Level 39!

I’ve been doing “Let’s Review” blog posts on Tuesdays lately, but yesterday was my birthday and I did a lot of reflecting.  So I’ll do a Let’s Review blog on Thursday, because today I want to talk about where my brain was on my birthday.

I turned 39 yesterday.  It’s weird to think that in another year I’ll be 40 years old.  But my brain didn’t linger on my age or the time-stamp it represents.  As I turned 39 I looked back on what I’ve been doing with my life for the past 16 of those years.  That reflection came literally, as I was organizing books to bring to upcoming conventions.  Eleven years doing Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire and the past five creating STAR POWER alongside Garth.

Sixteen years of my life have been spent making independent comics.  No one has ever published me or distributed my work.  No one has come to me with an offer to work on something with a bigger audience or in a different, more widespread medium.  For the past sixteen years I’ve published my own books, sold and shipped them by hand across the country*, and established (what I feel is) a quality body of work.  Not bad for a hopeless daydreamer who started this path doodling comics of his tabletop roleplaying game characters.

Would it be nice to work on a grander stage?  To make “grown-up money” and maybe have my name known in more than just the small circles I’ve cultivated over the years?  Maybe.  Maybe I’m more enamored with the idea of that “next level” than I am with the reality of it.  Because I’ve told the stories I’ve wanted to tell, the way I’ve wanted to tell them, since I began.  I like sharing those responsibilities with Garth because I know and trust him, but to give up some level of creative control over my characters and worlds is an idea that goes not gel with me.  Who knows?  My tune may change is some crazy offer ever comes my way, but there’s no sign of that on the horizon and that’s fine by me.

Thirty nine years old.  Sixteen years making comics my way.  Happy birthday to me.

 

 

*I’ve also had help shipping books these days by the fine folks at Shark Robot, who manage our store front here!