House of Fun Update (6/6/2020)

Playing a lot of catch-up these last few days. On a lot of e-mail, bookkeeping, phone meetings, therapy, cleaning the studio (not that it looks much different!), another day of not getting out of bed when the idiot shit got too bad in my head.

I also took the deathmobile out to pick up my prescriptions and mail some packages out. Between the lack of power steering and the tightly packed, poorly-designed parking lot I side-swiped a parked car when I tried to leave. Thankfully it didn't look scratched at all. I was attempting a K-turn, but it ended up something like a rune-turn. I booked outta there, flushing red and praying no one saw it. I guess no one did. Eesh.

Now I'm catching up on work, so I can get a few things done and play catch-up on some commissions. Towards that end I managed to find an affordable set of rapidographs on eBay, I've been needing to replace my set for many years now (many years, ugh) and this will be a real boost for me as far as lettering and ruling lines go. The set is old, but wasn't used,I filled them with ink and they're perfect. The ink wasn't, I had to chuck that. But that's a stupidly big deal for me. I also ordered some replacement markers off eBay that I needed for commissions, grays and skin tones. Sarah ordered some Signo uniball white ink pens for me. Now I just need erasers. My plastic eraser is down to a nub and my kneaded erasers are charcoal-black. End of stupendously exciting art supply talk. 

Oh, wait, not exactly, I'm looking into ordering an art tube to ship the giant Marvel pin-up. It's giving us problems as far as scanning goes, so we're going to tag-team the damned thing to get perfect scans in order to match the halves and set up a print for backers at the "print-level"that villain piece is villainous.

So, what am I working on? I still can't tell anyone. I'm halfway done with the comic project I'm writing. I'm almost done with a series of covers I'm doing. We finished a variant cover for a project that might get pushed back quite a bit. I think the Colonel Weird: Cosmagog series for the Black Hammer universe has been pushed back, so that's another variant cover we did that likely won't see print for a while. 

Schedules are still wonky, and now things are going nutso again with the distribution end of things (like that was ever solid ground), so who knows what the hell's going on. The world's enough of a mess for me to stress comics right now. I figure whatever happens, happens, get the paying work done and invoiced as quickly as possible and hope for the best. If more things collapse, I can work on my commissions and scrounge something up. Maybe. Won't know until I get there. 

I'm also moving forward on the other writing gig (the non-print one, which is nice to have at the moment). The project comes with a few guidelines that are adjacent to just telling the story, so I'm finding it slow going to make sure that I'm covering all the angles. I'm working with a good friend on it, so I'm not on my own and it's been fun, even if there's been a slight bit of a learning curve to the project. 

We got to see the book design for an upcoming foreign edition of the first Beasts of Burden collection. We've still never been sent the Russian edition, which came out more than a year ago. Two years? Pfft. We have at least one other overseas publisher on board for translated editions. It's very exciting, my work never got much play in the foreign market until Beasts came along. 

I signed a pile of Marvels Snapshots:Fantastic Four for my friends at JHU Comics (formerly Jim Hanley's Universe) in NYC. I also signed and sketched inside whatever collections they had of my work, but I think most of those have already been spoken for. If interested in anything, JHU's website is:  http://jhucomicbooks.com/.

The webcam is working. I might have mentioned that already. I play-tested a Call of Cthulhu scenario with some friends online and I died. It was wonderful! A lot of fun. I was so bummed out when the session ended because it was the only real break I've had from life since...my birthday. And that was the first since...gosh. Let's move on.

Anyway, when the impending deadlines are taken care of, I'm going to set up a livestream session for the Patreon. My friend Paul and I are putting together a Zoom edition of our Tear Them Apart podcast (I don't know if it will be audio-only when finished), and I hope to do a few interviews and appearances with folks who have asked me to join them. 

All the index card drawings have been mailed out to the folks who I've heard back from. I was told by the clerk at the post office that international shipping is getting a little hinky these days owing to the pandemic. I was warned specifically about Italy and Australia, but I just received something from the land down under, so, fingers crossed, it will get there. I hope everything arrives. If you don't see anything in a reasonable amount of time, let me know. 

I still haven't heard from Mike Fragassi and Christian Finnegan re: their cards, I dunno if they've left the Patreon, I ought tocheck because I know we lost some backers recently. I'll reassign the two remaining cards if things hit a dead end.

Speaking of folks dropping out of the Patreon, I wanted to remind everyone that I am well aware times are tough, and things are crazy. Never feel badly if you can't remain as a backer for financial reasons (or whatever reason). You don't owe me anything. I'm just happy you signed up in the first place to show your support. 

Speaking of happy, I got a Bat-Mite lego mini-figure in the mail from a HOF faithful! Can you believe they're making such things? Another kind soul gifted me with an old D&D DM's Guide, which triggered a near-death nostalgia attack. And the package from Australia was a Grenadier Pseudo Dragon lead miniature (my favorite monster from the Manual) and a bonus 20-sided die. Thank you all for your support and kind gestures.  They mean more to me than you can know.

Finally: The rumor is that the secret comic project might get announced some time this month, which means I'll be able to show some new art off soon. Here's to hoping. We also got some interesting news this week, which hopefully will bear fruit. Hell, I'd be happy to just get some fruit. It doesn't even need to be perfect fruit, yes yes.

Gotta get back to work. Talk soon. Hang in there, and try to take care of yourselves, mentally and physically, during these terrible times. Deep breath, un-clench jaw, etc. 

(Above image: Art for the second Jump Up! mid-west ska collection from 1995, "Death of an American Ska-Thic")