I’m going to go ahead and assume this is the worst thing you can possibly say on a crowded train. And it happened to me! While squished up against an older guy coming home round 9ish on the PATH. He asked his buddy if “we’re the next stop” when they were at Christopher and I knew something was kind of wrong. They would be the next stop alright, but the drag between Christopher and the next stop, Pavonia Newport is a deceptively large one.

And then began the fidgeting. And then, the dealbreaker – a desperate muttering of “I don’t think I’m going to make it.” I think all of us (who weren’t wearing headphones, so let’s say 25% of the car) perked up at that and maybe attempted to squirm our ways into the corner slightly. But try as I might, all I could do was sweat it out in the hopes that this gentleman could hold his own and not pee/puke/poop all over me. It was an insanely nervous 15 minutes indeed! Luckily he got out without a drop (in the train at least), and I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

How about you. Have you had any narrow misses on crowded trains?

* sigh *

It’s April! Happy April Fool’s Day wooooo! Seriously, everyone should celebrate April Fool’s Day the whole week long because no one believes anyone on the actual April Fool’s Day!

So anyway it’s a joke… sort of. A debate with an anti-humans-in-Ami’s-art person kind of brought me to thinking I should incorporate this more often. Truth be told, I originally created The Glass Urchin to teach me something – to teach me how to create a set amount of pages a week, to teach me patience, to teach me editing skills, to teach me to create gag-a-days and storylines, to teach me how to set up a page and how to do speech bubbles, and to further my abilities as an artist. It was a daunting task and a lot of the reason I use small critters is partially due to my own laziness and partially due to my lack of self-confidence. Not a great basis to start an autobiographical webcomic, but there you have it.

And teach me this comic has! But I never intended to be lumped in with other critter comickers or stereotypical animal-Sunday-funnies types, and although I do not regret The Glass Urchin’s format, I would still love to learn how to draw real human emotion the way my idols have always done. I just plain have not practiced my abilities to draw people and if I can’t even draw a self-portrait I am satisfied with, then how is my art ever the real truth? So every now and then I think it would be healthy practice to include more “Human” type comics, every now and then.

In addition there are just some things that don’t work well if you’re not at least human-shaped. If you think about it, most deep comics have to have that kind of shape, even Maus (as another autobiographic comic with animals) were human-shaped to begin with, in some ingenious scenes they were humans with masks (didn’t want to blatantly rip off Speigelman though). It seems a strong lesson – never get so caught up with the details and format of your set up that you let them interfere with telling the whole truthful story. I’m not comparing my content with that of Speigelman’s great works, but capturing truth in art has always been something I’ve strived for (and felt I’ve failed at).

And the tallness of human characters allowed me to show more of the actual location, without having to resort to drastic camera angles as I usually do. It’s that local favorite – LITM! LITM (as well as other great Jersey City haunts) can be seen in episodes of NBC’s Mercy, like here at around 40 minutes into it. Silly details but still I enjoy it.

The day after we had the fight and Mike left, but before he came back. It was one of those surreal grey days where every hour looks the same all day and you wait for night to set you free. Oh yeah and Harry was there, being patient as usual.

So while drawing this page I was too lazy to actually go outside my apartment to draw it. Panel #2 was brought to you in part by Google Maps, in which you can find disturbingly close shots of my current apartment (and every other apartment I’ve lived in in Jersey City), which is located across from the Grove Street PATH station. SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT IT NEXT TIME! (ya weirdo!)

A lot of people bash on the PATH, but I gotta be honest, I really love it. It’s fast and convenient and fairly reliable – it runs all night and there are never mystery off-hours like the NY subway has. It’s pretty straightforward (although my friends from NY wouldn’t agree), because there’s only two lines and only one map to follow. And the PATH tweets are incredibly responsive and very helpful for alerting commuters and responding to problems.

It does have its share of problems, but what trains don’t? One of its biggest problems is crowdedness on trains – unlike the NY subway (in which commuters are going in every which direction), everyone on the PATH is going one place: New York (if you’re a lucky commuter who lives in New York and works in New Jersey, then you pretty much get the train to yourself!). Thats one of the factors that makes the PATH trains so crushingly crowded in the morning.

Another reason is the riders themselves. PATH trains must be set up in a less convenient way or something, but a lot of people bunch up in the trains and don’t move past the first pole. MOVE IN people! So many time’s I’ve been squashed into the corner and I view the lovely haven that is further-in-the-PATH-car, where people are lounging about freely, having enough space to do their entire yoga routine if they wished. I think moving in would solve a lot of the rush hour squish. And I’ve seen plenty of men who spread themselves seemingly as far as they possibly can – perhaps to annoy everyone else or maybe they just don’t notice. It’s the opposite with the girls but equally annoying – many girls, especially short ones, think they are at liberty to hug the poles and put their entire body around it. This is an anonyance on so many levels – there are few good poles in the PATH cars and if one is fully taken up from top to bottom, it’s an inconvenience for at least a few people.

Like my walking guide… I think the root of the problem lies within people not understanding that there’s other people in the world too. They at least deserve a little standing space.

I don’t know why, but I am particularly happy with the way this page turned out.

And the Christmas tree at the switching station on the PATH between NY and NJ seems to be an annual thing in all the years I’ve lived in Jersey City I’ve seen it… Don’t know how old it is, but it’s a nice charm to see a fully glowing and decorated Christmas tree outside in the dark of the subway as you roll on by to work. I enjoy these little thing…

Thanks for putting up with all my silly questions in the dead of the night. Happy Birthday (and also happy anniversary since I consider it the same day…ish)!

Welcome to The Glass Urchin. My name is Auilix, and I’ll be your host for the moment. After many attempts to tame the rampant ideas and wild stories in my head through comics, I’ve finally decided to try my hand at one of my greatest adventures: my own life. I hope you’ll enjoy the comics to come, as much as I’ve enjoyed drawing them and coloring them in.

You reach me at a time when I’m not too sure about my future paths (who really is sure anyway?). Having just been laid off from a company, my first real job (and a great one at that), I’m not sure where my life will go. Likewise, I’ve no idea where this story will go. And with that, let’s step inside mysterious world of today.