Month: October 2012

The Unquiet Grave

A Medieval tale of a revenant… and the boy who loves it.

Introducing, in time for Halloween, a Medieval tale of a revenant… and the boy who loves it.

I did a cursory scan-and-crop of my 24 Hour Comic, “The Unquiet Grave,” for your reading pleasure.  This was the first time that I had used watercolours in… I don’t know, it must have been 12 years or something like that.  I had recently purchased a combo pack of coloured pencils, pastels, and watercolours.  I was planning on using the pencils, but ultimately decided against that, as it wouldn’t look very much like the Medieval illuminated manuscripts.  I also stole some of Doc’s watercolours 😀

Speaking of which, Doc’s 24 hour comic is amazing and he’s finished scanning his as well.

We participated in 24 Hour Comic Book Day at Mission: Comics & Art on October 20th 2012, and you can read more about that day’s adventures here.

Continue reading “The Unquiet Grave”

24 Hour Comic Book Day!

My 24 hour comic Book in progress. I did “The Unquiet Grave”

Well, the 20th was 24 Hour Comic Book Day, and it was the first one I have ever participated in.  I did it at Mission Comics and Art which did an excellent job hosting the event.  It was also surreal seeing drunk people come in to look at or buy comics at 2 AM.  One woman in a group of people that stumbled by, fresh out of a bar, shouted “Guys! Look at this comic book! No, look at this comic book!” but her friends were not so excited about doing a late-night comic run as she was so they walked on.

Continue reading “24 Hour Comic Book Day!”

The Photosynthetic Sea Slugs, and Horizontal Gene Transfer

The sea slugs known as Elysia chlorotica are certainly a strong contender for my favourite animal.  They are born clear, and they feed on algae for nutrients and energy.  But, they poke little holes in the turgid algae pieces with their tooth, and suck out the individual chloroplasts.  The chloroplasts do not get digested, and instead migrate to the animal’s skin, where the animal has gained the ability to keep the chloroplasts alive inside its animal cells (not in-between, but inside).  The chloroplasts then photosynthesize using sunlight, and produce energy for the slug’s cells.  The chloroplasts make the slug’s skin green, and indeed the slug has evolved to take on a shape which maximizes surface area, in order to harvest as much sunlight as possible.  The adults resemble leaves for this reason!

Watch this video of the little guy sucking out the chloroplasts from a piece of algae:


These slugs were successfully kept alive in excess of a year in a tank with absolutely no caloric input in the water, and with nothing but a UV “grow lamp.”  Their growth was very slow during this time, but this indicates that an animal was capable of living entirely off of photosynthesis!  This is the only animal known to be capable of keeping the chloroplast endosymbiont alive. Continue reading “The Photosynthetic Sea Slugs, and Horizontal Gene Transfer”