The other side
You know what's great? Naps.
I've seriously never taken more naps than I have this week. My average day has consisted of going to bed by midnight, up at around 7 or 8, then around 2 in the afternoon I'll take a four hour nap. Rinse, lather, repeat. I've been feeling pretty drained this week (weird, right?), but I'm slowly getting back to normal. One thing I can safely say is that the 2009 Emerald City ComiCon was a HUGE success!
Speaking of the show, let me just say that my friends fucking rule. I've said it before, and it's definitely worth repeating, but I have the best group of friends on the planet. They're my friends all year around, but during ECCC time, those who step up, step up BIG. They bust their asses without complaint and make the show run like clockwork. I don't think I can ever express how truly grateful I am to them. Know this, the Emerald City ComiCon COULD NOT HAPPEN without them. Period. Thanks guys, you are the best.
Something else I've said before? I am super, ridiculously lucky. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of work involved in all the things I work on, but both on a personal and professional level, I feel well and truly blessed.
Personally, aside from my aforementioned friends, I have a great and supportive family that has always (eventually) been okay with everything I decide to do (such as opening a comic book store, starting a convention, moving out-of-state for work and co-creating a rock band, to name a few).
In addition, I've totally lucked out and have found an absolutely amazing girlfriend. She's smart, funny, talented & beautiful, and most importantly, also likes me as well.
In a couple weeks, I'll have been in my house for a full year. It's been great and I'm looking forward to finishing painting the downstairs in May. I foresee a painting a painting party in the future. Emphasis on party.
Professionally, ECCC turned out fantastic and I already have some cool things in the works for 2010. Kirby Krackle has been really taking off, played @ ECCC and we'll be heading out to NYC next week to play a couple gigs there too, then a trip up to Calgary and then it's all build-up to San Diego.
Four of the five issues of Shrapnel have come out, the book is doing very well and we're already working on the sequel which should launch by the end of the year, plus I'm editing a couple other books for them coming up. There's also huge news regarding Shrapnel (Hollywood-related) that will be announced at SDCC, super exciting stuff.
Nate Powell, the artist for the graphic novel I co-wrote, just got nominated for THREE Eisner awards. Something I wrote, being drawn by an Eisner-award nominated artist. Weird.
The secret video game project is still moving forward, glacially slow, though there was some great progress recently at GDC. Between that project and two other unannounced projects, 2009 is shaping up to be a busy year.
That said, I'm definitely trying to handle my post-ECCC time differently than last year. I'd really like to take more time to hang out with my friends, go on interesting dates with my girlfriend, catch up on some TV/movie watching, travel and especially relax.
The relax part should be a little easier as well, I've started to learn to say 'no.' This may not seem like a big deal to you, but trust me, it is to me. The problem I run in to is whenever I get approached about working on something cool, even when I have a ton of other things on my plate, is that I generally say 'yes,' because really, who doesn't want to work on cool shit? The problem lies in the fact that I then get overloaded with work, and even though it's cool stuff to work on, I spend all my time working.
So, for the rest of this year, unless it's already in the works or is ridiculously awesome, the answer is gonna have to be 'no.' We'll see how it goes!
