February 21-25, 2011 (Patreon)

February 21, 2011

My problem in 2010 was that I kept making everything except comics a priority. This year, my problem is I'm not taking care of anything except comics. 

Why can't I find a middle ground?  Every Friday I repeat the same lie to myself that I'm going to use the weekend to get non-comics work done (cut down the ever-mounting emails, lay out the fliers and minicomic for Emerald City Comic Con which is less than two weeks away, START LOGGING  MY BUSINESS EXPENSES RECEIPTS FOR THIS YEAR, whittle through the miscellaneous illustrations I owe various people, pluck away at my various websites, list all my paintings from 2010 on the Etsy store and... you know... everything.) and then I spend the next two days recuperating from the week and, surprise, surprise, I quite honestly just don't have the energy to do all that other bullshit. 

It feels wonderful, straight-to-my-bones wonderful, to rest on Saturday and Sunday. Matt and I will go out for a meal (pictured above: us at Pizzicato Pizza today), we do some general housework, we watch Stargate: Atlantis, I read, I sleep in (!!)... It's lovely. But there's that constant twisting worm in the back of my brain screaming "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE CATCHING UP ON WORK"

I wish people would stop emailing me. All these younger cartoonists asking me how to "make it" and it's not like I even fucking know or as if I'm even "making it" myself right now. The gross income I bring in is pretty goddamn respectable, but my actual profit from it? Fucking pennies. I make enough to support my business, no problem, but not enough to contribute to our household in any meaningful way. It depresses the hell out of me. It makes me feel worthless. I don't know what I'm doing except that I don't have nearly enough time to get it all done in. 

Starting tomorrow I'm setting my alarm to go off at 7am instead of 8am, hoping an earlier start will give me more time during the day to get shit done.

February 22, 2011

Not a scream, just a yawn. 

Waking up at 7am did wonders for me, I got more done today than in weeks. None of it was working on Bucko pages ( ANXIETY) but I got several other art and convention related chores taken care of that were coming due soon (RELIEF). Laid out two different documents in InDesign, which I haven't touched since I laid out my last book... last year. Christ. Has it been a year since I released a book? And it'll be at least another one before I have my next book ready. 

Feels good to be busy. Feels good to have tangible results at the end of the day.

February 23, 2011

This week's French class went WAY better than the last one! I've forgotten so much of the language in the last six years, but it feels good to flex those muscles again. 

The thing about getting up at 7am now is that I'm tired a lot earlier. ...and yet I haven't adjusted my bed time yet. Until I get my sleep schedule synched up I've resigned myself to just bein' sleepy all the time. Getting lots of work done, though!

February  24, 2011

Because my cootch has been all fucked up, I've been taking the bus to and from work everyday instead of biking. Dylan offered me a ride home from the studio this evening, which I was very grateful to accept ($2.05 twice a day, every day, to take the bus adds up fast) but that meant leaving a couple hours before my usual end time so I brought my work back with me and did some inking in our little home studio room.

February  25, 2011

I was afraid the snowflakes wouldn't show up in my pictures, but they did! Look how fat they are!