I’ve been very, VERY lucky the last 3 years of my adult life to have such a job. But I’m not sailing the high seas, raising a flag with a jolly roger on it up the mast, drinking obscene amounts of rum or pretending like I know how to handle a sword (well…that’s not entirely true, I do enjoy drinking obscene amounts of rum now and again) No, I’ve been coloring comic books and doing illustration and digital painting commission work, but mostly coloring comics.

So while that can be a pretty exciting job, that allows you a lot more freedom and the occasional moment of wide-eyed wonderment, it can also at times be the thing that causes the kind of stress which drives you to want to drink obscene amounts of rum for one reason or another. Trust me on this.

Taking into account all of the positive and negative aspects that come along with being a freelance artist, it is still almost like stumbling upon buried treasure when you come across a project that gives you freedom, enjoyment and offers you the opportunity to grow as an artist. So I was more than a little wide-eyed with wonder when I was given the opportunity to work on my next comic coloring project……

Neverland.

THE Neverland, of Peter Pan fame. My absolute favorite story of all time. Everything that you ever dreamed of doing when you were a child, meeting Indians, giant pirate ships, rescuing maidens in distress, fighting pirates and fighting WITH pirates, living in a treehouse, mermaids, fairies, sword fights, danger, excitement, and lots and lots of FUN. Especially when you take into account the fact that THIS version of Neverland is going to be a darker, more twisted version of the classic tale, complete with all sorts of new interpretations on the characters we all know, and introducing some new ones as well. All of the things I love, and an opportunity to really showcase all of the strongest elements in my work.

You can read more about the series here,

Neverland Interview

and yes….Captain Hook……

….if you’re listening, I really DO want to be a pirate.

Larger version can be found here.

The transition back into the working world is going moderately well so far. It’s a job that I know I can do, and I’m not running into anything that is really mind bending and causing me problems yet, so that’s a huge plus. It’s also nice to be able to put in my hours, and LEAVE when it’s done. Hoping I can get all the hours I want when football season rolls around soon, but that’s still kind of up in the air right now. I know I’ll be able to get game days and at least one practice day off, but hopefully I can get things worked around the other practice and stuff. we’ll see. It’s going good as I said, and it’s going to be nice to have steady money coming in again for a change.

I wanted to wait until after the weekend of the 4th to really get moving on stuff again, but I may have to man up and just start DOING things again before then. So much to get started on here. I’m going to really start moving on my creator owned project here, as well as some other things with DJ Coffman. Working on a cool pitch now with writer/creator Eric Hobbs. It’s a great little story, weaving elements from various sources like Neverland, Oz and others into a gigantic, all ages, adventure that looks to be something very special. Artist Derrick Fish is doing some absolutely amazing work on this so far. Some of you might know Derrick from his webcomic work on Dandy and Company. I’ve been reading that forever, and was excited to see his name and his work on this project and get a chance to work with him. We’re doing some really great work together, can’t wait to show some of it later.

As for my own project, I’m going to share some new stuff soon from that. However I’m NOT going to be sharing the name again any time soon. Needless to say, in the last week, I went to see if the domain name I wanted was available for it, and it was. This morning, it’s been registered and has some template thing installed on it and mysteriously has no contact information, no links, no content, but a header and a flaky looking “this belongs to me” tagline. Probably a coincidence, but in a day and age where people just scoop up domains for things left and right in hopes of selling them off, it just as well could be someone hoping that I’ll shell out money for a name I was going to build an IP around.

On the homefront, things are great. We’re getting a lot of little things around the house and yard done that we’ve been meaning to, and enjoying spending time just hanging out this summer so far. Not going to baseball/softball 5 nights a week and weekends is a HUGE bonus as well. Leaves you with a lot of free time in the evenings that’s for sure. Just in the last 3 days, I’ve put in a screen door in the garage that my wife has wanted for 3 years (evidently so I can now hear the speakers from the garage stereo better, which I guess is partly true) put landscape lighting around the water garden/pond by the patio with the wife, finished laying a natural stone wall on the backside of the burm by the pond, and trimmed all the grass in the front yard. that doesn’t even take into account the consumption of extra greasy and crispy onion rings, the graduation party with a live band, playing Lego Batman on the pS3 with my son, sleeping in late on Sunday, having friends over for a 4th of July PRE party, party on Saturday night etc….. so life is definitely good. The only thing I could complain about is that I’m still owed a lot of money from one comic publisher, but really…if that’s the worst thing going on in my life, I’m lucky. I’m sure that situation will be resolved one way or another, hopefully in the next several weeks or in the next month. It needs to be resolved so I can get on with my life. Something I’m making an effort at doing. And while things are hectic, it’s a good hectic now, and I’m enjoying it.

So I’m going to get working on some things that I feel good about now, and hopefully….set that ruler aside and find time to start drawing some of my own lines.

So moving on, I’m going to enjoy doing advertising design again I think, likely be doing some static web design, and other things as they crop up. I’m going to enjoy working on my OWN projects when I don’t have paying freelance work, and generally just enjoying my family and the great life that I have. There are 2 things that I am working on now, the Flobots webcomic, and my own creator owned project Sprocket: A Rift in Time. Working with long time pal and collaborator DJ Coffman, we’re going to really be focusing on long form story telling online, and then in GN format. We quite literally have all the tools we need, not to mention a plethora of idea between us in just about every genre imaginable, to keep cranking out awesome content for years and years on end. It’s going to be quite a change of pace that’s for sure.

So, maybe more blogging will be happening on a regular basis. Or maybe I’ll be outside on the patio by the water garden enjoying a tall glass of gin and juice and just forgetting about the problems of the real world.

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Can’t wait to start getting actual pages done for the Rift in Time project. The script is really writing itself and I’m having a blast with it. Very fulfilling, and it’s going to be a great all ages kind of project, very visually appealing, fresh and fun I think. A distinct animated kind of Don Bluth look to it all as well.

back to work here, just taking a short break to fill the void with a progress report.

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