Good Morning, Friends & Readers!
It’s a dark and stormy morning here in the Midwest, and a good time for personal reflection. This is not a blog post about publishing efforts and events.
For the last two-and-a-half years I’ve put most of my creative pursuit time into packaging and promoting projects I have completed already. I’m not done (you are never done), but I’m proud at what I’ve gotten accomplished on this so far, and my improving online sales confirm that. Now, however, it’s time to take a step back and create some new content. That means novels, comics, posters, etc.
I’ve already been practicing with acrylic paints and alcohol markers because I intend to paint a lot and color future covers with traditional media. I know I have a lot of promise with digital media, and some people really like what I do, but at some point I hit a wall and realized that I just didn’t enjoy painting or coloring that way. So, from now on I’ll save digital art for all my pro illustration work, and traditional art for personal projects. Sound good to you?
In a way, this indicated where my thoughts on art have developed in recent years. As a longtime comic artist, I began my career with the feeling that the only art that “counted” was that which was published and distributed over a wide market. Anything else wasn’t worth the effort. Then came the internet and webcomics. I was suddenly able to show my art to a wide market of readers and enthusiasts and reap the benefits of it that way. Nowadays, I don’t care about the art’s reproducibility as much—it doesn’t have to be on paper or the web. What matters is that a lot of people see the work and that I’m compensated. A good example of this would be the holiday card I make for a favorite customer every year—its mailing list is only in the hundreds, but people see the art and enjoy it, and some of the recipients frame and hang the card. That is satisfying.
FRINGE WEIRDNESS–IDEAS FROM THE EDGE
OK, I usually write about art and publishing, but it need not be that way, so it’s time to touch on some more esoteric stuff. I saw today the mug shot of a minor criminal with all black eyes. Eye-tattooing is a thing, apparently. But, for those people with a keen interest in the paranormal and Fortean world of the weird, black-eyed people are well-known and quite frightening. I’ve never encountered such an individual, but I’ve always considered them a distinct possibility. These “people,” if such they are, fall roughly into a class of beings that include men in black, alien-human hybrids, shadow people, and non-human entities that can often pass as human. This can be scary stuff, a strange, liminal world that fills a gap between folklore and the very real.
Are you a hard-core materialist that believes only in accepted science? Not the cooky “out there” science that lives on the fringes, or that which often gets turned into New Age wish fulfillment as has quantum physics, but textbook science that believes only in what is quantifiable and repeatable? If that is the case, then my ramblings will certainly seem like magical thinking and ignorance to you. If you have had personal encounters with ghosts or witnessed some the world’s fringy weirdness, then you probably can dig some of what I’m talking about.
I’ve always wanted to create a blog about my experiences, but life is short and time is at a premium.
Other Cool Stuff:
Imagine this used as body armor!
Finally, check out this video of the coolest flight suit yet.