February Highlights
It's Been a Minute
Time has a way of getting away from you with commitments doesn’t it? Trying to fit in as much material as you can is like that. My job, trying to get my steps in, the albums from Boom! Studios, and trying to get a handle on…everything.
In More Demand Than Ever
My time with Mad Cave has delivered more goods than I ever thought. Thanks to getting into contact with a marketing rep, I don’t just prepare for upcoming review copies from Mad Cave, but also opportunities for Kickstarter campaign coverages.
Haven’t covered those in a long time. And those were all individual cases. Maybe this will make the process more consistent. Showed me the way to Robots, Ninjas & Monkeys! Makes me wonder why I keep seeing robots and monkeys in comics related media. At least they’ve got Bixby Grant going for it.
A Time Bomb?
Can’t forget Time Bomb Comics. Especially with how it makes a Highwayman entertaining. Here’s to the days ahead.
Did It Go Boom!?
Boom! Studios definitely found a good way to stay ahead of the curve with their advances. Definitely makes up for lost time.
Convenient but I didn’t realize how much time it took to get through them. Must be too used to reading issues. Something to get used to I guess.
The Highlights of the Month
Of course we can’t forget what brought a huge amount of people towards this newsletter. An endorsed (not sponsored) look at Mad Cave Studios and where its Underworld universe came from.
Joke ended up being on me when new IPs instead of older ones were announced for the next wave. Mind the rant I left in there.
Finally Updated The Lists
Finally took the time to update underrated lists for DC and Marvel on Gutternaut proper. Now if only that AI I used didn’t make it harder for search engines to find for not paying.
And yeah, Image and Dark Horse got the treatment too. Sigh…changing these always take so long.
And I have to rely on these to get people over to the main website? I’m kind of dreading updating the manga section. Especially with a YouTube channel dedicated to manga that got cut short being a source.
I get so lost editing those I lose track of time.
To Read Or Not To Re-Think
My brain will always tell me there are patterns even when I realize it’s all in my head. Coincidences like seeing Vietnamese or Thai related stuff in places. Or bits and pieces of stuff I mentioned that people pick up on like comics as a free expression they write in guide books. But I wanna spend as much time on other stuff like the Absolute DC Comics.
The latest Absolute Batman was so awesome it helped get me through a tough day of work. So in demand that-
Then there’s another thought. I keep adding more and more stuff to the Re-Alt project. I even made parody accounts on Social Media with all the links here.
Sometimes I get inspired and try to evoke feelings in unrelated stories. But by the time I have to go to bed, sometimes I lose the momentum.
Then I get these other thoughts and other stuff I left lying around and…
Agh!
Discipline, discipline, discipline! Why is all of that reserved for my day job or the quick reviews? All that motivation from externals get me so worked up!
Why is it so hard to reach out to people and agree to the stuff for us all to feel more accountable? Or just say something friendly? I can do that at work, so why not everywhere else?
Put Money Where the Mouth Is
But maybe motivations don’t have to be a bad thing. It’s what finally convinced me to cut my cord with Adobe and its Creative Suite. I haven’t really used its services beyond Acrobat after coming to Substack and there are cheaper alternatives that don’t require big subscription commitments.
With that in mind, I put some of the money I would spend on there to something worth more of my time. Allow me to introduce people to Monkey Wrench.
I joined the Patreon like I always wanted with $25 a month going into the production among over 4000 of other fans. I’ve been into this series as it kept getting better with each episode. So much that the guy behind basically makes the budget for an episode every month. Don’t ask me about the real expenses. It’s just that now that the show is entering it’s climax, I’m all in.
In fact, I even subscribed to Nigeria’s the Comic Republic for only $1. Exchange rates am I right? I was already a fan and things are still getting better.
This isn’t even half of the cash I sent Adobe.
…
What? I wanna save some of this stuff!
More Commitments
I guess March is going to be a lot of trying to get ahead on things. My education to keep working, the Boom! material, who knows what else? Is it overreaching when I don’t wanna put off stuff that has a definite deadline? No matter how far away it actually is?
One thing I definitely wanna do more is pace myself. Give myself real breaks, not just do some kind of productive fun. Sigh…planning ahead and living in the moment, the things that make a real adult.
Less money spent on things I don’t really need anyway.