Well, I ran a half marathon on Star Wars Day. Not exactly comics, though.
There were three issues The Jack Kirby Collector this year, all of which have my regular "Incidental Iconography" column. I contributed to Back Issue #74, also published by TwoMorrows. And while it bears some of my previous work, Marvel released Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four volume 10 in paperback this year; that was a nice surprise to find a comp copy in my mailbox one day. My shortest "professional" writing piece was probably the blurb I got to write for the back of Jane Irwin's Clockwork Game graphic novel.
I backed a variety of Kickstarter projects that put a nice thank you message in them, but it was fun too to see iterations of myself pop up in some of the books too. I got name-dropped in Hatter M: Love of Wonder and my likeness is drawn into Fairy Quest 2: Outcasts #2. I also got a nice (non-KS) thank you from Craig Yoe in Alice in Comicland.
Getting my decade-old dream of a personal comics library set up this year was huge, and I've spent a lot of time in it. (Seriously, my wife's caught me more than once just standing in the middle of it, kind of awe-struck.) It's also expanded quite a bit since it's "debut" back in February, almost doubling the number of graphic novels in it thanks largely to picking up my father's old collection.
I think I also attended more comic conventions and comic-related events in 2014 than I ever had in a single year before. I hit most of the notable Chicago-area shows like C2E2, Wizard and CAKE as well as a few smaller shows. Plus any number of book signings and readings, ranging from older masters like Howard Chaykin to newer talents like Daniel Warren Johnson. I even got myself to a cartoonist's wedding this year! Speaking of events, I attended the opening reception for the Bill Watterson/Richard Thompson exhibit in Colombus, and met Thompson briefly. You can actually catch a glimpse of me from that event in that half-hour Thompson documentary at the 18:12 mark.
Several of us former MTV Geek writers (and a few others) started up a new comic news site called FreakSugar. I've got a couple of regular columns there, and I've dropped more than a few reviews and other articles there. I think we're doing some fun, quality work there, and, while we're technically still in beta, I think we've got some good things lined up to make a bigger splash in 2015.
And that's actually the really cool bit. There's a lot of really nifty stuff that I did and/or enjoyed relating to comics in 2014, but I'm more excited about the stuff that I'm already lining up for 2015! I honestly didn't feel like I did as much comics related work in 2014 as I had in the past, but writing this was a nice reminder that I wasn't exactly slouching around either. But my 2015 calendar is filling up already, and I'm even starting to mark some dates down for 2016! That's what really gets me jazzed -- not just that I'm doing cool stuff now, but that I've got even more cool stuff coming down the pipe!
Here's to a fantastic 2015, everybody!
Oh, and please take a look at the Patreon campaign I just launched. I'd really appreciate your support!
2 comments:
"just standing in the middle of it, kind of awe-struck"
I think that merits a big, big Hark a Vagrant type "Aw yissss." :)
I cannot confirm or deny any vocalizations along those lines. :)
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