Pre-Halloween

Hey friends!

Its been a stressful damn week. I had a panic attack even. Just A LOT to get done and the OT at the day job is here! Plus home woes (Fleas, Furnace... all of which I discuss on the newest Podcast)... But I am making progress. Got some commissions done this weekend, got stuff boxed up I need to mail to various places and all the USA Starslam mailers are out. I just gotta work on the overseas ones this week. All the paperwork is filled out for them and they are ready to be mailed out. Thats what I will be doing this week.

Also I spent some time today grabbing more Xmas presents off my list. (I'm striving to get all my Xmas shopping done before Nov 11th... just because!) I have also dug through all my tubs, toys, comics, books, games, etc and gathered stuff for the Nov 11th TOY SHOW in Okemos, MI that I will be set up at. I'll sell my old shit and my comics and art there. Should be a good time. A different vibe than a comic con. Much needed. Plus I need to be rid of some crap. If I make a little extra scratch for it in the meantime, why not!

In addition to finishing things off the TO DO list, I am working on the other new stuff I need to do.

Like this:


Recognize any of that? Those are some of my earliest comic work! They will all be scanned and collected into a book for next year's celebration of my 25 years in self publishing. I'm just gonna scan em and see where I can get to after that. Maybe a kickstarter? I dunno. Its old shit. Its honestly HORRID to look at. Does anyone want to see that? We'll see I suppose!

Cute kitty sitting on my kid's car seat!


Anyway, nothing new beyond that.

New Stuff Abounds!

Hey friends.

No deep thoughts today. Just got THE EROTIC ZONE comics back from Greko Printing and once again they have done a bang up job!!

No greater feeling than seeing the final product of your months and maybe years of hard work!

Im busy doing sketches and finishing up the commissions for all the orders. Some books have already gone out and I am shipping more this week. Keep your eyes peeled for them!

Life at the homestead is kind of quiet now that Thanksgiving is over and our Xmas shopping is done. We got the tree up and the cats are relaxing as usual:

Such a tough life....

Behold its majesty!!

In a more personal note, I had to say goodbye to an old friend this past week. That being the Bat Blazer:

Some of you might recall THIS OLD BLOG POST from two years ago where I drove to Illinois and got this vehicle. I got it with 104,000 miles on it and it got up to 139,000 miles. I replaced the starter last year and this year, it suddenly started acting up. Bubbling behind the dashboard (coolant issue) and serious revving and slowing (transmission). It was acting up big time. I did not dare drive it too far when I could avoid it. But driving all the way to work or out to get my kids is a 22 to 25 minute drive there and 22 to 25 minutes back. It certainly wore it down. And this last Friday when my GF attempted to head to work in it, it went south on her and pretty much gave up. And when she got it back to our parking lot, the back passenger tire popped and now its flat. She basically limped home one last time before passing out on us. My brother is going to claim the car now and use it for parts for his own Blazer.

The 1996 Chevy Bat Blazer and I have been through a lot. Two trips to Illinois, some to Detroit, all over Lansing many times, to Owosso, to Cincinnati twice, to Indianapolis Horrorhound, to a drive in outside of Indianapolis and more. Ive slept inside the car many times on trips and we bonded closely, as I do with all my cars. But this guy was special. He was older, wore out and not super pretty at times to deal with. It had all sorts of tiny problems like no cruise control, At the end the reverse did not work, radio didn't work until I replaced it, steering column was tilted, windows sometimes would not roll up, no AC in the summer, rips in the seats... but it got me where I needed to go and through some major transitions my like has taken me the last couple years, it got me through. I am honestly sad to see it go.

Luckily before Friday, I got this:

I could feel my Blazer going. I was nervous as hell about it breaking down and being stranded somewhere. I would talk myself out of doing even simple errands around town because I felt so limited and scared about the car breaking down. So I decided I needed to embrace a change and go for the best my money could take me to. Luckily my credit score has been climbing good enough that I got a car loan at a local dealer and got a new Chevy Equinox. Its a silver/gold type of color. Ive named it the PONY. (Stay gold, pony boy) Its got all the bells and whistles. Things I have taken for granted like AC, working seats, satellite radio and tons of room. Its masterfully safe and even gives me a camera to back up when I reverse. It will take us where we need to go safely and securely. We are already planning our vacation for next year with it. And I got a couple of my own I want to do. I now feel safe enough to attempt it.

I also feel strong enough to say that my hard work over the years has lead me to this point. I coulda got something cheaper, older and simpler. But this time, I wanted to go all out and get something really nice. I never get anything flashy for myself. Im pretty simple by nature. I am always talking myself out of the finer things. On this, I decided to embrace the WHY NOT and just go for it. Im happy to have done so. It feels good to step back and say YEAH, YOU EARNED THIS... and mean it. Metaphorically and financially.

But my plan is to pay this sucker off quick and really fast track my credit back to where it should be at my age. It will certainly give me a leg up with what I want to do in the future. I'm excited and now I'm literally enjoying the ride. Feels good to allow myself to enjoy something again. Ive spent way too much time feeling unworthy and beating myself up for stupid things. This time, I say FUCK IT. Enjoy it.

And I am.

Okay, lastly... I got some new pages from Andy my colorist for STARSLAM 3. I am now going to share some of these spoiler free SFW images. We are back to work on it! Enjoy:

Not much else is new with me beyond that. I bought my friends old acoustic guitar. I gotta clean and restring it but after STARSLAM 3 is done, I plan to maybe break it out and do some song writing again. I would like to anyway. I'm just chasing whimsies here, folks. Better than being depressed the fuck out all the time!!

Okay, back to work with me. I have a ton of things to do and get out the door. Thanks for reading!!

~~T

Random Chunks of Life Experiences

Hey friends,

Last night's blog about Caleb gave me a huge spike in reads. Mostly due to reposts and revisits. I got some wonderful messages about it. I really appreciate it. Here in the blog I try to be entertaining, informative and write from a place of honesty about how I feel about this thing called life. People seem to be entertained by it because the numbers have stayed with me over the 14 years I've done this blog here at Idiothead.com - Same thing with my Morning Show Podcast (Available on Itunes for FREE). I appreciate the continued love and support.

Today's blog is a list of randomness that is on my mind and is going on currently. Enjoy:

1. Speaking on my previous blog about TOYS: My girlfriend sent me this. I thought it fit the concept in my head and thus justifies my feelings on the subject. Let's hear it from the man himself:

2. Remember my old cat Jake? He and Milo were my favorite cats. Milo I lost in 2009. Jake passed away in 2014. I miss them both greatly: 

We used to poke fun at Jake about how big of a cat he was and how much he loved to eat. I saw this painting this week and it reminded me of him. Gave me a chuckle. 

3. The boys came over fora  double sleep over last weekend and I snapped this pic when they were sleeping. I thought it was cute. 

They were laying together. So cute!!

4. My oldest son Cody is coming for a week long visit this coming weekend. Its a crazy time in his life and mine right now but we're gonna make the juggle and make it work. I'm looking forward to seeing him again. Hopefully he will let me snap a few pics this time. In six short months he will turn 18 years old. So trippy to think that!!

5. There's a lot going on in STAR TREK world lately. What with the new show "Discovery" and now reportedly a Khan mini-series. To be honest, neither has me excited. Discovery was promised to be set 10 years before the events of Kirk/Spock prime (not JJ Abrams-verse) and yet the costumes, designs, etc look like JJ Abrams-verse. Plus there's Harry Mudd, being played by a 50 year old Rain Wilson, when in according to the timeline, Mudd would be in his 20s. Also meeting species before the Kirk timeline, like Tribbles... It just sounds like they are taking Trek-isms and throwing them together for a mish-mash of Trekking, with modern storytelling tropes of explosions and crew members hating each other. I'm not excited for it. And now the Khan series: It might be cool, but it has already been covered in a great book series and comic series. If you can improve on that, I don't know. But most importantly: WHY? Sometimes you don't need to see every nook and cranny of a universe. The story in your head can be just as great, if not better. Sometimes when we are shown in a cannon form how something unfolded, we get disappointed. I so wish they would just make a post-TNG/VOY/DS9 show and move forward that way. This isn't grandpa complaining... this is just story writing preference 101 talking. It would be as if I were to make a TV show based on football of the past, give them new, modern uniforms and robotic balls n'shit, and said it takes place before the first superbowl. Some football fans would be like, "wait a minute!!" Just saying. And yes, I'll give it a few episodes of a try. But I'm not excited about it.

5.5 But what I am excited about is Seth McFarlane's THE ORVILLE. Looks like a Galaxy Quest TV show and I'm sure will be a post-post-modern deconstructionist view on sci-fi TV show-isms. We'll see if it has legs to last that long with that, but so far what I see... I'm excited for that rather than Trek. So that says something.

6. I know you are probably curious as to how my comics are coming along. I'm busy assembling the Erotic Zone GN and that will go up on Kickstarter hopefully in August. I'm finishing it up now. Bare with me. I just had to juggle a weird schedule for a while and it took me a long time to catch up with sleep and life around it. But my training is done and I've tapped into the overtime hours. I even had to give up my Saturday off this week for some OT. That's okay. Its all for a greater good. But life priorities must come first before play. Bare with me.

7. On my MORNING SHOW PODCAST I started a new segment called "Does it hold up," where I revist old favorite movies I haven't seen in decades and ask essential questions wondering if the movie holds up or not. Also we are fast approaching episode 500 of the podcast. The contest now for the show is: EMAIL ME a question (or several) that I can read and answer on the air and you get entered into a drawing to win three hand drawn art pages from my comics! Contest ends just before I record episode 500, which is coming very soon! I think I got like 14 left to go. And those come quick! Act now and win stuff!!

I guess that is all that is on my mind currently. Have a great week my friends. Go do great things for yourself and others. Make it happen!

--T

VLOG 3 is Live!

New VLOG has been uploaded! See behind the scenes making of "TALES FROM THE GORE" comic, cat craziness and shark slippers! Enjoy!

--T

Jake R.I.P.

Just before the show this weekend, I got the call from the wife that our beloved cat Jake wasn't getting better and the best option was to end his suffering. It was a painful decision and the effects of his loss is still one that we will be processing for some time.

The wife got him in 2001 shortly before we met. And he was with us every step through our lives of meeting, getting married, every move, every new addition to the family, kids, jobs, etc. He was always my favorite of the furry guys and I am deeply saddened by his death. Its going to take a while to sink in but now that I am home after the long weekend of the show, I'm starting to feel it a bit. He was a valued member of our family and will definitely be missed. We had him cremated and will keep his ashes next to a big pic of him. His spirit will always be here, eating food and making us feel loved. Some pics to remember him: