Advent Drops Out!

Well, I guess I got too excited about the trailer! Due to some personal reasons and some other stuff Ben decided to withdraw Advent from the Small Press Idol competition. The good news is he's got other stuff lined up as an artist, the bad news is obviously that Advent won't be in the competition any longer.

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Advent Trailer

I don't know how in the world I missed this, but if you click the title of this post you'll be taken to the trailer for Advent, one of the projects I'm lettering in the Small Press Idol contest. It's pretty cool!

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Figure It's Time...

...for another post! I don't really have any updates right now save what you can read over on the Wannabez Blog (see sidebar), but felt I should post anyway.

I had a scare with a lettering project the other day as it seems I lost the entire first two issues and logo, which I moved to disk to make room on the PC. I still haven't located it after frantically going through 40 cds looking for it. It's the ONLY project I've lettered that I'm missing, and I don't have a clue what happened to it. We're trying to see if the printer still has the pages, but in the meantime I had to recreate the logo from scratch. I think I got it pretty close, so we'll leave it at that.

I'm still catching up on some lettering while still waiting on more pages to come in. I've got several small things I have to complete this week or I'm going to fall even further behind. So if I disappear for a while you know where I'm at. Between lettering and work I pretty much have no life as it is. lol.

On an unrelated note, I bought a used copy of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 the other day because I haven't seen it yet. I loved the first one, though I didn't get to see it until it came out on DVD either. I figured with the third one coming out next week I should probably watch the second. And for the price I nabbed this at I couldn't pass it up even used. So I hope to get a chance to watch that this weekend. We'll see.

I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I did finally change my rates on my website. I was going to wait until I got some new samples up there, but for a few reasons I went ahead and posted them. Hopefully they don't scare anyone away!

I guess that's it, really. Nothing much new around here. I'll certainly let you know if anything does come up though. Thanks for reading!

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Mother's Day

This year I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to do anything for Mom. I got paid late and wasn't feeling well this weekend, but with some last minute planning my brother and I set something small, yet meaningful into motion.

My mother's favorite restaurant around here is a Mexican place called El Camino. Her favorite dish is the chicken fajitas. Long story short, I wanted it to be a surprise, and I had no way of getting there. So I enlisted my brother (who can get a ride just about anywhere) to devise a story about leaving something somewhere (he had spent the night with a friend the night before) and have to leave to get it. My mom didn't suspect a thing.

I had also previously rented a movie that I thought Mom would like, which she is now watching.

But before that, we snuck Zach back into the house, set up the food from El Camino at the table and had mom come downstairs, thus there was her Mother's Day surprise!

You have to understand, we're on a 'fixed' budget and eating out like that (it's about $10 a plate) just isn't feasible for us. She has talked about wanting it for a couple of months now and we just couldn't afford it. Today, though, I said skip it and doled out the cash. She's worth it and more, and I wish I could have done more.

But what matters is the three of us sat down together for a meal (which doesn't happen very often, maybe three times a year! We usually each eat in our own domains) and enjoyed my mom's favorite restaurant. Then she got to relax and watch a fun movie. So all in all, this was a pretty good day, and I'm glad we got to make her smile today.

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Wannabez Trailer!

Head over to the Wannabez Blog to check out a new flash trailer!

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Spider-Man 3

I FINALLY saw the movie today, and I really enjoyed myself. I'm not going to go into a full review for a couple of reasons. One, I'd really have to see it again to be able to really review it. Two, there were some immature young people talking and cutting jokes during all the sappy parts, so it was hard to grasp the emotional moments as much as I could have. So again, I'd have to see it again, which I'm sure at some point I will, several times! Then I'm a huge Spidey fan.

To hit the highlights though, I thought all the stuff between Peter and Harry was good interaction. I loved the visuals of Venom and Sandman. Gwen was cool and all, but I expected her to play a more prominent part. I was a bit disappointed by that.

I was also a little disappointed by the origins of Sandman and Venom, just not a whole lot of thought put in there. And Venom was shown way too little. He shouldn't have been in this film (and that pains me deeply to say as he's the one villain I most looked forward to seeing), but rather the seeds planted and he be the main villain in the fourth.

It just felt like they were throwing so much in there just to tie things up. And they spent far too much time on Spidey and MJ and not enough on developing the villains, which they did very well in the first two films. At nearly two and a half hours, though, I expected more care to be given to the villains and various other things.

Oh well, it was still a great movie, and seeing Venom onscreen was a fanboy's dream. I definitely want to see him come back should the fourth take off as Sony promises. Until then I'll be buying the DVD and sitting down to watch all three back to back one day. :)

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Catching Up!

Wow, I had no idea it had been over a week since I posted. Sheesh! As much as I try to keep up...

The deadline for round 2 of Small Press Idol has passed and all but 10 of those who advanced made it in. There's still about 6 days of voting left, so if you haven't please come vote for Wannabez (and Totem and Advent while you're there). :) If you have, thank you very much!

On the lettering side of things, I got a couple of Approbation projects done. Today I'm tackling the two pages of Epsilon Realm I have (thought I had more than that) and another Approbation story if I have time. One story, Construct, was canceled, so I won't be doing that one. And Red Shift I've got laid out (the first ten pages anyway, which is all that's done, pencils only so far). The FE Comics projects start in a day or two I'm told, and I've got another one coming in soon that I committed to many months ago. And I did finish Pozers, just waiting for notes on anything that needs changing/correcting before sending in the high res.

So that's where things are with all that. I may have left something out.

Back to Small Press Idol, I finally got 7 pages of the script for next round done! I'm hoping to finish it today, though Scott has already given me notes on the pages I've finished.

I also have a surprise for WBZ fans coming up hopefully tomorrow, and hopefully it'll help us gain a few more votes this round and next! I've got plans for a couple of other cool things to tie in with WBZ soon as well, so stay posted here and to the WBZ blog for more!

On reviews, I have a few things that were sent to me that I have yet to review, but am working my way there. Frankly I haven't had time to read everything yet. I have read the Archaia stuff and the mini comics that were sent, but I still have one or two others I haven't read yet. Soon, soon.

On SBC, we are working towards a newsletter and I'm trying to get some help with the myspace and comicspace pages so we can get regular weekly updates out there. Hopefully that'll all work out soon as we've got some cool stuff coming up.

And I think that's it for now...

OH! One more thing. I am FINALLY going to see Spider-Man 3 today in less than 8 hours!!! Can't wait!

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More Books I Lettered For Sale!

I just received an email stating that two more books I lettered some stories in (they're anthologies, but all by the same writer) are now available for purchase through Comixpress. You can find them by clicking the following links:

Marcus Midnight: Monster Hunter #1 (I also designed the logo on this one)

Sinister Company Presents: Tales from the Rabverse

The writer behind these books is Ryan Brandt, a good writer and decent guy all around. You can find out more about these titles at www.ronin-studios.com.

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Wannabez Round 2 is Up!

If you haven't read the WBZ blog, checked out my emails, bulletins or posts, then let me inform you that the WBZ round 2 thread is open for PUBLIC VOTE!

Just click the title of this post to get to the thread where you will post a YES to show your support for WBZ. It also contains our Round 2 materials in the first post.

If you're not registered you will have to do that (free of course).

We appreciate all your votes!!!

I am also lettering Advent and Totem, so while you're there check them out here and here and slap down your YES vote for them also!

Thanks!

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Lettering Updates

Since it's been a few days I figured I'd give an update on my status as of right now.

I finished up a short for Approbation a couple of days ago and look to finish the rest of those by the end of the weekend if all goes well.

I'll be finishing up The Mantis today, at least the lettering. The logo may be tomorrow.

I thankfully got an extension on Pozers until tomorrow, and I fully intend to meet that deadline as the writer has been more than patient with me.

Construct got put on hold as I'm waiting for the colors now.

Redshift for Rogue Wolf I'm looking to have done by Sunday.

I'm starting Epsilon Realm #2 next week.

Basically, I've got about 100+ pages if I counted undone, about 80 of which are priority. I look to have all of that completely caught up by the end of next week.

After that I just signed on to do three books for FE Comics starting the week after next with the first one, and I'll also have AOH #2 to do for Victor.

Lightning Squirrel #3 is a bit on hold, but the pages are still being penciled and inked anyway.

I may have a few other from a writer acquaintance as well, but I haven't heard back yet so I don't know for sure.

I'll also be contacting Arcana as soon as I can take on more.

On a related note, I will be raising my rates very soon for new collaborators. I'll most likely keep the same rates for those I've already agreed to work with unless I just can't do that anymore, at which time I'd speak with those creators on an individual basis.

I know I didn't properly mention a few of the projects, but for any creators I'm working with on lettering rest assured that I have planned everything I've got right now in the time line mentioned above.

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My Cousin's House

You know what they say about raining and pouring? Well, if you all remember my post about my cousin getting stabbed a while back, things just got a bit worse for him. His entire house burned to the ground consuming everything he owned. He has four kids and a grandkid and all of their belongings are completely gone. The only thing left standing was the door. No one knows how the fire got started, but a neighbor saw a red car driving away sometime during the day. It's under investigation.

If you are the praying type please pray for my cousin and his family.

Thank you.

Myth Conceptions

The newest one is up, this time talking about Lettering. Hope you like it.

As always, click the post title.

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More Published Lettering!

Hey all,

Not too long ago I found out that a story I lettered called Teddy and the Yeti was going to be included in Josh Howard's Sasquatch GN from Viper Comics. Well, there's a PDF preview of the book online now! The story I lettered isn't in the preview, but my ugly mug is plastered on page 98 of the 106 page preview! If you want to see the preview click the title of this post.

I'm not sure exactly when the book comes out, but I do know it's already printed, so it won't be long. You can read more about it at this blog: http://www.thisisnotahoax.com/

And you can order it from SBC! We have it listed as coming out next week, though some think it might be this week. Go here to pre-order it!

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Keeping Up...

I read a friend's blog the other day about not realizing how long goes between posts when you're busy and it made me feel bad. Here I claim I update this daily (then semi-daily) and then I go for days, almost a week between posts anymore. I get the emails from my sitemeter indicating that views have drastically dropped and it makes me feel even worse. Not because I care about view counts, but because it means people are losing interest or I'm just not providing content to read.

That said, I'm going to try to do better. It's hard when you get so busy and when you get downtime the last place you want to be is the place you work, which for me is the computer. But I started this blog to connect with people, to share things - such as my projects, my thoughts, etc. - and to give updates on my work. Lately all of those have been few and far between. And I know all of you out there understand, and I appreciate that, but I still want to try to post more. So here I am.


Another friend mentioned to me recently how surprised he was at how open I am in this blog, and it's funny because in person I'm not that open. I'm a pretty guarded person actually. I'm not shy and I love meeting new people and talking and hanging out as much of the next guy. But I'm also a loner of sorts, as contradictory as that may sound. I'll put it like this. When I go home or somewhere alone that's exactly what I want to be, alone. I stay up late at night because of the solitude.

I also don't let a lot of people in. I've been hurt by a lot of people in my life that were supposedly close to me, and I guess it built up a wall. I'm not too trusting and it takes a lot to earn my trust. And except for those I'm close to I really don't talk about myself a whole lot when you meet me. If someone asks a question I'm honest because that's all I know how to be. If it's something personal I'll try to tactfully avoid the question. But I'm still a fun-loving, easy to get along with type of guy. It's just hard to get inside and become one of my very, very few close friends. It takes a long time to build that kind of relationship with me.

Which is why it's weird to hear that I'm so open. I'll be the first to admit, though, that in the written word I'm far more verbose than in the spoken word. I'm also a lot more articulate when I write. When I talk I'm just myself, and I don't use a lot of big words as it's usually off-putting to most. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, I don't know.

In any case, I guess this blog allows me an outlet that I don't really have elsewhere. I don't really have a lot of close friends that I can talk to, and you can only talk to your parents about so much. My brother's half my age, so he doesn't get where I'm at understandably. So this is my outlet, my venting if you will. On top of that it gives people a rare opportunity to get to know me better than they would if they met me in person first.

And that's the beauty of the internet. I've developed bonds with guys in different states or continents without ever meeting them in person. I feel open enough with some of them to talk about things I don't post here or talk to most people about. Without the internet these kinds of connections wouldn't be possible, so I guess technology is good for something. I never have had a lot in common with people around me and have never felt like I fit in. Now that I'm older I view that as a good thing in a way, but when I was young it was hard. But thanks to this blog and forums and so forth I can converse with tons of people who share the same interests as me and it's quite a refreshing experience, let me tell ya.

So I'm glad I started this blog a year and a half a go or so.


I have to give a quick shout out to Matt Yocum who gave me some props on his blog. I was supposed to do some lettering for him, but scheduling and computer problems prohibited it. Luckily he got someone else who did a great job. So go check out Devolution, which is a cool story too, and Matt's Devolution column!


Elsewhere in the wide world of comics, I've posted a piece on Marvel's The Initiative at SBC, which lists all the related titles in the story line that have been revealed so far through July. I'm sure there will be more to add after Marvel's solicitations go online Tuesday.

We've also gotten a whole bunch of new writers for the site who have been turning in a lot of reviews thankfully. So come check those out. We've got some great writers on board.


As for my work, I did wrap all the finishing touches on Nocturnal Essence #1 thankfully, and began working on some other stuff for someone else, though I've neglected to update the writer, so hopefully he'll read this.


Small Press Idol round 2 is underway and Scott is nearing completion on our materials for the round. He showed me I think three of our five characters inked the other day, so hopefully this week he'll get a chance to color those bad boys. I did a second draft of the bios, but we're still kicking them back and forth.


I have sadly not done any other writing in a long time. It sucks because I'm so busy I don't have time to do the one thing I want to excel at more than the other aspects of comics. But hey, ya gotta pay the bills, right?


Ending on a personal note, man I had a restful weekend for a change... sort of. Friday I wasn't feeling well (my stomach, again) and took some medication, which typically knocks me out for a couple of hours. Well, I guess being ill mixed with the medication and my near state of exhaustion just kind of teamed up on me because I wound up sleeping for over 12 hours straight! And then I was still tired, but I forced myself to stay awake and work some. Then I crashed for another 8 Saturday! Today I also slept in late and then kind of chilled and watched TV for several hours, something I rarely do. Usually I'll tape most of my stuff and watch it in spurts. But hey, it was a nice change of pace. I may not have gotten out of the house, but at least it gave me some time away from the computer, which was very welcome, and I love the computer. I'm just in front of it way too much.

I guess that's about it. It's after 5am now and I've got a busy day ahead of me, so I'm gonna chill for a bit before tackling it.

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New Reviews!

Here's a whole slew of reviews I've done recently:

Civil War: The Confession

Civil War: The Initiative

Dynamo 5 #1

Family Bones #5

Gamekeeper #1

Mouse Guard #6

Noble Causes #27-28

Thunderbolts #112

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April Snow?

Just thought I'd share that I just looked outside and, yes, it's snowing! in April.

It's been getting colder the last few days since the storm, but I hadn't heard the forecast and wasn't really expecting snow. No wonder it's so cold in here!

Guess it's a good day to be indoors working...

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Myth Conceptions

The latest is up. Ironically with my column a day late I talk about delays.

Also, my column has moved to bi-weekly for the time being so I'm not consistently late anymore. At least let's hope I'm not!

Click the title to read the column.

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Power Outage & More Worms!

Man, we just seem to be plagued with some bad weather. We had a really vicious storm here that knocked all the power out in my neighborhood for about 6 hours or so tonight. I thought there was going to be a tornado. The thunder was rumbling and vinyl siding was flying off of houses.

On top of that, I guess to escape the rain we had a ton of night crawlers getting through the back door. Somehow they were getting underneath the seal and through the plate glass. Man, I've gotta look up what either deters or kills the things!

I shouldn't complain too much though with tsunamis occurring elsewhere, but it was quite an aggravation and a bit of a scare. I was here alone with no car and no phone in pitch black and I couldn't find a match or lighter for candles to save my life. Luckily I finally found a flashlight, but it was not fun.

But things seem to be working properly right now, and as far as I know it wasn't too serious. So that's a good thing.

Anyway, that's what happened to me tonight in case anyone tried to reach me.

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You Will Be Missed

Sis. Jessie, an elderly member of my church of 20 years passed away yesterday afternoon from strokes and heart attacks. She had been sick for a long while. I just found out about it this morning, I didn't even know she was in the hospital.

Ironically, my Papaw is currently at the same hospital suffering from similar problems, so it's a wonder we didn't run into someone we knew.

She was a very special lady. She would pray all the time for the church and for everyone in it. She was as kind as can be, never had a cross word to say. She was one of the truly genuine people in this world. Unfortunately I haven't seen her in quite some time, and now I'll never get a chance to. I will miss her a great deal, as will anyone and everyone who knew her. She was very special, and I know God will keep her.

God Bless you, Sister Jessie.

PC & Printer Woes

Man, just when I think things are going good. Ugh.

It's not really that bad, at least not compared to prior issues.

Recently I had to download and install Windows Service Pack 1 & 2 (against my better judgment because they had caused problems in the past) in order to get a trial version of a program my brother needed for school to work. The download ended up eating up 5GB of my hard drive prompting me to move stuff to discs and delete stuff just to have space on the hard drive (I'll be glad when I can afford a new one!).

Well, it turns out that he can't use this version of the program because it's not compatible with the older version the school has. Sigh.

So anyway, I had to reboot today and when I did everything stopped working. After messing with it for a minute I finally got everything to come up, but I'm very tempted to uninstall that service pack bundle.

On top of that yesterday and today my internet connection has kept going out. I have no clue why as my modem shows everything working properly. So it's been a battle staying online.

And to cap things off, I had to go out and blow $60 on ink cartridges today because I needed them for a project and my brother needed them for homework. Well, the black one doesn't work! ARGH. I have to go out tomorrow and see if they will exchange it. If they don't then I'm out $30. That's what I get for buying the Office Depot brand instead of the Epson brand I guess.

So that's been my day today basically. I've been unable to get very much done today or last night at all sadly, but I'm here now, or I should say for now with the internet doing whatever it's doing.

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