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December 22, 2005
Year In Review: March
By the sixth of March, I'd finally decided to stop doing the 'Bad' comic I was doing. I still remember being really torn up over the decision:
"Fuck it. I'm sick of drawing that asshole in 'Bad'. I never really connected with the character or the story. I was doing it as a way to express myself sequentially and to learn in the process.In hindsight? I grew a TON as an artist doing it, making a lot of mistakes and then learning from them. But, yeah, just sick of that asshole Tex.
Have no fear, though, I'm replacing 'Bad' in comixnovella with 'Murder!', which will now go daily with a whole page on Sundays. I think that's a good trade-off.
The daily schedule begins next Monday, giving me time to ramp up to it, but you will get FOUR! installments this week, with the first directly below."
I think this was the picture that I started developing my 'look' with. The one people seem to most identify with me:
But, it was also in this month that I developed the 'look' that some people still hold against me:
See, at the time, I was just really wanting to do my Black Chamber graphic novel, but knew that I didn't have the skills to pull it off hand-drawn yet. So, I worked out this digital method as a shortcut. While I only worked this way for maybe six months, some people still assume that I do everything digitally. Still, I learned a ton from doing it.
At the same time, I was still doing 'Murder' as well, and turned out this really nice Sunday page:
And this was my best piece of the month:
I'd also started in on a three-pager that was my folks performing at one of their gigs, done in the digital style:
This was arguably the strangest month of my entire life, as well. I was living with my ex-girlfriend until her new place was ready. What a head trip that was. Luckily, we had opposite schedules at this time, so we really didn't ever have to see each other, really. I got to do some couch-sleeping all through this month. I remember how almost everyone would ask me how everything was going at home, and all I could reply was, "It's...weird."
And, on to the month-end wrap-up:
What a tumultuous month! March saw me closing the latest chapter in my life story. I feel like, right now, I'm existing in some sort of limbo-like footnote in said book, waiting for the reader to get back to some actual reading. It's weird.Here we go:
Exercise - 6 Green Marbles
Plateaued this month, but kicking it up to the next level next month. I made a good solid base to work from.
Day Job - 1 Black Marble
Nothing new here to report, just staying on task.
Finance - 1 Blue Marble
Not everything going as I'd like, but I'm not in any sort of desperate situation, either. The car's paid off in June, though, which is really damned exciting.
Comix - 8 Red Marbles
I've combined the goals for 22 and Bad into my daily work on Murder. Murder's coming to about three pages a week, so it's definitely not like I'm doing anything less. I've been getting some really positive feedback on this, too, which makes it even better. The most important thing, though, is how much I'm learning and growing from doing it. I've also come up with a style and method to work with for Black Chamber, which is very heartening. This project's my baby, and I'm happy that I'm going to have complete control over its final product. Final casting for the Jodie character this week, I promise.
Personal - 4 Silver Marbles
Read two novels, kept things clean (mostly) around the apartment, and had one really good pleasant surprise, just this last weekend. I had no idea how many good friends I have in the local comix scene until I got to the show and found it impossible to take more than ten steps without someone stopping me to talk. How great! Also, and I tied these together, last week someone had told me that I'm the most positive influence on the KC scene right now, but then had that echoed by SEVERAL people on Saturday. There were even some people that came from behind their tables just to shake my hand and say 'thank you' for all my hard work. To all of you: You're welcome.
For most of us, when our time is up, all that we've really got left to show we were ever here are the lives we've touched. Fortunately, for those of us in the arts, we can hopefully leave behind a good body of work to help those touched lives remember us.
Posted by Schamberger at December 22, 2005 06:17 AM