The Penguin

"These are a few of my favorite trees..." Oak  ( Quercus  sp.) Any old oaks are amazing to me. The first time you realize a large oak may be over a hundred years old, the resilience and vast age of these trees will change the way you look at them forever. Oaks are renowned for their strength and longevity. Whole cultures have been built around sacred oak trees; in a similar way, whole ecosystems revolve around single huge oak trees - oaks support more species than any other tree in North America. While people are familiar with white oak (rounded lobes) and red oak (pointed lobes), there are many different varieties of oaks: bur oak, pin oak, bear oak, turkey oak, live oak, and swamp oak, just to name a few. Because of crossbreeding, it can be really difficult to tell oaks apart - as an ecology graduate once told me, "Oaks like to have a lot of sex". This is why I don't sweat the classification much. I'd rather admire an individual oak tree than try to parse ...

 Well, it's been a rough couple of months, environment-wise; here in Michigan, we were in a drought* for most of the Spring season and into early Summer. My yard was mostly spared, with the exception of a small patch along the driveway; the flowers and saplings survived the heat and dry with a little help from my rain-barrels. One of the nice things about the drought (Lord forgive me) was the distinct lack of mosquitoes; typically my backyard is a no-go area from May to August. Part of me was hoping the sporadic rain, which seemed adequate to keep my plants from shriveling up, would continue to thwart the tiny bloodsuckers... Then the deluge came. I've described it to family members as "apocalyptic" - these mosquitoes came out en masse, and they don't go for the legs, they go for the eyes.  I think it was about the time I breathed in a mosquito that I admitted defeat and ran inside, where the errant Culex pipiens  is a regular occurrence. I'm combatting them w...

 So! As you may know, I'm a sucker for trees and plants in general. What you may not know is, I'm also a bit of a mad scientist. While most of my "experiments" involve trying to grow plants as cheaply as possible (I.e. through seeds, clippings, and just finding things growing in ditches), I'm also dabbling in the "training" of trees...to be my minions. An "Espaliered" tree - from Deep Green Permaculture Y'see, horticulture isn't just about the anal-retentive pruning of roses and trimming hedges into bunny rabbits; it's essentially the world's first bioengineering. Things like grafting , coppicing , forcing, and Bonsai have been used for thousands of years to exploit the natural growth patterns of plants for human purposes. Coppicing, for instance, turns one valuable timber tree into a whole "grove", as shoots grow out of the stump and eventually become new trees themselves. Bonsai involves limiting tree growth through ...

Those of you who know me know that I'm a real nature buff. Since my days as a Proto-Rick I've loved bugs and reptiles and generally reading natural histories cover-to-cover. Lately I've been more interested in plants; I think it's been since the Pandemic that I've really fallen in love with trees. With me it's never been about "Trees" in general, or about "facts about stuff" (although I have plenty of those, as anyone who knows me will tell you). I'm not even that horribly concerned about classification - at some point, if you're microscopically examining root notes or counting bark scales, you have to start questioning your life choices. No, what interests me is the simple strangeness of each kind of tree: the little things that make me suddenly sit up and notice. For instance, within the past month - and I can't explain why - I developed an interest in ash trees, particularly... White ash  ( Fraxinus americana).  Considering tha...

 Just giving y'all a heads-up - The Die Kätze Collection  is now available! That's right folks, all three issues of the landmark trilogy are here conglomerated, as well as sketches, color covers, and a bonus promo comic. Supplies are extremely  limited, so don't hesitate to visit our Storenvy page and order your copy now! Shipping is FREE in the United States!

  Well, it's happened again. I drew these sketches during a Skype meeting with the...CEO? Some corporate guy...at the auto-parts shop where I work. What remained of the work force was gathered in the little cafeteria, watching the screen in dismay as our livelihoods were put on the chopping block .  Basically Mr. Corporate was there to inform us that we had lost our biggest contract, and now we had 45-60 days to finish out our smaller contracts before the shop closed. This wasn't like an asteroid strike - we didn't get blown up out of nowhere, in the middle of everything going great. We all knew this day would come eventually. The shop was teetering even before the Pandemic fucked up distribution and logistics. The shop is dirty and unkempt, with a near-constant pall of greasy haze; nearly all the machines have something wrong with them, and little money or will to fix them. We're now operating with maybe a fifth of our full-capacity workforce. Quality was a constant pr...

 My friends think I'm crazy for liking my home state. Michigan is not, how you say, "glamorous" - in the middle of the rust belt; gray, undifferentiated towns; swampy, mosquito-infested summers and cold, sloppy winters; even the big tourist pull, the Great Lakes, are pretty unappetizing once you get into them (seriously, they really  are just very large, fish-smelling lakes). Michigan seems to have just a little bit of everything all the other states have to offer, and doesn't do it half as well. You want sparkling snowscapes? Try Minnesota. Acres of picturesque farmland? Ohio's got that in spades. Gorgeous coastline? Try any other coast. Incredible rock formations? Arizona. In terms of sheer natural aesthetics, you might try the Porcupine Mountains, but that's about the one spot you can find it - if you don't mind driving for hours, and either wading through 5-foot snowdrifts or enduring barrages of biting insects. I'm not sure why I'm so attached...