I’m very fortunate to be part of a new anthology for the charity Reading With Pictures. I’ve got a 4 page story entitled “One Day with Amy”. It’s a love story!

I’ve got an amazing artist working with me, Daniel Gutowski. I’m really in love with his art and I can’t wait to see what he does with this story!

The whole book is going to be awesome. There are some amazing folks in it and Jill Thompson is doing the cover! It’ll be in the April Previews so keep an eye out. I’ll post up the order code as soon as it’s available.

Also, I’ll have a table at Wizard World Chicago (or Chicago Comiccon…..) this year! I’ll have RWP and Sequential Suicide for sell as well as two of my minicomics! If all goes well I might have the Loose Wires preview by then as well. I’ll be at C2E2, though I won’t have a table. I may have a table at NYCC, it’s up in the air right now. I should know in the next month or so.

That’s right folks, I’m actually a professional now! My first published work will be available in June. My story, DEATH RATTLE, will appear in SEQUENTIAL SUICIDE: FIRE AND ICE by 803 Studios. Art was provided by Nosochu, a great artist that I hope to work with again in the near future.

I’ll add another post later with details on exactly where and when you can procure a copy of SS.

On a completely unrelated note, I installed windows 7 on my new PC. Really digging it, fast, pretty and intuitive… things I thought I’d never say about a Microsoft OS.

After sitting for three hours staring at the same line of dialog, I start to wonder why I’m doing this to myself.

Why am I working so hard on this script? Why am I chewing my fingernails to the quick as I wait for a response from a perspective artist? Why don’t I just say to hell with it, go watch TV and focus on my day job. A day job that has paid me more in a single week than I’ve made in total in the two years I’ve been seriously doing comics. The only answer I can come up with…

                                                                                            …because I love it.

I could write prose, I have and I will again, but it doesn’t hold the same draw. Comics have been my dream since I was a kid. I remember being so passionate about them that a friend once told me that I couldn’t come over to play unless I stopped talking about comics. I didn’t go to play, I stayed home and read comics instead.

Something about this art form captured me. Something in the quality of it, the intimacy and the interactivity. The slow burn of a full bleed panel. The rhythm of the gutters. The pull of a well placed page turn. Going back and letting my eyes linger over the lines of a nib or a brush.

Wednesday afternoons at the comic book shop. Christ, Wednesday afternoons. The feel of a 22 page floppy. The fulfillment of a months anticipation over what happens next in a series that’s had you by the balls for the past 13 months. The talk over artists, writers and what team you’d love to see work on what title. The ritual of the bag and the board and the box.

This is why I do it. Because I dream in comic book. I don’t want to do anything else with my life. This is a thing I must do. In the end, it won’t matter if I make any money at it. It won’t matter if I get more work published. The very act of doing it is reward.

I won’t lie. I would love to do it fulltime. I’m pretty damn sure I will. If I don’t though, it’s alright. The love keeps me going. This is no industry for tourists. The margins are too small and the competition too talented. The only thing that will keep you going after hours of staring at the same panel description, page layout or balloon placement, is the love. If it’s not there, if it’s not driving you, I advise you quit and find the thing that does. It’s a waste of your time without it.

Now, I’ve got to get back to that damn line of dialog.

New Years resolutions, I don’t usually make them. You know, I think that sentence starts every blog post having to do with New Years resolutions. Most anyway. Seriously though, I usually don’t. I tend to toss the practice aside as a useless gesture that people rarely take seriously.

After reading a lot of fellow comic book creators resolution posts, however, I started to realize that I did, in fact, make some resolutions. I just don’t call them resolutions. I don’t know why, maybe because I’m too cool (I’m not) or to jaded (I probably am). Either way, I realized I have some resolutions and I might as well air them for the public, well what little public actually reads this beleaguered little blog.

So here we go:

1) I’m going to write at least 5 nights a week for at least 2 hours a night. If I can push to 6 or 7 nights a week, I’m going too. So far this is working out. I usually write for more than 2 hours but I’ll set that as goal.

I’m doing alright on this. I think this year I’ve only not written maybe 2 days total. Most of December I wrote every night. I’ve outputted around 60 total pages plus lettering a few in the past 4 weeks. That’s an average of about 2 pages per night. I’m pretty good with that.

2) I’m not going to let my social anxiety screw up my comics career.

Last year I really let this get in the way of how I approached people at New York CC and WW Chicago. I could have networked a lot better if I hadn’t been so damn scared. That’s what it is too, I get deathly afraid of talking to new people. It’s crippling, but I won’t let it screw with me this year. I need to talk to editors, I need to introduce myself and I need to network. This is my biggest one I think. No matter how much I do the work if I can’t get myself in front of people to pitch concepts, I’m getting nowhere. It’s hand in hand and I have to make this happen.

3) Get more work published.

That goes without saying I think, but I’m still saying it. I have two short stories that are going out for publication this year. I want to have a couple of OGN projects green lit and maybe a miniseries. If I can get in front of the right people and start pitching concepts, I think I can make this happen. It all becomes very dependent on #2. Either way, I’m making this happen.

OK, that’s all. Those are my resolutions. That’s what I’m working on. 2009 is shaping up to be a great year and I hope to make it an outstanding and life changing one.