Busy Week-- TURTLES OUT

Boy, it's been a busy week here since next week Echo and I head to China for two weeks. I am really looking forward to having this experience, though I am wondering if it will be as I imagine, slighlty exotic, hectic, crowded, full of different smells, an air of old-world authoritairian cold war hanging over it all, will I have culture shock, or will it be less "different" than I imgagine? It's a home coming of sorts though for Echo as she hasn't been back to China since she came here six years ago.

I've been reading a lot about travel to China and how China and especially Beijin are really undergoing quite a rapid change, mostly due to the coming 2008 Olympics, but also because Chia is a fast emerging world giant with a young population that wants consumer goods like the west. I expect it will be a trip I won't forget. I am planning to do some drawing and painting too, I am mking up some watercolor travel kits for both Ech and myself. I think it will be to complicated to try and do any other kind of painting as we are going to be on the go a lot.

Also this week Draw! Magazine 14 is mostly to the layout guy Eric, I have a little to do on an article that Bret and I are doing and then it's off to the printers and out in July. I've already started work on issue 15 which will be out in the fall as our "Back to School" issue.

Also this week Tales of the TMNT#33 hits the shops finally. It seems it's a few weeks later than I thought, mostly I think due to the fact they had a lot of Movie realted books and things to get out. It sounds like Mirage may have temporarily stopped doing new books and are printing the backlogue of material in house. I asked about another issue and Murphy, the editor, told me he had to hold off until the summer to see what they will do. A shame really, I think they'd do gangbusters as digests in stores like Disney and Nic's mags. Babymen shops don't want anything that is funny or non-superhero for the most part.