zero nine

Wow...almost a full year, huh? Well, I'm sure I've long since lost any followers I might have had but if anyone is still out there, thanks for checking back in every once in a while.

A lot has happened in a year. Some good, most bad. I buried my cat of 15 years last January and then buried my mother in September. My daughter has grown at least 3 inches and is now a seven year old who just keeps getting more and more beautiful with each passing day. Home brewing became my new obsession. Created my own little brewery under the name Black Cat 13 Brewery, in honor of my sweet cat and partnered with my friend Mike Portscheller last May to create our first(and one of our best) home brews... Milky Chin Cream Ale. Since then, we've brewed 8 different styles, all with varying degrees of success but all have been delicious. My wife and I took our first tropical vacation, which was quite a roller coaster of emotions. We were either having a great time or a horrible time. There really was no middle ground.

Since September, I've taken a sort of sabbatical from...well, pretty much everything. Haven't been working on my own art, hadn't worked on a lot of comic coloring, haven't been working on any new designs or imagery for Daddy's Little Ghoul, in spite of having a wonderful script by my friend John Schirano, I've created labels for BC13 but haven't pursued all of the other things that I want to create for it, lost contact with a lot of people... basically took a break from everything.

I wasn't using my mom's passing as an excuse...rather, a reason to take a step back and focus on the most important things in my life, my family and my own health. And as 08 drew to a close, I was determined to make 09 better. And I am.

I've picked up my pencil again and have been sketching at least one page worth of content a week. I played around with the idea of making myself sketch one thing everyday and post them but..baby steps. But I have been fleshing out John's DLG story and am going to make a children's book out of it, rather than a panel-by-panel comic. www.BlackCat13Brewery.com has been purchased and the website is almost finished being designed. Mike and I have big plans for our little brewery in the coming year and it's very exciting. I've volunteered to be an art teacher of sorts for my daughter's first grade class. Taking our first trip to Disney World next month. Selling our house and trying to buy one that better fits our needs as we move into the next phase of our lives. New president. Transition. Change.

It's going to be a good year.

-C