BOHICA News: September 2023 (Patreon)

Wow, I haven't done one of these since... March!?

So, we have new folks joining the Battalion! We continue to be strong and enjoy some of the finest action-adventure and comedy comics that rest of the world knows nothing about. 

BCAF: Boise Comic Arts Fest 2023

If you live in the Boise, Idaho area --or feeling squirrelly and want to travel there-- the big news is that Random Coyote Productions, LLC has a booth at BCAF XI this year!

I will be there on Saturday, the 30th of September, when vendors are out hawking their wares. Friday is a day for Idaho librarians and educators involved in projects getting kids to read, Saturday is the "traditional comic con artists alley" day; and Sunday is the day for programs and panel discussions. 

If you're in the area, stop by and say hi, maybe buy something and check out hundreds of other local talent! 

Battalion Book Club:

If you are a member of the 213th Battalion here at Patreon, remember that at certain levels many of you qualify for BOHICA Blues comic books to be sent to you in the mail at selected times. Check your messages because there are some of you who qualify for books to be sent and I need to make sure your addresses are still good. So far everyone in the Platoon Sergeant tier should be good to go, but I have yet to hear from a few folks in the Sergeant tier. 

People in the Specialist and Private tiers, I am going to give some of my longest-standing fans a special offer soon, so check messages in the next month or so. 

Book 4 Updates:

Book 4 is being assembled and should be ready in the next few months, possibly in time for Christmas or New Years. Be ready for that to hit the stands/mail soon! Included will be some never-before-published content and a short story by none other than Mark Baker of PVT Murphy fame. 

For Book 4, I may introduce some possible changes. I have received some feedback on the cover prices of the books and people find them a bit pricey. I asked myself, "Do I really need the glossy paper inside?" and the truth is, no, I probably do not. I can use less expensive paper for the interior, so I am going to see if I can use a less fancy interior paper and save on cost. The glossy paper is also heavier than normal paper, which may not be a big deal when shipping a single copy but when ordering in bulk from my printer it takes a chunk of change for UPS to deliver. So if this offers a reduction in price without sacrificing quality, I will do this and future books will follow suit.

Meanwhile, the baby steps of Book 5 are in the beginning stages of layout. 

Other Projects:

Progress on the Empires reboot has slowed considerably, unfortunately. I've had to contend with some big RL issues including my day job moving to a new office, and me being responsible for coming up with a whole new system for recording and tracking all applicant files in our entire inventory. It ate up a lot of time; fortunately I was able to get a lot of BOHICA Blues stuff pre-set into a nice buffer to cover most of the time but pretty much everything else had to take a back seat. 

That said, I am hoping to get some developmental sketches done for the next phase of the project and prepare to get that going again.

Vox Noctem: Vox Noctem, a local Boise-area anthology comic, is having a cover made by a local professional, and this year's theme has been announced: "Rescue". We'll see what comes of it.

"Wolf Project" and "Medieval Fantasy Project": Currently no progress has been made on either of these. These are, however, far-future projects and I had planned on them being on the back burner for quite some time. 

• Future Appearances: 

In April of 2024 I expect to be at Gem State Comic Con at the Boise Expo building-- more news on that as I get it. That said, I will not be at Boise Comic Arts Festival/BCAF XII in 2024 because of my next announcement.

KFOR Deployment: Starting sometime around summer-ish of 2024 my unit is being deployed to Kosovo for KFOR, a NATO Peacekeeping operation in the Balkans, a region of southern Europe. How this will affect my comics is yet unknown, however, I do have as solid plan to integrate BOHICA Blues characters into the action and present relatively up-to-date comics "live from the field" so to speak. I will have my personal computer with me and if possible I hope to begin digitally inking the Empires material I have scanned in so far, provided I have the time. 

Stay tuned for news on that.

That's all for now. Until later!