click to visit larger image Fenmere having a coffee From Grass Dog Studio

The next thing I post, barring emergencies or PSAs, will be the first page of the comic itself! Which you must subscribe to in order to read.

Fenmere, the Worm originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/15.

So, if you’d like to receive my blog posts either on the hour, or in digest form daily or weekly, in your email, you can!

First, register for an account on my WordPress Blog, and then, go to your profile page:

http://grassdogstudio.com/blog/wp-admin/profile.php

There you will find “Email Updates” settings for “Stuck in Jam” and “Uncategorized”. Stuck in Jam is my new comic. Uncategorized is the rest of the blog!

Or, you can go to the Subscribe to Stuck In Jam page and sign up via Mail Chimp (comic only), if you prefer:

http://grassdogstudio.com/blog/?page_id=620

Enjoy!

Subscriptions work! originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/15.

click to visit larger image Jonathan, the Hamster From Grass Dog Studio

Historically, Jonathan is in charge of distributing the little colored hand bills that Harmless Free Radicals used to be print on. When the Whatcom Independent Newspaper picked up the comic, he became the front man, accepting checks in his name and basically running the whole business, leaving only the writing and drawing to Fenmere. But even then, he kept trying to get his paws into the act as editor ‘n chief of the comic itself, if for no other reason than to try to catch the spelling errors before they hit the web, let alone the newspaper!

Even though the comic has been on hiatus for several years, Jonathan has kept himself busy by hosting a small group of independent cartoonists in his home town of Bellingham, WA, called the B.S. of Comics.

HFR’s Distribution Rep. originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/14.

http://grassdogstudio.com/blog/?page_id=620

But, all you will get, if you subscribe to this list, is the comic! NOTHING ELSE!

Well, the first couple of emails will be test mailings, to make sure it works. So you’ll have to bare with me through that. But, after that, it’s probably best to sign up early so that you don’t miss a page! Though, there should be an archive built on MailChimp’s site as we go… More on that as I learn about it.

Enjoy!

Subscribe to the Stuck in Jam! originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/11.

click to visit larger image Quick Title Page From Grass Dog Studio

From right to left: Brian and Dakota’s son (still unnamed), Sally Cephalophoria Robertson (Ian and Brenna’s Daughter), and Carl P. Robertson (Ian and Brenna’s adopted son).

It’s a sequel to Harmless Free Radicals, set 0.278 miles north of Fairport, in Jam, WA.

Oh, and my arm still hurts occasionally, and my thumb still goes numb sometimes… but drawing doesn’t set them off!

If I make this comic, it will not have a schedule. And it most likely won’t have a webpage. Stay tuned for how to start reading it.

Stuck in Jam originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/10.

click to visit larger image Ink Bending From Grass Dog Studio

Trying to get back in the saddle originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/06.

I don’t fit in at her church and I don’t feel comfortable in their services, and I most certainly do not like her church’s stances on national politics, but it’s full of good people (as much as I want to argue with them at times) and this was something she really believed in and deeply wanted to do before our life choices made it more difficult (and they will, most likely — I’ll get into that when they do). I’ve been wanting to go back to Europe for some time, particularly with her, and our marriage vows did factor into it as well (I’m sort of breaking them by not attending her church, but we agreed that was an OK exception).

The missions trip was to help No Boundaries church in Teplice with outreach, supporting their current members, and generally doing revival type stuff. We also did some work around the community. This included: The Happening, visiting some English classes, cleaning up a park in preparation for a baptism, the baptism itself, visiting a neighboring church, leading a youth group, and cleaning up a neglected Jewish cemetery. I even participated in some laying on of hands and prayer without compromising my own beliefs or those of the people I was working with.

My companions on the trip would have been fine if I had stayed out of the activities I was uncomfortable with, but it was important to me to help them in the best way that I could.

Here and there, where we could, we also toured the country side, and the cities, and we ended our trip in Prague for some R&R. This included a 6 hour grand tour of Prague. I have over 500 photos to share, but I put them all on Facebook where you must be logged in to view them.

So, here, I am posting the highlights:

When we first arrived, on Friday, we were met at the airport by Marek, the pastor of No Boundaries Church. He lead us to our hotel and then to dinner at a nearby restaurant, and this is our group.

Our first activity, on Saturday, was to go to the nearby castle and pray over the town. It was a long, long walk — the first of many — and the view was good. It was a good way to get to know our hosts, too. A good time to talk.

There are an awful lot of photos to share, and quite a few experiences, so I’m going to break this up into several posts. The next one will cover Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, most likely.

A trip to Teplice, in the Czech Republic: Entry #1 originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/02.

Ceiling of the train station in Teplice.

What I am writing here is going to be hard to translate into Czech. If that is your native language, please forgive any misunderstandings. This is hard enough to explain in English to an English speaker. I have not lied to anyone in the past two weeks, and none of what I write here is incompatible with anything I have said.

I have just returned from a two week trip to Teplice, in the Czech Republic. (Here is a link to all of my photos — apparently you have to be logged into Facebook to see them) It was a missions trip with my wife’s church, Freedom Church in Lynden, for their sister church in Teplice, No Boundaries Church.

I find I have made a great number of friends and some profound realizations about politics, religion and interpersonal relations. But many of my new friends are very Christian and they met me on a missions trip. I should introduce myself better for their sake, and for everyone else’s.

I don’t like to label myself, so this is difficult. Also, it is easier for me to define what I believe in by saying what I don’t believe in, but that can sound scary to many people. So, I’ll start with the important stuff.

I was raised a liberal or progressive, and my political reflexes are those of a progressive. I went to a Lutheran church until I was 12, at which point I decided that church, at least, was not for me.

I believe in science. I believe the scientific method is the key way by which human beings can explore and describe the world around us. We can use it to ask, “How does this work? How was this made? And how can we use this?”

I believe that love, compassion and trust are the most important emotions and actions in human society, and that we must try to embrace them in everything we do.

I cannot scientifically prove any sort of god exists, nor describe Him. And, I firmly believe that no one else can.

I believe atheists have every right to be treated as equally intelligent and equally moral human beings as anybody else. But I also believe that all religious people have those very same rights.

I accept almost all of the tenants of atheism and will not try to convince an atheist he or she is wrong, but my one difference is in my belief in a soul. I cannot deny my own consciousness, and my experience of it. And I will not let anyone force me to deny it, either. My own consciousness is the one thing in the whole world that I know to be Truth. Period. Everything else I take on a certain kind of faith. I expect other people to have a consciousness, too. I believe this consciousness is part of a soul. And I believe this soul is part of something that could be described as God.

I also accept what I think are the most important teachings of Christ, to love your neighbor and even your enemy. I also respect Christ for who and what he is described to be in the Bible. But, I do not take the Bible any more literally than I do any other religious text. Where it is supported by archaeology and scientific discovery, I accept as fact. But I will not ever accept that any book has the pure Truth in it. I do not believe it is remotely possible.

With this in mind, I hope that you understand now how profound it is for me to say, I went on a missions trip with a group of largely Republican or conservative Pentecostal Christians, and without lying or misrepresenting myself as a liberal agnostic, we did great work together and came away with a better understanding and respect for each other.

And, because of this, I have a challenge for everyone. Try it.

If you’re a Conservative Pentecostal Christian, a Catholic, an Orthodox Jew, a Muslim, or devoutly faithful person of any type, try doing some good, secular social work with a bunch of atheist or agnostic liberal progressives. And, if you’re remotely like me, do like I did.

Or, at the very least. Sit down with someone of the opposite political views and please, please try to come to understand one another.

Every day, every moment, that you post your bumper sticker politics or religion to your Facebook page to defend your point of view, you hurt humanity. I feel the urge to do it too, and I’m sure I will slip in the future, but there are so many things we can do to remedy it.

I have some suggestions about how to do this effectively and well, but I will put those in a future post. For now, just think about it a bit.

Thank you. THANK YOU.

Who am I? originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/05/02.

click to visit larger image Carl in a different style From Grass Dog Studio

This style keeps popping up in my doodles and some of my comics, but I can’t seem to harness it on purpose yet. I’d like to pursue it actively, though.

That illusive substyle originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/04/09.

click to visit larger image Study of Carl From Grass Dog Studio

I’m not sold on these horns, or the details I’ve since stripped off of Carl’s original design. This version of him is based more on Glitch, but he’s not looking alien enough any more, and too much like a regular Satyr. I should at least put the barbels back on his chin, I think. And his ears are too small. However, I’m really happy with his face, skull structure and hair! Finally.

And here’s his space suit:

click to visit larger image Carl’s Space Suit From Grass Dog Studio

Carl originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2012/03/30.