Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste...well, maybe not wealth...and taste is subjective.
Now that this newsletter seems to pick up a few new readers every week, I figure this might be a good time to (re)introduce myself.
History
Back in the early 2000s I messed around with webcomics. I made several attempts at it, but none of them really kept my attention. By 2015 I had completely given up on the idea of being a web-cartoonist. Trying to balance a full-time job, a family, going to university and several hobbies just wasn’t working for me. I ended up dropping out of school and giving up the comics until 2020. I was working a dead end job, and decided to go back to university. Conveniently, that’s also when the pandemic hit, so I was working and going to school remotely. My employer decided they would rather I terminate my employment, rather than keep me on while I went to school full-time. Because a lot of my professors were also stuck at home, and reading/writing essays were getting monotonous for everyone, they started to come up with other methods to prove you knew what you were talking about. We were able to record video essays, podcasts and even comics. I really enjoyed recording podcasts, but I found myself loving comics again.
At first, I graduated with a three year BA in English and Theatre & Film with a specialization in Filmmaking. While I was there, I found I really wasn’t into film anymore, but I loved writing. So, I went back for another year to get a four year BA in English, with a specialization in Creative Writing.
After graduation, I found myself hanging around the house as a stay at home dad for about a year and a half. It turns out, post-pandemic is a bad time to search for a job. To keep myself busy, I started drawing comics again. Drawing for myself was fun, and rewarding, but I wanted to share my comics and sketchbook experiments with an audience. That lead the way to Substack and Morning Coffee Comics.
About Me
Rather than writing a dozen paragraphs, here I am in point form:
I currently living in Winnipeg, MB with my wife and (soon to be) two kids.
For my day job, I’m a marketing/communications coordinator.
Most of my favourite music was released before I was born.1
I have been reading/collecting comics since I was two years old. At one point I had a collection of over 5000 comics in file boxes and file cabinets. I donated the majority of it to the local children’s hospital in 2008 and sold the rest of it in 2022 & 2023. Now I mostly collect graphic novels and omnibuses.
I love wrestling. Once I won a radio contest where I got to spend an afternoon working out with the WWE’s Chris Masters. It was the toughest workout I ever did, but it was also one of the most rewarding. Too bad I didn’t keep up with it.
On a slightly related note, one time I got yelled at by Stone Cold Steve Austin.2 That will be a comic on it’s own one day.
I don’t have a lot of vices, but caffeine has been a big one. I was drinking over a pot of coffee a day, and then I wondered why I couldn’t sleep at night. I went cold turkey in 2022, and spent nine days laying on the couch with no energy and a migraine. I didn’t touch caffeine again until I started working again, but now I limit myself to two cups a day, anything else is decaf.
I am a huge fan of Henry Rollins. I have seen him every time he has visited Winnipeg since 2002. I only missed one performance, and that was only because I was out of the province.
Meeting Henry Rollins about 20 years ago. My favourite comic series are the Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, Titans, JSA and, on occasion, The Amazing Spider-Man. The older comics are fun to read, but in modern day, it really depends on who the creative team is.
I occasionally post on TikTok, but don’t expect to see any dancing.
These days I only use BlueSky and Notes for social media. I do have Facebook and Instagram accounts, but I have to use those for my day job. I tried Threads, and I dislike it as much as I do Facebook.
I recently started working with watercolour paints and pencils. I haven’t used anything watercolour since kindergarten, so I’m basically learning from scratch. I’ve been posting the results here:
India Ink & Watercolour Pencils I have insomnia. I was tested for it a few years ago, and the “treatment” involved some kind of group therapy and meditation exercises. I got kicked out of the program because I wasn’t participating. I found indica edibles to be far more effective than meditating when I can’t sleep.
I founded a company back in 2022 called Fictionist Media Inc. I was hired as a writer for a television show that was supposed to play on A&E in the UK. Unfortunately, after I signed the contract and started the company, they decided they hired too many writers, and a bunch of us got released. That was around the time I started writing a book and started Morning Coffee Comics.
My first published work will be in (the soon to be released) Comics from the Kitchen. A cookbook/comic anthology. 3
It hit it’s funding goal with five days to go. I’m hoping to finish the final draft of my novella in 2023 and self publish it in 2024.
The Comic
I spent the past couple weeks just experimenting with watercolour pencils and gouache. Neither of which turned out they way I wanted. I’m going to keep practicing with them until I get a result I’m happy with.
I want to do a series of comic strips loosely based on fairy tales. The first one was Beanstalk: Life & Death. The India ink sure helped, but I’m not 100% sold on doing my comics on watercolour paper. It will not stay flat.
My next experiment was to try doing comic book panels with gouache on canvas boards. I did one and then gave up as soon as I finished. I should have sketched my image out first, instead I just started improvising and wasn’t thrilled with the final product. I’ll try this again, but I’ll take my time and do it the right way.
That All?
I have been taking Skillshare cartooning classes by Keith Knight and Sarah Andersen, so next week you can expect some examples of the projects I did as ‘home work.’ If you’re interested in a free month of Skillshare, here is an affiliate link for a free trial. It’s worth it.😉
That’s all for this week.
I’ll write again soon!
Despite the title of this update, I’m really not a fan of the Rolling Stones. Sympathy for the Devil is one of their few songs I know, but I prefer Motörhead’s cover version of it.
I’m pretty sure I was just about almost murdered.
Great intro! I especially envy the fact that you got to see Henry Rollins and got your picture taken with him!