Here is one of the COLOR prints I’ve been working on for Emerald City Comic Con this weekend. Stop by table W03 in Artist Alley to pick up a print of your own! The scarf will be available in four other “House” colors!
It is an image I did for Karl Christian Krumpholz’s “Byron: Die Byron! Die!” But it didn’t get printed in the TPB. So I decided to color it! It’s kinda like Dr. Who meets Cthulhu. The other versions are of the four Hogwarts House colors.
I just received my sticker order for Emerald City Comic Con!
Thank you so much to Paul and Ava Love Hanna of KamikazeRobot.com!
Yesterday I received a note in my mailbox that a registered package would be waiting for me at the post office this morning. I was so excited that I ran outside and started looking for the postman! Unfortunately, he had been gone for 2 hours. I had to wait.
What could it be?
I’m waiting on some new T-shirts and a batch of stickers for Emerald City Comic Con, but I’m also hoping to receive the Writhe doll from South Africa and the Shine doll from somewhere in Ohio. Which one of those four packages could it be???
I doubt it’s the stickers. I haven’t even paid for them yet. It’s probably not the T-shirts. The printer would have told me that they shipped them. It has to be one of the dolls. I hope it’s one of the dolls.
I’ve been waiting to hear from them for so long. Writhe was in South Africa for a number of weeks and had a bunch of great pictures taken of him with his new friends. It had been a long time since the Host had said she sent him off and it does take a long time for packages to make it across the seas. It could be Shine. His trip has been kind of rocky. His photos from New Zealand are in Limbo and there has been nothing but bad news since he got back to the States. I think he may have turned into a Bad Luck Charm. Hopefully, I can get him back and take him to New Orleans with me to get him cleansed by a witch.
I hope it’s Writhe.
I hope it’s Shine.
I hope it’s Writhe.
I hope it’s Shine.
I want to stop worry about them. I want everything to be OK and have them back so that I can start the project over again. I don’t want them to be lost or stolen or kidnapped. I am amazed at how trusting I was to have these dolls sent to complete strangers. I put faith in humanity and especially in people in the goth scene.
I think I’ve always been unquestioning about goths. I’ve always viewed the people scene, the people wearing black with the crazy hair and the tattoos and the piercings, as some sort of loose knit brotherhood. If I pass by someone on the street that looks like they go out to the goth club on occasion, I feel that I can trust that they are a decent, above-average-intelligence person who will do the right thing, have common sense, and not be a complete dick. I immediately put them on the same level as I put myself and consider them part of my Pack. I’m not saying that I am willing to go as far as hand them cash, give them my password, or let them search through my pockets. But I have, at various times, offered my couch to one I didn’t know, offered myself as a reference to help them get a job, and even let them take me down dark alleys in foreign cities to meet their friends.
And I’m still here. Yes, some people in the scene are douchebags. Yes, there are certifiably crazy people and drug users and sexual deviants. There are gosspiers and lecherous old men. There are alcoholics and burnouts. There are liars, cheaters, swindlers, and religious nuts who have all decided to become part of the goth scene. But you know what? They’re all part of the pack and I would much rather call them part of my pack than most of the other people on this planet.
When I sent these dolls out into the world, I only had hopes that my trust was not completely trounced upon.
This morning I jogged to the post office in the rain. I presented the note and my ID and was handed a bubbled mailer.
It was from South Africa.
Writhe had completed his jouney.
I never had any doubt on this one.
—–
C’mon, Shine. Don’t disappoint me. You can make it back home.
This past week I took some time to answer 10 questions for a written interview. I haven’t done an interview in a loooong time and I was a little rusty but, I think I did OK.
I made sure to answer the questions as thoroughly and honestly as I could on the first time around and then set it aside for at least a day. I’ve made the mistake of being super excited about being interviewed and sending the answers off as soon as I was finished. Ugh. Grammatical errors, typos, making myself look like a jerk… All things I’m really good at.
These answers, on the other hand, may still make me out to be a jerk [in regards to some of the music/DJ questions] but I’m pretty proud of everything I said.
One of the questions was about what drives me. Here is my answer:
“What drives me? Shit, I don’t know. Masochism? There have been so many times that I’ve asked myself, “Why are you still doing this? Where are you going? Is this really what you want to do?” That sort of questioning usually leads to, “You suck! There are so many other people that are better than you! Why do you think you can do this! You’re not funny at all. I’m surprised you still have a shred of self-respect…” Obviously, questioning myself leads to dark places, so I try not to do it.
I have given up several times. Once it was for 4 years and that was the worst thing I could have done for my comics. I kick myself for it every day. I’m getting pretty good at kicking myself.
What really kicks my ass is the fact that I’m almost 40 and I feel my life hasn’t really gone anywhere. Yes, I’ve done a bunch of stuff, accomplished a few things here and there, but I should be well into my career by now. I should be a professional already! Before I started Overcast I looked at everything I had done and told myself that if I really wanted to get somewhere in life I had to pick something, ONE thing, and give it everything I had. I mean, that’s what successful people do right? [Besides the ones that aren’t just lucky, born into money, or are fountains of pure talent.] I saw that I received the most pleasure and was completely free to express myself by making comics. So that’s what I picked. Hopefully, that wasn’t a poor decision.
Now that I’m a year and a half into it I’m telling myself, “You have no idea what you’re doing!”
Oh well. I’ll just put my head down and keep pushing along.”
I ordered some acrylic T-shirt displays and received them the other day.
I figured this might make my booth look a little bit more professional as well as give me more space on my table during the convention.
I will have two new T-shirt designs to display as well as two old styles. All four will be on display until they sell out! [Wishful thinking!]
I guess we’ll see how it goes.
