not, i'll premiere it on the streets or whatever.

other than that, i've also been asked to help edit the graphic novel adaptation of the acclaimed novel INFECTED (written by SCOTT SIGLER). the graphic novel is being produced by artist CHAD MINSHEW, a former student of mine. i loved the book and chad's dedication to the project is very inspiring (if only half of my students put as much thought into their work). look for the book sometime next year.

be seeing you...

i call do overs!

basically, i've been working on rerecording/mixing my music and plan on relaunching everything this spring. the albums called A GIRL I USED TO KNOW and JUST ME will be discontinued. i am putting together a new collection called MIDNITE GARDEN PARTY that will feature songs from both of those albums, as well as a number of other tracks. the complete list is:

FOR YOU
TODAY
MIDNITE GARDEN PARTY
HEIDI HALABUDA
PAINTINGS OF YOU
ROBOT BOY
HER MAJESTY
MILLIONAIRE'S CLUB
ABBY AND AMANDA
HAPPINESS
ANOTHER BLUE SKY
WHO KNOWS?

i'm VERY happy with the recent recordings i've been doing for this album and i think the proof will be in the pudding (or the final cds/digital downloads).

i plan on having this first album out by early spring with the follow-up album,
SHE TAKES MY HAND, arriving sometime soon after. or maybe i'll rerelease the LOW COUNTRY LADY cd first. we'll see, we'll see.

along with the new albums, i hope to revamp my site...maybe finally post some darned pictures here and there. and i DEFINITELY plan on actually promoting the music this time around. wish me luck.

anyhoo, that's a peek into the near future for both of my fans. it's not much, but it beats not bothering to post anything...right?

meanwhile: back to mario kart!

when i was a kid, i set my watch by a number of television shows, including LOST IN SPACE, STAR TREK, THE MONKEES, GREEN ACRES, BOB NEWHART, BATMAN...

i mean, i would've killed to have been able to hang out in the groovy beach house the monkees lived in, no question. and i would have paid a king's ransom to have penny robinson hold my hand while billy mumy serenaded us on his acoustic guitar (i met angela cartwright once a few years ago and she was just as nice as i'd always hoped. happily married, but nice). bob newhart as my next door neighbor? perfect.

but there was one show that changed my perception of the very fabric of inner and outer reality. That show was created by a man named Patrick McGoohan: THE PRSIONER.

THE PRISONER opened with scenes of a british spy turning in his resignation. before he can enjoy the good life, he is gassed and kidnapped at his home. when he awakens, he finds he has been brought to a mysterious place called THE VILLAGE. in some ways, the village appears to be an idyllic place to live. unfortunately, appearances turn out to be very deceiving indeed (a popular theme of the show is to question everything you see or hear). over the course of the series, the spy, renamed "number six" by the village heirarchy, attempts to escape. fairly straightforward concept, but the execution was unlike anything that televsion had ever attempted before.

THE PRISONER was the first televsion series that made me feel not just happy, but self aware. it challenged me to think in multiple dimensions from new perspectives. it was an action show with a brain, a heart, and a soul. it championed the idea of the individual and rejected the tyranny of "society." THE PRISONER taught me to rebel against authority figures and to reject conformity.

it also had rover, the big ol' balloon-shaped watchdog who popped up out of the ocean, scaring the daylights out of me each and every time.

i loves me some TWIN PEAKS and never EVER miss an episode of LOST, but my heart will always belong to number six.

i bring this up because of the sad news that mr. mcgoohan just passed away at the age of 80...sigh...

be seeing you.

long time no hear from, eh?
well, i hadn't originally planned on taking so long to do an update, but believe me when i say that the last six months have been like something out of a movie. not sure what kind of movie, but there were plenty of completely unbelievable twists and turns that i would never have believed if i'd actually seen them IN a movie.

sigh.

anyhoo, i have been somewhat productive during my long hiatus from the site. i've finished two new cartoon books, assembled a soon-to-be published anthology of all-girls comics/illustrations, and i've been rejiggering my music cd (including adding/subtracting vocals and instruments, altering track listings, and more. i should have the first two ready for release early this year.

i'll try to stick to a more regular update schedule this year, so i should have more news soon, 'kay? meanwhile, i hope everyone out there had a great christmas/hanukkah/whatever and that the new year brings you mucho successo!

bob out.

it was one year ago tomorrow (or today, or last week, depending on when you read this) that i opened up my little website (first visitor: julie collins) and what a year it's been. since then, i've managed to put out another cd, LOW COUNTRY LADY, as well as...

...hmm. actually, that just about sums up my accomplishments over the past year. i never did finish my novel, another dr. mittens comic, my fourth music cd, or anything else.

sigh.

but that was last year. as of 2:00am last night, it's a whole new ballgame. this upcoming year promises to be very exciting...very exciting indeed.

i promise you that i WILL be finishing up my novel, i WILL be releasing another new music cd, i WILL have a new DR. MITTENS book out, and i WILL do much, much more.

stay tuned for more, folks. it should be a splendid time for all involved.

hee hee!!!

i saw THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT movie when it was first released...at a midnight showing. i don't know about you guys, but i liked it a lot. i totally bought the premise and the last scene was chillingly executed. after the movie was over, i got in my car and headed for home (almost two hours from where i was). i'd only driven about ten miles before my spidey senses started tingling, warning me that the blair witch was hiding in the back seat of my car!!!

i used my rearview mirror to check things out, but i couldn't see much in the dark and i didn't want to actually turn my head and look. i drove onward for a few more miles...and then i swerved off to the side of the road and jumped out of the car. i waited a little bit and then i peeked inside the windows. nobody was there. of course, she could've been invisible, so i waited a few minutes as trucks whizzed by on the interstate. eventually i got back in the car and resumed my journey.

as i pulled into my driveway i finally felt safe at last...yes! still, as i walked up to the front door, i began worrying again. what if the witch had WANTED me to lead her back to my house all along?

AAAAHHH!!!

i just realized it's been like A MONTH since i last updated. i've had all kinds of evil computer/internet problems, so that's part of the reason. also, SECRET EVIL STUFF (can't talk about it, but it was/is evil).

on the other hand, i have a special announcement coming up tomorrow. stay tuned (both of you).

as promised, here's another story of my disastrous experiences with talent shows.

for this show, i decided to make my singing debut. i hadn't written any of my own songs yet, but i was very taken with DEVO's remake of WORKING IN A COAL MINE. i managed to get my brother scott (and his fledgling rock band, CARUSO) to back me up onstage. i also convinced a bunch of friends to dance behind me and play kazoos. oh, and we were all wearing cartoon masks (i was too embarrassed to actually sing in front of an audience without a mask).

the curtains opened up and my brother's band began to rock out (accompanied by almost-in-tune kazoos) as i sang my little heart out. for the most part, i clutched the mike stand and just let my backup dancers keep things visually interesting (i was trying to focus on remembering the lyrics and hitting the right notes).

happily, we were a hit with the crowd and there was plenty of laughter and applause. we were such a success that it wasn't too surprising when, just as the song was ending and the curtain was closing, SOMEBODY cried out "one more time!"

suddenly, the curtain opened up again and i found myself grabbing the mike and dancing around the stage. everything seemed to be going well enough (plenty more applause, plenty more laughter), but there was a problem: my mask was attached to my glasses and my glasses had fogged up. soon enough, i couldn't see a thing...not that i was gonna let that stop me during my moment of glory.

i'm not sure i still have a copy, but i used to own a videotape from this show (my act was called BOB AND THE HUMANOIDS). despite my best efforts, i have to admit the video isn't all that exciting or memorable...until the "encore" section when i started dancing around. the cameraman had a little trouble keeping up with my clearly improvised choreography. right near the end, the camera pans away from me as i dance to the right side of the stage. suddenly, my mike stand slides back across the screen and the camera pans back...but i'm nowhere to be seen, until the camera pans down and you see that i've FALLEN right off the front of the stage and landed flat on my back, much to the delight of the audience (who seemed to think it was all part of the act).

my back killing me, i waited FOREVER for the curtain to close up again. the cheers of the crowd were almost enough to make my excruciating pain fade away.

almost...sigh.

ps: we didn't win!!! waaah!!!

still killing time waiting to unleash all kinds of "real" updates on my various projects. meanwhile, here's another "untold tale" for you all.

many moons ago, i performed in a local talent show. well, i wasn't really the performer, but i was a very important part of the act. see, there was this guy i knew who came up with an act that basically consisted of lying on the floor with a big ol' concrete block on his bare chest and allowing his partner (me) to whack the block with a big ol' sledgehammer. i don't remember there being any real trick to it. all i was supposed to do was hit the center of the block (really hard, duh) and it would crack apart. after that, the guy would jump up and go "tadah!" or something like that.

well, naturally it didn't quite work out that way. somehow i managed to miss the center of the block and hit the edge instead. this drove the block deeper into his chest without cracking it open.

yikes!

the guy was more-or-less unharmed, though it probably hurt like hell, i would imagine (i remember there being red marks across his chest).

truly, i was not worthy to wield the hammer of thor then and i'm pretty sure i'd be just as unworthy now.

next time, another painful talent show disaster (and not just because i didn't win).

hee hee! what a great way to usher in the spring: SUMMER RAINS, the brand new DITTY BOPS cd. the girls have decided to go the independent route, which means the only way to buy the cd is to visit their website (or see them in concert, but they stick mostly to the west coast, dang it). the cd will be released on march 1st and you can pre-order a copy now. the cd is a few dollars pricier than usual, but i'm happy to support the girls in their efforts to be independent creators (plus, the cd is said to have some sort of pop-up functionality, cool enough for me). to be honest, i would GLADLY pay twice as much for a brand new batch of songs from miss abby and miss amanda. do yourself a GIANT favor and see what all the fuss is about by checking out their website...today!

summer rains...so refreshing!

man, i didn't mean to stay away so long. i had a bad case of bronchitis and just didn't feel up to...anything...for like the last month. i felt obliged to return to my little blog in order to comment on the recent death of steve gerber. among other things, steve was the demented creator of the infamous comic book not-quite-superstar, HOWARD THE DUCK, a surreal hybrid of carl barks and robert crumb. HOWARD first appeared in marvel comics' MAN-THING series, which featured a large number of hauntingly crafted gerber stories that left a huge mark on my impressionable little head. his other accomplishments included stints on THE DEFENDERS and OMEGA THE UNKNOWN (a VERY experimental book for its time). stan the man may have co-fathered the marvel universe, but steve gerber was marvel's beloved "wacky uncle" and i just wanted to thank him for being there for all of us talking hairless apes.

auggh! i've been sick now for a little over two weeks, with the main symptoms being coughing, coughing, and COUGHING. also, a little chest congestion. oh, and i can't remember the last good night's sleep i've had. apparently the kindly ones aren't looking upon me with favor these days, sigh. listen, if all of my faithful fans would rally to my side and send positive, healthy vibes in my direction, well, who knows? i'm sure the two of you have plenty of positive vibes to spare. save me!!! cough-cough! cough-cough!! COUGH!!!