(And he asks why he keeps up with the third-person thing)

You know how, for years now, I've been saying that I'm starting a webcomic? How it's called Charismatic Megafauna and it's the culmination of all my storytelling efforts and all that?

Well, it starts tonight.

[link]

Check it.

How long's it been? A few months, at least. I won't do some big end-of-the-year retrospective because, really, I don't think anyone would read it.

What I will do is give a deadline: expect the first finished page of Charismatic Megafauna by the end of January.

Some of the time. Other times, the air conditioner in his car breaks and he's left in a kind of semi-coma as the full brunt of global warming targets him.

Been working on the comic a lot. Got four pages drawn and more plotted. Also working on lots of random sketches to flex both the creative and the actual muscle.  Still gotta build a website and host it and all that, but the scanning problem has been overcome. We're getting closer.

It's been a while since I updated Unstoppable, but I'll continue with that just as soon as I finish Help Wanted. Which will be soon. Probably sometime within the week.

Am currently working on a new drawing. This one will be fully colored, too.

I have 2,001 pageviews as of right this very second. Figures.

To celebrate, here's a work-in-progress pic: [link] of a drawing I'm doing. If you read "Sixty Seconds To What?" you'll recognize him.

Ain't that something!

And here be the first thing I've drawn and scanned with my scanner: [link]

That's The Imperial. It's not finished (uncolored legs, they scream at me), but this is just a test really. What (I hope) you're looking at is a copy of the original inked drawing; I wanted to see how it looked with colored pencils. Not very good, as it stands. I'm gonna make another copy and try and color that digitally. In the meantime, hope you like this.

The very talented drew a commission for , who requested Agents Dave the Chatter and Jimmy Callahan from The Big Nowhere.

I wasn't involved with it at all, but seeing the final product made me giddy with excitement. Also sad that I can't draw that well. Mostly giddy.

But then he remembered!

In my joy to begin Unstoppable, I completely forgot to give credit where credit is due. Thunder belongs to , who graciously let me incorporate her into the story when I was still working out the plot. She also named Cross Country, rescuing him from a lifetime of accusations of plagiarism (Live Wire? Seriously, Seamus). Thanks again!

So why does he consume such gnarly media?

I finished watching the Pusher trilogy. That...that series. Each was an emotional rollercoaster and each made me feel like I had to shower afterward. I could analyze each movie and write an in-depth essay on why they're great...but essays are icky. Needless to say, I'm a big fan. They were made by the same director as Bronson and Valhalla Rising, two of my favorites. Nicholas Winding Refn is friggin' incredible. I haven't seen any director make such consistently powerful movies since Jean-Pierre Melville. Watch his films if you think you're prepared...you aren't. Trust me on that.

The above can be ignored. I get gushy sometimes.

Though watching that trilogy has made me want to write something of an equally gritty character. I'm participating in Script Frenzy, and my story is plenty violent, but I don't think it sinks to the depravity that Pusher does (I think it's a good thing that I'm not capable of that). It's a comedy, for the most part.

I'm conflicted, however: I've submitted a ton more writing than I have drawings. I got a new idea for a short story today (one involving the Hazard and events alluded to in The Guardian of Education) but I want to upload more drawings.

Choices.

He just doesn't know what to do with himself.

Historically, I've had a tendency to start far more things than I can finish. Every, oh, six months I manage to check a few things off the list, thinking that I'm makin' it happen, only to fall into the same pattern again. Right now I'm in the "makin' it happen" stage.

I don't wanna say the comic is gonna start in the summer, but that's when I want it to. I'm putting my main focus on that, for real this time. I've gotten a little more comfortable with my ability to draw recently, so I've been making some (SOME AHAHAHAHAHA I'm slow) progress on the pages I've started. I've found new motivation in an unlikely place...Spider-Man. Yes, really! For a long time I've been searching for a work that's got a certain set of themes, diversity of genres, etc etc that I try to emulate...and it's been there in Spider-Man the entire time. I almost feel silly that I've ignored one of my favorite characters for so long.

I've also got writing things that I want to do. I've got an idea for a film script, one that takes on something I've been reluctant to touch with a thirty foot pole in my past work: religion. I haven't started the script yet, because heck, I haven't even got the story fully worked out. All I've got is a series of images that I like with a vague plot to string them together. That and I don't think I know enough about religion in America to write something on the scale that I want to write...yet.

Also vying for my attention is a full-length novel starring the Rat Bastard, who you can read about in "Final Regrets of a Rat Bastard." This one has a more fully-realized plot than the script, and is pretty close in tone to The XYZ Affair. I think it'd be funnier, though. And sadder. Your emotions are my Play-Doh.

Then, of course, there's The Big Nowhere. SocialPrisoner (did I link to that right?) will tell you all about that, but you really should take a look at her writing, too.

Well, he didn't forget, but he was slow.

I hit 1,000 page views today. This probably has something to do with the entry I wrote for a contest, which you can read here: [link] Though when I came back to my page to get a screen shot, it was at 1,001 views. Figures.

Progress is being made on the comic. I've got the first page drawn and the second started. Unfortunately I've hit a bit of a roadblock, as the limits of my drawing ability are becoming painfully obvious to me. Part of me wants to make sure the art is of the highest quality possible, and part of me wants to get it out there while someone still cares.

Themed titles! Fun! Right?

Phew. Finished the Isla Del Oso Nightmare. Now that we're done with despair, let's move on to something else, shall we? I'm thinking...superheroes!

I've actually been thinking superheroes for a while. Ask anyone who talks to me regularly. Or reads these. Or who knows me even somewhat vaguely.

...But it takes him a long time to get off his lazy butt.

So, I've done it. After a year of practicing, plotting, stalling and praying, I've up and done it. I drew the first page of my comic. I still need to ink it, color it, add words and talk balloons and all that...but, hey, it's a start. Does this mark the official beginning of the comic? Not really. I want to build up a good buffer before I start promising updates, and I still need to build the website. But, like I said, it's a start. My one New Year's Resolution was to start the comic this year, and I think this is good enough. When I get it inked I'll scan it, so at least it'll be on teh interwebz.

Isla Del Oso Nightmare is close to being finished. I've only got a few more scenes to write, everything is coming together, and I think the final chapter will be the best of them all. After I finish that story, I'll continue The Guardian of Education and begin my next story. They'll run concurrently because they're kinda-sorta-not-really related.

Finished a drawing today too. I'll scan it as soon as I can, which won't be for a few days. I'm pretty proud of it, however. It also features the least clothes out of all my non-anthro drawings, so that's something!

Hope you all had/will have a great winter-themed holiday.

I was participating in NaNoWriMo, but no longer. Got swept away by a bunch of real world things that, in hindsight, weren't all that major, but were enough to keep me from writing. So now I've got about 15,000 words and no real way to make up for lost time. A shame, but I'll still finish the story. I don't want to deprive everyone of their share of 1950s pulp horror, after all.

But since I don't have a goal to meet anymore, I can get back to working on The Isla Del Oso Nightmare. There's a few story ideas bubbling in my mind, all colliding into each other and ready to fight to the death. So I'm gonna finish what Isla Del Oso, cause I've got a fair idea of what's gonna happen next, and then I'll let my brain turn into the Thunderdome for a while. Expect something with superheroes, or maybe some really short backstories as I think of them.

I've also finished a drawing of one of my characters, though I won't be able to scan it for a few days, which is irritating because I'm really proud of this one. I might have an opportunity to do so tomorrow; we'll see. Also started a new one, a remake of a (very bad) drawing I did of Miss Lady a while back. So expect that in good time.

Also expect all this to get brushed away after Wednesday, because I'm getting some dental work done then and I won't be able to eat solid foods, let alone type coherently, for who-knows-how-long. Good thing I hate turkey.

Hey, I wrote something substantial for a journal! Better cut it off before it gets obnoxious (too late).

Looks like I've broken 500 pageviews. Got 504 as of this writing. Wish I could've gotten a screenshot.

There's still the question of where all those views are coming from, though.

It's a joyous day indeed when I check DA to find 3 feedback messages.

And so this journal isn't totally pointless, I'll mention that I'm coloring a drawing of Pointman. It...actually looks good, so far. I'll put two versions up: one colored physically, and one done in Photoshop, to compare them. I'm new to coloring in general.