Still Mentally Unpacking A Lot...

Photo courtesy of Robo Picto Comics.

 These last few months have been very difficult. I'm still working through my grief after losing my friend Andy Fish over the weekend. 

Andy was like the older brother I would have wanted. I didn't have an older brother because I WAS the older brother. But I would have wanted him to be just like Andy.

Andy had also helped me through by own grief back in 2005 and 2006. In the stretch of a year I lost both my Grandparents. Andy knew them as well and had a great deal of fondness for both of them. 

He especially had a great deal of respect and admiration for my grandfather. That and my Grandfather was just a very easy person to like. He had a very kind soft spoken nature and made everyone he talked to feel like the most important person in the room.

 My grandfather's death hit me the hardest. I had been very close to him. Andy knew how much it affected me and we talked about it quite a bit.

Andy at one point said, "Your Grandfather seemed like the type of person that would have lived forever" and honestly I couldn't have agreed with that statement more.

And I feel like that statement applies to Andy as well. 

If he was short with you, it meant he liked you. He was the type of person who couldn't be bothered with someone he didn't like. And if he was giving you a "older brother" type of talking to, it came from a place of experience and he was hoping to steer you on the right path from his own experiences. 

Andy also taught me not to be jealous of anyone else's successes. And to be honest, THAT'S the best outlook to have. Its a pointless and destructive to be hateful and bitter. It's all too easy to look at someone else's success and fall into that trap of constantly saying "Why did they get all the luck"?

Well, that person you're accusing of having nothing but "lucky breaks"might've worked their collective tails off to get where they are. You don't know their story. And being in the right place at the right time isn't a bad thing. 

Thats why us creative types do all these shows. You could do 86 of em where you're basically the invisible man and make enough for gas money. 

Heck, I did a show where what little I made went into lodging and I barely had enough for gas money. I did another where I barely broke even and then almost broke my neck driving 16 hours straight. By the way, never drive 16 hours straight. It's just as dangerous as driving intoxicated. Maybe worse. 

But then there's that one show where you meet that one right person (or persons) who likes your work. And the next thing you know you're working on that dream project. Or string of projects. 

That's the outlook Andy Fish imparted on me. You need to work hard to get where you want go. Sitting around and complaining about how everyone gets all the breaks won't do anything. You've got to get out there and make your own luck.

I have always been proud of both Andy and Veronica's success because I know how hard they've worked to achieve it. And in return they've always been kind and encouraging to me.

I have been very moved by the outpouring of love towards Andy I've seen over the past few days since he left us. It speaks volumes to the type of person he was and the lives he's touched just by being a decent human being.

Andy lives on through his wife Veronica (who was the best person to be with him), his three sons (all great people who made Andy proud) and all the family and friends who were blessed to know. 

It's going to take some time to process my grief. Something I feel like I've never been good at. But it definitely would have been a much sadder world if I never met Andy Fish at all.

Will the Black Dandy Returns? Oh, without a doubt!!

The Black Dandy was a collaboration that I really enjoyed working on with Andy Fish. The original story we did was so much fun to work on. It was our love letter to the Shadow, Spider, Green Hornet AND the Phantom Creeps. All those bits of crime noir and movie serials Andy and I loved.

I had always hoped after I finished my own Black Dandy story, Andy would do his own. AND I had hoped he'd completely ignore my plot and did his own as if mine didn't exist. In the same way none of the Green Hornet or Dick Tracy movie serials weren't connected to one another. Sadly, that won't come to pass. But I am grateful for the character we both created and the collaboration we did. 

Will the Black Dandy return one day? All signs point to YES!! I have every intention of penning a follow-up tale. If anything else as a tribute to my good pal Andy Fish. 

In the meantime, THE BLACK DANDY STRIKES! is available in TWO editions. Standard AND one with the existing pages from our collaborations. You can get them on Lulu.com: 

The Black Dandy Strikes! (Special Edition)

and

The Black Dandy Strikes! (Standard Edition)

Also, even though Andy's no longer with us, please consider contributing to his gofundme to help his family with medical and funeral expenses. Everything helps.

Andy's gofundme

 

Andy T. Fish

Andy and me at the original Boston Comic Con back in 2007

 This is a tough one and to be honest, I'm not good with words and don't process grief very well. 

I feel like I've known Andy Fish forever. His son Joe would come over to my grandparents house to play when my cousin Jae was visiting from California. 

But I feel like I got to know Andy better when we worked at the Worcester Art Museum together. A talented artist and writer. Honest and never pulled his punches. 

We both shared a love for old movies of the 30s and 40s. Especially film noir, movie serials, the Marx Brothers and Andy even eventually won me over on the Basil Rathbone WWII Sherlock Holmes series (although we both agree Nigel Bruce is the most slappable Watson of all the various adaptations) which I avoided but admittingly find enjoyable. 

We both also shared an appreciation for Batman. And a shared dislike for Batman co-creator Bob Kane. Who, as Andy has stated, lived the life of Bruce Wayne while leaving Bill Finger to die in poverty.

We both enjoyed the 1966 Batman television series and the storied Andy told me about working with Adam West on projects were incredibly entertaining and made me appreciate Wests offbeat sense of humor all the more.

He was very particular about his Batmen and we'd have longish discussions on the subject of Batman adapted onto the screen. 

Above all, Andy was a good father to his son's Matt, Joe and Adam. And a loyal husband to his wife Veronica. And a good friend to many of us who had the privilege of knowing him. 

I'll miss you Andy and my heart goes out to Veronica, Matt, Joe, Adam and all his family and friends right now. 

My Grandfather (who Andy had a great respect for) used to end his letters home during WWII with the words "Goodbye for now". Which I feel like is fitting. 

Goodbye for now, Andy. You will be missed.

Confessions of a Ukaholic

 

Sometime between 2013 to 2016 I decided to learn ukulele. I've never been musically savvy. I can't sing and I throughout my younger years learning an instrument was something I wanted to do but I had trouble wrapping my brain around. But I loved the videos of Peter Sellers playing the ukulele on talk shows as well as George Harrisons love for the instrument. He used to keep ukulele's in the boot (trunk) of his car because as he put it, "You never know when you might need a ukulele".

So for my 37th Birthday my wife got me my first ukulele (as seen above) and thanks to the tutelage of a talented friend from Worcester, I got a basic understanding of the general mechanics of the instrument. 

I own probably about 12 now.

Do I have delusions of a recording career? Heavens no!! I just like to sit down in quiet moments and strum to myself. Or from time to time play along with friends. It's just fun for me.

Welcome Home, Russell Edson

 

Another great collaboration I had the pleasure of working on was Welcome Home, Russell Edson with writer Joshua Michael Stewart and artist Aaron Krolikowski. 

A fictional telling of the factual prose poet and illustrator Russell Edson coming back from the afterlife to attend a family dinner. And to inform the loved ones he left behind the afterlife isn't all it's cracked up to be. 

I've known Josh since probably the second grade. On top of being an incredibly talented writer and prose post, he's also a very incredibly gifted musician and composer. We've been talking about doing a collaborative project for some time that would be a union between the prose poem and the graphic novel. And this was it. 

Aaron I've known since my first year at SCAD. He's always been a wildly imaginative artist and performer doing everything from staging plays to forming Bonzo Dog style band. 

With this project I had done the penciling, layout and added the gray tones and lettering digitally. Aaron has done the inking.  I had always liked the Batman story The Untold Legend of the Batman and didn't know for years John Byrne did the pencils on issue one because Jim Aparos style is so distinctive that Byrne's own distinctive style gets lost in it.

I also got into some of Jules Feiffer graphic novels and loved his loose approach but couldn't achieve it myself. Aaron's own loose style was close to that, so I called upon him to join Josh and my artistic endeavor. 

I'm very pleased with the results and am looking forward to my next collaboration with Josh and Aaron. 

You can get your copy by clicking on the link right here. 👇 

Welcome Home, Russell Edson

And you can learn more about Russell Edson here. 👇

Russell Edson on Wikipedia

Next Project: The Giant Rat of the Sumatra

 

"...for which the world is not yet prepared", according to Sherlock Holmes himself.

And yet here I am telling it... or at least ONE writers idea of how it went.

In the last two year, I've attempted to have at least one new Sherlock Holmes comic book or graphic novel completed in time for 221B Con in Atlanta. Last year I happened to get TWO done in time. For those projects I decided to adapt two of the Basil Rathbone radio plays. This year I decided to choose the radio adaptation of The Giant Rat of the Sumatra. 

Originally, I wanted to have it completed in time for A Parallel Case of St. Louis this past July. But I found I wouldn't have had the book finished and printed off in time for the conference. So I shifted gears and worked on my short Doctor Who comic with my friend and writer Lee Shackleford for LI Who. Unlike last year, I DID get it finished and make copies in time for the convention in August.

So, now that I have pretty much recovered from travels, I started work on the pages for the Giant Rat again. And like my previous comic book projects, I am currently serializing them on my Patreon page.

As I mentioned in a prior blog post, I'm using what I earn on my Patreon page to help fund the print costs for said books when I do shows and conventions. I'm not attached to a big (or even small) name publisher or fabulously wealthy. So much like your local PBS Station (mine is WGBH Channel 2 Boston or WGBX Channel 44) the contributions I get from support on Patreon does help out. And I am grateful for that kindness. 

Memberships start at a mere $3. But I also try to give a little extra incentive for the $10 tier where if you become a member at that level, you WILL get a copy of that book when it goes to print.

Click on the link below to check out my Patreon and consider becoming a subscriber!! 

The House of Hasenpatt

Okay, enough of the pledge drive rigamarole. You get the idea.

I'm up to about page six of the project. I'm hoping to have it all done by the end of September and up on Lulu by early October sometime. Although, I've still have a few books available through Amazon's Kindle Direct (formerly Createspace), I've been trying to have more and more of my work available via Lulu.com because I think they have a much better print quality than Amazon does. 

But I have a list of all the books I currently have available either in print or as an ebook on the side bar to the right. So click on the link of the book to check out the book you're interested in. 

I'm also going to showcase a book of mine each month. Both new releases as well as books of mine I just want you to check out. So watch this space.

Collaborator Shout Outs: Paul Loudon and Daniel Miller

 I've done a couple of projects over the past couple years where I felt like I needed to take a back seat in the art department and handed over the wheel to two VERY talented artists. 

The first is Paul Loudon. 

I discovered Paul's work on deviantart (which I haven't used in ages) and I felt like his style was absolutely perfect for the steampunk Alice in Wonderland project I had written. It was Paul who suggested the brilliant title Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland. 

Paul is still doing amazing work and you can see all his new projects on Instagram.

Daniel Miller I've known since college. Incredibly talented artist and we share a love for sarcastic humor. I knew he was the artist I wanted to work on Polly and Handgraves with when I decided to reboot the story I initially published. The one Daniel and I did was vastly superior than the one I released back in 2008.

Here's where you can order the projects we worked on:

Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland

And: 

Polly and Handgraves Investigates: A Sinister Aura Books One and Two