D.J. Coffman – Sequential Artist, Thinker

I’m still alive! As you probably know if you frequent this blog, I don’t post here as much as I used to. I did the daily blogging thing for almost 10 years! Crazy. Now I spend a lot of my social media time at my twitter.com/djcoffman account and over on facebook, so if you’re ever looking to see what I’m up to or thinking at a moment’s notice, that’s probably the best bet. Every now and then though I like to pop on here and unload some thoughts that can’t possibly fit into micro status updates. Here goes the MIND DUMP!

LIFE: Life is pretty awesome. I’m just letting the universe guide me wherever at this point. There have been so many weird things in my life this year that I can’t explain. So much unexpected, some good, some bad… but in the end it’s lead to a much more awesome life for me.

Wow! Conan O’Brien hosting the Tonight Show. I had chills. I remember watching him when he had a night to night contract (as the legend goes)- Hearing Andy Richter introduce the Tonight Show, and the first musical guest is my all time favorite band Pearl Jam, and they debuted a new song there. Did I experience a bit of ShangRa-La? Seriously, it feels like my generation has finally stepped up to take the reigns of our whole society for the next 20-30 years and that feels awesome! – And to think in a round about way, I’m sort of connected to COnan O’Brien history with that shirt I created for AndyRok, which he then gave to Conan off his back. Sweet! — Anyways, watching Conan step up, was like watching an old friend you knew get the greatest job on the planet and know they deserve it. I actually want to watch TV at 11:30 now!

Work- I’ve been doing a ton of stuff behind the scenes. Most of it is writing and designing stuff for the Flobots, both the band and working on some upcoming New Media stuff, and with their non-profit Flobots.org. We’re doing a bit of a relaunch on the FightWithTools.org site in July, and I’ll also be flying out to Denver around June 18th to spend some days working on some things in person. All of that is pretty vague, I know, but it will become much clearer in the fall.

Comics! - Yeah, I know you haven’t seen much of that from me in the past couple months. But I’m still working on the Flobots comic slowly but surely and my main goal is to have a nice little Graphic Novel out at some point. I have two other projects I want to be working on more, one is a fantasy type (sword and sorcery)  story for Jason Embury, and the other one has been slowly forming in my head since January and I think it’s finally come together as something I’d like to put some time into. I don’t want to jinx it though, so mums the word on what it’s about for now.

Yirmumah- I launched the new Yirmumah site “anti-social network” at http://yirmumah.ning.com a bit ago. I planned on doing more live drawing and exploring my darker humor side there, but I really haven’t had as much time to work on it as I’d like. I’ve been terrible at budgeting schedules lately, but I haven’t given up on this. I think it’s a matter of coming up with some form that pleases me the most. Possibly short stories like the original Yirm were, instead of just throw away gags. Although the throw away pop-culture gags always call to me as well.

More COMIC thoughts – & Pittsburgh Comic and COllectible Show: Was at a one day comic show this past Sunday, put on by Todd McDevitt of New Dimension Comics. I have to say it was busier and bigger than I thought it would be. Some Pittsburgh Steelers were also signing next door so that brought some traffic to the mall that day as well. I was sandwiched between two legends, Joe Jusko and Ron Frenz – huge talents. They of course have TRIPLE if not quadruple the experience and skills I have. I usually don’t feel this way, but I was feeling a little inferior looking at my “cartoony” work and kinda feeling DOWN about the whole “comic book industry” experience. Honestly I’ve really lost some bit of passion I once had. Maybe it’s because I’ve not only looked behind the curtain, but I’ve roamed around behind that curtain and what I’ve seen and witnessed wasn’t what I thought it would be. Most of it is just bullshit and smoke and mirrors. — But I was pleased that Joe Jusko stopped to say thanks for the copy of the Hero By Night hardcover I had sent to him a while back. I had forgot I even sent it! – He had kind words about the story and the feeling and vibe it brought back to comics for him. It was a sincere comment That reminded me that my work isn’t done… which is a whole other nut to crack.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I used to have a real sex drive for producing comics. I’d pride myself on how much I could accomplish or do in short periods of time, and keep it quality and entertaining. I wanted to be like Jack Kirby– those stories of how many pages he could draw per day always inspired me (still do!) — but I think I’ve come to the realization that I’m not that. All those years of pumping out daily comics while also drawing monthly comics and side projects, it felt good when friends and colleagues would be amazed, but I look myself at where it’s gotten me and I’m not so sure if it’s the right path. I was explaining this to another friend of mine who didn’t quite understand what I was saying. I was a bit frustrated that ALL THAT WORK I did, and people only mostly remember the drama that ensued and my “character”. All that work. All those hours. And barely anyone talks about the actual COMICS. And to think that I could have, I almost WAS, one of THOSE GUYS… the guys who ruin their lives around them because of this obsession to produce. Where the only time a comic news site will report on you is when someone owes you money or there’s dirt to be dug up. The only emails I’d get would be “what’s the latest dirt!?” — I just don’t want that kind of career.

So I’ve been flying under the radar. Thinking about, and taking action on reinventing myself. Transforming into something better. And when I’m done, hopefully the work will shine and that is what I’d like people to talk about and remember.

I have a TO DO LIST post it note hanging on my desk. It only has one thing on it.

#1 – BE AWESOME.

LIFE: Life is going amazingly well. I feel healthy and happy, even though I’ve had too much fried food this past week I think. I’ve cut most sugar out of my diet as much as I can, and successfully replaced coffee with tea to drop some more weight. Some days the weight loss stuff feels like a waste of time, especially on dreary and cold days. But good weather is coming and that means excercise and walking and breathing fresh clean air. Can’t wait! –

Roller Derby Adventures: Our adventures in Derby continue. This past weekend the Steel City Derby Demons demolished the Dutchland Roller girls, like 230-82 I think. WOWZA! The afterparty was groovy as well. I shot pool, my wife danced with her girlfriends. Our social life is no longer boring and mundane. My wife has official practices on Tuesday and Thursday night which is like “HER” time, and I’m bored at home those nights thinking about her having fun, so I decided to dedicate that back to “ME” time and work on some personal projects again, or do something mindless like play a video game with the kids. I think my wife has the perfect Derby name now, but it’s HUSH HUSH.

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WORK: I’m done sleeping and reorganizing my world. Here are things that are going down that I will be working on immediately.

Flobots - Yeah, the Flobots comic has been hit and miss update wise. I have to take full responsibility for that, but fear not, new pages are coming soon on a timely basis. I’m still doing a ton of stuff behind the scenes I can’t talk about, and there are only so many hours in a day, so sadly the Flobot comic gets pushed to last in the immediacy line of things that need done. We have some REALLY interesting things happening this year though…. can’t wait!

Will Draws - Yes, thanks to that old Seth Godin effect, I’m still backlogged with Will Draws to do. I’m putting these back on the priority list and I’m including them with a new project (see next) — but the backlog of $2 drawings will be done and featured, and a whole new addition will be put into place.

YIRMUMAH – The cat’s out of the bag to some of the diehard supporters, but YIRMUMAH will be returning with a new format and new delivery method and it’s very own social network for friends and fans. You can get a sneak peek at the new pad at this link. Sign up and make your own profile and join the ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORK. – The network will also house my future columns as well as content from other diehard Yirmumah originals– look also for WIZ ROLLINS to be bringing back his old comic BAD SHAPE there. Also, I’ve gone ahead and released PDF files there of the 3 original Yirmumah Minicomics from 1998 that started all the trouble. They are crudely drawn and very rude humor, but I hope you enjoy them. My bitter and jaded roots.

And forget the last part… edited it out as I was typing this email… but it looks like crap is hitting the fan elsewhere regarding something else. Awh well!

My wife and I are back from the trip to Denver. I must first say that Denver Colorado might be one of the friendliest places I’ve ever been. I guess it also helps to have awesome friends there already, but every new person we met was wonderful. There were a couple times I felt like I might be “crashing” someone’s party because I wasn’t officially invited, but my wife and i were welcomed with open arms and hugs.

We were staying with Andy Guerrero and his wife Annie. Yeah, Andy is the awesome guitarist of the Flobots, but I’d like to inform those who may not know that he is just a very energetic, gracious, humble and postive person. Like the other members of the Flobots, he gets really jazzed knowing that they’re actually doing something positive with their music and beyond the music with their non-profit organization and the conference being held out there last week. Tons of people came in from all over the country for the official meetings and planning for 2009. Andy and I hashed out a lot of business plans and goals which are going to ROCK and my brain won’t stop thinking about. — But my wife and i also got to relax a good bit…

Keep in mind, my wife and i have never really been on a vacation of any kind. She’s never been on a plane before (she did well! although she still dislikes it!) – . So this trip was a little bit of business and pleasure, and it was just good to relax, (we’re pretty easy to entertain) and know that we didn’t have to be anywhere, and it’s the first time we’ve ever had our kids away from us for a week too. While we missed them for sure, it was just nice to sit down and take a deep breathe and have good laughs and conversations. My wife and I have been on what seems like a non-stop journey these past 12 years, working hard and raising kids and building our core family here. Anyways, I couldn’t have asked for nicer hosts than Annie and Andy. I have to echo the previous statement that I sure wish we lived closer to everyone because it would be great to grab dinner with them or have movie nights or xbox live nights more often and just… CHILL.

I got to witness some hilarious “celebrity” moments hanging out with Andy, which he assures me doesn’t happen all the time, but he’s very humble about it. Without going into details I can tell you that they often went like this. Someone would ask our plans for New Years, and they’d say “Are you going to see the Flobots” — and Andy would kind of just shake his head like “kinda?” — because he really can’t go to watch himself when he’s actually playing in the band, ha!- But then it would come up usually by someone else that he’s the guitarist and then said person would turn super red in embarrasment… then they would of course ask for tickets to the show. I’d just shake my head in wonder watching these things happen. – I will brag that I got my iphone hooked up with “bullet proofing” coating, and I was willing to pay for it too, but Andy knew the guy at the shop who did his phones, so when I came back to pick it up my phone not only had the coating but a nice new hardcase as well– when I went to reach for my wallet the guy says “no charge” — So that was my one ENTOURAGE moment I guess, (I felt like TURTLE getting the designer shoes.) – Seriously, that was cool as hell. I’m getting that guy a sketchcard or some art for sure!

Onto business though… While I didn’t get to hang out at the actual Fight With Tools conference every day I was there for the technology conference. It was great meeting a lot of the Street Teamers from around the country, and Seth and Shannon (board members of the non-profit) organized this conference really well. My side of things is more of getting the actual tools to work for everyone on the tech side. I’ll be making FightWithTools.org a little better functionality wise and content wise. Up until this point I’ve really only been involved with the websites for the band and the main non-profit site, not the FWT community site. I’m all about saving the organization money, there really is no need to spend a ton of money developing a new network from scratch when we can tweek up the one we’re using. It’s a NING community site, so I’ve been studying up on the developers network for NING and doing some homework and making notes here this morning on ways to make the site much more functional, easier ways to group people for activities…  while most people would likely find these things tedious, I actually find them kinda fun. It’s like technical problem solving.

The 30th and the 31st we went to the actual Flobots concerts at the Gothic Theatre. At just about every Flobots show I’ve been to, I like to sit back and absorb the crowd energy and soak it in. For one, it’s a bit surreal to look out at a crowd wearing the bandannas or shirts I designed. I’m being introduced to people who have heard of me, but they ask exactly what it is I do, and they’re wearing a shirt I drew while asking me. “Well, I drew the shirt you’re wearing!” — ha! — But I look out at these Street Team people at the shows, and sitting in groups and classes at the conference, I see that fire and passion they have for going out and making real change. I see them as little groups of “heroes” — like the Flobot lyric goes “We need heroes, build them…” — And the Flobots have done a damn good job of building up these heroes. — I sort of like being the “WATCHER” like character, and being able to give help on the technical side, give them those kind of tools to communicate and organize. And now there are some cool plans to possibly give individual groups their own poster or designs for their own fundraising efforts in their areas. So much stuff planned that I don’t want to talk about yet…. I just have to get to doing it, and I’m sort of taking the ball myself and just going to make these things happen. I couldn’t think of a better place to be on midnight than with my wife at a Flobots show, and then surrounded by some of the most gracious people on the planet. Denver rocks.

So here we are…. 2009. I laughed this morning in bed thinking… what was I doing 10 years ago? 1999? Zombieopolis and Yirmumah. I miss doing those. I realized I’ve been himhawing around for 10 years while I did “other things” and Z has been on the backburner. Yirmumah always is and always will be it seems. I had a funny Yirmumah moment at a get-together party in Denver. One of Andy’s old friends was big into comics and reads webcomics. So I asked him what his favorite webcomic was… he said ATLAND, which I then said I’ve known Nate Piekos forever and fully endorse his fonts. This impressed said person, so I said, yeah, I was even in a group called “PV COMICS” with him, and this guy remembered that! He asked what comic I did… I sort of squirmed a little bit and said… Uh, Yirmumah… — and the guy lit up and laughed, stood back and sort of took me in like he couldn’t believe I was the guy. And he said “Suddenly I’m standing here thinking about spitting cobras and llamas and…” — That was surreal. It made my night and it made me miss Yirmumah a good bit too.

I guess if I had to choose on other thing to do in 2009, it would be Yirmumah or Zombieopolis. I’m taking polls of my friends. So far the votes seem to be split. Zombieopolis is more of a tongue in cheek B-Movie thing, which does feature “Drew, Bob, Calypso” but only in crazy exagerated ways. And Yirmumah is always great, but it always seems to get me in trouble, like a bad split personality or tourettes syndrome. Maybe Yirmumah would be a fun balance since I’m already doing some serious stuff with the Flobots comics…. It’s fun to think about these things in early January. A new year always seems like a fresh start…. this year especially.

Happy New Years to everyone….

I just got done with Will Draw Anything #500. And I still have about 541 orders sitting and waiting. It’s of course not my full time thing, only a side hobby/experiment/novelty. My thoughts on this thing so far…

#1 I wish I could produce MORE, but I’ve been busy working on other things to pay the bills and stay alive.

#2 People are great. I thank them for their patience and support with this. Some people have waited a lonnnng time to get their drawings, and when they get them they are thrilled like a surprise they forgot about. Sort of like finding 5 bucks in your washed jeans, or 20 bucks in an old coat. Some people have paid me WAY more than $2 too, which is awesome. One guy paid 200 bucks for ONE drawing… I had to email him to make sure this wasn’t a mistake, or that he didn’t want me ot produce 100 drawings of the same thing. Hah! – But yes, I’m incredibly humbled by how COOL people are. I know it’s only 2 bucks, but I take it pretty serious and I want people to get some enjoyment from it as well.

#3 – I now consider this some strange experiment I’m doing. I will only stop when the orders have stopped completely. If I can catch up to the buffer, I will end it. I will probably announce when I’m down to the last 50 and start a race with the people, that way if people who enjoy this CARE about it continuing, they will keep it going by ordering more. Maybe I will do this until I’m dead that way?

#4- This also continues to be an interesting look into the human soul. There’s lots of dark humor, lots of ass-kicking violence and kicks to the nuts, but then also touching ones or people in love holding hands, marriage, happiness… and hundreds of other things. We even have a couple follow up sequels in there–  And poor Brett Favre can’t catch a break.

I put all of them on my iphone in a gallery, and they are TRIP to flip through. Awesomely random things, and I forgot I even drew some of them. This will make a good book at some point when I have time to put it together. Until then… back to the drawing board.

On Sundays I get to do a lot of thinking and not much drawing. We have the kids football games pretty much filling up the entire day. Here are some things I thought about yesterday.

Tax bailout… conspiracy theories be damned, but it’s looking more and more like the New World Order plan that so many conspiracy dudes have warned would happen. Well, I’m not cool with it, conspiracy or not. Our tax dollars shouldn’t be used to bail out companies when CEOs are walking away with millions. I hope the Democrats stay firm here in making sure if this happens that they roll in a mortgage plan for regular people who are losing their homes… I’m down for that. But this bailing out of huge companies with our money and we’re not asked about it or even given details, not cool. Someone tell them to leave my tax dollars alone. Starting to look more and more like socialism than a free market.

Comics Comics Comics… When I have time to think, my mind floats through concepts I’ve had for years and years (decades). Somewhere I even have a list of concepts I’d like to do. This is the list I grabbed Hero By Night from a couple years ago, and while that was great, i know there are even better ideas on that list. So I sit and think, how will i get to all of these concepts and get them out there in some format? I’m leaning toward doing 80-120 page graphic novels I think. I have no idea what I’ll do with them when they’d be done, but I reckon that if I had a good solid book completed my options would be much better than where I sit at the starting line. Find a real and honest publisher? Publish myself, serialize it as a webcomic, then print as trade. Those are all the EASY parts. The hard part is getting started and picking one to go with. I think I’ve settled that I will not pick one from my old list until I have completed my plans with Flobots comic, which I’m not sure how long that will be…which leads to my next thought…

Almost done wrapping up the 2nd chapter of the Flobots comic, IRAQ. The 3rd chapter will be getting into some science fiction territory. I don’t really want to discuss too much more than that to spoil where the stories are going, but I promise that it will all tie together in a very cool way later on. I basically found a good story element that allows me to mix every day life stories with some of the SICKEST science fiction stuff I’ve ever dreamt up. I try not to think too hard about it, because it’s so powerful I believe it could melt minds. Stay tuned for that….. I will say though that yes, there will be FLOBOTS. Think robots, but only way the hell cooler.

400. That’s the number of Will Draw Anythings I’ve done so far. I wanted it to be more at this time, but time is a major problem when juggling so much. I still have 568 in the queue as of this morning and more coming in all the time. People don’t seem to mind the wait, which I greatly appreciate. Once I can get these BIG days out of the way, the 15 order days will breeze by. I think right now I’m going to limit myself to Will Draws and Flobots work. These two things make me the happiest work-wise right now.

Back to the drawing board…

Starting a new week here. Lots and lots of work to do, and I’m putting MORE on my schedule too. Time to get the lead out!

STEELERS: Hey, Steelers kicked some butt yesterday. Looking good! Next week they head up to Cleveland to OWN the Brownies. (as usual)

FLOBOTS: Going to try for a 5 day update schedule this week to spread out the conversation a bit with tier updates instead of full pages. Check that later. The gang are over on in Europe right now for their first trip abroad as a band! I’m really proud of what they’re doing, and even prouder to be a part of all of it.

WILL DRAWS: Tons of will draws to do… they keep me sharp. My only regret is that people have to wait so long because of the HUGE order days that I’m still working on. When those big chunks are out of the way, it’ll be smoother sailing for the 10-20 order days.

YIRMUMAH: Something has been brewing in my head as I’ve been working on other things. Bob and I were having a conversation over the weekend where he compared producing Yirmumah to strangling hookers or serial killers. WHA??? He said authorities once asked the Green River killer why there was a big pause in killings, and he just said he was too busy at the time, but sooner or later he was back to killing because it was a fire in his belly. So yeah…. Yirmumah = Serial killing? Uh… Thank god I can actually draw. Anyways, as usual I’m a bit conflicted with doing dark humor or letting that side loose, but in today’s world and climate… oh there’s sooooo much material to darkly chuckle at. Anyway, I am formulating plans and looking at schedules.

FAMILY: Kids are busy back with school. Our oldest is adjusting to 6th grade (Jr. High) really well. Last year from day one, he hated school… but this year he seems to not complain as much. I think the changing of classes is a REALLY good thing for him. I was looking at him yesterday and thinking… what will he be? I asked him if he’d like to be a writer, because he sure does read an awful lot, but he looked at me and said “Naw.”, but I can see the gears churning in his head. By his age, I had already known what I wanted to do with my entire life, which is scary. Or stupid? I don’t know. The sky is a the limit with these boys.

My 10 year old, the football player… he barely gets played this year, but it’s his first year on the new level team, so he’s a little smaller than the other boys. Next year he’ll play much more. But let me tell you, he holds his own! Enough that the coaches sent him into offense to block a giant defensive end, and my boy was owning him. The coach calls it “man handling”, I agree. One thing I’ve noticed the past couple games, their one coach is a jerkoff or hothead. He almost started a fight with a ref last week, and this week he was mouthing off to a coach with the other team. Mind you, in front of the kids, which teaches them nothing at all. He yells at the boys a lot, I’m told he curses like a pirate, but then he has the boys say the lord’s prayer at the end of each game or practice. As a parent, you’re not allowed to talk to the coaches directly, if you want to make a complaint, you have to fill out a paper and drop it in a box at practice to be dealt with by the league officers. And I don’t want to be THAT Dad who’s singling out his kid. Instead, I just tell my son what’s right and wrong, and not to let whatever the coach should say affect him.

Also… they don’t seem to be teaching these boys how to REALLY tackle. instead, they focus on “stripping the ball” , and telling the kids to put their helmet on the ball, and I can see the hesitation on all the tacklers right before they make contact, instead of just straight on wrapping kids up and making contact. The hesitation is embarrasing. So I taught my son how to REALLY wrap someone up in a tackle. If a fumble happens, it happens, but that should not be your goal as a tackle… or else they’d calle the position the FUMBLER or something. Tackling would be much better then a kid running past you for a touchdown because you were looking to put your helmet on a ball instead of wrapping the runner up properly and taking him down.

We could all probably learn something from that. Have you been teaching yourself to be a FUMBLER and not a tackler?

Anyways… its so odd to see my son swooned upon by all the youth cheerleaders. I think to myself… he’s not even a quarterback or barely playing in the game, and these girls are running up saying “Dillon, Sarah says she loves you!” and the other jealous girls swarm around where we’re sitting in the stands. As a Dad, it makes me 50% proud that my son is some sort of stud, but also 50% nervous of what things will be like in high school. Also, 50% scared of what my wife might do to these girls to scare them away. She’s CRAZY! heh.

Thought I’d share the sketchcard samples I did for Marvel and Lucasfilm a couple weeks ago– haven’t heard back from them. Doing the sketchcards are really fun though, I might be doing a bunch of Flobots ones soon, we’ll see. These were all done with Prismacolor markers… Here’s a look…

There’s been no “break” for me. Especially with not a steady paycheck coming in, I find myself back in freelance land doing some small jobs here and there. The little $2 dollar drawings I’ve done have actually brought in a few job offers for higher paying gigs, from company logos to blog headers… so I’m trucking along I guess.

I’m looking to kick the Flobots comic into a higher gear here. I did some writing and plotting and figuring out where it’s going on the sci-fi angle. I’m also thinking more along the lines of graphic novels for the future of my own projects, but I don’t want to jump in and commit to some giant project of my own right now.

I noticed I’ve been locked out of the Drunk Duck account to update Hero By Night or do anything over there (check pageviews). Not even a peep or heads up to me by anyone. They edited the header in a rush getting rid of the email the creator link and the Hero Gram Newsletter link. They also deleted the last entry saying Hero By Night is on extended hiatus, and all of the fan comments wishing it would come back. Another person on Twitter told me he voiced some critique on Drunk Duck in the forums , and his comments were deleted. So it appears, even if they don’t want it to, that Platinum Studios has adopted a sort of corporate fascist police state where while they have deals and contests going on, they can’t allow for ANY discourse in the conversation , or any critique of their services. They want new people and new contestants and their families, new investors to be able to come on and see that “EVERYTHING IS OKAY!” — Again… not very good business ethics at all going on there. I can’t say that it makes me very happy to report that, but I also can’t say that I really give a damn either.

Onward!

I’ve also done a lot less internet communication lately due to keeping myself busy. If I were to stop and “take a break”, i fear I might actually lose my mind or just drop over dead. Sort of like Samson and his hair or something, you know?

37. When your dreams become reality, they are no longer your dreams.

If you are successful, it’ll never come from the direction you predicted. Same is true if you fail.

Is it the 25th? I’m losing track of my days here. June is flying by….

Update from me workwise…

Flobots comic is still in it’s “beta launch” as I slowly put that out a tier a day for the first story. Jason Embury had toleave coloring duties because of his limited time, which is understandable. So I’m switching into “one man army” mode again on my approach for drawing pages and stories. I might decide to actually do MORE now and keep the webcomic a standard full page every M-W-F – We’ll see. I have to test my speed and patience today, after coffee. These are reasons I launched this as “beta” to see what shakes down, because I’ve had the experience in knowing anything can happen. Wow, we are getting some AMAZING stories coming in though, some heartfelt and very passionate. I can’t wait to crack into the more sci-fi aspect of the whole thing as well.

SketchCards: I have some submissions in for official sketchcard work for a few big companies and titles, waiting to hear back hopefully this week. I could use the money, and frankly it’s pretty fun to mess around with. Can’t wait to show off the sample ones I did, but it’ll have to wait until after I hear what’s what.

WillDrawAnything: Yesterday was a lot of fun. I have a ton of requests stacked up now though, not sure if I’ll be able to get to them all today, so I might have to ammend the 24 hour thing, but it’s an awesome addition of content, hell I’m thinking it could even be it’s own darn comic on the side, we’ll see. There’s definitly more than enough content adding up, and it’s all beautifully random!

Speaking of that…. Read more

Been thinking long and hard about a few things, mostly what to say and how to say it. There are a few things I’m extremely happy about, and a couple that I am extremely not happy about. I don’t think there’s a way I can phrase things at this time that won’t piss someone, somewhere off or start some sort of shitstorm, so I’m going to take another day of contemplation while I work. Part of me thinks maybe a shitstorm is what the world needs right now, that and a big yummy dose of the truth.

Here’s something funny. I saw an interesting piece on BoingBoing this morning about GM looking to be innovative and one of their ideas is to have a fuel cell car where the entire chassis or bottom is the fuel cell itself that could be easily swapped out or charged, almost like, imagine a skateboard deck system underneath. It was interesting and thought provoking, but when I went to check out the video, the site was broken in Firefox and the videos wouldn’t load or certain links wouldn’t even click. I’m not sure if I have much faith in GM to change the world yet with vehicles when they can’t even build a website that works on the world’s most popular internet browser.

I have a buddy who does sketchcards for Topps and Upperdeck– they do all the Lucasfilm cards and Marvel Masterpiece cards. He suggested i give a stab at that, and it seems appealing to me and something I wanted to take a stab at for awhile, so yesterday I spent some time working up 9 different samples, and I think they turned out pretty groovy. So groovy in fact, people who have seen them already want them. So, I’m crossing my fingers on that. It was fun, and kinda refreshing to do a mix of different characters. Using the prismacolors is like riding a bike, and it was fun to mess around with those again…

speaking of riding bikes…. Flobots Comic!

I haven’t been pushing it much with a heavy promotion yet, because I’d like for the first story to be done before sending mass amounts of people there, I know it’s a slow update formula based on my schedule right now, but I might be looking to remedy that pretty soon. And to speak of bad luck, Jason shot himself in the finger with a nail gun, the poor guy, so looks like I’m coloring tomorrows update which is what i should be doing now instead of typing! That is why I never use nail guns or avoid manual labor with my right hand as much as possible. I can’t even imagine Jason’s workload right now and doing it with a bum finger, even an ingrown fingernail or hangnail would really suck. That use to suck when I was working on the old newspaper strip and HAD to keep a buffer no matter what. Luckily, this is pretty laid back for now and free flowing.

Oh, and Yirmumah news briefly. It’s good to have that back, and I realized in a fog the other day, that we were originally signed up with Keenspot right before Hero By Night came along, and pretty much from the keenspot launch Yirmumah was running on fumes. But now, Keenspot is all working different and all, and they’ve welcomed Yirm back in the fold with open arms, and I appreciate the boost. It’s safe to say I was missing it for awhile, but just lacked the time. It’s been really fun to laugh and think about fun things that I can do on my own without approval of any kind.  I guess that’s how I do everything anyway if you really think about it. I’ll do what I want, and the world will bend to my will! Hah!

I’ve got to make this day count and get some REAL work done here. Lots of things to do and organize.

What’s going on right now– the Flobots comic has been updated, as well as the Yirmumah comic was updated over the weekend.

Hero By Night rings will be mailed out by the end of the week. That’s the plan. I wanted to go all out and have some nice packaging for them, but well, I don’t have the budget to do that and not as many rings were ordered as people who said wanted them. Such is always the way! But these rings are totally awesome, and will be great for comic collections, or to randomly sit around your computer, knowing that YOU have a vitalogy ring.

It’s funny that I seem to be busier than ever now. I’m also thinking about finally officially joining the Graphic Artists Guild after years of procrastination on it. I find their GAG handbook a bible of information from legal advice and sample contracts, to straight up ethical guidelines to follow in business. They have a great list of FREE lawyers in major cities too to help aid you in collecting from clients, etc. That’s handy! I also am pretty stunned at just how affordable my prices are compared to the going rates in the book for different things and hourly rates. I think I may have to adjust from my 1999 rates.

My wife and I are headed to a Jack Johnson concert tomorrow in Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. She’s had this trip planned since March when she bought the tickets. I dig Jack Johnson, and he’s one my wife’s favorites. The Rollingstone cover he did a couple months ago is sitting on her dresser and his giant smiling melon head greets me every morning when I wake up. He is mellow to he point of GROSS NEGLIGENCE! – (sorry, SNL joke there- link)