VanCAF 2013

Oh my goodness, was VanCAF ever fun!

For those of you who aren't in the know: shame on you. Also, VanCAF is the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival hosted for its second year at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre in beautiful Yaletown in Vancouver, BC. I was privileged to return for its second year and I look forward to tabling again next year.

I sold a lot of books, buttons, and birds, and best of all, I met and reconnected with a lot of great artists and creators like Brett Williams and Trevor Frick. Trevor who, by the way, shared a wonderful present with me which I will share later this week.

I also drew some sketches, doodled in some books, and even managed a commission or two. Of course, I forgot to photograph more than half of them, but I did manage to remember to snap a few. Enjoy them: poor photography, phone shadows, and all:

I also drew Rik, Kinna, Caf-Caf, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Captain America, and the 9th Doctor. Now, who's that young lady with the knives..?

Rip Van Bloggle

Hello, yes, sorry for the months and months of radio silence. I can see that there are actually people still checking back on this site, you poor buggers.

So, September was the last post here. September certainly wasn't the pinnacle of my sojourn of depression, but it was sort of the place where I couldn't carry the things that I dreamed about anymore. Sucked. It took me until December to actually try to sort my brain out. I'm on meds now and they're pretty much one of the best decisions I've ever made. Yeah, they work. I feel like if this is normal, I've been missing out on it my entire life.

I've been busy. Purple Soul, unfortunately, will not be around for a very long time. I've been rewriting and re-imagining it over and over, and, when it began to resemble nothing close to its roots, I put it on a high shelf and began to turn my creativity to new ideas. Ten or twelve ideas later, I finally settled on a new project which will debut shortly.

I will post again soon regarding my lovely week-end at VanCAF and a new book which is available now. And sometime in June, this site will play host to my new graphic novel: Sheepshank. It's fun, I think you'll like it.

Super Laaame Monday

Only lame in that I haven't done any Super Mario drawings this week. Super awesome in that I started a new full-time Monday to Friday job yesterday! My week-end was shorter than usual and Super Mario Monday will be back in its regular time slot next week.

Working For the Week-End

Only the second week and no comic posts? Oh, Jeremy.

I guess it's obvious already why I haven't added a comic schedule to the site. Cuz there is none! Working full-time and parenting a 2 year-old the rest of the time doesn't leave a lot of room for relaxing, let alone comicking. So I work when I can and when I feel like it. Yup. But that's why I'm writing regular posts like Follow Friday and Super Mario Monday, to keep me interested in updating.

In the meantime, I suggest subscribing via Blogger or the RSS Feed. Or Tumblr. Twitter. Facebook.

April Fool

To clarify, the "fool" in the post title is most likely myself.

To my long-time readers: yes, Purple Soul is back. No, $5 Vampires is not going away, but it will remain on hiatus for the time being.

For new readers: hi!

Comicking isn't easy. Like any kind of creative act, it takes hard work, ambition, and the drive to produce constantly. I don't have any of those things. What I do have are a lot of crazy ideas and the self-imposed pressure that I should have started working on those ideas ten years ago. It's crazy, yes. It's not even unrealistic, it's impossible. Time travel is not a thing. And yet I sigh.

That kind of pressure has lead me to do some stupid things. The comics I've drawn in the past have been subjected to numerous format changes and reboots. Experimentation in artwork is completely acceptable and expected, but I'd never kept that spirit. I was changing and erasing my own work not because I thought I could make it better but because I thought I could make it right. That is a very bad feeling.

It's taken a lot of drama and strife to straighten these thoughts out, but my friends and readers and -- most of all -- my wife have helped me to realize that nobody cares if my work is perfect. They only care that I write it and draw it. So, here it is.

Not "finally." Not "at last." Just here it is.