Thanksgiving was ama

Thanksgiving was amazing - SO much GOOD food and company!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Hope you all have a blessed and fun day!

Today It All Changes

Exactly four years ago, on September 30, 2005, I started this blog as a way to talk about whatever was on my mind. Be that updates on projects, religious discussions, comics, rants on this or that, birthday wishes or what have you, it was meant as an outlet for whatever I was feeling or wanting to express at any given time.

Over the years I have gone days or weeks without posting. I've gained and lost readers. I've whined and complained, and I've praised and rejoiced. There have been good days and bad days, good posts and bad posts.

Through it all, though, I had fun doing it, and I was able to get it all out there for the world to see. I made some very close friends through this blog, some acquaintances, and even got some work from it. I've made people really happy with it, and I've made people really mad with it. I've gotten called out on it, and I've been pulled to the side over it.

But good or bad, it's been a constant for four years. And that changes today.

This is officially my 1000th post on this blog, and it will be my last.

If you have followed this blog at all you know that the last four years have been quite the up and down journey. We've laughed, we've cried, we've talked about the most inane subjects possible. But if my last post before this one was any indication (not to mention the many like it and worse over the years), it's time for a change.

I have been loosely planning this for some time, though I had hoped my other plans would be further along by now so that the transition would be smooth. But alas, sometimes things just work out the way they do, and there's nothing that can be done about them.

A few posts back I let you in on my secret that I was retro-dating a few of these posts. I had intended, once I hit about 989, to work my way up to this date to end it on the date I began it. But I lost track and the day passed. So instead of accepting that I retro'd them, and I'm not ashamed. :)

What I intended to happen was to relaunch my website with a new design and brand new blog to start fresh. I am nowhere near ready for that, though, so I am ending this without something to jump to.

What I will tell you is that eventually, I will be starting a brand new blog, which I will update constantly, at the same www.brantfowler.com/blog url. This blog will remain here as an archive.

So why am I doing this? Basically, I have come to the decision that I need a fresh, new beginning. I want to start fresh and clean and put my past behind me. That may sound trivial concerning a blog, but this blog thing is symbolic of a greater desire to lay down the past which has plagued me for some time. I'm ready to move forward and let go.

That's not to say I'm quitting what I'm doing or starting all over completely. I love what I do with lettering, Comic Related, Haven and so forth. But I feel like for a while now I've been like the hamster in the wheel, running its little heart out but never going anywhere. My wheels have been turning, but I've been stuck in a rut. A rut I fully intend to break, starting today.

So with all that said, I would like to thank you all for your faithful readership over the years. I'd also like to thank you for the comments you've left, and for the support and encouragement you've showed. For those of you who made this journey with me and became close friends, LCS forever, guys. Ray, Jenny, and the rest, thank you for following my words and sharing with me yours from time to time.

I hope that you all will follow me to the new blog when I'm ready to take it live. And I hope you've enjoyed reading my ramblings as much as I've enjoyed sharing them.

In closing, I'll leave you with the motto of my former church, which seems more than appropo for the occasion: Today, A New Beginning.

Prayer Changes Things

Regardless of what your beliefs are, I have to tell you that prayer works. I was honestly feeling pretty down for the past few weeks, though I didn't fully realize it. I was always tired and constantly stressed, and didn't feel like doing anything. I put on as strong a front as I could and soldiered on, chalking it up to work.

But tonight I came to a realization, or rather an acceptance, that a little enemy of mine was once again latching on, that being depression. I've suffered with it a couple of times before, once in my teens, once a few short years ago. And so I knew the signs, but for whatever reason just kept thinking it was being overworked.

I'm not going into any detail about the whys and so forth as it defeats the point of this post. After tonight, when I dealt with yet another situation I wish could have been avoided, I accepted what was happening and decided to do something about it. So, not to be too graphic, I took a shower and prayed while I was in there. I tend to do that as it's a good place for reflection and whatnot.

Well, I am 110% better now, rejuvenated, awake, and ready to conquer the day. I'm not delusional, I'm not avoiding or skirting the problem, I feel like I've overcome it before it could dig in too deep and affect me more than it had.

So, for anyone who may have noticed a little off behavior in me, fear not, I'm all good, and I have no one to thank for that but God.

Going Retro

You may notice a bunch of posts magically appearing on Sept. 30th. I'll tell you why in a later post, but suffice it to say for now that I have retro dated several posts because I dropped the ball and didn't hit the mark I was going for. So rather than try to take you all for dummies and pretend like you all just missed them, I figured I'd be the dummy and admit that I'm backdating them. Why? Keep reading. :D

Zone 4 Updates

I'm not going into any details at all here, but suffice it to say that you will soon notice some changes on the Zone 4 Podcast. We've had some shaky weeks of late, and recent developments have been trying. But we are more than soldiering on, we are forging ahead with gusto! So keep listening and stay tuned!

Happy Birthday, Comic Related!

Tomorrow, October 1st is Comic Related's 5th Anniversary! The site has grown exponentially, and it continues to grow. I got a peek at the numbers we're pulling on the site and they are phenomenal!

This weekend we'll be celebrating the anniversary at Mid-Ohio-Con, so if you're there stop by the CR booth (#438) on Saturday.

Details are forthcoming on www.comicrelated.com.

The Job

For those wondering, I've yet to hear the final decision about the job I mentioned a few posts back. As soon as I know for certain I'll let you all know.

Drawing

I've really had the itch to draw more and more lately, just haven't yet found the time to devote to it. I really wanted to have some art to show or sell at the con this weekend, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen.

I am also dying to start this web strip idea of mine, but again, I have to find the time to devote to it. I want to do it all on the strip, from pencils, to inks, to colors, to letters, to writing of course. I want to really devote some serious time into it to improve my craft before debuting it. It would have been cool to debut it at the con, but it's just not happening. Maybe the next one.

Regardless, I am starting to draw more. I even pulled out some of my old art and was looking at the flaws so I could pay attention on areas I need improvement. I hope I can reignite the passion I once had for art. It was such a big part of me for many years. I feel like it's a part of me that's missing.

So I plan on doing my best to rectify that as I can. Wish me luck!

I'm On a Panel!

This weekend at Mid-Ohio-Con I will be on my first panel, speaking on independent comics. I'm pretty excited about it, and I'll be joined by some wonderful people. Chuck Moore will be moderating, and some of the panel guests include Eric Adams, Lora Innes, Dustin Carson and Bob Corby. So it should be a blast.

I'd be lying if I said at first I wasn't a little nervous. After all, I only found out I was on the panel today! But I plan on having fun with it, and if anyone gets anything out of something I say, then cool.

So, if you're planning on being in the Columbus, Ohio area this Sunday, at 3pm you should come to the con at the Convention Center and check out my panel! :)

I'll be at my booth the rest of the con. I don't know the booth number yet, but you shouldn't miss the giant Wannabez banner behind me. :)

Wannabez Pinup Contest

For those of you not following the Wannabez blog or checking out my forums, Twitter or Facebook, we are holding a Wannabez pinup contest.

The winning entry, which will be announced at this weekend's Mid-Ohio-Con and subsequently on ComicRelated.com, will be published in a special edition of the Wannabez #1 preview issue and will receive a prize package including books, prints and other cool stuff.

The deadline is THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2nd! So get on the ball with your pinup!

All the details can be found by clicking the title of this post. Entries already posted in the contest can be found here.

If you don't want to post your entries in the forums, you can email them to me at wannabez @ brantfowler.com

You are allowed to enter multiple pieces, and any medium is acceptable.

You retain rights to your art, but we reserve the right to publish it of course. Non-winning entries will go up on our website.

Have fun!

Rough Weekend

The past couple of days have been rough. I had planned on spending all day and night Friday working my butt off on stuff, pulling an all-nighter, but things didn't quite work out as well as I had hoped.

I did do a lot of lettering including finishing up a graphic novel I was only slightly over halfway finished with, and I did some posts on CR including editing and posting the Zone 4 podcast Friday, so it's not like nothing got done.

But I had forgotten about said podcast until the last minute and it took me forever to edit for some reason. I ended up having to delay it for two hours in fact. And after that was up I did a little lettering then was just spent. So I relaxed a bit, watched a little TV and ate, because I had to record next week's podcast last night.

That podcast had a rough start and some other issues that all worked themselves out, but afterwards it was after 1am and by that point I was not feeling an all-nighter at all. So I tried to stick with it until about 2am and finally crashed. Got up at 6 this morning and worked until about 3pm and crashed again. Got up at 8pm, watched a little TV, ate and then tried to get into work again to no avail.

Right now I'm totally exhausted, but I'm not sleepy. I'm not feeling like doing anything at all. Not reading, not watching TV, not sleeping, not working, not anything at all. So here I sit whining about it all. heh.

Nah, I'm good, really, just feeling the burn and the constant schedule (I never take a full day off, ever, even on the weekends) is wearing on me. I really need and want a vacation, but can't afford it this year. And the car's down, so it's not like I can get out of the house, and that's what I really need. I stare at these walls way too much.

But it's all good, I'll be fine, and all is well. I'm just having one of those days and didn't feel like doing anything but blogging about it. heh.

Moving on, I am still going to plow through all the work ahead of me. I'm still waiting to hear the final word about this new job, which looks to now be part-time. So I'll still be doing everything else I've been doing on top of it.

Tomorrow I don't imagine I'm going to do much actual work. What I am going to do is sit down with everything currently on my plate and anticipate the time needing spent on this new job and really make myself a schedule to stick to, at least until I knock this current workload out. I tend to jump around from thing to thing as monotony and repetition REALLY stall me bad as I hate that, and I hate 9-5 schedules. Tried many times in office jobs and was just absolutely miserable doing that. I do what I have to, but I avoid that as much as possible. But right now I need to get a handle on this stuff and really stick to it until I knock each item out.

So be looking for updates on all my current projects soon.

As for tomorrow, if I'm not doing much work and I'm just focusing on scheduling, what in the world am I actually going to do with the rest of the day? I have no idea. It's not like I'm going anywhere, so I may work on some personal projects, I may just veg out, or I may end up actually working knowing me. We'll see.

Back On Top of Things

The other day I was having a rough day. I've got a good grip on things and a plan of attack. Fear not, I am not overwhelmed, I'm just busy. And that's a good thing. So bear with me a short while longer and all will be good.

Tomorrow I will be going up to Florence for Comicpalooza. If you're up that way swing in and say hello. If not, fine, be that way. :)

Sunday I'll be working on DC Solicitations for CR, and Monday probably Marvel ones. Tuesday and at night I'll be hard at work on everything else. I plan on wrapping some things up by next Friday. We'll see how well that goes.

Cross your fingers for me, I'm waiting to hear back about a very promising and possibly full-time freelance job, which would do wonders for me. So wish me luck or say a prayer!

Under the Wire

Man, I am swimming in backlog at the moment. I've got so much to do I have trouble figuring out where to start and focusing on one thing at a time. Mostly because I have certain things I need to do every day, then other stuff that needs full days to be focused on, which I can't give them.

I'm trying to catch up, folks, but it's just taking me much longer than I expected or could possibly anticipate.

Health is good, getting back to normal. Though I had the worst gall bladder attack last night that I've had in months. I had actually gone nearly two months without one, then last night one hit me hard for about 6 hours. But I'm ok today. Been working for about 8 hours so far as I type this, and it feels like I've been swimming in place because I can't see that a whole lot got done, sad as it is. And I'm talking no food breaks, no nothing, just sitting here straight through.

Why can't I just be swimming in Hawaii, Saint Tropez, or at least Florida...