Holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went through my head, holy shit
This has been an exceptionally challenging…week? Two Weeks? Month? It’s all kind of blended together. I’m thankful I have a loving and supportive wife who keeps me grounded.
The store has been running like clockwork, which is good, although it’s a clock that requires a lot of managing. It’s been a constant go-go-go all summer, starting with Free Comic Book day, and then Street Fair, and now going to Chicago on Thursday for Wizard World , and then when we get back planning the midnight show party for the new Batman movie (the night of July 17th), and then whatever we want to do for our birthday, and then, finally, a trade show in Vegas in September. Oh, and then after that, October Street Fair.
Other than that, it’s running just like clockwork.
Getting the comic ready for Chicago has gone well, except for, y’know, the end part. Where it’s not printed yet. And the lettering isn’t done. All of this really hinged on the fact that I was stupid enough to try to be upgrading the computer while this was going on.
I think you can see where this is going.
I’m not going to bore you with the litany of details and tragedies, but let’s just say that I ended up buying a whole new computer from parts, except for the hard drive, because of two weeks of trying to get these parts to work together, when we finally put in my old hard drive it stopped working. Thankfully, there were some backups of my writing and such, but not a lot of Kenzie’s stuff, so we have to get that stuff professionally retrieved. In the course of all this madness we ended up with a spare 80 gig Hard drive so we’re using that, but yeah…all brand new computer, and none of our old data on it.
The worst was that it took all the lettering for the comic with it to its grave, so we kind of had to start over with it, less than a week before we left. The art was done and scanned in on CD, I just had to re-letter it, and then get all the notes and back matter up and working. With less time for all of that stuff, it may not have come out as I would’ve liked, but I’m also so worn out from staying up until 3+ am and getting up at 8:30-9 that I kind of can’t see the good in it.
There is good, though. I have a 16-page (counting cover, so 12-page) comic that’s written and drawn and lettered and ready to put in the hands of people that publish comics. Yeah, it’s black and white, and it’s 8.5 x 11, but it’s a thing that I did and I’ve waited my whole life for this opportunity. Even if nothing comes of it, this will be *fun,* and I’ve been so non-stop busy the past month and a half that fun has almost become a distant memory.
Tomorrow, one last early morning and then its in the van with Travis and Lee and to Chicago. Panels, comics, signings, schmoozing, drinking, drinking with Warren Ellis, actually seeing and meeting people like Peter David, Brian Bendis, Greg Rucka, Alex Ross and so many others.
The light at the end of the tunnel is here, and it’s not a train.
