jake's mantis eating a cricket

this beautiful specimen is just in the midst of mincing the head off of one of his little mates.



i was lucky enough to get a Chinese Mantis ootheca from a friend last summer (thanks Stef). it hatched about 40 (they can sometimes hatch 1 - 300!). poor little Crawley is the last of the brood.



and here (below) is one from another egg case. this one was a Budwing Mantis ootheca that i got from a local enthusiast (thanks Jean!). it hatched about 80 or so. i have just four left. they're beautiful creatures. i'll try to post some shots of the hatching. it was incredible.

fancy new DVD illustration!

here's a little thing i threw together for my buddy Gavin.
you can order one here.



fyi, Gavin is the dude with whom i created PIP+norton. and just between you and me, we may be seeing more of that zany duo pretty soon! we had about a 6 or 7 year hiatus, but recently we did a kickass 8-pager for the French edition of "Completely PIP + norton".



making that piece was a real joy. not only was it the first comic i'd done in some years, but on top of that i didn't realize how much i'd missed PIP + norton until Delcourt commissioned that new story. in fact, it went so well that gavin and i have been working on another new P+n project. possibly animated! more when there are any developments...

but anyway, that "PIP + norton Go To Paris" story will also be published in english. it'll show up in the Fantagraphics anthology "Mome" #18 out around February or March.