Welcome to Nervember (Patreon)

The image for this post comes from Newtype magazine, published in Japan in 2004. The WELCOME TO ELTINGVILLE Adult Swim pilot was broadcast there, and at least one person was aware of it and decided to give it some press. This little comic write-up kills me, it's the only press or mention I've ever seen in a Japanese publication involving my work, and honest-to-Zod it's kind of awesome that it's done as a comic. I have no idea what it's saying besides the obvious, no idea if it's positive or negative, or what the tomato-headed character is expressing in that last panel. Is that supposed to be me? Is that a generic fan? The cartoonist? I think it's the latter (it must be, I just realized Tomato Head appears in the outside commentary panel on the right like he's an aspect of the feature.  See him, there? Feel free to wave, while you're at it. Also, feel free to hum "Tomato Head" by Shonen Knife while you're at it). And I think I should have drawn everything Eltingville in a simpler, cartoonier style like the one used here. That picture of Josh in the last panel is everything. 

Anyway, we've wrapped up the first month of the Patreon, and have a few things to sort out before we do the prize giveaways, and ready the first PDF for folks who pledged at that level. As Sarah explained it to me, Patreon starts billing everyone around now, and soon we'll know who stayed with us and who dropped out so we know who's eligible for the drawings (we expected to lose a few pledges, that's the way these things go, and so far it's only been a very small number of folks who wanted or needed to bow out). There was also some confusion --on our part as well -- about when exactly the cut-off was for joining in time for the launch raffle (midnight EST, midnight PST -- ummm?). So, to be fair, we decided that folks who joined by midnight EST tonight are in the running. Additionally, we ended up with many more backers than we initially expected, so there will be accordingly more prizes up for grabs. I think we have five pin sets available now rather than three, with more books and comic sets and the Inktober drawing, as well.

October didn't work out anything like how we hoped, so I only got seven Inktober horror drawings done in time for the prize selection. I enjoyed doing them and hope to finish up the other...whatever the math is. I'm in no mood for math right now (31-7 = too many left to draw). While the Patreon was a source of encouragement, it was just about the only good news we had during the month (womp womp trumpet, if you please). Actually, that's not entirely true, if you count "no bad news, maybe good news later" on some potential projects (one of which always seem to get kicked down the path a little further every time there's any faint word about it). Otherwise we had some more health-related issues to deal with like everyone else, more bad luck with our death lemon of a car like many other people (it's now parked outside until we can figure something out or get it repaired), the world's still mega-stupid and my depression took me into the octagon for a pretty good beating a few times. I spent one really bad weekend in bed, which was not a lot of fun. At least I'm not parked outside waiting for something else to break, if all goes according to plan I'll have a new therapist soon and perhaps even a new rear passenger-side headlight and an oil change if I screw things up badly enough in making various phone calls and arrangements. It's not beyond me. You should have seen the fourteen mistakes and the twenty bad decisions I made yesterday trying to amend a canceled/relisted eBay item. I now have seven new credit cards, some new crypto currency from Guam called "Sucker Bait", and a new health plan (worse than the one we already had). I can melt computers and destroy phones just by being within three feet of them, that's my sad mutant power. Fucking things up. Which gives me an idea -- I should pitch Marvel a series about the most inept mutants in the MCU, who do nothing right, and flunk out of stupid mutant academy. "To me, my stupids!". Sure, why not. I'll fuck it up, while I'm at it.

Well, there you go. To keep things random, I made a mistake a few sentences ago with some keystroke mayhem that I believe taught me --temporarily, of course -- how to drop an image within the text here. So, if this works, here's The 5 Neat Guys for no real reason at all save love:

"Who Made The Egg Salad Sandwiches?" (They're Better Than The Tuna)

Oh, my god, I just italicized something! I might pass out! I got so excited I went and italicized a word up above and I nearly fainted from accomplishment. I'm going to attempt actual captions next time!

I need to go lie down now.