I realize I have been a bit absent over the past weeks from dA, twitter and facebook. And especially the past week and change. But its for good reason assure you because I never experienced fear like I did this past week.

Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to make a transition from being paid within a week to being paid 30 days after completion. This has been putting a big strain on the finances and my time because I have to find a way to pay bill WHILE working the bigger job. Its been killing me. Hopefully we will see daylight on this soon. However, this is only the precursor ...

On tuesday of last week I took my son for a walk in his little push truck. He was enthusiastic at first but as we walked he seemed to slouching a bit. So I sat him back up and asked if he wanted to keep going. And of course he says, "More, more"

When we get back to the house, I take him out of the push cart and stand him up, he stumbles a bit. But rights himself. Figuring it was the long walk in the cart, I thought nothing of it. He grabs his toy mower and mows a bit. But then wants to go inside. He seemed fine, a little tired but all in all fine ( he had a runny nose for a week ). Well, we go inside and I make up a sippy cup of water and give it to him. Turn to turn off the water, then turn back and he just collapses to the floor. He starts to cry and I go to pick him up and I put him on my shoulder. With 30 seconds he goes limp and starts to breath shallower and shallower. I immediately called 911 and try to get him into a position to breath better. All I am saying in my head is, "Please god don't take him from me..." Now I have had my life real in danger before. I was actually stung by a portugese man-o-war. This however, was FAR scarier. Within 2 minutes the paramedics got there ( thankfully they were right down the street! ) and by that time he was starting to breath better and better. I had never been so happy to hear him cry... because that's when I knew he was gonna make it.

Later, after 5 hours in the hospital ( Connecticut Childrens Medical Center, which was amazing BTW ) we learn it was what is called Febrile Seizure ( A seizure brought on by a spiked fever ) They gave him Motrin/Tylenol and his fever finally started to come down. This was however just the beginning of the week. For the rest of the week his fever kept spiking. We barely slept and had to rotate fever reducers for almost 6 days straight. I barely got any work done... We were so scared and for so long.... but thank god it came to an end...

Thankfully, his fever broke on Sunday night and he is doing well now! Our chipper little guy is up and yelling and making messes again. We are so incredibly thankful...

So, I guess this leads me to apologize for not answering notes, messages, emails, updating WMD etc. I hope you can all understand. I will be trying to catch up on things through the coming weeks. Thanks to everyone for keeping with me... I know I have not been that attentive...

-jEFF "The happiest man alive because he has the most wonderful son and wife in the world" Wamester

COMMISSIONS OPEN
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Oh and don't forget to go check out the comic A+... story by Nate Piekos, art by yours truly! http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents!



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I know I am bit late on this... HOLY SMOKES I hit 100k on dA! Its so funny, I remember thinking that it would take forever to hit 10k... and now I'm at 100k. Of course now I am gonna say that its gonna take forever to hit 1 million thinking that if I say that it'll seem fast... but then I'll be thinking that it'll be slow now that I mentioned that ... oh shut up "Vizzini" ( LOL! )

Anywho, I was thinking that it might be cool to mark this occasion AND clear out my prints for the year... so here's the deal:

For $30 get these four prints...



and get a small head sketch included for free ( and that $30 includes shipping! )

These are the last of these prints ( i.e. limited in number ), so if'n yer interested note me ( Or email me at inkdevil[at]yahoo.com ) for payment arrangements!

COMMISSIONS OPEN
Details can be found in this journal post...






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Oh and don't forget to go check out the comic A+... story by Nate Piekos, art by yours truly! http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents!



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I am just buried right now... have been for a few weeks now. I have several projects going at once here and its been really tough. But there's all sorts of good sides to it... even if I am all kinds of tired, frustrated, tired.

The bads are of course, a lack of responses on comments etc. ( Which I would like to apologize for, right now... ) missing a few emails ( Sorry Curtis/Brent! I will get back to you asap ). And forgetting to send out a couple of commissions ( Sorry!! I will try to get out this week!! ). That's not all of course... SKRATCHWORK... which I need to get back to ( which I will asap! ), Thankfully though, its a double edged sword ( how often do you say that?! LOL! )...

I learned that I CAN produce if I need to. I did a personal record of 2.5 penciled pages, 1/2 page inked and 4 thumbs on friday. No cheating too... quality pages! ( Granted, they're not super clean but then again that's how I work when I ink my own pages ). Then there's 2010... not a whole lot of my stuff has been to print yet... and its a lot of stuff. You may see me all over the place next year. Mobile phones, indy publishers, webcomics, big publishers and maybe even a couple of artbooks ( I am working on stuff now George!! )?

Unfortunately I need to keep this pace for the foreseeable future. If my wife and I want to make a successful transition we need to take care of some business. Which means I have to not only work hard, but learn how to do things like 3D, speed painting and animation. Do NOT ask me how I am gonna do this! Just think of me as a kind of zombie... you can shoot me and I may go down but I just getting back up... I just keep going... like some sort of gruesome energizer bunny... good luck stopping me... grrraggrrgle... braAAAAAAAiiiins....

COMMISSIONS OPEN
Details can be found in this journal post...






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Oh and don't forget to go check out the comic A+... story by Nate Piekos, art by yours truly! http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents!



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You know, I think in life we are capable of anything we put our minds to. Yes we all have our talents and our limitations but really IMHO the only limit is time. Something I am quickly running out of, spring chicken that I am...

When I first decided to go full time, I did it for a reason that may not have seemed obvious to the average observer being age 36 and all. I had a son and well, many may have gone out to get a super stable job, plugged away and a computer at some insurance agency making a cushy salary. But when I found out my wife was pregnant, I had a switch go off. I realized the most important thing I could possibly do for my son was to BE the man I wanted him to be. To go after his dreams, go on the adventure that makes life so sweet. I mean how can I say those things from behind a desk at an insurance agency? To be the man I want my son to be... whatever he may pursue, he needs to go big. So that's what I am doing... with almost wreckless abandon... you know with everything I got, but then there's the hitch...

Having a family ( especially with son too young for school ) and going for something like this is to say the least a challenge. It may be a lot easier if I had an exclusive contract with the big'uns but I also know and accept that I have to pay my dues. But acceptance and enthusiasm does not pay the bills. I work a lot of hours and odd no less. I don't remember the last time I actually watched a TV ( versus listen while I draw ) and play a video game? Wow years ( I LOVED playing video games... SF( Guile bitches! ) , MK ( 1-3.. go CABAL! Soul Caliber was pretty cool too ). And I used to work out 7-9 times/week... now... 4 ( if things are slow ). But those are just luxuries...

Its really about the family as a whole... my wife also has both a duty and a right to pursue the kind of career and happiness she desires. And I whole heartedly want her too for both her and our son. The caveat, kinda tough when I'm paying my dues. To be honest I wish there were more opportunity out here for what I do. It would be nice to land a storyboarding and/or concept art job for an animation/movie/game studio or some kind of art job and work comics at night... it would be the perfect situation for my family. But there is literally NOTHING here in Connecticut. Even with the huge entertainment tax breaks... not much has been making the move here...

This may all sound like a big complaint, but that's not the intention. In a state of catharsis, we are laying out the challenge. It forces us to put our attention on what we need to do. We need to have a solid target and work hard ( part of the reason I have been scarce with this site and Skratch ... hours son hours! ) i.e. We are focusing our attention on the horizon... will it be east? or west?

COMMISSIONS OPEN
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Oh and don't forget to go check out the comic A+... story by Nate Piekos, art by yours truly! http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents!



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Well, its finally taken off... WMD has hit ground zero and seems to be hitting with a bang! Ok... enough puns... but you know its exciting! After years of development and writes and rewrites and failed launches I finally have got it off the launching pad ( ok, that was few more xD ). Here's samples of the first few pages of the prologue ( that you can see at WMDtheSaga.com



This is my first foray into writing something other than a poem or short little story. The good thing is that the first 12 pages you will see on the website is really the "Prologue". Its really just an intro into the world of WMD and is formatted to be a little self contained teaser that can be inserted into a print format for anthologies, websites etc ( BTW, if you have an anthology or magazine and would like a chance to include the prologue send me a note! ) Its great because its giving me a chance to get my feet wet ( I am both the writer and the editor right now ). We are going through a few more drafts of first three full issue length chapters of the regular series now and hopefully I will have all these kinks etc worked out for the regular series that will start as soon as the prologue is complete.

So, again if you get a chance, check out the webcomic ( which updates every friday with a new FREE page ) at...

WMDtheSaga.com

And if you get a chance, and would would be SO wonderfully inclined, please add the links banner to your website...



BTW: Send me a note if you do link WMD... I'll add you to the links section

COMMISSIONS OPEN
Details can be found in this journal post...






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Oh and don't forget to go check out the comic A+... story by Nate Piekos, art by yours truly! http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents!



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