~jasonx1968

Today I got a response from a newspaper that they will be carrying my comic strip Quad Squad beginning the first week of August. It will be in a local Alaskan newspaper called the Alaska Star. I tried to resurrect the strip after I moved up here in the same college paper I had it in when I was still in the lower 48 but they said it resembled Bloom County too much. Each semester a new crew comes in and they had their own agenda. I continued to play around with the strip and ideas. Met a pro strip artist, Chad Carpenter who does Tundra, and he really liked my work. Gave me all sorts of encouragement and tidbits of helpful information in strip work. Anyway, back to the topic. I now have a real newspaper showcasing my strip on a regular basis for money. I'm a superstar! Not really but it feels good to have my strip out there again.

Just had another birthday. It was an odd one. No fanfare, no exciting buildup. Just a day with wrapped boxes sitting on my desk at work. I honestly wasn't excited about this one. It is one of those years that is what I call the tweenies. I'm too old to be in one age category but not old enough to be in the next. It was like when I turned 20. I wasn't a teenager anymore but I wasn't legal either. Next year I am looking very forward to. We'll see how that one turns out. Got to wait another year for it though.

The holidays are always so so busy. Everyone thinks art just takes a few minutes because most of their doodles do. NOT! I'm bad about procrasinating too which doesn't help. I am up to my eyeballs in commissions right now. I have 2 more portraits plus another business portrait to do. All have to be done no later than the 18th to get down to the lower 48 before Christmas. I'm finally moving to my own place tomorrow which is going to take a couple of days from my schedule. Maybe I can give up sleep for the next week. .. ...

After being in Alaska only a month I finally met one of my favorite comic strip artists. Chad Carpenter is the artist for the strip Tundra. A qwerky strip about life in the frozen north. It is published in about 75 papers mostly in the northwest of the US and Canada. He sits up a booth in a local mall for the holiday. So this morning I went to meet the man himself. I didn't know what to expect but he was really cool. I took some of my stuff with me and he read them. Before he was done reading, he was laughing out loud at some of them. It was great. We talked about 20 minutes and he gave me several ideas. He also said he would pass my name around for some work if I would bring him some business cards. After we finished talking he reminded me to bring back my cards so he could get my name out there.

I have been flying high today. I have been sending emails to all these places he suggested and trying to put together some kind of media kit for newspapers and syndicates to look at. I even working on a several Sunday comics versions so color will be appearing soon in my gallery. Man, I'm stoked!

Soon as I finish what few commissions I have, I plan on going full force with this. Maybe you can enjoy the Quad Squad over breakfast someday soon.

I finally made it to Alaska. It is beautiful here. The yellowed-leaved birch trees, snow capped mountains, and ice blue glaciers everywhere....until the past two days. The temps peaked out and everything melted away. Oh well, in another couple of weeks the winds will be gone and I'll have more snow than I know what to do with. I sold everything art I owned except one sketch book and my laptop. Now I am searching all over Anchorage for art supplies. Soon there will be new things to look at once I replenish my stock.