
Inktober 12: Spicy
I may possibly, at one time, have been at the “1/8 tsp of stale black pepper” end of this spectrum. I have since learned the error of my ways.

Inktober 12: Spicy
I may possibly, at one time, have been at the “1/8 tsp of stale black pepper” end of this spectrum. I have since learned the error of my ways.

Inktober 11: Wander
Alas, brain fog.
When I saw the prompt list, I knew exactly what to draw for “wander.” I wish I could say that any part of this comic is exaggerated, but it is pretty much a documentary. For further proof of the reliability of my brain, the sketch for this comic is accidentally mislabeled as “wonder.” Which, to be fair, also works.
Like last year’s “Forget” comic, this one is inspired by my experiences with “brain fog,” one of the many symptoms of POTS (a blood circulation disorder). It’s one of the symptoms that, while frustrating and occasionally embarrassing, is easiest for me to laugh at. Look for a future comic in which I forget how to use a microwave.

Inktober 10: Fortune
I struggled with this prompt, and went through several ideas before coming up with this one late last night.

Inktober 9: Bounce
Five little mice jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor, and the doctor said
“No more little mice jumping on the bed!”
Catching up at the eleventh hour! (Literally)

Inktober 8: Toad
Don’t worry, Neville; Trevor always turns up.
I didn’t set out to do literary references for every other Inktober prompt, but here we are!

Inktober 7: Drip
Plumbing-1
Homeowner Mouse-0
The question is–is the sink still not working in spite of, or because of, his efforts?
I’m behind by one day, but I’ll catch back up!

Inktober 6: Golden
He grasped a great two-handled cup, as heavy as he could carry, and cast one fearful eye upwards. Smaug stirred a wing, opened a claw, the rumble of his storing changed its note.
Bilbo fled. But the dragon did not wake–not yet–but shifted into other dreams of greed and violence, lying there in his stolen hall while the little hobbit toiled back up the long tunnel. …He clutched the cup, and his chief thought was, “I’ve done it! This will show them! More like a grocer than a burglar, indeed! Well, we’ll hear no more of that.”
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Here there be dragons! I was in almost as much a tremble as Bilbo, trying to draw Smaug decently well.





Inktober 5: Map
What should we do today?–Pool party off the coast of Florida? Picnic in the Midwest? Tennis in the Rockies? Puddle jumping in the Great Lakes? Oops–don’t trip over the Appalachians!
Or maybe we could help the mouse in Alaska figure out what’s wrong with this picture? š
I love drawing a big group of mice scurrying around doing different things, and this was so much fun! Putting in the mountain ranges reminded me very much of filling in geography maps in school.

Inktober 4: Dodge
This prompt immediately, and unfortunately, brought back memories of dodgeball in high school gym class. There was always a group of boys who just wanted to see if they could raise welts on each other, and everyone else spent the class trying not to get caught in the cross-fire. I can still hear the *thwap* of a dodgeball hitting the wood floor with the approximate speed of a space capsule on re-entry….

Inktober 3: Path
Two roads diverged in a wood, and Iā
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Another comic–let no one say that I started Inktober on a slow foot!
The Mice are having a pretty rough time of it, too. Crazy dreams, squashed by elephants, dropped off cliffs…..
In school I was given the pretty popular “Be original! Blaze your own trail! etc.” interpretation of this poem, so I decided to follow that advice with an opposite interpretation. But I read that Frost actually wrote this poem as a joke about his friend’s indecisiveness over which path to take when they were out walking–rather more low-stakes than setting out your life’s destiny (assuming that there were no actual cliffs in the vicinity). So perhaps the joke is on us, too, for taking him to seriously. š