The August 2025 Cab Post
Summer adventures, more inked panels and tech weirdos
Hello everyone, I hope you are all well! I started the month by hiking in the Laurentides, then I watched some good demolition derby, I got on a pontoon ride and ended up at a punk show in the parking lot of Lofts Fattal. Having a plethora of different interests is healthy, I think. In between those adventures, I finally set up my office in my new apartment and unpacked my countless boxes of books. The new place is looking better everyday!
Recap’
I finished inking chapter 3 of Pupilles! The project is progressing smoothly, we're doing color and font tests and we can't wait to show you the finished pages. To help you wait a little, I posted the next inked panels from chapter 2 on Patreon. Jeik is constantly outdoing himself with the pencils; it's a challenge and an honor to ink over his drawing. I'll start chapter 4 soon!
Now that I've got my drawing supplies back, I've started sketching for fun again. I took the opportunity to post a couple of sketches I did over the summer. I'd like to do more of them, and most importantly, I'd like to start inking with a pen again. Maybe I could just take a little trip to Nota Bene (local stationary store), just to see if they have any new stuff for the start of the school year...
Announcements
My online store has reopened, it’s fully updated, fully stocked, and ready to receive orders by the handful. Please know that I now have to endure a dreaded walk down and up a hill to get to the post office: every purchase contributes to my cardiovascular health. A reminder that all members who contribute to my Patreon get a 15% discount at all time in my shop with a super secret, super exclusive, super cool special code. Like that time in 6th grade when I traded in a Pog slammer in exchange for the code (which I still remember) to select the levels in Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis. I hope this painfully 90s story will convince you to subscribe.
Let it be known that due to the vague, fuzzy new US tariffs, I no longer ship books to the United States. I will assume that oversize lettermail will not be impacted so unless I’m mistaken, you can still order prints. Utown is available in the US in all fine comic books and bookstores or via Bookshop.org. You can also read the entire story as a webcomic and browse its most excellent website. Lastly, my three artbooks are available as digital downloads for more crunchy inked goodness. The tariffs are terrible news and I hope they don’t stick around too long. I’m very sorry for my American friends :(
That’s all for August! Happy back to school routine, jacket weather and such. I’ll see you in September!
This newsletter is and will ALWAYS be free. If you like what I do, I suggest visiting my online shop or hunting down my books at your favorite bookstore or library. The webcomic Utown is still online and completed and free—visit the website! I also share my illustrations, tips and tooks, writings and reflexions on Patreon, using a monthly “pay what you want” method. Maintaining my little corner of the internet is a lot of work; any support or purchase is appreciated!
Cool stuff
- My unplanned reading for Pride was Pageboy by Elliot Page. I was deeply moved reading about his journey as an actor who spent far too many years in the closet(s) and suffered enormously as a result. It's full of Hollywood anecdotes, Halifax memories, and impossible love stories.
- The girls from Wet Legs seem to be having fun and really don't take themselves too seriously on moisturizer. It’s on its way to become one of my favorite albums of 2025.
- Wait to Pleasure by Montreal band No Joy, is one of my all-time favorite albums. Bugland, released on August 8th, was in my Bandcamp wishlist for months and I'm not disappointed. The album's title track makes me feel like I'm taking a walk through a PC screensaver in 2001, and it will go straight into my Pupilles playlist.
- Luis Mendo is a prolific illustrator with a 30-year career behind under his belt. In addition to his professional online portfolio, he cultivates a little digital garden of personal projects, available to members only. I think it takes a lot of discipline and, above all time, to reach an output so colossal that you can put part of it behind a paywall. I am fascinated by his business model, which he explains here.
A bunch of weird little men are running the tech industry—and increasingly, our lives. Sam Altman’s company has, by all means, made my life as an illustrator worse. So has the CEO of Adobe and Microsoft. These people are weird. (Matthew Hughes)
“The line between genius and weird is, admittedly, not always clear. But weirdness — the capricious, delusional kind that manifests in the highest echelons of the tech industry — is one of those things that, once seen, cannot be unseen.”
Make art because making art enriches your life in ways other than money. Practicing an art form changes you and enlarges you. It makes you look closer at the world, think deeper, live better.
- Lincoln Michel (Why You Should Still Build Your Raft of Art in the Sea of Slop)