Bleeding Neon

It’s Tuesday afternoon. And I’m freaking out just a little. Because in four days, I’m flying up to Seattle for Emerald City Comicon. The reason I’m freaking out (just a little) is not because of the travel (which I love) or the city (which I love) or the convention (which should be awesome), but because even though I’ve attended many comic book shows before, this is the first major one at which I’m actually holding down a table. Pretty much by myself. For two days.

Actually, I’m excited. I know a lot of people who will be up there, though most of them I’ve only dealt with over the internet, including Denis Caron, Stephen Downer, Sven Straatveit and Jason Copland, who will be joining me at our little Pop! Goes the Icon table in Artist Alley on Saturday to hang out, sign stuff and help give away two pages of his original art from the first issue of Omega Comics Presents.

But the only show I’ve tabled thus far was the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival, which is relatively small (1200 attendees), and was only five hours. I decided to forego bigger shows such as San Diego Comic-Con this year in lieu of more intimate (or at least, not four-day blowouts) venues such as ECCC and Long Beach Comic-Con. But still, ECCC is pretty huge, and I’ll have to be all cheery and approachable behind a table for two full days, something I haven’t done since I worked in retail — and that was a long time ago.

And as I’ll be in Artist Alley, people might expect, I dunno, sketches or something. And I’ve already had requests from folks attending for sketches. I gives me performance anxiety. And I would just pull the “I’m a writer” card, but everyone knows I also draw the comics I write, so I can’t really fairly do that. And sitting next to Jason, who’s a for-real artist, well, it has me a bit antsy.

But the main reason for my mini-freak-out, aside from still not having all my materials prepared and dreading how many supplies I’ll have to load into the luggage I don’t own yet, is whether or not I’ll sell enough comics to justify the huge expense of flying both Sara and I to Seattle, staying in a downtown hotel for three nights, and paying hundreds of dollars for space and power at the convention. Due to distribution fuck-ups with the first issue of OCP, I HAVE to count on convention sales to turn a profit on this thing and get my creators paid. So I’m being optimistic and bringing a bunch more copies than I think I’ll sell. But what if over the course of two days I don’t sell diddly? Is it because I’m a bad salesperson? Or because the product quality isn’t there? See why my nerves are a little wracked?

Of course, I’m sure things will go smoothly. And I’ll have a good time meeting new people, seeing old friends and generally hanging out in one of my favorite U.S. cities. But still: nervous.

If you live in Seattle or plan to attend the show, PLEASE come visit me at Artist Alley booth M-12. In addition to the first issue of the well-reviewed OCP #1, I’ll also have bargains on The Utopian #s 1 and 2, as well as free swag. And I’ll draw you a sketch if you ask nicely. So long as it’s not a car.

Specifically, mine:

Yes, it’s January and after a minor mix-up at the printer, The Utopian #2 is finally available for you kids to get your grubby little hands on. I have to drop my usual humility here and say these look pretty friggin’ good. It’s amazing how much better this story reads as a complete comic book, as opposed to a one-episode-weekly webcomic. And those covers? Man, Steve Downer’s colors really made my art POP on the standard cover (left), and Hernan Valencia just knocked it out of the ballpark with the deluxe cover (right).

If you pre-ordered a signed copy from me, I’m dropping those in the mail today. And if you didn’t, you can click this link to have one shipped directly to your mailbox, or if you’re in Las Vegas, please drop by Alternate Reality Comics (4800 S. Maryland Parkway) and pick up a copy from Ralph, the world’s greatest comic shop owner.

Oh, and if you happen to be the world’s second or third greatest comic shop owner, you should be carrying this comic for your unwashed geek masses. They’ll love it. Contact me!

So if anyone checked into my Twitter feed the last few days (or the updated Utopian blog today), you may be aware that I was struck down by some sort of evil stomach bug upon my return from Santa Barbara this weekend. Which has put me behind by a few days. This timing is pretty terrible, not the least of which is because Chris Sims, he of the Invincible Super-Blog, put out the challenge for his annual “30 Second Recap Contest” last week, and the due date is today.

Between my mini-vacation and my stomach-churning ailment, I was not able to create my epic retelling of a godlike entity’s arrival on Earth to seek the source of desire and blah blah blah. So instead, I have been forced to boil down the essence of Marvel Comics’ classic 1980s maxi-series Secret Wars II into one panel, one single image that distills the epic themes so well-represented by Jim Shooter’s nine-issue visionary masterpiece:

Yep.

So, sorry Chris, I know it’s not the outstanding piece of workmanship that earned notice last year as an Honorable Mention. But it’s the best I could do, given the circumstances.

Yep.

Is anyone else bored by this yet? I’m guessing not entirely, because a lot of people I know who follow my exploits (boring as they may be) still haven’t glommed on to Detox Week yet or are actually ASKING for updates. Crazy, right? But we all know this is really just an excuse to get me to update this blog, which wasn’t happening in any way, shape or form before.

I didn’t feel too great yesterday morning. Just some, er, post-digestive stuff. I wonder if that rice I made was either undercooked or just didn’t agree with me. Either way, I felt a lot better over the weekend eating mostly-raw, so, well, we’re not going to try to do that rice again.

One of the things I realized last night (though it should have been obvious before) is that I’ve been spending about 300 percent more time in the kitchen than normal throughout this process. Making every meal by hand takes time! A lot of time! Time that, honestly, I don’t have. Seriously, we’re talking multiple hours a day, between the chopping, cooking, cleaning, storing, etc. No wonder we drove our mothers insane!

Of course, my time already is strained. The band is starting to get active again (met with potential new bassist last night again, had a pretty decent jam), more freelance work is looming, and full-on roll-out of Omega Comics Presents is beginning. Something has to suffer, and looking at how terribly my time has been consumed and how much I’m beginning to feel strangled by my own obligations (not to mention the lack of time I’ve been able to spend with Sara, which I’m sure has not thrilled her), I’m dropping down The Utopian updates to once weekly, on Wednesdays. It’s just too much for me to write, pencil, ink, color and letter two full comic pages every week even as I’m editing an anthology, writing, drawing and lettering eight pages for each issue of that and trying to actually hit my other work deadlines.

I’ve been so stressed about trying to “get ahead” in order to just get out of town for two or three days. And I don’t like that feeling. But I also can’t just, as Sara suggested last night, go on holiday with the webcomic. If I do, honestly, I’ll never pick it back up. The weekly obligation is what keeps me driven to the end goal. I don’t work well without deadlines. Like most work-for-hire creators, you can give me a deadline a month ahead and I’ll start and finish the article/illustration/story the night before the deadline. That’s just the way it is.

So yeah. I guess it’s that time of the day where I review what foods I consumed yesterday, huh? You know, when Detox Week is over, I might start keeping a food journal anyway, to really force myself to pay attention to everything I eat. Until then, here’s yesterday’s line-up:

• Breakfast: 1 banana, 1 cup “Dynamo” juice blend
• Morning snack: 1 apple pie Larabar
• Lunch: 1 bowl homemade vegetable stew (I think I’m definitely going to be making this once a week from now on)
• Afternoon snack: Approx. a handful of raw almonds & walnuts, plus 1 serving of dried, unsweetened pineapple rings
• Dinner: 1 can Amy’s Organic Lentil Vegetable Soup (also becoming a new staple)
• Evening snack: 1 piece raw “fudge” from Go Raw Cafe, plus two stalks celery with organic peanut butter

Gonna keep this short and sweet. Spent most of yesterday working on comic stuff, because things are really ramping up now, going to print on The Utopian #2 as we I type this and doing final editing and prep work to meet a Dec. 31 deadline so Omega Comics Presents #1 gets to the printer by the first week of January. And if you haven’t pre-ordered that issue yet, please do so to help, you know, pay for it (and more importantly, ensure the creators get paid). Previews of OCP #1 are featured today on Ain’t It Cool News!

This week’s going to be pretty mad, as I have deadlines aplenty and need to get caught up before the New Year so that POSSIBLY Sara and I can make a break for it and run away where none of you little bastards will find us. For a day or two.

In the meantime … yesterday’s menu (only three days to go!):

• Breakfast: 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 cup “Dynamo” juice blend
• Lunch: Salad (romaine lettuce, carrots, bell peppers, celery, tomatoes) with Bragg’s Aminos
• Afternoon snack: 1 peanut butter cookie Larabar
• Evening snack: 2 stalks celery with organic peanut butter
• Dinner: 1/2 cup mixed, long-grain rice (boiled in homemade vegetable stock and mixed with diced carrots, celery, onions and garlic) with steamed broccoli and cauliflower — this should have been really good, but I think the crunchy texture of the rice threw me off. Either I prepared it wrong, or I just don’t like long-grain rice. But I boiled it down for like 50 minutes, so … uh …
• Late-night snack: 1 piece raw “fudge” from Go Raw Cafe
• Beverages: As usual, aside from the above-listed stuff, just water, and an ounce or two of Trader Joe’s “Green Protein” juice blend.

Well, I’ll tell you ONE thing good to come out of this process: I’ve blogged daily! (What, that’s NOT good?)