They're going to eat him alive.

The above image is from a collaboration with my friend Zoe Chevat [and that's a link to her blog, AnachroLush]. We were chatting the other day, and came up with the above scene of a poor, pretty hipster boy about to be eaten alive by some of the beautiful denizens of the Big Apple.

I've been thinking about New York a lot lately, probably because of "The Boys;" Derek Robertson is one of my favorite artists, and lately the book has been a little more NY-centric, with a lot of the familiar landmarks and such, particularly the Brooklyn Bridge . I get stuck on images from comic books pretty easily, and had been running scenes through my head with Robertson's city as my background. This particular one was something I had been toying with, but didn't have much for, and Zoe managed to snap it up, and do this sort of Bakshi-esque thing with it that turned out brilliantly. Very sinister, in the best sort of way. She sent it to me a couple days before Christmas, as a nice little holiday treat, and I've been meaning to post it here but the holidays have just kept me pretty busy, and when they haven't, I've been finding myself sort of... too down to be doing blog posts.

Which isn't to say Christmas was bad to me. Actually, things worked out pretty well, with almost all the presents getting to where they were going in time, plenty of Terry's Chocolate Oranges for everyone, and just general good cheer. And even though I'm not really high on getting gifts this Christmas, I got a lot of really great things, even some that I'd figured I'd have to buy for myself after the holiday was over -- like a new hoodie, and a new phone -- but no, I guess my needs were pretty well known, and even got a few fun items, a new bag, way more books than I expected, and a nice scarf. And then something that wasn't a proper gift, but something I was really hoping for more than anything else.

And things with the family weren't weird [or not as weird as they could have been], and tonight I got to see all my friends here at home, which was a rare treat to get everyone together [Ally made it, who I haven't seen in nearly forever, and so was Mark, a really nice guy and friend of Dave's who we watched Wrestlemania with last year], and there are plans to do New Year's at Glen's too. Plus I think on some level my work paid off to bring my Grandmother Christmas, as she went from general apathy towards the holidays to actually going out of her way to get the tree on over the past couple of days. I even whipped up a batch of Ian's eggnog, from the recipe he posted here.

I don't know. The past couple of days have been good, a real reminder as to why this is just a nice time of year. I sort of wish they could all be like this, you know? Or at least a few more of them than usual.

Probably post again in a couple of days, at least get in something to usher in the New Year. I promised someone I'd look at a script they're working on, and my schedule is pretty full this week though, so when is a little up in the air.

Thank you, everyone. And again, thanks to Zoe, for the wonderful image above. I really like working with artists, even on small things, and if anyone else is interested in collaboration, even something small or stupid, e-mail me or catch me on Facebook.