thoughts & ramblings

Well, tomorrow I fly back to the Windy City for my first trip since the move. The occasion is Anime Central, of course. It's my first full convention of the year. (I hit the NY Comic-Con, but only as an attendee). Since Part Three isn't complete, I obviously won't have anything new, but hopefully I'll at least pay for the trip.

I'll be back for an entire week so I have plenty of time to hang out with friends, hit the con, and take a bunch of pictures while wandering around town. It seems a little odd that I have to go back to take pictures at this point, but there just wasn't time before the move. It's too bad I wasn't able to finish the third book before I left, but that's okay. I have a feeling that being away is giving me some perspective and ultimately more time to work on producing the artwork, so I guess it all works out.

Anyway, I'll see you in Chicago!

Well, folks, the time is at hand.  We're all properly moved into the new apartment, and I'm ready to get back to work on the comic in earnest. As I said before leaving Chicago, expect new pages of the comic in two weeks on May 6th.  However, in the meantime I give you a glimpse of my inner sanctum, where all that creatin' gets done: 

Here's the main drawing desk.  Note lightbox on left and laptop on right.  The big cabinet on the far wall to the left is my flat file, where all my finished artwork is stored.  Yeah, that bookcase on the right is filled entirely with comics and graphic novels, and there's more in the hallway.  On the far left is a table for the paper cutter and to serve the purpose of collecting all the various paper and books that find their way into the room. By the way, the drawing and computer desks, and the flat file were hand-built out of oak by my father. I'm very lucky. He does amazing work!

To the right is my computer setup: Mac Pro with Wacom tablet, scanner, and a sweet, new 24" flatscreen (had two CRTs up until yesterday, actually.)  Off to the left is the printer stand with a B&W laser printer, photo inkjet, and an old, creaky large format printer on the bottom.  The beige box under the desk is an old Compaq Pentium II which acts as a print server.  Also note the TV in the corner.  This is a new (or rather revived) luxury that I've not enjoyed in the past few apartments I've been in.  Hopefully this means catching up on some TV & movies I've missed out on over the past half dozen years while I actually work.  (No, really!)  Also included, but not shown, is a very old stereo system for listening to said video entertainment, but mostly just for listening to NPR (which is on all day).  There are also two closets in the room: a small one behind the desk for office supplies, and a big one near the table for all the boxes of unsold books and various other convention materials.  

All in all, it's a pretty sweet pad. You can see more pictures here.

Anyway, PS will resume back on schedule in two weeks!  Catch you then!

Well, I am sitting here in an empty living room with my wife and our laptops. All that's left in the apartment is our luggage and an internet connection. Em and I leave town early tomorrow morning for the East Coast.

The strangest thing is how calm I feel about leaving. I'm honestly excited to get on the road and go. As much as there's still a part of me that would like to stay, I'm so ready to move, now. Good thing, too, considering 98% of our worldly possessions just got carted away on a truck this afternoon. Kidding aside, I've had a long time to consider this moment, and it very much feels like the right choice, for Emily especially but also for me, too. In some ways I feel that living in Chicago for so long has started to blind me to it. I have a hard time seeing this place with the magic I once did. It's just too familiar, now. In some ways leaving this city may allow my appreciation for it to grow again, while giving me an opportunity quench my thirst for exploration in a brand new city and region. I'll test that theory when I come back for ACEN in May, at least. I plan to take a day or two to walk around and take photos again, since I simply wasn't able to find time this month while prepping for the move.

Hopefully, I can use this move as a chance to reassess all of my goals-for my life, my comic, my business-and do the planning necessary to better make them all a reality, especially now that I'm no longer in this alone, and have such an amazing and supportive partner in life. Obviously, none of this would be happening without Emily, and I've been constantly thanking my lucky stars that I met her. She's the bestest!

Anyway, enough rambling for now. We'll be going to my last ART NIGHT here at Brion & Jen's place this evening. One last chance to see everyone before we're off!

Talk to you all again once we're in Boston!

As some of you may know, my wife Emily has been on a job hunt since last fall. Well, as of last Friday, that search is over, and she has accepted a wonderful opportunity. In Boston.

So, we're moving east. And while this means that I'm going to have to leave my beloved Chicago, I'm genuinely excited about this. I've known for months now that the chances that we could stay here were pretty slim, and I've had plenty of time to think about what it means. There have been job prospects from Long Island to the Bay Area, but not any here at home. It had me in a funk for awhile, but since this Boston gig has materialized, I've been in an increasingly better mood.

I'm torn about the idea of leaving Chicago, since I've invested so much here, especially in my artwork. But, I've lived here over ten years -- all of my adult life, and I've lived in the Midwest for twenty years. If I have to leave, this isn't a bad time. Obviously, it's going to mean some major changes, but I think they'll ultimately be for the better. Moving to the East Coast gives me an opportunity to expand more solidly into a new market, and puts me closer to more publishing houses. The first six months might be a little bumpy, but I'm confident I can make it work. In the end, Chicago will always be my adopted hometown, and my love for it will never go away.

In the short term it will mean I'll have to put the comic on hold while we take care of moving, but in the long run, it's going to mean I'll be able to focus on long term planning for my artwork. I also plan on getting some scripting and planning done before I start drawing again, so I'll be able to produce the comic much more quickly once I'm back.

We'll be moving at the end of March, and I will continue to update the comic over the next few weeks to finish out the current scene. After that I'll need to go on hiatus for a month or two in order to get our new house in order (quite literally) before returning. I'll keep you posted once I have that final plan together.

Thanks for all your support and patience. I promise you this will be a good thing. Just don't expect Kate & Mike to move to Boston, okay? ;)

I'm proud to say that I marched down to my polling place and cast my vote for Obama. I really hope he wins the nomination. I'd like to have a little hope again.

From my friend Bill (beamjockey):

The budget that's just passed the Senate is basically going to kill Fermilab:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fermi_19dec19,1,2424810.story

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=98163&src=5

http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2007/12/19/news/local/doc4768b6d4e621b933264204.txt

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/703900,2_1_AU19_FERMI_S1.article

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1218/1

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/us-budget-spell.html

They're facing closing the lab for at least two months in the new year (sending everyone home with no pay), and killing off the two project proposals that might keep the lab alive after the Tevatron shuts down in 2010.

This is a terrible day for science in this country.

Wow, we got back from our whirlwind trip to NYC on Monday, and only now am I recovering. It was a weekend of incredible highs and frustrating lows, but overall I'm very glad I went.

First of all, traveling with Spike & Matt is always a real joy. There's always this great mix of shop talk and geekery that does my heart good. Matt and I especially enjoy talking about tabletop gaming. It's inspiring.

We got on the road on Wednesday afternoon and travelled to Pittsburgh, where we stayed with my good friends Seth and Erika, and enjoyed chatting until the wee hours. The next morning, we got on the road to Philadelphia. We'd scheduled the extra day of travel so we could stop off there and take in the Mütter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a truly wondrous place full of mutants, wax representations of diseases, specimens, and general medical horrors. It was awesome.

( But it was not without its problems. )

Once at the hotel in New Jersey, we split up to go visit friends in the area. I had a fun time taking the bus into Manhattan and meeting up with an old friend in the East Village. However, on the ride home we all discovered that cabs in NYC are a hell of more expensive than in Chicago. Luckily, I had enough cash on me, but the lesson was learned. At least I was able to get back to the hotel in time to intercept Brion and Jen, who'd done the marathon 12+ hour drive straight from Chicago.

On Friday we made a leisurely start, taking a hotel shuttle along with all of our stuff for the tables straight to the convention center. Once there we discovered that Spike wasn't on the list for a table. After some squabbling with the organizers, we ended up both at my table, which ended up being a blessing in the end -- Friday ended up being incredibly slow. I was thankful to the folks who did stop by and pick up books (thank you, kind souls!), but overall the experience was humbling. After doing so many conventions this year, this was the first time I didn't make 3 figures on the first day. Yikes! Saturday was better, but wasn't enough to make up for the shortfall. Sunday was no better. I had expected such a big show in the largest city in the country to be a little busier. I was wrong.

Thankfully, there were plenty of friendly faces to commiserate with. Right off the bat, we ran into Dave and Raina along with John and Marion at The Comics Bakery and Zack and Steph of LifeMeter. We also bumped into Jaime of In His Likeness , Jim Z, Josh Elder, Jon Lung, Morgan, Hightower, and finally new friends Juno, and Mookie. Good meals were eaten, gossip shared, industry talk had, and general hangouts enjoyed. I had a blast catching up with everyone and learned a tremendous amount, too.

On the last day we were planning to do a 12+ hour marathon back home only to discover that an ICE STORM was barreling in on us between Chicago and New York. Thankfully, our Pittsburgh friends were able to let us stay again, so all five us caravanned back to the 'Burgh that night, and we were able arrive home safely on Monday afternoon.

All in all, I'm very glad I went. And although the travel frustrations were exacerbated by the slow sales, the time spent with friends and colleagues more than made up for it in the end.

In just a couple of hours I'll be off on a journey east to the New York Anime Festival with my good buddies, Spike and Matt of Templar, Arizona. We'll be meeting up with our friends Brion Foulke of Flipside and Jen Brazas of Mystic Revolution for the weekend.

I've been looking forward to this trip for awhile. If you're going to NYAF, swing by Artist Alley and say 'hi!'.

Okay, everybody, you can now officially order PS from from your local comic shop!

Here’s the ordering information:

DEC07 3615 PARADIGM SHIFT GN VOL 01 EQUILIBRIUM SRP: $9.95

Go get it! Let’s kick the doors off this thing!

Had a fantastic time at SugoiCon this past weekend. Trekked out with Spike & Matt, and spent the weekend in Artist's Alley. We also had a blast hanging out with James Hatton of In His Likeness, The Devil's Panties' Jennie Breeden, and Dan Hess of Realms of Ishikaze and eating MIDNIGHT PIE! Awesome times. You guys are awesome. Can't wait to catch up with you again at NY Anime Fest and Ohayocon!

Also, do my buddy Spike a big favor and vote for Templar, AZ on Webcomics Idol. It would make her year.

Oh, and if you dig the skyline in the latest PS page, you can get a closer look at it here.

I have good news! PS has been accepted into Diamond's December PREVIEWS Catalog! I'll get you more details on that when I have them. Suffice to say, I'm very excited!

I also ran into a little extra time over the weekend and whipped up an initial version of the PS Chicago Street Map. I may add more to it at a later date, but for now it works pretty well. Take a look and please tell me what you think.

So, Google's finally got their Streetview working for Chicago, now, and I'm wondering if anyone has any interest in an interactive map of all the locations that have appeared in the comic so far. I could insert the neighborhood names, too.  You can even see if I got things right or not, too.

What do you think?

First up, my pal Paul Sizer is releasing his acclaimed sci-fi epic, Little White Mouse, on the web starting this week! He's got over 400 pages of story, and it's going to be running every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Do yourself a favor, and go check it out!

We had a great time at FallCon this weekend! Spike, her husband Matt and I roadtripped up to the Twin Cities on Friday and rendezvoused with The Marvelous Patric, our buddy and roommate for the weekend. Saturday saw the four of us together in a row of tables in the con hall. Ran into so many cool folks! They all do great work, and you should read their comics, too:

• Abby of the Green Avenger - Abby tells the best stories! She's one of those rare people who's been to Japan, but doesn't have the stars in her eyes about it. I swear, she needs to commit her Tokyo train stories to comics. They would kill.


• Nothing Better's Tyler Page - I've been a long time fan of Tyler's work. He does such a great job of capturing the mood from my college days. It's almost eerie. Picked up his latest collection of NB, and it looks great!


• Joe & Chris Brudelos of Alpha Shade - Some of you may already know these guys, but it's alway great to see them at cons. We finally got to go out to dinner and shoot the breeze on Sunday, too.


• Sarah Morean and her Plastic Frames - Sarah does some the cutest slice of life minicomics I've ever seen. Plus, she's one of the few people I've met outside my own family who's actually from South Dakota. Too cool. I'm loving the experimental stuff she's doing with her comics these days.


• Meredith Dillman - Meredith's one of the most talented illustrators I know, and it's always a pleasure to see her friendly face at a con.


• Alison of Red Zone and Jilly Foo of The Planet Closest to Heaven - I first met these two at ACEN, and it was good to catch up with them again.


• Paul of Wapsi Square - I finally got to meet the man. Unfortunately, I didn't get much time to chat. Maybe next time.

Wow, we hung out with so many cool people! I know I'm missing somebody in here; email me if I skipped over you! Anyway, good times were had.

Saturday evening was glorious. As is the tradition of FallCon, we were fed a free steak dinner by the con organizers, and chatted into the wee hours as Spike educated us on the finer examples of the horrors of the internet. I also spent that time drawing a inked piece of Rogue and Gambit for the con's charity auction.

Overall the con went well, sold about 25 books and got to chat with many, many people. I only wish I had gotten my latest batch of postcards in time, but I managed. One thing I realize after coming back from a show like this is that I need to make some more tutorials on both drawing and the business of being an artist. I find myself giving out so much advice to people while I'm behind the table. I only hope that people find it useful. I'll see what I can do about that in the coming months. PS is going to take first priority, though. I really want to finish Part Three. It's just getting good!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who came by the table, bought books, chatted, commissioned me, and genuinely showed interest my artwork. You guys make it all worth it. Also thanks again to the organizers of the con. You guys have a stand-up show, and I look forward to coming back next year.

We have arrived at the hotel for Fallcon this weekend. Hope to see some of you here!

Congrats to Jane Irwin for a successful lauch of her new graphic novel, Vogelein vol. 2: Old Ghosts! I surprised her by dropping in unannounced yesterday at her signing at Fanfare Sports & Entertainment to help her kick off the new book. After closing up shop there, she, her awesome husband Paul Sizer, and I hoofed it over to RocketStar Cafe for more signing goodness and to party with the cool kids.

I had a wonderful time hanging out with Jane & Paul, and they graciously let me crash on the couch after we stayed up until the wee hours talking comic shop and having a good ole' time. Plus, Paul showed me me some super sneak peeks into his new project, BPM. I can't wait to see it come to completion! It's awesome work, Paul.

If you haven't seen Jane's work before, you should check it out. She's a fantastic artist and storyteller, Vogelein is a wondeful read. I'm so glad to see the second volume in print!

Congrats again, Jane on the new book! You rock!

Yup, the fall convention season is fast approaching, and I'm getting ready for it. Thankfully it won't be quite as gruelling as this summer, but for those of you in the Midwest, there will be several chances to catch me. Plus, I return to NYC; this time for a con! Here's the lineup:

Fallcon Oct. 06-07
St. Paul, MN

Youmacon Nov. 02-03
Troy, MI

Sugoicon Nov. 16-18
Ft. Mitchell, KY

New York Anime Festival Dec. 07-09
New York, NY

Ohayocon Jan. 04-06
Columbus, OH

Should be fun. Hope to see you guys while I'm on the road!

Wow! What an incredible wedding weekend! Our warmest thanks to everyone who came out to help us celebrate the occasion, and especially to our friends and family who helped us put everything together at the eleventh hour and made the big day run so smoothly. We cannot begin to express our gratitude! It was so wonderful to see everyone together for such a special day.

It's hard to believe it's already all come and gone, but luckily enough, so many of you helped capture the moments in photographic form. Thanks to Maciek (who was our interpid photographer for the day), Stacie, and our families (my Dad, Al, Vona, Maura, and Molly) for passing along their own photos to contribute, too. If anyone else has photos, please feel free to post or send them along if you have the chance. We'd love to see and share them!

Also thanks to everyone for their stunning generosity. Our front room is filled with gifts, now. We've heard from people we didn't even expect, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you! When we first registered for all this stuff, we honestly didn't think we'd actually *get* everything on the list, but that's what we got. Wow. We've promised ourselves that we won't start using and putting everything away until the "Thank You's" are sent. Hopefully we haven't set the bar too high. In any case, you'll be hearing from us personally very soon.

For those of you who want to see more details, here's a link to the website we put together for the occasion.

Thanks again, everybody! It was so great to see you, especially if you travelled far to join us. To everyone else we didn't see, thanks for thinking of us. Hopefully we will see you sooner rather than later in our upcoming travels.

So, I'm getting married on Saturday! To those of you who don't already know (or know of) the lucky lady, her name is Emily. She's a wonderful, creative and practical atomic physicist and irish musician named Emily Peterson. I feel like the luckiest man in the world to have the privelege of her hand in marriage, and I'm very much looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her.

If you're wondering why I haven't been talking much lately, well, now you know. Luckily, she's been the talkative one on this.

If I can spare a moment, I'll upload some pictures and various images of the big day after it all settles out, but if it doesn't happen before I get back from the honeymoon, don't begrudge me too much. ;)

Wish us luck!

After good successes at that past three cons (Connecticon, Otakon, and the San Diego Comic-Con), I'm finishing up my summer stint with a leisurely trip to Iowa. Thankfully I had a week-long break in there. Too bad it got immediately eaten up by a couple of non-PS projects. Oh, well. That's money in the pocket, at least.

Planning to hit PS harder in the coming weeks and months. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing , , , , , , , , and . Maybe , too. Also, my elusive brother Kurt will be joining me and Dan baiyu_dan.

Did I miss anybody? Who else is going?