2004 was a mixed bag for me. Good, bad and ugly. I’ll try to do this in categories or something.

MY MUSE- I’m a cursed man. It seems like hundreds of ideas pop into my head daily. Which then tortures me, because there arent enough hours in a day to do everything I’d like to be doing. Then also there are the cravings… almost like an addiction. For instance, I can wake up and REALLY REALLY miss drawing Zombies and then I start thinking about some zombie epic. A few days later, it might be superheroes. – So, I have kinda learned to control my muse and do a good bit of writing. If an idea REALLY catches my mind, I’ll write it down. Sometimes an idea takes over my mind and I HAVE to draw something. So I sketch, design. Things that may never see the light of day. I had a BIG urge to do a SuperHero weekly comic online a couple months back. I spent a day doing THIS. But I put it away. I’ve found ways to channel these things and satisfy some of them. I got rid of the super hero bug temporarily by playing City of Heroes with my kids. ——–

MY COMICS- I’ve been doing the Yirmumah comic all 2004 with PV comics. It’s changed formats and plans twice this year, once going from a 4 page monthly to a 3 time a week strip. I did that because a monthly update online was a complete waste of time. I was never happy with the update schedule of PV Comics in general, but it was all based on what individual creators could put in with their own time, so you couldnt yell at anyone about it. It just didnt work as a subscription model at all. People wanted more content, more often and they kept asking for print. So PV had to change. So Yirmumah went weekly and bigger to accomadate my personal life schedule. I had done a great deal of work blabbing about how great PV was, the content there– but not that much moved. Honestly, I feel like it’s a let down. We all worked so hard, but the plan wasn’t good enough for what the market really wants. — Add to that, Comixpress, which was born out of PV, took off like a rocket…. Logan became swamped with work on that– and pretty much, PV took a backseat for just about everyone originally involved. Things are starting to move again though. PV isnt going anywhere. Things just change is all.

Other than my Yirmumah comics. The other big project we did this year was LIONXOR. An extremely well written, and mediocrely drawn by me, comic book, kinda about 80s toy properties. But not really. Its hard for me to define Lionxor— –Anyways, we had low numbers with Diamond orders, and Geekpunk had to cancel the title. Actually, we all panicked and cancelled it too soon I think– it was the same night the book was cancelled that Logan called me to tell me about Comixpress, which could have probably saved Lionxor then. - Issue 3 was all done and penciled and I think halfway inked when we got the Diamond news. A real bummer— top that off with, our inker for issue 3 was incestently late, or saying he was going on vacation, or had family friends over, or something something. It really started to sound like a load of excuses. The book was suppossed to be done and inked in May. In July, 2 months later and still late, I got an e-mail from the inkers friend tellig me he had a double triple bi-pass on his heart. What is a jaded, cynical guy like me to do? It all sounded like bullshit, but I couldnt call him out on it. I wished him a speedy recovery. — I don’t think we got the last pages back until… October? Yep….. So anyway, Lionxor just felt cursed to me. Other things continued to plague it it seemed, but I’m through talking about it. It’s a GREAT fucking book, and 2 issues are now available HERE FOR SALE! – Issue 3 should be up there soon as well. The whole fiasco with the book just not getting done on many levels after I busted my ass on it, really took the wind out of my sails. But i learned another lesson. I should probably ONLY rely on myself. Especially when it comes to inking. —- And listen, Im not bad mouthing the inker guy. Im just laying out what happened from my viewpoint. It’s the truth. Im not saying he’s lying about having a heart attack. I mean, JESUS!!! A fucking heart attack. Go figure. But when I get e-mails from people asking me as a reference to him on the work, I don’t know what to say!? I don’t say anything. The only thing I could say is – “He didn’t meet deadlines, and he might be prone to going on vacations every two weeks or he might just drop over dead.” —- So, i’d rather not give the reference. You know??? I’m sorry if you’re reading this here, bro. Maybe you should be doing this as just a hobby and not work on deadlines. They CAN and WILL kill you. And it’s not worth it.

FAMILY- It was the best of times…. it was the worst of times. —– My core family has just been great. My boys are healthy, smart, mischievous little guys. Dillon(6) can’t stop drawing, and impresses everyone at his school by saying he’ll be a rockstar. Devin(7) is so sweet and kind… Dakota(3) is just a wild man, terrorizing my house in a Dennis the Menace sort of way. …… And there’s my wife. I’m so proud of her. She did it. She got through her college stuff, and now she’s a full fledged nurse. Im proud because she’s authentically happy. She found a job where she doesnt wake up and feel like she wants to call off. No more telemarketing, or “customer service” jobs…. she’s free. She’s a professional. I can feel her happiness every day now. And there is no better feeling. I wish I could give her so much more. But I want her to know, she has given me so much– and I appreciate it. Her success, and being professional and all that has also really made me question my own worth of what it is I do. Does it contribute or help anyone?? I dont know. Maybe. Maybe I’m giving someone an escape from their crappy problems for a minute. I don’t know.

And hopefully she doesnt kick me out to marry some hot, rich Doctor guy or something. I love you honey!

DEATH RIDES IN…- It’s sad to say, but the highlight of my year has been DEATH. So many deaths in my family. My cousins, Mary Beth, Patrick, Darrin, Uncle Roger and last week, My grandma Coffman. — Even with all the family death, the 2 deaths that effected me the most were of my good friend Dave and his sister Leslie. — It haunts me. July 5th– Maybe because I see my own mortality or something. It can all go away in a flash– and I have so much to do. Dave had so much to do. I had more in common with Dave than anyone I’ve ever known that has passed. So many things about Dave’s death haunt me. The double rainbow that day. Jeff Buckley was his hero, and he died the SAME way, in a river.– Also, it’s most likely my imagination, but I feel like Dave is around, communicating with us somehow. At his funeral, we all had a good laugh because the other friend Dave made a great music CD and “KICK OUT THE JAMS” by MC5 was on there. So its playing all through the funeral home… “KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!” —- we all thought Dave would get a good laugh about that being played through the funeral home and making the old people cringe. — I’d never heard the song until that day. ————- Then in October, the night Dave’s sister Leslie died, Pearl Jam played Toledo and since it’s my favorite band on earth, I was at SPX on a computer checking the setlist. They played KICK OUT THE JAMS. I mean, its a one in whatever chance they’d choose to cover this as a goof at their show. And when I found out Leslie died that night, it was eery.

A few days ago… I sat with this freebie calendar I get from Elderly music– I was plotting out a new daily comic… I look to the title of the month.. JANUARY, and under it “KICK OUT THE JAMS!” — It made me feel like Dave was watching me and encouraging me to continue doing what Im doing. Period. I’ve made a promise to myself that I tend to keep in 2005.

I hope 2005 is a year of life and love.

First up, a shout out to Don the Idea guy for blogging about Yirmumah and the caricatures– read here.

SECOND Drawing all the caricatures has been a lot of fun, and oddly enough, a lot of good practice for myself. No matter what your skill level is as a cartoonist, you still have to practice practice practice. I usually don’t have time to do so, but the caricatures have forced me to approach things differently. I’m really happy with how they’ve all come out.

THIRD- Tune in to the next Yirmumah strip for semi big news. Shhhh… It’s a zecret! But once you find out, tell everyone you know.

FOURTH I’m really thinking hard about the Yirmumah Magazine idea. I was also thinking there’s not a magazine or literature of any kind out there covering any sort of webcomics movement. So that’s interesting as well. I consider webcomics as like the new Small Press. Especially since my roots are in the REAL small press, I know the feeling. That’s probably why I love webcomics so much– its so free and fluid, and creators doing what they want. Say what you will about the quality levels, they do vary, but at least these folks aren’t just sitting around talking…. they’re DOING. — Doers.

That is all.

All done with the Dirty 30’s drawing. This may also be the cover to their LIVE album. Time now for me to eat!

See the Drawing HERE….

Finishing up the Dirty 30’s band caricature today. So if I’m brief, you now know why.

That is all. Back to the tiki bar to ink.

We’ve been granted a mention in Websnark’s end of the year thing. I mean, hell, it’s not Time magazine or anything, but it feels like it to us. Just that there’s a good voice out there talking about not only webcomics, but comic strips of all kinds. We give Websnark a big Yirmumah Biscuit.

see here

A little about what category we fell under.

Bringing the Funny: Savage Wit

Sometimes, comedy is sweet and heartwarming. Sometimes, jokes make us laugh at ourselves and each other. And sometimes? Comedy goes for your fucking throat and beats the Hell out of you and makes you LAUGH, BITCH! LAUGH! And you do, because it’s funny. And you feel dirty, because it shouldn’t make you laugh, because it’s mean and savage. And that makes you laugh more. It owns you. You just have to cope with it.

I’ve been thinking for some time about starting a magazine type deal, with comics, and articles, interviews— with various creators of course. I have no budget for such a thing. I can put it together though and have it put out quarterly through Comixpress. - I know so many talented people who I’d like to see just let loose with whatever they wanted to do.

I was thinking more of an underground feel. In fact, I was thinking of calling it “Yirmumah: the underground comics magazine” – have it be half useful information, and the other half just hijinks and buffoonery. I think that would be basterific.

Hypothetically speaking, what if such a thing existed? And it also collected most of the Yirmumah web strips inside, just so you could revisit them on the toilet or something. I could maybe call out some favors and get people to do covers for it. Or even featured articles. Damn, i think it would be great to put something really useful in someone’s hands. For both aspiring comic creators AND people who just plain love comic books and comic strips and don’t want to see the mediums die out.

Just a little voice, shouting in the darkness. THoughts? Would anyone buy anything like this? Or better yet, would you tell your friends?

The new strip is HERE. Enjoy it. I busted my butt to get it done yesterday, when I could have just sat around and did a lot of nothing. Alas, I am obsessed with my work.

I have a BIG caricature to get working on and get it hopefully done or near done today. Then I have to get cranking on work for next week. Next week is going to be an awesome week for Yirmumah fans.

I hope everyone enjoys Monday’s Strip. I busted my butt all day today to get it done.

Feels good to beat midnight. Screw you, midnight!

Im scanning in the new strip, and will get it all colored and lettered and uploaded to the site tonight! Stay tuned—

“You’ll shoot your eye out kid!” — Man, I swear, “A Christmas Story” might just be our generations version of “It’s a wonderful life.” — They’ve been playing it for 24 hours on TBS, over and over again, and it never gets old to me. There are little things I seem to catch each time I sit down and watch it. I could swear when the wicked witch comes up to him in the Santa line, he says “Leave me alone, I’m a Pagan.” — Maybe he didnt say that. But I swore I just heard him say that.

Xmas morning was great here. It’s a load of work when you’re a parent. But it’s still alot of fun watching the kids who still believe in Santa Claus.

My wife got me a talking “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. ” as well as a talking Yoda where you ask him questions and he answers in a Yoda fashion. She also bought me the Star Wars DVDs which I have been torn on buying, because, well.. because George Lucas is a whore. But Im happy I finally have them. And I’m not afraid to admit it. The new movies might completely suck, but the original trilogy is still amazing. I know another reason I like it so much– a good part of it was inspired by Jack Kirby’s works on Captain Victory. That’s another story. , and one not often enough told. — My wife also got me the PJ greatest hits cd, which I was torn on buying that too… and two awesome t-shirts. I didn’t want ANYTHING. But I appreciate all of it.

My kids are now digging the Incredibles game on Xbox, wow, that game looks pretty amazing. They’ve done a bang up job with this Incredibles series. I hope there are more movies, but Pixar left Disney, so will they suck without Pixar?? Who knows.

Ok. Back to burning garbage and other family stuff. I still have a strip to draw even though my wife tells me I should take a day off.

This was suppossed to be given to Dave around Thanksgiving time. But he showed up today with some cool presents for our family, so I snagged this photo of him holding his original DAVE strip art. It’s rare I give away an original anything, but i knew when I was drawing it, it was going to Dave. Merry Christmas Dave!

I noticed a couple referrer hits in my logs coming from somewhere, and I see that my friend Jack (javaman) has posted the caricature banner on his webboard he moderates. Thats very cool. Thank you Jack! I really got to get more people linking up Yirmumah stuffage. I really appreciate it.

JavamanCentral

I love spreading the Yirmumah virus.

Today is going to be one hectic day. I’ll be wrapping all the presents, which there are a lot of— we still have to get the house in sort of a clean way, laundry blah!!! – Beyond all the holiday rigamorand…

I have a comic to draw out, color, letter and have up by Sunday. The plot is all worked out, just the work needs to be done now. I could have totally skimmed and just drew two stockings for Bob and Drew and had like neat things stuffed in them. But that’s such a tired and lame idea. I’m going balls to the walls for the Yirmumah fans out there. All 16 of you.

My mission is accepted. Now I have to get my belly full of coffee and get to work!

Ok. I have no strip drawn for Sunday and Monday yet. There will be one though. I just have to sit down and figure it all out. It will be there though. I have had the perfect idea for the day after christmas for a looooong time.

Kids.
I did a lot of cleaning my kids room and sorting toys today to make room for what Santa might be bringing them. Getting my kids to clean their room or put things away right is like an epic battle around here. Christmas time is always hectic. So I’m hoping I can crunch out some time to get my work done. It shouldnt be a problem though.

I have a TON of presents to wrap, and I still have to actually go shopping and find something for my wife. She’s hard to shop for. Wait.. she just got a new car, what the heck am I talking about! And I’m not allowed to drive it! What up with that, lady!??! Bah!

Here’s a last minute caricatue just in time for Christmas. Whew!

He only asked for a black and white but I hooked him up with color anyway, because I was in a christmasy mood.

I got a little behind on my schedule with the other caricatures due to my grandmother’s funeral and other family stuff for the holidays.

I want to say a BIG thanks to everyone who’s orders a Yir-Caricature. It’s been a lot of fun doing these.

Ok, this is now the home of the official Yir-Blog. This is not only my personal blog now, but also will allow Bob to post entries here and there. You can see all his entried by clicking his category link.

The old blog is still availble to read at http://xanga.com/gravity - Wow, 4 years blogging there. A lot of history in that blog. But it was time to move here. You can also find a link to the old blog first in the list to the right on this main page of this blog.

Blogging is great. When I first started, no one knew what blogging was even really for. Other cartoonists mocked me for having one and didnt get it. Now many more folks have blogs, and they get it. And, corporations are beginning to get it as well– Oh, and all the marketing gurus have moved to blogs. Heck, some of my favorite blogs are business type blogs like Gaping Void. — I just hope we don’t see a blog bubble in the near future where every company has to have a blog and has to try to be constantly talking about their products and shoving things down your throat. What makes blogging great are the conversations. Conversations are TWO sided, not just one guy trying to get you to click a link or horde you for ideas. Some people GET that.

What do I know though. I’m only a simple cartoonist.

I was just checking my links, I see Yirmumah is link of the week at some comic called The Whiteboard

But the guy says “No, I don’t get it either. Good art tho…” — Which kinda bugs me. What isnt there to get? And why is his comic about fury people playing paintball in Alaska? I don’t get that. —Hurm.

Anyway, Im not complaining. It just puzzles me. My only guess is, that he linked it back in August and a hit trickled in. He might not have gotten the PvP comic jokes in early August. That must explain it.

Anywho. Not to double back on this stranger, I thank him for linking my site. But as I drink my first cup of coffee and try to ponder Fury Skunks playing paintball…. i can’t grasp it. Why? What? Huh?

But that’s webcomics for you. I love the variety of seeing new things– I really do. It’s probably the strength of the whole thing. The variety and variety of levels of skills. When you come across something GOLD, you immediately know it. And it feels like a present.

Just when I was feeling pretty low with all thats going on here with death and stuff– out of the blue comes a package from hawaii, with two packs of Kona Coffee and an awesome tiki god statue.. with a christmas card wishing me well. – And people wonder why I want to move to Hawaii someday. So, Eric in Hawaii, a gigantic MAHALO to you my friend.

It’s the littlest things that make my day and year. I wish more people could focus on the little things instead of the big flashy go boom things.

Groggy here in Fayette Nam. Woke up with no water. I guess there was a break or something on the highway. (by the way, our highway is more like a back country 2 lane road) –

I have several caricatures to work on. As I speak, Chad Lambert’s is penciled all up and about to be done inked. After that it’s more work for the dirty 30s one, its kinda a little more than a regular caricature. Then I got a last minute, needs done by Xmas one for someone. But im not going to say the name, just in case anyone important is reading.

Oh– I also need to start working on next week’s strip. I have a stack of scripts and need to pick the best one. Hmmm..

Keep an eye on Websnark.com. He’s gonna be doing some end of the year award thing, or shortbread, or maybe he’s baking treats to send out to all the good “webbie” boys and girls.

A quick picture to whet your appetites for shortbread
http://www314.pair.com/eaburns/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/439

I just found out that the Blueberry movie was renamed Renegade for release in the US.. thats bullcrap. So I went and rented it. I was a big fan of the comic series I had when I was about 14. I also had a big ass Blueberry poster. Its not your typical western stuff.

I think James Patrick went to rent it as well. He has something western going on.

Also, I rented Napolean Dynamite because I keep hearing great things about it. Although the cashier, who I know, tells me there is way too many backstreet boy songs in it. Hurm.

Troubled.

I feel very troubled today. Well, not until about half an hour ago on the phone with my dad. I guess the funeral for my Grandma is tonight at 6, or the family viewing. Service on Thursday. I just have to go to this even though I dread the things. I consider myself an ambassador of my side of the messed up family, even though Im distant and private, I will show up. It will mean a lot to the living I suppose. Thats what they say.

Im troubled though, because my father asks “Your grandma died on the 20th, you know who was born on the 20th don’t you?” And I said no. – My late mother. I didnt even remember her birthday. Thats about how distant I was with her. I wondered some times if she remembered mine. Sure, that’s sad to some, but it’s just how it was for me. Like wearing glasses or something– it’s just natural. Anyway– not only was that day her birthday, but it was the day I awoke from being haunted by people who are long gone in my dreams, including her.

I don’t know what that means at all. Probably my overactive imagination. The feeling I have is Sad and Troubled though. Like some sort of sad ripple through the cosmos. I wonder if “regret” is some energy that is beyond space and time?

That is all.

Eric Burns is spoiling me with attention. But you know what, I can totally take it because it feels good to know people are reading, especially people who ROCK. Here’s a write up he just did for Comixpedia about a few of my strips and asking the question:

When Did You Decide You Wanted to be a Comics Creator? ::

Enjoy.

When I heard I had to draw country music sensation, Tim McGraw, I had no idea what to do. I surely couldnt have the guy’s wife all humping him or something. But I found a way to make this funny. I hope they enjoy it. I laughed and laughed when I was drawing it.

Ok. I’m gonna lay it all out on the line here and let you all know what I’ve been thinking. So pay attention.

What I REALLY want to do is do a mon-fri black and white strip and a Saturday color strip that will run all weekend, just like the current strip. I have way too many ideas that are going to waste and would fit in between the great weekend editions. However, time is kinda limited, but I think I may just work harder to make this a reality. I REALLY wanted to launch it the first monday of January, because January always feels like a new start for me, either to do something great, or totally fuck up my year!

So what do you folks think? Would you like to see something like that? Is there anyone reading at all? Answer me dammit!

In book news, there’s something that been hanging over my head for a long time and I have to make a slate of time to really put it together right, but it will be really nice if I can get it done. It’s a YIRMUMAH Essential sort of collection. It would include the first 3 minicomics hurridly drawn in 1998 on my lunchbreaks at my crappy day job then, and also just about every Yirmumah short, finished and unfinished that I can muster into it. There are many old fans who ask me to reprint this stuff, and I finally found some decent copyable material. – This is a back burner thing though, because my juices are really flowing to do more NEW Yirmumah stuff. Stay tuned though.

On the immediate to-do list is Chad Lambert’s caricature and another for Wes Jackson’s wife. Also, I’ve started preliminary work on the Dirty 30’s caricature/cover piece. I’ll most likely log a post when I get some more done. – Thanks again to everyone who’s ordered. Check out the gallery , it’s growing!

Websnark.com: I suppose I could always leave a print of this strip for my parents to find, with “Crate O’ Porn” circled. Of course, then they’d make me leave the house until the New Year….

I love websnark. It’s one of my favorite blogs. I must check it like a thousand times a day on my rotating surf list. I’m gay.

The latest Yir-Caricature is Alexis from Texas. Aka, SUPERLEX!

Hugh’s Site

For one. Im testing out my track back thing. Ive been out of the loop on how to use that. Second, Hugh’s blog is one of my favorites and I love his little cartoons on business cards. I’m sure he wouldnt mind me saying so.

How Trackback Works

Ok. I was confused at how the heck Trackback works. Now I got it.

Im thinking about running the new blog on this page in 2005. For one, its easier for other bloggers to link up. #2, it’s free and I guess I can control the look and feel more.

Let me know what you think. If enough readers of the old blog actually care, e-mail me.

I know I have 2394 people getting the old blog by e-mail. That would most likely cease. Thats the ONE feature I like about the Xanga blog– people dont really need to check in, they get it by email. But hopefully people will look into RSS and use that, you can actually read the blog remotely. And more people can link it up that way as well.

Darn. Too many decisions. Back to caricatures for me.

Uht oh– Looks like this thing broke.