Enjoy this snowmanorah! (I’m off on vacation for a week so I won’t be around to answer emails/validate comments after tomorrow but posts will continue via the wonder of automation!)

On Monday of this week I had a Letter to Toronto published in the National Post. It’s probably relevant if you live in any big city and worth a chuckle or two if you want to have a quick read.

For the last month or so I’ve been doing some illustration work for The Torontoist website. It’s a municipal news blog. They have divisions in many cities like the  Bostonist, Londonist, Seattlest, Shanghaist and for New York, the Gothamist. It’s been nice to work on some editorial style illustration, like I went to college for so many years ago. I enjoy trying to depict things conceptually on a tight time line. Here are some of the ones I’ve done so far…

Gender Studies being introduced into the Toronto curriculum:

The Global City conference Toronto was hosting:

The City budget, which may not translate well because you may not know the shape of our city hall or what a twoonie is.

A histroical look at one of our malls that opened in the 60s:

And a likeness of Ryuho Okawa that wasn’t used because he never came to town:

Back in September I announced a contest and in October I announced the winners. Now that the winners have recieved their watercolour painting prizes in the mail, I can share them with the rest of you.  This is what you totally missed out on by not entering.

Inspired by Lars Chicken Pox Pies being delivered by Magpies I made a Magpilot to drop his infectious confectionary.

For I drew inspiration from Daniels strip for a Mad Hatterpillar. It is Lewis Caroll’s work that the the modern use of portmanteau is credited. It means the jamming of two or more words together to make a new word, like I do all the time with my princesses’ pets.

I just updated my Cafe Press store to include the Xmas card I sent for 2008. If you want to send your friends a Christmas or Hannukah card, check the shop out. The Gingerbread card that sold well last year is still there too.

Reader CatzCradle has kindly pointed out that I warranted a spot in Webcomic Overlook’s Top Ten Comics of the Decade. Hoorays!

El Santo of W.O. says:

“You want to know what’s really subjective? Top ten lists. No two people will ever agree on what the best ten of anything is as long as people have the ability to think for themselves. Isn’t merely the act of putting together such a list an example of arrogance? Probably.

Still, we love lists like the one I’m compiling below for one big reason: its fun to argue why something made the list, and why things were left off.

So, as we head into the Holiday Season and close out the aughts, here’s my list of what I think are the Ten Best Webcomics of the Decade (2000-2009): The Second Decade of Webcomics.

These aren’t the most influential — otherwise Penny Arcade would be a shoe-in. And since we’re talking about The Decade, longetivity counts — so, sorry Gastrophobia. This is a list of webcomics I enjoyed because they told great stories, opened readers to different sorts of humor, and basically stuck with me for some reason or other.”

Pop over and have a look at the other cool comics he selected!

The weather here in Toronto has been getting on the colder side and it reminded me that I should sketch on a patio a little more. I sit somewhere I have a view of an intersection and sketch people as they wait for the light to change. So these are all very quick sketches, under 30 seconds for each figure. Some barley 5 seconds. Perhaps a bit longer than 30 for three or five of them that were waiting for the streetcar. It’s nice to be able to sketch people from behind like this too, since photo reference and human interaction is mostly face-to-face. It’s good to practise some rear views.

After some prompting from readers I’ve made up some banners for people to link up the strip. Ta and da!

Do you like The Princess Planet? If so, you can nominate it (along with your other favourite strips) at the WebComic Planet awards.  If not you can always show love by Stumbling, Reddit, Digg or whatever method of turning people onto stuff you prefer. I should have some banners available soon if you want to give me a link too.  I’ve got 5 years worth of strips but could always use some more eyes.

I thought I’d smite two birds with one stone. I wanted to increase the amount I draw (I unfortunately spend more time writing gags and emails and colouring than putting pencil to paper) and also draw some of the fun characters from other webcomics.

Recently Scott Kurts of PVP got sick and he asked the webcomic community to fill in with guest strips. Scott and Ramon both did strips that got the high five! Mine ended up on the fan-art facebook page instead of on the main page, but whatever. It was fun to do. I chose to work with some of the sub-PVP characters that show up from time to time. Binwin just appears when Kurts has some D&D humour to get off his chest (or armoire). This is what got me started on drawing other people’s characters. (Click on images to see them larger)

I can’t mention fantasy webcomics without The Order of the Stick. It’s a really solid comic with well defined characters, lots of gags and minimalistic art that perfectly suits the strip. Although I felt like drawing Elan and Haley in my style I totally think the strip would be worse off it was drawn in a different style. The stick figures are perfect. The strip takes place in the world of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 rules so that the laws that govern the world the characters live in include skill points, spot checks, xp and other abstract concepts as concrete concepts.

I also really dig Tomgeeks: part tomboy, part geek all female webcomic creators. First up is Fey Winds. They art in the comic is fantastic and the characters are really fun. This picture features Larina who has a gem on her head in which ghosts can enter her body and take posession of her (usually for comic relief). I thought it would be funny if the fighter killed a monster who immediately then attacked them again from their ally’s body. Well, not laugh-out-loud funny, but funny in a neat and interesting kind of way like finding a great new use for your Magic the Gathering card.

Then there’s Roza, a strip about a girl who’s cursed with magical blood. She’s travelling across the realm to find out how to end her curse (though I have a suspicion she will learn to embrace her curse rather than hate it). Again, the art is fantastic and the characters are really well developed. All of these Tomgeeks strips are fantastic with their colouring, using computer blended colours but not in the cheesy, over rendered way many North American mainstream comics are. They’re more like classy European bandes dessinées.

Xylia is a story with faeries and magic and secret worlds and all sorts of stuff. My favourite part of the series is the magic portal is a painting which they just turn to face a rock so no one can follow them through it. Mostly, it’s quite dramatic though, almost emo.  This is a confrontation between Charlie and Tychia, who feel both hate and a sort of love for each other. There are other solid Tomgeek strips to check out too but these were just 3 of the ones that inspired me to draw from them.

A while ago I mentioned Skadi on my blog. I really like Katie Rice’s artwork. Add barbarians in the mix and you have a super winning combination. Skadi’s goal in life is to eat part of every beast, including the mystical ones. So I figured this gag would be better suited to her than Christi.