I've been asked this question a lot - there's a lot of folks here in Portland whom I know, but don't see very often. We're all fairly active in the local cartooning community, but it's a large community and only a small portion of them are at any given event at a time.

Lately, though, it's a question I've been having trouble answering. I don't know if it's a creative drought or what, but my motivation has been on the wane again for several months. I have the next page of Ellie scanned in, but just can't bring myself to finish coloring it so I can post it. Likewise, I've got the page after that started, but don't have the drive to finish penciling it.

I have been spending a lot of time focusing on contract projects and trying to get a little ahead financially, but between that and my volunteer work for Stumptown, I haven't had the energy to do much else. One of my long-time regular corporate clients sent me a bunch of new work last month, which is nearly wrapped up now. A second client came to me with a long-term project which should carry me through well into January, and I also did a couple small illustration commissions - one of which is a cover illo for one of my all-time favorite magazines (I'll definitely be talking about that when it's available!). AND I'm busy redesigning a couple of the websites that I manage, which should take another month or two. So it isn't as if I haven't been busy, I just haven't been busy on Ellie.

I've been saying for years that I hope I can work on the comic more 'next month', or 'next year', but I know that just saying it doesn't mean anything unless I actually do it. I'm still trying to figure out exactly HOW I want to continue Ellie, but that's a topic for another day.

So, what have you been up to lately?

This week I created a minicomic to give away to any trick-or-treaters that come by my door this halloween. Thought I'd post it online as well for anyone who wants to check it out! You can read the whole thing over here on lunarbistro. Enjoy, and happy Halloween!

The way it works is simple: Click the thumbnail for any desktop wallpaper or activity page here, and you'll be asked to make a donation via Paypal. You can donate as much or as little as you want, but please keep in mind that donations less than a dollar will get absorbed by Paypal's fees. You'll then be redirected either to a page where you can download your wallpaper at one of eleven different sizes, or to a pdf of the activity page you chose.

I'm hoping to have a new desktop image or activity page each month or so, and the activity pages won't be limited to coloring pages. I've got mazes, puzzles, word searches, all kinds of fun things in mind. To celebrate, I'm releasing a recent design, the first in my 'Graphic' series of character portraits, Ellie in Green:

Thanks for your support, and enjoy!

The question I have is, which one would you all rather see made available first? These prints would be 12x18 (ish), digital prints on 100# cover stock, and would be signed and numbered, limited to an edition of 50. They'll cost $10 each, just like the Roger Rabbit prints I just put into the store. Comment below and let me know which you would prefer. If there's a clear winner I'll order them up and have them available by the end of the month!

That's all, folks!

Also, during the month of September (but starting today!) I'm having a special over at the store, where you can get a FREE Custom Artist Sketchcard with every purchase over $20! This card will feature a full-color drawing of a character of your choosing, either from my own comic or someone else's, or from a video game, cartoon, movie, whatever you like! Just tell me what you want in the 'Notes' field. If you leave it blank I'll draw you a robot.

But I have to wonder: Is that really such a good idea? Consider Brooke as an example: Let's say that this treatment is developed and the human species is able to completely shut off it's biological clock. While we maybe free of the ravages of old age, we'll be faced with an entire generation of perpetual infants, unable to take care of themselves, completely dependent on the older generations. And unless scientists are able to 'immortalize' adults, the entire human race would die out in less than a hundred years, as this generation of infants would lose its caretakers and end up dying of dehydration, exposure, and starvation.

But that's a pretty grim set of possibilities. The alternative is that science provides us with a kind of genetic 'switch' wherein immortality can be turned on at any time, but then what's to keep us from remaining productive? Some folks look at their mortality as the thing that keeps them going (ironically), knowing that they won't be around to provide for their loved ones forever keeps them working that much harder today. Many people settle into relationships knowing that, while it may not be their ideal mate, they would rather grow old and die with someone they get along with than do it alone.

Imagine if the entire population suddenly found themselves with all the time in the world, with limitless options spread before them. How many people would stay at the jobs they currently hold? How many would stay in their relationships? What would that immortality mean? To remain the same age forever, I imagine that metabolism would have to be affected in some way, possibly slowed to near imperceptibility or stopped altogether. A twenty dollar bag of groceries today might end up costing only pennies due to a surplus.

And I also expect the economy as a whole would go into some kind of tailspin as people find that retirement no longer holds any meaning. Folks might stop putting money away 'for the future', since realistically speaking, the Future won't really be any different than the Now, and an infinite retirement would be possible after first completing an infinite career. Retirement would have to become an extended vacation between careers at best. Life imprisonment takes on a whole new meaning, and the immediate financial impact would need to be considered, as taxpayers would be expected to foot the bill for these 'long-lifers' in perpetuity. Whole industries built around mortality would disappear in collapse - funerary services, retirement homes, mortuaries and cemeteries.

Just something that's been on my mind the last couple days. On the plus side, though, I might be able to live long enough to live on the moon!

Thanks to Jon Morris for setting up this project, I'm happy to be part of the launch and looking forward to seeing what the next 51 titles are going to look like! I talk more about the project over here at my OTHER blog, and a large view of the image can be seen at DC Fifty-TOO!

I don't know why I keep coming back to this image as being iconic for Ellie, just the idea of this girl swinging a sword, when the men in her life are more likely to swing a library card. Something about that just appeals to me.

Well, for as long as I can manage it, at least! Also, it appears that I've fixed whatever it was I did to break the comments a few weeks back, so I expect to hear what mistakes I made on the latest pages!

As I'm nearing the halfway point on my Kickstarter, I have to recognize that it has not been moving as quickly to the goal as I'd hoped. At the current rate, I'll hit my goal sometime after I finish drawing Eye of the Vortex, which is the exact opposite of helpful. I feel like I've done everything I can to promote the project, short of bombarding my twitter and facebook (and Google+) pages with reminders about it.

Ah, well. I'm still no worse off than I was before, and having the kickstarter running has definitely encouraged me to keep cranking away at these pages, so at least I have that. It was recommended to me by Danielle Corsetto that, rather than trying to collect a year's worth of funds through the kickstarter, I should try just running a month-to-month donation drive, with special bonus downloads, like wallpapers and activity pages. It's certainly something I'm considering, and will let you know if that happens.

In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying the pages I've been posting, and don't forget to share them! That's what the little 'Share This' button at the bottom of each page is for, after all!

I did get some exciting items in the mail yesterday, though! The printer I've been working with to get the baseline price for printing Ellie Connelly volume one sent me Dummy copies of the books, to give me an idea of the paper stock and finishing that I'm planning on. Here's a photo of the hardcover dummy:

These totally blank books are nice and hefty, their 8.5"x11.25" trim size puts them on par with my Tintin and Blake and Mortimer albums, I can't wait to see them slathered with The Adventures of Ellie Connelly and stacked on a table at a comic convention or a book fair. I'm especially excited about the hardcover, which for this volume will only be available through the Kickstarter, so go and make your pledge today!

I started working on page 35 yesterday afternoon, though I was feeling extremely low on the energy level. I think this experiment of getting up early and starting work earlier is failing, as it seems no matter what time I wake up I still want to stay up past midnight. But, I still managed to get the page lettered and to begin some serious penciling before I had to cut my day short for a meeting with the PGC3 as the representative for the Stumptown Comics Fest. But, my goal for today when I get back in after lunch is to finish penciling and begin inking the page. With any luck (and some strategically planned free-time) I might be able to finish coloring it this weekend and post it on Monday.

Today I'll have a chance to work on the page a bit, though, as well as trying to do a bit of promotion on the Kickstarter (I've got a Kickstarter going, did I tell you that?). I'll probably do another ustream coloring session, I'll announce it on my twitter feed when I'm ready to get started, probably not until 3 or 4 PST at the soonest. In the meantime, you can watch the video I recorded of my finishing up the coloring job on page 33 last week!