The title is a British phrase which refers to the "boxing" matches hares perform during the breeding season. How appropriate the violence is, considering the month of March is adapted from the Old French "Martius" which means "the month of Mars", not just a planet, but the Roman God of war.

Bur rather than get worked up, I'm feeling pretty wretched these days. The most prominent thing on my mind is that people left, right and centre at work are dropping like flies as they either move departments, go on holiday or in the case of four people on Thursday and Friday, are made redundant. The scariest thing is that one of them only got told their last day was on Friday, on late Thursday afternoon. I wished her well but I feel guilty for not getting as emotional as I was last November when Becky left... but blah blah blah, I'm not going to bore the majority with details. What I will say is that I'm taking another short break. It's really difficult getting into the drawing mood these days, which is why I've become a hit-and-miss homage city all of a sudden.

It's just a lot of things are starting to get to me, ya know? Things of the furry (apologies to those involved), things of humanity (those old enough to know what the world is really like will know more or less of what I'm talking about)... life in general. So like I said (sort of), rather than say or do something stupid, I'll remain in the shadows for a while, picking at what smirk-worthy scraps. As I write this, it's Daria. Yeah, it's tragic I'm watching a now-extinct MTV show (do they even bother playing decent music, if any, these days?) but the misanthropic remarks make me feel good. Another couple of good things include the Art of Hellboy (the Mike Mignola comic that is, not the Guermiello del Toro film), The Art of Bolt, this month's issues of Ultimate Spider-man and Astounding Wolf-Man and a new wolf photography anthology. Oh, and the 2nd season of Spectacular Spider-Man. So there really is gold at the end of the rainbow after all.

Oh well.

Be well everyone.

P.S. I'm back in one of those black moods again so I don't really know if I can be bothered doing any canon artwork for a while. Not unless something really wows me back into picking up a pencil again and doing something PROPERLY. Sorry.

P.P.S Many gracious thanks go to those European and Australian correspondents who've had to put up with a lot from me this last week of February. I really appreciate you lot hearing me out on domestic woes and worries that don't/won't translate to the US for whatever cacophony of reasons.

P.P.P.S And before a flock of preachers descend from the clouds, I'm just venting that's all. No doubt things'll pick up but I'm not going to kid myself right now and say things WILL get better. Like I say, expect too much and you're bound to be disappointed, expect too little and you're constantly surprised. So there.