Week 21 - 5/28/22 - Quick Hits
28 May, 2022
Hello!
Today's blog is going to be pretty short. I got back yesterday from my step-sister's high school graduation. It was a quick 48 hour trip, but that much driving and a big milestone life event takes a lot out of you.
Part of what I want to address today is some problems I've been having and maybe we can figure them out together over the coming weeks? Here's the first one. I have a lot of big ideas of what I want to write about here--use this space for. If you've been reading this blog for the past almost 5 months, you've probably noticed that I have a lot to say. I'm opinionated. I want to do advocacy with my platform. And I have a lot of knowledge and experience that I hear people are finding useful.
Sometimes, what I want to tackle is proving to be too big or too unfocused for a single entry, and in the time I've had to do these blogs recently, I haven't been able to get them edited and focused in a way I'm happy with. And I think a part of why they're getting so big and losing sight of some of what I want to say is I feel a need to couch things pretty hard. Some of the stuff I want to say is critical and might come off as harsh--and some of it maybe should--but my anxieties make me not want to come off as overly negative or unintentionally insulting to my audience. Once I've got them sorted in a way I'm happy with, upcoming posts are going to deal with things like actually having something to say in your storytelling, the pros and cons of being a professional who also exists in fandom spaces, and if being innovative is actually helpful to you as a creator. And parts of those are likely going to be critical of some ways of doing this, or trying to do this.
I know my audience is a bunch of smart, practical people. Everyone who has reached out has made that clear. You're going to understand that I'm not trying to be mean or harsh to any one person. I just have to get over my anxiety about how what I say will be perceived. So, that all said, now you know a bit about some of the stuff coming up.
BUT, one of the special parts about this blog is while this is my website and it's all devoted to me and the things I do, this is where we interact and this is meant to be the one spot here--and really, right now the #1 spot anywhere online--where it is equally if not more in service to you than it is to me. What I want from this blog is a place to talk about comics as a business and as a craft and as a medium. A place to, occasionally, go off about the bad things in the world that're dragging me down and hopefully find some solace in sharing ideas and resources and hope for what to do about them. A place to be positive and encouraging and build some sort of community. And, yeah, to have the blog help me make money through promoting my stuff, like, say, the shop page on this very website where you can buy stuff I worked on, or helping me find new projects.
What can it do for you (other than my answering emails as I have the time and, if you're waiting on one of the half-written ones in my inbox right now, I'm actually pretty sure this coming week is going to be the time!)? Do you want more of the same? I'm opening it up for this blog so you can respond, but do you regularly want a comments section to feel more engaged? Do you want more regular Q&A type sessions? Do you want to read short fiction or weird little comics? Small sample scripts that can be used for art practice? Creator connections where I promote writers looking for artists, artists looking for writers, and that sort of thing? Would you be interested in guest posts by some of the cool people I know? Or if I started looking into organizing some little side project anthology type things, would you be interested in learning about those here and maybe participating once/if they get going? Do you want me to hard pivot to just doing reviews of Sam Raimi movies? Stop posting so many words and mostly just share pictures of the cats? Let me know, for the first time, in the comments below.
Problem 2
Okay, I said I have some problemsssss, so let's go over the other one. I have some comics stuff I want to work on. My Adobe subscription has expired and creative cloud is stupidly expensive. Does anyone have good recommendations for alternatives to Illustrator and Acrobat (and also maybe InDesign)? I'm looking for stuff for a little bit of lettering and then file assembly. I've heard that Affinity might be a good option, but if folks have other recommendations, happy to hear them out. Or--while fully knowing the problems of subscription based services like CC--maybe you make use of my online shop so I can afford to use that because that's what I already kind of know how to use. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Next time! Well, I guess we'll be figuring that out together, huh?
Things I've been enjoying this week:
The Quick and the Dead (Movie, 1995), A Simple Plan (Movie), Army of Darkness (Movie), Blank Check (Podcast--currently doing a mini-series about Sam Raimi movies which, if you haven't guessed, I've been listening to), uneventful drives, Pokemon cards, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW Comic), Squirrel Girl The Unbeatable Radio Show (Podcast), watching my sister graduate high school and getting to spend time with my family who I haven't gotten to see all pandemic long, this cool cobra squishmallow I got on my trip (he's a friend), tall TBR piles slowly whittling down and being built back up again, reconnecting with old friends, getting to talk about my favorite Star Wars characters like Dexter Jettster, Elan Sleazebaggano, Lumpy, Itchy, Max Rebo, Droopy McCool, Zett Jukassa, and Gragra, my fond memories of seeing the not good film Dragon Ball: Evolution in theaters (which I've been recalling because while it is not a good movie, it is no longer my #1 least favorite movie ever seen in theaters, an honor which now goes to Men), the food from Mr. G's in Yuma.
New Releases this week (5/25/2022):
Transformers: Beast Wars #16 (Supervising Editor) - The penultimate issue!
Transformers: War's End #4 (Supervising Editor) - The final issue of the ongoing's tie-in mini!
In stores this Wednesday, 6/1/2022:
Sonic the Hedgehog, Vol. 11 TPB (Editor)
Transformers Vol. 5: Horrors Near and Far (Editor of a bunch of it, but also writer of Wreckers: Tread & Circuits, collected here)
FOC this Monday, 5/23/2022:
Adding a new FOC category just to remind you to go in and place your orders at your local comic shop early so you don't miss out on these titles!
Transformers: Fate of Cybertron (Editor) - The final issue of the Transformers (2019) run!
Events!
Got confirmation recently that I'll be exhibiting at a convention later this year. Will say more about that when I can! And next Saturday's blog might also be short or late because it's Becca's birthday!
Pic of the Week:
A nice family photo with the graduate! Big congrats again to Frances!
Today's blog is going to be pretty short. I got back yesterday from my step-sister's high school graduation. It was a quick 48 hour trip, but that much driving and a big milestone life event takes a lot out of you.
Part of what I want to address today is some problems I've been having and maybe we can figure them out together over the coming weeks? Here's the first one. I have a lot of big ideas of what I want to write about here--use this space for. If you've been reading this blog for the past almost 5 months, you've probably noticed that I have a lot to say. I'm opinionated. I want to do advocacy with my platform. And I have a lot of knowledge and experience that I hear people are finding useful.
Sometimes, what I want to tackle is proving to be too big or too unfocused for a single entry, and in the time I've had to do these blogs recently, I haven't been able to get them edited and focused in a way I'm happy with. And I think a part of why they're getting so big and losing sight of some of what I want to say is I feel a need to couch things pretty hard. Some of the stuff I want to say is critical and might come off as harsh--and some of it maybe should--but my anxieties make me not want to come off as overly negative or unintentionally insulting to my audience. Once I've got them sorted in a way I'm happy with, upcoming posts are going to deal with things like actually having something to say in your storytelling, the pros and cons of being a professional who also exists in fandom spaces, and if being innovative is actually helpful to you as a creator. And parts of those are likely going to be critical of some ways of doing this, or trying to do this.
I know my audience is a bunch of smart, practical people. Everyone who has reached out has made that clear. You're going to understand that I'm not trying to be mean or harsh to any one person. I just have to get over my anxiety about how what I say will be perceived. So, that all said, now you know a bit about some of the stuff coming up.
BUT, one of the special parts about this blog is while this is my website and it's all devoted to me and the things I do, this is where we interact and this is meant to be the one spot here--and really, right now the #1 spot anywhere online--where it is equally if not more in service to you than it is to me. What I want from this blog is a place to talk about comics as a business and as a craft and as a medium. A place to, occasionally, go off about the bad things in the world that're dragging me down and hopefully find some solace in sharing ideas and resources and hope for what to do about them. A place to be positive and encouraging and build some sort of community. And, yeah, to have the blog help me make money through promoting my stuff, like, say, the shop page on this very website where you can buy stuff I worked on, or helping me find new projects.
What can it do for you (other than my answering emails as I have the time and, if you're waiting on one of the half-written ones in my inbox right now, I'm actually pretty sure this coming week is going to be the time!)? Do you want more of the same? I'm opening it up for this blog so you can respond, but do you regularly want a comments section to feel more engaged? Do you want more regular Q&A type sessions? Do you want to read short fiction or weird little comics? Small sample scripts that can be used for art practice? Creator connections where I promote writers looking for artists, artists looking for writers, and that sort of thing? Would you be interested in guest posts by some of the cool people I know? Or if I started looking into organizing some little side project anthology type things, would you be interested in learning about those here and maybe participating once/if they get going? Do you want me to hard pivot to just doing reviews of Sam Raimi movies? Stop posting so many words and mostly just share pictures of the cats? Let me know, for the first time, in the comments below.
Problem 2
Okay, I said I have some problemsssss, so let's go over the other one. I have some comics stuff I want to work on. My Adobe subscription has expired and creative cloud is stupidly expensive. Does anyone have good recommendations for alternatives to Illustrator and Acrobat (and also maybe InDesign)? I'm looking for stuff for a little bit of lettering and then file assembly. I've heard that Affinity might be a good option, but if folks have other recommendations, happy to hear them out. Or--while fully knowing the problems of subscription based services like CC--maybe you make use of my online shop so I can afford to use that because that's what I already kind of know how to use. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Next time! Well, I guess we'll be figuring that out together, huh?
Things I've been enjoying this week:
The Quick and the Dead (Movie, 1995), A Simple Plan (Movie), Army of Darkness (Movie), Blank Check (Podcast--currently doing a mini-series about Sam Raimi movies which, if you haven't guessed, I've been listening to), uneventful drives, Pokemon cards, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW Comic), Squirrel Girl The Unbeatable Radio Show (Podcast), watching my sister graduate high school and getting to spend time with my family who I haven't gotten to see all pandemic long, this cool cobra squishmallow I got on my trip (he's a friend), tall TBR piles slowly whittling down and being built back up again, reconnecting with old friends, getting to talk about my favorite Star Wars characters like Dexter Jettster, Elan Sleazebaggano, Lumpy, Itchy, Max Rebo, Droopy McCool, Zett Jukassa, and Gragra, my fond memories of seeing the not good film Dragon Ball: Evolution in theaters (which I've been recalling because while it is not a good movie, it is no longer my #1 least favorite movie ever seen in theaters, an honor which now goes to Men), the food from Mr. G's in Yuma.
New Releases this week (5/25/2022):
Transformers: Beast Wars #16 (Supervising Editor) - The penultimate issue!
Transformers: War's End #4 (Supervising Editor) - The final issue of the ongoing's tie-in mini!
In stores this Wednesday, 6/1/2022:
Sonic the Hedgehog, Vol. 11 TPB (Editor)
Transformers Vol. 5: Horrors Near and Far (Editor of a bunch of it, but also writer of Wreckers: Tread & Circuits, collected here)
FOC this Monday, 5/23/2022:
Adding a new FOC category just to remind you to go in and place your orders at your local comic shop early so you don't miss out on these titles!
Transformers: Fate of Cybertron (Editor) - The final issue of the Transformers (2019) run!
Events!
Got confirmation recently that I'll be exhibiting at a convention later this year. Will say more about that when I can! And next Saturday's blog might also be short or late because it's Becca's birthday!
Pic of the Week:
A nice family photo with the graduate! Big congrats again to Frances!
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