Hello everyone…. long, long, long time no see. As most of you know from my last blog update, I’ve been working at a new full-time job…. which has been incredibly awesome and rewarding, but with the downside of me not being able to work on any personal projects the past few months. I am hopeful this will change soon.

In the meantime, it breaks my heart to see the comic languishing so badly, and rather than continue to let it slide any longer, I’ve decided to share a few pages from my sketchbook based on a trip to Greece my wife and I took last year.  To keep things fun and playful, I’ve cast Topo, Mari, and Swoop in the roles of myself, my wife, and well… Swoop. I know this does nothing to advance our story, but I hope it’s better than nothing. Please enjoy!

Sorry for the very long absence, gang. The past few months have been a whirlwind for me, wrapping up my first kids book, traveling to Korea, and - most of all - starting a full-time job at Google as a logo designer (the team that does those fun homepage doodles).  I’m finally settling into a stable routine and getting the hang of things, so I’ve started working on drafts for the next installments of ‘Swoop’.  I’d apologize a hundred times over for the delay, but I think the only way to make it up to you all is to just get back on the workhorse.

Thanks for your patience, especially to those with the thin-wearing kind.

Hi Everyone! Today’s page is another departure from the story as I continue to plug away on the deadline for my first kids book. This is a commission I did not too long ago, based on all the traveling my wife and I like to do. (The patron actually came up with this idea, and even provided a very lovely sketch!) In case you’re wondering, once the story is back on track, most of these one shot pages will be moved to their own section.

Speaking of travel, deadlines, and being busy in general, here are a couple updates. My wife and I will be taking off for Korea tomorrow to visit my parents. I haven’t been to Korea in over twenty years. I spent part of my childhood growing up there, and being half-Korean I’ve always felt a little guilty about not going back. Better late than never, right?

I always seem to be the busiest whenever we’re about to take off somewhere. I’ve pulled all nighters the night before just about every trip we’ve ever taken. This trip will be no exception. I’ll be up tonight then bringing the laptop with me to work overseas. At least the book is looking quite nice.

There’s one  last update but I’m so excited and yet still slightly nervous about jinxing it that I want to wait until it’s a little more official before announcing it. Stay tuned!

As the title says, today’s comic is brought to you by Audra Ann Furuichi of Nemu-Nemu fame!

I’ve been holding onto this beautiful page for a long time now, hoping to squeeze the moment into the actual storyline, but I’ve finally decided with the weather warming up and spring in the air, now was the perfect time to show it. (Sorry it took so long, Audra!)  And just in case you guys need a tiny refresher, Audra’s page is alluding to this moment a while back.

Audra and Scott over at Nemu-Nemu consistently put out great work over at Nemu-Nemu and I am always poking my head in to see what they’re up to.  Not only is their comic wonderfully lovable, you get the sense they love it too and are very enthusiastic about what they do, whether it’s traveling the comic convention circuit, coming up with the coolest T-shirts (I ran into someone last year wearing this one!), going to local bookstores to meet their young fans, or even giving their main characters their own Twitter accounts.  Of course, there’s the comic itself, full of rich characters, colors, and catchy phrases! All of these things together are inspiring to say the least, like maybe some day I can do all those things too!  Audra’s take on Topo, Swoop, and Mari will have to do for now.

Hope you guys enjoy today’s page. Now please hop on over to Nemu-Nemu!

Hey everyone, I’m sorry for slowing down again, but it’s crunchtime on getting my first children’s book done. I only have a few weeks to finish up and unfortunately for you guys, I need to spend all my available time working on that. In the meantime, I thought this sketch commission I did a while back might take the edge off the wait.

On the topic of gelato, I also have a GREAT guest comic I’ve been hanging onto for a very long time now. I wanted to find a spot to fit it within the storyline, but I think I’ll need to just post it on its own.  And really, it deserves its own spotlight. Stay tuned!