Tijuana

2017 has been a year of firsts.
I've never traveled outside of the states before, so I was excited to take a trip to Mexico during June.

Some friends of mine are part of Bittersweet Ministries, a faith-based non-profit organization that connects Mexican and American communities. I spent a week in Tijuana helping to build a house for a local family.

It was an astounding experience. Fortunately, I journaled many of the events:

Time share some #sketches from Tijuana. Here's last Sunday before leaving. #illustration #drawing #journal #travel

A post shared by Lisa Naffziger (@lisanaffziger) on Jun 18, 2017 at 2:22pm PDT

Tijuana journal: Monday, June 12th. Traveling is always pure chaos. #tijuana #journal #travel #comics #sketchbook #illustration

A post shared by Lisa Naffziger (@lisanaffziger) on Jun 19, 2017 at 6:14am PDT

Tijuana journal: Tuesday, June 13th. I had a good sketch session before the lumber truck arrived. #journal #travel #travelogue #sketchbook #illustration

A post shared by Lisa Naffziger (@lisanaffziger) on Jun 20, 2017 at 5:47am PDT

Tijuana journal: Wednesday, June 14th. Lots of painting. Also singing Justin Bieber songs with the kids. #journal #travel #travelogue #sketchbook #illustration

A post shared by Lisa Naffziger (@lisanaffziger) on Jun 21, 2017 at 5:46am PDT

Tijuana journal: Thursday, June 15th. I don't like cutting shingles, but I like drawing weird caricatures of restaurant owners. #journal #travel #travelogue #sketchbook #illustration

A post shared by Lisa Naffziger (@lisanaffziger) on Jun 22, 2017 at 5:23am PDT

Tijuana journal: Friday, June 16th. We finished working early and had some fun in Rosarito. #travel #travelogue #sketchbook #illustration

A post shared by Lisa Naffziger (@lisanaffziger) on Jun 23, 2017 at 6:33am PDT

Tijuana journal: Saturday, June 17th. Forgot to doodle one of our inside jokes from the start of the trip. That's all, folks. #illustration #sketchbook #travelogue #travel #journal

A post shared by Lisa Naffziger (@lisanaffziger) on Jun 24, 2017 at 4:09am PDT

It was difficult to regularly maintain a travelogue. I've admired travel artists like Lucy Knisely for a long time.  I was happy to give it a shot and I plan to do something again like this soon.

Keep an eye out for a full comic documenting my experiences in Mexico:

July is going to be a crazy month for me. Stay tuned for Kaijuly year 3!

Capital City Comic Con

This was my first year attending Capital City Comic Con. I had a great time!

I always enjoy meeting other artists/creators and connecting with fellow geeks in the community.

Another first: I was interviewed by the local newspaper:

Here's a video recap of the artist alley at the convention:

I'm looking forward to Fantasticon in October. Hopefully I can do MANY more conventions in 2017.

This month, I also met my first milestone for my graphic-novel-in-progress, Minus. I am now 25 page in. Woohoo!

And as always, here's a sketch dump for August 2016:

Kaijuly Year 2

It's been another July of drawing Japanese monsters. Here they are:

In other news, my graphic novel, Minus was announced this past month!

Scheduled to debut in 2018-19, Minus is the story of Beck Beveroth, the sheltered, home-schooled daughter of the over-protective Gil. Raised in the isolation of her father’s remote homestead, Beck’s on the edge of independence for the first time ever; she’s been accepted for enrollment at an out-of-state college! Excited and apprehensive, she decides to road-trip with Dad to campus move-in day… but their plans go violently off-course when Beck hears gunfire while in the restroom at a gas station pit-stop. 

When she finally emerges from hiding, her father and their car are gone… and she’s the only person left alive.

Minus is a YA-and-up adventure and mystery story unlike anything Iron Circus has ever published before. I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope you are too.

[Click here for original Iron Circus tumblr post]

I will be very hard at work with this book for the next few years.

More good stuff to come in August.