SLEEPLESS Stories: I LIKE TO RIFF

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This is the last of my irregular series of posts about stories in my 24 hour comic collection SLEEPLESS, published this spring by Dark Horse. I LIKE TO RIFF is something of a victory lap, both for myself and for any reader who has made through all eleven of my previous 24 hour comics. I constructed the story by putting the names of the eleven previous comics in a sack, and drawing one out at random every two hours. See if you can spot all of them (the first six are in my previous volume, EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG!).

David Chelsea is watching: Krampus
directed by Michael Dougherty

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SLEEPLESS Stories: THE GIRL WITH THE KEYHOLE EYES

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Here is another in my irregular series of posts about stories in my 24 hour comic collection SLEEPLESS, published this spring by Dark Horse. THE GIRL WITH THE KEYHOLE EYES was drawn in 2009 and published as a limited-edition mini comic to raise money for the medical expenses of underground cartoonist S. Clay Wilson. The jacket flap copy (which riffs on the then-popular Facebook feature 25 Random Things About Me), should tell you all you need to know about the story:

David Chelsea is reading: Fighting American
by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

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SLEEPLESS Stories: ID

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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

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SLEEPLESS In SLEEPLESS

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Here is the second of a series giving background on the stories in my second collection of 24 hour comics, SLEEPLESS, published by Dark Horse last month. This one is about the title story, which I drew in 2007.

David Chelsea is reading: Modernity Britain: Opening the Box, 1957-1959
by David Kynaston

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SNOW ANGEL in April!

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I just got a copy of my newest book, the SNOW ANGEL collection from Dark Horse, in the mail. You will have to take my word for it, but it looks beautiful– kudos to editor Philip Simon, designer Ethan Kimberling and all the Dark Horse team on a superb production job! The book itself will be hitting bookstores on April 27, but it can be preordered here:


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RIP, Bingo The Cat

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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

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It’s Starting To Get Real

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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

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

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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

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