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December 23, 2005

Year In Review - April

Started off the month with a bang! Had the ex finally move out, went to PlanetCon and ran into a lot of good friends, saw Sin City, bought bootlegs of both Battle Royale movies, and watched...WRESTLEMANIA! It has to be said in all caps. WRESTLEMANIA!

I quit doing '22, Three Sixty Five' altogether, devoting the work towards 'MURDER!'

Heard the best thing:

"We heard some cool news about David Bowie, who is working with Mansell to write a new Major Tom song for the end of the film. His “Space Oddity” was one of the things that first inspired Aronofsky, and the way he portrays the desolation of deep space travel certainly calls that song to mind. We also learned that Bowie grilled Aronofsky about his involvement with WATCHMEN. Turns out Bowie’s working on a rock opera version of WATCHMEN on his own, although details about that production are still tentative."

I officially started working on The Black Chamber, after finishing up Sunday Drive.

I was approached to do a five-week engagement in the Previews section of the Star. Approached. That was super cool.

Did this fun piece:

I found myself in a point of crisis, over suspending production on 'MURDER!':

"I'm not going to make any excuses, although to be honest, by Sunday evening, my hand was fucking crippled from two solid days of drawing. I do have the next page scripted out. Thumbnailed, even. I do have every intention of getting this story completed, because it's a story I really dig. I just, you know, haven't worked on it for two weeks.

I think I need to go back to the origin of why I started working on it, to get to why it's not a top priority anymore. When I first did the whole 'marble thing', the comix portion of it was to get me ready to start on BC, but I had anticipated that being much later in the year and completely hand-drawn. Obviously, the New Style made that dream come much sooner than planned for. Adding on the Star thing, and I'm now booked up with work that I'll actually make some money on, but more importantly, that people outside of my clique will actually read. Also, Black Chamber is the most personal and most emotional thing I've ever written. I actually found myself close to tears while writing it, dredging up old memories and feelings, and applying them to the story. I think when y'all finally see it with the dialogue, you'll see that this is the best story that I can possibly do at this time.

And, yeah, that makes the other stuff not as important.

I feel like I'm breaking a commitment, even though I'm in reality ahead of my self-proposed schedule."

This was my best piece of the month:

And the month-end round-up:

Seemed like a void of a month, while I was experiencing it, but I think I got a lot of things in motion that will pan out well for me over the next year or so. Without further ado:

Exercise (Green Marbles):

7 marbles. March was a plateau month, weight-loss wise, and I started to make up for that this month. Lost six pounds, but put on quite a bit of muscle, so I don't think the weight thing is fully indicative of my body transformation going on here.

Day Job (Black Marbles):

2 marbles. Kept under the radar in a positive way, and applied to get certified. I should have the answer on that in the next week or two, once the state's done processing the paperwork. Hopefully some past transgressions don't come back to haunt me. Knowing my luck, they probably will.

[NOTE FROM PRESENT DAY ROB: Turned out there was no need for me to get certified, as it's not required by Missouri or Kansas, and the states that do require it also require you to be a resident, so the whole thing became a moot point. Que sera, sera.]

Finance (Blue Marbles):

1 marble. Car gets paid off in May, though, so that's exciting. That extra 215 a month will be nice.

Comix (Red Marbles):

8 marbles. I really quit 22 and Murder, but don't feel bad about it at all. Black Chamber's taking up all my time, plus I'm working up what I'll be doing for the Star. I'm busy and I'm happy, and I'm finally getting the recognition that I think I've earned. And, as Mark Stinson so eloquently said, "Once the work starts to pay, the free stuff goes away." Ain't that the truth.

Personal (Silver Marbles):

4 marbles. Kept the apartment clean, even with an extremely sloppy new room mate (who's coming around. My 'lead-by-example' mentality I'm talking is really working in all facets of my life). Read 'The Final Solution' by Michael Chabon, and am over half way through 'The Bourne Identity' by Robert Ludlum. Made a new good friend. Had an unexpected good thing happen right out of the blue, too, that being the Star approaching me to do a strip.

Like we talked about last time, I was wondering what to do with the left-over marbles. I think what I'm going to do, when the year is over, that I'll make some sort of art out of them, to keep them there as a reminder that no matter what, even though we're able to steer ourselves in the right direction, that we don't have any control over the world around us, and that environment can affect us. So, I'll incorporate those things back into my environment. Seems poetic.

The not-cleaning-up-after-himself became a large contributor in me now having no room-mate. It got to beyond-disgusting levels by the end.

Posted by Schamberger at December 23, 2005 06:18 AM