How a year goes by. Seems like I just recapped 2010. Well another year is officially in the books. I have to say 2011 was pretty darn great. Overall it was a nice balance of personal work and commercial work, which is always my main goal going into every year. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does it’s a thing of beauty. Our daughter Josie turned one in November and she’s a little walking, talking, ball of goofy. The first year brings so many moments it’s really hard to remember them all. Other non work related highlights are sort of small in nature but still goals I set out to do at the beginning of the year. Exercise more, and do more personal sketching. I’ve been able to do both for the most part and look to continue them throughout 2012.
On the work side of things I must start off by talking about the release of Mr. Murder is Dead. It has become my favorite project I’ve ever done and I couldn’t have worked with a better crew than the folks at Archaia and Before the Door Pictures. Starting the book in December of 2010 I worked like mad to get it published in time for Comic Con in July. It all came together and turned out great. Attending San Diego & New York Comic Cons were some of the best experiences Nicole and I have ever had. Hopefully we can all work together again soon.
I’ve gotten to meet some really great artists and creators by going out and promoting the book. It’s been a blast to meet many of the fine folks who’s artwork inspires me everyday through social networking sites like Twitter.
Freelance was really good, and lots of projects like the Darkotic Shooting Targets I’ve done for Birchwood Casey shall keep on going throughout the next year. I continue to do local magazine covers and also got the chance to work on some film posters, something I’ve always want to do. My first experience working on iPhone and iPad video games came this past July. This is something I’m really interested in doing more of and I’m going to try and make a point to work on my own games shortly. I think there’s some great opportunities there for artists to get their work out and make some decent money in doing so. We shall see.
Hopefully the coming twelve months will continue to point upwards much like this past year has. I still need get the next comic project going. It’s taken me more time than anticipated. It’s worked in a way though as a wave of commercial work has come in over the last couple months. Which is always good for covering the mortgage and those pesky student loans. Here’s some goals for myself over the next year.
Cinitq- Ha! It’s an annual tradition to put that on here. I did just purchase a new computer so this is sort of the last really big purchase I need for the studio. We’ll see if it happens.
Website- I am in the early stages of updating the website. It needs a makeover and good friend Jason Nelson is working on expanding it to have a store, new portfolio, and an all around fresh look. This will happen and hopefully it will be happening rather soon.
Conventions- I really want to continue to try and get to at least one new con I’ve never been to this year. I probably won’t have anything new to promote until later in the year but still it’s always fun to try a new convention. Last year was NYCC. This year I’d like to try one of the smaller cons like Heroes in Charlotte or Fan Expo in Toronto.
Drink and Draw- So many cities have some great get togethers with artists for draw nights. You simply go sit at a bar and draw. Maybe it’s a theme or maybe it’s just whatever you feel like doing. Since starting up a daily ritual of drawing warm up sketches again I would really like to get something like this going with a few fellow cartoonists in town. We already have a meet up on a semi regular basis at one of my favorite bars in Minneapolis. Maybe we can convert it to a draw night?
Astronaut Dad- This past October we got the collected Astronaut Dad together in time for New York Comic Con. We were hoping to have it available digitally in a variety of formats and also have a website up to buy a hard copy version. Due to some snags we are a little behind on this, but we will have the book available and ready to go shortly after the new year. It reads so well collected, I’m really excited to push it out there for people to enjoy.
There are many more goals I could list but I am keeping it simple for 2012. All the best to you and yours and thanks for checking out my work. I really appreciate anyone who comes to the site, or my Facebook and Twitter pages. It means a lot to me. Happy new year.
Brent
