I want to write a little about the year 2014. For me personally, it was a rebuilding year. I started 2014 with practically nothing but an a apartment, a solid job and a car. Everything else had fallen apart apart rapidly. But I have come up from nothing before, and I was determined to do it again. I’m a believer in affirmations, and I’ve seen almost all of the things I wrote in December 2013 come true. After the jump, I’ll recap the highlights of my come back year… 2013 was a pretty bad year in my personal life, and it ended with me saying enough was enough and deciding to start over again. That’s about all I can legally say about that. As divorces go, mine was rough, but not as rough as some of the stories I’ve heard from other divorcees. Compared to their nightmare stories, my divorce was a walk in the park. Hard feelings aside, I think it was ultimately for the better of everyone involved.
December 3, 2013 was the first night in my little apartment in Greensburg, PA. The only reason it was my first night was because Aaron’s furniture finally delivered the couch and living room setup so I had something to sleep on. I had friends offer me their couches to stay on until mine arrived, but I was too proud to accept their help and feel like a bum, ha. And yes, I had to use a furniture lease place because my departure was very abrupt and I needed to get things together as quickly as possible and I had very little money to my name at the time. That evening, I recall curling up on the new couch and writing in my notepad how I wanted my 2014 to go. They always seem far fetched when you write them, but trust me, shoot for the stars.
#1. Is pretty personal, but it was mostly comprised of finding a feeling of happiness and of finding a partner that I matched with well. My heart and willpower were really broken up after years of deceit and untrustworthy people around me. My match ended up being Ally Monroe. I’m not going to go on and on about how well we work and live together, but I will tell you that I’ve never really had what I have now. I thought I did. But I didn’t know it until I really had it. Whatever “it” is. You can feel it when you find it. Happiness. Peace of mind. Love.
#2 I wanted to draw comics again. Develop an all new story. I wanted to find a publisher for that and debut the book at San Diego Comicon. Now, in December that’s a pretty far fetched goal if you ask anyone in comics, because usually you need to plan San Diego Comicon wayyyyy in advance. Let alone finding a publisher and all that??? But that is EXACTLY what ended up happening. We began developing God Child in December. We launched it as a webcomic on April 7th at Keenspot.com. By “happinstance” Keenspot always has a booth at San Diego Comicon and invited us out and gave us space at their table, directly in the middle of major players like Image, Marvel, IDW…. it was weird and awesome how it came together. We had essentially self-published our issue one and had it printed so we were technically “debuting a book” at San Diego Comicon…… oh, and a week before we left for San Diego? We had quietly signed a book deal with Caliber Comics for not just the first big book, but also a follow up sequel series. Of course, we haven’t made any money doing this…yet… but that wasn’t what my affirmation was 🙂 It took a bunch of money to make all those things happen, but as the universe does when you are committed to action and your affirmations, everything falls into it’s place. Sometimes not how you exactly thought it would, but “technically” everything I said I wanted for God Child came to pass. (Well, except for selling a big Hollywood deal. Hah! But there’s still technically one day left in the year! lol) All joking aside, we are focused and have a lot of work to do and take it very seriously. Not my first rodeo. Not my last.
#3 was work and career related stuff. I don’t discuss it much but I’m now two years into my career at Spreadshirt, where I am the Creative Team Manager for North America. Essentially it’s like a mini Art Director, but I don’t deal with the company’s branding much, (sometimes!) my team’s focus is assisting key accounts in both merch design and web design. I even get to do custom illustrations for some pretty big names that I won’t name drop here. Spreadshirt is a big friggin deal, I think we’re in like 18 countries around the globe. It’s pretty awesome. When people ask me who we work with I usually draw a blank because we do so many on a daily basis…. but yes, big brands. Bob’s Burgers has a shop and awesome merch with us, and even KISS just launched a store with us and some fun Xmas gear. I spent the past 6 months of 2014 really trying to excel at my job managing the graphics/web team and using all of my skills to aid key partners and the give our sales team an edge. I consider our little team like a “special forces” of Spreadshirt. Two years ago I jokingly called us “Team Awesome” and it’s stuck. And now we really ARE pretty friggin awesome. The job is fun, but it’s also demanding and takes a different breed of designer and creative. You can’t just be a “graphic designer” you have to wear many hats on Team Awesome. A perfect example why many graduates should always be learning the latest web design and graphics tools. I honestly can’t think of another company like this that will actively work with key partners to help you succeed. If you ever find yourself in need of a quick gift, or maybe you want to open your own shirt shop as well, then visit Spreadshirt.com to learn more. If you happen to be a comic creator or publisher reading this, I’d be glad to help you launch and style a custom merchandise shop, just email me at dco@spreadshirt.com and let us know what you’re looking for and the sales team and Team Awesome is at your service. 🙂
So, it’s pretty amazing that my main affirmations all came true. I can’t wait to figure out what I want for 2015. 🙂
One of my favorite highlights of the year was being surprised by Ally to drive to Brooklyn to see the play about Jack Kirby. It was wonderful. I wrote a review here. If you know me at all, then you know Jack’s story is important to me because it’s important to comics as a whole. I was so happy that his case went all the way to the Supreme Court and Marvel finally made a deal with the Kirby heirs. All Jack Kirby wanted to do was be able to provide for his family and grandchildren with his creations and now that’s finally happening and it’s awesome to know as a big fan. Long live the king.
I’ve had more great memories this year. I got to see bands like the Black Keys & Arctic Monkeys. I ended up back at comicons, and buried a lot of hatchets. 2014 was definitely a come back year for me.
But now that I’m back, there’s a lot to do. Let’s get doing.
Onward to 2015
That’s awesome, DJ!
I had a similar sort of experience with my divorce, although it took a lot longer.
My ex and I split up in January 2001 and I spent a lot of years struggling… it really wasn’t until 2006 after losing a job in Austin, that I finally said the same thing “enough is enough, I’m starting over”. That’s when I started making Woohooligan after having chased software jobs for the previous 5 years and having not done any art in all that time because I was so busy trying to deal with the horrendous child-support debacle I had to content with… it’s one of those divorce horror stories you mentioned.
I know what you mean about finding “it” in a relationship. I had that same thing. I thought I had it, until my ex and I split up. Tiffany is the real thing. 😀
I got an Asperger Syndrome diagnosis in Portland in 2007 and then in 2009 I finally got on disability. About that time, we had just moved back to Dallas to be near my kids and discovered that my wife had developed an aggressive form of early onset Alzheimer’s (at 40 yrs old), and our kids were in real trouble because of it. So for the next 5 years she and I worked to either get her to get medical help, which never did happen (unfortunately she’s now in a permanent-care facility and no longer verbal), so when it was obvious that wasn’t happening, we worked to get custody of the kids, which finally did happen. They’re all in much better shape now — Alex graduated high-school last year and is on her 2nd serious relationship, and the other two are all caught up on their school work.
In January 2014, with my 3 kids and her mom living with us, we finally spent our entire life savings buying our first house up here in Dayton and moved across country (we couldn’t afford a large enough house in Dallas). So here we are! 😀 I had to take on a bunch of extra software work (thankfully I can charge $80/hr) to make a ton of repairs on the new house, but after a year most of the major repairs (foundation, furnace and a whole new AC) are done and we’re finally “on the mend” as a family. 😀 We even got a letter in the mail from the tax assessor, letting us know that between January and June our house went up from $60k to $116k, so in six months we already earned $50k in equity.
So yeah, it took a while… what? 13-14 years? But we made it. 😀 And I’m still working on Woohooligan and hoping to table a few smaller comic cons in 2015 and maybe if I can generate enough buzz, I can even print a few books via another Kickstarter campaign. 😀