I'm nothing if not efficient.
I feel this year,more than any other year in recent memory, deserves a proper blog post only because 2010 has been more unexpected and amazing for me and my family than I had ever anticipated it being. So much so, that this may be the first time I can remember that I kind of want the remnants of the old year to hang around long enough to permeate into the new year. For the first time, I'm not anxious to rush the old out so quickly. I know this sounds so strange, especially given the fact that there are lots of people I know who want to see this past year taken out back, beaten and burned alive. This year has been full of hardships for many of my friends and family. And we've struggled with some really, really scary moments this past year. But overall, I'm genuinely happy with the past year, with all it's complexities, fear and uncertainty. And I hope that more of the good is to come in 2011.
First off, if you have been following me on Twitter or been watching my extracurricular outside of Jawbone, you would know that my Geek A Week project has been an incredible success, moreso than I ever imagined it being. This may be the first time in my creative life that I feel something I have started has turned into precisely what I wanted it to be. Even with all the unexpected success of my other projects like Monster By Mail and Flipface, Geek A Week seemed to be the culmination of years of work and days and days of artistry, persistence and creativity.
Geek A Week still has another two months left on it, and I don't want to write everything about it right now. I want to save that up for the end of the project. But suffice to say, I couldn't imagine a more wonderful and fulfilling project to work on that Geek A Week. I look forward to seeing what it has to bring in 2011.
Of course, I can't let a year end blog post go by without mentioning the incredible support of the fans of my work who have helped motivate me and fill my inbox with such wonderfully kind words. Certainly, all the support of Trace Beaulieu's book "Silly Rhymes For Belligerent Children" has been overwhelming and tremendous. Trace and I are so profoundly proud of that piece of work. I am honored to have been given the chance to work on something like that. It's the kind of project I dreamed of working on growing up, It's as if all my years of goofing off and cartooning has finally paid off. It was an honor to have my heroes from MST3K read portions of the book at DragonCon in Atlanta, and it was so edifying to see all the positive response to something that Trace and I not only worked so hard on, but also had so much fun creating together.
For all those people who came out to the three w00tstocks I was so lucky to be a part of, saw me create and work and were introduced to my artwork, thank you so much. w00tstock was a such an incredible experience, and as I was working on them, I tried to savor as much as it as I could. I know opportunities like that don't come around that often, especially for a relatively unknown cartoonist like myself. I'm so proud to have been able to participate in them, I'm glad to meet all these new fans and I'm so happy so many people liked my stuff enough to purchase a poster or two from me.
I have met so many wonderful people this past year, made so many new and amazing friendships in 2010, done things I never thought I'd be able to do like have a live concert in my house, attend Comic Con and meet and talk to so many of my personal heroes, it's easy to understand why I'm a little reluctant to let it leave. If you've been listening to the interviews I've been doing for Geek A Week, you'll know that one of the questions I've been asking the people I've been interviewing is "If you could have two superpowers, what would those be and why?" I've never formally answered my own question, but here at the tail end of the year, if I am asking myself that question my answer would be something like this:
"My superpowers would be to stretch time. Not in the literal sense where I am stretching it to give me more time to do the things I want, but a physical sense. I want to be able to pull the momentum of the wonderful experiences from this past year and finger paint them into the new year. I want to apply some of that magic and happiness and brilliance to the new year and watch it continue. I can only imagine what could become of that...
And for my second superpower, I'd like to teleport. Not only because it would be cool, but then I could avoid TSA screeners..."
Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for helping make 2010 one of the best years of my life. For reals.
