January 2008 Archives

Don't worry, I'll get to her.

And now, bullet points.

- I went to OhayoCon a couple of weekends ago and had a fantastic time. OMG HAI to everyone who dropped by or came to my panel. If that con taught me anything, though, it's that I'm not cut out for 12-hour stretches behind a table. Those of you who caught me sleeping there probably, uh, already knew that.

- I got a bunch of gifts in the mail from a friend of mine, which included A book about weird-looking chickens, and toothy teddy socks. And y'know, it was all better personalized and more me than like 90% of the gifts I've gotten in my whole life, not counting my wishlist stuff. That's kinda nice. Well, REALLY nice.

- This is gonna sound weird, but does anybody wanna send me a copy of December's Diamond Previews? I'd really appreciate it, and I'll pay shipping.

There, I think that about covers things.

More later!

Blink and you'll miss it!

So yeah, there you go. What's Wrong With Gene, in a handful of pages, straight from mom. Not that she thinks anything's wrong at all, of course. I'm not convinced she's even capable of noticing if there were. I mean, she's sitting there and telling his friends she thinks he's a-okay, with her granddaughter two feet away and showing her own twenty-something father how to spell his name.

Pretty brutal.

I have a friend who showed this comic to his mom, a while back. She's in social work, and she remarked that she found the idea of a man like Gene taking care of a kid solo pretty scary. Not an unreasonable concern, really. And he wouldn't be capable, I don't think, if it weren't for the half-dozen safety nets he has strung around every corner.

TODAY: All the commissions I have finished so far will ship. (If your commission's shown up in my DA gallery/I've emailed you the finished image, this means you! Sorry for the delay!) All the shirt orders I had as of yesterday morning shipped yesterday, and the recent book orders will go out tomorrow.

Ack.

Please be patient with me, especially about emails. You guys cut me way too much slack, I swear. But don't think I'm not grateful.

Fairly obvious who the speaker is now, I think.

I guess it's a good thing Gene is the way he is. Having a the kind of mom that yaks to your friends about your breech birth ten minutes after meeting them would probably be torture to anyone with a higher IQ.

Wednesday's update is coming on Friday, so Friday's is coming on Saturday. Falling behind again, dammit. Sorry. But in happier news: My Diamond Distributors purchase order came up, yesterday.

They're demanding nearly a third of the The Great Outdoors' original print run. I didn't just meet Diamond's required sales benchmark, I SHATTERED IT. I damn near doubled it. And I owe all of that to you guys. THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH. I'm actually putting off submitting the book for distribution by Last Gasp and Cold Cuts, because I'm not sure I'd have the books left to cover THEIR orders.

You people are amazing and I love you. I am living the dream and IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT.

More Saturday!

The profoundly offensive race theory!

No, really. I'm not kidding. It's a pretty common feature. I am very tickled by it. The Jakes take it about a mile farther than most, though, just by including Ben in the schematics. Just about everyone else seems comfortable just ragging on black people.

And yeah, here it comes: The scripture of Jake. Everything Jake, y'might say. As told by someone who feels perfectly comfortable telling complete strangers that s/he classifies them like breeds of dog based exclusively on ancestry.

My goal with Jakeskin scripture was to give it that tangy dash of pop-eyed lunacy we all know and love, without making said lunacy completely impossible to swallow. I had to believe that somebody, SOMEWHERE, even one in a thousand people, could read what I'm writing on the next few pages and think, "Well, that sounds pretty reasonable." This faith needs adherents, after all. Let's see how well I pull it off, huh?

More Wednesday. And a big, big THANKS to everyone who came to see me to OhayoCon! I'll have more to say on that later in the week!

I've said this before, but I've gotten new readers since then, I'm sure, so I'll reiterate:

Never assume Templar will be worksafe.

The page coming up Friday, which I will not be here to update the blog and announce, is a perfect example.

If you read this comic at work, I suggest you check my blog, via RSS feed or the ironcircus.com homepage, to see what I have to say about the newest page before clicking over. (If you're on Livejournal at work, subscribe to the blog feed instead of the comic one.) I usually mention if the new page features anything squirrelly.

The majority of Templar will have nothing worse than Reagan being fearsomely potty-mouthed. A page here or there will have a joke or visual of questionable taste. (Cock of Science, etc.)

A rare handful, all of which are in the future (arguably starting Friday), might get you in trouble.

I'm not trying to be titillating. Really. I just don't want any pissed off emails about what your boss saw, okay?

Cool.

Going to Columbus. brb.

Bodyguards can pull some pretty long shifts. Especially the ones at the bottom of the totem pole.

And he won't be exactly throwing himself in front of an assassin's bullet meant for the president, either. But more on that later.

Scip gets work from a central office. He's assigned enough hours to cover rent, and he's paid well for his time, but he doesn't work five days a week. Actually, I stuck all the members of the primary cast (and a lot of the supporting players) with jobs that would let 'em believably be home (or wherever) whenever I might need 'em. (Bodyguard, writer, musician, truant student, drunk, etc.) Ray probably comes the closest to having a straight job, but she basically half-runs that joint and picks her own hours.

Speaking of which... Y'know, I used to be afraid that Reagan's dialect was a little over-the-top, even for one of my characters. Yeah, it was fun writing her, but in my brain, she came off a little too close to Tony Soprano for comfort. I harbored a mild fear she was doing Hollywood New York, not the real deal.

Then I went to New York this December and holy shit, I'm going easy on you guys. If I wrote Ray how my waitress in the hotel diner talked, she'd be freakin' unintelligible.

I was in New York for a con, and I'll be at another con this weekend: Ohayocon in Columbus. This was kind of a surprise, and the spot opened up at the very last minute. it's not very far from here and the room'll be cheap, so hey, why not? Come see me, if you're so inclined. I'll have books and shirts for sale! Templar should update as normal on Friday, when I'm on the road.

Also, for some reason, I have mirrored TAZ over on Drunk Duck, where it'll run daily until the archives catch up.

I have a theory, you see.

Back to work...