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PRIMAL RAGE / Anti-Thrivery

Added 2021-10-27 20:56:34 +0000 UTC

In lieu of a direct update today, I'm copy-pasting this email I just sent to a friend, that p much sums up how I feel right now! Heck, I dig this correspondence nature, may do this more. This email is to a legendary seattle graffiti friend who now lives in Japan. He's not in the comics industry, but he knows all the key playas 🤙

"How's it going brotherrrr?

Miss u.

Hey what are some of your favorite memories from the ol seattle / yosh days? Just nostalgia-ing hard lately. I go visit the U-District / old apartment like every month or so ha ha. The lite rail now goes DIRECTLY to the u-dist / roosevelt area. It's wild

I also like to go to our old Beacon Hill apt. The lite rail goes way up there now, too. That Beacon Hill space is so lovely. At the time it was somewhat difficult living there, but boy that altitude is quite serene. I love walking around up there.

I walked by the old YOSH house like 6 months ago. Harder to get over there. Lots of good memories there as well, that location WAS kinda remote tho, huh

I'm working part-time at a comic shop again lol. In the same mall I worked at a comic shop in OHHHH about 20 years ago lol. Like, literally 20 years ago. Wild.

It's pretty nice. I only work 2 days a week (fri / sat). I mostly snagged the gig to be current on what's going on in comics now & to interact with ppl again. It's pretty cool! But also shines a light on how starkly different things are now. The comic shop I worked at in the same mall 20 years ago, things just felt far more THRIVING, right? Well, it's the general MOOD of the world lately, this anti-thrivery, it seems.

So yeah, strange new comic shop / retail vibes coupled with the fact that I basically feel I have no close pals in comics anymore! Giving me strange feels.

Yeah, RE: Comic Industry... I mean, I have pals still making comics. But many of them are now SHUNNED from comics lol. The comic industry has never felt so alien to me, tbh.

So, what does a guy do when he feels alienated from the industry that used to inspire him? Make a PRIMAL RAGE ZINE, of course.

You remember PRIMAL RAGE right? Friggin arcade fighter where they were all DINOSAURS? Yeah, a fella on my Patreon commissioned me to draw one, now I've got it in me to make a whole 24 page zine about the game lol

It's funny, coz the game was never one of my go-to's or all-time favorites-- but when it comes to that VIBE of how STRONG these games were in the 90's I feel like Primal Rage encompasses that more uniquely than any other fighter lol.

Plus it's just a great excuse to draw dinosaurs and creatures n shit. Good excercise right now, as I feel I need to spice things up, shape-wise lately.

Sides that, life stuff: Still with my girl & her kid, I'm that guy Guile told "be a family man" now, and it's quite nice! Also my online pin shop Coastalvania is basically as successful now as my comics ever were! Shipping like 20/30 orders a week! & I love being 100% in control of this business, I know the hardware, supply lines, profits, quantities-- it's going quite well. To the point I want to start going to more "PIN CONVENTIONS" (which they have) and seem to be composed of funner ppl who just wanna chill and make crazy pins lol