the triangle sky : : : drawing and cartoons by bird : : :

Eagled-eyed readers will notice an addition to the horizontal menu bar at the top of this website: "Shop". This marks my entry into the business world.

At the moment I'm only selling copies of Tales from the Cosmic Mountain, but the shop will hopefully expand to include such merchandise as t-shirts, mugs, cards, and maybe even art prints. I also intend to offer custom drawn comic strips at some point in the near future, in which Carl Garbanzo wishes your father Happy Birthday or something. Perfect for the man/woman/child who has everything.

A few things.

Some time ago, I innocently got a good high score on the "Snake" game on my mobile phone. Pretty soon, a game that I had previously regarded as a stupid way for idiots to pass time suddenly became an exciting challenge of strategy and wit.

What do you do when you realise that the man who is cutting your hair smells of alcohol? This very situation happened to me only this afternoon.

He greeted me into the (empty) barber's shop and ushered me into a seat in front of a mirror. He assured me that he recognised me despite my not having been at this particular barber's for about eleven months. I explained that I had been in Spain all that time and that maybe he was mistaken. He said he had a good memory and started telling me how I had had my hair cut last time.

I notice from my web traffic information that about fifteen people a day are still visiting the site. I haven't been posting anything, so I thought I'd just write a quick note of explanation.

Life hasn't been bad lately, but it has been a bit stressful due to a number of issues. Now that I think about it, I'd rather not get into it here, but when things calm down a bit I will get back into the comics.

I was eating my lunch in front of the computer at work the other day. It was a kind of short, fat baguette with Spanish ham. It was satisfying, but I wanted something sweet to round off the lunchtime mini-meal.

Without much thought, I decided I wanted a Twix. I'm a Twix kind of guy. I headed out into the streets surrounding my language academy to find a shop that stocked sweets and chocolate. My regular sites for such a purchase gave me a shake of the head when I asked for chocolate. My disappointment grew exponentially with each rejection.

I am almost certainly not the first person to have noticed that Portugal manager Luiz Felipe Scolari looks uncannily like Hollywood star Gene Hackman. Are they by some chance related? I think we should be told.

After a brief spell away from your screens, Carl Garbanzo will be returning this Wednesday. The reasons for his absence? Threefold.

1. Marriage

I got married a few weeks ago. It all went very well, thank you. But since then, I have been throwing myself into real life, doing stuff, sitting in the park outside of our flat, bonding with my now step-daughter Madelaine. Accidentally upsetting her by telling her that it's pointless to chase the sparrows because they will always get away, even when you have a net.

2. Block

My favourite recording artists are all pretty big names: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen. I occasionally discover someone new, but pretty soon I'm back listening to the classics. Most of the new stuff is usually just a pale imitation of the greats, right? So why not cut out the middle man and go straight to the source? That's what I do.