I’ve been working on a new comic. It’s called “Salad Days” and these two panels are a sneak peek from Chapter 1. If you’re familiar with Apple at all, then you know he’s always searching for (and eluded by) greater meaning and companionship–I’m hoping he can finally get in on some of that in this story! It’s a bit of a departure from previous Fruit Pals episodes, as Apple quits his office job in the first few pages and the bulk of it centers around his new volunteer position with gorillas. I am really excited to do a story with gorillas, by the way (if you haven’t watched Koko: A Talking Gorilla, then you don’t know what it is to be alive and part of the world). There is still a lot of work to do, but ultimately “Salad Days” is going to be in the neighborhood of 100 pages or so, with the release of Chapters 1 and 2 coinciding with the Stumptown Comics Fest in April. Mrk yr clndrs.

This holiday season, why spend hours designing and hand-printing greeting cards for all your friends and family when you could just mail one postcard to one person without even touching it via Google’s holiday card program? There are six designs to choose from, including this one by yours truly. It’s a pretty neat idea, especially for the people that plan to spend hours making greeting cards but then put it off and put it off until before they know it, it’s January and they have not sent any holiday greetings to anyone at all. That said, I should probably get to work on my holiday cards soon. Anyway, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have their heart warmed by receiving personal mail in their real live non-virtual mailbox, so do a good deed this holiday season and send a postcard to the person you think is least likely to be on others’ lists.

At this point, you’re probably saying to yourself, “That’s great, Minty, but what I really want is more information about you–your creative process, where you grew up, whether you prefer semicolons to ampersands…” Fortunately, you can find out about all these topics and more in an interview with me at the delightful blog Stickers and Donuts (add it to your Google Reader, you won’t be sorry). Thanks very much to Tricia for her thoughtful questions and interest (and happy birthday to her today!).

Hello and welcome to December! This month brings a few of my favorite things: my birthday (December 11) and… well… you get the idea. To celebrate, I’ve signed myself up to bake for the San Francisco Vegan Bakesale, which will take place on Saturday, December 5 and will benefit saveabunny.org. Apparently they still need volunteers, so if you live in the Bay Area and are feeling philanthropic, get in touch with the bakesale gang. If you are on the fence about attending, you may want to look at some cute pictures of bunnies to help you decide. (Just so no one gets upset, I feel I should clarify that I am not vegan, but I like to support my vegan brothers and sisters and also bunnies.)

If you happen to be on the east coast this weekend and therefore unable to attend the bakesale, perhaps you would be interested in the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival? My publisher, Secret Acres, will be in attendance with plenty of copies of PS Comics, as well as all their other hot inventory. I would go if I could. I implore you to do what I cannot.