Hello everybody…
Since the start of the year, a few people have e-mailed or posted comments on this site asking if everything is okay. I have been meaning to write a post letting everyone know what’s been going on but due to a variety of reasons, I just keep forgetting. Well, tonight I thought it would be a great time to let you all know what’s been going on.
First, everything is okay.
Many of you might recall that I initially went on hiatus back in September due to the fact that I was in limbo about my full time job. It was going to go away in December but then it didn’t. But there were still rumors after the new year that many at my former company (including yours truly) were going to lose their jobs anyway. It’s hard enough to do a strip three times a week without the threat of unemployment hanging over one’s head so even though I did return from hiatus at the start of the new year, I was still on shaky grounds in terms of a full time job.
But then something great happened…
In early February and March, I started getting some really serious interest in my resume and had quite a few interviews. I eventually was hired by a new company and I now work in Washington DC three times a week. That’s the really great news. I’m doing a LOT of design work – which is great, but the hours (and the commute) are completely different than what I had been used to and it’s been difficult to try and find extra energy to devote to the strip during the week.
But what about the weekends?
Well, that WAS the plan I had when I accepted this job. The plan was to work on the strip Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays but thus far, I haven’t been able to do that because…
My weekends have been jammed pack…
At the start of this year, I said I didn’t want to do as many shows as I did last year. In 2014, I did close to 25 shows or appearances of one form or another. Between November and December alone, I did four weekend shows in five weeks so there was definitely a little bit of burn out going on. So this year was SUPPOSED to be different…
But then another crazy thing started to happen…
I started getting quite a few invites to be a special guest or have guest status bestowed on me this year. I have already done a half dozen shows already and it’s not even summer yet! Plus, at the end of every show, I had some kind of commission work to complete – either caricature sketch cards, sketch covers or flat our commissions. In fact, I still have to finish one more commission (I haven’t forgotten, Dave!). So yeah, even though you haven’t seen new Capes & Babes strips popping up on this web site, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been drawing. In fact, I have been drawing quite a bit – I just haven’t been doing it in comic strip form.
So, what’s going on with the strip right now?
If you’re wondering if I am ending it, the answer is absolutely NOT. In fact, I have the entire current story arc storyboarded and scripted. I simply have not found the time it takes to draw all these strips out. Yet.
There is sunshine up ahead, however…
The good news is that I have to go away this weekend for my son’s Little League Challenger’s Jamboree in Virginia Beach and at the end of this month, I will be in Washington DC attending Awesome Con DC. Once Awesome Con DC is over, I don’t have any more conventions scheduled into the very end of summer. So, unless something unexpectedly comes up, after Awesome Con, I SHOULD start to have much more time to get back to finishing up this story arc as well as a bunch of other story ideas I have been collecting since the new year. The ideas are there. The time is not.
Still, with the good there’s the bad…
Because I just started my new job so recently, I don’t have enough time earned yet to take the necessary days off for conventions I have gone to in the past. The previous ones I mentioned have been in travel distance (with the exception of the East Coast Comic Con – I did have enough time off to attend that show since I had made a commitment to attend months ago). Heroes Con was a show I was hoping to get back to this year but that is going to have to wait until next year, possibly. I will, however, be at Intervention Con as well as Baltimore Comic Con and would like to attend the new three day NC Comic Con show in the fall and possibly get back to Steel City Show in December. Those shows are quite a few months away. As the saying goes, we shall see.
In any case…
I AM planning on cranking out new Capes & Babes strips soon. I wish I could tell you the guilt I am sometimes feeling in the morning when I wake up and realize I didn’t create a strip the night before. The good news is that those guilt feelings are beginning to get stronger and stronger so usually that means something inside of me is kicking my proverbial butt and demanding I start producing the strip again. So, stay tuned…
