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Hey kids,
So this is something I’ve been meaning to promote for a while now and just haven’t gotten around to it yet because, y’know, I’ve got other stuff going on.
What kind of stuff? you might ask? Personal stuff, OK? Why don’t you back up off of my shit? Alright?
Alright.
Anyway. What was I saying before you so rudely tried to get into my business?
Oh. Right.
My good friends Lindsey and Jared have recently started a podcast and it is one of my very favorite things. It’s called Double Jump Spirit and it’s… quite difficult to describe, actually.
There is no set theme or topics of discussion for the podcast as a whole or for individual episodes. Lindsey and Jared just show up every two weeks — hopefully, soon to be every week — and talk about whatever is on their mind, or Lindsey’s thirty pages of notes, that day. Popular reoccurring subjects include: gaming, movies, TV shows, Netflix, Amazon, technology, general nerdiness, Lindsey yelling at Jared, groceries, cats, awesomeness, unicorns, Zebra Cakes, and — scarily enough — yours truly.
Double Jump Spirit is always fun and funny and charming and awesome, even when Lindsey is yelling at Jared — or at me, even though I am not there when they record or in any way affiliated with the podcast — which is quite often.
You should be listening.
After a pretty lively debate about hipsters — initially, because I was earlier referred to “the king of comic book hipsters” by my friend, Diana, that quickly escalated into… something else entirely, because of who I have foolishly chosen to befriend ; ) — my “good friend” Dirk Shearer defended my non-hipster ways and threatened, and then immediately acted upon said threat, to illustrate what I would look like if I were a hipster.
With friends like these… : )
2011 was a weird year for me. Granted, most of my years on this planet have been “weird” for the most part; this one was just… different.
2011 was the first year I had lived in my hometown in a decade. Although, I did some freelancing and lived off of what I made, I was technically unemployed — for the first time since I was sixteen years old — the entire year. I knew very few people in town who I wasn’t related to. I lived mostly as a hermit, emerging from my secluded home only for sustenance, out-of-town comic conventions, and, occasionally, for short bursts of human contact.
That said, 2011 also held a lot of big moments for me, as well.
I made more art in the past year than I have in all the years since I dropped out of art school. Some of it got used, some of it didn’t. Some of it I even got paid for.
In 2011, the Amazing David Brame and I stepped into the world of webcomics, with the February debut of Punch-Up.net.
2011 also marked my first time as a paid comic book writer as well as a paid comic book letterer (that book was only just completed and I have not been able to share pages from it as of yet).
And I’ve received shout outs from both Warren Ellis, for a book cover I designed, and Joe Hill, who had start reading my webcomic. I may not be a famous comic book creator, but famous comic book creators are becoming aware that I — or, at least, my work — exists. Hopefully, in a good way.
At the time of this writing, we are nearly through the first day of 2012 and I honestly cannot predict what this new year will bring nor how it will change me. I’m another year older and, hopefully, a little wiser and, with any luck, I’ll be able to say the same this time next year.
Best to you and yours in the coming year. Cheers.
…recently launched a website to showcase — and sell prints of — her beautiful nature photography.
To show her appreciation for your patronage, Candace is offering a 20% off coupon code — 20OFFPHOTO — for all photography prints, valid through April 30th, 2011!
Go check it out. She has some gorgeous work.
…is filmmaker and he recently posted a couple of new short films online.
The first is a beautiful short called “Never Summer” and is a look the highest snowfall New England had seen in years. News reports were calling it a disaster. This is how James saw it.
The second film is probably my favorite thing I’ve seen in weeks. It’s called “Late Nite Dittos” and it’s what happens when photo nerds and exceptionally fun people get together for the evening. It’s a really fun little video that makes excellent usage out of the Matt& Kim song, “Daylight”, and — even though I’ve only discovered it this morning — I’m pretty sure I’ve watched it at least half a dozen times already. (James is the guy wearing the blue T-shirt at the beginning of the video.)
Once you’re done watching these, go subscribe to James’ youTube channel.
Dude’s gonna direct the Punch-Up movie someday…
…is almost halfway through his ambitious month-long project, called 31 Days of Santa, in which — every day — he posts a new original Santa illustration, drawn in the styles and techniques of various artists.
So far, he has paid homage to Ub Iwerks, Winsor McCay, Shel Silverstein, Mike Mignola, and — one of my favorites — Dr. Seuss:
An affordable print of each piece is available for sale, as well as most of the originals, and makes a great Christmas gift. If interested in purchase, you can contact Dirk directly here.
Be sure to check out his blog for the rest of the Santas — and some great commentary on his process — then follow him on Twitter and tell him how awesome he is. He loves that.
Santa Claus is coming to town. Nineteen more times.
…I moved into my first apartment that was just my own. No roommates; no one to fuck up my shit, but also no one to fall back on. Just me.
That same week, I decided I needed a new pair of shoes and, thanks to a “Buy One, Get One Half Of” sale, I actually bought two pairs for pretty cheap.
Not that I needed two pairs of shoes, mind you. I, at just about any given time, own maybe three pairs of shoes. Total. One pair of fancy goin’ out shoes, a pair of my every day sneaks, and a pair of old, beaten up shoes — that used to be my pair of every day sneaks — that I wear if I know I’ll be trudging through dirt or mud and whatnot. I wear shoes until they wear out.
So, yeah, I didn’t really need two new pairs of shoes. BUT they were cheap, so I bought them. I have worn the first pair, and then other pair has sat — in their original box — on my closet floor, for the last three years.
Jump to three years later. Today, actually.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken several trips from Columbus, OH up to Cleveland, carrying a dozen boxes or so of personal belongings into my new house. Saturday, my good friend Troy Stith helped me load up a U-Haul truck and move all of my furniture. I spent most of today cleaning up the apartment so I could turn over my keys to the landlord tomorrow. And, this evening, I met up with some friends once last time and went bowling.
As I turned in my rental shoes and started to put my sneaks back on, I noticed that — after three years, almost to the day — I had finally worn out the pair of shoes I bought when I first moved into my apartment; a giant slit running the length of the shoe, just above the sole.
Since I’m giving up my first apartment all my own along with the shoes I bought with I first moved into it, it seems kind of fitting that — when I leave Columbus to restart my life in Cleveland — I’ll be wearing the other new pair of shoes I bought. Three years ago.
A whole blog post about shoes and not one tongue joke. Seems kinda wasteful.
