Family Man pre-orders are live!

The time is upon us, or rather, me:  the first two chapters of Family Man are coming into print as Family Man Volume I.

I’ve drawn two complete chapters, learned through experience how to design, print, publish, and ship books.  All that remains is for me to finishing laying out the book and design a really snappy cover!

Oh, yes, well, also, to raise the money.  It’s going to cost me $10,000 US to print this book the way it deserves, and I’m just too much of a self-employed 26 year-old artist to have that kind of scratch lying around the house.

So I need your help. For the last four years I’ve kept the comic 100% free of advertising and have never solicited donations to keep it running.  If you’ve enjoyed it and have been looking for a way to support the project, this is your chance. I’ve put together a bunch of packaged options for pre-ordering the book, to suit any budget and degree of fervor, and I think they are genuinely pretty damn cool. You will like them!  They are neat!

So, without further ado:

Pre-order your copy now.

Family Man update!

Page 174 now online.

Here, have your update a day early.  Huzzah!

Drawing all those cards was secretly the best thing ever.  I don’t know why it was so enjoyable; it just made me happy.

Not much news this week from me!   It’s strangely soothing to be coloring in book spines again, though.  Also I expect this next little sequence is going to be popular with the librarians in the audience.  (I know you’re there, ladies and gentlemen. I can hear you breathing.)

I’ll actually be speaking at a library (pre)conference this week in Portland, with studiomate Jeff Parker and others, courtesy my friend and occasional collaborator Sara Ryan, so I look forward to yammering at a group of my favorite information and public service professionals.

For my fellow residents of the Northern hemisphere, happy Spring!

Family Man update!

Page 170 of Family man now online!

At last, at last, at laaaaast, an update.  Let’s not think about how long it’s going to take me to wind down from all the tea I’ve had tonight, shall we?  Some costs cannot be estimated.

What a month, guys.  I’m slowly digging my way out.

Family Man: she updates!

Page 168 now online.

Behold!  I am reinstalled in my life here in Portland and almost out from under the massive backlog of orders, business chores and work; tomorrow I might even unpack the suitcase.  Luckily for my sanity, I get to ease back in with another one of these handy chapter transition images.  Next week we’ll have Luther and the library and hijinks will ensue.  Hurray!

Then the week after that I’ll be due for another round of page notes, although they might be a bit scanty given the hunting interlude.  (I do promise I’ll post links to the rabbit skinning tutorials I found on YouTube.  Like a banana, gang.  They peel like a damn banana.)

I’m still scrumming around for a reliable, quality printing company with good communication skills, located outside of this here continent (with prices to match).  If you’ve had any good or bad experiences printing a publication in four colors with an overseas printer, please pass that information my way, so I can locate a solid vendor and have a Family Man book for sale at San Diego this year.

Family Man update! (NSFW)

Family Man page 158!

Okay, those of you who scoffed at the mild semi-nudity in previous weeks of Family Man pages, this time you really DO need to be concerned for your employment.

Sorry it’s late (APE tripped me up a little), but I didn’t want to just crank this one out.  Beyond that, I won’t say much about this week’s page; sorry.  It’s up to you, kids!  And I’ll see you next week, possibly with a multiple-page spread.  (ooh la la)

Folks waiting on me for commissions and/or products, never fear, tomorrow I’m back behind the retail wheel and will be sending out pictures and grammar labels galore.

LASTLY:  After I wrap this chapter up I’ll be putting together an incredibly belated podcast; I’ve been avoiding doing one in the strange certainty that there nobody could possibly have any questions left to ask me that weren’t just Family Man plot spoilers, but who knows. So if you have a burning question, throw them my way in the coming weeks, and I’ll answer as best I can in mp3 format!

Before then I’ll also be posting about some of the other projects I’m working on right now, so maybe folks will get intrigued about those.

Family Man update!

Page 145 of Family Man now online!

Better late than never!  Here’s this week’s page of Family Man:  relative calm as compared to the frenzy of new information that’s appeared over the last few updates.  Still plenty of mystery, though.  As always.

Also of note with this update – I’ve switched over my online store services to Shopify, and have added some items, including the first ever piece of Family Man merchandise.

I’ve developed a great relationship with a local printer, who does wonderfully faithful giclee (high-end digital inkjet)  art prints – they’ve done such a great job with prints from the Lady Parts show that my only problem has been keeping them in stock.

So I’ve decided to start offering an experimental print-on-demand service for all the pages of Family Man to date.

If there’s a page you’ve really enjoyed and would like to have in a frame-ready physical form at the original size I drew it – 9×12 (or bigger, for that famous library page!), you can now buy it from me, and I will run over to the printer and ask him to please calibrate and print it just for you.

I’m starting things off at the low-low price of $25 per page (on archival paper, $40 on fancy watercolor paper).  It’s safe to say the price probably won’t drop anytime soon, so here’s your chance to get in on this before I decide it’s a big ole hassle!

Oh yeah, also, those chicken stickers are still at the store. Never gonna stop pushing these.  I love them so.

Late update, new store

This week’s page of Family Man will go up on Friday!  Paying work intervenes.  But, in the meantime, I have a new store online!

Now you can purchase glorious chicken stickers, or custom-order prints of Family Man pages, and I can actually have a back-end order and fulfillment system which means no marking up spreadsheets with highlighters and crying myself to sleep at night because your order is inexcusably late and probably you hate me now*!

Everybody wins.

(*If you are Abigail Ravn or Caitlin Starling, send me a line – your orders didn’t make it through the mail.)

Family Man update! plus other stuff!

Page 144 of Family Man
now online!

Man, two big reveals in as many weeks!  Hearkening all the way back to, hey, page 3.  (Apologies for making you look at things I drew in 2006; I take comfort knowing it’s not nearly as painful for you as it is for me.)

Technically there’s one big reveal and one obscure tip-off.  But let’s not get greedy about it.

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COMMERCE: I’ve finally acquired the last of the stock items (spoons, some of the Lady Parts prints) that were holding back some very late orders on books and prints, especially international orders!  So if you have been patiently sitting on your hands over in the UK or Canada, don’t fear, I haven’t forgotten you.

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NEW STUFF:  I’ve got a new poetry chapbook out.  It’s called Private Island, and it’s for sale in my store at the LOW LOW price of $2.00, which is a mere ten cents for each page of action-packed verse, most of which has never seen the light of the internet before!

There are many flavors in this one, and it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever made at a copy shop, so snag one at will.

Family Man update!

Page 143 of Family Man now online!

And now here is a page guaranteed to startle and confuse, if Luther’s face is any judge.

But, whatever you think is going on:  I’ll repeat my mantra of wait for it. Your questions should be answered by Labor Day.

Family Man notes!

Family Man: New Notes!

I’m in the middle of working my way through the Bite Me! shipping backlog, putting together material for potential future publishing projects, and preparing for a week in New York for MoCCA!

Not to mention picking up yet another sexy round of prescriptions in an attempt to make my post-viral breathing tube look less like this:

And more like this:

So I’m taking a pass on a page this week, which drives me nuts but seems responsible.

But, here we are, a new set of notes for pages 130-140!  I really went kind of insane this time, trying to explain both wigs and early Protestant theology.  I know that you have had burning questions about these things for a very long time. Consider them answered.

And, again, I’ll be at the MoCCA Art Festival in New York, June 6-7, tabling with Klio of SPQR Blues.