May 9, 2007
Working hard to finish June issue, or is it July? I get lost. We work so far in advance and on several issues at the same time. Yes, it's July (I had to walk into Meghan's office to find out).

Last night we had a scare. We've got all new equipment in production (Mac Server 10) and at about four I heard a commotion and it turns out someone nuked a fourth of the magazine (could have been anybody). Frantic inventory of all the computers trying to find the missing stuff. Robert Ray joked with me, "We've been putting out issue after issue, right on time. Can't we miss one issue?" Robert, Meghan and Abby were still here when I left at seven last night.

Things are calm this morning and are going to have a meeting to determine how to protect ourselves (fortunately Robert had all the scans backed up, and Meghan had her work-up files, so we dodged a bullet. Or, should that be a mortar?)

And speaking of mortars, if you've been keeping track you know I've been obsessed with Gettysburg. Here are a series of my sketches over the last few weeks: most of these are from my collection of Civil War books, and a couple are obvious (the Reb captured at Gettysburg is from a famous photo. Great hat!). That's General Sickles, upper right, and Al Sieber, bottom right.



This page shows a famous Confederate General (can't think of his name, love the spit curls), the attack in the Peach Orchard, and the death stare from a Mathew Brady photo (nice subtle red, a mistake, of course):



This bayonet charge character is poached from an Audie Murphy movie still and the flailing bodies are from the movie Gettysburg:



More studies lifted from Gettysburg and a Rembrandt knock-off (I'm trying to learn from his masterful shading). Putting the two sequences together makes for an interesting patchwork:



I found a an excellent photo of an African woman holding a baby outside her adobe home. I love how her figure is swallowed up by the massive shadow, behind her. The riderless horse and the exploding troops are from the movie. Once again, all of the images work into the whole and makes some, strange narrative sense:



More battle sketches and generals, ad nauseum:



Onion Headline de Jour
Mega-Churchgoer Hopes To Appear Devout On Jumbotron

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