2011 was a big year for me, in March I was married, I became an uncle to a handsome boy AND a set of gorgeous twin girls and work had a restructure which saw me doing a lot less fun projects as we found our feet, and the comic was featured a cast of thousands… Throughout this hectic period I overworked myself.

In fact I’ve been taking half my annual holidays for the last few years not even aware I was doing it. There always seemed to be something going on which meant I couldn’t get away.

So towards the end of the year I began to really feel all this and in December began to have a couple of panic attacks (my first ever yay!) and feel a bit depressed, perhaps even with a capital D. I began taking Fridays off and felt thankful it coincided with Arran doing guest strips so i could even rest from the comic for a few weeks.

It’s apparently pretty common with the art community that we can have black spells, I guess going back to Van Gogh’s ear cutting incident, but I’d never really experienced something like this, I’ve always been pretty light hearted.

Then I had a couple of chats. One with Ben Michael Byrne from Kranburn fame and we discussed our art processes and what drove us and he mentioned that on his next project he was putting as much effort into each panel as he does currently for each page and how it was all about pushing himself to be better and how good it felt. The other chat was with Katie Houghton-Ward. I managed to buy an incredible piece of her art as a gift for my wife and while picking it up I watched her work, her fingers never stopping. She spoke of how quickly she got bored and how she loved being creative. You could see she needed art like a drug.

And I picked up the tablet again and began to draw, and write and discovered that even though Arran’s fantastic guest trip meant I didn’t have to draw as much as I do usually, I needed to. Drawing helped clear my mind. I wasn’t stressed about work when I was drawing, in fact I barely thought when drawing, it was all about the next line, the right composition, the right colours. My wife talks to me and is lucky to get a response. The world slips away and my emotions are all about whether THIS panel is right or this page is a success.

Towards the end of 2011 I was considering ending Sawbones. It’s almost six years of drawing and it doesn’t pay my bills and taxes my time and the business/publishing side of it bores the crap out of me but I’ve discovered Sawbones keeps me sane so 2012 is going to see me push myself even harder. It’s already started with me writing this arc but I’ll be trying even further to mess with the formula. It that means occassionally the look of the comic changes for an arc into something you don’t like I sincerely apologise but I hope that the results are a better comic. On the business side this time has also refocused me but more of that later.

Thanks to Ben and Katie for the inspiration. I’m still getting some black days but comics makes EVERYTHING better.

Also, enjoy:

This arc is drawn by the talented Andrew Fulton who is currently travelling with Jen across the grand old United States (actually about now he’ll be in Toronto for TCAF). Andrew’s comic Mumblier is sometimes NSFW, sometimes strange but always beautiful and delightful. Jen and I are huge fans of both his comic and his resplendant beard. Sadly he’s not such a great mario cart player but we still love him.

Today is free comic book day. It’s a day when you can pop into your local comic shop and get more than 40 books designed especially for the day FREE! But it’s more than that. It’s an opportunity to discover comics, find your local store. Engage with comics. For the industry it’s about getting new readers. Comic buying is steadily decreasing even though there has never been a better time for comics as far as the quality of the writing and art. So please give titles you’d not usually read a look, if you see a comic a friend’s kid might like pick it up for them, get them reading!

For my part I’ll be supporting FCBD by doing sketches at All Star Comics in Melbourne between 2-3pm along with 17 other great comic creators. Here is the full list. Hope to see you there.

Sawbones began 5 years ago as Sawyer and Bones appeared as background players of a bunnified version of Poe’s the Raven.

Recently I realised that that story wasn’t on the site and went looking for it. Turns out i don’t actually have a copy on any of my computers. Technology moves so fast i’ve been through 4 of them in that time. So I used my moderate google-fu skills and found it online. Apparently nothing dies on the interwebs.

Anyway reading through the story I was struck by two things.

1. Jen’s storytelling was just as delightful 5 years ago. Reading the story with so much water under the bridge was like reading it for the first time and I loved the turns of phrase and way she balanced the horror tone with the comedic twist.

2. There was no way I could bear putting that art up online now. I don’t know a single artist who doesn’t cringe at old work and i’m no different. So over the last few weeks I’ve redrawn the comic. Tightening it up a little and adding a little more mood. I’m sure in another 5 years I’ll hate this too but it’s a start.

I do however want to aknowledge how this started so as this story progesses there’ll be a link at the bottom of the comic where you can look at the original version.

I hope you enjoy this.