The art is still slow, but I can confirm it hasn’t stopped completely…
Yes, the lack of uploads this past week has been noticeable, I’m sure; I may still be booting up in recovery mode, as it were. We’ve gotten through the big project at the day job, now it’s just a matter of getting back into the swing of things for comic work again. It can be difficult to build momentum after coming to such an abrupt stop, but hopefully the Showcase updates will return next week, if all goes well.
I have been doing some other stuff behind the scenes in the meantime, though. Even if I haven’t had time/energy to knuckle down on comic pages, I’ve been fiddling with the long-overdue cover for Fifth Ace Showcase #1, and I think I’ve finally reached a point where I’m happy with it. When I eventually get to releasing it as a downloadable pdf (and maybe even a print run?), with the exclusive backup story included, this is what you’re going to be looking at:
Obviously, there will also be titles included and the watermark will be removed, but this is all you’re getting for now; there were at least five different iterations of this cover, I felt the need to show off something at least. Of course, if you’ve been following me on social media, you may have already seen this; I’ve been spending a lot more time on Mastodon.art lately, and so far it’s been far more engaging than TwitterX. I can probably put a lot of it down to the relatively new scene, with a lot of people looking to build their follower base and thereby interacting with as many people as possible, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s certainly more engagement than I usually get, and with fewer people currently on my timeline, I’ve been able to curate my experience a lot better. I haven’t uploaded a lot on there yet, but I’m probably going to make it my primary social spot for the foreseeable future; it’s familiar enough to use easily, without a lot of the baggage that the dead bird is currently carrying. Still waiting on that BlueSky code…
Neck update: my time with the brace did not yield any significant results, positive or negative; it seems these finger tinglies are just something I’m going to have to live with for now. I’ll be going back in for more X-rays in about six months; things are still a mess in there, but for now I’m functional and not in any pain. I still have the brace, so if ever I feel any major discomfort, I can still slap it on, and I’ll let the professionals know if I feel that something should be done sooner.
The countdown to ComicCon Africa continues to tick down; with Dragonfire happening next weekend, we’re down to the wire to see if we’ll have enough money to make it. Won’t lie, it’s very stressful; there’s a lot of strings that need pulling to make sure it all works out, but the potential end result would be worth it. We did very well last year, and we have a lot more to offer this year, so we really really want to go. It all boils down to my hard-working fiancé; she’s put so much effort into building her business and is so determined to make the ComicCon table happen. I love her very much and am incredibly proud of all she’s accomplished; if the only thing I can do is be supportive and be a shoulder for her to lean on, then I’ll be doing that for as long as she needs me to, and beyond.
On that note, I should probably return to shaking off my funk and get my own stuff done; further bulletins as events warrant.
Ciao for now.