Hello 3/26/2020 (8:35 AM) (Patreon)

Good morning. Been up all night, working on a script. Trying really hard to finish it to get an invoice in asap, because who knows how long everyone will have a job before the inevitable big freeze hits freelancers and staffers. Sometimes I really wish I could just learn to credibly hack script pages out. It works for a lot of people in this business with their "Page Three: They fight. Make it look cool!". 

It's only a matter of time before production freezes up on most Direct Market comics, or gets cancelled outright, given the current situation everyone's facing. Diamond Distribution is shut to new material, printers are shutting down, and retailers are hanging on by their (hopefully uninfected) fingers. Many retail shops have switched to pick-up, delivery, e-bay and mail order to try to lessen the pain. Sadly, Lee's Comics in California -- a well-known full-line store that supported many smaller publishers and titles -- closed its doors for good after a 38 year run. Tough times in a tough industry. The worst times, I would guess. 

I worry a lot of projects and small press publishers won't be able to gear back up, even if the direct market manages somehow to weather the storm. The DM wasn't built to take bad bumps well, and this is an earthquake. We'll see what magnitude. If I owned a comic shop I'd rename it Bleak House, stumble-trash the joint like Charles Foster Kane, drink a bottle of something interesting and crawl into bed with a stuffed animal. Actually, I think that's what I'm doing here at the House of Fun! 

I wish them all the best, and I hope we can all actually come through on the other side of this. Hell. That goes for everyone in general. What a fucking horrorshow. 

Anyway, thanks to those of you who were following Blackwood. The rest of the series was completed and will presumably see shelf or digital space some day. Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory was scheduled for early next year, I assume it will get pushed back. I assume everything will get pushed back. If things actually collapse maybe I'll write prose short stories on the Patreon with the characters or something nutty like that. My own Beasts of Burden fan fiction. I'll type while holding a stuffed puppy.

We have one paying comics project at the moment. It's a solid one, but we just started it, and I don't know if it will keep moving forward the way everything's going. Fingers crossed. If that goes, it's Hurt O'Clock! For now, time marches on. 

Sarah tells me the webcam she ordered is probably never shipping, there's bad communication and she thinks they're out of stock and leading people on. At least we have toilet paper and napkins. And some Pop-Tarts. She found another source for a webcam, when if that shows up we can start doing some livestream stuff here. I still have to dole out the postcard drawings. Sorry, really overwhelmed. Luckily I am starting phone therapy meetings, I'm two weeks behind and I could've used the sessions.  

Shit, I better knock off. I gotta get up soon to get back on this script. I'm way too old for the 1990's work shift routine.

Hope you're all well, hope you're all hanging in there okay. As always, thanks for being here. I understand if anyone needs to bail.