I was holding off on posting in my blog because I am going to be moving web hosts, but that has been delayed due to a mixup.

The STAPLE pre-party was neat. I had forgotten how many comic books there were at Austin Books & Comics. It felt like an ark for comic books, a backup vault in case civilization fell. I didn’t really know anyone there besides Chris, but my “Team Linus” shirt served as social currency. I also got to meet Goatboy, the artist who did the interior art for The Stork. I had only worked with him online.

Then I went to Reed’s housewarming party where I talked to cute girls about Doctor Who. Cory brought New Age and fruit, pretty much sealing the deal on the fun party situation.

So, starting tomorrow, my Google calendar looks like a blocky cross section of the Funtime Mountains or the EEG readout of the Busytown heartbeat. Lots going on. Planned soirées and the like. It resembles a social person’s schedule, as opposed to a Netflix hermit. Read the rest of this entry »

I was restless last night, so I made this, inspired by a friend’s Facebook post.

It has been a while since I wrote something with a proper ending. The Stork doesn’t count. I mean like a story or poem, something like that. I have plenty of beginnings and middles lately, what with all these various writing projects. What if I get out of practice and find myself unable to end something at the right time?

I better do a remedial ending, just to keep the juices flowing.

Ahem…

Eric turned the last of the dials and felt the heavy tumblers thud into place somewhere in the machinery below. Unsealing the phial, he let the nanophage drip over the dials, melting them into something else, something that would never open again. Back against the metal wall, he let out a sigh, deflating, sliding to the cold floor. His sigh whisped away into the darkness of the vault to visit with the other ghosts.

The sodium lights failed for a moment and then swelled back to life. Eric didn’t notice. He had the locket open in his hand. One last look before snapping it shut. All worth it in the end.

Photoshop turned 20 this year. I first started using version 1 in college, back when it was Mac only, offered only greyscale, and had no layers. It was really meant to act as a digital darkroom for post processing scanned photos. You could sort of draw stuff with it, but that’s what Illustrator was for. Suggesting that one might one day use Photoshop to design web sites or illustrate comics would have been like suggesting that one day Notepad would be used to help land airplanes.

I use Photoshop practically every day. My work depends on it.

Here’s to you, Photoshop. Who knows where I would be without you.

Once I had put together The Stork, I needed a place to get it printed. For the trial run, I used Kinko’s/FedEx Office. Fantastic results in less than a day, but very expensive. I wanted to be able to print it cheaply enough to sell for $1-$2 or just give away.

I had seen some of the work Guild of Blades had done for card games and they recently started doing Print on Demand books. Their prices were insanely low. So I called them up, discussed the job, and sent them the PDFs. I didn’t hear anything back. I called about a week later to follow up. They were really busy and hadn’t had a chance to review the files. This went on for two months. Finally, in January, they had time to look at my files. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I fall into that slough of self-examination where I feel as though I have accomplished nothing with my life. Or, when compared to Person X, I am found wanting. This often happens when I’m not currently working on a creative project, as they tend to define me and give me purpose.

So I think it might be helpful to recollect the things I have achieved. Not in a boastful, resting on my laurels sort of way. But to remind myself that I am the same person who did all of those things. Try it yourself when you are feeling somewhat less than. Read the rest of this entry »

Something I like to do: Make random widgets in Photoshop.

Tonight I brought House of Whack to Boards ‘n Brews. It was good to see it on the table again. I hadn’t taught the game to new players in ages, but this was the smoothest explanation so far. There were four players, a really good size group for newcomers. We played the straight up “Inside the Box” version with nothing fancy. The Throne of Swift and Whimsical Judgment came into play and there was a pretty amusing trial as a result. Dan had a legitimate beef with Jeff, namely being forced to stand while playing and walk around in a circle. The jury was split and it came down to a roll off, which Jeff won. That’s how it goes down sometimes.

Jeff pulled ahead of everyone on the score track and took home a copy of the game. Good times!