Hectic

I'm home with Your Sister who has seemingly had a vertigo attack. She was dizzy Thursday morning, and we saw the doctor that afternoon. She was given steroids, an antibiotics, and medicine to fight nausea and dizziness. The worst seems to be over, but the doctor has made an appointment with an ENT before we do a CAT scan, if needed. The doctor is concerned that this happened before, including during the pregnancy.

We also are fighting another ant invasion. We called the local Terminex office, with whom we have a service contract, and we're currently waiting to hear back. I now question the value of our contract.

I'm that much closer to the comic's completion. The cover is mostly colored, and the pages have been tweaked and lettered. I hope to print a proof this weekend after getting the garden started.

I moved the Doom posts to their own blog at Cooking With Villainy.

Did y'all pass around the shirt artwork for an OK? I can send the layers to the printer when it's approved.

It's Almost Happening

The comic is lettered now after a whirlwind weekend of inking. I planned to be gardening, but rain kept us indoors and required us to move the tiller reservation to next weekend. And buoyed by the basketball tourney and a mild-mannered sidekick, I was able to ink and ink and ink. I scanned in the pages and lettered atop them and have printed out the first full-issue proof.

That's not to say it's done. I intend to fix some panels and tweak the script, and I still need to color the cover. But I'm 80% done, and it's not April yet. I'm surprised. But I shouldn't be, I suppose. I've spent virtually every free minute inking.

I'll soon face the prospect of discovering I've committed an embarrassing crime against creativity and commerce. There's a writer named Warren Ellis whose made some headway from comics to novels and back, and his advice is to produce a work, make it public, learn what you did wrong, and make the next thing better. It's going to be embarrassing he says. But if you learn, the next work will surpass it.

I wanted to make a comic of traditional length, and I've done that. I wanted it to be clear, and I think I have. Next year, I'll make the comic prettier.

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The sidekick turned 9 months old and had his check-up Monday morning. They painted his teeth with fluoride because our water system removed fluoride about four years ago. They checked his blood for anemia and took his stats, and that was that. The doctor made suggestions for dandruff shampoo and lotion and said his weight seems to reflect his level of activity. So far, he's OK. He's forgotten how to sleep through the night, and the doctor suggested giving him extra protein to make him sleepy.

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And this makes the 1,002 blog post. Hm.

Picture of the Day
The first picture taken from Mercury's orbit. A high school friend of Your Sister worked on the new satellite that's now orbiting the planet.