just a color dream…
It’s an out there, 99%-sure-it’s-never-going-to-happen dream but it would be cool if one day some kid (or adult) somewhere colors something frank page blue. So far, it’s just been me. #dream #frankpageblue
Rejections – a rite of passages
Back in the day, rejection letters were actual letters. They came in the mail… with stamps and an envelope… the whole nine. I took a perverse pride in taping them to a prominent wall within my eye-line. They were my mail order motivational posters.
Now? Email. Can’t tape an email to a wall. Well, you can if you print it out first. I’m not going to do that.
I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. If it happens, it happens. I’ll be happy. The work continues no matter what the mail (or email) brings.
I’ve been in the game long enough to not base my worth on stuff like this. But, getting this on a Friday morning still stings a little.
Where have you gone, Frank Page?
Yes, I haven’t posted much. Frank Page is missing in action (or inaction… depending on your perspective) It really stinks that many of these posts tend to start with those very words. I’m not ignoring you. I just don’t know what to say.
Why bother filling up this space with my lunch choices? Full disclosure: since my diet began in March, lunch is pretty much always the same: turkey burger. That being said, the diet has worked. Lez and I have collectively lost over 50 lbs…. I’ve personally lost over 26lbs… All our old clothes look like tents on us.
I didn’t really feel anything body wise until this past weekend. I set out to re-tile the bathroom floor. I’ve tiled almost every room in the house, so I know what my body reaction is after finishing… the bending and ripping and kneeling leaves me sore for at least two days. Everything hurts. But, my 26 lb. lighter, but a little older, body didn’t do that. Sure I did as much bending and kneeling as tiling a floor entails… but I was not sore. Not even a little. Granted, the bathroom floor wasn’t a huge job… but the last time I tiled it I was in Advil land when I finished. Not this time. So that’s cool.
Plus, I discovered that I love laying grout. Who knew?
Anyway, the 5000th show took a lot of my time last month. The show was running in conjunction with the finishing touches on a month-long coloring book project for my day job. The RETRO ROME coloring book was always something that I wanted to do. My hometown of Rome, NY has a lot of history. Last year I started a RETRO ROME website through the newspaper… posting a daily Rome image from negatives in the Sentinel archives. At the beginning o this year, I thought it might be cool to take it to the next level and put out a coloring book… for me it was personal. I just wanted to draw the buildings I drove past every day. I could’ve done that without putting a book out of course, but why not share?
Now that the book is selling and the book signings are over, (you can buy the coloring book online here) I can look ahead to other projects. Or not. I don’t know that there will be anything on the horizon… maybe I can just relax a little.
Yeah, right.
The Show and that which has been neglected…
On June 8, 2017, the Bob the Squirrel Greatest Hits show will open.
I’m currently in the process of hanging it… and it’s more work than I thought it would be… especially since I started it on a holiday weekend. Things have happened this weekend that have forced me to re-think my social media presence and activity. Nothing bad, just a thrown wrench into the mechanism I’ve constructed.
I have been posting 3-4 sketches throughout the day to my Facebook pages. I’ve used Hootsuite to pre-schedule everything: from the daily strip, Squirrelosophy and various commercials for books and art. Well, Hootsuite has now gone to a pay model. That’s fine, I get it. But, I don’t think the value I get from them is worth the price they’re asking. To that end, I’ve found another social media management tool… one that I STILL have to pay a monthly fee for, but one that will shake me out of the routine I was in. So, it’s not a bad thing… it’s just not a thing I expected to tackle the week EVERYTHING is happening.
To pay for this, I’m going to be stepping up my Patreon marketing, my Squirrelosophy original art sales and various other new promotions. I’m also going to get serious about a bobthesquirrel.com site re-design. I’m basically going to be paying way more attention to the things I’ve either stopped paying attention to or have lapsed into a hard routine over. Evolution. In the process I hope to make the comic a better experience for the reader.
Before that all begins, I have to get through the next few weeks. After which, let the Summer of Bob begin! Thanks to everyone who have stuck by me and the strip.