smudgedragon

Well, for good or for ill - We've made the jump, as it were. Yesterday, Baron put in his "two-week" notice at work. I put that in quotes because it's actually longer than 2 weeks. He wanted to hang around long enough for one of the other co-workers to get back from Vacation. We both are looking forward to this and are terrified all at the same time. But when it looks like Baron can pull more money in via commissions that he can from the day job - it's time to make the jump.

The biggest scare? My medical which just keeps piling up. I mean we've known Baron wanted to make this jump for some time, Murphy's Law, it just so happens to occur just as all my medical appoints are coming around. Insurance helps but ... Yauzers! One full head dental X-ray set ($90.00 out of pocket), and Optometry in the same week. lol.

I ended up dropping $300.00 for new lenses today because my eyes are changing focus points rapidly. According to the doctor, I need two sets of glasses now, progressive bi-focals for general use/driving and desk glasses. The amount I just paid were for the progressives. I'll be getting a uber cheap set of desk glasses via Online, since they don't have to be so rugged with extra coatings for glare and such.

Good news is that my allergies and general sickness are keeping in check this year so far. Yes, I'm feeling this allergy season (it's a whopper), but am holding it together better than previous years. Because of that I'm getting sick and taking downtime less and less. It is a serious improvement in the long-run and I am very happy for it.

I, myself have been doing a lot of small, but ever present, business things to keep them off Baron's desk so he can just work on art. So far it's working out. Accounting, website work, paperwork and filings, business to business communications, ect. Oh, and I'm still working on my own stuff too, just not direct commissions atm. If you wanna check out my WIPs for my new project, they are slowly becoming available over on Patreon if you wanna check them out, for a small fee.

I'm currently setting up for printing 'To Kill a Dragon' as floppies. I'll be holding off printing them until after the last issue is available digitally from ComiXology. And when will that be, you ask? I have no freak'n clue. As it is, all four will probably be posted up on Comics Plus before ComiXology at this rate. Comics Plus, however will be posting #1 on the 6th and each issue, once per week, following. I really like working with the Comics Plus guys so I was happy to get 'To Kill a Dragon' up there too. Just took a bit longer since they are more hands on than ComiXology.

I also plan on having an update to the SM-EW Comic Easel <3 S2member plugin for WordPress next week. WordPress rolled out a new version last week, and I'm a little behind in testing it for compatibility. Should be no issues, but it's gotta get done. Also talked about about admin updating on the Radio Site (since that is way too big/complex for Elin/Joe/Will to deal with). Once I get a couple more things worked out on SM-EW, I'll be reworking their site to get it more mobile-friendly, and updating programming to take advantage of newer coding. They will still be responsible for post updates, not I. It will take a while to get to this however, but I should be on it by mid-year if all goes well.

One thing I have discovered about myself recently, is there is three of me. You know how haikujaguar describes herself as three separate individuals (Artist Jaguar, Business Jaguar, and Marketer Jaguar) when it comes to the mental states you have to be in to accomplish different jobs? Well, it seems I have three of my own, Artist Smudge, Business Smudge, and Programmer Smudge. The trouble is, Artist Smudge and Programmer Smudge ... hate each other's guts with an unbridled passion and will not exist in the same room at the same time. With Programmer Smudge being much more in-your-face aggressive (when it comes to programming, I seem to have anger-management issues), poor Artist Smudge gets kicked to the curb. You so do not want to be around me when I'm programming. Needless to say, I'm having to re-juggle my schedule to make sure I can have Art Days and Programmer Days and neither the twain will meet. Fortunately, Business Smudge co-habitats with both so at lest I can balance that a little bit better.

Funny how the brain works.

Anyways - I think that's about everything for me rambling. Wish us luck!

Because it's a sad dog that won't wag it's own tail...


Liberty from Hell #6, digital edition is now available on your computer or mobile devices. Completely rescanned and released in it’s original sepia tone colors with a new cover, Christina “Smudge” Hanson’s fan favorite tale of war and love in the dark ages is now available on the Comics Plus app.

Phalloide finally cuts and bails on Andre and Melantha. But Philotanus is onto him and stops his escape, imprisoning him, right under Rook's Claw's noses. Only one more issue to go!

$0.99 – 32 pages, color cover, sepia tone interior, mature readers.

Don't mind me - I'm just stressing out here.

So - as folks know, I've been heavily involved with Radio Comix's website and digital distro end of things for the past couple of years. I mostly took this volunteer work to try and build up a good structure at Radio for them to build their business on and, with great hopes, help prop up my titles that are published though them along with the entirety of the company.

I have accomplished a lot - got two good, stable and easily maintainable websites up and running (radiocomix.com and sinfactorycomix.com) and posting on regularly, gotten Radio's foot in the door with both Comics Plus (iVerse) and Graphicly for digital distro, helped bring in a new artist to the website and possibly  more in the coming year.

But this year, my docket has really filled up with things to do, and more are getting added without much getting taken away. I need to contact and play editor to at least five different artists (thankfully, two of them are *very* easy to work with and need very little in the way of motivation, hand holding, or prodding). I'm also compiling books for several titles, some for digital distro, some for print. Normally, doing all these things would not be an issue. I don't mind doing them, and on many levels I actually enjoy doing them.

Just not all at once.

I guess the thing that's frustrating me most is that at the end of the day, I have very little time to work on my *OWN* comic, Ebin & May. And considering that Ebin & May is one of Radio's better read titles on the site, that hurts everyone. But if I don't do this other stuff, it literately won't get done.

But the Bunnies....

Argh!

I know I'm pretty bad at time management. I know it's something I need to get better at. And it's worse when I tend to be a one-project-at-a-time kind of girl. But I suppose life is like that. Always getting in the way.

I'm hoping next week to push everything else Radio aside and just focus on getting the next Ebin and May story out the door. Once I have a script/layout I can better manage my workload and spread the pages to be done out and interspersed with everything else. But to write, I need big swaths of time, which at the moment I'm just not getting, to much frustration.

I should probably just put some sort of filler "I'm not dead yet" art up. Like I have time to do that too. ~.~

Okay - frustration rant over, I need to get back to work.

Just got the official Press Release for BMI now over at ComicsPlus. Whoohoo! --

Radio Comix is pleased to announce the debut of Christina "Smudge" Hanson's fantasy police procedural Bureau of Mana Investigation via the Comics+ app from iVerse Media. Bureau of Mana Investigation #1 is available for free, with subsequent issues priced at $1.99 per issue. This marks the first Radio Comix title to appear on the Comics+ app, though Bureau of Mana Investigation has also been available via Graphic.ly as well. Hanson is currently in production on Project Garefowl, a full color series being created exclusively for the digital market, which should debut on Android and iOS devices in 2012.

You can check out the marvelous offerings of Comics+ here!