Happy Friday! JUST KIDDING, but here's a batch of Dailies anyway! (Patreon)

Barring unforeseen obstacles, I should be on the road to Charlotte for Heroes Con right now, so you're getting your weekly batch of daily comics early!

I've been taking a lot of caricature gigs lately (see: last week's comic about the state of my bank account). I came home from TCAF with a lingering cold, but managed to push through two gigs last week.

Here's a hot tip about drawing caricatures...

Three hours and one minute into a gig, I will tell you every thought about your face that enters my brain. (Here's the original for sale if you'd like to own it! Scroll down below these dailies for the 50% off code!)

I had the pleasure of sitting next to Nick Friesen at TCAF and had the most lovely conversation with him about one of my (and I'm assuming his) favorite songwriters.

The song is Postdoc Blues, in case you'd like to listen to the whole thing. He's so good at developing stories throughout the course of a song - the whole album Winter Wheat is so charming and calm, and you meet (and sometimes re-meet) so many characters throughout his songs.

Speaking of charming, John's also taken up weaving, which is what Nick and I were talking about in that little silhouette panel: I bought a scarf he wove to give to Luke for his birthday (Luke's a big fan and the only reason I know about him), and he included a tiny handmade cat toy that the cats LOVED, before it went missing.

When Nick told John he'd named his dog Samson after him, John wove the dog a pendant with their name on it (!!!). Nick tried to offer to pay for it, to which John replied "dogs don't have money."

Okay, enough gushing over this lovely man. Here's how I felt over the weekend:

Pip loved my predicament. We got in SO many snuggle hours. Here's the original for this one.

I spent the last few days working on this comic and, well, the comic itself explains why it took so long...

I could barely walk! If I'd driven my own car, I 100% would've crashed it, slowly, into something extremely visible and avoidable. I took a child-sized dose the next day and was just, like, half-drunk? Wtf is the point of Dayquil??!

Here's the original if you'd like it! The price is a bit higher than the others since there's a LOT going on, but, as always, use the code DAILYSMILE50 so that it magically changes the price to a Patreon-appropriate 50% off price. :) (That code works on any original art in the store, btw.)

Related to that last comic: if you ordered stickers, they're in the mail! Thanks to Luke for driving me.

I ordered a rainbow of different envelope colors without considering that no single customer would know, so here's photo evidence of the colorful array.

As mentioned, I'll be at Heroes Con in Charlotte this weekend, starting Friday, sitting next to my beloved convention wife Monica Gallagher in the center of Indie Island! I'll have the usual - GWS books, Daily Comic collections, Figure Drawing books, stickers, and a selection of original GWS strips and Daily Comics art as well.

I'll also be on TWO PANELS! On Friday, I'll be talking with Craig Thompson (of Blankets & Habibi fame) about how to research and write for characters whose backgrounds & cultures you're unfamiliar with - Writing Across Communities from 4-5. On Sunday I'll be talking about the way more low-key topic of PENNNNNNNS from 3-4 with Dustin Harbin, Jim Rugg, Natalie Andrewson and Drew Weing. Should be a fun time!!

I haven't been back to Heroes Con in AGES and I'm looking forward to it - they always have an amazing lineup of guests with an emphasis on indie artists. Super family-friendly, too. I managed to have Guest Status this time around, so I'll be sneaking some original GWS art into the Art Auction (which is Saturday night) in case that's something you're into.

Also there's a Drink & Draw party Friday evening to benefit Parkinson's research, which is what we lost our friend Richard Thompson of Cul de Sac to a few years ago. I've got a couple of hand-drawn coasters that'll be for sale at the Team Cul de Sac table:

Needless to say, there's a LOT going on! It'll be a fun and busy weekend! Let me know below if you plan to be there. :)

Oh, and one final important note: my sugar snap peas have arrived!

And so have the fireflies. Summer has begun. :)

Have a lovely weekend, friends, and I hope you eat one juicy piece of fresh produce before the next time you hear from me.