Yikes, where did 2011 go? The back half of the year was completely buried in a flurry of rush jobs and holiday traveling. In years past, I would have taken this opportunity to ponder the passage of time, meaning of life, etc. But now that I’m a dad, all I have time to think about is getting to bed early to try and keep up with my rambunctious son!

Speaking of which, here are a few pics from this past November, when Tycho and I celebrated our 1st and 27th birthdays together. We’re only 6 days apart, so I imagine this tradition will continue for some time.

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I’ve been away from the blog for a good long while, which is due to several factors: lots of freelance work, wrapping up Black Rose #3, some long-needed updates to my portfolio, resume, and website — and, oh yeah, I’m a dad now!

Tycho is just over two months old and starting to smile and coo, which is a big improvement from his previous best trick, Peeing On The Wall. He is a lot of work, a big stresser, but super adorable and very worth it.

Here is the crazy story of how our son decided to make his grand entrance, and plenty more baby pics too.

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So, as some of you might know, Emma and I had a little Thanksgiving surprise — our son Tycho decided to show up almost two weeks early! Tycho Maximus Peat arrived on Monday, 11/29 at 10:30 AM after 9 hours of labor. He is a strapping young lad at 6 pounds 15 ounces, measuring an immense 20 inches long. Emma delivered without drugs or epidural, through sheer force of will. First-time father is very proud of both son and wife.

Tycho’s early arrival definitely threw a wrench in my plans for the next two weeks, including a very exciting project unveiling! So I’ve decided to put the already-prepped project up today as planned, and will follow up next week with some adorable baby pics and the ridiculous tale of Tycho’s delivery. Wacky hijinks are in store, I promise you.

Hopefully, then, this unveiling will not disappoint…

When my wife Emma and I found out we were pregnant with our first child, we began thinking of fun ways to decorate a baby boy’s room. Since we live in an apartment and aren’t allowed to paint the walls, that meant posters or prints of some kind. And, being artists, we naturally wanted to create those prints ourselves. In the end, we decided to illustrate an alphabet of characters from one of our favorite franchises – Star Wars.

Selecting each letter was a lengthy process. The characters who made the cut are primarily from the Original Trilogy (no Prequel characters here!), with a few from the Expanded Universe of books, comics, and video games. We also tried to keep the illustrations as non-violent as possible (in the words of Wuher, “No blasters!”) for maximum kid-friendliness.

I sketched the basis for each character in pencil, which Emma then rendered and colored in Illustrator – it was very much a collaborative process, and if Emma had her website designed yet I would be linking to it here. The project was actually her idea, after all…man I love having a nerdy wife.

So to see the rest of the alphabet, head on over to the A is for Ackbar project page. We hope Tycho (and you) will enjoy this alphabet as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.

Brandon and Emma (and Tycho) Peat