Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been hard at work getting the art for The Walk further along than it has been. But I still feel like a failure on many levels. I can’t blame myself for losing a couple years on it due to my health. But I have a hard time working on it now. When you are working out, you aren’t supposed to work the same muscle group every day. Could that be the same with art? I decided to do something about it.
I started working on a new short comic in tandem with The Walk. It’s in a completely different style and subject matter. It’s made a world of difference on my outlook. Now, instead of struggling through a page for The Walk, I can do a page for this new story. It has actually helped me work more on The Walk because I know I can go back to the other story soon. Because I’m having fun. Oh man, I can’t tell you how much fun it was to draw this page. And I think it shows.
It’s a short story that I plan on self-publishing as a mini-comic. I’ll also include it in a one-person anthology book that I am planning. I’m feeling the need to work on short stories now, or serializing longer ones. Another stumbling block I almost hit on this short story: feeling like I needed to do several drafts. And that’s not necessary. That’s going to slow me down.
A common theme in past blog posts is how I have been thinking about doing a one-person anthology series. A series in the vein of Crickets, Eightball, Lose, or countless others. One large issue a year. Thinking about self-publishing it has me excited. Most of the work will appear online, too. But this is where I’m at now as an artist.
When I get on Facebook, I see my younger peers working all night, preparing their books for cons. I regret that I’m not there anymore in my life. But I have to be realistic about my age and output now. Which isn’t to say I’m jealous. I’m happy with where I’m at. Thinking about scraping by to get to a con now makes me content to stay home. I’ll deposit that table fee into my retirement account instead.
I’m turning 40 in a month. You can’t run every day the older you get. You can’t work the same muscle group. You have to mix it up and compensate for your age.
