Yes, that’s right. I might actually make it!  Of course now I have to leave the country again for another week, goddamn it.  But Season 1 is almost done!

Big busy week, to be followed next week by another… big, busy week.  Fact is, when you hit middle age and you have a career nearing the two decade mark, you have MORE to do every day, not less.  This week I’ll be traveling overseas, yet again, for several days.  However, I did have a profitable weekend: the rough manuscript of 6-Commando Season 1 is complete, and I’m taking some parts with me on my trip to work on in my down time – if I have any down time.

Not quite bad news, but it turns out that, apparently, the original drawings I did for the first chapter and a half of 6-Commando may have been inadvertently destroyed back in 2012, during Hurricane Sandy.  I lost quite a bit of artwork then when the storage unit below the house where I was living at the time flooded out.  I can’t confirm it but suffice it to say that the originals are gone and I can’t find them.  Which is a bummer but there it is.

So I’ve got about four pages’ worth of reconstruction I have to do to Chapter 2.  And I had also forgotten that those pages were in black and white because of my at the time transition from hand drawing to digital, so I’m pondering whether to make the reconstructive work minimal in the interests of maintaining the originality of the piece, or trying to complete them in color.  I lean towards the former at the moment, as this edition is mainly about showing my work, and leaving the “corrected” version for a Director’s Cut later down the line.

And I have to tell you, this book shows a HUGE development from the first page to the last – if nothing else it’s an artifact of the time and (maybe!) a demonstration that the best way to learn something is to dive the hell in and screw “not good enough.”

It’s also rekindling in me a little confidence about this story and where I was going with it.  The early chapters have some ambitious ideas and visuals that, frankly, came out better, for a beginner, than my memory had let me believe.

But enough out of me.  When I’m back from abroad, there’ll be more.  And so far, the book is looking VERY much the way I want it to.  I’m feeling good about making a July 5 deadline for the printer.

Keep on keepin’ on, everyone!

It’s been some hard work lately, and it’s not over yet. But here’s some news for your face.

As you can see above, my upcoming Next Comic, which I’m coauthoring with a longtime-first time collaborator of mine from my years living in the Caribbean, is zeroing in on its final look. Art historians of the future will refer to this as the start of my Film Noir Muppets Phase. But I’m happier with this than I’ve been with any of my graphic art in a very long time so I’m not going to do a ton of complaining about it.

Second. In re: 6-Commando, it seems that, through the luck and extreme generosity of one Anthony Bourne of Bourne Creations, a long time supporter of 6-Commando and an incredibly accomplished (and better-published!) graphic novelist and designer, I will be at the Small Press Expo this year! And that means something else: Season 1 of 6-Commando, “Last Night Was The End Of The World,” will be going into print as soon as I can get the proofing done and the manuscript off to the printers.

‘More on this story as it develops,’ as the fellow says. In the meantime, you owe it to yourself to read, and to buy, Tony’s amazing work. Find him on Amazon, and at https://the388th.com.  The guy draws direct ink to paper. It’s astounding. Really an astonishing honor to be sharing space with him at the Expo, and I hope we’ll see you there!

It’s been a really, really long time, hasn’t it?

Well, I continue to get kind, encouraging notes and emails from lots of different people, so I thought I’d check in, although it’s still going to be irregular for a while.

First and foremost, the above: I’m drawing again! How I find time for this, I don’t know, but it’s partly due to the enormous amount of air travel I’m doing at the moment.  I’m dividing my time between three states and two countries, and have been for the past year or more.  But a friend of mine, also a talented writer, agreed to collaborate with me on a graphic novella in a very unique style, and the above is a little preview of what we’ve been working on.  It’s a noir mystery thriller featuring muppets.  Yes, you have that right.

Well, not muppets exactly, but definitely cartoony people.  My mother, one of the few to have seen my work over the holidays, calls them “the weird nose people.”  Well, okay.  But it’s the first serious bit of art I’ve been able to engross myself in for nearly two years, so it’s not nothing.

Okay, so, second, I will NOT be going to SPX this year.  I’d been hoping to use it as a venue to resume 6-Commando and the above project in print, finally, but alas it was not to be.  But still, it was worth a try.

And as for 6-Commando, I’m still not ready to come back to it, for a number of reasons.  I will come back, I think, but a number of experiences I had a few years ago – death, arguments, quarrels over stupid things, and, now, the disappearance of people I know and love into war and violence, have not left me in a position to continue this story with a fair mind to the characters in it or to the story that I intended to play out.  And instead of changing the story to match my mood (which would be unfair and probably petulant and capricious) I’m giving the whole thing a very long and continuing rest.  It’s not done, and it’s not over, but I’m not ready for it yet.

In the meantime, my thanks to everyone who’s given me support as I’ve sorted myself out.  Things are happening.  They may not be what I wanted or expected, but they are happening nevertheless.

Also – if anyone is a colorist and is interested at taking a stab at a very unconventional comic, let me know.  No guarantees as it’s early days yet, but I’d be interested to talk at least.

I got nothing.  Neither a reason nor an excuse.  I’m gradually coming back around to comics, and finding it simultaneously interesting, fulfilling, and deeply depressing.  I don’t know how to say it any better than that, but there it is.

I’m right on the edge.  I don’t know what comes next!

I took a swing today at Captain Da Costa, native of the Azores, acting 2IC of Rucker’s armored company, and a very competent armor commander.

I’m sadly shocked by my prophetic powers given last week’s title and the events of the following seven days.  But you don’t come here to listen to it from me.  But if you’re willing to tolerate a little sermon from me this week, I’ll say this.  Someone I know from college said something extremely interesting to me yesterday, which I thought I’d share.  “Try not using the word ‘obviously,’ maybe for a week or so, and then see how much easier it is to see things from someone else’s perspective.”  Interesting idea.  “Obviously” is a word we use when we wish to assert that something is so plain that not understanding it renders the other person pointless to argue with, but maybe we’ve gotten too used to overusing or misusing it.  It too easily becomes a way of dismissing things you’d rather not take pains to comprehend, a kind of shortcut through your higher brain functions that cuts off a lot of difficult or complicated thoughts you might prefer not to have.  It hems in your own perceptions by making it easier to accept what you assume or would prefer to be true, and encourages you to do more asserting and less persuading.  And just admitting that you can see things from someone else’s perspective is not, as we all seem to believe right now, an act of disloyalty to our own side, for those of us who know “sides” at times like these.  If nothing else, maybe consider it an act of charity, because something’s gotta give.

Thank you, Colin.  Pretty powerful stuff for a text message, so I just thought I’d leave everyone with that.

I’m going to try it, myself.

Just thought I’d prove that I still know how to draw.  Sarah so rarely smiles – she’s a deeply messed-up person, like so many of us are.  But we still love her.

One day, the true story of what’s going on behind the scenes here will be told.  There’s no way I know of to talk about it without sounding petulant and petty, and that’s not how I want it to come off.  The upshot is that, with the number of shits I have to give at the moment being very strictly limited, I have been reserving my effort for areas that need it most.  In other ways I’m doing better than I ever have – it’s just that “doing well” in the professional sense is always precarious, and really demands more effort as you advance, rather than less.  And so something gives, and alas it’s been 6-Commando.

Is that all vague and evasive enough for you?  I bet it is!  But you guys, everyone here, has been so supportive on the other hand, that it continues to reassure me.  I could so easily discard this project, but I’m clearly not ready to do that.  The kindness and support you’ve all given me has been incredibly uplifting to me, in a time when I feel like it’s become super easy for us all to treat each other with dismissive contempt yet somehow find reasons to feel good, or at least indifferent, about doing so.  We may not all realize it yet, but we’ve all incurred a heavy interpersonal debt against each other in 2020.  That won’t easily be paid off, but I’m trying.  So to all of you guys, thank you.

In addition, allow me to offer a particular word of thanks to Tony Bourne, creator of the comics The Fed and The 388th. His are among the most rewarding, sophisticated, and graphically accomplished works I’ve been privileged to see in development, and his personal support and kindness to someone like me, who is essentially a stranger (we met once at NYCC and didn’t realize it until months later!) has been particularly reassuring to me.  God bless, Tony.  Everyone, you owe it to yourselves to buy his comic.  A veteran of the US Armed Forces, Tony knows where-from he speaks when it comes to military fiction, and he doesn’t pull his punches.

God bless, everyone!

The finale.

I was going to address upcoming continuation for 6-Commando this week but I’m just holding on for dear life at the moment so we’ll deal with that later.  All the best, folks.

About A Death At The Gates Of Heaven:

This story first appeared in 2018 in the Spiderforest Webcomic Collective anthology Threads: A Gallery of Rogues, which is  available in print for the impatient among you by clicking on the image below.  It appeared alongside fifteen other graphic short stories in full color, and so for my money it’s a good buy for entertainment during the current time!  You can also find other volumes of our anthology, and the work of a lot of other great Spiderforest artists worth looking into.

And of course, please give Ally’s spectacular Wychwood a look as well!And as always, thanks for the continued support!  The notes and emails I’ve received have all been so positive and encouraging, I can’t tell you all how much it means to me.  God bless!

Sorry I’ve been uncommunicative, but I’m pretty much on a permanent deadline at the moment and I’m getting my little bits of rest in the in-between.  Which is pretty rare.  Have also been getting through some really unpleasant and difficult personal times and it’s making me kind of want to spend my free time doing what my sister used to call “Being with God.”  The future of 6-Commando is still shaking out – it will be finished, just not on the kind of schedule I can predict at the moment.  More on this next week.

About A Death At The Gates Of Heaven:

This story first appeared in 2018 in the Spiderforest Webcomic Collective anthology Threads: A Gallery of Rogues, which is  available in print for the impatient among you by clicking on the image below.  It appeared alongside fifteen other graphic short stories in full color, and so for my money it’s a good buy for entertainment during the current time!  You can also find other volumes of our anthology, and the work of a lot of other great Spiderforest artists worth looking into.

And of course, please give Ally’s spectacular Wychwood a look as well!And as always, thanks for the continued support!  The notes and emails I’ve received have all been so positive and encouraging, I can’t tell you all how much it means to me.  God bless!