caseyandkylecomics

2012-02-24T14:31:00.002-08:00

You can click the link to purchase the new book.

The book tour continues. Today's stop is at The Library of Clean Reads, which had some wonderful things to say about the new book. Many thanks!!!

You can read the full review here: http://libraryofcleanreads.blogspot.com/

Yesterday I had a phone interview with a radio station in the UK, which was super fun. It'll be available as a podcast soon, and I'll pass the link along when it comes.

Thanks for reading.

2012-02-21T17:39:00.003-08:00

The virtual tour continues with an interview with BlogCritics. You can check it out here:
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/interview-with-will-robertson-author-of/

Also, an interview with Pudding is posted over at http://theplotline.wordpress.com/

2012-02-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

You can click the link to purchase the new book.

The virtual book tour continues!

Today the book was given a wonderful review over at The Children's and Teen's Book Connection. Many thanks!!! Please make sure you stop by and check it out. You can see it online at childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com.

I'll keep you posted as we go.

2012-02-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

You can click the link to purchase the new book.

I've officially kicked off my first virtual tour for Casey and Kyle: So Much For Being On Our Best Behavior!!! The tour is going from February 6-29th with stops at a dozen different websites. I'll be doing some interviews, including a few that were super different and interesting and really asked questions that nobody has ever asked me before.

At one of the stops, we'll be doing an interview with everyone's favorite army kid, Pudding...

Yesterday's stop was at the Book Dilettante at http://bookbirddog.blogspot.com/. Thanks so much for the great review!!!

Tomorrow, I'll be reviewed over at The Children's and Teen's Book Connection. Please make sure you stop by and check it out. You can see it online at childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com.

I'll keep you posted as we go.

2012-01-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

Next month I'll be doing my first ever book tour on the web, visiting other sites who will be reviewing my newest comic book as well as doing some interviews and pod-casts. The agent who set up the tour is from Australia and in our communications it came up that it's summer there right now. So during our monsoon the other day, I was sitting by the window and I couldn't help but think about how Australia always has better weather than us because they're on the other side of the world. For example, if it's the midst of summer and I'm wishing it was cooler, it IS cooler in Australia. It's their winter. And if it's Winter here and pouring rain, or freezing and I wish it was warmer, it IS warmer in Australia because it's their summertime.

And another thing: They're on the other side of the international dateline, so when it's Friday and I wish it was the weekend... it IS the weekend there!!!

And don't get me started on their cool accents :)

2012-01-25T17:50:00.000-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

I was really worried because after I drew this, it snowed really hard for about three days. I was pretty concerned that it'd publish on a day when it was snowy, but (at least in our area) it's passed and we're back to rain.

It's hard to draw a kid laying in a puddle, so I went onto Google to see if I could find some images (for some reason none of my kids would volunteer to model for this particular pose). I couldn't believe that a quick online search actually yielded pictures of kids laying in mud puddles. I can't tell if that's hilarious or just sad.

The other thing that's funny about my kids is how you have to constantly yell at them for going out in the rain without a coat when it's forty degrees outside. They don't even seem to notice how wet they're getting... At least Carter's sporting an umbrella :)

2012-01-24T17:10:00.000-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

I don't know about where you all are, but at our house we're in the midst of what can only be considered a monsoon. It's been raining heavily for days and days. The whole lowlands are flooded and one of the bridges is closed due to high water.

Crazy!

2012-01-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

This idea sat in my sketchpad for about two years... I always thought it was kind've funny, but it never managed to see the light of day. We would always count like this and our kids would hate it, and then one day I spelled our destination to Wendy and both kids got all excited because we were going to the zoo...

That's what we get for educating them...

TODAY'S THOUGHTS

I spent the weekend cleaning out our storage unit, out back of our house. It's crazy how the stuff piles up. We literally have boxes that I didn't even remember what was in them. We don't really ever see the stuff, but in the back of our minds, we know that our storage area is a disaster, so it weighs on me even when I'm not actively thinking about it. Not to mention that if we ever move, about half of what we own is sitting in storage and has to be moved even if we never plan to open the boxes again.

So, as part of simplifying our life, I decided it was time to go through all of the boxes and to downsize a lot of what was out there. Along the way, I found some interesting things...

For example: I found my great grandmother and great grandfather's diplomas from the early 1920's. At first glance, that really seemed like proof that it was time to clean out the closets :) but we did decide to keep them since they are family heirlooms...

The other thing we found were hundreds of drawings that I did when I was a teenager and a million trinkets that I've stored since I was ten or so. Those are gone. We have enough new art that it's hard to even figure out what to do with, without keeping stuff I drew twenty years ago.

It's so odd how hard it is to eliminate the things that we don't need, but what's even more odd is how rewarding a slightly more empty space is, when everything I've eliminated the clutter of things I don't use or need.

2012-01-19T12:04:00.001-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

As I mentioned earlier, my goal for this year is to focus on simplifying my life and eliminating distractions so that I have better/more focused writing time as well as more/better family time. It's manifesting itself in some unusual ways.

The first is, we're downsizing a lot of things that are taking up space in our home, but aren't being used. We're focusing on things that are functional and fun. If we haven't used it in awhile, it's gone.

It's very freeing, clearing up space that's just been taken up by something that I just owned, but no longer cared for.

And I'm teaching my son chess. We owned about fifty board games. We had an overflowing closet that was filled with games we hadn't played in ten years or more. We were scared to dig out some of the games because there were so many piled on top of it.

So we downsized. We decided what we wanted in a game. We wanted something that any member of the family could play. We wanted well built games that were easy to set up and tear down (no more mousetrap). We wanted games that required skill and strategy, rather than just blind luck to win (although we are keeping candy land). And we anted games that didn't take up too much space, so we could free up the space for other things.

We settled on twelve games, and the rest were donated.

And now:

We play games; Lots of games!

And the best part is teaching new games which the kids love, which challenge them, and grow their minds, while also being a blast!

It's amazing to me how sometimes the less can become more.

2012-01-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

You can click on the images to make them bigger.

Yesterday, we had snow.

Tons of it.

Well... at least a lot for our area.

It's always so peaceful to have snow if you don't have to go anywhere. I took advantage of the snow to have a day of stillness. I went for a snowy walk just to take in the beauty and to take a few pictures of the beauty of the hills outside town.

And we played in it hard. We used up all the snow around our house in a barrage of snowball fights, snow angels and snowmen.

It was stupendous!

And then, nearly as fast as it arrived, the snow started turning into slush and then the roads were clear and the fun was over.

And we loaded everyone up and went to get some hot chocolate and have some family time playing games at a coffee shop before a fun dinner/bible study with friends.

It was a perfect day: restful, still, serene, beautiful... The kind of day you need every so often to recharge your creative juices and get ready for the week.

2012-01-12T22:38:00.001-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

This week's cartoons are full of the kind of ideas that you get when you're waiting outside the DMV and your kids have brought along some toys to "keep them from getting bored." Somehow with two boys it's like the fighting never stops. And sometimes you yell at them for fighting and they tell you that they're not fighting.

The toys are.

And so, sometimes the toys have to take a time out :)

In my last post I mentioned that one of my main goals for 2012 was to focus on creating moments of stillness. Today I took the bold first step of cancelling my Rhapsody music service. We'll have to see what a quieter head space does for the sanity and inspiration.

Also, as you may have noticed, we have a bit of an announcement to make. You can barely see it, but that circle marks the head of our summer baby. I think you can see a bit of a hand there too, but I'm terrible at guessing at this stage of things. (We'll try to get better pictures at the next ultrasound) :)

The magic day looks like July 18, 2012 and here in the Robertson house we are starting busy preparations for the new addition.

2012-01-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

I find that stillness is the most difficult thing for me to achieve. It's too easy to get bogged down in checking emails, or just checking out a site real quick, and then there's a link to something interesting and soon I've lost track of my day. I'll still get my work done, but it's less satisfying, and I feel frazzled by the end.

I think stillness comes hard for me because for me it's a requirement. I can't write if I'm distracted. I can draw, but I can't write (at least not with a quality that satisfies me). Sometimes an idea comes from a conversation, but for me, most often, it's found in the stillness that borders on boredom; an hour spent just staring at a doodle until my mind is freed up from the thoughts of the day, and can run wild in the corners of consciousness until finally an idea starts to develop, and then another and another, often in a wild torrent of new directions.

But one distraction starts the process over, and there's a point in the lead up where my whole brain rebels against the idea of just sitting there. I tell myself that today's not a good day. Tomorrow the ideas will come easier. Then maybe a call comes in, an email, or an urge to check the email or make a phone call. Anything but sitting there.

I don't know if other writers experience this or not, but it's the weirdest thing... kind of a self-destruct button on the fledgling idea.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I shy away from resolutions at the new year, but I think I'm going to go back on that and my goal for this month will be to go out of my way to create stillness.

And not just stillness in my creative life, but I'm hoping that by eliminating some of my barriers to stillness, I'll be able to expand some of these principles into the other areas of my life. My goal for this year is more family time, and more time for reading and reflection. That means, less time spent playing games and checking mail, and surfing.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Will

Get a signed copy of my new book "So Much For Being On Our Best Behavior!!! Now available.

2012-01-09T12:40:00.001-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

This week I'm doing a series with Casey and Pudding, so make sure to catch 'em all.

Last weekend was Wendy and my eleventh anniversary :) I took her to see "We Bought A Zoo," which turned out to be one of the best films I've seen in a long time. It's based on a true story, so afterwards we went to look up the story to see what they changed. It's amazing how many details were different! The movie was amazing, but the actual story was amazing too, so it made no sense why they'd feel the need to alter it so much in a few key areas. Crazy.

Maybe someday they'll make a movie about my life. It'll be a tear-jerker; a great family flick about hope and redemption. Somewhere along the line, they'll decide I'm more interesting as an autoworker than as a cartoonist, and it'll be more poignant if I'm living in Ireland, than in Oregon, and they'll get somebody really popular to play me, like Taylor Lautner, and everyone will watch the film and thing "Wow! He sure had an interesting life!"

I can't wait!

2012-01-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

We've been watching LOST (for the first time) for about two months, a few episodes at a time. We finally finished this weekend. It's always interesting how much pressure I put on finales. I want every loose end to get wrapped up, I want closure, I want the bad guys to get their just desserts and I want the good guys to win. The LOST finale had (in my opinion) none of those qualities in the proper amounts. Too many good guys dead, an evil villain is too necessary to kill off, tons of loose ends and a giant question mark about what it all meant...

Despite all my complaints, I was still somewhat satisfied. It's funny how when I think back, the ending almost never measures up to what I think things should be like.

Comics sometimes have finales, although normally they just kind of end. For the most part, I don't think anyone ever thinks of how something that takes so many years of your life would come to an end. I can't imagine what I would do. It would be so weird to have it over. I'm fortunate that none of my characters get into labor disputes and wreck things, like they do on TV shows and films :) I guess the solution for me is to just keep coming up with new ideas...

2012-01-04T23:43:00.000-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

I see kids all the time wearing goofy hats. Sometimes I wear ridiculous hats myself. I've got this one that I picked up in China and wore proudly for about a month until I was told that it was actually a woman's hat! Then it felt weird to wear it until I got home and then suddenly it was a cool foreign knick knack. I loaned it out to a girl in our neighborhood for her middle school spirit week "tourist day" and never got it back. It's probably happier in its new home :)

It's funny how kids are naturally bold and carefree, and somewhere along the line its driven out of us by the ones who have lost it themselves. And from the moment it happens, we are always finding ourselves more and more at the mercy of the naysayers. It seems like Casey's still somewhat indifferent, but still concerned by Zachary's meanness. He's just got the wrong focus. It makes me happy. In his world, he still cares most about simple pleasures.

I'm listening to a new CD by Steven Curtis Chapman called re:created. It's so moving and wonderful. If you haven't heard it, I recommend you check it out. I've been a fan for years, and was fortunate enough to meet him a few years back. He was such a nice and kind man. I basically accosted him at a hotel and demanded a few moments of his time as he was walking by, and he stopped everything to talk to a young man who had no right to his time.

But the concept of the album is what I think is the most interesting. It's a greatest hits album, but it's more. He commented that when he wrote so many of his well known songs, he was really a young man, and as he's dealt with pain and anguish and success and spiritual growth, he's come to understand deeper meanings behind the songs. Essentially, he's grown into his own thoughts.

Anyway, it's been a pleasant night and a pleasant few moments reliving the memories associated with each song, but also seeing how age and time have changed them. We are all changing and we are all being changed, and sometimes it's nice to be reminded of it.

Thanks for reading.

2012-01-02T11:40:00.001-08:00

You can click on the image to make it bigger...

They say you burn more calories this way. I don't know if that's true or not. I remember having a conversation with my dad about healthy eating, and telling him that if you eat only vegetables that you would live longer. He told me that it only feels longer that way :)

Most of the blogs I subscribe to are taking today to tell their readers what they can expect in the new year. A lot of them are completely revamping their sites, or changing up their formula. I'm a simple guy, so my work is simple, but it's not a bad idea to give a picture of what I'll be doing for the next 12 months:

In 2012, I'll be delivering comics, which I hope will make you laugh. I'll draw them as best as I can, and I'll include little comments in the blog post to let you peek behind the curtain of our lives, and give a glimpse of how my art imitates my life. It's not complex, and it's not too different than what I've done before, but I love doing it, and I hope you all continue to join me on this journey.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that your New Year is the best one yet.

2011-12-28T00:57:00.001-08:00

You can click the image and it'll make it bigger.

So, I wrote this strip when I was watching a documentary. The film had nothing to do with Christmas, but sometimes documentaries put my brain in a weird place where it's easy to write. I've been feeling lonely and isolated in my "studio" all alone, and it's been making me put off drawing, so I solved the problem by hauling my huge drawing table out into the living room so that I could be part of the family while I draw (My wife's a big fan of this new way of working) and I was sitting there staring at the nativity on our bookshelf and started thinking about Pudding and what he'd think of the nativity.

Originally the second speech bubble was going to say "The Roman Soldiers," which I thought was a completely absurd answer to Casey's question, but of course the only logical one that Pudding would have. The thing was, I was a bit worried that the strip was a little to "iffy" in the subject matter, so I called my Dad to run the idea by him and see if he thought I was out of bounds doing a Christmas strip referring to Herod's murder of the infants (it's a comic after all).

Surprisingly, he did object, but not in the way that I was expecting. His issue was that the Roman soldiers were not the ones that killed the babies; it was the palace guards under Herod's control (Who knew!!!), so he suggested that I say "the palace guards" instead.

I thought that would be confusing and I'd have to explain it in the strip, and that would wreck the flow, and (besides) I didn't think that it'd matter if it wasn't really the Roman soldiers since I'm guessing most people think it was them, but he felt it was wrong to knowingly put in false information, so I worked on rewriting it, but I liked the original idea, and I was ready to scrap the idea rather than change it (apparently I'm very stubborn).

Finally we settled on "the soldiers" which I hope was as funny.

And now you know way more about who killed the babies in Bethlehem than you probably ever wanted to know.

You're welcome.

2011-12-28T00:43:00.000-08:00

Click the image to make it bigger.

This is the last of the Christmas themed comics for the year. I wanted to get it out before New Years (whew that was a close one).

I always find it interesting the things that I can never figure out... Like how to draw Zachary's hair when he's facing the right. He's probably been in nearly 100 cartoons, but yet, after all this time, I always think he looks terrible when I draw him facing this way. I always prefer to put him on the other side, and sometimes I'll go out of my way to put him there. With this strip, it just didn't work out... and the result: ugly Zachary hair.

2011-12-27T20:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe the year is nearly over!!! Where does the time go? Seriously?

I had a great meeting today with an old friend and we talked about the future. He's working on some new books that I wish had been around when I was starting in working with youth a few years back :) It'll be exciting to hopefully see it come to fruition in 2012. It's such a neat idea, I'll pass on info when it's coming closer to a release.

It's the time of year when people make plans for the future. These days I tend to try to hold my plans loosely, but like everyone else, I've got a few plans.

I'm putting the final touches on the website for my new book "Becoming A Boy." I'll be making an official announcement in the next few days. It's technically available now, and a few of you have purchased copies already (which is incredible!!!), but sometime in January will be the official launch, which is very exciting. Here's an illustration from the inside for your enjoyment.

I'll be doing a few different types of projects in 2012. I've got another story book in my mind, less of a spiritual theme than "Becoming A Boy" and more of just a great story which has been in my mind constantly for the last month. I can't wait to illustrate it and see it take shape.

Late in the year, I plan to put out another Casey and Kyle book and then possibly even ebooks as well... who knows :)

Of course, if the Mayans are right, we'll be putting all of these plans on hold :)

2011-12-26T10:52:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Now, before anyone sends me an email letting me know that it's really only 364 days until Christmas, I want to remind everyone that next year is a leap year... It's this kind of careful research that sets us apart from the pack :)

2011-12-25T00:39:00.000-08:00

I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas!!!

Will

2011-12-24T00:43:00.001-08:00

The first two panels of this strip were taken from an actual conversation that I had with Aidan last year while we were driving around looking at Christmas lights. In real life, he told me that I was being ridiculous, that Santa obviously wouldn't stoop so low at to resort to squeezing through the plumbing...

This is how a strip can be inspired by real life, but not be just a dictation of what happens at home. It was one of those gags that I thought was funny, but I couldn't figure out where to go with it when it came time to do a real punchline. I had the first two panels, but it just felt incomplete. I stewed over it for awhile (nearly 12 months) and then finally started in on it.

It's always a terrifying prospect to start drawing a strip that's not completely written. You end up with a panel at the end and you know whatever you write has to fit in that hole (with a picture) or you have to do the whole thing over...

I asked Wendy and she gave me the punchline. My favorite part of it is how confident he is that he's getting a new leather jacket. That's faith. He's already sad that it'll get ruined and it hasn't even materialized yet.

2011-12-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

If you have trouble reading the comics, just click on it and it'll get bigger.

This idea came to me a couple weeks ago and I wanted to share them with you. I'm running out of time to do all the Christmas ideas I had before the holiday, so I'm buddying them up together. It's a three part series, all kind've pulled together.

One of the things that's funny about kids, and I try to incorporate it into Casey's persona, is their complete self-interest, which allows them to somehow feel justified in doing whatever they want for the "greater good." I love how Casey's somehow transformed himself into the victim of this little escapade...

I don't think Santa's going to end up visiting Casey's house this Christmas. He only comes after you've gone to sleep, but I've got the feeling that Casey's going to be sleeping with one eye open this year :)

I don't recall ever worrying that Santa wouldn't be able to get into my house, but as an adult, I do wonder what he does about burglar alarms... It stands to reason that it's a bit weird to anticipate a guy breaking and entering one night a year. Hmmm.... might make a good idea for next year.

2011-12-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

I'd have to go back and research to be completely sure, but I'd say with almost 100% certainty that this was the first time I've ever included a girl in the strip. I've been intending to for awhile, but I've gotta be honest... It's harder to draw girls than boys. I take it back; it's harder to draw unugly girls than boys. I've been planning on adding a girl for awhile and today's strip is the official debut. More info on the new character will be coming. Needless to say, I'm still working out the personality :)

I've been remiss on getting new strips posted while I've been working on the new book. Today is the first of a whole batch of all new comics.

By the way, my favorite part of winter strips is drawing scarfs on everybody. It's so fun. If you didn't get so hot, I think I'd wear my scarf year-round :)

This is my favorite of the three. I did the sketch last week when I was sitting in a Walgreens signing books. It might be the most ridiculous cartoon I've done in awhile.

2011-12-01T10:23:00.001-08:00

Each year I try to do some of these puns on a Christmas carol. They're a challenge, but I like having the extra room to do a more elaborate picture.

Waiting impatiently for the mail to bring me the proof copies of "Becoming a Boy" today. I'll shoot you a sneak peek at one of the illustrations (below). It was fun designing a new character who was not part of the Casey and Kyle universe. He ended up looking a bit like Carter, with the crazy hair and all, but I altered the shape of the head and tried to give him his own personality.

One of the neatest (and most challenging) parts was that I resolved to only work in ink directly; no pencil, which meant that I had to focus hard, or ruin the drawing. When I started out, it was rough, but by the end, I was much more confident and the drawings were flowing much more freely than normal.

This illustration is from the middle of the book:

2011-11-29T11:34:00.000-08:00

About two months ago, I got a story idea, and it wouldn't let me go. It wasn't an idea with Casey and Kyle. It was different. Different characters; a whole different way of doing the drawings; a whole different theme and purpose... It took a long time to figure out how I was going to do it in order to capture my vision for the project. And it took a lot of time to figure out what I was going to do with it when I was finally done. All in all, it took many late nights and days, hundreds of crumpled up pieces of paper, and most of my mental energy for about six weeks, but it's finished!

It's a simple story, not a children's book, but done in the style of a children's book. It's part fable, part autobiography, part fun. It was a blast to work on. I'm excited to show it to you over the next few weeks. The first copy from the printers is expected by the end of the week. The book is called "Becoming a Boy."

More information will be coming.

In the meantime, we're into a full swing of Christmas in Casey and Kyle land. I've got a few strips this week to get us into the feel of things, with new strips starting up next week. I'll be running it daily this week to help get us all in the holiday mood :)