I’m still working away at the new illustrations for The Lair of the Clockwork Book – mostly – but I had to set aside a little time to finish this piece, an entry for a Starbucks contest at DeviantArt. Really, I had to. I had enough time invested in it already that it would have been wasteful to be more responsible and stick to what I really should have been doing. Besides, there’s some neat swag. And I do like my swag.

Whatever happens in the contest, though, I have plans for at least one of the elements in this picture… because shortly before I got to work on the Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual site I had an idea for a series of travel posters from the Retropolis Travel Bureau. I still want to do those, but the Thrilling Tales have turned out to be a pretty demanding project. So I haven’t been able to, yet.

But anyhow, on the Thrilling Tales front I am indeed gradually filling up my buffer of illustrations for the Clockwork Book, so that before too long I should be able to go back to Part Two of The Toaster With TWO BRAINS as planned. But since I’m late in filling that buffer it’s now getting used as I go: in order to have my roughly 32 unseen pages banked in advance, I have to keep making even more till the buffer’s full. The longer it takes, the more I have to do. Math is cruel.

Anyway, at the right is a little snippet from something that’s coming up for The Lair of the Clockwork Book. I know you need proof, and I don’t blame you: it’s because I’ve got these shifty eyes.