what's up with the pine thistle image on your home page?
the image is meant to convey several dominant underlying themes present in regret. the pine thistles allude to the lord of white ash, who is a primary character and also the setting for the book. his actions are crucial to restoring frederich's memory and represent (in part) the conscious decision to return to nature. the spatter is meant to connote the blood (and responsibility) frederich carries attached to his past. the "I" is meant to signify both the subject (self) and the symbolic characteristics of the letter itself. the multiple meanings of symbols and images is crucial to the development of the plot.

how long does it take to write a page?
the writing (plotting) of the book has been a whole different kettle of fish. typically, it's something i do separately from the process of drawing. but drawing a given page, from thumbnails / preliminary sketches to a finished, inked product typically can take anywhere from 8 to 12+ hours of labor (actually time with the pen in my hand, not including peeing, sleeping, eating, writing faqs, etc.) before you ask: yes, you're right i should've drawn the whole thing in the clear-line style. i'm an idiot.

what materials do you use?
mostly, i'm pretty dumbed-down and cheap. i draw on bristol board, though some of the earlier pages are just on folded 8.5 x 11. i (mostly) use felt-tip pens (a sign of unprofessionalism if ever there was one), often microns or pigmas. once in awhile, i'll resort ot a grayscale brushpen if absolutely necessary (pitt), but i'm loathe to do it. sometimes i uses (real) brushes--for black ink, white ink, or mask. i use tape a lot. for more or less everything. i mean, it's even hard for me to make dinner without tape.

do you use photo references?
no. this is less practical for fantasy or plots which incorporate ridiculously difficult to arrange situations. still, my artwork would probably be better (or at least a lot less spotty) if i did.

why are some speech bubbles ridiculously big? what the hell is up with your punctuation? do you speak english?
some speech bubbles are big to make the words look small--i.e. they are spoken in a smaller voice. this is similar to (but not quite as effective as) a trick often used by walt kelly and (particularly) will eisner. eisner tended to make the letters smaller, but with the size of my lettering, i'm already worried about people being able to read it without eyestrain. the punctuation is usually very deliberate. if i leave a thing that seems like a sentence without any punctuation at all, it usually means that the statement is to be continued shortly. if there is an em dash to close a phrase, it typically signals an interruption by someone else. i use semicolons sometimes because for the longest time i hadn't a clue what they were for and was fearful of their use; i'm making up for lost time.