Who was the real star of The Book of Application? The pigeons, of course. When Gord first wandered into the shady side of town, he came across the wrong-side-of-the-tracks pigeons and rats. They kept quiet at first, but when everyone broke out into all out war, the local fauna had to get involved. If you look closely, you'll see them duking it out with the squirrels and pigeons from my 24 hour comic, Things with Wings. And who better to document their moment in the sun than Samara Pearlstein. I've loved her scientific illustrations ever since she exhibited some of them in Envelope. So I was mighty happy to see her make those goofy little doodles in all my backgrounds look like real birds. Ryan

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