Some things never change. Some things change drastically. And some things change out of necessity or just basic improvement.
Moira's grown from a child. Michele was pregnant for two years. Everyone was masked for more than a year.
And Ken, for once, knew enough to keep his thoughts to himself!
HAPPY 18 Years of (x, why?)!
Yes, I'm the first one to admit that there has not been a lot of updates in the past two years. I didn't mean to bail. I didn't mean to panic.
There even came a time recently where I had to say "I used to have a webcomic..." Thankfully, I haven't gone a full year without an update. Yes, that's a low bar to set.
Why the hiatus?
There wasn't one particular reason, but a bunch of factors. There are always factors. After all, it's a Math comic, first and foremost!
Demands on my time
There are two parts to this. This comic really flourished during the years I was substituting rather than teaching full-time. And then came the lockdown, which had me home a lot more. There was no travel time. Plus, when this started, I was teaching 15 minutes from my house. Now it's more like an hour and fifteen minutes.
Also, I'm doing more with the time that I do have. I have tried to get my writing career going again, which started in 2016 and kicked up a notch in 2020. I haven't found the success I'd like, but it's amusing to think that I'd start being a writer and started by a webcomic writer. And for a while, I was okay with that. But the bug bit me again.
And before the shutdown, I really got into walking around Brooklyn. During the shutdown and immediately after, it kicked into high gear, and I was walking everywhere. I walked enough places that I started another blog dedicated to that, Walkin' in Brooklyn. (No "g" in Walkin'.)
This left little time for me to spend on creating the comics. Even with better tools, it takes longer because I've tried to raise the bar on what's acceptable. So unless I just want to publish "Minis" and "School Life" comics (and maybe not those), I couldn't churn them out as quickly.
Story Lines and Other Things
While I didn't exactly write myself into a corner, I did leave a bit of a cliffhanger with that Total Eclipse of the Sun and the Heart in 2024. I did intend to resolve that, even if it had to wait until the summer was over. But it was going to take time to write that because it was going to be too wordy. It needed edits and then I had to figure who was going to be in the intervention comic, as it were.
Slightly sillier is that the above comic is number 1989. I'm closing in on 2000. I've been thinking about 2000 comics for years now. I wanted to do them right.
I didn't want that to happen during October Math Horror Movies or December Christmas Math Carols. The comics would fit the seasons. I still want to do them, and there's only a few more left, so I need to plan them.
Personal Life
We all have things going on. But I spent too many days in the past few years visiting hospitals and cleaning up someone else's place. Mike's family is modeled somewhat after my own. To differentiate, I only gave him one sister and didn't plan on making One-to-One relationships between the families. No one was to be anyone's avatar ... even if they did occasionally take on some personality traits.
But Art imitates Life no matter how you slice it. There's only one sister but I know which one she is because the older of the two passed away many years ago. Longtime readers might remember Mike's mother, particularly on Mothers Day. However, I stopped including her when my mother passed away. (It could be the Dad in me, or maybe it's just that I appreciate the Dad and Uncle characters enough to keep them around for a while.) And then in the past few years, I lost two of my brothers. Both had had their share of health issues, and I did a lot of visiting.
By the way, ever since I was child, I've hated hospitals, and that feeling hasn't changed. But I will go to them.
Moving Forward
Okay, now that I've brought the room down, let me look to the future. Yes, I would like to get back into the habit of creating comics. Yes, I want to make it to 2000 comics and beyond. However, as you can tell from the ads below, I'd like to keep writing as well.
We'll see how this all plays out.
MY NEWEST BOOK IS OUTBurke's Lore Briefs: Yesterday's Villains, the following to Tomorrow's Heroes is now available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. If Heroes who don't die live long enough to become the villain, what happens to Villains who live long enough? When do schemes of global conquest become dreams of a quiet place away from all those annoying people you once wanted to subjugate? And does anyone really want to rule over the world's ashes if it means we can't have nice things? |
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My older books include three more books in my Burke's Lore Briefs series, and the anthologies A Bucket Full of Moonlight and In A Flash 2020. Vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, used-car salesmen, fairies, superheroes, space and time travel, and little gray aliens talking to rock creatures and living plants. Plus pirates, spies, horror, and kindergarten noir! If you enjoy my books, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads. Thank you! |
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