Things to Come and COMMISSIONS for GR CON!

Hey friends! Its been a draining couple of weeks for me. But that will soon be fixed. I have decided to go down to TWO jobs instead of three. My days as the "manager" of Cap City Reprographics are coming to an end and I am now full time at my new graphics job.  After almost 10 months of 16 hour days, I am ready to slow down a bit. However at the new job I will be working a ton of overtime. So it will be very similar, but I will not be spread as thin and it will help me focus on the job more.

The new job is a "career" job. One that I am more than ready for. I am used to just barely scraping by with two jobs to make a living wage. But this one... I quite enjoy it. The environment is professional and the people are great. The job itself is challenging but I am doing quite well at it. Who woulda thought it took me until my 37th year on this planet to finally get a "real" job! HA! Anyway, I am very happy with my choice and I'm glad I found the place. I look to have a long career there from this point forward. It pays my bills, feeds my family and I am able to start thinking about things I need for the future. For the first time in my life I have actual health insurance, a 401K... you know.. ADULT things! Wow. And now I will also have a bit more time to focus on finishing the art projects I have on my plate. Best of all, I will have a steady schedule to see my boys. It started that way back about a month or so ago and its really working out nicely. We all need steady schedules in our lives. And a healthy sleep pattern isn't anything to scoff at either!

How I got through the days of 18 hours of work at 2-4 hours of sleep, I'll never know. NEVER AGAIN folks... NEVER AGAIN.

But work for me is getting ready to ramp up big time. First up I got the Grand Rapids Comic Con on Oct 16-18th. Word is that tickets are almost sold out for the show, so it is going to be insanely busy there! I am now taking pre-orders for commissions to be picked up at the show. I do not do commissions at the shows anymore so if you want anything from me, you'll have to grab it now. To see info and rates, click HERE and if you are interested in ordering, email me right HERE

Also is the launch of the Kickstarter for STARSLAM 2!!! I started really drilling down on the coloring of the pages this last week and I got only about 10 more pages of art to go. But I'll make my deadline. Right now its looking like the Kickstarter will launch toward the end of the month, with the digital copies available in December, and the print versions in January... very similar to the last time. The book will be around 160 pages and its wayyyyyy awesome! I can't wait for you all to see it.

After that, its full speed ahead on Pleasant Life 2. I'm already 40 pages of art into that, and it will be in black and white, so less work digitally. It should go smoothly. But I hope to have that done in time for convention season next year. No Kickstarter for that I think. Just release as normal. Maybe a book tour. Who knows...

Also sometime next year I will finish and release my first full novel about my porn store work experiences. And MAYBE I will release my short story/poem book too! We'll see on that.

Also in time for con season will be a new pinup book: VINYL GIRLS! Pinups of girls with music and vinyl records in theme. I have the pieces all drawn, they just need to be colored and a cover done for it. (See, I've been busy!!!)

And I'm still planning on launching ALL of my comics digitally in various formats before the end of the year. Look for a big push from me for the holidays. Perhaps a holiday sale to boot!

Lastly, I will continue to work on Star Wars cards in between all of this. I am on a set right now, so I still have to finish that before the end of this month.

So... TONS of stuff is coming off the burners and will be released to your hot little hands!

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As far as personal life, things are going quite well. My girlfriend and I are doing this October horror movie challenge and showing each other favorite horror flicks the other has never seen. This week I showed her EVIL DEAD 2, which she dug. I also showed her some BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD, which she also dug. Up next is her pick: The CONJURING. Somewhere in there we gotta check out THE BABADOOK. And we'll keep up the horror watches all month. I am getting excited for the holidays. Some Turkey, taters and asparagus is all in my head. Yummy!

All things are well. Thanks for checking in. Great ready for the things to come!!

Cheers, T

Week's Progress plus STARSLAM IS DONE!

Finally, 6 years after its creation, the art of STARSLAM is finally completed. All 131 pages. Finished. El finito! I finished coloring the last page last night and I cannot be happier with its outcome. Here are some teaser pics of some of the last pages....

Folks, I gotta say I am really really proud of this story. Sometimes while you are making something, it sort of looks odd and not complete. But once its done and coming together as you originally planned it a year or so before on a page, you realize that you were right all along. It really looks fucking amazing. I'm damn proud of this story and the work I did on it.

I'm not done yet though. I still have to put the word balloons on and PDF the last 61 pages. But that should be done very soon. Also soon will be the launch of the Kickstarter for the thing. This will be my first all digital comic push. However there will be a larger tier print version for those who need one. There will be options to get pages of art, do commissioned pieces and stories for the characters and more. I hope to launch that in November so it doesn't interfere with Xmas time.

I created STARSLAM back in 2008 and always intended this thing to be a big graphic novel. It went through many phases from getting rejected by publishers at SDCC 2009, to development hell, to an online webcomic and up till now. Its finally going to see the full light of day and people will see what I've been pushing for all this time. There's no greater feeling for me than that.

SO: This weekend and next week is word balloon time and I'll get this baby in the can. Also while making the Kickstarter and submitting it. Trust me, I'll let you all know when it goes live.

Also this next couple weeks, I am finishing the STAR WARS MASTERPIECES cards I have to finish. I am in the home stretch on those as well. And I gotta say this time folks, there's not really any bad cards in the bunch. I really took my time on these ones. I wanted to stay far enough ahead on them so that I wouldn't be into the last minute rush like I normally do on some card sets. Nothing on this is phoned in... not that I really do that much anyway. But sometimes some cards don't end up being my best. But these new SW cards are really my best work on them. Wait till you see them! I'll share when I am able to, publicly.

COMING UP - I will have a store signing in Lansing. A last minute "cleaning house" of old prints and products. It will be a collectors store here in the west side of the city. A date will be nailed down soon. Probably mid-November. After Starslam is in the can, its full on ANNA POCALYPSE 2. I am really ultimately deciding to save myself some time and just do the book in black and white. Would you folks mind? I have to redo some of the pages I have done as I am changing some characters around and changing some looks here and there. Plus taking another look at some of these pages makes me second guess some artistic decisions I made here and there. Thats a good thing. And during ANNA 2, I am working on four other card sets and a pinup book for con season. Also, designing new table stuff for con season, including a new backdrop. I'll probably auction off my old one when Anna 2 comes out. We'll see.

Anyway folks, HUGE stuff happening in my world. Thats all just the tip. Wait til you feel the full shaft! (ahem. Sorry.)

Cheers, T

Guarding the Galaxy

Hey everyone. Been busy this week finishing things on my massive TO DO list, in preperation for the MSU COMIC FORUM appearanc this weekend. Details on that HERE

First of all, working on potential base card art for my Pinup/Pitbulls card set. I got this piece done:

Which is cool, but I kinda want to re-draw it and make it look like the cover to an old pulp style book. I've always had in my head a series of sci-fi themed anthology comics similar to what we do with TALES OF SEQUENTIAL MAYHEM. Maybe I could do something with her. I love drawing girls with animals. Anna Pocalypse has a cat with her. This space girl has a pitbull. Maybe they go on crazy space adventures together. Maybe she's an alien herself. Who knows. All I know is I drew her today and I'm asking "who are you?" to her. Maybe soon she will answer. Another pot on the stove.

I finally sat and watched the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer. Admittedly, I know nothing of the comics or the characters involved with it. But I do know James Gunn, the director. I've followed his work since his Troma days, co-writing "TROMEO & JULIET." After viewing the trailer, I can see that indeed he has come a long way. But he always gives it back to the old days of Troma. He's one of the good guys in cinema and endlessly entertaining. Good work sir. You have sold me a ticket.

I did some purchasing this week. I ordered some new books from Amazon, including the newest Neil Gaiman novel (FINALLY) and another Invincible Hardcover. I also stocked up on art supplies and got a couple new shirts to go into my rotation. The weather seems to be getting a bit better so I am looking forward to actually stepping out into the world today and seeing whats crack-a-lackin'.

But of course I shall come home to the long list of TO DO and keep chipping away at its contents. I miss the days where I was way ahead of everything I needed to do. But it feels good to know that I keep the lists and never get behind. Anything self imposed tends to lose steam but anything assigned is always ahead. Good idea! I also have some commissions to finish and start on. Busy week!

See you all at the MSU Comics Forum!

Peace and Love, T

Productive!! (tons of exciting updates!)

Welcome back my friends! I give you the horns upon your return:

Man I needed this week. Things are better with my dad and he's on the mend. Its got my head where it needs to be and so I channelled that into actual production. I got a few more new Starslam pages done. Here's one:

We're getting close to what would be the end of the first book of pages.... I got about 20 pages or so to go. The final big fight (and sex) scene of the book and then tie it all up nicely. They will be released online but it was always intended to be a tradebook when completed. And I am almost done with the pages. Well, I still gotta color and letter them, but the hardest part is done! I'm excited with how its all looking tied together. For those reading the strips online right HERE, There's big things coming up. Starslam starts to get put through some major trials and lessons to learn about being a superhero. Including a couple really nasty fights. The current one with DRAID will be a real test to her. If you are over 18 and don't mind your comics being of an adult nature, I highly recommend you give the comic a chance. After all, its free! Pass it on to your friends. Updates every Monday!

In other news, I did art for two card sets. One was DEAD DIVAS, which I think I shared artwork on before. The other was Pinups and Pitbulls. Here's some of the art for that set that I did: 

Up next, we'll be launching the KICKSTARTER for funding for Tales of Sequential Mayhem #3! We're all done with our stories and in post production with the book right now. Here's a look at the cover so far:

Incentives for the Kickstarter will be original art, commissions, get to be a character in the next book and more! Plus if you missed out on #2 and want to get both books, there will be options for that as well. Some great stuff man. I think we really kicked it up a notch with this new issue. I'm very very proud of it. I'm shooting a cool video for the Kickstarter site this week and building it all up. So expect that very soon. We appreciate your support.

In other news, I will be at the MSU COMICS FORUM next Saturday, Feb. 22nd from 11am-5pm. Come out and see me! Details on the event are right HERE -- Many of my local comic pals will be there and the great STAN SAKAI is our guest of honor. Tell me that don't make you start heading here right now! Plus, there's me...

Good news! I got my tax return so I am dedicating it to one thing only: GET STUFF PRINTED AND RESTOCKED! I'm buying new art supplies, getting con plans together and printing books. Anna Pocalypse will see a reprint, Artbook as well (FINALLY!) and restocking things like prints and black paper/cards. Also today I got the cord I needed for the zip drive, so I can access all my old files and complete the long overdue Pleasant Life collection. That will make print as well!

Lots going on, man. Expect to get sick of hearing from me this year! I'm back baby!

Cheers, T

PS -- this is what the alphabet would look like if Q & R were elminated! (RIP Hedberg)

PSS -- Diet is still going well. Down 17 pounds. I'll take it!