It’s been a ride, the last few years since I left California and came to Denver. Things came like monsters at us, one after another. Losing a job here, breaking an arm there. It’s been a tough 4 years. I told myself that, once things stabilized, I would make comics again! This was my rally call I used to psyche myself up for the challenge.

So I made a plan. During the 4 year storm, I would sneak time away working on a secret project called Captain T and the Search for King Ollie’s Gold. The first chapter is written and I’ve started on the second. Notes and charts for the rest of the story are joined by maps, character designs. I even have storyboards for when I wanted to make it a cartoon.

For the past few months, the time I stole was for the part of comic making that I find much more fun than the building part. It’s all in watercolor, but it is taking me a long time.

Drawing has always been a joy of mine and I’m disappointed in myself that I let it slip away from me so easily after college. I’m rusty. I know this. I see it in my linework. But practice makes perfect and I am out of practice. It’s time to change that, and work towards perfection.

Ian asked me what would speed up the process or make it easier to work and I told him maybe a Cintiq and Photoshop (which I am currently without -wow Amber, right?), which is an expensive piece of equipment married with an expensive piece of software. The last four years have made both out of my reach.

Well, Xmas came this past year, and Santa brought me a new Huion screen bigger than a Cintiq.

Ta da! (In a trippy display fashion as an homage to my friend Hamil Griffin-Cassidy, whom I used to make Philo with.). There’s was little XP-PEN remote in my stocking too. Santa got a refurbished one off Amazon, but when it arrived it was still broken. Amazon replaced the screen in two days. Huion has excellent customer service and were right on top of it a day later (there’s a dramatic time difference between their part of the world and mine). We also had a snag with the XP-PEN driver and their customer service was excellent as well. Five stars, both Huion and XP-PEN. Highly recommended. Tell your friends.

I’ve only been playing with it, for now. I’m getting used to a digital screen again. It is both familiar and alien. but it’s time to get down to business.

I log back into the admin part of my site and the content manager I use had a dramatic update I’m not used to yet. The update broke some code here and there, so I noticed that several of the comics weren’t displaying properly.

I’ll be honest. I haven’t been maintaining my site as well as I should be. I’m probably speaking into a void right now and there isn’t anyone looking at my little comics. That’s okay. Sometimes amazing things happen when no one is looking.

I’m going to review the site, pulling at the code here and there, dusting off the archives, spring cleaning the comments, get the comics displayed right again… It’s a long list and I’m not going to get to it all at once. I have to perform triage a bit.

But I’ve made some comics so far this year. I have paintings to share from last year. I have lots of Captain T to share. Thank you for your patience with me, world. I think I’m ready now.