2012 was a pretty good year in the Schoonover house. Josie turned 2 and is growing in size and personality every day. It’s pretty incredible to see the difference in 12 months time. Definitely my favorite time period of fatherhood so far in her short life. As for Nicole, my better half switched jobs early on this year and is now a producer at KNOCK, one of the best design firms in Minneapolis. I’m so proud of her as they sought her out after a few years of being out of the commercial art scene. She is now in charge of producing ad campaigns for big clients like Target and Caribou Coffee, while flying all over the country to take part in expensive photo shoots.
As for myself, this year was a really good year. Commercial work kept me extremely busy. Projects seemed to be a little like Gremlins, they just kept multiplying. As I keep looking back on my year end blog posts of the past, it’s nice to see those thin years of 2008 and 2009 more and more in the rear-view mirror. Here’s hoping 2013 helps add to that.
The biggest challenge of 2012, for me, was a schedule. It seemed like I could never get into a groove. With the wife changing gigs and being asked to do more at work, I ended up watching Josie a lot. Thanks to some great help from family, and just simply getting used to the new crazy around here (this house has always been crazy to some degree), eventually I was able to start getting a grasp of my time and handling it better. Sadly it just took over 3/4 of the year. I wasn’t able to get to personal projects as much as I would have liked. That’s just how it goes though. Sometimes you just need to ride that freelance train wherever it takes you.
Here’s a few highlights of 2012 for me.
CINTIQ!!!! -I FINALLY got a Cintiq! It’s been amazing. I am still learning some things on it, but so far I am really digging it and looking forward to making comics with it.
IMAC - I also got a new computer around the same time. I never new how bad my older computer was until I upgraded to the new iMac. The massive upgrade in equipment in the studio still makes me smile when I come down to work.
TRAVEL - Traveling wasn’t just for the wife this year. Nicole and I just got back from New York recently. She went for work and I went for fun. We had a lovely time. I was able to get back to Chicago for C2E2, and I went to Heroes Con in Charlotte for the first time and it totally lived up to the hype of being one of the most artist friendly cons you could ever experience.
PROJECTS -While I had a lot a great work this past year I’d have to say without a doubt the coolest experience would be working with Surly Brewing Company. Any artist living in Minneapolis secretly (or not so secretly) wants to get involved in the local craft brew craze. It’s one of the greatest small business movements going on in the country and I really feel the Twin Cities is at the heart of it. Surly certainly seems to be at the forefront of this movement and to be able to work with them creatively has been very rewarding. We have one more project to announce later in 2013 but I am hoping to do more with them in the future. They are a great group of people.
WEBSITE- My best moment in 2012 was the relaunch of this very site. I am so happy with how it turned out and excited about it’s future potential. Jason and Andrew worked their ass off on it and the results speak for themselves. From the online store to the smart phone conversion, It’s wicked classy.
GOALS FOR 2013
MORE COMICS- I didn’t do nearly enough of this in 2012. I did some pitches that didn’t pan out and some small short story stuff. It’s time to man up and get back at it. I have laid out and written my first ever graphic novel on my own, which I am hoping to have out late in the year. I also have some small projects that will be released throughout 2013. If all goes as planned it will be a good year for me and the funny books.
SCREEN PRINTS- The Surly gig introduced me to the fine folks over at CHUX Printing. They are some of the Twin Cities best screen printers and working with them on that project has me stoked to see what they could do with some of my personal and promotional work. Hoping to utilize them for just that in the next 12 months.
CONVENTIONS- As is the case every year I hope to continue to try out different comic conventions all over the country, and possibly abroad. It will be hard as I have made a rule of limiting myself on cons until I have new material out to promote. So the sooner I get these project wrapped, the sooner I can travel to your town and put them in your hands.
That’s all I got for now. If you’ve made it this far thanks for reading. Not sure why I love doing these year in reviews so much. Guess I like processing and evaluating all the craziness that is my life and job.
Cheers to you and yours. Have a most excellent new year.