SLEEPLESS Stories: ID

id1

Here is another in my irregular series of posts about stories in my new 24 hour comic collection SLEEPLESS from Dark Horse. This story is ID, and it is about a woman who has her identity stolen by a mysterious tormentor. Featuring an all-animal cast, until I changed my mind halfway through and made them all humans. Based partly on a story I was illustrating that week for the New York Times, with elements drawn from the Rock Hudson movie SECONDS, this is one of the few comics stories I’ve drawn, 24 Hour or not, which manages to generate genuine suspense. Possibly this is because I had no idea until an hour or two before I finished how it would end.

David Chelsea is watching:How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
starring Robert Morse

Continue reading SLEEPLESS Stories: ID

RIP, Bingo The Cat

bingo8

It saddens me to report the death of Bingo, our family cat for the past twelve and a half years. Although he was already pretty old by cat standards, Bingo’s last illness came on very suddenly. Last Saturday, Eve noticed that his belly was strongly swollen. It was more so on Sunday. Instead of purring, he was cooing like a dove, which was odd. Monday, Eve called for a vet appointment. Since it did not seem to be an emergency, they gave her a Tuesday appointment. When they took his temperature, the nurse thought it was a mistake because it was only 95.5° The vet said it was cancer causing fluid to build up, which explained the swelling, and that Bingo’s temperature meant that his body was actively shutting down, and he might not last to the weekend. Quite a shock, since we had vaguely thought this might be worms or a bowel obstruction. The vet recommended euthanasia on the spot. Eve decided to have it done at home, so Rebecca would have a chance to say goodbye. Bingo had not seemed to be in pain before, but he spent Tuesday night squirming around on the floor, yowling piteously. The end of life vet arrived Wednesday morning. Eve and I had a chance to hold him one last time before she stopped his heart. We buried Bingo in the yard that afternoon.

Bingo
Bingo

Continue reading RIP, Bingo The Cat

It’s Starting To Get Real

sleeplesspreview

I just got a preview copy of SLEEPLESS, my second 24 Hour Comics collection from Dark Horse, in the mail yesterday. The book itself drops on April 5th, 2016 (not, as I previously reported, in February). It includes six stories:

David Chelsea is reading:
The American Bystander #1
edited by Michael A Gerber

Continue reading It’s Starting To Get Real

Coming In 2016: SLEEPLESS AND OTHER STORIES: DAVID CHELSEA’S 24-HOUR COMICS, VOL. 2

SAOS-CVR-MOCK-UP-V2

Big news for fans of my 24 hour comics (in case you don’t already know, I am the World Record Holder in meeting the challenge devised by Scott McCloud, to produce an entire 24 page comic book in a single day– I have done 16 of these one-day epics so far). Plans are in the works for a second collection, titled SLEEPLESS AND OTHER STORIES: DAVID CHELSEA’S 24-HOUR COMICS, VOL. 2, to be published next year by Dark Horse (the first Dark Horse collection, EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG! AND OTHER STORIES: DAVID CHELSEA’S 24-HOUR COMICS, VOL. 1, came out in 2013).

David Chelsea is reading: It Never Happened Again: Two Stories
by Sam Alden

Continue reading Coming In 2016: SLEEPLESS AND OTHER STORIES: DAVID CHELSEA’S 24-HOUR COMICS, VOL. 2

Perspective Police!: Bechdel

I owe Alison Bechdel big time. The cartoonist responsible for the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For and the graphic novels Fun Home and Are You My Mother? may be best known for The Bechdel Test, which she formulated to determine whether a movie is sexist or not. For a story to pass the test:

1.    It has to have at least two women in it,
2.    Who talk to each other,
3.    About something other than a man.

Some people amend the rules to require that both women have names.

David Chelsea is reading:
Manara Erotica Volume 1
by Milo Manara

Continue reading Perspective Police!: Bechdel