abbycomix

I did this self portrait as a gift for my uncle. My first self portrait painting in ages!

This is a cool site about cats with jobs (at bodegas, bookstores, etc.). Very cute!

http://workingclasscats.com/ 

My yummy holiday comic Cookie Time! is posted at monkeybicycle.net today as part of their holiday event. Check it out!

LCRW is a fiction zine edited by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant of the venerable Small Beer Press and I am very pleased to be a part of it! I did a one page comic from the world of Dolltopia. Here is a snippet. You can order it at this link.

I made a cute winter-related illustration last night. Check it out!

Right after I finished the maneki neko paintings I got to participate in the $99 Art Fair and made some new art for it. Details here:

December 14 2008, 6-8PM
$99 Art Fair reception at HPGRP Gallery
32-36 Little west 12th street, NYC
Sale starts Friday, December 14th
and runs until Sunday, December 23rd

One is a mercat- I used metallic lavender acrylic ink, acrylics paints, and glitter on this one.

The other is an angel-

I had a lot of fun painting them, I plan to do more paintings for sure! they are available for $49

The mighty Beat posted about Johnny Ryan’s Horrorshow painting exhibit and I like them a lot too. I’m a fan of cheesy horror flicks so I really enjoyed them and it looks like a fun project! Here’s one I like a lot – Phantasm!

While I’m on the subject, a cool horror fan site is campblood.org. It’s a gay oriented horror movie fan site, but anybody with interest in horror movies especially cheesy and campy ones will enjoy it.

I’m working on a few more paintings for another show coming up. Will post as they’re finished.

This blog was linked by the excellent comics and pop culture site The Beat today. If you haven’t checked The Beat out yet please do! In other news I made my first Shepherd’s pie which is perfect for the winter time.

It also happened to be my first time making mashed potatoes from scratch. Luckily it was a success. Here’s the recipe, I used Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles for the meat part.

Veggie Shepherd’s Pie aka Shepherdess Pie (serves 3-4)

Ingredients
• 3 tablespoons olive (or vegetable) oil
• 2 stalks celery, cut into small dice, about 1/2 cup
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into small dice, about 1 cup
• 4 small carrots, peeled and cut into small dice, about 1 cup
• chopped mushrooms could be a good optional addition
• salt and garlic salt
• 1 bag Morningstar Farms® Meal Starters™ Grillers® Recipe Crumbles™ (or other ground beef substitute or cooked ground beef )
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce

Potato Topping:
• 6 Idaho Potatoes peeled and cut into large pieces
• 1/2 cup milk (or chicken or veggie broth)
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine

DIRECTIONS:
1 Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Boil the potatoes until fork tender. Drain the water and mash the potatoes until free of lumps. Add the butter and milk or broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and set aside.

2 Preheat the oven to 350o.

3 Heat a large pot over medium high heat. Add the oil and celery, onion, carrots and garlic salt. Cook the vegetables until softened, approximately 5 minutes. Add frozen veggie crumble and stir until cooked. Add tomato sauce. Stir to blend while cooking for approximately 5 minutes until the vegetables are tender and the liquid has evaporated.

4 Spread the crumble and vegetable mixture in the bottom of a 3-quart casserole. Spread the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture in the casserole. Place the Shepherd’s Pie in the preheated oven to heat through and brown for approximately 15 minutes, or place under the broiler just to glaze the top.

Here’s a shot of the 2nd maneki neko painting I did for the upcoming show at The showroom in NYC. The show will be in January, I’ll be posting details as we get closer.

Here’s a shot of both paintings on my art table.