How It's Going

First off, thanks to you all for being here, it means more than ever to me and to the household. I always let folks know that there are no worries when and if they need to bail, and that still goes. We can only do what we can do, financially, and this isn't a charity -- I work for your patronage and if you're unhappy with the site than I understand not wishing to support it. 

Things have been tough, I'll be honest, but obviously more so for Sarah. Her third chemo treatment was last week, and while she got some good news about how things are going it wasn't everything we'd hoped for. We'll see what results several weeks after the next infusion. her brother came in again to spend several days, he's been a tremendous help in many ways. Sarah's dealing with the worst pain post-treatment, she's tough as nails, but there's only so much she can do besides rest up and get through this stage. 

Thanks once again to everyone who as been so kind to us, your comments here and on IG (and Sarah's Facebook page) have been incredibly kind. Several of you have gone beyond and above and I'm still getting back to you kind-hearted people. Please forgive the delays in writing, everything's been backed up these past few months. I'm trying to get back to the board regularly and do what I can to dent the last commissions and commitments. I haven't been able to look for any work or even spend time on trying to sell art, it's just been a lot to deal with. We've had a lot of bad news and pitfalls and we've at least managed to hurdle most of them. Hopefully this most rotten of them can be overcome as completely as possible.

Last Sunday I went into Manhattan to see my sister and my niece for Chanukah, as well as several family members I haven't spoken to in, oh, about eleven years. It was a very nice time, and not stressful at all. Life is weird. I also had my first Uber ride by myself. It was less weird that I expected. I don't know why I expected it to be weird. I guess I had the mental image of being in a car that was more like ours than what I rode in back and forth. I did not pay for the ride, and don't expect to be inside another Uber car for some time. The ride in might have been the longest I've worn my mask without any breaks. I don't go out much, therapy sessions and grocery shopping are the longest I've ever had to wear one. Somehow I managed to live and breathe the entire ride, despite what some of the anti-mask set cries about.

Our car is working decently, the engine light hasn't come back on after the double-wallop. I'm still stressed driving it, if you've had multiple bummer vehicles you might know the feeling. You're just waiting, and hoping to be happily proved wrong. Then again, I'm the kind of driver who thinks the fuse for the dashboard lights have blown out when I just needed to turn the little dial to get them lit. I only drove twice thinking I had no dash lights. 

One of those times was to go to Paul's house to record the seventeenth tear Them Apart podcast. The subject was the movie Mandy (2018), and to a lesser degree, Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010). During our discussion I took back some things I said about Nic Cage in our Color Out of Space (2019) episode, much to my disbelief and amazement. Paul sent me the edited episode for notes the other day but I haven't had the chance to listen yet. It'll be ready soon, though. The episode title card will probably be late, as usual.

I'm having serious problems with my arm and both hands (for a change) these days. My shoulder socket is where most of my pain is, I guessed correctly that Costco has a big-ass box of Salonpas for a good price so that's sort of a relief (get it --?). When things calm down some I'm going to get a check up because it's been a while and I'm not exactly a bastion of good health habits.

Those of you who follow my Instagram know that I always watch movies on my little PC monitor. I now have an actual real television that's a good size to watch dumb crap on. Sarah's brother gifted us with a big-ass (again with the big-ass?  How old am I, still writing like this? Oy.) television for the living room. So I got the set it replaced for my studio. I inaugurated the T.V. with pure garbage, the last half of Swamp of the Ravens (1974, terrible), Goru, The Mad Monk (1970, fairly funny Andy Milligan god-awful garbage) and Night of the Bloody Apes (1969, there's only one "ape" and it takes place over several nights, all of them bloody ridiculous). So, this is good news for my eyes and back if not for my taste in cinematic sadness.

Winky the Pirate Cat has been with us for over 6 months now. She is slowly exploring the rest of the house more, and Nutmeg the grouch is verrry slowwwly sort of maybe kind of getting sort of maybe kind of used to her. Well, sort of. There's been some tense moments where they've both shared breathing space, but usually Nutty chases Winky up into my studio and hisses at everyone. The hissing has lessened. The fights are sort of less frantic. Of course, who knows what would happen if they were left alone without human referees. So, they aren't left alone. Winky is a happy little cat, she's a rarity in cats -- at last the ones we have had -- in that she likes playing with cat toys. And other things. her current passion is a green pipe cleaner. I am going to get more of those, hopefully tomorrow during the grocery shop.

Winky has the energy of a very young cat and just now slid into her food and water dishes chasing a superball. I am going to stop typing and clean up the mess. back in a moment.

(Some time later). Winky is going to sleep on the Ikea chair. Poang, iirc. The way cats treat it they may as well have named it "Poing".

I'm readying some posts for you folks as I get back up to speed. Sarah solved the issue with my text files last week before her treatment. I'm going to try and put together some art posts and some more pitch stuff and PDFs. I'm still horrible at the pin-ups and the long=-promised livestreams, but working towards it. If all goes well we should soon have better internet and I should be able to have a better connection and all that. I've been avoiding interviews online because I've been kicked out of a couple, and sometimes get dumped out of online chats with friends. So, I'm gun shy doing those things. It's kind of like the car. 

I forgot to post here that the Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory HC is now available at booksellers and online shops. It's also available digitally, and as I post this, there's still a significant digital sale on the series (save the new HC) on the Dark Horse Website. Single issues are a buck a thow, the first three collections are $5 -$7. 

https://digital.darkhorse.com/pages/345/beasts-of-burden-digital-sale

Something I wrote is apparently going out of print and getting a new release next year, which is nice news. Something else might also get a reprint. Which would be nice. I just haven't had time to deal with comic book comics lately. Too much to juggle. But I'm hoping to get back to discussing things asap. 

More soon later.