D.J. Coffman – Sequential Artist, Thinker

Haven’t thought about blogging much lately. I’ve been in and out of mixed moods. There are certain things I’d love to just write about that are bugging the shit out of me, but I let them pass. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings in my family…. all I can say is, that I feel relieved that my wife and I are so responsible here. I don’t want to be surrounded by, nor can I fix other people’s problems. I call our little family the “core unit” , and that’s all I want to worry about. I don’t find it sad at all that I find some of our close friends like Bob (who I’ve had it out with in the past) more of our family than actual family. You know the kind? The “fair weather” family folks who only come around or contact when there’s some sort of problem or they need something? I hope they get a clue.

The days fly by, and honestly I haven’t found myself even thinking about posting here.

Thursday I took the first REAL day off I’ve had in a long time. Took the family to Kennywood Park for some R&R. It was a good time, I got completely doused by the waterfall on the raging rapids ride. Our oldest son doesn’t care much for amusement rides, but we semi-force him on the minor rollercoasters. None of the boys wanted to ride the Phantom’s revenge coaster, nor the big “sky coaster” that is pretty much just you strapped into a bungee chord and thrown across the sky… My wife and I are actually thinking about going back down by ourselves and riding the big crazy rides ourselves.

It didn’t occur to me until much later at night, that this was also the first day in a long long time where I didn’t think about comics. There was no work that needed done “asap”, and “work” of any kind didn’t enter my mind. It was a good feeling.

Of all the crashing around i did at the amusement park, I actually toasted my back somehow while putting the youngest kid in bed. I was leaning over the bed and reaching to get his glasses off, and I must have been leaning a certain way and BAM! Pain shooting all over my lower back. It’s been off again on again on Friday and today. This afternoon, it was feeling better until I was letting my dog in and leaned down at an angle and it got to hurting again. The pain is pretty friggin annoying and makes me cranky as all hell. I told my wife, I wish someone would just knock me out or hit me something heavy. I’m about to pop some Doan’s and get back to drawing. I must say, there’s something VERY strange about working on art when you’re in pain. That’s when you know why you’re really doing it. People who didn’t want to do this, would just go lay down and curl up in a little ball.

Back to the drawing board…