Archive for March, 2014»
Commissions and Workload
If my records are correct, I still owe two people commissions from January; I can only apologize, offer an explanation, and let you know my current plans.
In November of 2012, my mother had a stroke while in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia. In the time since then, my sister, my wife, and I have been spending increasing amounts of our time tending to my mother’s health and affairs, first taking care of her at my sister’s home, then transitioning her to an assisted living situation and selling her house. And while my mother’s personality was altered by the stroke and her mobility was noticeably limited, she was until recently doing relatively well.
All of that changed in December, when my mother took a nasty fall and went into the hospital again. Although she initially seemed recovered from that and was fine at Christmas (except for a nasty bruise on her face), she had some bleeding on the brain that we were not aware of at the time. In late January, she fell again, and it was a fall she did not recover from. During the month of February, she was in a rehab center, where she eventually simply stopped eating and would not willingly take care of herself– and the staff of the rehab place would not push her. Laurie, my sister, and I did what we could to mitigate the situation, but Mom’s doctors were frustratingly unhelpful despite my sister’s best efforts and Laurie and I were up to our elbows in settling Mom’s house in order to make sure her assisted living stay would be paid for.
By the time we got Mom back to her home at the assisted living facility, she had lost too much weight, and her body began to shut down. For a few days it seemed like she might perk up, but it was like once she was back in her own room and knew her affairs were settled, her body just let go. She passed away in the early hours of last Tuesday, and her funeral was this past Friday.
I didn’t post about this much while it was going on, for various reasons. First, it seemed to happen so fast, and while we were in the middle of it all there was no way to know what was going to happen. Second, for the past several years, it seems my online persona has been a never-ending series of these situations, starting with my father and going on from there, and I simply didn’t want to subject my readers to any more. (And there’s no denying, my life has been a bumpy ride since 2007 or so. But after a while, even tragedy becomes “normal” if it never relents.) Finally, well, what free time I did have, I wanted to devote to doing productive things. My writing and art have to some extent a shield I’ve used to keep myself focused and running. (“Can’t spend the day screaming at Kaiser Permanente, I’ve got NaNoWriMo to do!”)
But this is why my January commissions in particular got stalled. Since January, my full-time job has pretty much been taking care of my mom or her affairs, and everything else has fallen increasingly by the wayside. I am amazed (and glad) that I’ve managed to actually launch Suburban Jungle and not miss any updates during all this– faltering right out of the starter gate would have been painful for everyone.
Of course, now my mom’s estate has to be settled, but compared to the day-to-day workload of caring for her, that seems a relatively easy task. So now I can turn my attention back to what is supposed to be my day job: writing and comics. So here is my plan:
The first half of April will be spent rebuilding the Suburban Jungle buffer by finishing off the first issue so it can be in print by AnthroCon. During the third week of April or when the first issue is done (whichever comes first) I will turn my exclusive attention to finishing off my outstanding commissions and getting rewards out to my Patreon subscribers. Laurie and I will also be at AwesomeCon in Washington D.C. April 19-20, but purely as attendees, I won’t have a table.
Where things go from there depends on how this plan works out. ;) But as I’ve said before and I will surely say again, I am very grateful for everyone’s patience and wish to assure you that you will get your commissions as soon as I can make it happen. I haven’t forgotten!
-The Gneech
Find Me at Fur the ‘More!
As gathered by my better half in The Suburban Jungle Livejournal Community, here’s my schedule at Fur the ‘More, but in a little more detail.
Items in bold indicate that I am a panelist. The rest I simply plan (or hope) to attend.
Friday, March 14, 2014
12 PM Opening Ceremonies: Main Events
1 PM Furry Writing for Landlubbers: Panels 2
2:30 PM Guest of Honor Q&A: Main Events
4:30 PM Furry Feud: Main Events
7:30 PM Dealer’s Reception: Cinnamon Tree Restaurant
8:30 PM Penciling 101: Panels 3
10 PM Selections from Poe: Panels 1
Saturday, March 15, 2014
12 AM Cards Against Humanity: Tabletop Gaming
12 PM Fursuit Parade: Main Events
1 PM Creating a Cast of Characters: Panels 2
2 PM Dance Competition Setup: Main Events
3 PM Fur the ‘More’s Fursuit Dance Competition: Main Events
6:30 PM Guest of Honor Dinner: Cinnamon Tree Restaurant
10 PM Fursuit Friendly Dance: Main Events
Sunday, March 16, 2014
10 AM Furry Writing for Captain Ninja Masters: Panels 2
12 PM Making Mary Sue Walk the Plank
1 PM Working as an Artist (Without Going Insane): Panels 2
2 PM Writing Good Villains: Panels 2
4 PM Art Show Auction: Main Events
5 PM Charity Auction: Main Events
6:30 PM Closing Ceremonies: Main Events
7 PM Feedback Session
At the table I will have “Rough House: Issue Zero” preview comics for $1 each, plus all of the usual books, prints, and on-the-spot sketches. I recommend, if you want art, you grab me early, because with my schedule as it is, I expect to fill up fast.
See you tomorrow! ^.^
-The Gneech
Last week was pretty darn huge, actually, but I didn’t have time to post about it except in the most cursory way, so let’s write up a full report, shall we?
Rough Housing
The obvious biggie is that Suburban Jungle (Rough Housing) is up and running! We’ve also got a shiny new forum thanks to everyone at Crosstime CafĂ©. The story runs on Mondays and Wednesdays, with a quarterly print release (the first full issue should be at AnthroCon)– and thanks to my Patreon supporters, there will be extra content in the form of an “Ask the Cast” page on the last Friday of every month.
“What Patreon?” You Ask? Funny You Should Mention It!
With a little prodding from Graveyard Greg, Maggie Hogarth, and others, I created a Patreon page, and so far it’s been a huge success, for which I’m very grateful! Someone even took a “Commission on Demand” slot, which I didn’t actually expect anyone would. :) Good thing I put a limit on those!
The Patreon program has already reached two of its goals, the Ask the Cast page and funding a new compy to replace this dying PC. The next one is the biggie– funding another comic project that a pal of mine would like to collaborate on but that I just can’t afford to do unless it’s a paying gig. He’s trying to raise the funds on his end, but I told him that if I got funded, I’d do the comic without charging him.
So we’ll see if it happens! Please consider adding your support if you’d like to see more comics from your ever-lovin’ blue-eyed cartoonist. :)
And, Of Course, FurTheMore!
Come Friday, I will be in Baltimore as one of the Guests of Honor for FurTheMore— SO jazzed! I’ll have “Issue Zero” preview comics c/o the good folks at FurPlanet, I’ll be running panels, it’s gonna be awesome. :)
So, yeah… big week! I’m very pleased.
Oh, and did I mention I drew Rarity? ‘cos I totally drew Rarity. Such a lovely pony! <3 Anyhow, that's it for now! I need to get back to work. Those pages won't ink and color themselves! ...darn it. -The Gneech
Redliox “Issues” Commission
RedLiox Issues Commish by the-gneech on deviantART
Another commission for RedLiox on the strange duality that is the fox/lion hybrid!
I have no idea why, but this commission took me all week to do. O.o Unfortunately, that means the rest I had in mind to finish this week will have to get bumped a little longer so I can do SJ pages. But I will clean out that commission queue!
-The Gneech