A Greek adventure

I did a lot of nothing and it keeps me busy.

We made it to Greece!… as I write this after already returning from Greece, but we were there! It’s a seven hour time difference so for whatever reason I always wake up at six in the morning or there about. I enjoy seeing the sunrise for at least three days before my natural clock catches up. This is the view I see every morning from our little kitchen that looks out the back toward the interior of the block our building is on. We face southwest so the sunsets to the right in the evening. Not pictured is the little black and white cat that slept on the ledge to the lower left. He’d be curled up as I drank my first cup of of coffee almost every morning. He would usually be gone by 8 or 9am.

The apartment in NYC has wonderful golden light at sunset. No cats, just Molly. I enjoy all the color I live and work in!

I painted/drew the owl in the kitchen this trip. Inspired by the volumes of graffiti all over Athens, I decided on a paint marker. I’ve been wanting to make an owl here for several years but never made the time to do it. The idea to do the owl just came to me as I was looking at the empty wall begging to have marks on it and while sipping my Greek coffee I thought “owl”. I don’t know my Greek mythology very well at all but Molly (who does know it) pointed out that the owl represents the goddess Athena. I thought that was pretty cool! I will probably do some more work on it when I go back next time.

I started a gouache painting on an Arches watercolor paper block as a palette cleanse from all the comic book work I’m doing. I finished Toxic Avenger #10 while in Athens. I had been feeling burnt out so painting was my solution and it worked.

We took a break from Athens with a trip to the island of Serifos. I was two beers in by the time we arrived. They had food and drink on the two and a half hour ferry ride. It was more relaxing going to an island than Athens is to us. I thought about the history we were passing through. The creativity of people thousands of years ago to come up with the Greek myths and all the stories. The math to explain the curve of the Earth. Last year Molly and I had a little picnic in a park on the other side of the hill that the Parthenon sits on top of. Their was a little plaque that marked the spot where democracy was invented. We went from no idea of a formal way of democracy to DEMOCRACY! There is a question in physics that I remembered that the universe shouldn’t exist because of some thing where for every positive particle there is a negative one. The first particle that existed should have annihilated itself and there shouldn’t have been a universe. But something was a little off and that didn’t happen but we ended up happening. I’m sure I’m butchering that physics concept but half remembering can change everything and here it just makes me appreciate where I was currently standing.

Molly and I made our way to the awesome fish restaurant near the Athens apartment. We try and eat here at lest once during our visits. They cover the tables with the type of paper they wrap up fresh fish at the fish market. Apparently it’s to cover how crappy the tables are because when I sat this wonderful beer down it ended up on two boards that had two different ideas of where the level of the table should be and my beer had a third idea which meant I had soaked pants from my crotch to my knee. I try a different fish every time we eat here. Should really keep a journal at this point although the fish they prepare is always good so if I repeat it’s still delicious.

I’ll be at Tromafest ‘26 at the Mahoning Drive-In theater July 17th and 19th. It’s a cool outdoor convention by day and Troma films at night. There is a camp ground there if you are into that sort of thing. I did this fest last year and everyone I met was super nice and really cool. Lots of interesting back grounds and stories!