Piping hot new edition of "PD Pundit" comic

Hey Parkinpeople, there is a new installment of the PD Pundit up over here. He's only trying to help!

Book Launch for "My Degeneration" Tonight!

One night only! Laughter, tears, tremors, ogres, true love, software, life's bitter realities and moments of transcendence, all in one laff-riot, tear-fest, a wrenching roar of the imagination, a cold, hard look at reality, the "My Degeneration" book launch at blue.hollomon gallery is tonight! 6:00 to 8:00at the Olympic center, a Zamarello mall near you, 36th and Arctic Boulevard to be exact. And yes, I will personalize your copy working boldly, without spell-check. Please come, see you there!

"My Degeneration" My book About Coping With Parkinson's Disease is Now Available

My advance copy of "My Degeneration"

Finally, after what seems like, and actually was years in the making, The Penn State University Press has released my "graphic narrative" of what it's like to be forced to deal with Young-Onset Parkinson's Disease. What's more, you can order it at a sale price right now. I hope that this book will be a comfort and inspiration to my fellow people with Parkinson's. And I hope it will be a provocation to consider how best to respond to this indefatigable disease that affects all parts of life as well.

So please read it and let me know what you think. Otherwise I'll be forced to rely on the words of people like Bill Bell, co-founder of the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation, who was kind enough to write “Peter Dunlap-Shohl once again brings his unique art to the table to help educate, illustrate, and demonstrate life, hope, and strength on his journey with Parkinson’s. Creative and insightful, this book reflects all of Pete’s greatest qualities, including his constant work to help and educate all those in the PD community, patients and care partners alike.” Or Tom Kizzia, Author of the riveting "Pilgrim's Wilderness" who had this to say “The world made fresh by a Parkinson’s patient with a wonderfully sensitive and cocked eye. He tells the tale of his fast-changing reality with compassion and wicked humor, leaping from one crazily inventive work of art to the next. Never more acute than when examining his own mind-set, Peter Dunlap-Shohl leads us from diagnosis and despair to the high ground where he could compose this lucid, moving book. A miracle, in a way—and a triumph.” Heck, you could read this book for the blurbs alone!

As far as I can tell, this is the only book of its kind on Parkinson's available in the known universe. Here is a sample page from the second chapter "Learning to speak Parkinson's "

Page one of a new comic: A Day with Parkinson's Disease

Hi folks, here is the first page of a new multi-pager. I don't know yet how long it will be, but multi, for sure. The plan is to take you through what a day is like with a chronic debilitating and progressive disease that undermines your ability to do just about anything physical. Think of it as positive wallowing, turning frustration, anxiety and misery into art. Ready? 3-2-1- WALLOW!!!!!

To see the entire day sequenced in one post, look here

Another Revised Manuscript Page

We're up to page 88 of my Parkinson's "graphic novel" revision! About ten pages to go... On this page. I give in to my baser instincts, and just wail the tar out of the damn disease.  I apologize in advance for this lowbrow behavior, but it did feel awfully good. (Click image to enlarge)

Comicization of a (Relatively) Recent Post

I now have about 50 of these pages done. Sort of getting the idea. I plan to start on a major new part of the story, the brain surgery I underwent about year and a half ago. Still trying to figure out the angle I will take. I'm thinking something along the lines of "Super-intelligent beings come back from the future to patch me up".

Yikes! A scary New Page

Parkinson's, to paraphrase a well-known quip, is not for sissies. It's not for dummies either. Here is the most recent page in my attempt to adapt this blog into a brawling, sprawling blockbuster graphic novelesque look at Parkinson's Disease. We are up to page 36, I'm guessing the final length will be about 100. Your feedback welcome!

Book report: One page at a time

It's always good to take a break from a big project. Breaks refresh your spirit and your eye. Recharged you return to the work at hand and you see you've made a Big Mistake. Good thing you're so refreshed because now you won't be happy until you uproot the Big Mistake (BM) and dispose of it.

In this case, I decided that the narration text should be a different font. The elegant Roman face I had chosen seemed too tight, too dense. Below is the old font.

And here is the new font

Unfortunately I already have 16 or so pages that all had to have the type reset. That meant redrawing many of the type boxes to fit the new type in. Just to make more work, I decided that since I had hand lettered the dialog in some frames, I should hand letter ALL the dialog to be consistent.

So I did. It could have been worse. I could have changed my mind about the text font on page 50 instead of 16. Good thing I left when I did. Of course I could still change my mind at page 50 and redo all 50 pages. Stay tuned.

Below is one of the pages you haven't seen yet. You can click the image to enlarge.