THE FIRST MONTH
This has certainly been the most wild month I’ve had in years. I don’t have too many comic updates just some pictures, links, and requisite tangents.
Spa-Con Infinity was a blast this year. I’ve been attending Hot Springs’ Con since 2017 (spare a covid year or two)and always have had a blast. It’s the very first convention I ever attended as a guest over a vendor (it was a Twin Peaks themed year right on the heels of The Retun finishing its season, so I was doubly excited) Needless to say it was pretty cool to get to do this year’s poster and t-shirt art. Never stopped being surreal to see my art blinking on billboards, stages, and on the shirts of hundreds of passerbys.
It was also the first time I’ve done a solo panel! It was a simple set up with me and some paper and pens. Ultimately I did a drawing demo on Arkansas Cryptids while talking about the stories that inspired them. Gotta shout out an especially cool audience that was full of incredible questions and anecdotes all their own. This one will be a bit of a highlight of mine for while.
The following weekend I found myself back in West Fork, Arkansas for Shire Post Mint‘s annual festival! This was their third year, and I can’t believe that each year is stronger than the last. You wouldn’t think West Fork would be the kind of place to see a bunch of hobbits and wizards running around until you get there and realize its the most natural place in the world for hobbits and wizards to run around.
Elsewhere in the month I popped up on Fayetteville Public Television for an interview on Later With Jason Suel (I’ll be certain to post that around these parts the moment the online version goes live!) I also had a wonderful interview with Dustin Staggs of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for a feature that went to papers Sunday, September 27. It’s an exceedingly lovely write up and you can find an online version over at the DemGaz site!
If you can’t tell I’ve been trying to go a little more regional and old fashioned in my marketing for this comic. Probably no secret that social media as a means to get eyes on art isn’t all that it used to be. Whether it’s some nebulous algorithm or changes in habits, it frequently feels like howling into a void for any semblance of attention. Frankly, that’s a lonely endeavor. I’m also a little nervous about the part us artists play into this by mobbing every new social media site with patreon and webstore links. So I’m trying to go about things a little less online this time. I do not know if meeting folks in my area and just talking about the book will prove to be a much more successful journey, but it’s a lot less lonely of one. It’s also just been heartening in general for someone who views art as a very complicated form of communication. Again I have no idea if this leads to any measure of financial success, but it’s doing marvels for my sense of why I do this kind of work.
OTHER BITS AND BOBS.
-Backwood Folk #1 is now also available from the Community Creative Center in downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas. There’s also almost always something to do or look at in there so it should be a good time.
-Backwood Folk #2 is well in progress! Damn near halfway through and the schedule’s finally clearing. I’ll see y’all back in Po’Dunk soon again.
