For the life of me, I can’t come up with story ideas in my apartment, but as soon as a take off on a 10-mile run, things start to take shape. It’s still a very vague notion right now, but I’ve got enough of a springboard to do some brainstorming.

Actually, I just plain forgot that the Sketchbook Project is due next week. So far it consists of 8 pages of my graphic novel in rough form, followed by dozens and dozens of blank pages. Luckily, one of my goals for this weekend was to brainstorm about some new characters, probably for a webcomic. So I’ll just throw every fragment related to that idea into the book.

I realize how peculiar it is to be a Jack Benny fan born outside of his lifetime, but it has its rewards. His radio show was always more fun and freewheeling than his television endeavors, but I saw a lot of episodes on “Antenna TV” and YouTube over the long weekend, and found that there’s a lot to love about the video incarnation. My new favorite is a 1950s episode which takes place on New Year’s Eve.

Who knows if I’ll ever use my comic creation software to do actual work, but it sure is fun creating virtual brushes that would be ideal in such circumstances. To practice inking today I grabbed a “Terry and the Pirates” strip from the 1930s.